Christmas for Two

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4032, 5 January 1932, Page 2

Christmas for Two

Lester Garrick’s spirits lifted as he left behind the last of London’s niurkiness and drove into this new, exhilarating world—the open country at last! Here a white morning mist had melted before the sun. Trees, hedges, and the grassy tops of ditches were sprinkled with glittering lime, and the frosted roadway sparkled.

Breathing it all in gratefully, he stretched himself in his seat and accelerated. The car answered gaily, as though she, too, found cheer in this bracing new world, and she streaked up the hill with a gleeful whizz. At the crest of the hill something came hurtling through the hedge straight at the rushing car. Garrick cried out and rammed cm his foot-brake. The car skidded across the road on the rim of her off wheels, and then rocked dizzily to rights.

Carrick got to tJie regulation side of the road, shut off, and turned in his seat. A girl, clutching a small leather suit case, came running up.

“ I’m so sorry!” she called breath-

lessly. “Sorry! But why choose that method of killing yourself—and me?” He had had a jarring few seconds of it, and his tone was distinctly curt. “ I don’t wonder you’re savage with me. But 1 heard a car, and I thought it was coming along the road behind me. That’s why 1 shot through the hedge, because I was afraid they’d see me hiding there if they came along the back road.”

He shook his head. Her explanation might have a meeting, but not for him. Anyhow, it didn’t matter. “ Weil, I’m glad neither of us will have to spend Christmas in the hospital—or worse,” ho said, on a more friendly note, and pressed down his self-starter. “ Though if I may offer a word of advice ”

“ Listen!” she cut in peremptorily. “ it’s growing louder; travelling towards us,” said the girl in a rapid undertone.

She met his puzzled, questioning look with a steady regard, and there seemed to him an unmistakable appeal in her clear eyes, alight now with a strange kind of half-amused excitement. Suddenly he pressed down the selfstarter again. “ Jump in.” he said shortly. And then: “ Where to?” he asked, as the next moi lent she landed lightly beside him. “ Anywhere until we’ve shaken off the oilier,” she said. He let in the clutch and the car shot forward, while she, turning in her seat, looked along the receding road. “What car is it?” Carrick asked without shifting his eyes from the road ahead. “ A large maroon touring six—-a Speedwell. Your Chesterfield hasn’t much chance against it.” “ I’ll gii c ’••in a run for it, though, i know the of the land hereabouts,” he said, i ; ruing abruptly left. “ Turn up the narrowest lane you know.” \> 1 ! .jeicd, “and while w'e*rt s' rcencu for a moment I'll jump out and .-holier behind a hedge. Look out son: likely place for mo as you go along.’ He admired her ready resource, ami, though the whole affair became more and more unaccountable, yet he obeyed her instructions exactly. He had in mind the very lane for her purpose—a mere bridle-path flanked by hedges and dense-growing gor.se. A few minutes later his two-seater was making a decidedly choppy passage over the rough surface of the bridlepath. When he reached mid-way he warned her. “ We’ re clear of ’em for the moment, and I’m going to stop. I’m pulling in close to a clump of gorse bushes —on our left.” “ All right.” Leaning over, he opened the car door ready for her, and then pulled up. She was out of the car and behind the gorse bushes in a flash, as from the near distance the Speedwell was heard coming up. Then the girl’s voice came in an urgent whisper from behind her cover. “I say!” “Hallo?” “Fling my suit case out—hide it! Important ” Ho clambered out, caught up her little case, and dropped it behind the hedge Then, a plan forming in his mind, he moved to the head of his car and lifted the bonnet just as the largo maroon five-seater holding three men nosed round into the littl ■ lane. Carrick bent over bis bonnet, apparently unconscious of the Speedwell’s approach, •■Toot! foot!" .aid the Speedwell, calling polite attention to herself. Car- “ May 1 get through, sir ?” called the Speedwell's driver pleasantly. It was impossible for cars to pass in riiis II: •’ by-way; either Carrick would have to go on or tiie big maroon would have to go into reverse. “ Sorry, sir,” said Carrick, “but I’m stuck.” “Oh, bad luck,” said the other, getting out of the big maroon car and strolling forward. “ Anything serious, d’you think?” There was something about the man which, despite his friendly approach, put Carrick instantly on guard. The mar. in some indefinable way seemed to radiate a kind of official air. The two others in the big maroon, Carrick noted in an unobtrusive glance in their directum, produced a similar impression. “ it’s probably a spot of ignition trouble which I'll soon fix, though i shall be stuck here some minutes,” said Carrick. “ Bight, I'll back out as 1 can't pass you. And perhaps you can help me. I’ve rather lost my bearings in this maze of by-ways.” “Where're you for?” “ Burntwnod,” lie said, hesitantly. “You're somewhere off the track for that. But 1 can put you on. Look there,” Carrick pointed through a break in the hedge. “ Sno that church spire:’ “ Where? Ob ye-, I've -of it." “That'- your murk, that's Ashleigh n You'll strum tin- Burntwood

