The Little Doctor (14 page)

Jane made the mistake of saying that it would satisfy her.

“I dare say it would,” he returned coolly. “But then you’re in love with him, aren’t you? Otherwise, why on earth would you come here to play dry-nurse to his wife?”

Jane flushed scarlet, the color mounting into her cheeks as if he had struck her.

“I’m not here in my capacity as a doctor or a nurse,” she told him, ignoring his first suggestion. “The Kilsyths and I are very old friends.”

“And you and Kilsyth were lovers, weren’t you?”

“How dare you?”

“Of course I dare!” He smiled down into her furious eyes. “I dare because you’re going to say nothing—absolutely nothing, mark you!—about my meeting Valerie. Otherwise—”

“Otherwise, Mr. Jakes?”

“I shall tell Valerie what I’m quite sure is true. That you’re still in love with her husband.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“So it’s true?” He laughed at her. “Come, Doctor, let’s be quite honest about this. You came out here because you hoped and expected Kilsyth to follow you.”

“
I’m simply not going to argue with you.” Jane was trying in vain to control her temper, “But I will appeal to you to go away—to leave the hotel in the morning without renewing your invitation to Valerie.”

“That would be terribly churlish of me, don’t you think?” he suggested. “Besides, you would love St. Moritz, Doctor. There you really
could
let your hair down!”

“
I
’
ve no intention of going to St. Moritz or anywhere else,” Jane said rather too loudly as Valerie stepped out of the lift.

She came up behind them.

“Oh, Jane!
”
she protested, “you will come? You couldn’t be so unkind as to refuse after Eddie has asked us. We’ll have a simply wonderful time!”

“We can have just as wonderful a time here,” Jane said firmly. “The hotel has quite an exciting program drawn up and we already know these people. Besides, Max may cable at any minute to say he’s coming.
”

Jakes gave her an odd, lingering scrutiny before he turned to Valerie.

“You have a very efficient warden, Val,” he said. “Do we have to beg permission if we go out on to the slopes tomorrow?”

Valerie’s lips were thinly compressed as she turned to Jane.

“I think you’re being absolutely hateful!” she raged. “And now you’re, spoiling Eddie’s fun as well as mine. He won’t go back to St. Moritz for Christmas without us.”

Jane was about to demand “Why not?” but she held her tongue. Edward Jakes might change his mind. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and the lure of the big hotels with all their lavish entertainment and the sophistication of their patrons could quite easily take him back to St. Moritz at the eleventh hour.

Valerie had arranged with the proprietor that they should move to a larger table in the dining room, which Edward Jakes could share, and all during the meal she was gaiety personified. Jakes listened to her chatter with a curiously detached air, throwing the odd, witty speculation into the conversation every now and then to keep it scintillating. They had reached the coffee stage before Jane realized that he had been studying her carefully for the past hour.

He had danced with Valerie between courses of the meal, but now, when all the tables were cleared and a local band came in to take over from the resident pianist and violinist, Valerie was claimed by other diners.

It was a carnival occasion, and many of the guests were in fancy dress, although the real Christmas Eve ball would be far more spectacular.

“You don’t dress up, Doctor?” he asked as Valerie drifted across the floor in the arms of a Germanic-looking Toreador. “Do you feel that it might detract from the dignity of your profession or leave you open to adverse criticism should Kilsyth suddenly decide to come on the scene?”

“Neither, Mr. Jakes.” Jane paused to empty her coffee cup. “I shall be quite suitably disguised tomorrow evening, I assure you.”

“Doctor!” he laughed. “I can hardly wait!”

“Then—you’re determined to stay?”

He met her eyes.

“Is there any justifiable reason why I should not?” he asked.

“I could think of a dozen.”

“One would do—or possibly two. Now, Doctor, let’s have your objections. I’m sure they will be interesting!”

Jane met the arrogant gaze without flinching.

“Valerie is married,” she said briefly.

