propose to take Cor home.’ At his words Georgina opened her pretty mouth to protest, then closed it hastily under his amused look.
‘I quite agree, Miss Rodman. An awkward and difficult business, involving complicated transport, portable X-rays, fixing of a Balkan frame, nursing care … I should like you to undertake the nursing care.’
She blinked at him. ‘You don’t mean that.’
‘I seldom say things I don’t mean,’ he countered placidly. ‘I have given the whole matter a great deal of consideration—Cor is eating his young heart out at the moment. We are a very united family.’ He gave her a quick glance. ‘I daresay Cor or Beatrix have already told you that they have no parents?’
She nodded. ‘Oh, yes. I thought you were their father, so your cousin explained a little, and then Cor told me. I—I have a rough idea.’
He laughed. ‘Very rough, I should imagine. You’ll come?’
Georgina stared at him. He quite obviously expected her to say yes. He stared back at her with a self-confidence which wasn’t quite arrogance. She would assert herself; it would be ridiculous to say yes in such a weak fashion. She swallowed—then said yes, and added, to justify her weak and instant acceptance, ‘But I shall need to know a great deal more about the whole thing.’
And he said in a tone of voice to make her cheeks burn and her pulses race, ‘Oh, my dear girl, I thought that you were going to refuse.’ He smiled briefly and brilliantly, and then, as though he wished to forget what he had said, went on in a businesslike way, ‘I will explain what I intend to do, and then you can ask as many questions as you wish.’ He turned to Aunt Polly. ‘We do not bore you, I hope, Miss Rodman?’
‘On the contrary, young man, I am diverted.’ She smiled and nodded to her niece, ignoring the look of horror on her face. Georgina hoped that the Professor had not noticed that he had been called ‘young man’ although she felt this to be extremely unlikely. She suspected that very little escaped those cool blue eyes … or, for that matter, those sharp ears.
She folded her hands in her lap, looking, despite the slacks, very demure, emptied her head of the ridiculous but delightful notions which had been filling it, and said in a brisk voice, ‘Yes, sir,’ and was quelled when he said, ‘As we are not in hospital, Miss Rodman, I feel that there is no need for you to call me “sir” with every other breath.’
Her cooling cheeks took fire again. ‘Just as you wish, … Professor.’
She thought for a moment that he was going to object to that too, but he let it pass and went on blandly:
‘It is now the eighth of November—I believe that you finish night duty on the eighteenth. Am I right?’ He barely gave her time to nod. ‘You will have Cor as your sole care, you understand, but you will of course take reasonable time off each day as well as a completely free day each week.’
He stopped, and turned to look at her, gravely waiting for her to speak. It seemed ridiculous to mention it, but she said diffidently:
‘I’m a staff nurse in Casualty, and I hadn’t intended to give in my notice.’
‘Ah, a point I forgot to mention. I have not yet spoken to your Matron; I wished to see how you felt about my proposition before doing so, but I believe that I may have you on loan for a reasonable time—it has been done before. If you will leave that to me?’
She went on doggedly, ‘And the surgeon? Will Cor be under Old Saw … Mr Sawbridge? And shall I be responsible to him?’
‘Yes, most certainly you will. Old Sawbones—and do not scruple to call him by that name, Miss Rodman, for I have known him for many years and he has never been called anything else—has agreed to visit Cor as often as necessary, and will arrange for X-rays, special treatment and so forth.’
‘I see. Very well, Professor—provided that Matron has no objection.’
‘I see no reason why she should,’ he replied coolly. ‘Do you drive?’
‘We haven’t a car, but I have a licence.’
‘Good. There is a car you may care to use while you are with us.’
Aunt Polly spoke. ‘Splendid! Georgina, you’ll be able to come home each week; it’s only a few miles. How very pleasant that will be!’ She caught Georgina’s eye. ‘Perhaps you would ask Mrs Mogg to bring in the tea, dear? You’ll stay for a cup, I hope, Professor?’
Georgina went to the kitchen, feeling somehow that she had been got at without exactly knowing how it had happened. She helped Mrs Mogg carry in the tea things and arranged them on the small table by her aunt’s chair, and would have taken a cup and saucer over to the Professor, but he forestalled her, and she found herself sitting in the crinoline chair again being waited upon by the Professor, who most certainly would not have been expected to lift a finger in hospital. She took a sandwich and caught his eye, and he smiled and said, ‘The boot is on the other foot, is it not, Miss Rodman—it makes a nice change.’ He spoke with a lazy good nature and his smile was so kind that she laughed.
He proved to be an excellent companion. Georgina watched her aunt sparkle, exchanging a gentle repartee with her guest and enjoying every minute of it. He got up to go presently, and as he shook hands he said:
‘I do hope that we shall meet again, Miss Rodman,’ at which Aunt Polly smiled.
She said without a trace of bitterness, ‘I’m always here,’ she gestured towards her sticks. ‘Come when you like, if you care to.’ She inclined her head. ‘Georgina will see you to the door, Professor.’
So Georgina found herself at the front door, standing beside him, contemplating with some awe the Silver Shadow drophead coupé in the lane outside. However, she had little time to do more than recognize it for what it was before he said briskly:
‘Well, goodbye, Miss Rodman.’ He shook hands in a no-nonsense fashion and added as an afterthought, ‘Just one thing. I shall require you to wear your uniform at the times while you are with us. Not of course when you go out in your free time.’
Georgina, who had forgotten about the slacks and sweater, was suddenly and uncomfortably aware of them again. With the fine impulsiveness for which she had received many a reprimand in hospital, she blurted out:
‘But I don’t always look as scruffy as this!’
He eyed her coolly. ‘Did I say that you looked scruffy?’ he wanted to know. ‘I can assure you that my wishes on the matter have no bearing on your present—er—most sensible garments.’ He allowed his gaze to travel from top to toe of her person. ‘Charming, too,’ he murmured.
She gaped at him. This from a man wearing tweeds, which, although not new, bore the hallmark of Savile Row! He was joking, of course. She said so.
‘Did I not say a short time ago, my dear girl, that I seldom say anything which I do not mean?’
Georgina blushed. ‘Oh,’ she said faintly. ‘May I know why—I mean about the uniform?’ She looked up at him, looming beside her in the early dusk; it was difficult to read the expression on his face, but his voice was decisive.
‘No, you may not,’ he said blandly. ‘Goodbye for the present.’
