Status Updates From Hannah (The Best of Betty N...

Hannah tucked her wet cheek against his shoulder. ‘Do you really want to marry me, Valentijn?’
‘More than anything in the world, darling Hannah, and as soon as we can arrange it.’
‘I’m a little frightened of your big house and all that sort of thing—besides, I’m plain.’
‘Are you?’ He sounded astonished and she laughed. ‘I think you’re the most beautiful girl in the world.’ He smiled down at her.

Hannah stared down at him and then looked sharply at Valentijn.
‘Yes, Hannah—broncho-pneumonia, unless I’m very much mistaken.’ He took off his jacket and got into a gown, no longer looking tired. ‘Antibiotics, of course, stat, and then I’ll examine him.’ After a moment he said softly: ‘I’m glad you’re here, Hannah.’
‘Oh, so am I,’ said Hannah. She was going to get little Paul well again

‘Do you always take the consultants you work for to task in this positive fashion, Hannah?’ drawled Valentijn.
‘No—I’ve never done it before. I—I forgot you’re a consultant.’
‘Oh, good,’ said Valentijn

‘I never realised what a bossy girl you are, Hannah.’
‘Why should you? Our acquaintance is of the slightest outside our work. And I’m not bossy: I’m thinking about little Paul—suppose he gets worse and you’re too cross-eyed with sleep to do much about it?’

‘When did you last have a sleep?’ She added: ‘And a meal?’
‘Oh, I had an hour before I left this morning and I had some coffee; I’m not hungry and I assure you that I can go quite a time without a night in bed providing I can get a nap now and then.’
‘You’ll be fit for nothing if you go on like that,’ said Hannah severely. ‘you really must have a meal and a good sleep when we get to the hospital.’

He stared at her for a long moment. ‘If I weren’t tired and half out of my mind with worry I would wring your neck, Hannah—what is more, I would have the greatest satisfaction in doing so

‘I shall be over in London in a week or ten days, and I should like to take you out to dinner, Hannah.’
She said in a stony voice: ‘No—no, thank you all the same—I shall be busy.’
His mouth twitched. ‘That sounds like an excuse.’
‘Well, it is. I don’t want to see you ever again. What’s more,’ her voice despite her best efforts, rose higher, ‘I’m quite sure you don’t want to see me.’

He looked as though he were amused about something and she looked at her glass, wondering guiltily if she had had too much champagne and was getting chatty again. She asked: ‘Am I talking too much? You’re looking at me…’
‘Hannah, I must beg you to forget that unfortunate remark I made. I fear that you have saddled me with it for ever and regard me as an ill-mannered ogre.’

Nerissa accepted her small burden, casting a furious look at Hannah ... Valentijn crossed the lawn smartly, took the infant from her and handed him back to Hannah.
‘I think you are better equipped to deal with him at the moment, Hannah,’ he observed with a cold calm which sent shivers down her spine. Now she had cooked her goose. The man staring down at her now with such displeasure wasn’t the man who had kissed her.

‘The dear little baby,’ said Nerissa for Valitijn to hear. Indeed he did look a cherub lying there, wide awake, smiling a big windy smile. Hannah, possessed with a mighty dislike of Nerissa, lifted him up and held him out to her. He needed changing, she could see that by the flood of colour in his tiny face, and it wouldn’t hurt the wretched girl to realise that dear little babies weren’t always sweet-smelling dolls.

There was nothing there to attract a man—one man in particular, that was, and anyway, he was already attracted to the beautiful, hateful Nerissa. ‘You’re mad,’ Hannah told her reflection. ‘Men like Valentijn don’t look twice at girls like you.’ She turned away from the mirror and started to undress. It was funny to think that when she had first met him she hadn’t liked him and now she loved him.

staring hard at her. ‘Why do you say that, Hannah?’
‘Well—you and I—I mean, we’re miles apart, aren’t we? In different worlds. It just goes to show,’ she went on slowly ‘he hinted that it was because of me that he didn’t get a better table and we had to wait to be served—I must be a failure as a dinner companion. I wasn’t exactly a success with you, was I?’
Uncle Valentijn muttered something forceful under his breath

‘He shouted at the waiter and made a fuss and when we got back here he was angry because I didn’t want him to kiss me.’ She looked across at her companion. ‘He’s got a moustache, and I hate them!’
Uncle Valentijn didn’t smile, although his eyes twinkled. ‘I don’t care for them myself, Hannah.’

When he bent suddenly and kissed her she didn’t move. She was so surprised that she didn’t really believe it; it wasn’t until he said in an interested voice: ‘Now I wonder why I did that?’ that she knew she hadn’t dreamt it. She had nothing to say,

She ate with appetite, polishing off two cakes with all the zest of a schoolgirl on term holiday.
‘Do you diet at all?’ asked Uncle Valentijn.
She went bright pink. ‘No—I ought to, oughtn’t I? I’m plump and I expect I’ll get fat if I’m not careful. I’ve tried once or twice, but I get so hungry. When I start putting on weight I shall have to diet.’
‘I shouldn’t bother; dieting makes life very dull. Have another cake?’

She ate with appetite, polishing off two cakes with all the zest of a schoolgirl.
‘Do you diet at all?’ asked Uncle Valentijn.
She went bright pink. ‘No—I ought to, oughtn’t I? I’m plump and I expect I’ll get fat if I’m not careful. I’ve tried once or twice, but I get so hungry. When I start putting on weight I shall have to diet.’
‘I shouldn’t bother; dieting makes life very dull. Have another cake?’

Hannah looked at her watch. ‘How long does it take to get back from here?’ she asked. ‘I told Henrika I’d be back punctually in case there was anything worrying her.’
Her companion smiled faintly; Hannah was a strange little creature, he thought. Usually the young women he took out were loath to part from him, and here was this rather plain, forthright girl anxious to be rid of his company. He got to his feet.

She looked at him, realised that she might as well be addressing the wall behind them. He was obviously a man who having made up his mind about something, had no intention of being diverted. She said reluctantly, ‘Oh, very well, but I can’t think why you’re bothering…’
He swung her up into the saddle, got on to his own horse. The face he turned to her wore a look of faint surprise. ‘I can’t think why either.’

She looked at him, realised that she might as well be addressing the wall behind them. He was obviously a man who having made up his mind about something, had no intention of being diverted. She said reluctantly, ‘Oh, very well, but I can’t think why you’re bothering…’
He swung her up into the saddle, got on to his own horse. The face he turned to her wore a look of faint surprise. ‘I can’t think why either.’

It would be nice, thought Hannah, wistfully, if she could meet a rich young man who fell in love with her at once and wouldn’t take no for an answer and then carry her off to a charming house full of cheerful people … There would be a huge garden, of course, and in time, children, and she, of course, would have all the clothes she could ever want, and in some mysterious way she would become beautiful overnight.

‘You are sometimes very…’ he paused. ‘I am a good deal older than you and…’
‘I know, you’re a consultant, used to having housemen and nurses hanging on your every word, and I’m only a nurse. If ever I should meet you on a ward, I promise you I’ll be suitably servile.’
He opened his eyes wide, and she was astonished at their vivid blue.
‘Hannah, you viper!’ He added softly: ‘Have you been at the claret again?’

‘He is anxious to get home. He is engaged just within the last week or so to a girl I do not like very much. Her name is Nerissa and I find that silly, and she is tall and slim and always very beautifully dressed; she does not like babies or animals and I cannot think why Uncle Valentijn wants to marry her, for she will not allow him to keep his dogs, I am sure, and never, never will she have a baby…’