Dearest Love. Betty Neels

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СКАЧАТЬ two and a handful of raisins. Bread and butter and a large pot of tea instead of coffee—what more could anyone want?

      The weather had turned nasty, with a cold wind and heavy rain. It was a lonely sound beating on the windows; she wondered why it sounded so different from the rain on the windows of her home at Colpincum-Witham. There the wind used to sough through the trees—a sound she had loved. She had finished her tidying up when she remembered that the nurse had complained about the light in the waiting-room. The bulb wasn’t strong enough, she had been told, and another one must replace it. She fetched it and then went to haul the step-ladder up from the basement so that she might reach the elaborate shade hanging from the ceiling.

      She was on the top step when she heard the front door being opened, and a moment later Dr Tavener came into the room. He was bareheaded and carried his case in his hand. He put it down, lifted her down from the steps, took the bulb from her hand and changed it with the one already in the socket. Only then did he get down and bid her good evening.

      Arabella, taken by surprise, hadn’t uttered a sound. Now she found her voice and uttered a stiff thank you.

      He stood looking at her. ‘It’s a filthy night,’ he observed. ‘You wouldn’t be kind and make me a cup of tea or coffee—whichever is easiest?’

      She started for the little kitchenette leading from his rooms but he put out a hand. ‘No, no. No need here—may I not come downstairs with you?’

      She eyed him uncertainly. ‘Well, if you want to,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘I was going to make tea.’

      She went down to the basement, very conscious of him just behind her. The room looked surprisingly cosy; she had left one of the little table-lamps lit and the gas fire was on. She went to turn it up and said rather shyly, ‘Please sit down, the tea won’t take long.’

      He sat down in the small shabby armchair and Percy got on to his knees. ‘Have you had your supper? Do I smell soup?’

      ‘Are you hungry?’ She warmed the teapot and spooned in the tea.

      ‘Ravenous. My housekeeper doesn’t expect me back until the morning.’ He watched her as she made the tea. ‘I could go out for a meal, I suppose. Would you come with me?’

      She looked up in surprise. ‘Well, thank you for asking me but I’ve supper all ready.’ She paused to think. ‘You can share it if you would like to, though I’m not sure if it’s quite the thing. I mean, I’m the caretaker!’

      He smiled and said easily, ‘You are also a splendid cook, are you not?’ He got up out of his chair. ‘And I don’t believe there is a law against caretakers asking a guest for a meal.’

      ‘Well, of course, put like that it seems quite…’ She paused, at a loss for a word.

      ‘Quite,’ said Dr Tavener. ‘What comes after the soup?’

      She laid another place at the table. ‘Well, a Spanish omelette with a salad. I haven’t a pudding, but there is bread and butter and cheese…’

      ‘Home-made bread?’ And when she nodded he said, ‘I can think of nothing nicer. While you are cooking the omelette I shall go and get a bottle of wine. Five minutes?’

      He had gone. She heard the door close behind him and the car start up. She broke three eggs into a bowl and then a fourth—he was a very large man.

      The omelette was ready to cook when he got back, put a bottle on the table and asked if she had a corkscrew. It was a good wine—a red burgundy of a good vintage, its cost almost as much as half of Arabella’s pay-packet. He opened it to let it breathe.

      Arabella was ladling soup into the large old-fashioned soup plates which had belonged to her grandmother. Dr Tavener, sampling it, acknowledged that it was worthy of the Coalport china in which it was served.

      He fetched the wine and poured it as she dished up the omelette and, warmed by its delicious fruitiness, Arabella forgot to be a caretaker and was once again a well brought-up young lady with a pleasant social life. Dr Tavener, leading her on with quiet cunning, discovered a good deal more about her than she realised. Not that he asked questions but merely put in a word here and there, egging her on gently.

      They finished the omelette and sat talking over coffee and slices of bread and butter and a piece of cheese. If he found the meal a trifle out of the ordinary way of things he gave no sign. Bread and butter, he discovered, when the bread had been baked by his hostess, was exactly the right way to finish his supper. Being a giant of a man, he ate most of the loaf and a good deal of the butter. She would have to go to the shops the next day…

      It was almost ten o’clock when he went, taking her with him so that she could lock up after him. He stood on the pavement, thinking of her polite goodnight and listening to the bolts being shot home and the key turned in the lock. He had never worried about Mrs Lane being alone in the house for the simple reason that she frequently had had various members of her family spending a few days with her, but Arabella had no one. The idea of Arabella being alone at night nagged at him all the way to his home.

      It was on the following Saturday afternoon that Arabella added another member to her household. She was returning from the shops, laden with a week’s supply of basic food, taking shortcuts through the narrow streets which would bring her into Wigmore Street. It had been a dull, chilly day and bid fair to lapse into early dusk bringing a fine drizzle of rain. Head bowed against the damp wind, weighed down with her shopping, she turned down a short alleyway which would take her close to Dr Marshall’s rooms.

      She was almost at its end when a faint movement in the gutter caused her to stop. A puppy lay there, rolled up and moving to and fro, its yelps so faint that she could hardly hear them. She put down her plastic bags and bent to take a closer look. It was a pitiful sight, thin and very wet, and someone had tied its back legs together. Arabella let out a snort of rage and knelt down the better to deal with it. The cord was tight but roughly tied; it took only a moment to untie it and scoop up the small creature, pop him on top of her shopping and carry him back to her basement.

      He was a very young puppy and, even if well fed and cared for, would have had no good looks. As it was he was a sorry sight, with tiny ribs showing through his dirty coat and sores on his flanks. Notwithstanding, he lay passive on the table while she gently examined him, and even waved a very long and rat-like tail. She dumped her shopping, fetched warm water and some old cloths, and cleaned him gently, wrapped him in an old curtain and set him before the gas fire where he lay too tired to move when Percy went to examine him in his turn.

      ‘Bread and warm milk,’ said Arabella who, living alone with only a cat for company, frequently uttered her thoughts out loud, and suited the action to the words. It was received thankfully and scoffed with pathetic speed so she gave him more warm milk with some vague idea about dehydration and then, aware of Percy’s indignant stare, offered him his supper too, before taking off her jacket and putting away her shopping. She got her own tea presently, pausing frequently to look at the puppy. He was sleeping, uttering small yelps as he slept, and presently Percy stretched out beside him, with the air of someone doing a good deed, and curved himself round the small skinny creature.

      ‘That’s right, Percy,’ encouraged Arabella. ‘He could do with a good cuddle. He’ll be a handsome dog if we look after him.’

      He woke presently and she gave him some of Percy’s food and took him into the dark garden, and when she went off to bed she lifted him on to its foot beside Percy. He looked better already. She woke in the night and found СКАЧАТЬ