Found floating, p.11
Found Floating, page 11
She clung to him. ‘I love you, Runciman,’ she answered, ‘but until this terrible shadow has cleared away I cannot marry you.’
He kissed her again. ‘What is it you fear, my darling?’ he asked. ‘What can anything outside our two selves matter to us? If trouble is coming, it is at your side that I should be, and will be,’ he added, a note of determination coming into his voice. ‘Katherine dear, we must be married before trouble can arise. Then I will have the right to face anything with you publicly.’ Still again he kissed her, then went on. ‘But don’t let us be gloomy. It’s very unlikely that the trouble you fear will arise at all. If the police had been going to move, they would have done so before now. No, give me this happiness, I implore you. Consent to an engagement. This is not really committing you’—he smiled whimsically—‘you can always break it off later if you want to. But it would give me the right to stand at your side.’
For an hour they discussed the matter, he putting up argument after argument and protesting that his entire happiness was dependent on her consent, she fighting against her almost overwhelming desire to agree.
‘But don’t you see,’ she repeated again and again, ‘if there is an arrest and a trial for attempted murder, quite apart from how that trial turns out, we’ll all be ruined? If you’re engaged to me, you’d be ruined, too. Who would consult a doctor whose wife was mixed up so closely in such a thing? You know it would be the end of your career.’
In the end they compromised. Katherine agreed that while at the present she would not allow any engagement, she would reconsider the position at the end of a month, if by that time the police had made no move. With this, sorely against his will, he had to be content.
But Katherine could not keep her secret, though no word of it was spoken. Her heart sang within her and her face reflected her joy. Dr Jellicoe’s long calls had already been noted, and these facts each counting as two, were put together, and the answer was found to be four.
Day after day passed and at last the month came to an end. The police had made no sign, and the affair of the poisoning was being forgotten. In his position as police doctor Jellicoe had tried to pump Inspector Kirby as to whether the case had been dropped, though with indifferent success.
However, the fact that the matter seemed to be dead had its effect on Katherine. When at the end of the month, to the very minute, Jellicoe called to press his claim, she consented to an engagement. But she insisted that there was to be no marriage till at least six months had passed, by which time practically all fear of the case being reopened would have vanished.
By this time all six invalids had recovered enough to take up again their usual avocations. But none of them was really well. Mant still remained so weak that he could only go to the office for an hour or two in the morning, and William was also far from being his old self. The other four were more normal, but even they felt languid and washed out and not able to do a day’s work.
‘You must go away,’ Jellicoe said for perhaps the twentieth time. ‘The whole lot of you must go away for a complete change. Take a voyage somewhere. What about Para and Manaos? There you cross the calmest part of the ocean and you get sun and there’d be nothing for you to do, so you’d have to lie up and rest. I don’t care where you go, but if you want to get well in any reasonable time you must all go somewhere.’
It was at this precise moment that something happened, in itself the most trivial of events, but which had a profound effect on the fortunes of the family. William, as a former client, received an advertisement of that season’s Olympic cruises. Jellicoe happened to see it in his hand and said, ‘There you are! All of you go on one of those. I prescribe it as a cure.’
For the first time William did not instantly turn the proposal down.
9
The Invitation of William
That night Runciman Jellicoe’s suggestion was seriously discussed by William, Katherine, and Mant. Rather surprisingly, the idea appealed to all of them. William admitted that he had enjoyed his experience of the previous year, and had regretted having had to leave the ship at Marseilles. Evidently the idea of repeating what he had done and prolonging the cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean appealed to him. Mant expressed no enthusiasm about the cruise, but agreed that he couldn’t get on with his work and must have a rest and change of a some kind. As far as he was concerned, this Mediterranean excursion would do as well as anything else. As for Katherine, she declared that she was fed up with the common round of everyday life, and would give anything to get away for a time.
What Katherine really was considering was whether Runciman Jellicoe could go with them, but even if he could not, she felt she would not turn the idea down if William and Mant wanted to go.
