I’ll Bring You Buttercups. Elizabeth Elgin

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СКАЧАТЬ she placed the hat on a table, then, hearing the closing of the sitting-room door, ran like the wind to the kitchens below.

      My, but he was handsome! Tall and broad, with lovely eyes; and the smile he’d given her had been fit to charm the birds from the trees.

      ‘There’s a young man!’ she gasped, flinging open the door. ‘Came back in the carriage!’ William would know. Someone would have to ask William. ‘And he’s gone in with Miss Julia to see her ladyship.’ And Mr Giles there, too, which was unusual to say the least, since Mr Giles was always in the library, nose in a book, by ten in the morning. ‘What’s going on, Mrs Shaw?’

      Cook did not know, and said so. She only knew that, before so very much longer, her ladyship might well be ringing for a pot of coffee – and that the kettle stood cold and empty in the hearth.

      ‘Set the water to boil, Tilda, just in case,’ she murmured, hoping that a summons from above would give Mary the chance to assess the situation in the small sitting-room. ‘And the rest of you get on with your work. ‘Tisn’t for us to bother about what goes on upstairs.’

      But tall and good-looking, Mary had said. Had London been the start of it, then? She glanced across at Alice, busy with silver-cleaning, and was met with a look as blank as a high brick wall.

      But it was London. Cook was so sure she’d have taken bets on it.

      ‘Mama.’ Julia cleared her throat nervously and noisily. ‘May I present Doctor Andrew MacMalcolm? Andrew –’ She turned, shaking in every limb, the easy introduction all at once a jumble of words that refused to leave her lips.

      ‘Lady Sutton,’ Andrew murmured, bowing his head, yet all the time unwilling to take his eyes from the beauty of her face. ‘How kind of you to receive me.’

      ‘I had little choice, doctor,’ she smiled ruefully. ‘And since my daughter seems tongue-tied, this is Giles, my younger son, who would really rather be in the library, I must warn you.’

      Giles held out his hand. Gravely, firmly, Andrew took it.

      ‘There now,’ Helen Sutton murmured. ‘Please sit down – you too, Julia.’ She indicated the sofa and, gratefully, Julia took her place at Andrew’s side, her mouth dry, fingers clasped nervously in her lap. ‘Tell me about London, doctor, and how you and my daughter met.’

      ‘In extremely unusual circumstances, I fear. It was lucky I was near when needed. A young lady lay concussed; had tripped and fallen I was told, and I could well believe it when I saw the skirt she was wearing – and I beg your pardon, ma’am, if I make comment on ladies’ fashions about which I know nothing.’

      ‘I’m inclined to agree with your observations.’ There was unconcealed laughter in the reply. ‘About the skirt, I mean. But my daughter’s bruises are gone now, and I am grateful to you for your attention. And then, doctor?’

      ‘Then Miss Sutton was generous enough to thank me for my help, and consented to walk in the park with me the following afternoon.’

      ‘And now, my sister tells us you wish to correspond with her and to meet, which we – I – find hard to understand on so short an acquaintance.’ Giles took up the conversation, wondering if his voice sounded as stern as he meant it to sound, yet all the time admiring the directness of the young man’s gaze and his complete ease of manner. ‘Might it not, perhaps, be –’

      ‘Sir – I think you have not been fully acquainted with the facts. True, we wish to write to each other and to meet whenever my work allows it. But I want to marry your sister, and would like your permission – and Lady Sutton’s blessing – to that end.

      ‘And as for so short an acquaintance – that I cannot deny. But in my profession I must make a decision and hold firm to it, often with no time at all for second thoughts. I made such a decision when first I met Miss Julia, and I have had no reason to change or regret it.’

      ‘Then might I know how you will support my sister?’

      ‘I must admit,’ Andrew replied gravely, ‘that at first the matter did cause me concern. But I am a competent physician and intend to become a better one. Time is all I need. And I beg you to hear me out with patience, for I think your sister cannot have told you all.

      ‘I am the son of a coal miner. My father was injured in the pit and suffered pain for two years before he died. Those two years affected me greatly. I was unable to help him, you see, then had to watch my mother work herself to a standstill so we might live.’

      ‘But that is dreadful!’ Helen Sutton’s dismay was genuine. ‘Did not the owner of the mine make some restitution?’

      ‘No, ma’am, and we did not expect it.’ He spoke without bitterness. ‘But after my father died, my mother took consumption from a sick man. She went out nursing, usually night work, so she might have the days free for other things. Apart from a child to tend to, she worked mornings for the wife of the doctor, to pay off the debt of my father’s illness.

      ‘She insisted I remain at school, though I was old enough by then to have worked at the pit. But she would have none of it. The only comfort in her death was that at least she lived long enough to know I’d been given a scholarship to medical school.’

      ‘But how did you manage? All those years of study,’ Giles murmured, uneasily. ‘How did you eat – buy books?’

      ‘I bought secondhand books and ate as little as possible,’ Andrew laughed. ‘I’d sold up the home, though there was little left by that time. Most of it had gone, piece by piece, over the bad years. But what was left helped, and my mother’s sister, my aunt Jessie, gave me her savings, to be paid back when I qualified. I was grateful for her faith and trust. I even had thoughts that, once I could afford decent lodgings, she could come to me: I’d have cared for her for the rest of her life. She died, though, even before I qualified. She was never to know me as a doctor. But that is why I have no family to offer you – only myself …’

      ‘I am so sorry,’ Helen whispered, ‘and please, if you find it upsetting, there is no need to tell us.’

      ‘Upsetting? No, Lady Sutton, you misunderstand,’ Andrew smiled. ‘What I have told you is neither to seek praise nor pity. It is merely a fact of my life – my background – that you should know about and, I hope, try to accept.

      ‘The two women who made it possible for me to qualify are beyond my help how, so instead I pay my debt to them in other ways. Apart from my work at the hospital, I hold a twice-weekly surgery at my lodgings; those who cannot afford to pay, I treat without charge. I turn no one away, and it pleases me to think that one day I might diagnose consumption in its early stages and be able to prevent a woman dying as my mother died.’

      ‘Then your beliefs are to your credit, doctor,’ Helen said gently. ‘I wonder – would you care to take coffee with us?’ She pulled on the fireside bell and was amazed by the speed at which it was answered.

      ‘Milady?’ Mary stood pink-cheeked in the doorway.

      ‘Will you bring coffee for four – and will you apologize to Cook and tell her there will be one extra for luncheon?’

      Unable to conceal her delight, Mary made triumphantly for the kitchen.

      ‘Mama!’ Julia cried. ‘It’s all right? We can be СКАЧАТЬ