“Where the others can hear it too, please,” Jane said promptly. “Nurse Dawlish can knit as she listens, Nurse Wroe will no doubt read or sew, but Karleina, Marietta and Julianice would love it, I’m sure. And they could translate important points to the rest of us as we went along.”
“And that would do them no end of good morale
-
wise,” Jim grinned. “I’m sure they’d appreciate being able to show you something—even if it were only a knowledge of their own language—instead of the boot always being on the other foot, as it were
!
That disposes of one point, then. A little entertainment on the home ground, so to speak. There are other things too, of course.”
Unexpectedly he frowned, and for a moment Jane wondered exactly what else she must have done to incur his displeasure, but that idea was dispelled as soon as he spoke again.
“I realise you must have a change every now and then, Jane,” he admitted, “but I also realise Kevin Dean is no
t the right kind of companion fo
r you to be going around with to anywhere which might set people talking. You did say, did you not,” he shot at her abruptly, “that you had no emotional entanglements of any description at home?”
“You mean, have I a boy-friend?” Jane put the thing into plain words, colouring as she did so. “No,” she said firmly, “I have no one except my family to worry about back home.”
“Then there’ll be no objections from anyone if I take you out now and then, will there?” he asked, and the twinkle was back in his eyes. “Except, maybe, from our friend the Chief of Police. Would you mind what he thought?”
“I don’t mind what he thinks so long as he doesn’t think I’m ever likely to be
i
nterested in
him
!
” Jane said, with such conviction that his twinkle turned to outright laughter.
“Karl
is
a little forbidding, I grant you that,” Jim agreed, “but he means well! I once read of someone that those words would be the most damning of epitaphs, and I’m inclined to agree, but in Karl’s case they’re true, all the same.”
“I’m not interested in his meaning well or otherwise,” Jane said before she stopped to think. “I just wish he’d see I’m not in the least interested in him as a person, and not even speak to me again unless he sees the need to arrest me
!”
She had said the words lightly, and without really meaning them, but Jim chose to take the remark quite seriously and his gravity returned in full force.
“I assure you he would do precisely that,” he said dryly, “if he thought you were mixed up in anything which could not meet with his full approval! I know he believes Kevin Dean too involved in all matters which interest the younger group of citizens, the matters of trying to walk before they can crawl; of accepting money from anywhere providing it gives th
em t
he wherewithal to further their own ideas as to how the state should be run, etcetera. That,” he added, so earnestly that she could not but believe him, “was one reason why I did not wish you to involve yourself too deeply with Dr. Dean. He’s a good man, and clever, but ... I believe I’ve said this, or something very like it, before
...
he’s not outgrown the students’ idea of changing the world, and sooner or later that’s going to land him in serious trouble where Karl Brotnovitch and his merry men are concerned. I would rather,” he looked directly into her eyes, holding her gaze with his own, “you didn’t have very much to do with him outside working hours.”
“If you say so, Dr. Lowth,” Jane assured him, “then I’ll
...
never go out with him again.”
With all her heart she wished she had Dorothy Wroe’s gift of being “fey”. She could not be certain, but what had looked like a flicker of relief passed over his face when she made that statement. When he spoke it was with his customary briskness, and afterwards Jane could not be certain whether the relief had been real or not, but what he said was real enough.
“Then perhaps, if Nurse Dawlish will oblige again tomorrow evening and leave you free, you’ll allow me to take you out, Jane?” he suggested. “I warn you, it won’t be a gay occasion! I’ve been invited to supper at the Brentlovs’, and I know they would be delighted if I took you with me. In fact, Madam suggested you might care to come, but I thought
...
”
He did not finish the sentence, and she never found out what it was he had thought or imagined. He rose, smiling, and held out his hand.
“No ill feelings that I had to spoil your evening, I hope?” he queried. “It wasn’t my fault, and I simply couldn’t have managed without you, or without Dr. Dean. It was fortunate,” he made a wry face, “he’s one of the people "on whom your friend Karl keeps tabs most of the time. His men knew exactly where to find him, but I didn’t know you were with him when I rang and enquired about his movements this evening.”
“It was all perfectly harmless, Dr. Lowth,” Jane assured him hastily. “I didn’t realise
...
“I know that, my dear,” he said in a far more gentle tone than she had ever heard him use except to a patient. “I know the last thought in your head would be to occasion any unpleasantness for anyone here, either of the hospital, of the Embassy or of the country. Just take it as a warning, a warning that, from now onwards you might well care to observe more soberly! I don’t think
the Embassy would look with favour upon St. George’s if they realised that not one but two members of the staff were showing far too great an interest in matters which, if I might remind you just once again, are, after all, no concern of ours or of our being here in any way whatsoever.”
