Dearest Eulalia

What we need, reflected Eulalia, is a miracle. And one was about to happen.

There was no sign of it in the morning, though. Jane was upstairs making the beds, the Colonel had been heaved from his bed and sat in his chair and Eulalia had loaded the washing machine and sat down to make a shopping list. Breast of chicken for the Colonel, macaroni cheese for Jane and herself, tea, sugar, butter… She was debating the merits of steak and kidney pudding over those of a casserole when the washing machine, long past its prime, came to a shuddering stop.

Usually it responded to a thump, even a sharp kick, but this morning it remained ominously silent. Extreme measures must be taken, decided Eulalia, and searched for a spanner—a useful tool she had discovered when there was no money for a plumber…

Mr van der Leurs, unaware that he was the miracle Eulalia wished for, paid off his taxi and made his way to the Colonel’s house. A man esteemed by the members of his profession, renowned for his brilliant surgery, relentlessly pursued by ladies anxious to marry him, he had remained heart-whole, aware that somewhere on this earth there was the woman he would love and marry and until then he would bury his handsome nose in work. But his patience had been rewarded; one glimpse of Eulalia and he knew that he had found that woman. Now all he had to do was to marry her…

He reached the house and rang the bell and presently the door was opened and Eulalia stood there in a grubby pinny, looking cross. She still had the spanner in her hand, too. He saw that he would need to treat her with the same care with which he treated the more fractious of his small patients.

His ‘Good morning’ was briskly friendly. ‘This is Colonel Langley’s house? I wondered if I might visit him? My father was an old friend of his—van der Leurs.’ He held out a hand. ‘I am Aderik van der Leurs, his son.’

Eulalia offered a hand rather reluctantly. ‘Grandfather has talked about a Professor van der Leurs he met years ago…’

Mr van der Leurs watched her face and read her thoughts accurately.

‘I’m visiting at St Chad’s for a few days,’ he told her. ‘Mr Curtis mentioned that the Colonel was housebound with arthritis and might be glad to have a visit. I have called at an awkward time, perhaps…’

He must be all right if Mr Curtis knew him, decided Eulalia.

‘I think Grandfather would be pleased to see you. Come in; I’ll take you to his room.’

She led him across the hall but before she reached the staircase she turned to look at him.

‘I suppose you wouldn’t know how to make a washing machine start again?’

He had been wondering about the spanner. He said with just the right amount of doubt in his voice, ‘Shall I take a look?’

She led him into the kitchen and Mr van der Leurs gave his full attention to the machine just as though it were one of his small patients on the operating table awaiting his skill. After a moment he took the spanner from her hand, tapped the dial very very gently and rotated it. The machine gave a gurgle and when he tapped it again—the mere whisper of a tap—it came to life with a heartening swish.

Eulalia heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Thank you very much. How clever of you, but I dare say you know something about washing machines.’ She added doubtfully, ‘But you’re a doctor.’

He didn’t correct her. ‘I’m glad I could be of help,’ he said, and then stood looking at her with a look of faint enquiry.

She said quickly, ‘I’ll take you to see Grandfather. He loves to have visitors.’

She took off her pinny and led the way into the hall and up the graceful staircase. It was a cold house—although there were radiators along the walls, none of them gave warmth. Outside the Colonel’s door Eulalia stopped. ‘I’ll bring coffee up presently—you’ll stay for that?’

‘If I may.’

She knocked and opened the door and then led him into the large room, pleasantly warm with a bright gas fire. There was a bed at one end of the room, bookshelves and a table by the wide window and several comfortable chairs. The Colonel sat in one of them, a reading lamp on the small table beside him, but he looked up as they went in. He eyed Mr van der Leurs for a moment. ‘The spitting image of your father,’ he observed. ‘This is indeed a surprise—a delightful one, I might add.’

Mr van der Leurs crossed the room and gently shook the old hand with its swollen joints. ‘A delight for me too, sir; Father talked of you a great deal.’

‘Sit down if you can spare an hour. Lally, would you bring us coffee? You have met each other, of course?’

‘Yes, Grandpa, I’ll fetch the coffee.’

Mr van der Leurs watched her go out of the room. She wasn’t only beautiful, he reflected, she was charming and her voice was quiet. He sat down near the Colonel, noting that the radiators under the window were giving off a generous warmth. This room might be the epitome of warmth and comfort but that couldn’t be said of the rest of the house.

