Nurse Abroad(38)

“There’s nothing that a hot bath and a cup of tea won’t put right,” she said.

The situation was beyond her. It would have to wait.

At the foot of the quarry Grant cut short the parents’ thanks to Sarah.

“Come and see her tomorrow. She’s about all in—and I know I am. Watching her climb up shortened my life by about ten years. I want to get her home.”

Sarah felt conversation was too much to attempt. Grant was home ... alone ... was he returning for Elaine tomorrow? The car was standing outside the cottage, all-packed ... she wondered if Pauline was home. She wondered most of all ... had Grant really said what she thought he’d said? No, she’d dreamed that bit when she was collapsing. There were going to be some horrible explanations. Her plan to run away had gone completely astray.

Suddenly they were home. As Grant got out, Sarah leaned close to Rory, said, “Rory, there are two notes over at the cottage on the kitchen table. Drop them both into the range.”

Grant opened her door. “Too late, Sarah,” he said, “I’ve read mine.”

His eyes met hers squarely. Sarah could read nothing from his expression. He helped her out carefully. She winced as he took her arm.

“I’m going to draw a bath for you, in the homestead. Rory, go over and get some clean underwear for your sister, and a dressing-gown and slippers. I imagine you’ll have to rummage in the cases in the car. Your sister was intending to take you away for a surprise holiday, but she’s not going now. Later on you can unpack it all.”

Again his eyes met Sarah’s.

Rory said, “I don’t understand. What’s it all—” Grant cut in. “Neither do I, but I’ll get to the bottom of it after Sarah’s had a bath, and the doctor’s been, and we’ve had a meal.”

Sarah said, “I don’t need a doctor—that’s quite absurd.”

“Everything’s absurd, Sarah. Topsy-turvy. But the doctor’s going to see you. Let me hear no more about it. Into the house with you.”

Sarah came downstairs from her bath to find Grant had lit the fire in the dining-room, and the table was set. He said, coming in with a pile of toast, and his eyes approving the soft green velvet housecoat, which, fortunately, had been the first thing Rory came to, “Pauline is home—simply furious she’s missed all the fun. Isn’t that like Pauline? She’s helping Rory finish the milking. And Nan Granger rang up and asked the men across there for their tea. I hope you like my snack tea ... I’ve done oodles of toast, and bacon and eggs. Ah, here’s the doctor.”

The doctor shook his head over Sarah in mock horror.

“What a lass for adventure! Binding up broken limbs, ushering infants into the world two by two, climbing unclimbable cliffs ... really! Now let me have a look.”

The doctor anointed her various bruises and abrasions, said she’d be horribly stiff for a few days, and departed.

The children came in, talked madly about the adventure all through tea, and helped Grant to wash up afterwards.

“Now, both of you off to bed. You’ve had more than enough excitement for one day. You can read for exactly one hour, then put your lights out. But no coming downstairs ... your sister and I want a long, uninterrupted talk for once.”

As they left the room, Sarah rose from her chair, rather agitated.

“I—I—I think I’ll go upstairs and get into a frock.”

“No, you won’t, Sarah Isbister,” said Grant Alexander, eyes twinkling. “That’s a really ravishing garment to be proposed to in.”

Sarah sat down. “I—I—what did you say?”

Grant threw away his cigarette. “You heard me.”

He came across to her, put out both hands, drew her to her feet, kept hold of her hands. Sarah kept her eyes down. Her hands in his were trembling. He said firmly. “Sarah, look up at me!”

She looked, confusion, a lovely confusion, in her eyes.

“That’s better,” he said calmly. “Now, we’ll take up where we left off at the quarry top ... remember?”

Color flowed into Sarah’s face. “I don’t quite ... I’m not sure if I really heard you say ... what I thought you said ... or if I dreamed it.”

The hazel eyes held a look Sarah had never seen in them before. His mouth was tender. She wondered how she had ever thought it hard, grim.

“You didn’t dream it. I said, “Oh, Sarah, my love, my love!”

Sarah still thought she was dreaming. There would have to be so many explanations before she took it in. Grant realized that. His mouth twitched.