“I’ll remember, Doctor,” Jane assured him, making a mental resolve to have a chat with Kevin and try and make him see how much obvious mental discomfort he was causing to the people he had come to serve and those with whom he worked.
“Then
...
tomorrow evening, an informal supper,” Jim said lightly. “After that I thought I might take you out to see a friend of mine, a man who was brilliant some years ago but who, since a very serious illness, has gradually become a recluse. He’s always pleased to see a new face. He converses in English, French and German as well as in his native Dalasalavian. He’s a marvellous musician, and in his day played before all the crowned heads of Europe
...
when there were a number of crowned heads before which one
could
play!” he joked. “You may not have heard of him
...
Nimtvitch, the violinist, but at one time he could command the world.”
“What happened?” Jane asked.
“Rheumatic fever, I think,” Jim said. “It was way before my time, of course, but I’ve read the doctors’ reports, the notes on his case, and there’s no doubt about it. He had a second dose, and that has left him with a weak heart, but providing he takes care of himself there’s a great deal of life left in the old gentleman yet! You’ll love him,” he assured her, “as I do.”
“I’m sure I shall,” Jane agreed, and her heart added “not because of anything you’ve told me, Jim, but because you love him and therefore there must be something
to
love.” If Dr. Lowth thought so much of the
elderly man, whoever he was and whatever he had been, then she, Jane, knew she would like him—love him, if need be—too, if for no other reason than because of Jim’s spoken affection for the man.
“Till tomorrow evening, then, Jane,” Jim nodded dismissal. “I’ll see Nurse Dawlish in the morning ... I think that might be best
!”
and, because she would have agreed with anything he said just then, she nodded and went out, closing the door behind her.
CHAPTER 6
JANE felt she would choke with suppressed excitement before eight o’clock the following evening. The hospital had been busy all day, but that did not worry her. Always, from the earliest days of her training, she had preferred the busy days to the occasional slack periods. The fact that, in her business, she was bringing undoubted help and relief to the people who had entered St. George’s was reward in itself. There was further satisfaction, too, in the knowledge that the maternity wing, so seldom used because the women of Dalasalavia preferred to have their babies at home in the time-honoured manner, had been
unusually
busy. .
It was true that this was only because two of their cases were premature babies and one a breech birth. All the same, with all three mothers safely delivered of their babies and with the proud fathers walking round as though, to quote Nurse Dawlish, the hospital had nothing whatsoever to do with the wonder and they alone had been responsible for the safe arrival of the three new citizens.
“I only wish,” Nurse Dawlish grumbled as she drank her cup of tea, “my knowledge of the language was sufficient to let them know exactly what might have happened in each case, had those three men been allowed their way and these babies had been born at home!”
“I don’t think we shall have much further trouble,” Jane said slowly, “now the women themselves see the advantages of coming into St. George’s when a baby is due. With a little luck, and a little more publicity like today’s events, we shall have a maternity and an antenatal care unit functioning without having to press for it ourselves.”
“I hope you’re right
,”
Nurse Dawlish sighed. “I’ve been here as long as Dr. Jim, and the thing which hurts me most is to see the number of mothers who suffer as a result of childbirth, when, in almost every case, it’s all so totally unnecessary.” .
“Well,” Dorothy Wroe gave one of her rare smiles, “don’t tell
us,
dear. You’re preaching to the converted. I’m happy to say I fully agree with Jane. Once word gets around we shall have our ante-natal and maternity clinics filled to overflowing. We might even be sorry we’ve
pushed
the matter so hard
!
”
“We might even get more help, too,” Jane said thoughtfully. “I mean, they might send someone else out, and two girls have been enquiring about helping, as they call it, at St. George’s.”
“We can use ’em,” Nurse Dawlish almost snapped, then she turned in her chair to look directly at Jane. “Dr. Jim says he’s taking you out to visit some friends tonight,” she commented. “Don’t let it go to your head, Staff. I’ve never known him take any one girl out before, all the time he’s been here. The three of us, yes. Your friend, Nurse Palmer, Dorothy and myself; we’ve been invited to accompany him to one or two functions at the Embassy, like the one we all went to the other night. But he’s not the sort of man who takes an interest in our sex, thank heavens! He’s here to do a job, and he concentrates on seeing it’s done to the best of his ability!”
“I know,” Jane sounded humble, and indeed that was how she felt where Dr. Jim was concerned. “I’m not making anything of it,” she assured them both. “I think he was just afraid I might be getting to know the wrong sort of people, that’s all.”
