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you can hardly turn round and go straight back, can you? Not after that long journey.'
    Evan Davies looked as displeased as ever, though Helen was prepared to accept the old doctor's words as sound sense. 'I would have preferred someone older, Doctor,' he said. 'It would have been better in view of Emlyn’s—'
    ‘Emlyn is a normal, red-blooded young man,' Doctor Neath interrupted heartily, 'and having a pretty girl for a nurse is going to get him on his feet again much quicker than some old fuddy-duddy fussing around him. Helen will be good for him.' He glanced at her with wicked eyes before giving Evan Davies a broad wink. ‘And Emlyn will be good for her.’
    ' I am paying for the services of a nurse,’ the other man said coldly, ‘not an entertainer. It’s Emlyn’s medical recovery I’m concerned with, not his social life.’
    ‘Then if you get both you can’t complain, can you?’ Doctor Neath said blandly. The brief silence that followed was pregnant with unspoken replies to that piece of reasoning, but when he did speak it was with grudging politeness.
    ‘As you've had such a long journey it will be as well if you stay, at least for the present,’ he allowed, and with the black gaze fixed on her she wished with all her heart that she had never succumbed to Doctor Neath’s suggestion, had not come to this great grey house, for its owner obviously would only have her there on sufferance. 'There’s no need for you to start immediately, Mrs Beeley has seen that he’s comfortable, but you’ll probably want to meet him.’
    ' How is he this morning?' Doctor Neath asked.
    ‘As usual.’ The reply had an edge of pity on it. 'It rankles with him having to be still for so long; you know how full of energy he always was.’
    ‘And will be again,’ the old doctor assured him gently, sensing the pity for his son that prompted the words, and Helen too saw something else in the man that she had until now condemned out of hand for his arrogance and lack of feeling. The doctor turned to Helen, putting a hand under her arm. 'We'll go, shall we, Helen, and meet your patient?’
    ‘Right now? 'she asked, looking down at her somewhat travel-stained appearance, and the old doctor nodded.
    ‘No time like the present,' he quoted cheerfully.
    ‘All right, I suppose I can change and tidy up later,' she agreed. 'I would like to see my patient and I’d like to meet him while you’re here, Doctor Neath.'
    ‘Come along then, my dear.' He took her to the door and turned to speak to the other man before they went out. 'I’ll perform the introductions, Evan, don’t you bother.’ The black head nodded agreement and, before the door closed behind them, he had turned back to his position at the window. Doctor Neath smiled at Helen encouragingly. 'Don't take too much notice of Evan,' he advised. 'He's not nearly as bad as he would have people believe,' a piece of wisdom that Helen hoped most heartily was true.
    They passed Mrs Beeley on the stairs and the original curiosity that she had shown on their arrival had now been replaced by obvious pleasure at the thought of having her as the only other female in the household.
    'You'll like it here, Miss Gaynor,' she promised. 'Mr Evan is very good, and as for Mr Emlyn, why, he's no trouble at all, bless him, though he does get so tired of being on his own.' Her friendly smile appraised Helen's golden fair hair and blue eyes. 'He'll be better with someone like you to take care of him.'
    Helen merely smiled at the confident assurance and followed the doctor up the rest of the stairs, not at all sure that she shared the housekeeper's optimistic view of the future, particularly with regard to her employer being 'good '.
    The bedroom they entered after a preliminary knock was immediately over the room they had just left and its high windows commanded the same view of the mountain with its background of blue sky and white clouds. If one had to be confined to bed there were very few places