Next Door to Romance Read Free Page A

rather have you than anybody else, Lisa, but you can take my word for it, if you don't feel you can take this on, then I'll have to find someone else!'
    'Honest Injun?' she asked seriously.
    ' "Cross my heart and hope to die, cut my throat if I tell a lie!" ' Tom recited as gravely. 'So how about it, Lisa?'
    'All right,' she promised. 'If Mummy and Daddy agree, it's a deal!'
    'Splendid!' Tom said briskly. 'Then I'll ask around and see what the current rates for that sort of work are.'
    'Ask whom?' Lisa asked suspiciously. She had a conviction that Tom would try to pay her too much!
    But he had an answer ready.
    'Dr Mayhew's secretary—Miss Jenkins. She does the same sort of work—only, of course, she's not in any danger of being bitten by any of Mayhew's patients—so, naturally, I'll pay you more.'
    'Oh no, you won't,' Lisa contradicted firmly. 'Miss Jenkins has had a lot of experience. I haven't. So you should pay me less—'
    'Look, we'll compromise,' Tom told her. 'I'll say no more about the possibility of you getting bitten if you'll hush up about yours and Miss Jenkins' relative values. O.K.?'
    'O.K.,' Lisa agreed, but was conscious of no feeling of elation because her worry was cleared up. In fact, she even felt depressed.
    Tom had, she knew quite well, found a perfect solution to her problem, and one that ought to make Mrs Blewett stop being a nuisance. And yet she couldn't entirely welcome the arrangement.
    The trouble was that though she accepted quite willingly the knowledge that she was needed at home, it was so difficult not to want to spread her wings, and this morning the feeling had been particularly strong. Everything seemed so young and venturesome, and she wanted to share in that spirit of challenge.
    But now, if her parents agreed to Tom's suggestion, and she knew quite well that they would, she would be more than ever tied to the house. Involuntarily she sighed and then, feeling guilty of ingratitude, she glanced down at her silent companion, hoping he hadn't noticed that revealing sigh.
    And Tom, flat on his back, was fast asleep!
    'Poor old Tom!' Lisa thought sympathetically. Despite his denial, he was tired. Well—she looked at her watch—he could have at least an hour's sleep—
    Her eyes lingered momentarily on his face. It wasn't handsome. His red hair wouldn't have been everybody's choice, and his features were anything but regular. But there was an essential kindness and integrity there, and even in his sleep there was strength. You could trust Tom! It was queer, she thought, that though she had only known him for a couple of years, she felt as if he had always been part of her life—a good solid background on which she could rely.
    Half an hour passed. Lisa, sitting motionless with her back against an ancient oak tree, had her wish. The kingfisher flashed not once but many times across the stream, a streak of electric blue. Parent moorhens passed with their flotilla of chicks swimming valorously in line astern—Lisa felt a pang of tenderness. The little, little things, so toy-like and yet so determined! A fish jumped leaving ever-widening circles in the water. Bees buzzed energetically about their business—
    It was a good day! Lisa, hugging her knees, felt a surge of happiness as she gazed at the checker board of fields, lush with new growth and bordered with their protecting hedges and trees. One had a sense of the renewing and continuity of life, of the orderly progress of the seasons that was reassuring in a world where so many people seemed to drift with no real plan of life before them. And that, of course, was her own trouble —What
did
the future hold for her, and what could she do to make sure that it was as rich as human endeavour could make it?
    And still Tom slept on. Lisa's forehead puckered slightly. Tom
was
tired and common sense dictated that he should sleep. She knew that and sympathized —but it wasn't very exciting!
    How wonderful it would be, she thought wistfully, to