Magic In Vienna Part 18

"It depends on the shopping. Don't rush away on my account--I'm here for another ten days at least."

"I'd like to get back before the end of the week. I'll see if I canget Sal to agree to three days before we move on." He smiled acrossthe table at Cordelia. "I hope you'll move with us," he said kindly,"My wife will talk about that. I'll take Eileen off your hands for anhour so that you can have your little chat."

Which seemed a good moment to excuse herself from the breakfast table and go up to Mrs Kinneard's room. That lady was sitting up in the vast bed, a breakfast tray pushed to one side, leafing through a magazine.

"There you are," she looked pleased to see Cordelia.

"Come and sit down and we'll have our little chat. Charles tells usthat you've been splendid with Eileen, that she's been taking Germanlessons and embroidery and playing tennis." Mrs Kinneard seemed tohave forgotten that Cordelia had written faithfully giving details ofall these activities.

"I'm afraid she's been spoilt but he a.s.sures me that you have dealtwith that most efficiently. She has become very fond of you, which isnice, and I--we would be very happy if you would return with us. Myhusband is anxious to get home as soon as possible, but I'm hopinghe'll stay just a day or so so that I can have a look round. I do needsome new clothes--I dare say Eileen could do with one or two things,I'll take her with me. What time does Charles have lunch? If I get upnow, would we have time to shop before then?"

"Oh, yes Mrs Kinneard, you could walk--no, perhaps if you had a taxi to Kamtner Stra.s.se, the Graben is close by, they are the two best shopping streets-- you could take a fiacre back here--the doctor has lunch at one o'clock, but he is not always at home, though I expect he will be now that you are here."

Mrs Kinneard nibbled at a piece of cold toast. "Does he still keep his nose buried in his work? Such a waste. I'm glad he was here to look after Eileen when she had her appendix. He's not as crusty as he seems. I must say he's pretty good at being head of the family." She shot a quick look at Cordelia.

"And you, you have a family my mother told us."

"Oh, yes. My father died some years ago." It sounded in her ears like a reference and Mrs Kinneard seemed to regard it as one. She murmured, "Oh yes, of course I'm sorry and you are the eldest?"

"Yes, by ten years."

Mrs Kinneard said vaguely, "That must be a great help. . ."

Cordelia wasn't sure just what sort of a help it might be, but her companion, nice though she was, wasn't very interested. She asked "Would you like me to tell your daughter that she is going out with you or would you like to see her here?"

"You tell her, will you? I'll never get dressed once she gets into the room, bless the child. I'll be half an hour, if you could get someone to get a taxi and see that Eileen's presentable. . ."

An hour later the apartment was quiet, Mrs Kinneard and Eileen had been seen on their way, Mr Kinneard had gone off somewhere to meet someone he knew and the doctor had gone long since to the hospital.

The Thompsons were in the kitchen, Cordelia could hear the low murmur of voices as she stood in the hall deciding what to do. Mrs Kinneard hadn't said that she might gqoffon her own, on the other hand she had nothing to do. It was then that she remembered the letters she hadn't opened. She went along to the dining room and found them neatly piled on a side table and sat down to open them and lay them in orderly piles; bills, personal letters, any amount of printed pamphlets and a couple of catalogues. She gathered them up and put them on the desk in the study and went to pick up the waste paper basket and empty it. She was on the way to the kitchen with it when the doctor let himself into the hall.

She had quite forgotten his bad temper of the evening before and although he had said no more than good morning at breakfast she hadn't wondered at that. Eileen and her father had carried on a conversation in which he had joined from time to time, she beamed at him now and said, "Oh hullo. Doctor, you're home early--everyone's just gone out."

"But not you, Cordelia?" He sounded disinterested.

"Well, no, I'm not sure if Mrs K-inneard wanted me to stay here, in case they come back early or something."

"Most unlikely if they've gone shopping, I'm sure she meant you to be free until this afternoon. Most conveniently so--Salfinger has the morning off. Use the 'phone if you wish. . ." He sounded as though he was talking to some stranger he hoped never to see again.

"I don't wish to use the 'phone Dr Tres...o...b.., nor do I wish to meet anyone. I'm going for a walk." She swept past him and out of the apartment and took herself down the street and began to walk smartly along the pavement. When she had gone a dozen yards or so she remembered that she had no purse with her, something which made her temper, already very frayed at the edges explode alarmingly.