‘What exactly is the proposal?’ she asked when this agreement in principle had been reached. ‘What places should we go to and when should we start?’
William picked up the attractively printed advertisement. ‘Here you are,’ he answered, ‘you’ll find all particulars here.’ He turned the pages and began to read. ‘If we went at all, I think we should do two cruises, the first from Glasgow to Marseilles, the second straight on from Marseilles to the Greek Islands, Palestine, Egypt and so on and back to Marseilles, and so home overland. We should call at places which none of us have ever visited and at many of which there are excursions. What I saw of the arrangements last year was good and I shouldn’t mind going again.’
‘That sounds splendid,’ Katherine approved. ‘You didn’t say when it would be?’
‘Pretty soon, in about a fortnight. We should have to leave Glasgow on Saturday, 20th of February, and we should be back in London on Saturday, 3rd of April. That’s exactly seven weeks.’
‘Too long,’ said Mant.
‘I don’t know,’ William returned. ‘Jellicoe keeps harping on two or three months. If we go at all we might as well do the thing properly. I haven’t taken a real holiday for years, and I mind confessing I’d enjoy it.’
‘May I see?’ Katherine asked, taking the programme. ‘Oh,’ she went on, ‘this looks delightful. From Glasgow to Cadiz, Gibraltar, Ceuta, Malaga, Marseilles, and then Ajaccio, Athens, and a lot of Greek places, Istanbul, Palestine, Egypt and Majorca. Of all those places, I’ve only been at Marseilles. Yes, I think this is quite an idea.’
She tried to seem enthusiastic because she thought the cruise would be so good for William. But really she was not wholly pleased. If she went, she would not see Runciman Jellicoe for seven whole weeks. She supposed there was not the slightest chance of his joining the party. Oh, if that were only possible! How splendid the adventure would then become!
There was also the question of Eva and Luke and Jim. Katherine felt she would not be quite happy going off on such a delightful trip, if her cousins were unable to enjoy it also. And she rather doubted if any of them could afford it.
‘What about the others?’ she asked. ‘Eva and Luke and Jim? I don’t know if they could rise to it, and somehow I don’t know that I’d care to go without them.’
‘I’ve thought about that,’ William said unexpectedly. ‘If we go, I invite the whole party as my guests except Mant,’ he looked at Mant with a smile. ‘Mant is now the millionaire in the family and can well pay for himself. But the rest of you, including Luke, I invite. And what’s more,’ he looked shrewdly at Katherine, ‘I’m not going to trust myself to any steamer sawbones. I shall ask Jellicoe to come with us on the same terms.’
Katherine could scarcely believe her ears. Here was a vision of happiness such as she could never have imagined. A cruise in such conditions would be like a peep into heaven. Impulsively she stepped forward and kissed William on the forehead.
‘How splendid of you, uncle,’ she exclaimed warmly. ‘That would make everything just right.’
The old man seemed pleased. ‘It’s not altogether altruism,’ he declared with a twisted smile. ‘For my own sake I want you all to be happy and contented on board.’ Then more seriously: ‘As a matter of fact I feel some responsibility about the poisoning affair. It took place in my house, to my guests, and I think I should do what I can to help them over it. The doctor’s different. He’s going to have to work professionally for his tickets.’
Though it made her feel rather a beast, Katherine could not help being surprised at both action and explanation. It was much more thoughtful and unselfish than she would have expected from William. He had always been just, but seldom generous. And this action was generous to a fault.
‘And what about the others?’ she asked presently. ‘Have you mentioned it to them yet?’
William, it appeared, had only just conceived the idea, and so had mentioned it to no one else.
‘I tell you what,’ Katherine went on, ‘let’s ring them up and ask them to come round. What about it?’
‘Tim and Eva and Luke by all means,’ William answered. ‘But I’m not so sure about Jellicoe. After all between him and me it’s a matter of business. You say what you like to him, but I think I’ll make the suggestion when he calls professionally, as he will tomorrow.’
Katherine could not but agree as she went to the telephone. William was right. He had been extraordinarily nice about the whole thing.
