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‘That, my dear cousin, must be where you get your impulsiveness,’ James observed as he began to uncork the wine. ‘I love your mother, but there’s no doubt she lets her heart rule her head. Grandfather was as mad as fire when he found his favourite daughter preferred love in a cottage to the life of luxury with the Italian count Grandfather had so carefully picked out for her. I don’t believe even Aunt Pamela’s extremely advantageous marriage did anything to reconcile him to Aunt Helen’s elopement. She was always the apple of his eye. Small as I was even I knew that, and I shall never forget arriving in Switzerland for the wedding just when the grandparents discovered your mother had upped and left only forty-eight hours before the ceremony was due to take place. Not that in the long run things didn’t turn out for the best. It was plain your father made her very happy.’

Davina sat, her eyes full of memories, as James filled the wine glasses. ‘Dad made us all happy and Mum has been like a lost soul since he died last year, for all she pretends otherwise. I can’t help feeling sorry, though, for Grandfather. He seemed such a sad old man at the end—first a disappointment over Mum, then your father and Uncle Martin deciding Swiss banking was not for them and setting up a business here in London. Do you think he blamed it all on Gran insisting all her children had an English education?’

‘Shouldn’t imagine so,’ James replied carelessly. ‘After all, we’ve all kept in close contact. But you’re straying from the point. You still haven’t explained why your shipboard acquaintance thought you were prepared to make an honest man of him.’

James placed a loaded plate in front of Davina and slid into a seat opposite. As she helped herself to salad she said, ‘I wish you wouldn’t take the mickey when you talk about Barr.’

‘He must have been pretty wet to take so much for granted,’ James answered with brutal frankness, and Davina was immediately on the defensive.

‘Aunt Marjorie must have given you quite the wrong impression. Barr Patterson simply suffered from an over-protective mother, as I discovered to my cost,' she finished ruefully.

‘Hence the nasty little scene you told me about?’

‘It was worse than terrible. According to Mrs Patterson I was Jezebel, Delilah and Helen of Troy all rolled into one.’

‘And you’d led her poor defenceless son on. Don’t worry, I know the type,’ James remarked dryly. ‘Put it down to experience and let it be a lesson to you not to feel sorry in future for every man who spins you a line. I daresay your Barr was so uptight when you met him simply because he was on his way back to that possessive mother of his. Maybe he saw you as a way of escape. Whatever the reason, forget about it and eat your steak. Is it cooked enough?’

‘Just right,’ Davina answered, her mouth full. She looked across the table and smiled affectionately. ‘Now it’s your turn, James. What have you been doing since I saw you last? I expect you’ve got a smashing girl in tow—you usually have.’

For the rest of the evening the conversation veered from girl-friends to Paul Brehm’s holiday in Greece and finally round to the forthcoming family party for Grandmother Brehm’s eightieth birthday which was to be held in the house outside Lucerne where she lived. As James was driving Davina home later he asked casually, ‘How are you and Catrin getting there? I suppose Aunt Helen is already dancing attendance on Grandmother?’

'Yes, Mum went out as soon as her school broke up. You know she’s taken a living-in job as a matron and has let our cottage to one of the masters at Dad’s old school? When Catrin started her nursing there was no point in leaving the place empty, and anyway it gives Mum a bit of extra money. Her salary isn’t all that generous and Dad’s pension doesn’t add up to much. Catrin and I try to live on our grants, so we've decided to travel on cheap student’s tickets. We’ll go to Zurich where Mum has said she’ll meet us in Gran’s old Rolls. After fourteen hours in trains it will be rather nice to do the last few miles in style.’

James briefly took his eyes off the road ahead to give his cousin an admiring glance. ‘You, Catrin and Aunt Helen are a shining example to us all. I shall feel almost guilty as I go up the steps of an aircraft in ten days’ time thinking of you girls sweating it out somewhere below in a stuffy train.’ .

Davina smiled back mischievously. ‘No need. You, my dear affluent cousin, will doubtless be flying on a daytime scheduled flight. To qualify for cheap rail fares, Catrin and I have to travel overnight—no sleeping cars, no buffet, no nothing. Still, the thought of what we’ll be saving will keep our spirits up, and one usually meets quite a few kindred souls travelling in the same impecunious way. It’s so long since you were a student you’ve forgotten what it’s like to have to count every penny.’

