The professor got up presently and came over to the sofa, reminded her that she was to go to bed, waited while she wished everyone a goodnight and carried her upstairs, calling to Corinne on his way to go with them, and once in her room he laid Britannia on her bed, kissed her gently on the cheek, wished her goodnight and went away immediately, leaving Corinne looking delighted and curious.

‘I suppose it is one of those open secrets everyone knows,’ she declared happily, ‘you and Jake. When are you going to announce it?’

Britannia was wriggling out of her dressing gown. ‘However did you know?’

Corinne giggled. ‘I don’t think I exactly knew,none of us did, but we guessed. Mother’s so happy about it, so are we all.’

Britannia felt a delightful wave of happiness wash over her. ‘How nice of you—only Madeleine…’

‘She hasn’t guessed. She’s so conceited and sure of Jake that she can’t imagine him falling in love with anyone but her.’ Corinne sat down on the edge of the bed. ‘None of us likes her, she wormed her way in and she was very clever, always good company for Jake and always at the same houses and parties and dinners…she was always there, you see, creeping into his life until he took her for granted.’

‘Go on,’ urged Britannia, and was disappointed when Emmie came in, taking charge with all the firmness of a trusted old servant, so that Corinne went obediently away and left her to help Britannia to bed.

But Britannia was too happy to lie awake worrying about Madeleine; she slept soundly on the thought that Jake loved her and they were going to marry very soon. This pleasant glow continued throughout the morning, and although no one actually asked her any questions, there was a good deal of family discussion in which she was included as though she were already one of them, and when after lunch Jake came home, he came straight to her room and with Zuster Hagenbroek’s assistance, took the strapping off the ankle, examined it at length, encased it in an elastic stocking, pronounced it well on the way to recovery and declared that he would be back in half an hour, during which time she could dress. ‘A stick and a strong arm is what you need now, we’ll try them out presently.’ He looked at Zuster Hagenbroek. ‘I think we can manage without you after today—if you can be ready, I’ll run you in after breakfast tomorrow.’

He went away, and Britannia got down to the business of dressing while Zuster Hagenbroek tidied the room and gossiped. She had heard about Britannia and the professor, she said happily, the whole household knew, and everyone was so pleased. She stopped to smile broadly at Britannia. Such a nice man he was too, very popular at the hospital and with an enormous private practice, but perhaps Britannia knew about that? And no puffed-up airs and graces, either, for all he was a wealthy man, but of course that wasn’t news… And when, asked the dear soul, was the wedding to be?

Britannia said that she didn’t know; nothing had been decided, but it would be a very quiet one. ‘And I hope that when I’m settled in you’ll come and see me, for you’ve been so kind—I don’t know what I should have done without you.’

Zuster Hagenbroek looked gratified. ‘Well, you’ve been a model patient—and here’s the professor back again.’

Britannia had done her face with extra care and brushed her hair until it shone. She had put on a tweed skirt and a pink woolly sweater which she knew suited her very well and now she turned to the door, her face alight with happiness as the professor came in. ‘Are you home for the rest of the day?’ she wanted to know.

‘I must go back to my rooms for an hour this evening—I’ve a couple of patients I have to see, but I’ll be back for dinner. How’s the ankle?’

‘Fine.’ She felt a little shy of him because this was the Jake she didn’t know very well, the calm, rather impersonal surgeon—not that she would have liked him to have been anything else while Zuster Hagenbroek was there.

He carried her downstairs, set her on a highbacked chair in the hall and fetched a stick from the wall cupboard. ‘I thought you might like to see over some of the house, darling. We won’t hurry and you can sit down every now and then, I know you’ve been in the sitting room and the big drawing room, but there are some quite interesting paintings and the silver is worth looking at too.’

He came over to her and pulled her gently to her feet and stood looking down at her, laughing. ‘Why do you look like that? Are you shy?’

She shook her head. ‘No, at least, only a little. You see, I don’t know you very well…’

‘My darling, but you do. The number of times you have pointed out my faults and given me advice as to how to overcome them…’

She stood within the circle of his arm. ‘I always thought you were such a bad-tempered man…’

‘I am, but not at the moment.’ He kissed her again. ‘Let’s start in the sitting room, shall we? We’re bound to meet the family, but we won’t let them hinder us.’

The afternoon was a delight to her; she had a natural flair for beautiful things and some of the portraits on the walls were beautiful, as were the silver and the porcelain in their great marquetry cabinets. They spent a long time in the sitting room before they inspected the dining room, the big drawing room, and a charming smaller room which was the little drawing room, with white-painted walls and soft pink and blue furnishings, little inlaid tables and a collection of watercolours hung on either side of the steel fireplace. Jake pointed out a Leickert, a van Schendel and a van der Stok which an ancestor had commissioned in the nineteenth century, and over and above those were a Carabain and two charming river scenes by van Deventer which he had bought during the last few years.

‘We shall be able to search for treasures together,’ he observed, and stopped to kiss her before picking her up and carrying her down a small staircase. ‘This is the oldest part of the house and on a different level. There’s a games room and a garden room and here at the end is the music room. Do you play the piano, Britannia?’

She hobbled to the baby grand piano in the big bay window. ‘A little.’ She ran her fingers up and down the yellowed keys and then sat down on the wide stool and tried a little Chopin. She played with spirit if a bit inaccurately, but she stopped when Jake sat down beside her and took over the tune.

‘No, go on, my love—I come here sometimes for half an hour, now we can share an added pleasure!’

He played well and with no tiresome mannerisms; they thundered through a mazurka and then skimmed through a waltz, and when they stopped Britannia said: ‘Jake, you play very well—I had no idea…’

He gave her a wicked glance. ‘We shall probably have a child prodigy.’

‘Oh, no,’ cried Britannia, ‘not a musician, they’ll all be brilliant surgeons like their papa.’

‘So I am to be rivalled in my old age?’

She answered him seriously. ‘Not rivalled, for you will have handed on your skill, just as your father did to you. And you’ll never be old.’

‘My darling, there is fifteen years’ difference between us.’ He had closed the piano and was leaning on it, looking at her with a little mocking smile.

‘Pooh, what’s fifteen years,’ cried Britannia with some asperity, and then suddenly: ‘You don’t think it’s too much? You don’t think that I… Jake, perhaps after we’re married you’ll wish we weren’t. You don’t know much about me and nothing of my family, would it be better if we waited?’

‘You have second thoughts?’ His voice was faintly cool and she hastened to protest.

‘Of course I haven’t, not for me.’ She frowned a little. ‘I think what it is, I wanted to marry you so much and now I’m going to and it doesn’t seem possible, it’s like a lovely dream and I’m afraid of waking up.’

‘Then I must convince you that you are wrong.’ Which he did to such good purpose that Britannia forgot all her doubts and kissed him back.