“Yes, I know ... there’s so much to be said before you can believe it ... but ... I’m not a patient man, you know that. Perhaps you’re not sure what followed after my rash words, spoken in public. This did ...”

His dark head bent to her golden one, his fingers tilted her chin, his lips came down on hers. Sarah wondered if explanations were necessary after all, and yielded to his embrace.

When Grant lifted his head he looked at her in delight.

“Why, Sarah, you not only allowed me to kiss you ... you kissed me back!”

Sarah was laughing, with laughter that verged on tears. This was the day that was to have ended in change ... loneliness ... a farewell unspoken. The smudges were gone from under her eyes, the weight from her heart.

Grant said, “Oh, blast the explanations. Let’s just go on from here?”

She shook her head. “No, you must go on with the explanations. I must know. Grant, Elaine said you were going to be married ... that you were waiting for her to get a divorce.”

Grant looked startled. “Divorce? Good lord, I never ever really did find out if she had a husband or was a widow!”

A thought struck him. “Sarah, tell me. Was that your real reason for leaving?”

She nodded. “I couldn’t have borne it, to see you married to Elaine.”

He shook her, then let go as she winced. “Idiot! I saw through her as soon as she arrived. I was giving her plenty of rope to hang herself with, to prove once and for all that she’d been lying when she wrote me before you arrived, setting me against you. I was a fool, an utter fool, Sarah. And I parted with my prejudices so hardly. Oh, let’s sit down and sort things out. Oh, no, you don’t, my darling ... not in a chair miles from me ... Come on to the couch. Now...”

“Darling, once Elaine arrived here, she hadn’t a chance against you She was all insincerity, laziness, malice, and having lived with you for all these weeks ... well, it could be better put, but you know what I mean, you wretch, the sham showed up clearly. You are like Duncan’s Marion. The same calibre. He wrote and said that, you know ... he said you were like her ... ‘steel-true, blade-straight.’ ”

He laughed. “I should have Pauline here to supply the source of the quotation. Was it Stevenson? Doesn’t matter. I was rather mad. Thought Duncan was trying to match-make. The old boy was very clumsy. No finesse ... New Zealand men haven’t, have they, my Sarah? Now, now ... no temper, no fireworks. He said, ‘I hope you’ll meet her some day.’ I’d like to think he knows I have. I’ve thought of that quotation often these last few days, Sarah, and I’ve always, in my mind, added the next line. Know it? I’ll say it just the same ... ‘Steel-true, blade-straight, the great Artificer made my mate.’ ”

Nothing more was said for a few moments, then Sarah stirred. “Grant ... go on with the explanations. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Yes, why didn’t I? When I think I might have come home to find you gone!—Not that you’d have had a chance of evading me for long. I’d have had every private detective in Christchurch looking for you. I had some stupid idea I wanted to have it out with Elaine first, and I couldn’t while she was under my roof.

“Then she rang me this morning to say she was back in Christchurch, a day earlier. What a load off my mind. I sang as I drove, and Mrs. Mac gave me a piece of her mind. She’d heard the phone call, and put my high spirits down to that. So I told her what I was going to do. You never saw anyone so relieved.

“I had quite a session with Elaine. She turned on me like a vixen. I didn’t pull my punches either. I told her how I felt about you ... how ashamed I was of my treatment of you. She lost her temper completely, and said a few things that set me thinking.



“When finally I left her ... this was in the middle of the Botanic Gardens, if you please ... I went straight around to the hotel the John Eastwoods are staying at. Matron ... Ruth, told me a few things. Among others she told me of the time you literally saved the life of old Lady Lemmamore’s son, and how she wanted to leave you her personal jewels ... and how you refused, but she bought you that frock instead ... the one I twitted you about.” His look was wry.

Sarah put up her hand to touch his face. “Grant, it doesn’t matter now.”

Grant continued, his gaze sombre. “She also told me—about my uncle!”

Sarah gasped. “Grant! Not—not—”

He nodded. “Yes, Sarah. Ruth said that long ago, she let misunderstandings flourish between her and the man she loved. So, even if you might think she was breaking a confidence, she was going to speak. She said my uncle had been warned about his brakes. That they were dangerously faulty. That, had he survived, it was quite ton the cards that he would have been charged with manslaughter.”