The change was instant and near miraculous. A pale child in a gimmicky red nightshirt had got into bed; now she was pale no longer and you hardly noticed the garment for the wearer. Curtains of dark hair framed the luminous eyes. The little-girl pouty lips seemed to have shaped out into beauty. 'Is he, Suzanne? Honestly?' Jennie asked.
For Haidee a startling flash of insight. In a year or so what might not happen? The same interests. The same outlook. And who seeing Rory with Jennie could doubt his affection?
If the business about Suzanne were tidied up and Rory free to marry, Jennie would surely be the happiest antidote for the past. She pushed the thought away. No time now to work it any further. Three men were waiting to be fed and one of them had already ordered-'bangers' and fried bread.
But that night, curled in the centre of the wide bed Rory had consistently refused to take back, there it was again, the new Forester's residence with Jennie at eighteen or nineteen its young mistress. And there she herself was too, back in Dollymount with the Brent geese and Brand.
Would he feel it a terrible come-down? His nose, more uppish than ever, had had the time of its life in Glenglass. His fur had grown thicker and the bars of rust on his tail were blatant as never before. She moved her legs and from on top of them and half asleep he gave his ungracious cluck.
'Start getting used to it, bucko,' she told him. 'We're not here to stay.'
Was it coincidence that at that moment a cloud crossed over the moon?
CHAPTER SIX
Next morning Jennie was herself again and for once Toby did not dash to the breakfast half-dressed. He came to it from outside, his boots soaking and beads of mist shining on his hair.
'Business,' he said mysteriously when questioned. 'It's "Keep Your Eyes Open" week, remember. I think I'm on to something.'
'You'll be on to something you won't like if you're late for school,' Rory remarked without interest. 'Or don't they beat these days?
'Pity,' he said gravely when Toby shook his head. 'That way you'll never be the man your father is.'
Haidee welcomed the good humour but could not resist a maternal hand on the detective's shoulder. His jacket as she'd suspected was also damp. Where had he been?
'Nothing to say,' Toby replied firmly. 'Nothing to say at this stage.'
Some time later she was making his bed and wondering if she dare reduce his dust gathering hoard of comics when the telephone rang and Jennie appeared in the doorway: 'Someone for you. He says it's very important.'
'Very important: It could only be the hospital. Haidee was there in a moment. Instinctively she closed the door. 'Suzanne Desmond speaking.'
'Can you talk?' a voice asked guardedly.
Her heart missed a beat. 'Who are you?'
'Can you talk?' the voice repeated urgently.
'Ye-es.'
'Good, then. This is Paul.'
Paul! After all these weeks. Where had he been? Irritably he explained that he'd been offered an 'exclusive' in Milan just after he'd finished the glass story and had only returned to Dublin last week. Calling out to Dollymount, he had learned her whereabouts from a neighbour.
'Now listen, baby, I don't know how you got yourself into Glenglass, but you've got to get out again-quick.'
A bit much. Who did he think had got her there? she asked.
'Cut that out, honey. I'm serious. Impersonation is a punishable offence.'
'Paul, it was your idea,' Haidee protested.
'Originally, perhaps, but be reasonable. All I set up was two minutes at a deathbed. A few words, the touch of a hand-the sort of thing a nurse does if she has to. Not this. This is madness. You'll never get away with it.'
She was for a second literally speechless. When her lips moved again they had to do so fast. 'You listen to me for a change. Too right you set it up and then you took off. I was the sitting duck. Antonia recovered consciousness and Rory came and fetched me back to the hospital. I had no choice. She was clear for several hours and I had to promise her I'd come here and stay with Jennie. How do you think I liked that?'
'And they accepted you?' He sounded incredulous.
'Yes, they accepted me. I can't talk about it now.'
'Oh, look, love,' his tone had changed. 'I'm sorry. It was my fault, I suppose.'
'Not suppose. It's no doubt at all, actually,' Haidee said shortly. 'And I'm here till Antonia dies. That's all there is to it.'