“Like Dr. Dean!” Amy Dawlish’s mouth set in a firm line. “I’ve warned him over and over again,” she stated, “but he’s headstrong. He thinks he can behave here as he would do at home, and he doesn’t realise that what he sees as high jinks and a good laugh are serious matters where the young people of Seonyata are concerned. Mark my words,” she muttered darkly as she picked up what Jane mentally thought of as her everlasting knitting, “one day he’ll go too far and find himself mixed up in some prank or disturbance which has serious consequences!”
“I hope not,” Jane murmured as she made her excuses to go and get ready for her evening out, but Dorothy said nothing. She was watching the younger girl, her dark eyes grave and thoughtful.
By the time Jim’s car was at the door to the block of flats, Jane was ready and dressed in what she felt would be the best of her few clothes for a visit to the house of Madam Brentlov. The Brentlovs, she knew, were some of the wealthiest people in the area, and she wanted to pay Madam the compliment of appearing at her best.
She brushed her silver-gilt hair until it gleamed, and pulled on a button-through dress of a soft, hyacinth-blue woollen material with gleaming gilt buttons which exactly matched the colour of her hair. She wore little make-up, since she knew anything which savoured of the flamboyant would be unwelcome, but she did use a touch of eye-shadow and a hint of deep pink lipstick.
When she came to the door of the flat, her small lightly-shod feet making scarcely any noise on the linoleum-covered floors, Jim Lowth
thought he had never seen any girl look more lovely.
“Ready?” he asked lightly, looking down at her.
Jane nodded, turning to pick up her coat, bag and gloves from the chair near the door.
“Will I do?” she asked, like a child preparing for a party. “I know the Brentlovs are important
...
”
“No more important than ourselves, Jane,” he said
quietly. “But just two very good friends whose companionship I value and whose opinions I trust. Shall we
go?”
She sat quietly beside him, telling herself firmly she would not let him down. Madam Brentlov, even in the throes of her distressing attack of dysentery, had been unmistakably a lady, and a lady who was accustomed to being looked after, to knowing what she wanted, to the expectation of having it brought to her or done for her as the case might be.
“I liked her,” Jane remembered, “and I know she liked me. It should be all right. I’ll be quiet, unless anyone talks to me particularly
!
”
Her resolve of being more of a little mouse at the gathering than an active participant in whatever was happening was gone the moment they were ushered indoors. Madam Brentlov was not pretending when she expressed herself as overjoyed that Staff Nurse Kelsey had accompanied Dr. Jim. Her husband, who had drawn Jane into their own circle at the Embassy, rushed about making her comfortable, filling her glass and in general playing the pleased and generous host. Madam’s parents had their own apartments in the huge, luxuriously appointed house, and had obviously heard what was, perhaps, an exaggerated story of Jane’s devoted nursing.
Whether that was so or not she never knew, but they too set themselves out to put her at her ease and to make her feel welcome, and long before their meal was served Jane found herself laughing and talking with everyone, completely at ease despite a few unavoidable language difficulties.
Supper was an elaborate affair with innumerable courses, so that Jane was thankful Jim had remembered to warn her to eat lightly all day. There was what anywhere else she would have classed as hors d’oeuvres;
there was the customary main dish, and although there were many combating flavours she recognised the inevitable goat’s flesh taste, but this time tangy with many flavours. There were four or five dishes of sweets and fruits to round off the meal, and a choice of tea or coffee afterwards. Jane opted for coffee, her experience so far as to the Seonyata ideas of a cup of tea did not in the least encourage her to venture in
that
direction.
After supper conversation flowed once more. The men were all smoking the strongly flavoured tobacco popular in the country, and Jane saw with amazement that Dr. Jim could also produce a pipe and puff away with the rest of them. Madam Brentlov proffered small cigar-like shapes and at a nod from Jim, Jane accepted one, finding it not unpleasant.
Altogether the evening was surprisingly easy and pleasant in the extreme, and she was delighted to find herself as evidently accepted as was Dr. Jim himself. By the time Jim rose and thanked their host and hostess, explaining that he had so little free time he must, necessarily, visit more than one friend in the time he had, she knew she had really enjoyed herself.
Jane, being assisted into her coat, added her own thanks, and was delighted to find she could now manage more than one complete sentence in what had, until this evening, seemed an unconquerable language.
“I wish we hadn’t had to leave so soon,” she confessed as Jim headed the car away from the town and into a wilder part of the country which Jane had not seen before.
“We’ll come again, some time,” Jim said, adding: “I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the evening, Jane. I’d forgotten just how charming the Brentlovs can be. I’ve met him a number of times lately, but on each occasion it’s been because of something in connection with St. George’s, the proposed new units, the extra staff we shall require, extensions, new equipment and the like. It’s quite some time since I paid them a social visit. We must become more socially-minded, my dear, you and I.”