‘Oh, Eva,’ she said when she had got through, ‘will you and Luke come round here now? The most wonderful prospect has opened out and we want to discuss it with you. It’s something quite splendid. I can’t tell you over the phone, but do come at once.’
Eva, mystified, said they would start immediately, as did Jim in his turn, and a few minutes later all six were seated round the fire in the Grey House sitting room.
‘It’s this blessed doctor, whom we mustn’t call Jellicoe any more, but Runciman,’ William began when Katherine had explained that he was going to make the great announcement. ‘He has, as you know, been urging us all to go away for a change, and at last I can stand him no longer and I’ve decided to go. But I don’t want to go alone, so I’ve decided to invite all of you to come with me. Mant and Katherine are coming, and I hope you three will too. What we propose is …’ And he went on to describe the Olympic tour.
Eva was enchanted with the proposal. She also sprang up and kissed William. She thought it would be perfectly heavenly and just what they all wanted to put them right after their illness. Uncle William was a dear to think of it. She would go and so would Luke, and many thanks.
Luke was accustomed to being spoken for in this way and didn’t seem to mind. He said immediately that there was nothing he would like more, and expressed his thanks for the invitation. Jim, on his part, seemed a little overwhelmed. He said it was extraordinarily good of his Uncle William to include him and that he would be only too delighted to join in.
‘One thing occurs to me,’ Luke put in. ‘Is it all right for every member of the family to leave the works together?’
‘I think so,’ said Mant, who up to now had taken little part in the conversation. ‘All of us left it when we were ill, and we didn’t seem to be missed. Beecher carried on quite well without any instructions, and he can do it again.’
‘Then,’ said William, ‘we have only to find out about Jellicoe, and I’ll do that tomorrow when he calls.’
‘Runciman,’ corrected Jim. ‘He’ll be all right. Trust Katherine to see to that.’
‘Your responsibilities beginning already, Katherine?’ enquired Luke with heavy jocularity.
‘Nice to hear them all admitting they have to do what they’re told,’ Eva pointed out.
‘The conversation is becoming embarrassing,’ Katherine smiled. ‘I move we take the next business. What is it, Uncle William?’
The old man was obviously impatient. ‘The next business is tickets and cabins. Now you and I, Katherine, are going up to Town on Tuesday. We’ll fix them up then, what do you say?’
The visit was to enable William to attend the annual lunch of a society of manufacturers of electrical apparatus. He usually went up by himself, but this time Jellicoe had refused his consent to the journey unless Katherine travelled with him. Indeed only that the old man had set his heart on going, the doctor would have prohibited the expedition altogether. Katherine, however, was glad of the two or three days in London, now specially that she would require some new clothes for the cruise.
Next morning she waylaid Jellicoe when he was leaving William’s room to learn his decision.
‘Need you ask?’ he put it to her as they turned into the sitting room. ‘I feel badly about it, because I cannot but believe that his wanting my opinion is only an excuse for inviting me. But since you are to be there, I simply hadn’t the strength to refuse. Of course I needn’t say how I shall enjoy it and how grateful I am to Mr Carrington for making it possible.’
‘Uncle William,’ Katherine said correctingly.
‘I don’t know. He mightn’t like that,’ Jellicoe protested.
‘Uncle William,’ Katherine repeated inexorably.
He smiled. ‘All right: Uncle William. I’ll tell him you’re responsible.’
Two days later Katherine went up to London with William and he duly attended his luncheon. After it she left him installed in a sitting room in their hotel while she went out to do some shopping. He seemed a good deal better from the change and she felt disposed to take a rather high tone with him.
‘Now remember you’re to rest,’ she declared, warningly. ‘You’re not to go out. You’ve had quite enough excitement for one day.’
‘I’m not going out,’ he protested. ‘I should like to go and see old Hamilton later, but I’ll wait till you come back.’
‘Well, we’ll see how you are then,’ she agreed, and left him on the sofa with books and papers and cigars within easy reach.