There was a pause. 'You've changed,' Paul said slowly. 'I thought you were a timid little thing. That night on the train you were full sure they'd spot your second class ticket and throw you out on the line. Now you're even beginning to sound like a Desmond.'
It was too silly, and besides, he was wasting time. 'Have you a number? I can't talk properly here.'
'Sorry. I come and go.'
'Oh, Paul!' Urgency raised her voice a semi-tone. There was so much she had to know which he alone could tell. 'Please. It's not much to ask.'
A draught of air sliced down her arm. The door had opened. Rory's voice said: 'I'm sorry,' in a tone quite as cold as the air. Next second the door once more was shut.
Feelings got the better of her. 'Blast!' He'd heard her say: 'Paul'. She was convinced of it. And he'd think...
'I beg your pardon,' Paul remarked humorously.
'He heard me.' Matters were not improved by a knowing chuckle from the other end. 'Oh, it's too silly,' she exploded. 'But that's what he thinks.'
She put the receiver back and hurried into the hall. Rory with papers in his hand was coming out of his bedroom. What unsporty fate, she wondered, had sent him back for them at just that moment? 'I'm sorry if you wanted to use the phone,' she blurted. 'Paul rang to inquire for my mother.'
'Oh yes?' Rory murmured sarcastically, and moved away.
Foolishly, she pursued it. 'You have no objection, I presume?'
A stony face looked back at her. 'Yes, you do presume, Suzanne.' The voice matched it in hardness. 'You presume a helluva lot. I used to think it part of your charm. Now it's starting to be a bore.' He came a pace nearer and lowered his voice somewhat belatedly. 'I won't stand for it again, girl, you can make your mind up on that.'
As she stood speechless with fury he went on down the stairs.
That afternoon when she made the usual pilgrimage with Jennie to the hospital the pull of home was almost irresistible. It was heightened when, yet again, Antonia failed to open her eyes. What good, Haidee questioned, was being produced? Whatever about three weeks ago, Jennie's mother patently no longer needed peace of mind. It was hers, lapping her like a blanket. Would she wake again, even momentarily, in this life? The doctor thought not. He said so when they were leaving.
As of now, an unnecessary deception. Purposeless for Antonia, humiliating for its practiser. Waiting at the pedestrian crossing Haidee fumed again at the morning's injustice. Why should she stay in Glenglass and expose herself to undeserved contempt?
The light on the crossing changed. 'About time!' Jennie commented, stepping off the kerb.
And time, girl, you did your stuff, Haidee thought, and slipped her hand through her companion's arm. 'Let's go and look in Switzers and then we must get something for tea. Any suggestions?'
Jennie was and must be her first care. The morning's hurt had somehow to be ignored.
It was surprisingly easy to do this, for when they reached Glenglass its atmosphere was not at all what she'd expected.
'It's beginning to look as though "Keep Your Eyes Open" week has come up with something,' Rory remarked. He seemed to have forgotten the circumstances under which they had last spoken.
'Are we going to tell them?' Toby broke in warningly. 'They said we weren't to. They're sending a man out from Dublin.'
'The entire Special Branch and Riot Squad, I should think,' his father said dryly.
'We went to the Guards, you see. About that-that thing I was working on. But we can't risk a leak, so I can't tell you,' Toby explained.
That's a bit thick,' Jennie challenged. 'We're not going to leak it.' She turned expectantly to Rory, but he shook his head. It was a solemn action.
'My lips are sealed.'
Toby went to bed early. He was almost too excited to say goodnight to Haidee and all Rory got was one word said with breathtaking effect.
'Six-thirty.'
'If that means what I think it does, be sure you wear your waterproof,' Haidee warned.
She was in the kitchen setting things ready for the morning when Rory discomfited her by strolling in. 'At least it's not deer in Cats Spinney. This time, believe it or not, I think he really has used his eyes.
'Netting,' he added tersely. 'I hope to catch them at it tomorrow.'