By H. E. GARDEN

[All Rights Reserved.]

road soon’s you’ve crossed Ashleigh Bridge.” “Thanks so much. Not over-popu-lated here,” the man observed. “ Don b think I’ve passed more than half a dozen people in an hour.” There seemed to be a questioning note behind the remark. “Matter of fact,” said Garrick casually, “ I don’t remember passing a soul.” Which was more or less true, as he had picked up, not passed, the strange girl, “Quite,” said the other, who seemed satisfied with the reply. “Well, good morning to you, sir.” “Good morning. And a merry Christmas,” said Garrick cheerfully. “Ah, thanks. The same to you.” Garrick returned to his car, while the other entered his Speedwell and backed out of the lane. Presently, through the break in the hedge, Garrick had a view of the big maroon car heading towards Ashleigh. “All clear,” he announced, and, picking up the girl’s suit case, returned it to the Chesterfield. “You were great —I heard everything,” said the girl, coining from her cover and entering the car. “I had to hide my suit case,” she volunteered, “as 1 remembered it’s marked with my initials, and if that had been spotted it would have given the show away.” “Yes?” said Garrick, taking his place at the wheel. _ ; “They are detectives,” she said. Detectives! That explained the official air of the occupants of the big maroon car. Well, this appeared a fairly queer business to be mixed up in on a Christmas Eve morning in the heart of rural Oxfordshire. However, lie had come to the girl’s aid, and ho wasn’t going to back out now. Nor was lie going to ask her to elucidate. “What happens now?” he asked, and added quickly : “ I’m not pumping you for explanations, only I ; want to know where I can drop yon. ’ “Do von know Lavenham? she asked, after a slight hesitation. “ Yes, know it well. We pass my cottage at Quinton Cross on the way to Lavenham village.” “ Would you drop me near Lavenham? ” . , “ All right. Just give me the tip when you want to get out,” he said, starting the engine. “ You’re —awfully good. Will you show me your cottage on the way? “ Yes, rather,” he nodded. Quinton Cross was only a matter of some five miles from the little lane, and an almost unbroken silence was maintained between them until Garrick told her they were nearing his place. Then, after making a slight detour, he drew up a few yards away from it. “ But how simply perfect.” site said. “ Glad you like it. I’ve had it almost entirely rebuilt to my own design.” “Your own design? Arc you an artist, then?

“ No,” he smiled, “ merely an architect.” “Now that,” said the girl, “must bo a fascinating profession.” “ ft’s all right when the commissions are flowing in, but when you’re struggling to get there on your own ——He shrugged. “ Money’s the thing to give you a start, a show —to got you in the swim. Next time you hear any rich person decry money don’t forget to be thoroughly amused.” “ All the same, money isn’t everything.” “ It’s great stuff, though,” he said. They exchanged a few commonplaces while he drove towards Lavcnham, until presently the girl, after looking about her, asked to be set down. He pulled up, and the girl alighted with her suitcase.

