some sums on the back of the envelope and felt the beginnings of a headache. It was possible that Oscar was behind it… She read the letter once again; they would accept one last batch. Good, she would send as many verses as she could think up. She got pencil and paper and set to work. Just let me say on this lovely day…she began, and by lunchtime had more than doubled her output.
She typed them all out on her old portable and took them to the post. It would have been satisfying to have torn up the letter and put it in an envelope and sent it back, but another cheque would be satisfying too.
The cheque came a few days later, but still no new lodger. Which, as it turned out, was a good thing…
Thomas phoned. Ruth was in bed with flu, could she possibly help out for a day or two? Not to stay, of course, but an hour or two each day until Ruth was on her feet. There was a bus, he added hopefully.
It meant two buses; she would have to change halfway. The hospital wasn’t all that far away, but was awkward to get to.
Julia glanced at the clock. ‘I’ll be there about lunch-time. I must tell Trudie, my lodger. I’ll stay until the evening if that’s OK.’
‘Bless you,’ said Thomas. ‘I should be free about five o’clock.’
Trudie, summoned from a horde of toddlers, was helpful. She would see to Muffin, go back at lunchtime and make sure that everything was all right, and she wasn’t going out that evening anyway. Julia hurried to the main street and caught a bus.
The house was close to the hospital, one of a neat row in which the luckier of the medical staff lived. The door key, Thomas had warned her, was under the pot of flowers by the back door, and Julia let herself in, calling out as she did so.
It was a very small house. She put her bag down in the narrow hall and went up the stairs at its end, guided by the sound of Ruth’s voice.
She was propped up in bed, her lovely face only slightly dimmed by a red nose and puffy eyes. She said thickly, ‘Julia, you darling. You don’t mind coming? I feel so awful, and Thomas has to be in Theatre all day. I’ll be better tomorrow…’
‘You’ll stay there until Thomas says that you can get up,’ said Julia, ‘and of course I don’t mind coming. In fact it makes a nice change. Now, how about a wash and a clean nightie, and then a morsel of something to eat?’
‘I hope you don’t catch the flu,’ said Ruth later, drinking tea and looking better already, drowsy now in her freshly made bed, her golden hair, though rather lank, it must be admitted, neatly brushed. All the same, thought Julia, she looked far from well.
‘Has the doctor been?’ she asked.
‘Yes, Dr Soames, one of the medical consultants.
Someone is coming with some pills…’
Thomas brought them during his lunch hour. He couldn’t stop, his lunch ‘hour’ being a figure of speech. A cup of coffee and a sandwich was the norm on this day, when Professor van der Maes was operating, but he lingered with Ruth as long as he could, thanked Julia profusely and assured her that he would be back by five o’clock. ‘I’ll be on call,’ he told her, ‘but only until midnight.’
‘Would you like me to keep popping in for a few days, until Ruth is feeling better?’
‘Would you? I hate leaving her.’
He went then, and Julia went down to the little kitchen, made another hot drink for Ruth and boiled herself an egg. Tomorrow she would bring some fruit and a new loaf. Bread and butter, cut very thin, was something most invalids would eat.
It was almost six o’clock when Thomas returned, bringing the Professor with him. The Professor spent a few minutes with Ruth, assured Thomas that she was looking better, and wandered into the kitchen, where Julia was laying a tray of suitable nourishment for Ruth.
‘Get your coat,’ he told her. ‘I’ll drive you home.’ Julia thumped a saucepan of milk onto the stove. ‘Thank you, but I’ll get a bus when I’m ready.’
Not so much as a hello or even a good evening, thought Julia pettishly.
His smile mocked her. ‘Thomas is here now. Two’s company, three’s none.’
‘Thomas will want his supper.’
Thomas breezed into the kitchen. ‘I’m a first-rate cook. We’re going to have a picnic upstairs. You go home, Julia. You’ve been a godsend, and we’re so grateful. You will come tomorrow?’
‘Yes,’ said Julia, and without looking at either of the men went and got her coat, said goodnight to her sister and went downstairs again.
The two men were in the hall and Thomas backed into the open kitchen door to make room for her, but even then the professor took up almost all the space. He opened the door and she squeezed past him into the street. Thomas came too, beaming at them both, just as though he was seeing them off for an evening out.
The Professor had nothing to say. He sat relaxed behind the wheel, and if he felt impatience at the heavy traffic he didn’t show it. Watching the crowded pavements and the packed buses edging their way along the streets, Julia suddenly felt ashamed at her ingratitude.
‘This is very kind of you,’ she began. ‘It would have taken me ages to get home.’
He said coolly, ‘I shan’t be going out of my way. I’m going to the children’s hospital not five minutes’ drive away from your home.’
A remark which hardly encouraged her to carry on the conversation.
He had nothing more to say then, but when he stopped before her house he got out, opened the car door for her and stood waiting while she unlocked the house door, dismissing her thanks with a laconic, ‘I have already said it was no trouble. Goodnight, Julia.’
She stood in the open door as he got into the car and drove off.
‘And that’s the last time I’ll accept a lift from you,’ she said to the empty street. ‘I can’t think why you bothered, but I suppose Thomas was there and you had no choice.’ She slammed the door. ‘Horrid man.’
But she was aware of a kind of sadness; she was sure that he wasn’t a horrid man, only where she was concerned. For some reason she annoyed him…
She got her supper, fed Muffin, and went to warn Trudie that she would be going to Ruth for the next few days. ‘No one phoned about a room, I suppose?’ she asked.
‘Not a soul. Probably in a day or two you’ll have any number of callers.’
But there was no one.
For the next few days Julia went to and fro while Ruth slowly improved. Of the Professor there was no sign, although her sister told her that he had come frequently to see her. Dr Soames came too, and told her that she was much better. ‘Though I look a hag,’ said Ruth.
‘A beautiful hag,’ said Julia bracingly, ‘and tomorrow you’re going to crawl downstairs for a couple of hours.’
Ruth brightened. ‘Tom can get the supper and we’ll have it round the fire, and I dare say Gerard will come for
