relief that she hadn’t had to answer Professor Beaufort’s question.
‘But you do travel?’
‘Well, yes, but I’ve only been to the south of France and Brussels and Scotland. I’m quite happy to stay in England.’
‘But you don’t object to going abroad?’ The professor’s voice was very casual.
‘Not in the least. Children are the same anywhere.’ She put down her coffee cup and got to her feet. ‘I’ll take Dee for her walk.’ She glanced at her watch, but before she could speak: ‘I’ll fetch the twins, Nanny. Mary, may we have lunch just a little early so that I can get away in good time?’
As she wheeled the pram away Deborah took time to tell herself how pleasant it would be when he’d gone—quite quiet and a bit dull perhaps, but pleasant; he was a disturbing person to have around the house. ‘He may be your uncle,’ she told the sleeping Dee, ‘but I don’t like him. Him and his economics, indeed.’ She tossed her sandy head and marched smartly through the village and up the hill on the other side where presently she sat down with her back against a tree until it was time to go back and give Dee her orange juice.
Lunch was a boisterous affair which petered out into tears and tantrums from the twins because their uncle was going away again.
He swung them in the air in turn and hugged them briefly. ‘If you are very good and don’t howl in that frightful fashion and do exactly what Nanny tells you and eat your dinners without fuss, I’ll give you each a real bicycle. It had better be before Christmas otherwise I might get in Father Christmas’s way. Let’s see, shall we say the first of December?’
He left them with a brief nod to Deborah and a much warmer leave taking from Mary. If she hadn’t been kept so busy all the afternoon counting days on the calendar for the twins’ benefit, she might have had the time to feel annoyed about that. Although in all fairness she herself had pointed out that they were most unlikely to see each other again, and as far as she could see they had absolutely nothing in common.
There was no point in thinking about him; she dismissed him from her mind and bent to the task of keeping the twins occupied in a suitable fashion, making sure that they ate their food and acting as mediator when they quarrelled—which was often. What with the pair of them and baby Dee, who although no trouble at all, needed her attentions more or less round the clock, the next few days passed rapidly enough. But Mrs Burns gave no indication as to when she would return although she telephoned each day.
It was four days since the professor had left, just as they were about to start a picnic tea on the lawn, that Mrs Burn’s racy sports car turned into the drive and stopped with a squealing of brakes before her front door.
The children had seen of course, and were already racing to meet her as she got out of the car. They closed in on her and for a moment there was pandemonium; laughing and shrieks of delight and Mrs Burns explaining that she had come home, Granny was well enough to leave and Daddy was on his way back too. She crossed the lawn to where Deborah sat with Dee on her lap, beginning to explain all over again long before she reached her.
‘I should have phoned, Nanny, but I wanted to make sure that Doctor Wyatt was perfectly satisfied with my mother’s progress. There’s a nurse with her of course, but when he said that she was quite out of danger and that I need stay no longer, I just threw my things into a bag and came racing home. And Bill’s on his way back too; it’s all so exciting!’
She held out her arms for the baby who smiled contentedly showing a good deal of gum. Her mother kissed the top of her head: ‘They all look marvellous. Have they been good? I know you said each day that they were giving no trouble, but I daresay you were driven out of your mind…’
Deborah laughed. ‘No, indeed, I wasn’t—and they were good, really they were. Would you like tea here, or indoors?’ She got to her feet. ‘I’ll go and tell Mary…’
‘No need, Nanny. I’m going to have tea here with you. I’ll borrow Simon’s mug and he can share with Suzy.’ She settled gracefully on the garden seat and patted it. ‘Come and sit beside me and tell me what you think of my family.’ She tucked Dee under her arm, told the twins to sit on the grass beside her, and watched Deborah pouring the tea, handing round mugs of milk and plates of bread and butter.
‘Gideon came?’ she said and there was a question behind the remark. ‘Yes,’ said Deborah equably, ‘The twins loved it—he took them to school…’
‘God doesn’t like Aunty Doris,’ shrilled Simon.
Mrs Burns said calmly: ‘I suspect you’ve got it wrong, darling; Uncle Gideon’s been using grown up language and it doesn’t quite mean the same as the things we talk about.’
‘Nanny frowned at him…’
Mrs Burns looked at Deborah. ‘He may be a professor, but he has his lighter moments—he can be very tiresome— I’m always telling him so, aren’t I, darlings?’
With no effect at all, thought Deborah.
Later, with the children in bed, over dinner with Mrs Burns Deborah gave a blow by blow account of her days. ‘So you see, they’ve been very good, and great fun too.’
‘Splendid. Don’t go rushing off, will you?’ Mrs Burns turned persuasive eyes on to Deborah. ‘Bill will be home late tomorrow; the children will go berserk, they always do, and they’ll need someone to make them eat and go to bed and so on, so please stay for a little longer—unless you’ve another job waiting?’
‘Well, I haven’t actually—and of course I’ll stay until you don’t need me.’
‘Oh, good! What a relief. My mother wants to see the children, I thought we might drive over after Bill gets home and let her see them for a few minutes. She dotes on them and it’ll do her good.’
Mrs Burns suddenly looked very young and sad. ‘Oh, Nanny I was so frightened. I thought Mother wasn’t going to get better. Thank heaven Gideon came, he’s so sensible and always knows what to do, just like Bill, I mean he’d got everything organised within an hour of his getting there and he was so sure that Mother was going to get better that I believed him—he was calm and certain about it. He is such a dear, don’t you agree?’
‘He’s a marvellous uncle,’ said Deborah guardedly and Mrs Burns looked at her, a flicker of amusement in her eyes although she didn’t say anything.
It was difficult to keep the children even moderately quiet the next day, by the time their father arrived they were in bed, wide awake, and since it was quite obvious that they had no intention of going to sleep until he had got home, Deborah sat between their beds, reading soothingly from Little Grey Rabbit and very relieved when at last they heard a car turn into the drive and stop before the house. There was no holding the twins; she got them into their dressing gowns, thrust wriggling impatient feet into slippers and led them downstairs. They broke free of her restraining hands once they reached the hall and flung themselves at their father standing in the drawing room doorway. Deborah waited where she was, not sure what to do; the children should have been in their beds, on the other hand they hadn’t seen their father for some weeks and from the look of it, he was delighted to see them again. He scooped them up and swung them round laughing and turned to smile at his wife. They all looked so happy that Deborah felt a pang of loneliness, instantly forgotten when Mrs Burns caught sight of her and said: ‘Bill, here’s Nanny, she’s been marvellous—I don’t know what I would have done without her—and
