Next Door to Romance (26 page)

'But what did Tom tell Mrs Pelham?' Robin asked with interest.

'Oh, that he thought the excitement of Christmas had been just a little too much for a sensitive little creature like Sweetie-pie—which was true enough!'

Robin gave a shout of laughter and then became suddenly serious.

'If ever I'm half as good as Tom is, I'll be satisfied,' he declared. 'He's a grand chap, as I've every reason to know. Yet so many people seem just to take him for granted. I can't think why.'

'Because it has never occurred to him that there's anything particularly praiseworthy about doing his best!'

Robin looked at her thoughtfully.

'Something in that,' he agreed. 'Also, perhaps, one is inclined to overlook the people who are near at hand and whom you see every day. You know what they say about a prophet in his own country? Well, just that! Now, I must get going.'

And now the party was almost over. It had been a great success though a little late in starting because the over-excited, overtired children had been reluctant to go to bed. There had even been a few tears shed.

But that was some hours past and by now the grownups had had time to relax—or should have had. Instead, it seemed to Lisa that there was an unaccountable atmosphere of expectancy and excitement about as if the most dramatic part of the day was still to come. And, she noticed, several times conversation stopped suddenly as if people were listening for something.

It puzzled her and involuntarily her own nerves grew tense. Then, abruptly, at nine o'clock, John announced that if nobody minded, he and Janet would like to go out for half an hour or so to see a friend. They went off in their car, and Lisa, unwilling to let anyone guess how restless she felt, went out to the kitchen and looked for something to do which would excuse her from being with the rest of them. Vaguely she heard John's car return and then, when there was really nothing more she could find to do, she went reluctantly out into the hall—and stopped short, her hand over her mouth to stop the exclamation that sprang to her lips.

For two people, locked in each other's arms, were standing under the big bunch of mistletoe which Lisa had hung up—and they were making excellent use of it! And—they were Celia and Robin!

For a moment Lisa hesitated. Neither she nor anyone else was wanted at that moment, but if she went back to the drawing room she would have to pass so near to the absorbed couple that even they could hardly be unaware of her presence. So instead she slipped through the nearer door of her father's study.

She shut the door, flicked on the light and sat down at her father's desk, her brain in a whirl.

Celia and Robin! But only a short time ago she'd heard them quarrelling bitterly. With her own ears she had heard Celia say that she had no use for him because if he wasn't a knave then he was a fool. And Robin had declared that he wouldn't trouble her any more. Yet now—well, judging by the evidence she had just seen, there seemed to be no doubt that they had settled their differences and that, one of these days, it was more than likely that they would get married.

'But Tom!' Lisa protested, unconscious that she spoke aloud. 'What about Tom?'

Tom who had cared for her and who, when she had refused him, had turned to another girl for his happiness. And who, once again, was going to be disappointed because another man had stepped in.

'And now it's too late for me to do anything,' Lisa mourned. 'Because it's true what they say—there's nothing so dead as a dead love. I know that! Tom doesn't love me now. Oh, Tom, Tom, why was I so stupidly blind!'

She put her arms on the desk and laid her head on them, wide awake at last to where her real happiness lay and convinced that having had her chance, she would never have it again. Listless, she sat there, knowing that she ought to return to their guests but able to make the necessary efforts.

With shattering suddenness the telephone began to ring just by her ear, and wondering who on earth could be ringing up at this time on Christmas evening, Lisa answered it.

'Addingly 2134,' she announced impersonally.

'Lisa? What tremendous luck to get you straight away!'

'
Tom
!' Lisa's voice rose to an incredulous squeak, and then, idiotically: 'Tom, are you
sure
it's you?'

'Wait a minute while I pinch myself to make sure,' Tom replied with the utmost gravity. 'Ouch! Yes, it's me all right! That hurt!'

Lisa giggled happily although, absurdly, tears weren't far away.

'Oh, Tom, I
am
glad you rang up,' she said impetuously. 'It wouldn't have seemed like Christmas if you hadn't!'

'Wouldn't it?' Tom said softly. 'Do you know, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me, Lisa?'

'Is—is it?' she stammered confusedly, and then, recklessly: 'Well, I meant it!'

'I'm glad you did,' Tom told her. 'That gives me the courage to ask you something else—'

But despite the distance between them and the fact that he couldn't see her face, Lisa felt suddenly shy. Shy of Tom! How absurd, but—how exciting. Too exciting, too wonderful to be comprehended all in a moment. But it was as if the world contained only just the two of them—

'Your voice is as clear as if you were speaking from the next room, Tom,' she said breathlessly. 'Where are you speaking from, actually?'

