Authors: Isobel Chace
She shut the door into the sitting-
r
oom and walked slowly over to the telephone just as it began to ring. Eagerly she picked up the receiver.
‘Hullo,’ she said.
‘Hullo.’ She thought it was Mrs. Halifax, but the line was so bad that she couldn’t be sure.
‘I can’t hear very well,’ she said.
‘No,’ the voice said, and explained that the heat might have melted some of the connections. It was hotter than ever that day, so that might have been what she had
said.
Then she thought the voice mentioned Matt. Desperately she tried to hear what was being said.
‘What about Matt?’ she asked distinctly.
With a sinking heart she listened and tried to make
intelligible what the voice was saying. ‘Bad cold. Headache. High temperature. Not at all well.’ Polio! her mind registered in a panic. Matt had polio! He could easily have caught it from Hedda Friedrich. He had been there when she had been brought in, and he was just the type to get it most badly. He was so big and strong!
‘I’ll come at once!’ she shouted into the telephone.
‘
No, no
,’
said the voice. For a moment the line was quite clear. ‘What should I do, nurse?’
‘Keep him quiet,’ Sara said firmly. ‘And telephone Dr. Cengupta.’
She slammed down the receiver and ran into the drawing-room.
‘It’s Matt,’ she burst out. ‘He isn’t well.’
Mrs. Wayne looked up from the magazine she was reading.
‘What’s the matter with him?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know for sure,’ Sara said hurriedly. ‘But I shall have to go up to the house and see what’s happening. I’ll take the jeep.’
‘Then you’d better go out the back way,’ her aunt suggested. ‘I told the driver to drive it round there under the tree. The metal gets so hot otherwise that I’m always afraid of your burning yourself!’
Sara thanked her, but she was hardly listening.
It would be too much to hope that two cases would recover without leaving any sign of paralysis. And what would it mean to Matt? She thought of him working on the estate, his strong muscles responding to some challenge. It would be terrible! There must be some way of preventing such a thing! Surely good nursing must mean something? And he would have the
v
ery best. Nothing would be too much trouble. She would massage him until she dropped, or her arms fell off.
She ran into her room and searched for her equipment that James had shot to one side of the wardrobe. Quickly she checked to make sure that she had everything she needed. Thermometer, aspirin, bandages, etc. Everything was there. She shut the bag with a sharp click and forced herself to pause to think if there was anything else that she needed. Then satisfied, she ran out of the room and down the hall.
‘Sara!’ her aunt called out.
‘Yes?’
‘Just a moment.’
‘What is it?’
‘Matt was here this morning! He was all right then.’
‘Was he?’ She tried not to sound impatient. ‘I must go, Aunt. Goodbye.’
She didn’t wait to see if her aunt answered. She hurried straight through the back bedroom and out through the french windows. She had forgotten all about the deep ditches that had been dug out of the dead soil behind the house and had not yet been filled in. Desperately she tried to find something to cling on to as she hurtled down to the bottom of one of them.
‘Matt!’ she cried out, and was aware of sharp shooting pains going through her body.
When she looked up, she could see nothing but sky and the two straight sides of the trench she had fallen into.
CHAPTER
TWELVE
It
was a
curious
dream, with herself and Julia playing golf together. Julia was winning, which wasn’t very surprising because of course only Matt could beat her. James had said so. Sara opened her eyes and wondered for a moment where she was. It was dark and her clothes were wet and cold; her body, too, was stiff and bruised. She remembered then that she had fallen into one of the pits at the back of the house
—
hours ago. She had spent a long time shouting for help, but no one had heard her. Surely, she thought, someone must have missed her by now. They would be searching for her, she had no doubt of that, but would they ever think to look so near to the house?
She was beginning to shiver. It was difficult to remember how hot it had been earlier in the day before the dew had saturated the ground and the sun had fled the sky. She would have to do something active to keep herself warm. With difficulty she forced her aching body upright and leant against the wall of the trench. Matt had certainly been making a good job of the earthworks! She wondered if it had really been necessary to dig away so much of the dead soil before bringing in the new.
During the afternoon she had thought that she might cut steps into the sides of the pit and get herself out that way, but as fast as she had dug, as fast the sides had fallen in around her until she had given up. But now, she thought, with the dew dampening the soil perhaps it would hold.
Painfully she began to burrow into the earth, tearing her hands and ruining her finger nails. Slowly she began to climb. First one foot and then two. On the third, she fell back and had to scramble on to her fourth foothold before it was really deep enough. She clutched at the drifting soil and began to shout again.
She thought she saw a shadow peering down at her from the top of the trench, but when she cried out to it, it vanished. It was a horrible feeling. She didn’t believe in spirits, but she knew that the Africans did. There was that tree that none of them would walk under. She tried to think of something else, but she couldn’t bring herself to cry out again. ‘It’ might come back!
She set herself with greater diligence to her digging, pulling herself slowly upwards and more often than not slipping back in the loose soil. If Uncle David saw her now, she reflected ruefully, he would certainly have reason for cavilling at her appearance. Her back ached and her hands were raw and bleeding. She could feel the dirt in her hair and on her face and she could see it, in the moonlight, on her clothing. A bath — hot and filled with bath salts
—
began to obsess her. That and the nagging anxiety over Matt that had never left her.
