High Master of Clere (24 page)

She braced herself.
‘
No. I
’
ve got to get up to the platform. There
’
s
—’

‘
You are mad.
’
He answered his own question.
‘
Whether you
’
re doing this for a dare or whatever,
you
’
re coming straight down now if I have to pull you down, rung by rung, you little—little foolhardy idiot
!’

‘
No
!
Daniel, listen, please
!
There
’
s a boy up there—one of the builders
’
lads—Ted, you know? His friend Ron is with him, but there
’
s no one else on the site or about School, and Ted has been injured by a girder. Matron is back, but she
’
s in bed, so that left only me to go up to Ted until the doctor and
ambulance come. I
’
ve called them, but
—’

She felt Daniel tense behind her.
‘
And what do you mean to do when you get up there?
’

‘
Give him what First Aid I can. He
’
s bleeding. And if he
’
s still conscious, inject him.
’

‘
Can you do that?
’

‘
If I have to. Medically it
’
s unethical, but Matron is taking the responsibility for ordering it.
So you see
—’

Very quietly, almost humbly, Daniel said,
‘
Yes,
I see. But that it had to be you, of all people
!
All right, then. Shall we go? I
’
m with you. Right behind you, in fact, so don
’
t kick me in the face,
will you, my
?
’

The wind carried the last word away. But she hoped it had been a co
mr
adely
‘
dear
’
.

Up on the platform they found Verity need not use her syringe. A merciful coma had allowed Ted to slip away from his pain for a time. Thankfully she took over from Ron, doing what she could for the jagged tear in his stomach wall, while Daniel handed lint and bandages from the pack she had brought up with her and Ron rigged a tarpaulin shelter from the wind for Ted.

Then there was nothing to do but keep watch over him and wait. Ron suggested he should go down and direct up the doctor and ambulance crew when they arrived, and they let him go.

Verity knelt by Ted
’
s inert body and Daniel sat, resting on his hand, beside her.
‘
Verity, where did you get the courage to manage this?
’
he asked.

She gestured vaguely.
‘
I don
’
t know. Matron said it had to be done, so I did it.
’

‘
Did she know you suffered from this height fear when she asked you?
’

‘
I was afraid I might have mentioned it some time, but no, I
’
m sure she didn
’
t.
’

‘
And how did it happen that there was no one else here to do it instead?
’

Verity told him, then asked,
‘
You haven
’
t said yet why you
’
re back today. Weren
’
t you supposed to be staying until Friday?
’

‘
Yes, but I brought Ira back with me. We got in by an early flight this morning.
’

‘
Ira
?’
In Verity
’
s hearing he had always called Ira
‘
Miss Cusack
’
before, and her heart sank.

‘
Yes. I dropped her at West House on the way in. Jane is bringing Nicholas by a later flight and an ambulance is to meet the plane to take him
straight to King
’
s Lynn Hospital by road
—’
Daniel broke off, meeting Verity
’
s startled look.
‘
What
’
s the matter?
Mrs.
Lytton got my letter about Nicholas, didn
’
t she?
’

Verity shook her head.
‘
No. No—we
’
ve heard nothing yet. Why, has he had a skiing accident or something
?’

‘
No, worse, I
’
m afraid. I supposed you knew. I was with him when it happened. A stroke. He was telling me he had decided to retire early from teaching. At Easter perhaps or, at latest, in the summer. He hadn
’
t mentioned his decision to Jane, but he had been feeling under the weather for some time. He got so far, then he suddenly slumped forward, unconscious, and didn
’
t come round for nearly twenty-four hours. I left Davos at once and
moved in at Klosters to be with Jane and Ira, and we laid on our return as soon as we could.
’

Verity said,
‘
Poor Nicholas! Is he any better now? Will he recover completely in time?
’

‘
Not so fully, I
’
d say, that he
’
ll teach again, except perhaps for some part-time coaching or locum work. He
’
ll be sadly missed in his House, but I
’
m glad retirement wasn
’
t forced on him. He had already made up his mind to go.
’

‘
And—Jane
?’
Verity wondered if Daniel understood all her question implied, but seemingly he did.

‘
Yes—Jane,
’
he echoed, frowning.
‘
I
’
m afraid Jane Dysart is facing a hard lesson—namely, that for most men there
’
s a cracking-point and she has been driving Nicholas too fast towards his for too long.
’

‘
You know then how ambitious she has always been for him?
’
asked Verity.

Daniel looked surprised that she need ask.
‘
Well, she doesn
’
t attempt to hide that he has disappointed her, does she?
’
he countered.
‘A
woman with ambition, a man without any—it
’
s the wrong way round, and I
’
m afraid it explains a lot—about Jane. So perhaps in charity it
’
s
“
Poor Jane
”
too. Meanwhile, though I
’
ll have to get a replacement for Nicholas at once, he needn
’
t take up residence at West until the Dysarts are ready to move out, and of course Ira will be
—’

He broke off at the sound they both heard; at the foreshortened sight below of Bob
’
s car and an ambulance arriving simultaneously; at the attendants running round to the back doors, extracting a stretcher and preparing to rig it for lowering down the ladder with Ted oh it; at Bob talking urgently to Ron, before making a
‘
Lead the way
’
gesture and following Ron up, the ambulance men toting the stretcher up behind.

