For Love or Money by Tim Jeal Read Free Book Online Page B

tutor, but now …’
    ‘I rather like Mr. Matthews as a matter of fact‚’ said David primly, adding, ‘you haven’t got an aspirin by any chance?’
    ‘No.’ Hotson got up and went over to the door. ‘You’d better ask the matron.’ He shut the door with a bang.
    When he had been a child, David had suffered from severe earache. As his headache increased he began to feel the familiar stabbing pains beneath his ears.
     *
    The sanatorium in Greville was a large airy room with four beds. The matron had taken his temperature and asked him to bring his pyjamas and dressing-gown over with him.
    From his bed he could see the Victorian chapel and, standing out darkly behind, the ridge of hills beyond Edgecombe . Two of the other beds were already occupied by ’flu victims. One was an older boy whom David knew only by name, and the other a junior he had known in Hall. All three felt too ill to want to talk.
    The other two got better and their beds were reoccupied by new tenants, but David, though the ’flu left him after only a week, continued to suffer from earache.
    At the end of ten days he was still no better. He watched yet another dawn breaking over the pinnacled chapel, having  heard another night of sick-room murmurs and splutterings. The matron gave him codeine tablets, which he swallowed with hot tea served in practical blue-and-white-ringed mugs. He knew every crack and discoloration on the ceiling. Were the cracks rivers or roads? The blotches lakes or mountains? He tried to visualise it all in three dimensions.
    At noon the matron came with the school doctor, Dr. Blossom. He thoroughly examined David’s ears with the help of a small torch which he shone first in one ear and then in the other. He murmured to the matron and she nodded. Ten minutes later David heard that he was to go and see a London specialist the following Saturday. He was asked whether he had any relations in London with whom he could stay the night. He said that he had an uncle who might be in town that week-end. (David to avoid embarrassment , always referred to George as his uncle at school.) Could David write and find out for certain? He said he would.
    There was one problem though, David didn’t want to write and ask George himself. Once, he had asked George whether he would take him with him on one of his visits to London to see his ailing mother. His request had been curtly dismissed. What was he thinking of? Who would keep Mummy company and besides he didn’t really want to see a sick old woman and spend a couple of uncomfortable nights in a dreary hotel. Heaven only knew … it wasn’t as if there was nothing to do at home. No, George was not the person to ask. David’s mother, on the other hand, had always been vague when asked where George stayed in town. ‘Oh, some hotel or other, darling.’ But Steven, Steven did know. David could hardly have forgotten the time when he had burst into his room at Trelawn, less than a year ago and had announced that he had found out George’s London address.
    ‘Well, what’s so marvellous in that?’
    ‘We’ll see, we’ll see‚’ had been the perplexing answer.
    ‘Are you going to send him post-cards?’ David had asked.
    ‘You’re a bit young to understand.’
    David had been hurt at the time. Of course he’d understood .Obviously George had a small flat and liked to go out to the theatre occasionally or see a film or two. What was so wrong in that? Besides, he knew his mother didn’t like George going to London, so that was clearly why he hadn’t told her. Anyway, as she didn’t like the place, George could hardly take her too. Steven as usual had been looking for things where they hadn’t been. David decided to write to Steven for the address; he would also phone his mother and find out whether George was going to London. The only person who mustn’t know would be George. After all he might refuse like the time before. He could be very difficult at times. No, he’d ask