Unknown (6 page)

'You would think you'd won an Oscar, you look that pleased!' he chortled, and Anna laughed.

'I'm sorry but I'm not generally a lucky person. At snakes and ladders I find all the biggest snakes! My mother always wins. It's a standing joke by now,' she added, then a shadow fell across the ludo board and she glanced up, the smile still hovering about her lips, green eyes sparkling.

Dr Alexandre's eyes gazed steadily into hers, and her laughter faded away as she politely began to rise. Because there wasn't much room around the small table she had difficulty in getting up, then the registrar put his hand on her shoulder and pressed her down again.

'Sit still, Anna. I'll join you,' he announced, while Anna sat, frozen into her seat now. Rick was going to play ludo with them! Senior registrars had no time for that sort of thing. Why, the poor man must be asleep on his feet!

Anna's soft heart went out to him and her sympathy must have communicated itself to the registrar in some way, for he smiled into her eyes. 'I'm not dead yet, Anna. I've got enough strength left to trounce all three of you at ludo!'

Nervously, Anna made room for him. Because there was so little space he sat very close to her. Disturbingly close, long legs brushing against hers. She tensed, wishing he would sit further away. How could she concentrate on the game with this attractive man so near?

Yet you love Mike! a little voice reminded her, and she sighed, causing the registrar to pause as he was about to rattle the dice.

'Cold, Anna?' he asked softly, and she shook her head and managed to laugh.

'No, I was just thinking, you are probably the ludo champion of Jersey and I won't win any more!'

He raised a dark brow, his expression quizzical. 'How did you know I came from Jersey?'

Mr Mitchell saved Anna from answering just then. 'One of us asked about the unusual spelling of your name, Doctor. Staff Nurse said as how you were from the Channel Islands,' he put in, and the registrar seemed to relax.

'A regular Jersey potato, I am!' he laughed, and Anna watched, fascinated, at the way his eyes crinkled with laughter. His face was full of laughter lines she noted, before dropping her gaze to her coloured counter. It was a face made for mirth and she wondered why she hadn't noticed before.

True, he wasn't classically handsome in the way that Mike Forster was. His nose was too long, his brows too heavy . . .

'You have just moved Mr Mitchell's counter, Nurse!' a laughing voice broke into her thoughts, and Anna flinched as if struck. She gazed at the counters. Dr Alexandre was right. Hers was red. Had she really moved the green one? She bit her lip, embarrassed.

'Colour-blind, are you, Nurse?' Mr Taylor asked, and all three men laughed.

'Must be in love,' Mr Mitchell announced, causing the registrar to eye her thoughtfully.

'Are you, Anna?' he asked, peering at her averted face so that she was forced to meet his gaze at last.

Those steady eyes were stormy-grey again and Anna ran her tongue nervously over her dry lips before shaking her head. 'No. Not exactly,' she parried, then turned to Mr Mitchell.

'It's your turn with the dice, Mr Mitchell,' she said, gaily, but even to her
own
ears her voice sounded on the verge of breaking. Dr Alexandre had no right to ask such a question!

The game was nearly finished, with Dr Alexandre heading for the winning post, when the League of Friends committee members arrived. The registrar, who sat facing the door, saw them first, and Anna's eyes followed his gaze.

Two women hovered in the doorway, with Staff Nurse Powell fussing around them. Then the younger woman, a tall brunette, beamed at their group, and Anna's eyes went from one patient to the other as she rose. But the smile was for Dr Alexandre, she saw now, as he went forward, hand outstretched, face wreathed in smiles.

'Ricky! I'd no idea you worked here!' the brunette trilled, taking his hand and holding on to it with both of hers.

Anna watched, fascinated, as the brunette and the registrar stood, smiling, apparently oblivious to those around them. She turned away, her eyes suspiciously bright.

They continued their interrupted game, Anna moving the orange counter which had been the registrar's. But her eyes and ears were busy, as she tried to hear the registrar's conversation. The older woman and the Staff Nurse walked among the patients, exchanging a few words with them, but Dr Alexandre and his lady friend stood in the farthest corner, their voices low, and Anna, for some reason, wanted to hurl the ludo-board out of the day-room window.

'Raining again, Nurse,' Mr Mitchell commented, as the game finished, with Dr Alexandre's orange counter the winner.

