“Staff Nurse can tell me all about it when we get to Headquarters, Doctor,” Karl said smoothly. Then he turned to Jane. “Pack a small case, please, Nurse,” he said quietly. “One of my men will accompany you to supervise.”
“
I ..
. why are you taking me?” Jane tried to defend
herself, looking wildly into Karl’s cold eyes in the hope of finding some sign of even the little emotion he had shown early that morning. There was no trace of it, or indeed of his ever having known her except as a foreigner working in their midst. Even the customary admiring glance which he always seemed to have for her hair was missing. There was no emotion whatsoever in his face. “Just a moment!”
None of them had heard Jim’s approach through the small unit. He came quietly to Jane’s side now and took her elbow in a firm, very reassuring grip.
“I think there has been some sort of a mistake, if you’ll pardon my saying so, Inspector,” he said pleasantly. “If you’ll be so good as to explain what this is all about I will endeavour to set your mind at rest.”
“There has been no mistake,” Karl said formally. “It is all quite clear. I am aware that this will deplete your hospital staff by two of its most important members, but no doubt,” and he bowed, a little ironically, Jane felt, “your friends at the Embassy will see to it you have replacements here as quickly as possible. It would be unthinkable if your wonderful work for our country were not to carry on
!
”
“Unthinkable indeed,” Jim agreed pleasantly, “and I see no reason why I should require further staff
...
except, perhaps,” he glanced at Kevin’s prone form, “another qualified doctor.”
“I listened just now,” Karl said with deliberate emphasis, “to your Doctor Dean. He said Staff Nurse knew what was to happen. It is evident he expected her cooperation
...
”
“Now, wait a minute!” Jim said quietly but with such authority in his voice Jane knew he would not be interrupted. “Staff Nurse is
...
someone special,” he said gravely. “And she has been charged with a special task over these past six months. That task, I’m afraid, was
to prove too much even for her,” he bent a smile on Jane which seemed to turn her very bones to water. It was the sort of smile she had longed to see on his face when he looked at her. For that smile she would have said anything, she felt.
“And the task?” Karl was pursuing the point relentlessly. Jim’s smile deepened.
“It’s not the sort of matter one talks about unless, as now, circumstances force matters into open conversation,” he said glibly. “Staff Nurse was charged with the task of making certain Dr. Dean did nothing which would damage the country, its people, our own work here. In short,” Jim said, drawing a deep breath and looking directly at Kevin as though daring him to challenge the truth of his statements, “she was asked to look after him, to try and keep him out of mischief while her term of office here was ended. For that reason she accompanied him to the New Thought Club. For that reason she listened to the wild plans they had made for some time in the near future. She did not know when they planned to put their plot into operation, she refused to have anything to do with it, and that is when they decided to try it alone .
.
. with this result,” he ended, gesticulating towards Kevin once more.
Karl’s keen glance raked Jim’s face, but Jim’s eyes did not flicker.
“How do I know this is the truth?” Karl demanded at length. “It is natural that you should protect your own countrymen and women, although you have been a wonderful friend to Dalasalavia.”
“You will know I’m speaking the truth,” Jim said quietly, “when I tell you—all of you—a secret. Staff Nurse Kelsey is my
fiancée
. We did not wish anyone to know until we decided whether to stay here together or return home, when my term of office here is ended next year, and make our lives together... at home.”
CHAPTER 1
0
JANE could have laughed out loud. She had often read the expression “one could have heard a pin drop”, but never in her life had she expected to come face to face with just such a situation.
She could not look at Karl. When curiosity finally persuaded her to glance in his direction, she saw he had turned completely white about the mouth and that a little pulse was throbbing visibly in his left temple. With a tremendous effort he controlled himself.
“In that case,” he bowed to Jane, the most formal bow she had yet seen him make, “I owe an apology to you, Staff Nurse Kelsey.”
He straightened and turn to Jim, drawing himself to his full height, clicked his heels and bowed again.
“This morning, Doctor,” he said stiffly, “I asked Staff Nurse to be my wife. I did not know, of course, that she was your
fiancée
. You have kept your secret well, both of you. I thought,” he glanced at Kevin and back to Jim, “she might be in need of
...
protection from the
foreseeable
outcome of some of the doings of these so
-
called friends of hers. I did not think she was
...
one of them,” he had hesitated a moment before saying the last few words, then, apparently having recovered himself, continued, “but I wanted to afford her the protection of my name and standing in the community.”
“You were most kind, Inspector,” Jim answered equally formally, “and we are both very grateful, but you will understand now why it was that Staff Nurse could not give an answer to your question this morning?”
“I do, indeed I do,” Karl said fervently, almost reducing Jane to laughter as he added: “You are to be envied, Doctor Lowth. In Staff Nurse Kelsey you have that rare gift, a woman who truly knows how and when to hold her tongue.”
“She has many other gifts, I do assure you,” Jim said, his eyes twinkling as his grip on Jane’s elbow tightened. “And I value all of them.”
“That is your good fortune,” Karl said still formally, and bowed again. “I will leave one of my men here to guard the Doctor Dean
...
”
With surprising grace, for someone unaccustomed to the exercise, Jane reflected with amusement, Jim bowed in return.