She stayed in the park for an hour, dying of thirst and with nothing to do but fume about the doctor's strange behaviour.

"If only I didn't love him," she muttered, 'if only I'd never met him.. ." The idea didn't bear thinking about. Presently she walked back and was grateful for Thompson's thoughtful: "Ah, Miss Gibson, Mrs Thompson's got coffee ready, you look as though you could do with a cup. I'll bring it to the small sitting room, there's still an hour before lunch."

The coffee revived her normal even temper, by the time Mrs Kinneard and Eileen returned she was her usual practical self, ready to listen to that lady's descriptions of the purchases she had made and Eileen's excited chatter while the doctor and Mr Kinneard turned a deaf ear and plunged into details of the return to England. Cordelia, sitting nearest them contrived to listen to what they were saying, hoping at the same time that the journey back might be postponed for a few days. She paled a little with disappointment when she heard the doctor saying that he would arrange to take them to the airport on the day after tomorrow. That meant one whole day left, she thought distractedly, not that it mattered if he was going to treat her with the icy ill temper she had had to put up with that morning.

"Pink silk," enthused Mrs Kinneard, 'with the prettiest lace insertions, I thought it was cheap at the price--real silk and hand made."

"It sounds gorgeous," declared Cordelia, and wondered what it was, certainly not cheap by her standards if it was real silk and hand made.

"I bought two," went on Mrs Kinneard, 'and found a long sleeved one for mother. I do like pretty undies, don't you Cordelia?"

Cordelia thinking other Marks and Spencer underwear, agreed, not silk but pretty nonetheless. But it must be nice to wear pure silk. ..

They had lunch presently and Eileen was handed over to her care for the afternoon.

"Take yourselves out to tea," advised Mrs Kinneard largely, 'we're going to the opera this evening and I simply must rest. Charles do you suppose Mrs Thompson could give them an extra special supper?" She added "We shall be out to dinner shall't we?"

Eileen was inclined to sit and sulk because she wouldn't be going out that evening, but as Cordelia pointed out in her reasonable way if she was cheerful about it, she was much more likely to be included in further treats, so the pair of them played a desultory game of tennis until tea time instead of going out again and when the others had left the house, Eileen, who had behaved in an exemplary fas.h.i.+on until the very moment her mother went out of the door, indulged in a fit of temper which tried Cordelia's patience to its limit. It was ten o'clock before the child at last fell asleep and left her free to go to bed herself.

She would have to pack for them both in the mom- ing, she thought tiredly and probably give Mrs Kinneard a hand as well. At least it would keep her out of the doctor's way, something she told herself vehemently she very much wished to do.

The day was very much as she had expected; Eileen and her parents had hired a car to take them out to Grinzing where they intended to have lunch and Cordelia did the packing, ate a meal off a tray since the doctor wasn't expected back until the evening, took herself for a quick walk afterwards and then settled down to the mundane tasks of writing labels, inspecting drawers and cupboards and checking to see that she had supplies of travel aids with her. They were to go on a mid-morning plane, she had been told and stay at a London hotel; 'our plans are a bit vague," explained Mrs Kinneard, "We'll have a little talk later on. We do depend on you, Cordelia." She had smiled very kindly and Cordelia had felt a pleasant glow because she was needed.

There was going to be no opportunity of seeing the doctor before she went, that was pretty plain by now; he hadn't been at breakfast and although they would both be at dinner, they weren't likely to talk to each other. Actually, she did see him later that afternoon, she was carrying a pile of freshly ironed undies of Mrs Kinneard's from the kitchen to her bedroom ready to pack later on, when he came in. But he didn't stop; just for a moment he paused when he saw her but beyond a brief nod, he had nothing to say and walked past her to his study. Just for a moment she was tempted to go after him, but only for a moment for what could she say when she got there? That she was in love with him? Ask him why he was so angry with her? If he were going to miss her and if he wanted to see her again? Such impossible silly questions. What a lot of things one thought and never uttered, she mused, arranging things tidily on Mrs Kinneard's bed.

She was quite right, beyond the small attentions good manners demanded of him, Charles had barely spoken to her at dinner and when she had seen Eileen to bed Mrs Kinneard had begged her to pack the rest of her things.