Before they said goodnight, James made a note of Davina’s telephone number, ‘Just in case that Fitzpaine character is rash enough to take you up on your offer,’ he teased, ‘for I bet you’ll burn all his shirts and shrink his socks.’

‘Which just goes to show you don’t know me as well as you think,’ Davina retorted. ‘Mum brought Catrin and me up to do our share of the household chores. And don’t forget, the cottage didn’t have all mod. cons, until about five years back when Dad put in central heating and had a modern bathroom built on. Before that we’d made do with one that first saw the light of day in Victorian times, by the look of it.’

Before she put out the light and climbed into bed, Davina wrote her mother a long letter telling her of the meeting with James’s Australian client and the job he had offered her. ‘It would suit me beautifully,’ Davina ended, ‘because I shall be back in London after Gran’s party just about the time Mr Fitzpaine gets possession of his farm. With only one man to look after I should have lots of time to get on with my writing. I’m hoping to get at least a dozen short stories done, not to mention making a start on that children’s book I’ve always had a hankering to write.’

Three days later Davina was heating a can of ravioli when her landlady came to tell her she was wanted on the telephone. When she picked up the receiver, James’s voice sounded in her ear.

‘Hello, Dav. Haven’t dragged you away from anything important, I hope.'

‘Not unless you consider tinned ravioli important,’ Davina teased. ‘What’s on your mind?’

‘You and this job with friend Fitzpaine. We’ve agreed a price and the deal should be completed in about three weeks. If you’re still interested in working for him, he wants you to give him a ring at the Inn on the Park. I still think you’re taking a chance if you agree,’ James finished warningly.

‘Honestly, James! Stop judging everyone by your own sorry moral standards,’ Davina exploded. ‘He doesn’t look to me the type who walks in his sleep, but if he is I’ll buy a strong bolt for my bedroom door. Thanks for letting me know he hasn’t changed
his
mind about offering me the job. I’ll get on to him right away.’

‘I suppose you're old enough to know what you’re doing,’ James replied. ‘Incidentally, I think I’d better warn you Grandmother phoned me this morning to ask me for Fitzpaine’s telephone number.’

‘Grandmother I What could she want it for?’

James chuckled. ‘Come on, Dav, you know Gran. I suppose you’ve written and told your mother about Fitzpaine’s proposition. Aunt Helen will have shown Grandmother the letter and she’ll be checking his credentials.’

‘I wish the family would mind their own business,’ Davina said angrily. ‘You’d think I was about two years old! I hope Gran hasn’t messed up my chances.’

‘Cool it, Dav,’ James’s voice held friendly warning. ‘Just be thankful you’ve a family who care what happens to you and are not a poor little orphan Annie.’

‘I’m not sure sometimes that wouldn’t be preferable,’ Davina grumbled, then added quickly, ‘sorry, that was a mean thing to say. Thanks for ringing, James, and for warning me Gran may have contacted our friend from Down Under.’

But if Davina’s grandmother had been in communication with her granddaughter’s prospective employer, he did not enlighten her. When the hotel telephone exchange connected them, he thanked Davina for getting in touch and asked if she was still prepared to take the job he’d offered. At her ‘yes’ he asked for the address of her digs and with a laconic ‘be seeing you’ rang off.

Davina stood in the draughty hall and stared blankly at the telephone for several minutes and her face was thoughtful. She was unused to being treated in such a cavalier manner, but suddenly remembering she had left the gas on, she hurried to rescue her meagre supper.

After she had eaten, she began the mammoth task of sorting out her belongings. Like most students, Davina’s wardrobe was adequate without being lavish, but in addition to clothes during three years at college she had accumulated a considerable amount of other possessions, from books down to mundane necessities such as pans and crockery. When she moved from the flat she had simply brought everything haphazardly packed into cardboard boxes, but she could hardly travel two hundred miles with her belongings in old grocery cartons.

She was sitting staring glumly at the piles of clothes and goods when the landlady knocked. Mrs Styles smiled at the chaos which met her eyes.

‘Doing a bit of sorting out, I see. I came to ask you when you’ll be moving out, because I’ve had several people enquiring about the room.’

