Authors: Isobel Chace
‘I felt better yesterday morning too!’ she said with deep foreboding.
‘That is quite common with fever,’ he told her calmly. ‘It goes in cycles. But for you the worst is over. You will be quite all right at home now, if you go quietly.’
‘And when can I report back for work?’ Sara asked.
‘In a week, maybe,’ he determined, but nothing would make him give her an actual day to look forward to. ‘I shall come and check up on you,’ he promised her, and then left her to look in on his other patients.
It was all very unsatisfactory, Sara thought. To spend days at the manager’s house with very little to do would give her too much time to think in, and just now she was anxious to think as little as possible. She wanted work. Lots and lots of hard work.
Down the corridor, in the other ward, she could hear Nurse Lucy admonishing the appendectomy. She heard his retort sharply that one did nothing in hospital but wash, and Nurse Lucy’s laughter rang out, followed by a tart retort in the boy’s own language. There was silence after that and the brisk footsteps coming down the passageway. A minute later Lucy’s black face came round the door.
‘My, but you’re looking better,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I’ll come back in a moment!’
‘But, Lucy—’
The black head in its crisp white veil came back round the door.
‘Did
—
did you hear whether Mr. Halifax got back safely last night?’
A broad grin spread over Lucy’s face.
‘We sure did! The maintenance boy, he slipped over late last night. He comes fairly often,’ she added coyly. ‘Mr. Matt arrived just fine. You like him very well?’ she asked ingenuously.
Sara nodded. ‘Yes,’ she admitted, as much to herself as
to the other girl.
‘He very fine man
,’
Lucy agreed, and her grin shone out again. ‘I run a bath for you. Sonjo very dirty people. Very primitive.’
She shot off back down the corridor and Sara relaxed against her pillows. Matt was safe! There was no n
eed to worry any more. And soon —
perhaps very soon
—
he would come to inquire after her.
Felicity announced her arrival by the usual squeal of brakes. A few seconds later she burst into Sara’s room and flung herself on to the end of the bed.
‘It’s just too good to be true!’ she announced gaily. ‘But how, dear Sara, am I ever going to tell Mother?’
Sara met the speculative look in Felicity’s eyes calmly.
‘I think you and James should tell her together
,’
she said firmly.
‘
You don’t think someone else should break it to her first. Someone she likes, who would do it very gently?’
‘I do not.’
‘How very uncompromising of you
,’
Felicity pouted. ‘I felt sure that you’d be only too willing to do such a small thing for me!’
Her eyes flashed with amusement. Not even the prospect of having to break the news of her engagement to her mother could subdue her happiness.
‘Oh, Sara!’ she whispered, ‘I had no idea that it would be anything like this!’
All the old lines of discontent had been wiped off her face as if by magic. It was hard to believe that a man such as James should have been able to do this for her, Sara reflected. She stirred uneasily beneath the bedclothes
.
‘Are you quite sure?’ she asked tentatively.
Felicity gave a little sigh of resignation.
‘Not you too!’ she exclaimed. ‘Poor James! What possible chance has a man like him in this country? Can’t you see that he’s different? He may not fly aeroplanes very well, or enjoy burning himself to a crisp in this barren oven of a land, but those things don’t matter in a civilized country! And James has so many other things—’
‘Of course he has!’ Sara broke in, upset to think that she might have hurt her cousin. ‘That wasn’t what I meant at all—’
Felicity gave her a disbelieving glance. ‘Wasn’t it?’ she asked.
Sara flushed a little. ‘No, it wasn’t,’ she said more firmly. ‘I meant are you quite sure that James is the man for you? Living in England is very different from living out here, you know.’
Felicity’s eyes shone.
‘But that’s just it, Sara! I’ve always longed to live in Europe. I want to be in the centre of things and away from people who can talk about nothing but sisal! It’s all right for you, you’ve only just arrived and it’s still novel and quite interesting, but wait till you’ve been here some years! You’ll begin to wish that you’d never set eyes on a sisal plant!’
Sara found that quite unbelievable, though she very sensibly said nothing, for it was quite obvious that Felicity was completely carried away by the thought of the future in front of her. So she contented herself by saying:
‘I’m so glad for you, and of course I hope you’ll both be very happy. You can rely on me for moral support, but I’m not going to tell your mother!’
The two girls laughed.
‘Poor old Mum!’ Felicity sighed. ‘She’s in for a bad
shock, I’m afraid, but James
will
be terribly nice to her and perhaps it will all blow over.’
Sara, a little more dubious about her aunt’s reactions, said nothing. She wished heartily that she could stay in the hospital until the storm had broken, but that was clearly impossible and so she began to dress, fighting her weak and wavery knees into obeying her commands. In the end, with Lucy’s help, she was ready and they made their way slowly out to the waiting jeep.
‘Don’t learn to drive too quickly,’ Felicity laughed at her. ‘I’m enjoying having it to run about in. It goes like the wind over the rougher patches, one scarcely feels any of the bumps at all!’
To prove her point she proceeded to drive at breakneck speed the whole way to the manager’s house, giggling with joy as the dry wind blew in their faces, tearing at their hair and causing Sara to grasp whatever she could to hold herself in.
The house looked a little sad and neglected. Standing on its hillock of dry red dust, it cried out for some paint and a garden bursting with flowers all around it. It would be fun, Sara thought, to see what she could do about it. With care perhaps the soil could be brought back to something that would allow some of the least demanding flowers to bloom. People should be fined, she thought a little indignantly, letting the earth get into such a condition!
So carried away was she with her future plans for the slopes that Felicity was already out of the jeep and up the steps and she had to hurry to catch her up. Felicity took her arm when she reached the verandah and they walked slowly round the house together towards the sitting-room door.
