Kay’s Reviews > Hannah > Status Update

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.