“Well ” he said, and paused. And then : “ Look here, my cottage is on the telephone —business reasons, you know. Arc you on flic phone where you’re going? ”

“ Er—yes.” He nodded, fished n pencil mid a scrap of paper out. “ I’ve put down my phone number there,” he said, holding out the paper. “ You’re in some kind of a messno, I don’t want any confidences. Only if you need a hand at any time—or shelter or anything, ring me up. I’ve a gem of a woman, a Airs Brill, who looks after me at the cottage, and you’d be —all right with her. Don’t forget. Good bye.” A small gloved hand met and grasped his very firmly. “ I won’t forget. Thank you. ) ou’vo been very good to me.” She put real feeling into the simple words. “Oh—nothing. Good-bye and good hick.”

Queer how empty the car seemed on the return journey to his cottage, and queer the unaccountable sense of restlessness he experienced. Airs Brill’s welcome was warm, and the luncheon she served him was succulent; his parlour was snug and friendly and gay with Airs Brill’s Christmas decorations. A bit lonely? Of course he wasn’t lonely—what the dickens He took a long tramp in the afternoon, which went far to dispel his curious dissatisfaction. But later in the evening, with the hook that refused to interest, by the fireside that somehow lacked checriness, the old restlessness returned.

LonelyP Well, perhaps a bit, though up to now he'd always preferred to be alone. Perhaps Christmas wasn't the right time lor solitude. To-morrow’s Christmas slimier it’d he rather jolly to have two or three people coming to the cottage to keep Christmas with him; or il not one or two. say one, then. Just one other with him at Christmas. 1 hen the telephone hell rang. It brought him out oi ins chair and mto the little hall with a rush, and he (T’m’ "'renyhed down the receiver. •* ni ’'' i " Ik '. ‘‘ Hallo? ” ' Uh her voice answered—he knew U tot hers ;il once-—“ | s;iv, can vou con i o " Suddenly the voice Woke oil'. | fe heard a little startled cry, and what sounded like a chair scraped hack and overturned, then nothing lap )t<■ crackle-crackle of the telephone. “Hallo."' he called again and again. “ Hallo! Hallo! ’ I In i there was onlv blank silence at the other end. ,\ I last he hung up. Something had

happened while she was callingio for help. “Can you come L,liU was a call for help. , , But how could he answer that woken appeal—not knowing from where it came? Lavenham ? d hat told hm nothing definite. She might be in an} one of fifty houses there or m its neighbourhood. How could he g knocking at strange doors ''i seardi o a girl whose name he didn t e know? . i.„ Nothing to tie done, only—yes, . gad, though, he could get the ear out and run over to Lavenham und ha m about on the chance of oncim teiing her. A very off-chance, but at least it would be making an attempt. What nrqo flip tllllGP 11 HI , ItltlSll. He took clown his heavy topcoat 1 rom its hall peg, and as he struggled into it' he gave up all pretence that the strange girl meant nothing to him. Nothing? Why, she " as only girl that had ever meant amthm„ to That iaslhe truth. , Though he had first met her only a fow houis bac% didn’t know who or what she uas didn’t know her name even, he ached to serve her. No use' arguing about il there it absolutely was. , He collared his cap, flung himself on* of the cottage, and ran round to iU Some two hours later he had to admit to himself that he had drawn ■ a hopeless blank. He had hung about Lavenham and district until ho was chilled to e bone, hut he had encountered nothing and no one under the midnight Christmas moon. Dispirited and uneasy, he headed im home, and was travelling the deserted road when a Klaxon sounded a wanting behind. Living way and sending the other a momentary sideways glance as it came up, Garrick caught a shaip breath. , , , • For the car that streaked past atm, and whoso tail light was soon a mere red speck in the distance, was a maroon fivo-scater Speedwell.

