Free The Chain of Destiny by Betty Neels Page B

she needed help…
    Why should I need help? wondered Suzannah, and decided that was the professor covering all risks. There was even a short paragraph suggesting suitable dressing for the evening and the name of a bank where she might wish to deposit her money. All very helpful, she decided, folding away the letter carefully and tucking it into a pocket.
    Their journey was uneventful, the chauffeur saw to everything and Suzannah had nothing more to do than follow her companion on to the hovercraft. Once on land again, they waited while the car was unloaded and then got into its comfort once again. Suzannah was surprised when Juffrouw van Dijl spoke. ‘This is my father’s car. He sent Jan the chauffeur to bring me home; I am not in the habit of travelling without a servant.’ She paused. ‘I suppose you know that I have been dangerously ill?’
    â€˜Yes, Professor Bowers-Bentinck has explained everything to me.’
    â€˜Good, it is tiresome having to tell people what has to be done. He told me that you aren’t a nurse—I never wish to see another as long as I live.’
    Which seemed a bit ungrateful to Suzannah, although she didn’t say so.
    Her companion went on, ‘You are, of course, here to make yourself useful. You won’t put yourself forward, I hope. It is only because Professor Bowers-Bentinck insisted that I should have someone sensible to be with me that I consented to employ you.’
    Suzannah opened her mouth to answer this and then shut it again; she was quite sure that she wouldn’t like the job. She certainly hadn’t taken to Juffrouw van Dijl, but the salary was good, and according to the professor it would only be for a few weeks. Besides, she had every intention of letting him see that she was capable of coping with his patient; he must have known that she was self-willed and spoilt…
    As she didn’t answer, Juffrouw van Dijl turned to look at her. ‘There is one thing I find agreeable about you,’ she conceded. ‘You don’t answer back or chatter.’
    A remark which Suzannah greeted with a faint smile and a well-modulated word of thanks.
    Juffrouw van Dijl seemed disposed to talk. ‘Of course, Professor Bowers-Bentinck is my surgeon, but he is also a very old friend of my family—we have been close for many years. I have not quite decided if I wish to marry him; for some time it was thought that he would marry some girl in Wiltshire, I believe, the niece of an English friend he had known for some time, but he sees her no longer and perhaps I shall decide to marry him, after all.’
    Suzannah murmured and wondered what the professor would have to say to that. The girl in Wiltshire would be Phoebe, and she wondered why he was no longer interested in her. He could, she supposed, pick and choose among his women acquaintances; he was good-looking and successful and presumably, from what she had seen of his home, comfortably endowed with the world’s goods. Perhaps he was content with his life as it was; he might even be hiding a broken heart behind that bland face of his. It seemed unlikely. On the whole, she reflected, it would be a pity if he were to marry the girl beside her; she didn’t seem very suitable,but perhaps she was being unfair; she had been very ill and it must have cost her a great effort to get well again, even with the aid of the professor’s surgery. She warmed towards her companion and said impulsively, ‘I’m sure you will both be very happy,’ not at all sure that it would turn out like that. Her warmth was wasted.
    â€˜I didn’t ask for your comments,’ said Juffrouw van Dijl sharply. ‘Kindly keep your opinions to yourself in future.’
    A future, thought Suzannah to herself, which wouldn’t last too long if she could help it.
    She looked out at the countryside; it looked flat, very green and rather uninteresting, but she reminded herself that this