She was not sure how high she had climbed when she first saw the hurricane lamp coming towards her. She must have been fairly near the top, she thought, or she would not have been able to see it.
‘I’m here!’ she whispered. ‘I’m here! Please find me!’
The lamp came steadily nearer.
‘Sara!’
She tried to answer, but no sound would come out of her dusty throat.
The lamp flickered and she thought it was going away again.
‘I’m here!’ she sobbed.
Immediately the lamp stood still and then slowly began to come towards her.
‘Tell me exactly where you are?’ the man’s voice asked her. It was odd how like Matt’s it sounded. But that was impossible.
‘I’ve fallen down one of the pits,’ she managed.
‘
Do be careful. There are several of them.
’
The man chuckled. ‘What a knuckle-headed thing to do,’ he teased her gently. ‘Poor little Sara! Where were you going in such a hurry?’
He put the lamp on the edge of the pit and reached down, grasping her hands.
‘I was going to Matt,’ she explained tearfully. ‘He’s ill! Mrs. Halifax rang up. He sounded dreadfully bad!’
‘Did he?’ His voice sounded gentle and sympathetic. ‘Look, I can’t lift you out on my own,’ he said more urgently. ‘The ground I’m sitting on will give way. I’ll lower you down to the bottom again and go and get some help. Okay?’
‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Who are you?’ she added.
He chuckled again, holding her tightly until her feet felt the ground solid beneath her.
‘I’m Matt,’ he said, his whole voice trembling with laughter. ‘Sit tight, darling, I shan’t be long!’
‘Matt? But you can’t be!’
She sat at the bottom of the trench in a stupefied silence. Matt! He must have got up to search for her, she concluded. He must be mad! As though she couldn’t have waited!
—
As though she wouldn’t rather anything than that he should endanger his chances of recovery. She would send him back to bed the moment he returned! But how like him to sacrifice himself for someone else like that. ‘Oh, Matt, I love you so much!’ she said out loud.
There was a scuffle at the top of the trench and an enormous shape came hurtling down to join her. Sara gasped and huddled against the side.
‘Did I startle you?’ Matt asked. ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart.’ He put an arm round her and drew her against him. ‘Uncle David has gone off to get some ropes, so I came back to keep you company.’
Anxiously Sara struggled out of his embrace and felt his forehead.
‘You don’t feel very hot,’ she said doubtfully.
He pinned her arms to her sides and kissed her nose.
‘There’s nothing the matter with me,’ he assured her solemnly. ‘It’s Marjorie’s infant that has the cold and the temperature, and thanks to your advice, she called in Karim who put him to bed. Satisfied?’
‘You mean you aren’t ill at all?’ she demanded.
‘I mean exactly that!’
It was silly to feel resentful that there was nothing the matter with him at all!
‘I thought you had polio,’ she confessed, not without indignation.
‘Did you? Was that why you were in such a hurry?’
She didn’t answer that.
‘I was going to write to you,’ she said instead. ‘To tell you that I can’t possibly marry you. It would be quite wrong for both of us. You do see that, don’t you?’
‘Because you thought that I had polio?’
She could imagine his expression. His mouth a little tender and his eyes—
‘No, of course not! Before I thought you had polio,’ she explained earnestly. ‘You
—
you’re really in love with someone else, and I am too!’ she finished triumphantly.
His arms fell to his side.
‘With whom?’ he asked sha
r
ply. ‘With John Halliday?’
‘Of course not!’ She dismissed him quickly. Somehow she couldn’t bear to think of Matt thinking that she might be in love with someone whom he knew.
He sat down comfortably on the floor of the trench and gazed up at her.
‘I’m not sure that I believe you
,’
he said easily. ‘But the ropes will be here in a minute and I don’t want to be interrupted when we really go into this.’
‘There’s nothing to go into!’ she said stiffly.
‘Isn’t there?’ She could tell that he was grinning. ‘Then my ears must be deceiving me. I thought just now that you said something that brought me down here in a hurry. I might have been mistaken, but I don’t think I was!’
It was outrageous that he should sound so triumphant!
‘Oh, don’t be so silly!’ she said crossly.
‘
You know as well as I do that your family won’t accept me! Julia told me so, and she was quite right! I couldn’t possibly live up to their ways. In fact I shouldn’t want to even if I could! Uncle David may be doing his
noblesse oblige
act now in rescuing me, but you see what he thinks of me as a future niece!’
Matt sighed. ‘Julia again!’ he said dryly. ‘I suppose you’ve met Uncle David
?
’
‘No
,’
Sara admitted a little uncertainly.
‘Ah well, you may be right, of course
,’
he said. ‘Uncle David is a very outspoken man, he certainly wouldn’t hide what he thought about you!’
They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. It was so unfair, Sara thought. Why should their marriage depend on Uncle David? Mrs. Halifax had approved! She might have reopened the argument, but at that moment voices began to come towards them in the darkness and a dark shape that she took to be a face appeared over the top of the trench.