The snow that had laden a bleak sky began to fall on the afternoon of Christmas Day. Chafing against the circumstance that made out of doors a wet discomfort, Carrick went lor the twentieth time to the window and looked out. , What he saw coming down the lane so amazed him he could not at first realise that his eyes were not playing him tricks. Then the next moment he was out of the room and the house, hatless, coatless, running down to the "'“Hallo!” he called as he ran. “Hallo there!” . .. He Hung the gate open just as it was reached by the girl he had seen from his window. . , “Good gracious!’ she exclaimed. “Yon have not hat or coat on. Go m at once.” He drew her through the gate. “ Come along,” he said. Mrs Brill will trivc ns tea.” . ■, , . She laughed as he eagerly, hoyishic ran her up the little snow-covered garden path. In the hall of the co - tage she turned to him, saying that he must change his jacket that was all snowy and wet. “ That’s all right.” He slipped out of his coat and, stepping aside, shook it. “How about yourself? he asked, nutting his coat on again. “Oh, this thick winter mac of mum Jias kept me all right. And look— She showed him that rubber Wellingtons encased her slim feet. He nodded approval, told her to remove her mac, helped her out of A and hung it on a hall peg. Her little Celt hat was also discarded. How about the Wellingtons—was she keephm those on, he asked. She would slip them off, if she might, she said, as she bad on a pair of light house shoes underneath. • ~ , “()h good; squat down on that ■stair,” ho nodded, while I draw oil your rubbers.” Then, that done, he ushered her into his little parlour and stirred the fire and pulled up a chair for her. She stood looking about her. “ What a gem of a little room, cosy and everything,” she said. “ And 1 love your Christmassy decorations. Arc you giving an evening party. - '’ “ Bather not. The decorations are Mrs Brill’s doing. I’m spending Christmas on my own. But do come to the fire and sit down, and I’ll light the lamps and draw the curtains, and then you can tell me— He carried his words into eftcct while she crossed to the lire, where presently be joined her. pulling up a companion armchair.

“ I. say," In; said, “ that phone messain; of yours last night that said ‘ Can von come—’ and then broke oil 1 was only telephoning to ask whether you would care to come oyer to Lavenham on Christmas morning and meet my friend Betty Goring, who’s putting mo up there. You see, I felt that 1 owed you some explanation about —everything that happened yesterday—after all you’d done for me.”

“Good heavens! Was that all? When your phono call broke off so sharply I thought—well, I didn’t like it. You seemed pretty well scared.” “ I was startled. You see, I'd only just started to telephone you when Betty—who knows everything about—everything called out to me that those an fill detectives were hanging about outside, and she was afraid they’d hear inv voice.”

She looked at him, then said: “ 1 chanced it later on.” Chanced what ?”

“ Telephoning you. I called you up iigjiiu; in fact, I called you three times between about 10 and midnight, but I got no answer.” “Good heavens! while I was out searching the country for—-—” He broke off.

She looked at him intently, puzzled, questioning, yet half-guessing. She said at length: “ Were you out on my account?”

“ Well, yes. as a matter of laef. You see, 1 thought your 'Can yon come ’ v. as a call for help, so I " It was good of yon,” she said warmly, “ tremendously good of you!

“ Tremendously---nothing ! he almost snapped. ” I went because I wanted io had to, rather- yes, had to,” he repeated, meeting her wide gaze. ” Look here " his lone was quecrly hoarse- " look here," he said again and stopped. Then he got up. walked the length of the room and back, and came to a stand by bis chair. ” All I ask is that you won’t laugh at me.” lm said, “ even though yon think I’m quite mad.” Why should I do that?” she asked. Coking up at him.