"I'm quite useless at that kind of thing," she explained, and "I'm sure you're a dab hand at it."

So she had folded clothes and packed them neatly and then gone to her room because she was pretty sure that she wasn't expected downstairs again.

And in the morning she went down to breakfast to find that the doctor had been called to the hospital at an earlier hour. He came in just as she was leaving the table, gave her a cool good morning and applied himself to his breakfast.

The trip to the airport had been well organised; he drove his own car with his sister and niece, and Mr Kinneard followed behind in a hired car, with Cordelia and the luggage. Their goodbyes were brief; as he explained, he had to get back to the hospital, and they would be seeing each other again within a very short time. He didn't say that to Cordelia, of course, but shook her hand and wished her a pleasant journey. It wasn't until she was halfway to England that she remembered that he hadn't even bothered to say goodbye. It was a good thing that Eileen kept her so busy on the flight demanding her attention, wanting this and the other thing, that she had no time to think of herself.

It was that evening, after an over-excited Eileen had at last gone to her bed and the three of them were sitting over dinner in Brown's Hotel, that Mrs Kinneard said cheerfully.

"Well, we've made our plans, Cordelia, and I'm sure you'll be glad to be free to go to your home."

CHAPTER NINE.

mrs kinneard's words dropped like stones into Cordelia's surprised head. She sat very still, suddenly and sharply aware of her elegant surroundings, the well appointed table, the delicious food; they had all dulled the pain of parting from Charles, now they were a mockery, making Mrs Kinneard's remark even more shattering than it was. Had this all been discussed and arranged, she wondered, before she had left Vienna, and did Charles know? She drew a steadying breath.

"I'm a little surprised," she said carefully.

"When would you like me to leave?"

"There, I knew you wouldn't mind," declared Mrs K-inrieard happily.

"Here's Henry saying I ought to give you a month's notice and I don't know what else, but Charles told me that you had a family and a home and you must be longing to see them and it again. It was coming over on the plane I had this splendid idea; we'll go to Scotland, to Henry's brother and his wife, straight away Eileen will love it she hasn't seen her cousins for ages, then we can come back and stay with Mother for a few days and get Eileen settled in a school. She's too old for a governess you've been splendid, Cordelia, but I'm sure you'll agree with me. . ." She paused and then rattled on: "We thought we'd go up on the night train tomorrow there's no reason why we shouldn't go and see Mother, Henry just for an hour. You could hire a car. You don't need to come, Cordelia perhaps you'd get Eileen's clothes sorted out all those thin summer dresses she'll only need a few of them we could travel light and send the rest down to Mother's." She paused again while her husband watched her with a tolerant eye and Cordelia sat like a block of stone.

"I have it; Cordelia will you stay tomorrow night here at the hotel and arrange for the luggage we don't need to go to Mother's? Henry will book the room for you for another night, won't you dear?"

She beamed at them both, sure that she was delighting Cordelia and at the same time getting her own way. Just like her daughter thought Cordelia, but I can't help liking her.

"And now you must be dying to get to bed," went on Mrs Kinneard, 'we'll have breakfast at half-past eight, shall we Henry? You can arrange about getting a car in a minute or two."

Cordelia said good night and went up to her room; a most comfortable one with it's own bathroom and every comfort she could have wished for. Hers for another night, and then what? Perhaps it would be as well not to think about that for the moment; she would have time to decide what was best to be done while she was on her own the next day. She lay in a hot bath until it cooled, hw mind mercifully numb, and once in bed, fell asleep almost immediately.

Eileen, dancing in and out of her room the next morning, gave no sign of knowing her mother's plans and Cordelia fore bore from mentioning them. In a way, she could see the sense of Mrs Kinneard's decision, Eileen would be going to school in the autumn, anyway, and a governess would be superfluous; to make the break now, when there was so much to distract her, was a good idea. And nothing was said at breakfast, only that they would be going to see her grandmother and staying there for lunch. "And Cordelia says she'll stay and get our clothes sorted out; we don't want to take everything to Scotland with us, besides," added Mrs Kinneard cunningly, "There are some splendid shops in Edinburgh."

