Johnny Swanson - Eleanor Updale [23]
‘That’s quite all right, Johnny,’ said Dr Langford, showing him to the door. ‘I know you were only trying to help.’
‘I was thinking of Olwen,’ said Johnny. ‘I know it’s too late for your vaccine to work on her, but it sounded as if this Umb … Umber … whatever it’s called, might help. But if that’s no good, what will happen to her?’
‘I’m afraid I can’t say. I don’t even know exactly where she is. She’s not my patient. She’s probably not even ill at the moment. All I know is that she’s with relatives in Wales.’ The doctor lowered his voice. ‘Now remember, son. Mum’s the word. Don’t tell anyone about the vaccine. Understand?’
The door closed behind him, and Johnny could hear raised voices. He crept round to the drawing-room window, hoping to be able to make out what the Langfords were saying, but he could only catch fragments of the argument.
Mrs Langford was furious: ‘… couldn’t resist it … totally unnecessary risk.’
The doctor was trying to reassure her: ‘He won’t tell anyone … Who’s going to listen to a boy? … doesn’t know where the laboratory is.’
‘I just wish you’d never got involved … not even going to make us any money … scrimping to make ends meet …’
Johnny heard a door slam and the voices disappeared.
He set off down the path, only to find Miss Dangerfield waiting at the gate. After seeing Mrs Langford in her trim clothes, Johnny noticed how Miss Dangerfield’s shapeless old-fashioned layers of black swept along the muddy ground, and how short and stooped she was underneath her funereal fringes and flounces. Even so, her fierce nasal voice was chilling.
‘I’ve been watching you,’ she said. ‘I saw you hovering by that window. Hoping to break in, I shouldn’t wonder.’
‘No, Miss Dangerfield. I wasn’t. I was just listening—’
‘Listening!’ She grasped Johnny’s shirt and pulled him towards her. ‘Eavesdropping – that’s what I call it.’
‘No. Not that,’ said Johnny, shaking. ‘I’d just been inside, talking to Dr Langford.’
Miss Dangerfield was spitting with contempt. ‘You? Inside? Don’t be ridiculous. Why should Dr Langford want to talk to you? What were you talking about?’
Johnny had only just promised to keep quiet. He could see how concerned the Langfords were that no one should know they had brought the BCG to Britain. He said nothing. But he knew Miss Dangerfield would take his silence as a sign of guilt.
‘I thought as much!’ she said when Johnny failed to speak. ‘You’re a liar as well as a thief.’ She pushed him away. He wanted to run, but his legs wouldn’t move. She grabbed his hair and shook him till his eyes watered with pain. ‘You get away from here, and don’t come back!’ she yelled, turning him round and poking her walking stick into the small of his back. ‘I’m warning you.’
After what the doctor had told him about Miss Dangerfield’s sad past, Johnny had begun to feel a bit sorry for her. But not now. Not after how she had just treated him. To Johnny she was a miserable old woman once again. Instead of walking away, as he knew he should, he did something he’d never done in the presence of an adult. He made a very rude sign and said an even ruder word. Then he ran.
Chapter 12
THE PRIVATE BOX
Every afternoon, a man with a wide moustache came up to the post office counter to ask if he had any mail.
‘Why does he do that?’ asked Johnny. ‘Why doesn’t the postman take him his letters?’
‘Oh, he’s got what we call a private box,’ said Hutch. ‘He has all his letters addressed here, and he collects them himself.’
‘Why would he want to do that?’
‘Well. There could be all sorts of reasons. He might be travelling, and picking up letters from several post offices on his route. Or he might not like the folk he lives with to see what letters he’s getting. Or perhaps he doesn’t want the people who send the letters to know