Nurse Hilary (10 page)

“
I
’
m awfully glad,
”
said Hilary simply.
“
I think you
’
re doing a grand job here, and I
’
d—I
’
d do something drastic if I thought I
’
d made trouble for you.
”

“
Thanks, Hilary, you
’
re very sweet,
”
said Dr. Marsden,
and looked almost as startled to hear himself say that as Hilary was.

He stood up then, as the buzzer from the clinic sounded, and said,
“
Well, there
’
s my first patient. I
’
d better get to work. See you later, Hilary.
”

Chapter Eleven

She always had
two hours off duty in the afternoon, and today, without changing from her uniform, she swung her blue and scarlet cape about her shoulders and stepped out into pale golden sunshine. She walked down the drive, followed a path that led off at right angles, and suddenly paused in delight.

Before her two giant cedar trees guarded a low green
-
painted wooden gate set in a five foot wire fence. Beyond the gate, a flagstoned path led between flower beds that were beginning to show green spikes that in a few more sunny days would be tulips. Daffodils already spread a yellow carpet, starred here and there with clumps of grape-hyacinths. But the thing that held Hilary
’
s eyes and had so delighted her was the house set far back at the end of that flagstoned walk.

It was a Cape Cod cottage, white shingled, green-shuttered, with a door that had been painted a gay Chinese red. Beneath the front windows were green painted flower-boxes where green plants already showed. It was small, unpretentious, not more than five rooms at most, and like something straight out of a story book.

As she paused, delighting in the pretty scene, a huge yellow cat came streaking towards the gate, and in hot pursuit a girl in soiled, earth-stained blue jeans and a ragged sweater, calling to him,
“
Minnie-Mike, you come back here this minute. You want to get yourself squashed on that drive? Come back here!
”

Laughing as she recognized Angela Ramsey, Hilary headed the cat off, caught him, held him so that he could not scratch her, and laughed into his furious golden eyes.

“
Hi! Thanks—the beast. He knows he
’
s not supposed to go out on the drive.
”
Angela was panting, breathless, as she took
t
he cat, gave him a smart spank and set him down on the grass.

The cat gave them each a lowering glare, and then began washing himself, getting his fur in order, making it very plain how much he loathed being handled.

“
He
’
s my pride and joy,
”
Angela announced, smiling lovingly down at the cat.
“
How he
’
s survived a year and a half without being run over, I
’
ll never know. But I keep hoping his luck will hold.
”

She looked up at Hilary, laughing.

“
Hello, Hilary—welcome to the Manse!
”
She waved a grubby hand towards the charming cottage.
“
Come in for a drink.
”

“
Thanks, I
’
d love to,
”
Hilary answered.
“
What a perfectly charming place. Is this where you live? Not the T. & C.?
”

“
That plush dump crawling with old gals and old gents? I
’
d cut my throat first,
”
answered Angela briskly.
“
Pop lives there. He hates this place. It was the residence on the twenty
-
seven acres when he bought the land; he was all for tearing it down, setting fire to it. But I fought him to a stand-still, and finally he agreed very unwillingly to have it moved here where it won
’
t
‘
lower the tone
’
of the T. & C. Pop sets great store by the
‘
tone of the T. & C.
’
”

“
Yes, I know,
”
said Hilary dryly, walking with Angela along the flagstoned path to the house.

Angela threw open the scarlet door and looked at Hilary, eyebrows raised.

“
Oh, so you and Pop have had a run-in? Come on in and let
’
s see the bruises,
”
she commiserated.

The cat thrust its way between them and stalked into the house, yellow tail waving, and Angela grinned at him as he vanished toward the kitchen.

“
He really didn
’
t want to go visiting,
”
she announced to Hilary.
“
He just knows that if he pretends he
’
s going to run away, he
’
ll get fed something he likes very much. Blackmail, nothing less. That
’
s my Minnie-Mike.
”

Hilary laughed, liking the girl more and more.

“
What an odd name for a cat,
”
she laughed.