Eulalia, going back to the kitchen, wondered about their visitor. He had said that he was at St Chad’s. A new appointment? she wondered. Usually such news filtered down to the canteen sooner or later but she had heard nothing. In any case it was most unlikely that she would see him there. Consultants came to Outpatients, of course, but their consulting rooms were at the other end and they certainly never went near the canteen. Perhaps he was visiting to give lectures.

She ground the coffee beans they kept especially for her grandfather and got out the coffee pot and the china cups and saucers, and while she arranged them on a tray she thought about Mr van der Leurs.

He was a handsome man but not so very young, she decided. He had nice blue eyes and a slow smile which made him look younger than he was. He was a big man and tall but since she was a tall girl and splendidly built she found nothing unusual about that. Indeed, it was pleasant to look up to someone instead of trying to shrink her person.

She found the Bath Oliver biscuits and arranged them on a pretty little plate and bore the tray upstairs and found the two men in deep conversation. The Colonel was obviously enjoying his visitor and she beamed at him as she handed him his coffee and put the biscuits where her grandfather could reach them easily. She went away then, nursing a little glow of pleasure because Mr van der Leurs had got up when she had gone in and taken the tray and stayed on his feet until she had gone.

Nice manners, thought Eulalia as she went downstairs to have her coffee with Jane.

‘I heard voices,’ observed Jane, spooning instant coffee into mugs.

Eulalia explained. ‘And Grandfather was pleased to see him.’

‘He sounds all right. I remember his dad; came visiting years ago.’

‘He got the washing machine to go again.’

‘That’s a mercy. Now, Miss Lally, you do your shopping; I’ll hang out the washing—see if you can get a couple of those small lamb cutlets for the Colonel and a bit of steak for us—or mince. I’ll make a casserole for us and a pie if there’s enough…’

Eulalia got her coat from the hall and fetched a basket and sat down at the table to count the contents of her purse. A week to pay day so funds were low.

‘It had better be mince,’ she said. ‘It’s cheaper.’ And then she added, ‘I hate mince…’

She looked up and saw that Jane was smiling—not at her but at someone behind her. Mr van der Leurs was standing in the doorway holding the coffee tray.

‘Delicious coffee,’ he observed, ‘and I was delighted to meet the Colonel.’

Eulalia got up and turned round to face him. ‘Thank you for bringing down the tray. This is Jane, our housekeeper and friend.’

He crossed the room and shook hands with her and smiled his slow smile so that she lost her elderly heart to him.

‘Miss Lally’s just going to do the shopping,’ she told him.

‘Perhaps I may be allowed to carry the basket?’

And very much to her surprise Eulalia found herself walking out of the house with him and down a narrow side street where there was a row of small shops, old-fashioned and tucked discreetly behind the rather grand houses.

She asked, ‘Don’t you have to go back to the hospital? I mean, this is kind of you but you don’t have to.’

‘It’s more or less on my way,’ said Mr van der Leurs, and since she was too polite to ask where he was going and he had no intention of telling her she made polite small talk until they reached the shops.

The grocer’s was small and rather dark but he sold everything. Mr van der Leurs, without appearing to do so, noted that she bought Earl Grey, the finest coffee beans, Bath Olivers, farm butter, Brie and Port Salut cheese, Cooper’s marmalade and a few slices of the finest bacon; and, these bought, she added cheap tea bags, a tin of instant coffee, a butter substitute, sugar and flour and streaky bacon.

It was the same at the butcher’s, where she bought lamb cutlets, a chicken breast, lamb’s kidneys and then minced beef and some sausages. He hadn’t gone into the shop with her but had stood outside, apparently studying the contents of the window. At the greengrocer’s he followed her in to take the basket while she bought potatoes and a cabbage, celery, carrots and a bunch of grapes.

‘We make our own bread,’ said Eulalia, bypassing the baker.

Mr van der Leurs, keeping his thoughts to himself, made light-hearted conversation as they returned to the house. It was evident to him that living was on two levels in the Colonel’s house, which made it a sensible reason for him to marry her as quickly as possible. There were, of course, other reasons, but those, like his thoughts, he kept to himself.