Enchanting Samantha. Бетти Нилс

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ interposed the doctor in a voice which somehow conveyed bravely concealed resignation at the prospect. ‘I daresay there are plenty of books I can read to discover what I should want to know.’ He turned his eyes upon Samantha and they were dancing with mirth. ‘I shouldn’t like to impose…’

      She all but ground her teeth at him. ‘I’ll go and put a coat on,’ she told him ungraciously, and fled upstairs, to fling on the old tweed coat, bundle her hair under its hood, snatch up some woolly mitts, and run downstairs again, her face a little pink with temper and some other feeling she refused to acknowledge.

      It wasn’t much of a morning; they walked briskly down the lane which led seawards under a sky covered with high grey cloud, while a fitful wind blew in their faces. The doctor, hatless and wearing a Burberry which emphasized the width of his shoulders as well as being gloved expensively in pigskin, didn’t appear to notice the weather, however. He carried on a cheerful conversation about nothing in particular, to which Samantha contributed but little, answering with a determined politeness and a faint coolness of manner, for she had no intention of succumbing to his charm. She had no doubt, she told herself crossly, that if there had been another girl boasting the good looks she didn’t have, he wouldn’t have come near her that morning.

      They had walked right down to the coastguards’ houses facing Chesil Beach itself, and she began to explain with meticulous thoroughness, as though she were a guide making something clear to a foreigner, that the Beach was seventeen miles long, that the stones at one end were much larger than those at the other, that if he chose to search, he might find Wolf’s rock from Cornwall, Devon granite, quartz rock and banded rhyolite, that if he were interested there was no reason why he should not take one of the larger pieces home with him—people used them for paperweights. ‘The Beach changes from day to day,’ she went on, a little prosily. ‘The tides…’

      ‘Why do you dislike me?’ He cut her off in full spate and left her openmouthed. ‘Or rather, why will you not let yourself like me?’

      She remembered to close her mouth while she sought for words. ‘I—’ she began, and then burst out with: ‘What difference could it possibly make?’ Her hazel eyes were bright with sudden rage. ‘I don’t know anything about you; I shan’t ever see you again…’

      He smiled faintly. ‘But you don’t enjoy my company? Come, let us be honest.’

      She said wildly: ‘But I’ve not been in your company—I don’t…’

      ‘Know me? Don’t repeat yourself, Samantha. Perhaps given the opportunity, you might get to know me better.’ He sounded so very sure of himself that she said instantly, not meaning a word of it: ‘I have no wish to know you better—no wish at all. We’d better go back or you’ll be late for your lunch.’

      He appeared not in the least put out by this display of rudeness; they climbed the rough road again and began the walk back to the village, the doctor whiling away their journey with a discourse on igneous rock, lapilli, tuff and schist, and as she had never heard of any of these, she was forced to remain silent. At her grandparents’ gate they came to a halt and she said awkwardly: ‘Well, goodbye, Doctor ter Ossel.’

      His cheerful goodbye in reply was vexing in the extreme; still more vexing was his remark: ‘I’m going back to London tomorrow morning—such a pity I am unable to give you a lift—you don’t return for another day, do you, but in any case, there is no point in mentioning it, is there, for I am sure that you would not have come with me, would you?’ He went on blandly: ‘One should never waste one’s leisure in the company of someone one doesn’t like.’

      He had gone, walking unhurriedly up the lane, leaving her a prey to a variety of feelings, all muddled and none of them nice.

      She spent the rest of the day indoors with the excuse that her grandmother’s cushion-covers in the sitting room needed to be washed and ironed and it was just the day in which to do them. Her grandparents forbore from pointing out that a light drizzle was now falling and enquired discreetly as to her walk with the doctor. Samantha replied calmly that it had been nice, cold on the beach, though, and that Doctor ter Ossel was interested in a variety of stones, and before either of her listeners could ask, volunteered the information that he was returning to London the following morning.

      She was upstairs making the beds when he called the next morning; she had peered out to see who it was at the door and had almost fallen over in her haste to get her head back inside again in case he should look up. Which he didn’t, Samantha stood behind the curtain to see. She took a long time over the beds, telling herself that she didn’t want to see him again, and was inordinately peeved when he left without anyone so much as calling up the stairs to tell her he was there, and when she went down after a suitable interval, Mrs Fielding mentioned placidly that she hadn’t bothered her because he had only come in for a moment to say goodbye and had told them that he had already bidden her farewell after their walk the day before. ‘Just fancy,’ breathed her grandmother to no one in particular, ‘he’s going back to Holland tonight, although he’s going to see his poor housekeeper in Clement’s first.’

      And that, said Samantha silently, is that, adding for good measure: and a good thing too. It was probably the relief of knowing that she wouldn’t meet him again which gave her such a curious sensation of emptiness; rather as though she had lost something.

      But she hadn’t lost anything; when she got back on duty two nights later, he was there on the ward, chatting up Sister Grieves, so that lady, usually so severe, was all smiles and pinkened cheeks. Samantha gave him an austere good evening and waited neatly by the desk, very clean and starched in her uniform, not a brown hair out of place, her eyes on Sister’s animated face. They flew to Doctor ter Ossel’s handsome countenance, though, when he said: ‘Well, Samantha, I hope you left your grandparents well?’

      She bristled; calling her Samantha in front of Sister, indeed! ‘Perfectly well, thank you,’ she assured him indignantly, and he gave the smallest of smiles as he turned back to Sister Grieves.

      ‘Well, I won’t keep you from your work, Sister. Good night, and many thanks, you have been more than kind.’ He smiled at her. He turned to Samantha then and allowed the smile to become mocking. ‘And good night to you Staff Nurse.’

      It was Sister Grieves who answered him as he went away. Samantha had no words to say at all.

      ‘I had no idea that you were on friendly terms with Doctor ter Ossel,’ Sister Grieves remarked almost accusingly. It was the sort of question it was hard to answer without being down-right rude; Samantha murmured something about his visits to Juffrouw Boot and didn’t explain about her grandparents at all, so that Sister Grieves positively sizzled with curiosity as she gave the report.

      The ward was full; Samantha nipped round, greeting the patients she knew and getting to know the new inmates of beds which had stood so briefly empty. It had not, thank heaven, been operating day, and although there were several ill patients there was nothing really dire. Night Sister did her round and Samantha gave out pills, medicines and where necessary, injections. By eleven o’clock the ward was quiet, more or less. Brown went to the kitchen to make coffee and Samantha went noiselessly to the desk and sat down to con the Kardex once more; she was a good nurse and careful; besides, when Brown came back with their drinks they would go over it together once more, so that the junior nurse, who was expected to plunge straight into work when she came on duty, knew as much as possible about the patients.

      She was half way through the Kardex, conning Juffrouw Boot’s notes, and paused to think about that lady; a nice old thing, she decided—she had become quite fond of her—with a good deal of courage and very grateful for anything which was done for her. She had learned a few words of English too; she could say СКАЧАТЬ