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Teddy looked from one to the other. ‘Gerry was up when I came back from taking the twins out at half past eleven,’ she said.

Gerry felt the hand holding hers to his arm tighten its grip as though he was trying to control whatever he felt at Teddy’s statement. ‘In that case,’ he said, ‘I think it’s about time she was back in bed.’ And without wasting time in argument, his arms came around her, and before she knew what was happening, he had picked her up and was making for the stairs.

Gerry was speechless, but not for long. ‘Put me down! ’

she shrieked, and for the first time in her adult life could cheerfully have slapped Teddy as the smirk on her face grew wider and wider as she watched her outraged sister being carried back to bed in the arms of her employer.

It was a complete waste of breath and energy, Gerry found, trying to get Crawford to listen to her, for his grip on her was firm, telling her he had no intention of putting her down. Once he was in her room, he placed her down on the bed, and she found that she was the one out of breath, whereas his breathing seemed to have altered not at all.

‘You’re not even out of breath,' she said before she could stop herself.

‘Since you weigh less than a skinned rabbit, there’s no reason why I should be,’ he said smoothly, which further infuriated her, to be likened to a skinned rabbit. ‘When did your doctor say you could get out of bed?’ Crawford followed on, seeming determined not to acknowledge her anger.

‘He didn’t.’

‘Then I should have thought it was commonsense for you to stay in bed until he instructed you otherwise.' Gerry’s lips stayed firmly shut. ‘But then you were never long suited in commonsense, were you?’ he challenged.

Still she refused to answer him. She had an idea he was as angry as she was, but that he was covering his anger with a cloak of coolness—she knew even if she did let go at him she was bound to come off the loser. It was always the cool one who came off better in an argument.

‘So you’re going to sulk?'

That got to her as it was meant to, only she didn’t realise that until too late. ‘I’m not sulking, I’m just—just refusing to argue with you.'

‘So you agree with having something to argue about?'

‘Yes—yes, I do,’ Gerry snapped, then taking a deep breath, plunged on. ‘Teddy and I can manage quite well without your—your interference.’ It seemed small thanks for the trouble he had been to in getting Mrs Chapman to work for them—but she wasn’t having him paying for any help they needed in the cottage. Prepared to go into battle and tell him so, she was shaken to hear the unchecked note of anger in Crawford’s voice when he said:

‘You little fool—you misguided idiot!’ and as her startled eyes flew to his at the vehemence of his tone, ‘Why the hell couldn’t you tell me what things were like for you at home? Or if not tell me, why couldn’t you have let the company’s welfare department know? Are you so pigheaded, so stubborn, so full of pride that you’d rather kill yourself than let anyone give you a helping hand?’

‘Teddy and I were managing all right ...’ she started, and got no further.

‘The hell you were! I could see you weren’t well the first time I set eyes on you—but when I gave you an opening to tell me about your troubles you deliberately let me think Teddy was some man you were living with. You gave no hint that there were any young children, that you were the breadwinner of the family. You deliberately made things worse for yourself by allowing me to draw my own conclusions for your bad time-keeping.’

‘Can I help it if you’ve got a nasty mind?’ Gerry came storming back. The firm bed beneath her was giving support to her limbs, and as strength returned to them, so her temper got completely out of hand. ‘You were always jibing at me,’ she went on, her hair bobbing about on her shoulders, her eyes flashing as she tossed her head ready to give him some more. ‘You can’t blame me if I decided you’d be the last person I would come to if I were in trouble.’

She stopped there as a look passed over his face as though her last statement had staggered him, then the look was gone. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly, and didn’t know why she apologised other than that she felt she was piling ingratitude on top of ingratitude after the way he had gone out of his way to help them. ‘I know I sound ungrateful—and you needn’t have brought me home. You needn’t have got Paul Meadows in to see me, and you needn’t have arranged for Mrs Chapman to come in to help.’ She felt the threat of tears sting her eyes and blinked rapidly so they wouldn’t show. She had no idea why she wanted to cry other than that she never liked losing her temper, and the fact that she was feeling more confused with Crawford Arrowsmith here in her room than at any other time she could remember.

‘Some one had to help you, Geraldine,’ Crawford said softly, which caused her to want to look at him, only she couldn’t if she didn’t want him to see how near to tears she was.

