A Christmas Romance Read Online Free

sitting on one of the kitchen chairs, looking resigned. He was more than willing to return to her room with her and curl up on the bed. He was better than a hot-water bottle and she slept again until early morning, just in time to take him back downstairs before she heard her aunts stirring.
    Sunday formed a well-remembered pattern: breakfast with Mrs Trickey, still in a hat, cooking scrambled eggs, and then church. The aunts wore beautifully tailored coats and skirts, made exactly as they had been for the last fifty years or so, and felt hats, identical in shape and colour, crowning their heads. Theodosia was in her winter coat and wearing the small velvet hat she kept especially for her visits to Finchingfield.
    The church was beautiful and the flowers decorating it scented the chilly air. Although the congregation wasn’t large, it sang the hymns tunefully. And after the service there was the slow progress to the church porch, greeting neighbours and friends and finally the rector, and then the walk back to the house.
    Lunch, with the exception of the boiled vegetables, was cold. Mrs Trickey went home after breakfast on Sundays, and the afternoon was spent sitting in the drawing room reading the
Sunday Times
and commenting on thevarious activities in the village. Theodosia got the tea and presently cleared it away and washed the china in the great stone sink in the scullery, then laid the table for the aunts’ supper. It was cold again so, unasked, she found a can of soup and put it ready to heat up.
    She filled their hot-water bottles, too, and popped them into their beds. Neither of them approved of what they called the soft modern way of living—indeed, they seemed to enjoy their spartan way of living—but Theodosia’s warm heart wished them to be warm at least.
    The professor arrived at exactly half past six and Theodosia, admitting him, asked rather shyly if he would care to meet her aunts, and led the way to the drawing room.
    Great-Aunt Jessica greeted him graciously and Great-Aunt Mary less so; there was no beard, though she could find no fault with his beautiful manners. He was offered refreshment, which he declined with the right amount of regret, then he assured the old ladies that hewould drive carefully, expressed pleasure at having met them, picked up Gustavus’s basket and Theodosia’s bag and took his leave, sweeping her effortlessly before him.
    The aunts, in total approval of him, accompanied them to the door with the wish, given in Great-Aunt Jessica’s rather commanding voice, that he might visit them again. ‘You will be most welcome when you come again with Theodosia,’ she told him.
    Theodosia wished herself anywhere but where she was, sitting beside him in his car again. After a silence which lasted too long she said, ‘My aunts are getting old. I did explain that I had accepted a lift from you, that I didn’t actually know you, but that you are at the hospital …’
    The professor had left the village behind, making for the main road. He said impassively, ‘It is only natural that they should wish to know who I am. And who knows? I might have the occasion to come this way again.’
    Which somehow made everything all right again. In any case she had discovered it was hard to feel shy or awkward with him. ‘Did you enjoy your weekend?’ she wanted to know.
    ‘Very much. And you? A couple of quiet days away from the hospital can be just what one needs from time to time.’
    Perhaps not quite as quiet as two days with the great-aunts, reflected Theodosia, and felt ashamed for thinking it for they must find her visits tiresome, upsetting their quiet lives.
    ‘Shall we stop for a meal?’ asked the professor. ‘Unless you’re anxious to get back? There is a good place at Great Dunmow. I’ll have to go straight to the hospital and won’t have time to eat.’
    ‘You don’t have to work on a Sunday evening?’ asked Theodosia, quite shocked.
    ‘No, no, but I want to check on a