‘We’ll be having you out, lassie, never fear,’ said a strong Northern voice. ‘Poor girl, I’ve been telling that fellow of yours he should take better care of you!’ He snorted. ‘Here, Matt, catch this and give the lass a hand up!’
The rope came dangling down the side of the pit. Matt grabbed the end of it and held it out to Sara.
‘Hang on to it hard,’ he commanded, ‘and they’ll haul you out. I’ll be here, so you won’t fall.’
She tried to take a grip of the rope, but her hands were too sore.
‘I can’t,’ she said tearfully.
‘What’s the matter? Lost the rope?’ the voice asked from the top. ‘Here, I’ll throw you down a torch.’
It landed with a dull plop on the ground. Matt picked it up and shone it on Sara’s hands. She heard his quick intake of breath, but did not dare look at them herself.
‘I’m awfully sorry, Matt,’ she whispered.
‘Sorry!’ he exclaimed. ‘And to think I should have allowed you to stand there arguing with me! Get on my back and I’ll carry you up
.’
She thought she would be too heavy for him, but his voice brooked no argument. She managed to get on to him, piggy-back style, while he tied the rope round his waist and grasped it firmly with his two hands.
‘Pull away!’ he called up.
In a matter of seconds they were hauled up to the top of the pit and Sara found herself standing on her own feet with both Matt and Uncle David supporting her.
‘
You had us worried this time, lass,’ Uncle David told her.
It was comforting to know that someone had been anxious for her. Matt hadn’t mentioned it at all. He seldom said anything about his deepest feelings, she thought with sudden intuition.
‘It was so silly of me,’ she apologized. ‘James and Felicity told me the pits were there, but I forgot all about them.’
‘She thought when Mother rang up that it was I who was ill,’ Matt explained tersely.
‘Ah!’ Uncle David agreed understandingly. ‘She’s a good lass, this girl of yours. Can’t understand why she should choose a pig-headed good-for-nothing like you! Look at that hospital of yours! Much too small!’
‘I thought you disapproved of the hospital,’ Matt said slyly.
‘Who said so?’ the older man demanded.
Sara laughed, her voice trembling into tears.
‘Better take the lass home, Matt,’ Uncle David suggested. ‘I’ll put the rope away and tell everyone she’s been found.’
Matt nodded.
‘Coming, sweet?’ he asked.
Sara nodded. She tried to speak, but now that it was all over, she was too tired even to do that.
She first became conscious that there was someone in the room when a hand reached out towards her pillow.
‘Who’s that?’ she asked. She turned quickly over in bed and was astonished at the stiffness of her limbs.
‘It’s me, Julia.’
‘Oh.’ Sara sat up in bed and turned on the light. ‘What do you want?’ she asked.
‘I came to tell you that I was leaving,’ the other girl said lightly. She looked more beautiful than ever, her hat shading her eyes against the lig
h
t and her mouth half
smiling.
‘Leaving?’ Sara asked. ‘But why?
’
‘I hadn’t too much choice,’ Julia admitted. ‘Once you’d met Uncle David there wasn’t much point in my remaining, was there? One way and another you’ve managed to trump all my aces. When I thought I’d got you the sack, you got engaged to Matt instead, and then, when I think I’ve finally got rid of you, you fall down a hole and have to be dramatically rescued.’
‘But why did you want to get rid of me?’
Julia shrugged her beautiful shoulders.
‘I’m up to my eyes in debt, my dear. Oh well, it’s no good crying over spilt milk. I shall go back to Dar-es-Salaam and marry a millionaire I know down there. The only trouble is that he doesn’t play golf. Matt does, you see.’
‘But surely—’ Sara protested. ‘How much do you owe? Surely the family would see you through?’
‘
Do you really think so?’ Julia gave a derisive laugh. ‘It would put back Matt’s soya beans for ten years!’
How on earth much could she possibly owe? Sara wondered.
‘Why are you telling me all this?’ she asked.'
‘
Because I’m much like the next girl, I guess,’ Julia said casually. ‘I don’t like feeling uncomfortable and you didn’t exactly bolster up my ego. Also I like to be liked and you didn’t like me at all! I figured if I came along and made a clean breast of it all, you would be sympathetic
—
you wouldn’t hate me any more anyway. It’s kind of useful to have an ally in a family such as ours. They won’t be pleased when I marry Edgar, but you’ll put in a good word for me, won’t you?’
‘Yes, I’ll do that,’ Sara promised. ‘If you’re sure it’s really necessary.’
‘I’m sure,’ Julia said bitterly. She turned away to admire herself in the mirror. ‘By the way, what did you think of Uncle David?’ she asked.
‘I liked him,’ Sara admitted. ‘But I only saw him in the dark. Matt brought me home almost immediately. Where does he live?’
‘The whole of Africa knows Uncle David. He doesn’t live anywhere. He’s one of the old-timers who travel the continent. The Africans are his children and the animals his friends. He couldn’t live in a house now for longer than a week or so!’