Crawford himself seemed to be making a determined effort to damp down his anger, and she couldn’t help wondering if it was on account of the fact that he thought she wasn’t yet up to receiving the full force of his wrath. She swallowed nervously, grateful for small mercies, as he went on:

‘Whether you want to believe it or not, you were heading for a very serious breakdown. Had I known anything of your true circumstances at home I would never have insisted on your spending three nights in London—I imagine you fretted yourself silly wondering how your sister was managing with you away.’ Gerry looked hard at the girdle of her dressing gown. She had forgotten Crawford didn’t know she had returned home to Little Layton every evening, and felt suddenly guilty at the remorse in his voice. She almost told him the truth then and there, but the moment passed, as he went on, ‘This exhaustion you’re recovering from has been bad enough, but it could have been far worse—you would have been no help to Teddy or anyone if you’d been allowed to ignore the signs of illness when you fainted last Thursday.’

Gerry looked at him then, and he came to sit beside her on the bed, taking her hand in his. ‘You knew I had no intention of going to the medical centre, didn’t you? Is that why you insisted on driving me home?’

There was a short silence as she waited for him to answer, then very quietly, he said, ‘I’m learning more and more about you, Geraldine, every time I come into contact with you.’ Which as an answer, she thought, was somewhat obscure—and she didn’t know that she wanted him to know too much about her anyway. She had to have some reserves left if, when she returned to Arrowsmiths, he was still occupying Mr Gillett’s office.

Then Crawford stood up from the bed and looked down at her. ‘And now I think it’s time you were inside those covers—you must be feeling tired, though I know it’s the last thing you’ll admit.’

Gerry knew he was waiting for her to get into bed, and felt embarrassed colour flood her cheeks as it came to her that he expected her to shed her dressing gown while he was standing, there. She hated that she blushed, and hoped he hadn’t noticed—though she should have known better. For she felt his eyes on her, and knew he was silently querying the reason for her sudden colour.

‘I’ll get into bed when you’ve gone,’ she said into her chest, and found he had placed a finger beneath her chin and was tilting her head until she just had to look into his slate grey eyes. She saw they held a teasing light in their depth—it had the effect of sending her embarrassment on its way.

‘Anyone would think I’d never seen you in your nightdress before,’ he said, and grinned at her in such a way her heart set up a rapid tumbling motion. It wasn’t quietened in any way when he leaned forward and placed his warm mouth against her own. Then he stood back from the bed and looked at her, and again she felt an invisible thread keeping her eyes fixed to his. ‘I don’t suppose for a moment that will disturb your sleep,' he said, and strangely Gerry wondered whether she’d heard a note of regret in his voice before she put it down to the confusion he had put her into. ‘But in case it does, I’m sure Teddy will be up with your tablets in a few minutes.’

She stared at the door for a long while after he had gone. What had happened to the short, sharp words she was going to have with him on the subject of Mrs Chapman? Gerry put Mrs Chapman out of her mind. As soon as she got back to the office she would settle with Crawford what he had so far paid Mrs Chapman—for the moment she was still too awe-stricken to realise how very charming he could be when he put himself to it.

His surmise, though, that Teddy would be up in a few minutes was very far out. She listened for the sound of his car departing, and when after twenty minutes had gone by and still no sound of his car, she began to wonder if she had missed it—it was a very silent car, after all. Then she heard the sound of him taking his leave at the door, and very shortly afterwards heard the purr of his car as it left the kerb.

When Teddy came in with her tablets shortly afterwards, Gerry thought she looked extremely bright. ‘Here we are, my little chickabiddee,’ she said breezily, in a way Gerry hadn’t seen since before she had married Mark, as she handed her the dosage prescribed by Paul Meadows.

Gerry thought she might tell her something of what she had been talking about with Crawford as she waited with her hand outstretched for the glass—but she didn’t. And as she handed the glass back to her, the tablets swallowed, Gerry looked at her sister and could have sworn she had an ‘I know something you don’t know' look on her face. And for all their closeness, she felt she couldn’t ask her twin the question that it suddenly seemed vital she knew the answer to—the question of ‘What were you and Crawford talking about?’