“You surprise me!” He laughed. “Really, Doctor, you can’t possibly be t
h
at old-fashioned.”

“I think I must be.” Jane rose to her feet. Her cheeks were still flushed, and it was almos
t
more than she could do to keep her voice from trembling. “I don’t object to a little innocent fun, Mr. Jakes, but there are limits.”

He laughed openly.

“You surprise me more than ever,” he declared. “In fact, you interest me now.”

“I have absolutely no desire to do that.”

Jane walked away. She felt angry and nervous and her hands were clammy. If she had a cigarette she would have lit it, although she rarely smoked. Instead, she ordered a liqueur and more coffee and carried them out to one of the small iron tables on the glassed-in verandah.

What would Max think of all this if he was told on their return or if, by chance, he should be able to join them out here for a few days? He would consider that she had failed him. He might even think that she had encouraged Edward Jakes.

Her coffee grew cold
and
the band in the room behind her struck up number after number, all of which, she supposed, Valerie danced. Outside faint beams of moonlight fell on the eternal snows. Slowly she walked to the sliding doors and opened one of them. The cold was intense, but it suited her mood. She pulled her woollen stole closely about her shoulders and walked the length of the outside porch to its more sheltered end, leaning with her arm along the rail to look out into the enchanted night.

The sky was full of stars glittering brilliantly and high on the silent hillside behind the town, the outline of a tall pine was etched against the snow with multi-colored fairy lights. It was the focal point of the whole valley, the living, growing Christmas tree standing high up there for all to see.

There was no sound anywhere, so that it was surprising that she did not hear the sound behind her until a sense of intrusion penetrated her thoughts and Edward Jakes had pinioned her arms to her side.

Without saying a word he stooped, and she felt the hot pressure of his lips against the nape of her neck. She swung round then, violently, hot with rage in her eyes.

“All right, Doctor!” he murmured, releasing her. “Save me the answer. How dare I? Because I find you particularly provocative. Out of the white starched coat, y’know, you’re quite a beauty and—moonlight suits you!”

“If you think—” Jane began furiously.

“I think you’re charming,” he said, “especially when you’re angry. You don’t often fly into a rage, do you, Doctor? But when you do, believe me, it’s worth waiting for! Green eyes are supposed to be the ones for temper, but give me gray everytime! But you keep your temper admirably in check. That must have been part of your training. Never allow your emotions to run away with you! I expect it’s all in the medical textbooks, but it makes you appear cold and unlovely at times, which is a pity.”

“Please stop! Jane cried. “I think all this is rubbish. We could never have anything in common, Mr. Jakes.”

“Think not?” He came close again and Jane backed away. “Care to take a little bet on it?”

“I don’t gamble!”

“No, Doctor. You’re far too prim, far too inhuman. You always do the right thing. Honesty and integrity above all else! What a motto! It’s emblazoned all over your silly little shield, but life has a way of getting through the chinks in one’s armor. It may even pierce through yours one day.”

Jane was flat against the rail now, having backed away from her tormentor as far as possible. She had been driven into a corner, but only in the physical sense.

If that’s all you have to say,” she suggested, “do you mind if I go? I feel quite cold—”

She moved a little, seeing beyond him for the first time, seeing Valerie silhouetted in the doorway to the verandah, Valerie tensed and silent, like a furious animal that had been cheated of its prey. “Val—!”

Jakes and Jane moved together, crossing the verandah to where she stood, but it was Jane Valerie was looking at.

“You—you traitor!” she gasped, pale with anger. “You came out here to steal him—to take Eddie away from me! I know you did. You needn’t try to deny it. I saw you just now, I saw you in his arms. But he’s not for you. He’s mine.
”
She raised her voice. “Do you hear me? He’s mine!”

“Valerie, hush!” Jane took her firmly by the bare elbow, propelling her toward the door. “You’re tired and worked up. Come to bed now, and we’ll discuss it all in the morning.”

“Discuss it?” Valerie all but shouted. “There’s nothing to discuss. You want Eddie, but you’re not going to have him. He
belongs
to me.”