Anna shivered. 'That's all I need. A walk home in the dark and cold!' she said lightly, unaware that the registrar and his companion had drifted back within earshot.

'If you aren't getting a lift tonight, Nurse, I'll drop you off,' Dr Alexandre said evenly, and Anna turned questioning eyes on him.

'I have to go out so you may as well have a lift,' he went on, his voice cold, and Anna stammered her thanks.

She smiled tentatively at the woman by his side, and the smile was returned, but guardedly. Dr Alexandre performed the introductions and Anna was treated to a full inspection, the brunette's dark eyes missing no detail. She was Mrs Margaret Warwick of the League of Friends, and the registrar gave Anna a run-down of the good works the League performed, the donations they made, the cheer they brought to the patients, and this time Mrs Warwick gave Anna a genuinely friendly smile, obviously pleased at the registrar's praise.

Anna did her best to look impressed, though her one impulse was to escape from the registrar and his friend. Mrs Warwick seemed older than Rick, Anna put her age at around forty. Probably she wasn't a friend in the way Anna had at first thought. She supposed Mrs Warwick was the wife of someone important and had to be deferred to.

Dr Alexandre promised to be at the front entrance promptly at nine-thirty and told Staff Nurse Powell that Anna must leave on time.

When nine-thirty came, she couldn't control her excitement. It was stupid of her. The man was only offering her a lift home! But Mike had been the only man in her life. So being taken home by another man was something of a novelty to her, and she hummed a tune as she hurried to the main door—to see the smiling face of Mrs Warwick who also, seemingly, was awaiting a lift from Dr Alexandre.

Anna's
bubble of happiness burst and the smile she gave Margaret Warwick was strained.

'The rain is quite heavy now,' Mrs Warwick commented, and Anna obediently gazed through the glass doors, seeing nothing, and hearing nothing save the pounding of her own heart.

Naturally he had a reason for going out, a reason for leaving early. He was taking Mrs Warwick somewhere. Out to dinner perhaps?

Anna was surprised that the woman was still there but she must have considered Dr Alexandre worth waiting for. And he was, Anna acknowledged, green eyes pensive. She had so wanted to sit beside him in a companionable silence. Now her evening was spoilt. She would be relegated to the back seat, forced to watch Mrs Warwick smile into those blue-grey eyes, see their arms touch as the woman leaned towards him . . .

There was something cold and hard in her stomach and it wasn't the canteen supper. She barely recognised it as jealousy. It couldn't be. Could it? She loved Mike Forster. One day, when Mother was better, they could bring their tepid romance out into the open. Become lovers, even. Something stirred within her as she waited patiently for the registrar. She wanted marriage. There was nothing as good as marriage, no matter what Mike said. But . . .

'Ah, he's here!' Mrs Warwick's delighted voice broke into Anna's troubled thoughts, and she smiled politely.

The glass doors parted and she raised her head, a bright smile fixed to her face. He mustn't know that she minded. Dark brown eyes and a dark brown voice to match appeared before her, and she gasped. They belonged to the man she'd bumped into earlier.

Mrs Warwick put her hand on the man's arm as he pushed the door open for her. Their mingled laughter drifted back to Anna who stood, bemused, hardly aware that another man had entered as the others left.

Dr Alexandre touched her shoulder lightly, as she stood staring after the couple. His eyes followed hers and he must have misread her expression, for he said, bitterly,

'After consultants now, are you? Sorry I'm only a humble registrar! Dr Tester's way out of your league, Anna.'

She opened her mouth to explain but wasn't given the chance as he almost pushed her out into the cold, rainy night. His car, from what she could see of it in the light from the hospital, looked new. It was certainly roomy and Anna sighed with relief.

Without a word, Dr Alexandre settled himself beside her and set the car in motion. She stole a quick glance at his face, which was set and angry, and decided not to risk any conversation. She might get her head bitten off. Besides, it was his mistake. If that was Dr Tester and he chose to believe she fancied him, let him. She couldn't care less
what
he thought.

They were nearly at Brightling Hill before Anna broke the strained silence. 'Please don't trouble to take me right up to the house, Doctor. I can walk the last few yards.'

He grunted, and Anna's temper rose. 'Waiting for you in the shrubbery, is he?' he asked, suddenly.