Teddy didn’t stay long in the room. 'I'll just pop in and take a look at the twins, then I must go and put the place tidy in case Paul Meadows takes it into his head to put you first on his list tomorrow morning.’

It was the first indication Gerry had had that Paul Meadows would be calling to see her the next day, but that didn’t perturb her too much—it was natural, she supposed, that he would keep an eye on her. No, the thing that fretted away at her just before the tablets she had swallowed began their work and sent her off into a relaxing sleep that unwound her nerve ends was why should it bother her what Crawford and her sister had been talking about? Teddy had laughed at the idea that Crawford might be interested in her, and anyway, even if he was interested in Teddy, she was sure she wasn’t in the least put out. She didn’t like that satisfied look on Teddy’s face, though ...

CHAPTER SEVEN

Paul Meadows
called the next morning, and he, like Crawford the night before, spent some time in talking to Teddy before he came up to see his patient. Gerry felt a quiver of alarm shoot through her that grew with every minute of the fifteen it took him to come and see her. Were the twins ill? Was Teddy keeping back from her that something had happened to one, or both, of them?

‘Are the twins all right?’ was her first question as he came through the door with Teddy close behind him.

‘What a little worry madam you are!’ His smile relieved the tension of her mind. She liked the way Paul Meadows’ eyes smiled when he smiled—she’d noticed that sometimes Crawford could give the impression of being in a good humour when his eyes were positively chilly. ‘I’ve never seen such a pair of perfect specimens as Emma and Sarah,’ he went on to clear any remaining doubts. ‘Now let’s take a look at you and see how near to being perfect you are.’

His examination didn’t take long, as he addressed questions to both her and Teddy. ‘I think we can cut the tablets down to one after each meal now,’ he said, addressing Teddy, then closing his case, turned to Gerry and told her she could get up for the afternoon. Gerry’s eyes flew to Teddy hoping she wasn’t going to give away she had been out of bed yesterday, then looking back to Paul Meadows she saw a look on his face that told her he had guessed anyway. ‘Just remember to take things quietly,’ he told her, adding, ‘Teddy has proved her worth as a nurse—it would be unfair of you to undo all the effort she’s put in in looking after you.’

Gerry thought over his words when he had gone. Teddy had obviously gone up by leaps and bounds in his estimation—he’d even called her Teddy when he’d been referring to her, she remembered. But he was right about one thing, she thought, and even though she knew it would irritate her not to be up and doing once she was downstairs, she agreed that it wouldn’t be fair to Teddy if in so doing she undid all her sister’s efforts while she had been ill.

‘He’s clever, isn’t he?’ said Teddy, coming back into the room after seeing him out. ‘I’m certain he knows you got up yesterday.’ A sudden thought struck her. ‘I say, you don’t suppose Crawford has been in touch with him and told him, do you?’

Gerry’s eyes grew wide at the thought. She wouldn’t put it past him, she was beginning to think, before commonsense—the commonsense Crawford thought she was short suited on—reared its head. ‘I shouldn’t think so for a minute,’ she rejected the idea. ‘Why should he bother? I’m only a P.A. he happens to employ, after all. He only comes here
anyway
because I happened to pass out in front of him—I expect he sees it as a sort of duty to check up that I’m on the mend. Besides, the sooner I am better the sooner I’ll be back at work—and that’s what concerns him most.’

She wasn’t sure why she was saying all this. Teddy didn’t seem particularly interested anyway, and had her back to her as she stood gazing out of the window. I know he’s not interested in me for any reason other than that I’m an employee, Gerry thought, and felt an odd sort of let-down feeling inside her that had her turning her mind completely away from thoughts of Crawford Arrowsmith.

‘How long has Paul Meadows been calling you Teddy?’ she asked, and Teddy turned back from the window to come to stand at the foot of the bed.

‘That was the first time—and it wasn’t directly to me then, was it?’ Teddy commented with a thoughtful look growing on her face. ‘I thought he couldn’t stand me. Did you hear what he said about my proving my worth as a nurse, though?’ Teddy looked flattered for a moment, as though she still couldn’t believe she had heard him correctly. Then one of the twins started crying and the other one joined in in sympathy. ‘Peace is over,’ Teddy had her hand on the bedroom door. ‘I’d better go and see to them before they start bashing each other! ’

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