She spent more time in the shops than she had intended, and when she returned to the hotel it was nearly six. Too late for a visit to old Mr Hamilton, she thought. Her uncle would just have to wait till the next day.
But when she reached the sitting room William made no reference to the proposed visit. He was full of another subject. His interest in it indeed made him much more like his old self than he had been since his illness began.
‘I’ve been having quite a pleasant time,’ he declared. ‘I got bored when you went out and I thought I’d go to Cunn’s and fix up about the cruise. Then I thought that if I did you’d kick up such a shindy that it wouldn’t be worthwhile, so I rang them up and told them to send a clerk here with all particulars. He was here for an hour and more: he’s just gone indeed. But I fixed up everything. All the tickets are taken and the berths engaged.’
‘Oh, Uncle William, how splendid!’
‘Ah, yes,’ he said, ‘but there’s a snag. Several snags indeed, and some of them rather serious. We can’t get the accommodation we should like and that I asked for. The ship’s booked up almost completely. And I’m going to be selfish and take the best cabin for myself.’
Katherine laughed. ‘I don’t know who has a better right to it,’ she said. ‘Tell me.’
‘I’ve taken one single and two two-berth outside cabins on B Deck, adjoining each other. It was the merest chance that I got them. They had been reserved weeks ago by a party of five, and just this morning they had written that they couldn’t go. So that was a piece of luck and I plumped for them.’
‘I should just think so.’
‘But that was as far as the luck went. I thought of those three I should be selfish and take the single one. Then another would do for Luke and Eva. The next one would have to be for Mant and Jim. But I wasn’t sure how that would work.’
Katherine did not feel so sure either. It was not a combination that she herself would have chosen.
‘Then,’ went on William, ‘I’m extremely sorry to say that there were no single-berth cabins left for you and Jellicoe. You will both, I’m afraid, have to share with other people. I’ve secured one berth in a two-berth cabin on A Deck for you: an outside cabin, and one in a two-berth inside cabin on A Deck for Jellicoe. I’m so sorry, Katherine, but there were simply no others to be had.’
‘Oh, but that’ll do splendidly!’ Katherine declared. ‘I shall be perfectly all right.’
‘I don’t see that we can better it,’ William went on. ‘It took me most of an hour to get even that arranged. You think you can manage?’
‘Of course I can manage,’ Katherine assured him warmly. ‘I think it’s just perfect.’
And it was, she really did think. Seven glorious weeks of change and travel, with Runciman! What more heavenly prospect could be imagined? What did she care where her cabin was, or where the ship went to or who else might or might not be on board? These things were trifles—so infinitesimally small as to be practically non-existent. Change, travel, sun, scenery, comfort, interest: all these were good, excellent indeed in their way, but not one of them counted for anything compared to the great overwhelming fact that during these seven weeks she would be with Runciman.
The one unsatisfactory feature of the arrangement was that Mant and Jim must share a cabin. But this she did not think so serious as she would some weeks earlier. Since the illness Jim seemed to be getting on much better with Mant. Apparently there had been no further friction, and she had more than once heard them talking quite amicably. Perhaps indeed this sharing of the cabin would teach them each other’s good points and turn them into real friends.
When they returned to Bromsley William called a meeting of the party to report progress. All concerned expressed themselves as delighted with the arrangements.
Time, which for all of them had dragged leadenly since their illness, now began to hasten by with incredible and inexorable speed. The nearer the great day approached, the more Katherine found she wanted to do before the start. It was astonishing how many clothes seemed to be necessary. She asked the people in Cunn’s office whether they might expect warm weather or cool, but could get no satisfactory answer. Probably, it appeared, there would be both. All were agreed that it would be cold going down to Gibraltar, but no one seemed able to forecast the temperature in Egypt or Palestine. Nor could she find out whether fancy dress would be wanted for dances. In the end it looked as if she would have to take her whole wardrobe, and it was only then that she began to discover how depleted that wardrobe was. This meant more shopping, and as usual, the things that she particularly wanted were out of stock. So she had to change her plans, which gave her still more to think about.