'From a friend's house,' Tom explained, and then with that steady persistence which was so essentially Tom: 'But to get back to what I was saying—there's something else I want to know, Lisa—'

'Oh—' suddenly she remembered. 'Is it—is it about Celia, Tom? Because, if so—'

'Celia? Good heavens, no!' he really sounded quite astonished at the idea. 'Unless—are you going to tell me that she and Robin have fixed things up? Because if so, that's one of the best things I've heard for a long time!'

'Do you mean to say you expected it?' Lisa asked in a dazed voice.

'Good heavens, yes! It stuck out a mile,' Tom insisted.

'But I thought she disliked him—she was so critical—'

'Of course she was. She was in love with him, so she wanted him to live up to a good standard. If she hadn't loved him, she wouldn't have worried. But do stop wandering from the point, Lisa! What I want to know is—I suppose you don't by any chance wish that I was there with you, now?'

Lisa caught her breath.

'Oh, Tom,
don't
!' she implored shakily. 'To be able to hear your voice so clearly and yet to know that there are all those miles between us—'

'Miles?' Tom laughed softly. 'Oh no, my darling, not even a single mile!
Just a matter of a few yards
!'

'No, Tom, no, please don't tease!' Lisa implored. 'I can't bear it—'

'It's true, Lisa! I'm
here
!' he insisted. 'In my office, just across the hall from you! Wait there and I'll come and convince you it's true!'

But Lisa didn't wait. She met Tom half way across the empty hall, underneath the mistletoe. He held out his arms and she flew into them.

'But I don't understand,' Lisa said a long time later. 'I thought you said it would be three months before you got back.'

'Yes, so I did,' Tom acknowledged. 'In fact, it was because the tour was as long as that that I took it on. It seemed to me to be the only possible thing to do. Oh, I know you'd finished with Saville, thank goodness, but what I was afraid of was that even with him out of the way, you and I would simply slip back into the old relationship—good friends but nothing more. Then this offer came along and I saw that it gave me my one chance. If I wasn't here, everlastingly under your feet, would you perhaps miss me more than you'd thought possible—and in a different way?'

Lisa gave a soft, gurgling laugh.

'Oh, Tom, how crafty of you! I didn't know you had it in you!'

'I didn't know it myself,' Tom confessed. 'But when a man's desperate—and I was—it's inclined to make him use his brains! And then, you see, with Robin at a loose end and needing a job, it would have been tempting Fate not to make the most of it!'

'And now something's gone wrong with the tour?'

Lisa hazarded. 'So you've come back sooner than you meant to?'

Tom shook his head.

'Oh, no, not that. As a matter of fact, I'm only over here for a few days, worse luck. But once again, an opportunity was thrust into my hands and I couldn't resist it. I must admit, I hadn't thought of coming because I was afraid it was bound to be too soon and I might wreck my chances by being too impatient. Then the son of the people I was staying with went down with appendicitis yesterday. He was flying over today to spend the rest of the holiday with his girl's family—so, out of the blue, there was a ticket going begging! I rang up Sir Gerald so that he could let your people know I was coming—'

'So that's why everyone was so agog with excitement! They all knew—except me!' Lisa said reproachfully.

'Try to forgive me, darling,' Tom begged. 'I had cold feet all the way over—until you told me you were glad I'd rung up! There was something in your voice —something quite different—'

'I'd been missing you so badly,' Lisa confessed. 'I—I think that started from the day you left. And it's got worse and worse, particularly as I was sure it was Celia you were in love with now.'

'Celia? Heavens, no! Though I admit it salved my pride a little to trot her around when you turned me down so emphatically! But neither of us had any illusions about the other, and when Robin put in an appearance, I'd no doubt what was going to happen, once he got free of Cosgrave!'

'They've left the district now,' Lisa told him. 'And the house is up for sale.'

'Yes?' Tom didn't sound particularly interested, but to Lisa the mention of the Cosgraves had recalled something else to her mind.

'Tom, there's something I want to tell you,' she said steadily. 'While you were away, I met Mark—' She felt Tom stiffen and smiled reassuringly. 'By chance, of course, and it wasn't at all pleasant, but I'm not sorry it happened because it taught me something. There's nothing—nothing whatever left, Tom. Except —the regret that I could have been so silly and have hurt you so much.'

He caught her close and his lips on hers prevented her saying anything more, but there was no need for words to make her meaning quite clear to him.

For as all the love and longing he had known for so long for this girl whom he had never hoped to win flamed up, he had the utter joy of knowing that she was experiencing the same exultation that he himself knew.

And Lisa, sure of herself at last, knew that this time she hadn't made a mistake. Now she knew what real love was. Not just an exciting fantasy, but something gloriously enduring that would grow stronger with the years, whatever they might bring.

A little quivering sigh of contentment passed her lips. And for both of them, time stood still.