Fifteen minutes later the operation was complete. Ted had been shipped into the ambulance, Ron had left to explain matters to their
‘
gaffer
’
, Bob said that while he was there he would look in on Matron, and when Daniel had taken his luggage from his car he and Verity went together towards the main school entrance.

Though her limbs were a-jump with nerves, Verity felt strangely elated. With her ordeal she had broken a lifelong ugly dream; Daniel seemed to understand what the climb had cost her and the sensation was that of confidently walking on air. But alas for pride going before
..
. At the steps leading up to the big double doors she went ahead of Daniel, tripped clumsily and went sprawling, her hands clutching emptily as she fell.

She heard Daniel exclaim testily as he set down his cases and bent to her. But suddenly she was laughing, seeing the wry side of falling over a set of shallow steps instead of, perhaps fatally, eighty feet or so from a ladder in a gale. She was still laughing as he helped her up and hadn
’
t stopped when, half supporting her, half frog-marching her, he shouldered open the doors and turning her to face him, gave her cheek a slap that was light but unmistakably sharp.

A hand to the stinging place, she stared at him.

‘
W-what
?
Well, it
was
funny, wasn
’
t it?
Don
’
t you think so? My being scared to my marrow-bones to climb the tower, then doing a
“
Pooh—nothing to it
”
act, and
then
tumbling over my own feet up a tread about a bee
’
s knee high
?
’
she appealed.

‘
Funny
?’
Daniel was staring too.
‘
You were really laughing then? At yourself? And I thought I had to treat you for hysteria from shock
!’
His stare became a smile which, for him, was oddly
unsure, and she slanted her own glance away from his deep long look, forbidding herself the folly of believing there had been tenderness for her in his eyes.

Making a small task of brushing herself down, she said,
‘
Of course I was laughing at myself.
I
was never further from needing to be smacked out of hysteria in my life.
’

‘
And I, if I may say so,
’
he retorted,
‘
was never
nearer
spanking you in earnest than when I thought you were up those ladders for all the wrong reasons! When I saw you there and
realized it was you, I was fit to be tied with rage. And do you know what I was thinking all the way up until I reached you?
’

‘
I suppose—that I was what you called me when you did—
“
a foolhardy little idiot
”
, wasn
’
t it?
’

He nodded.
‘
Yes, that—mixed up with the rest.
The rest
!
I
’
d have said there wasn
’
t time for
the crazy mixed-up anger and fear for you that I went through. But there was. I found I was talking to myself—
“
That
’
s Verity up there.
Verity!
She can
’
t climb a stepladder—she said so. She hasn
’
t moved since you spotted her. She has panicked, and if she falls it could be too late. You had your chance, you fool. You could have asked her and didn
’
t—because she didn
’
t help you. And now—any second now—it could be too late!
”
’

‘
I don
’
t understand. Too late for what? And when didn
’
t I help you?
’
she worried.

‘
Don
’
t you remember? On Christmas night when I begged you to help me with Clere, you answered Yes to just that. Dutifully. You either didn
’
t know or didn
’
t want to know how much more there was to my question than I had the courage to ask.
’

She echoed,
‘
Didn
’
t want to know?
Why, it was you who took the whole thing back and as good as told me to forget it, saying you hated the thought of having to ask me—whatever it was—again!
’

‘
Well
?’
He made of the long pause a question in itself.
‘
Well, my obtuse one, do you really suppose a man relishes having to propose in cold blood when he dreads the answer he
’
ll get? Don
’
t you think, when a man loves a woman as I
’
ve come to love you, that he ought to be able to hope enough of his feeling has got through to her that he shouldn
’
t have to
ask
to be put out of his misery, one way or the other?
’

‘
You mean
?’
Verity
’
s fingers flew to her lips
in a childish gesture of doubt.
‘
You were proposing to me? Asking me to marry you to help you with Clere?
’

He drew down her hand and imprisoned both in his.
‘
Deliberately deaf now too?
’
he chided.
‘
Didn
’
t you hear me say I love you? I want to marry you—full stop. If you took me, you
’
d be
taking
on Clere too. But I love you, Verity, my woman
—love you!
That
’
s the real importance. And hand on heart, can you in honesty say you haven
’
t known?
’

‘
Hand on heart
—’
she began shakily. Then,
taking in the wonder of it,
‘
But oh, I
’
ve wanted to!
How
I
’
ve wanted to, you
’
ll never guess. I thought
—’

‘
Leave it. So did I. So many things
—
But
if that
’
s really your answer—that you
’
ve wanted me as I want you—what are we waiting for?
Come her
e
!’

There were still too many questions. But in his arms there was no more doubt. Only the rapture of being there by right of their need of each other. No more quicksands of hope and perplexity. Certainty now, firm and sure.