An Unlikely Romance by Betty Neels

Author:Betty Neels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-09-11T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

IT WAS ON the evening after their return from Schaakslot that Krijn told Trixie that they would be going to dinner at the university in Leiden on the following day.

‘Gracious, what short notice, and what do I wear?’

‘Did I not tell you? It might have slipped my mind. Wear anything pretty.’

She wished to be fair. ‘You mentioned that we would be going when we got back but you didn’t say when. Perhaps I misunderstood you...’

She went to bed that evening worrying about the right clothes: long or short, dressed up or casual? She woke several times during the night and went down to her breakfast looking wan with the lack of sleep.

‘You do not feel well?’ asked Krijn. ‘You are pale—you have not slept?’

She stared down at her plate. ‘It’s really very silly. I don’t know what to wear to this dinner party—I don’t want to make you feel ashamed of me...’

He said gravely, ‘I don’t think that would be possible, Beatrice. I’m sure that you will look very nice whatever you decide to wear.’

A remark which was of no help at all although she agreed quickly. After all, he had other things to think about and certainly wouldn’t want to be bothered with her clothes.

The professor wasn’t exactly bothered, but Beatrice was a nice girl and he didn’t like to see her looking anything but cheerful. They were good friends, he reminded himself, and as such he felt called upon to do something about it. At the hospital he telephoned Mevrouw van Vliet, who was giving the dinner party.

Trixie was arranging chrysanthemums in a Delft vase when the phone rang, and Mevrouw van Vliet wished her good morning in the precise, heavily accented English she spoke. ‘We have not met but I hear good things of you, and we look forward to meeting this evening. There will be many people to wish you well. It is an occasion, you understand? The men will wear the smoking—’

‘The what?’ asked Trixie, getting a word in edgeways.

‘You say the dinner-jacket? The ladies the long skirt, for we shall dance after dinner.’

‘It sounds delightful; I’m looking forward to meeting Krijn’s friends and colleagues.’

‘We see you at eight o’clock. May I call you Beatrice? That is your name, Krijn tells us.’

‘Yes, of course, Mevrouw van Vliet; we look forward to the evening.’

She put down the receiver and skipped upstairs to spend the next half-hour deciding what to wear. Mevrouw van Vliet had sounded a bit intimidating; presumably she was the senior lady at the university—if there was such a thing. She would play safe and wear something suitable for a professor’s wife. She laid her new evening gowns on the bed. On the other hand she didn’t want to look a frump, although that would be hard even in the plainest of the dresses.

She chose a rose-patterned chiffon with a wide floating skirt, a modest neckline and elbow-length sleeves. It was a pretty dress and there was nothing about it to allow of criticism.

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