‘Then you will have a friend in him for life.’
Topsy finished fussing with Teddy’s blanket and stood up straight. ‘There you are, darling. Now you’re tucked in properly.’
Teddy wasn’t smiling today, Bobby noticed. In fact he looked depressed, and a little sullen.
‘I am really not so weak as all that, Topsy,’ he said irritably. ‘You make me feel like a child.’
‘You know Dr Grant said I was only allowed to bring you if I took special care of you and didn’t allow you to catch cold. You’ve got a lot of getting well to do yet.’ She turned to Bobby and folded her arms. ‘Well, Birdy, I really oughtn’t to speak to you at all. You’ve quite neglected me lately. I know you had the invitation to the garden party I held last week because I put the envelope through your door myself.’
‘Sorry, Topsy. I haven’t been in the mood for big parties lately.’
‘You ought to do something a little lively with yourself. You’re going to shrivel up and grow old before your time if all you do is work. There were scores of people I wanted to introduce you to, and some of the gentlemen were quite wretched when you weren’t there after all I’d told them of you.’
Topsy often held these gatherings for her upper-crust friends and she was perpetually badgering Bobby to join them. Evidently, Topsy thought the promise of matchmaking for her friend with some of the wealthy young men she hung about with would be enticing. However, the last thing Bobby wanted was to be afflicted with posh suitors who would be unlikely to entertain thoughts of marriage with a girl from a Bradford mill family but might well entertain thoughts of other things that hadn’t occurred to Topsy’s innocent brain. Whenever her friend was throwing a party, Bobby usually found an excuse to be somewhere else.
‘I’ll come next time if I’m free,’ she said, silently determining that whenever it was, she certainly wouldn’t be free.
Topsy turned to Teddy again. ‘I can hardly wait for you to be well enough to come too, Teddy. We always have such a jolly time.’
‘Your friends do not want to be troubled with invalids while they have their jolly times,’ Teddy said quietly. ‘The sight of me would only dampen their spirits.’
‘Oh, nonsense. I’ve told them all about my pilot and they’re just dying to meet you. You shall be introduced as my particular friend and be quite the guest of honour, I promise.’
‘I would rather not, Topsy. It is not in my character to enjoy being feted and lionised. You will enjoy your party more without me.’
‘Oh.’ Topsy, who was used to getting her way, looked rather put out. ‘Well of course, if you don’t want to come then I won’t force you. But I do wish you would reconsider. I should like to have you there if only for my own selfish sake.’
‘I am sorry. I cannot.’
Jolka had now set another chair out. Bobby was about to take a seat when Teddy looked at her.
‘Bobby, I wonder if I might trouble you to take me for a turn around the garden before you sit down?’ he said. ‘I have not yet seen the lake. I do not like to ask Topsy, who must be sicker of my company than she would ever say, but a little conversation between us would be pleasant.’
‘Of course, I’d be glad to,’ Bobby said.
‘Be sure that you don’t start making passionate love to her when you’re alone, Teddy, or I shall be frightfully jealous,’ Topsy said as Bobby took the handles of the young pilot’s wheelchair. ‘He’s the most terrible flirt, Birdy. A hundred times worse than Charlie Atherton.’
Bobby flinched when she heard the name, but she managed a smile at what was evidently supposed to be a joke. ‘I’m sure I can keep him at bay. Let’s go, Teddy.’
Chapter 36
The lodge had a large garden, prettily adorned with colourful flowerbeds and with a beautiful view of the lake over the back fence. Bobby wheeled Teddy to the garden gate, near to Jolka’s easel, and opened it so he could see the view.
The young man wasn’t looking at the view, however. He was looking sideways at Topsy, who was playing a game of Pat-a-Cake with little Tommy Zielinski.
‘She is quite beautiful, is she not?’ he said quietly.
Bobby blinked. ‘Topsy? Oh yes, very.’
‘She has many gentlemen friends who come to these parties of hers. Many of these Englishmen are in love with her, I suppose. They would wish to marry her.’
‘I couldn’t say.’ Bobby sat by him on the grass. ‘Certainly she has no wish to marry them.’
‘The man she marries will be quite a man. She is like a butterfly, like a… like a creature made all of joy and life. I never knew someone with so much life as this Topsy.’
Bobby laughed. ‘She always says she’s going to marry a poor man and become a fishwife or something.’
Teddy smiled. ‘She will do no such thing. She will marry a maharajah and become a princess; I am certain of it. She could be nothing less. And if she becomes a fishwife as she threatens, she will be a princess among fishwives.’