Davina sighed. ‘My job starts in about two weeks’ time, but m pay until the end of the month. I guess I’ll have to leave my things with you until I get back from my grandmother’s.’ She threw her arms out in a gesture of despair. ‘What
am
I to do with all this, Mrs Styles? All I possess is one suitcase.’

‘Now I may be able to help you there. My hubby has an old trunk we never use out in the shed. I’ve been on at him to get rid of it, so you’d be welcome to have it for say two pounds.’

Davina was pleasantly surprised by the size and condition of the cabin trunk stored in the tidy garden shed and handed over the asking price before the landlady could change her mind. By dint of pruning down to what she thought she would need at the farm, Davina managed to squeeze everything except clothes for the journey to Switzerland into the capacious trunk. True, saucepans jostled old walking shoes, but to part with these would be madness. Davina had not been raised in a country district without knowing that unmade roads and muddy farmyards were no place for fashion footwear.

On the day they were to leave for their grandmother’s house, Davina met her sister in at Paddington and after a good meal they made their way across London to catch the overnight train from Victoria. It was due to leave at seven and they arrived in good time to get corner seats in the carriages reserved for students. Catrin looked tired and when Davina turned a questioning glance on her sister Catrin smiled ruefully.

‘Yes, I know I look a mess, but a good night’s sleep should put that right. I’ve just finished three months on nights. What can have made me take up nursing? It’s all work with little pay.’

Davina laughed. ‘You know why. Since we were old enough to play hospitals you’ve never wanted to do anything else. Anyway, it can’t be all bad.’

Catrin smiled, a secret, almost a self-satisfied smile. ‘It isn’t. Oh, Dav,’ she went on as if words were bursting out of her, ‘I’ve met the most fabulous sailor! He was brought in off a minesweeper with a burst appendix and he’s got the bluest eyes you ever saw. He got some sick leave before he had to report back to his ship and I’ve been seeing him every free moment.’

‘I thought you nurses weren’t supposed to date your patients. Medical etiquette or something,’ Davina replied, smiling at her sister’s dreamy expression.

‘But I didn’t—see him socially until he was discharged, I mean,’ Catrin replied, her voice quite shocked. ‘In fact I tried hard not to get involved with David at all. But when you’ve nursed a man for nearly three weeks and he’s just your type—well, I simply couldn’t say no when he rang me up. Not that I wanted to. Somehow or other you get to know people much more quickly when you’re with them all night.’

Davina laughed, genuinely amused. ‘I imagine you must, but don’t let anyone but me hear you say so! It’s the sort of comment very easily misconstrued. Particularly if they don’t happen to know you’re in nursing.’ She paused, then added, ‘I start that job I wrote to you about in about ten days’ time, so when do I get to meet David?’

Catrin sighed. ‘Heaven knows. He’s off on a NATO exercise at the end of this week and has no idea where his ship will dock after it’s over. I hope he doesn’t come back while I’m still at Grandmother’s.’

‘Don’t worry. I know they say sailors have girls in every port, but it can’t be true of them all.’

But Catrin continued to worry about her new beau and by the time Dover was reached, Davina was growing a bit tired of hearing about his many virtues. She was jerked out of her half-hearted attention by Catrin suddenly asking, ‘What about you? Last year you were seeing that nice Michael, but you’ve not mentioned him recently.’

‘Couldn’t get a word in,' Davina said with sisterly candour. ‘Seriously, Mike and I had fun, but when college finished we parted by mutual agreement. It never went very deep with cither of us. The crowd paired us off and we simply went along with it for as long as it suited us. No, I’m completely heartwhole and fancy free, thank goodness. I’ve no wish to settle down for a year or two yet.’

Catrin looked dreamier than ever. ‘You’ll change your mind when you really fall in love. Before I met David I felt like you—thought some of the girls in my year potty the way they acted over the young doctors. Now I guess I know just what they felt.’

Davina was spared the trouble of thinking up an answer to this pearl of wisdom from her young sister’s lips by their arrival at the cross-Channel ferry terminus and the bustle as they were passed through the various formalities of showing passports and tickets. The sea voyage was calm and uneventful, but Davina’s hope of finding room for Catrin to lie down in the train awaiting them in Calais had to be shelved when they found the carriages already filling up.

Davina found two adjacent seats and pushed an exhausted-looking Catrin into the nearest one. As she struggled to put their suitcases on the rack she said, ‘Once we get going, lean on me and try and have a sleep.’