“Shut up, Valerie,” Jakes said, speaking for the first time. “You’re going to make a scene if you’re not careful. Go to bed, as Jane tells you.”

“I won’t,” Valerie said sullenly, but her voice had broken and the strained look was no longer in her eyes. “I don’t need Jane to tell me what to do. She’s a traitor, a—a snake-in-the-grass!”

“Come to bed,” Jane said. “The lights are going out. All this will seem quite silly in the morning.”

Valerie shook her arm free. She was in the mood to argue till doomsday.

“
I
won’t be treated like a child,” she declared. “I’ll do as I like. Exactly as I like!”

“Just as you say, Val!” It was Edward Jakes who propelled her forward this time. “Nobody’s really arguing with you. All we want to do is to go to bed.”

She glared at him.

“You’re making a fool of yourself over her,” she hissed. “Jane’s not the aloof, prissy little doctor you take her for. She’s as deep as they come. Believe me, I know. Even Max is madly in love with her—”

For an instant Jane’s heart seemed to stand still, and then she was saying in her normal voice: “You know that isn’t true, Valerie. Come to bed.”

Surprisingly Valerie followed her to the lift. She was trembling all over, shaken from head to foot by the surge of emotion that had racked her so violently, and there were little beads of perspiration standing out on her upper lip. She pushed the hair back from her brow with a hand that was none too steady, and for a moment Jane thought that she was going to have a case of convulsive hysteria on her hands. Valerie, however, managed to reach her own room without mishap.

Edward Jakes paused at the door.

“If I can do anything,” he suggested, “let me know.”

“Thank you,” Jane said stiffly, “I can manage.”

She followed Valerie into the room. It was a replica of her own in reverse, with the bed on the right-hand side and a long-mirrored dressing-table beside the window. The wardrobe was built in and Valerie
’
s was stuffed with expensive clothes. It was not a tidy room. Valerie’s possessions were scattered haphazardly all over it, and she stood in the midst of them with a look of confusion on her face. Her e
y
es were slightly glazed, as if she had taken too much to drink, and her hands were trembling.

Suddenly she flung herself face down on the bed.

“Go away!” she commanded in a blurred, indistinct voice. “Do you hear me? Go away?”

Jane bent over her.

“Val, are you all right?” she implored. “If you feel ill—”

“No,” Valerie muttered, her face pressed close against the turned-back sheets. “Just go away.”

Jane thought it best not to argue.

“I’ll look
in
and see you in the morning,” she said. “Try to sleep, Val.”

There was no response from the hunched-up figure on the bed, and after another moment of indecision Jane crossed softly to the door and let herself out.

Standing in her own room without switching on the lights, she
g
azed at the swathe of moonlight lying across the polished floor
b
eside the window. It was very bright. The moon had climbed high since she had first gone out to the verandah to look at it, and the outside world stood revealed in clearest detail. In clearest detail, too, her thoughts tumbled back over the events of the past hour. She could almost feel again the hot pressure of Edward Jakes’ lips against her neck and the touch of his compelling hands. In her ears the sound of his cynical laughter beat like a drum, but over and above all these things came the sound of Valerie’s accusing voice. “Jane is not the aloof, prissy little doctor you take her for. She’s as deep as they come
...
Even Max is madly in love with her.”

It was untrue, of course, and surely Valerie knew that. Max let her see in so many ways that she was his one and only love, his only true concern.

Suddenly Jane was shaken by an almost paralyzing fear. What might Valerie do if she really believed such a thing? Wayward, childish, impulsive, her emotions carried her forward on the crest of a destroying wave at times. Rarely did she think of the possible consequences of her actions if she believed them justified. Deep in her heart Jane knew that Maxwell Kilsyth’s wife was capable of any folly.

Unable to shake herself free from the feeling of impending disaster, she undressed and got into bed, but it was not until the shaft of moonlight had worked its way right across the floor that she slept.