'Who?'

'That young lad. The one with blackheads and crinkly hair. He'll be wet by now. Shouldn't think he's still there. I'll take you to your door, if you tell me which one,' he offered, his voice infuriatingly calm.

'For one thing, Mike has
not
got blackheads! And for another, I don't
want
to be taken to my door!' she said, sharply. 'It . . . it worries my mother. She's been very ill.'

'I'm sorry. Though I should think she would prefer you to be given a lift home. Doesn't she worry that you nip home across the rec?'

'She doesn't know,' Anna admitted. 'She doesn't really think about it. I'll have to take driving lessons and get a car.'

'Which house is it, then?'

She saw they were parked outside her own house, where a light burned outside the front door. 'You're right here. This is Millstones.'

'What a name!' he chuckled, ill-humour gone. 'And is it a millstone?'

'Well. . .yes, I suppose it is. The house is far too big for us, really, but Mother has a full-time nurse. She lives in and so does the housekeeper,' Anna explained.

His steady gaze held hers and Anna's voice
trailed off. He'll think I'm boasting was her last coherent thought, as his lips met hers in a tantalisingly brief kiss.

'Goodnight, Anna. Sleep well.' He sounded amused, and Anna's lips tightened ominously. He was making fun of her! Probably he could see she was inexperienced. He thought her a naive little nobody and was anxious to show his prowess with women.

'Goodnight, Dr Alexandre,' she said primly, then spoiled her exit by having difficulty finding the door catch in the dark.

'It's right there, Anna. Look, you pull it up, not down,' the registrar said patiently, and Anna flinched as he reached across her body to open the door. She heard a faint sound as though he was trying not to laugh, and she longed to disappear, so acute was her embarrassment.

'Th . . . thank you, Doctor,' she managed, glad to escape from his nearness.

'Don't forget it will soon be Christmas, Anna. You'll be on Park Ward, won't you?'

Surprised, Anna said she would, wondering why he should care. 'Good. We'll have a lovely time. I'll bring plenty of mistletoe. You won't be able to escape then! Bye!'

Red-faced, Anna hurried up to the porch—to find Mary Dixon hovering by the front door, her pekinese nose positively twitching with curiosity.

'Good evening, Mary,' Anna said, distantly, 'it was kind of you to watch out for me,' she added, hanging up her raincoat, then making for the stairs before the woman could speak.

In the safety of her room, Anna collapsed on to the bed, breathing heavily. The nerve of that man! Bringing mistletoe just to annoy her. He would enjoy her embarrassment as he forced his kisses on her in full view of the patients!

'You've met your match, Rick Alexandre!' she said, aloud. 'No way am
I
providing free entertainment.'

Of course Nurse Dixon had told Anna's mother that she'd had a lift home, and her mother's eyes were wary as Anna hurried into see her. She was in bed, a big tester bed, surrounded by books and magazines, and a copy of
The Stage.
The house was centrally-heated so she was warm enough in her cream lacy bed-jacket and silk nightgown. Anna was struck afresh by her mother's beauty. Only the greying hair suggested middle age was approaching, yet even so, Jennifer Curtis did not look forty-nine.

It seemed a shame that because of her heart attack she'd given up life, or very nearly. Now she considered herself an invalid and insisted that the household revolve around her, and that her only child should be obedient and not seek a life outside the home, Anna thought, rebelliously. It was so unfair!

'Mary says you got a lift home, dear. Was it someone nice?' Jennifer asked casually enough, but Anna wasn't deceived.

'No one important, Mother,' she parried. 'But I've been meaning to speak to you—about having to come home in the dark and rain, I mean. Couldn't I have a car and driving lessons?'

Anna waited for the world to come crashing about her ears, but nothing happened and faint hope glowed in her eyes. Her mother appeared to be seriously considering the idea, but finally she shook her head.

'I don't think so, Anna. I should be
so
worried. There are so many careless drivers about these days and you never know. Then there is the expense,' she sighed, putting one delicate, fine-boned hand over her heart in a gesture Anna knew so well.

'I would be a careful driver, Mother,' Anna said, stubborn for once. 'And don't worry about the cost. Daddy left me quite a bit, you know, and I've hardly spent any. I've enough for a Mini, I think.'