So presently they drove away in the hired car and Cordelia went back to their rooms and started on the lengthy task of sorting out the right clothes for Eileen and re-packing them and then going along to Mrs Kinneard's room where she found the clothes that the lady needed to take with her piled on the bed ready to be packed in a suitcase, which meant unpacking two other cases in order to fit everything in.

This done, she went downstairs to fetch labels from the desk and write Lady Tres...o...b..'s address on them and ask the best way to get them sent. By train, she was told, a taxi to Waterloo and then hand them in at the goods office there.

The receptionist was helpful and friendly. She said, "You do know that your bill's been paid until after breakfast tomorrow? If you could leave your room by ten o'clock?" She smiled, 'the porter will get you a taxi if you need one for the luggage tomorrow."

Cordelia was grateful.

"Thank you. I think perhaps I'll take it along this evening, that'll give me more time to get my own things packed in the morning."

The girl agreed.

"If you go around half-past seven there won't be much traffic--the dining room is open until half-past nine, you'll have plenty of time."

Cordelia made a good lunch, realising that it would be foolish to give way to a weak wish to eat nothing when common sense urged her to take advantage of the excellent food offered; the future was uncertain for the moment; she had enough money to keep her going for a few weeks if she lived carefully, but living was expensive in London. She would have to find an employment agency the very next day--there would be a fee to pay for that too. . . She went back to her room and for once was thankful that the paucity of her wardrobe made packing a simple matter. Everything could go with her in her case and overnight bag. She counted her money once more, took forty pounds of it and put it in the zip pocket of the overnight bag, and put the rest into her purse. At least she wasn't dest.i.tute and she was prepared to take any job offered. To go back to her stepmother's was unthinkable and there was no one else. Charles' handsome unsmiling face blotted out her thoughts for a moment, but she brushed it firmly aside; there was no room for him in her life; Vienna had been a lovely dream and she had been lucky to have had it.

"You dare to cry," she told herself fiercely and blew her ordinary little nose with an equal fierceness. She had herself nicely in hand by the time the Kinneards returned and a good thing too, for it was instantly obvious that Eileen had been told of her mother's plans and had taken exception to them. She hurled herself at Cordelia and flung her arms round her.

"You're not to go away," she raged, "Why must you go home? Why can't you stay with me? It's weeks before I'll have to go to school, you could go home then.. .?"

"I've told you darling," said her mother, "Cordelia's mother needs her at home, and she wants to go--it would be very unkind of us to keep her. You're fond other, aren't you? That's all the more reason for trying to understand." She added: "She's not going far away, you know; of course you'll see her again. We'll find a lovely present in Edinburgh and send it, and you can write. .. Now shall we have some tea? We shall have dinner on the train, you'll enjoy that and Uncle Roger will be waiting for us at Edinburgh. . ."

"Ldon't want to go," declared Eileen, 'and I don't want any tea. .."

Cordelia-kissed one tear stained cheek.

"I do," she said cheerfully, 'and while we are having it I want to hear all about Scotland and your cousins there. You must write to me, though I bet you'll have so many things to do that you won't have the time. .. picnics, and riding and making friends, and of course you'll go shopping with your mother. There are some lovely shops. .."

"You've been to Edinburgh?" Eileen stopped howling to ask.

Cordelia remembered very clearly going down Princes Street with her father stopping to look in every window and having anything she fancied bought for her.

"Oh, yes--I've visited it twice, a long time ago, but I'm sure the shops are just as fine."

Eileen cheered up a good deal after that, they sat in the lounge havinga leisurely tea and then it was time to send for the luggage call ataxi and say goodbye. Eileen almost strangled her with her goodbyehugs and Cordelia hugged her back; perhaps it was as well that theyweren't to see each other again, despite Mrs Kinneard's vague promises,Eileen was part of Vienna, and best forgotten together with all herother dreams. Mrs Kinneard kissed her too, delighted that she had gother own way without Cordelia making a fuss--such a nice girl--she hadtold her husband, she'll get a job in no time at all, and she has gother family. . ."