Jane thrilled. Not only had he admitted that he had enjoyed the evening—the evening which, she felt instinctively, he might have excused himself from enjoying by pleading pressure of work if he had not thought of taking her along—but he had said, “We must become more socially-minded, you and I
...”
as though he really meant it. He was speaking again, and she recalled her wandering thoughts to listen.
“I’d also forgotten how much like an old English cart
-
track, way in the depths of the country, is this road,” he grumbled as they bumped and jolted over one ridge after another. “I know Alexis—that’s Nimtvitch, you know
—
wanted peace and seclusion, but this seems rather like carrying things a little too far, when one remembers he was once accustomed to living in some of the most famous and comfortable hotels in the world.”
He talked on about the old man to whose retreat they were now proceeding. As she listened Jane felt some of the glamour of the world as it must have been in the pre-1914 days.
“He’ll try to play for us,” Jim seemed to be warning her, “and become upset because his hands are not so supple as they once were, and he’s frail. Whatever you think of the music I know you’ll understand and appreciate the emotion which motivates him to perform for his few visitors.”
Not quite certain what to expect and therefore feeling a little apprehensive, Jane followed him from the car as they approached the doors of a long, low house which stood in what seemed like acres of parkland.
“The forest is not far away,” Jim told her as he rang the huge bell which hung by the door. “In his time, Alexis was a great lover of wild life. Last time I talked with him he would insist that the human animal owes much more than we will admit to our ‘lesser brethren’, as he always refers to the animal kingdom. He believes the study of animals can solve more than one problem of the way in which the human race reacts to any number of events. Sometimes I’m sure he’s more right than he knows. If we can discover what makes an animal react to any given event or object in the way it does, that could well be a clue as to the reason why of the human animal ... it requires a great deal of thought and study.”
“It sounds very interesting,” Jane admitted cautiously, “but I am afraid it will be somewhat out of my scope! I didn’t have the education which helps one to sort out that kind of problem in one’s mind, you know.”
“It appears to be mainly a matter of common sense, an almost inexhaustible patience, both with humans and with the animals,” Jim said. “I think he has a great deal in this theory, and I hope, when time permits, if it ever does,” he sighed, “to be of some assistance to him in his research ... I know it’s a hobby where he’s concerned, but he does know a very great deal about both species, animal and human, and he’s brilliantly clever in many other ways as well.”
There was no time for further discourse. They could hear feet approaching the door, and a moment later it was opened by an elderly woman who beamed on Dr
.
Lowth with approving welcome, a beam which was extended to Jane the moment, speaking completely in Dalasalavian, Jim performed the introductions. In a quiet tone he added to Jane
:
“This is Brietta, Nimtvitch’s housekeeper and friend.”
They were shown into a long, low room with a huge concert grand piano at the far end, two violin stands and several pieces of what Jane recognised as being extremely valuable antique furniture. From a deep chair beside one of the
two huge log fires which roared,
one at either end of the room, in the stone grates, an elderly man, clad in a dressing-gown and soft slippers, rose to greet them. He was tall but stooped, and very thin, and his leonine head was crowned with an absolute bush of white, wavy hair.
Although Jim had told her Alexis Nimtvitch spoke several languages, English amongst them, Jane felt a sense of shock when he addressed her in perfect English, saying he had heard, via his housekeeper, of how highly thought of she was in Seonyata and how greatly a person like herself would be of help to his beloved country.
He made them more than welcome, seating them beside the blazing fire and pulling on the hanging bell-rope for Brietta to bring refreshment. Gently Jim explained that they had already enjoyed a more than satisfactory supper at the Brentlovs’ house, and although the old man was obviously disappointed they were not to, as he put it, share his humble repast, he insisted that they had a drink of some of Brietta’s home-made wine and ate one or two of her special pastries.
They could not refuse without offending him, and Jane, although she was not hungry, made herself eat the delicious little cakes and drink the very pleasant wine. Nimtvitch himself made his supper of a bowl of milk with what she strongly suspected to be pieces of the dark
-
floured bread which was usual in Seonyata, and concluded his repast by joining them in a glass of wine and one small pastry.
Jim had enquired about the progress of the new treatment he had recommended for the old man’s rheumatism, but, as Jane well knew, even at home there was still much work to be done before anything even resembling a hope of a cure could be effected. However, it seemed that the new tablets Jim had sent to him, the heat treatment he had ordered as well as the fact that Brietta had seen to it her master complied strictly within the rules of the diet the doctor had worked out for him, had afforded some relief.