“That is as you wish, Inspector,” he said gravely. “I don’t know what your enquiry will reveal, but this I do know. Dr. Dean has no malicious or evil intent to anyone. His is, like mine, a life dedicated to the serving of others. He works hard for what he believes in, happiness, health and prosperity for everyone. If he has made a mistake in the pursuit of these ideals, I’m certain he is regretful and has learned his lesson. Perhaps,” he continued smoothly, “it will be considered sufficient if he is returned to our own country and his place taken by someone a little older, a little more mature?”
“Perhaps so,” Karl’s agreement was non-committal. “That is not for me to say,” he observed, “but I have no doubt the diplomatic people will make what adjustments are necessary on both sides. Excuse me
...
He turned and spoke in rapid Dalasalavian to
one of the two policemen who saluted and took his place seated beside Kevin’s bed. Kevin looked up at Jane, and although she thought she detected a slight look of relief in his merry glance, nevertheless he gave her an unmistakable wink as Karl saluted, turned smartly on his heel and, with the other policeman, marched swiftly from the room.
As the sound of their footsteps died away Jim removed his hand from Jane’s elbow, and in a normal tone said quietly:
“Will you step into my office for a moment, please, Jane?” then held the door open for her to pass through.
Jane walked quietly along the passageway, wondering just where she stood in the light of this new and totally unexpected development. Jim followed her into the office and closed the door, but instead of seating himself behind his desk as usual, he stood beside her, tilting her face, so that she was compelled to meet his glance with her own.
“I must apologise for taking your name in vain, my dear,” he said gravely, “and without your permission. But it appeared to me the only possible thing to be done in the circumstances.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jane said dully, suddenly cold. “I’m growing accustomed to being taken for granted,” she rushed on a little chokily. It seemed that after all her hopes rising as she had not been able to prevent them rising, she was to be dashed to earth much sooner than she had thought. It had been a gimmick, a joke, and probably not one played to save Jane Kelsey at all, but merely the staff nurse of St. George’s, the pair of hands which meant so much to the smooth running of his hospital.
“What do you mean, Jane?” Jim was demanding, taking her by the shoulders as she had twisted from his grasp and turned away. “What do you mean, my dear?
Who
has had the temerity to take you for granted, ever, and in what way?”
“Everyone!” Jane said bitterly. “First of all Dr. Dean ... he called round in the early hours of the morning and told me all about what the members of the New Thought were hoping to do. He wanted me to help
him. His reward was for me to share a cosy home for two
...
with additions,” she mimicked bitterly, “on the money we would be given when the New Thought people had sold the formula. He thought
I’
d be glad to share such a fate with him, and a practice in some out-of-the-way place nobody’s ever heard of.”
“The cheeky young
...
” Jim began explosively, but Jane had not finished.
“Then Karl Brotnovitch came this morning,” she went on in a toneless voice, thinking back over the interview and of how shocked and shaken she had been.
“His
idea was that my name would not be above reproach as a result of the company I’ve been keeping in Seonyata. He offered me the shelter of his name, a large house—when he gets promotion—and an even larger salary. Then,” she whirled round accusingly, “to crown it all you have the effrontery to say I’m
engaged
to you and that it’s only a matter of deciding whether or not we’re to stay here and work together for the good of Dalasalavia or return to England and live, I suppose,” her tone was mocking again, “a cosy sort of life such as pictured by Kevin
...
and not one of you, not one of you out of the three proposals in one day,” she cried more dramatically than she realised, “even mentioned the word love! No one thinks of the heart these days,” she said bitterly. “They think of promotion, of larger salaries, more imposing houses, of the preservation of a name above reproach
...
only in your case it would be the name of St. George’s which must be protected at all costs, not the name of your staff nurse, oh, dear me, no!”
“Jane! Jane! Stop it
;
my darling!” Jim tightened his grip on her shoulders and swung her round, almost forcing her into the shelter of his arms.
“Poor little Jane!” he murmured against her hair. “No wonder you’re bewildered, my darling. I suppose I
shall bewilder you still more when I tell you I’ve loved you from the moment I first saw you at the Golden Fiddle, the lamplight shining on your wonderful hair, the blueness of your eyes and your general air of being out to conquer the future, no matter what it held
...
”
“What did you say
?” Jane stood back a little and looked up at him, her eyes suddenly very bright,
the anger gone.
“I said I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you,” he repeated firmly. “I never knew how much, until you told me this morning that Karl Brotnovitch had asked you to marry him. I knew I couldn’t allow that to happen, no matter what. But,” he laughed suddenly, “I scarcely expected fate—and Kevin Dean—to play directly into my hands in this way,” he concluded.
Jane stood very still. It was all true, she was assuring herself of the fact over and over again. Jim Lowth loved her, he had obviously loved her for some time. He wanted her to marry him, not because of the good name of the hospital, not because he wanted an extra pair of hands always there, but because he loved her, and for that reason, she, Jane Kelsey, was important to him as he was to her.
Jim was speaking again, quietly, slowly, as one teaching a lesson to a small child.
“You haven’t said you’ll marry me yet,” he reminded her. “Will you, Jane, my darling? Will you take me on as
...
your next assignment?” he asked with a tenderness of which she had not believed him capable.
She thought of home, of all the comforts, the extra facilities for their work, of her parents and her family, and she knew in time they would share them all, just as they would continue to share whatever faced them in the time left to be spent in Dalasalavia.
“Of course I’ll marry you, my darling,” she whispered, “just as soon as everything can be arranged. I meant to do precisely that when I came out here
...
didn’t you know?” But there was no need for him to answer as their lips met in a kiss which told each that they had accepted not only their next assignment, but an assignment for life, which suited them both very well!