Read Online The Chain of Destiny by Betty Neels - Free Book Online

Everyone thought that the professor was going to marry her; she boasted about it too, but I met Mr Toms the other day and he said that he’d heard her telling some friend or other that she hadn’t seen him in weeks. Don’t know much about him myself, but he was always very civil to me and Dr Warren sets great store by him. I shouldn’t think he’d put up with Miss Phoebe’s nasty tempers.’
    Suzannah wondered silently if he had a nasty temper too; she thought it quite likely. A man who liked his own way, she felt sure.
    It was pleasant to be back in the village again, although she didn’t go near her old home. Indeed, she spent a good part of each day writing replies to the advertisements Mrs Coffin obligingly allowed her to look for in the papers and magazines which she sold. After three days she had two replies, both of them quite obdurate about pets. To leave him behind was impossible; Mrs Coffin liked him well enough, but she had a cat and a very elderly dog of her own, and although they tolerated Horace as a temporary lodger, there would be no question of him settling down with them.
    Suzannah had taken over the cooking and some of the household chores from her kind landlady, anxious not to be too much of a burden to her, and each afternoon, after they had eaten their midday dinner, she took over the shop too while Mrs Coffin had what she called‘a bit of a lie down’. It was on the fourth day of her stay that Professor Bowers-Bentinck walked in.
    She was adding up the items that Mrs Batch, from the other end of the village, had bought and, since Mrs Coffin didn’t believe in new-fangled things like electric cash registers but wrote everything down on a bit of paper, any that came in handy, Suzannah was totting up her sums on the outside wrapper of the best back bacon she had just sliced.
    The doorbell jangled as he went in and she looked up briefly, muttering, ‘One pound fifty-three…’ and then, at the sight of him, forgot how far she had got to.
    She said vexedly, ‘Oh, look what you’ve made me do—now I’ll have to start again.’ Which she did, adding her sums twice to make sure before giving Mrs Batch the total.
    That lady knew the professor by sight, of course, she bade him good afternoon now, hoped he was well, remarked upon the weather and handed Suzannah a five-pound note.
    Suzannah counted out the change, put her customer’s purchases in her plastic carrier bag, and wished her good day, and when she had gone turned her attention to the professor.
    â€˜Good afternoon. Do you wish to buy something?’
    He looked faintly surprised. ‘Er—no. Have you taken over the shop from Mrs Coffin?’
    â€˜No but while I’m here I mind it for her while she has a short rest.’
    â€˜So you have no job?’
    She didn’t answer that at once, then she said briefly, ‘No, not yet.’
    â€˜Then may I put a proposition to you and hope that you will overlook your dislike of me sufficiently to listen to it?’
    â€˜You don’t like me either,’ said Suzannah matter-of-factly.
    He looked down his commanding nose at her. ‘I am not aware that I have any feelings about you, good or bad, Suzannah.’ He smiled thinly. ‘Now, if you would listen to me and not interrupt.’
    A high-handed remark which left her conveniently without words.
    The professor pushed aside a basket of assorted biscuits, several tins of soup and a large card announcing that there would be a whist drive in the village hall next Wednesday, and sat down at the edge of the counter. He took up a great deal of room, and Suzannah had to look up to see his face, which rather annoyed her.
    â€˜I have a patient,’ he informed her, ‘who has recovered from a cerebral tumour which I removed some weeks ago. She is fit to return to her home—in Holland, I should add—but she needs a sensible companion with plenty of