A ait till you've heard, A onld , Vn| i '(insider the proposition of marry-

She gaped at him, literally speech-

less. “But you —avc—-J mean Why, you don't even know my name,” she articulated at last. “ And it doesn’t matter. L mean, I don’t care if it’s Emma —not if it's Emma Noggs.” “ It’s Benita—Benita Wynne,” she said, smiling. “'That’s fine —suits you. Mine’s Lester Garrick. And i’yo asked you if you’ll consider marrying me one day.” “And all you know about me,’’ she asid slowly, “ is that .I’m a girl who’s i running away from detectives. Aren’t I von being rather rash? i might be—anything.” Be shook his head at her. “ J’d bank on you. You never did i a crooked thing in your life.” “ You seem very sure.” “ 1 am. it’s in your eyes.” “ How about your work and ambitions? How about those remarks you made to me in the ear yesterday about money—do you remember? You seemed to think money very important. Well, how do you suppose marrying mo would help you there? ” “ 1 mapped out a scheme of things for myself, Benita ’Wynne,” he said, “ in which work and ambition and the making of money entered prominently, in which the business of suddenly and _ hopelessly losing my heart did not enter at all.” “ And arc you prepared to throw all your ambitions overboard because of j me?’ ’ “ On the contrary, I have more ami bit ion—because of you, a keener desire to work and get there with it—because of you. But even if 1 failed, I’d rather he a failure with you than a success without you. Strange but trpe, but you’ve scattered all my old dreams and shown me a possible reality much more worth attainment. I’ve never said quite that to any other girl in my life.” “Mr Garrick,” she said, _ “my father is Spencer Wynne—the Spencer Wynne.” He started. “The big city magnate —that awful swell? Then you—then, good heavens, you’re wealthy!” be exclaimed in a shocked voice. “ Father is. I’m afraid. Also he’s inclined to be rather dictatorial. He was very busy ordering my life for me—that’s how it comes about,” she smiled, “that l.’m dodging about the country in an attempt to evade the private detectives father employed to track me. You see, he got it into his head that I was much too keen on a certain Claude Bryant ” “And were you?” Garrick interposed quickly. . She shook her head. “He danced perfectly and—that’s all. If anything I rather disliked him.” “Oh, good!” said Garrick heartily. “Well?” “Father overdid it with me about Claude Bryant. He swore I shouldn’t marry him—which I never had the remotest intention of doing. But ' father’s attitude put ray back up. I said 1 should marry whom I choose, to which father replied that I was under age and he’d stop me. I bet him he couldn’t. He made me a sporting offer. He bet me a thousand pounds that i couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without his knowing. I accepted the challenge—l accepted for the fun of the thing. That’s two weeks and a bit ago, and I’ve led those detectives of father’s a dance. They’ve never actually got me yet, though they’ve been precious near it —as yon know.” “ Is there any time limit to the bet? ” asked Garrick. “ Yes,” she nodded, her eyes twinkling. “If they don’t catch me 1 by Christmas Day, I’ve won. I’d like that thousand pounds. Besides, it’d do father no end of good to get the worst of it —bless him.” She was looking down at the lire. And while she stood considering, there reached them the distant throbbing of a ear, the sound of which drew nearer and nearer. They both stood arrested. “ it can’t be that awful Speedwell.” ■she whispered. Oh—listen ” She sat very still, looking into the tire. Then: The two at the parlour fire held their breath —while the car drew near and nearer, turned down the little lane, ran along it, gained the cottage, and went past. Then Garrick released his breath. “ False alarm,” he breathed. And then: “Stay here for Christmas —and win that thousand pounds. Christmas for two, Benita? She turned and hesitated-—and blushed —and then nodded. ] “ I’ll stay,” she said. I He took a sudden step towards her. I “When your outraged parent hears that you’re thinking of marrying a struggling architect one day ’’ “ But I haven’t ” “ And decides in consequence to cut you off with the proverbial shilling * ) y “ Well, don’t you see what a useful start that thousand pounds will give i us? ” ! “ I see.” she said.