i f6c06dd9cf3fe221 by Unknown (the false prince .TXT) 📕

spoil Annie. Anyway, I get much more fun out of buying the toys than Annie gets in receiving them. It's a part of me that's never grown up. How are the Tolmaches, Kate?"

"Oh, quite well. Only Mr. Bernard's had sciatica rather badly. But it didn't stop him from going away."

"Where are you off to at this time of night, Kate, a party?"

"No; Midnight Mass."

"Oh I Yes, of course. Well, jump in and I'll give you a lift."

Kate looked up at him, perched above her. His black eyes seemed unnaturally bright. He'd had one or two, she thought, or he'd never have suggested such a thing. Imagine how the tongues would wag if she drove up to church in a motor car, sitting beside the doctor.

"Thank you, doctor," she said; 'but I've never driven in a motor car; I'm a wee bit afraid. And they make such a noise. Traps are more to my liking. "

"You've never driven in a car?" cried Rodney.

"Oh, come on then, Kate;

you must, you simply must. "

He drew up his long legs and stepped down on to the pavement beside her.

"Go on, up you get, Kate!"

"No, doctor, no." She glanced back uneasily up the road. Dim figures were approaching, likely people from the fifteen streets. Anyway, people who would know them both; and it would not take much to set tongues wagging. Oh, why hadn't he just gone straight on? They'd be on them in a minute I . She was too wise to argue with a man who had had a few. If she persisted in her refusal

he'd only stand talking. So she said, "I'll go for a short drive, doctor, but not to church."

"Up the Newcastle road then, Kate!" He helped her in; then swung the starting handle vigorously, and hurried around to his seat.

As the car swung out of the main road and up the narrow, steep incline of the Simonside Bank, Kate gasped. Rodney's dark eyes laughed at her.

The moon, gleaming on the frost-covered road, reflected a pale light through the high glass windscreen on to her face. She looked dewy and warm, like a soft summer morning, he thought.

"Like it?" he shouted.

"I don't quite know," she called back.

"Yes," she turned her head and smiled at him, "I think I do."

Splendid! "

On they sped; past the Simonside school and the little group of cottages, past the Maze Hall and into the open country; only a mile or so from the' docks but seeming, in its rural spaciousness and neatly ploughed fields, to be in another world.

"The country looks different from a car."

"What's that?" shouted Rodney.

"I said, the country looks different from a car," called Kate, leaning forward eagerly.

"It looks so beautiful in the moonlight, but a little unreal. I feel I'm taking part in a fairy story," she laughed gaily.

Suddenly Rodney stopped the car. She looked at him enquiringly.

"Kate, don't go to Midnight Mass 1' he brought out, with a rush.

"What!" Kate retreated into her seat.

"Let's drive on. Let's talk and laugh for an hour... will you?"

Something in his voice startled her; she leant back, tight against the leather, but said nothing.

God, he thought, what had made him propose that? She would get it all wrong. Hell! Well, why not? What harm was there in taking her for a drive ? His wife would likely be sitting in a corner with Barrington at this moment, promising easy seduction, with her eyes. Damn Stella!

But he must make it clear to this girl that it was a drive he was proposing, and nothing more. "Don't misunderstand me, Kate," he said;

'please don't misunderstand me. You see, I was going back to an empty house, and I don't think anyone should be alone on Christmas Eve. "...

Heaven, he did sound sorry for himself, he thought.

"And there's another thing," he went on.

"All these years I've known you, I've wanted to talk to you, but there's never been the opportunity up till now." He must be drunk, rattling on like this. "You know, Kate, you've grown from a very young girl into ... well, to say the least, a self-composed woman, and I've often wondered how it came about. Don't think me rude, Kate, please."

He looked closely at her.

But her long, dark lashes lay practically on her cheeks, so he couldn't see the effect of his words. Lord, what a fool he was! This was Stella's fault, and Peter's whisky. What was she thinking? He gripped the wheel: "I'm sorry Kate, if I have annoyed you. I'll turn the car round at the next bend and take you back. I suppose you have the impression that you are riding to Hell with the Devil?"

Kate raised her eyes: "I could be going there in worse company."

"Kate, you're not annoyed with me!" He laughed in relief.

"Am I to drive on?"

She nodded.

"But I must be back in Tyne Dock by a quarter past one at the latest, doctor."

"You'll be there on the dot, Kate." He got out and did some more winding.

Kate sat up, as if throwing off a cloak. She watched him through the windscreen. He looked up, and their eyes met; they smiled at each other.

On past Jarrow, Hebburn and Pelaw the car chunked in a soothing rhythm.

They sat, silent now, just looking ahead, relaxed against the seats, feeling knit together in an exciting warmth.

"Shall I stop on the top of one of the Felling Hills?" asked Rodney;

'where we can survey the world lying at our feet, as we talk. "

"Yes, if you wish," replied Kate.

Presently he drew up on the brow of a hill. Far away, like a strip of shining steel, lay the river. To the right, the