‘Will you call in and see Mother?’ Felicity asked.
Sara shook her head. ‘She won’t want to see me at this hour,’ she said.
But she was wrong, for hardly had the words left her lips than Mrs. Wayne appeared in the doorway, fully dressed and beaming a smile.
‘Sara, my dear,’ she greeted her, ‘you’ll never guess who has come to see you! I’ve been doing my poor best to entertain him, but I’m afraid that his mind was really with you all the time!’
She giggled her soft, feline little laugh and quite unaccountably Sara’s heart sank into her boots.
CHAPTER EIGHT
James Halifax
looked far from cheerful when the two girls followed Mrs. Wayne into the drawing room. With a visible effort he greeted them, but almost immediately he sank back into his original gloom.
‘What’s up?’ Felicity demanded, her voice a little gruff.
James flushed up in that absurd way that he had.
‘I thought—’ he began.
‘James came to see Sara,’ Mrs. Wayne broke in, her eyes flickering over the little group of young people.
‘I wondered how he got in!’ Felicity murmured mutinously.
Her mother smiled, a soft, feminine smile that made Felicity’s remark seem unnecessarily ungracious.
‘James and I understand each other very well, don’t we?’ she said smoothly, and then apparently lost all interest in the proceedings as James stammered his agreement.
There was a short uncomfortable silence. Sara wondered desperately what she could say to relieve the tension. Both James and Felicity looked unhappy and very young. Too young, she thought, to cope. I shall have to say something! she exclaimed to herself.
‘Have you had any news of Matt?’ she burst out. Matt! Matt! Why should she bring him up now? She cast a quick look at her aunt and was relieved to see that she was gazing out of the window with a dreamy look on her face. ‘I heard that he got home safely.’
‘Yes, yes, he did,’ James agreed. ‘He told me to come over. Told me to tell you he’d be over himself some time.’
He stuttered slightly as he tripped over the words. ‘I
—
I was hoping to have a word with you alone
,’
he added.
Felicity’s head shot up, bewilderment written all over her face.
‘Why?’ she asked abruptly.
‘It’s
—
it’s just a message from Matt
,’
he said uncomfortably.
Sara caught Mrs. Wayne’s look of complete satisfaction and cursed inwardly.
‘Let’s go out on to the verandah, then,’ she suggested quietly.
She turned quickly and walked through the french windows before James could answer. Her heart was pounding madly, she realized.
Could
just a message from Matt really do this to her? She gave herself an inward shake and turned to James.
‘Well?’ she asked a little coldly.
‘It was a bit awkward in there
,’
he said with a wry grin. ‘I just wanted to ask you to help get Felicity’s mother in a good mood. I want Felicity to elope with me, you see—’
‘
You can’t do that
,’
Sara broke in positively. ‘Aunt Laura would never forgive you if you made her look so foolish. You must tell her, James. Nobody else is going to do it for you and a note simply won’t do!’
‘Felicity thought that you might—’
‘I know she did. She was wrong. You must tell her together
.’
‘That’s what Matt said. I asked him, you know. After all, he holds the whip hand around here. I don’t see that it was too much to ask. I wish to God I’d never gone climbing with Noel.
He
wouldn’t have held it against me!’
Sara swallowed her impatience and smiled.
‘What did Matt want you to tell me?’ she asked.
James looked startled and then shrugged his shoulders casually.
‘Nothing,’ he said easily. ‘I just wanted an excuse to get you out of there.’
‘Nothing?’ For a moment she couldn’t believe it. He had said that he had brought a message! Her disappointment was out of all proportion, she thought sadly, and when she remembered Mrs. Wayne’s satisfaction she felt quite wild with anger!
‘Well, don’t say such a thing again,’ she said tartly. ‘If it isn’t bad enough to be having this wretched malaria, without you and Felicity involving me in all your petty little schemes.’
For a moment James looked terribly like his brother.
‘I’m sorry if we’ve
bored
you!’ he said stiffly. ‘I’ll take myself off, if that’s the case.’
Sara longed to tell him not to be so silly. Instead she apologized.
‘I didn’t mean it, James. At least not like that. I’m tired. Would you mind if I went to bed now?’
Immediately James relaxed.
‘ ’Course not, silly! Why didn’t you say you weren’t feeling too hot? Would you like me to carry you?’
Sara hastily rejected that offer, wondering what Felicity’s reaction would have been to such a thing.
‘Why don’t you go and tell Aunt Laura now?’ she suggested. ‘Before you’ve had time to work yourself up about it.’
But she could see, even as he went back into the drawing room, that nothing was going to induce him to take such a careless piece of advice
—
at least certainly not yet!
Sara’s enforced holiday was longer than anyone had
expected. The first week melted away and the second was spent in convalescing, which the entire neighbourhood aided and abetted in making as pleasant as possible for her.
John Halliday became a regular visitor. His Australianisms outraged Mrs. Wayne, who avoided him whenever she possibly could, giving vent to her feelings by reminding Sara that Kwaheri was in every way more worthy of her attention. The only result of all this was that Sara greeted John more and more warmly every time he came, hiding her disappointment that he was not someone quite other.
When she had been resting for nine days, her old restless energy came back to her and she decided to make a start on her garden. The African garden boy proved to be no more than sixteen, with a startling grin that revealed an astonishing number of teeth all neatly filed to a point.
‘My name Joseph,’ he informed her happily. This proved to be the entire extent of his knowledge of the English language.
With the help of a dictionary and with much waving about of her arms, Sara managed to explain to him what she wanted done.