Mr Kinneard, who allowed his wife to do exactly what she liked, agreed,shook Cordelia's hand, gave her an envelope, and ushered his familyinto the taxi. Cordelia didn't linger on the hotel steps; she had theluggage to see to, besides the porter was looking at her with asympathetic eye--the same man who had wanted to get her a taxi that daywhen she had come for an interview with Lady Tres...o...b... She gave him aquick smile and went upstairs. In her room she opened the envelope.The week's salary she was due, and another week besides. A cheque shewould have to cash in the morning. There were notes too; enough, shesupposed to get the luggage to the station and despatched. / She putthe cheque in her handbag, then she went downstairs again, asked tohave the Kinneard's luggage brought down and a taxi fetched and wentoff to Waterloo Station. It took a little time to settlematters, but once done she got on a bus which would take her near thehotel. Now she had only herself to think of; perhaps the hotel wouldlet her leave her case there while she looked for a room and once shehad that, she could go to an agency and take the first thing theyoffered. She sat deep in thought in the crowded bus, squashed betweena stout woman and a weedy young man with long hair, there was a fourthperson on the seat meant for three, but she hardly noticed that. InOxford Street several people got off and even more got on but she wasoblivious of the jostling. She got off, in company with half a dozenothers, at the New Bond Street stop, almost swept back on to the bus bythe impatient tide of people wanting to get on. It was when shereached the pavement and her fellow pa.s.sengers ebbed away that shediscovered that her handbag had been neatly slit open and was nowempty.

It was a mistake to cry out quite loudly that she had been robbed; the few remaining people near her melted away with mutters of

"Hard luck," or 'you'd better go to the police station." Someonecalled out "I shouldn't bother. Miss--it happens all the time."

She began to walk towards Dover Street, debating whether it would be of any use to report the theft and decided that it wouldn't; the only thing which could identify her was the cheque made out in her name.

She had no bank account so that anyone could forge her name; even her medical card and pa.s.sport were in her overnight bag. And a good thing too. So that left her with forty pounds and thank heaven she had taken that out of her handbag. . . She reached the hotel, went to her room and changed her dress and went down to her dinner. She ate splendidly aware that she wasn't likely to get another meal like it for some time, and presently went to bed; so much had happened in the past few days that none of it seemed quite true.

She was up early and after breakfast arranged with the receptionist to leave her case at the hotel and fetch it later in the day. At the door the same porter was on duty.

"Call you a cab. Miss?" He asked cheerfully.

She shook her head.

"No, thank you, but I wonder if you could tell me whereabouts Wyngate Street is? It's off Oxford Street. .."

She knew that because she had looked up the addresses of several agencies and somehow "Mrs Sharp's Agency' sounded respectable.. .

"Other end of Oxford Street, Miss." He added: "Not much of a neighbour hood were you looking for somewhere special?"

She told him and he nodded.

"There's a bus from the corner," he advised her. She tipped him; even the modest tips she had handed out had made alarming inroads into the forty pounds. She cheered herself up with the thought that her excellent breakfast would keep her going until the evening; a cup of coffee would be enough at lunchtime, the thing was to get a job and find a room. / Wyngate Street was narrow and gloomy and airless but luckily the agency was at the end nearest Oxford Street. She climbed the narrow stairs following the sign on the grimey front door, and obedient to the card with "Ring First', pressed the bell beside another, even dirtier door on the second landing. The room she entered was in need of a coat of paint and the services of a window cleaner, not to mention a scrubbing brush on the linoleumed floor. There were four or five women sitting round the walls and Cordelia, receiving no reply to her good morning, sat herself down. Half an hour pa.s.sed before it was her turn and she opened another door to Mrs Sharp's office.

Mrs Sharp was stout, of uncertain age and boot faced. She looked prepared to snap off Cordelia's head and listened with a faint sneering smile to Cordelia's request for a job.

"Nothing on the books," she said finally, 'you can't type and you can't do shorthand and you've no experience as a sales girl. The cla.s.s of person to employ a governess or companion is away on holiday: Come back tomorrow, I might have something then. That'll be ten pounds."

"What for?" Asked Cordelia, taken aback.

"Why for putting you on the books, of course. Most agencies want twenty pounds nowadays."

Cordelia handed over the money.

"I'll come back in the morning Mrs Sharp. I need a job badly. . ."

"They all say that. It's you inexperienced educated young ladies who are so hard to please."

"I a.s.sure you that I'm not difficult Mrs Sharp, is there anywhere near here where I could get a room? I have very little money."