“
Isn
’
t it?
”
Angela agreed good-humoredly.
“
When I first got him, he was a kitten about the size of my fist. My first kitten; I
’
m afraid I wasn
’
t well up on the facts of life. I thought he was a girl, and being so beautiful, I thought a fancy name would be just a little too much, so I said,
‘
Minnie.
’
Before he really got used to the name, Pop reminded me
that
‘
Mike
’
would be more suitable, so now it
’
s Minnie-Mike.
”

“
I see,
”
Hilary answered, smiling.
“
And a very nice name it is, too. Does he answer to it?
”

Angela shrugged.

“
Oh, when he wants to.
”
She called over her shoulder,
“
We
’
ll have tea, Nora.
”

From the kitchen a booming voice touched with scorn answered.

“
Oh, will you, now? Then you
’
d best be coming out here and fixing it for yourself, me with me hands full getting ready for the dinner party tonight.
”

Angela chuckled.

“
I adore a well-trained servant, don
’
t you, Hilary?
”

“
I wouldn
’
t know; I never had one,
”
Hilary admitted.

“
Neither have I, but I never quite give up hoping.
”
Angela heaved herself up from the deeply cushioned, slip-covered sofa into which she had dropped when they first came in.

A huge woman in a neat blue-print dress beneath a dark apron appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, eyeing Hilary with a lively interest.

“
Oh, is it company you
’
ve got?
”
Her voice was pleasant, no longer booming or touched with scorn, and her broad, florid face was grinning.
“
Then I
’
ll serve your tea. Sit down and be a lady—and keep your muddy feet off that slip-cover. It
’
s just out of the laundry and I put it on fresh for the party tonight.
”

“
Yessum,
”
said Angela obediently, and straightened out her long lovely legs, her scuffed, earth-stained tennis shoes held straight out so that not even the heels could rest on the shag-rug.

“
That
’
s better,
”
said Nora, and disappeared.

“
Isn
’
t she a sweetie-pie?
”
murmured Angela fondly.
“
She was my foster-mother after my own mother died, when Pop was too poor and harassed to be bothered with me. It was all he could do to rake and scrape up enough money each week to pay Nora my room and board, which was all of five dollars a week. So when he finally struck it rich with the T. & C., I wouldn
’
t come out here to live until he gave Nora and me this house. I couldn
’
t get along without Nora.
”

“
And see that you don
’
t forget it ever, will you?
”
demanded Nora, rolling a tea-cart into the room in front of Angela and looking down at the girl with such warmth and affection that Hilary was touched.

“
Nora, me love,
”
said Angela, reaching up to clasp a big,
work-worn hand and hold it to her cheek,
“
this is Hilary Westbrook, a nurse at the T. & C. Hilary, this is my beloved friend, Mrs. Britt.
”

“
Nora to Angela
’
s friends, Miss Westbrook,
”
said Nora firmly.

“
Fine, and I
’
m Hilary, Nora.
”

Nora put her hands on her hips and studied Hilary with shrewd eyes.

“
You won
’
t be here long, Hilary,
”
she announced.

Startled, Hilary asked,
“
What does that mean?
”

“
Simply that you look like you had a mind of your own, and that
’
s something Himself won
’
t tolerate,
”
answered Nora, and walked out of the room.

Angela smiled ruefully as she held out a cup of tea and offered it to Hilary.

“
Nora and Pop aren
’
t what you
’
d call the best of friends,
”
she admitted reluctantly.

“
So I gather,
”
Hilary smiled at her.

“
Well, it
’
s really nobody
’
s fault, I suppose,
”
Angela struggled to explain.
“
Pop was so terribly poor after Mother died; before, too! But he always had big ideas, schemes, plans by which we were going to be rich overnight. But there were a lot of disappointments; so many of his schemes backfired and blew up in his face. And always, in the back of his mind, was this place. Nora had lost patience with him long before that; and they used to fight like the cats of Kilkenny; until at last the T. & C. became a realization of Pop
’
s fondest, wildest dreams. And I suppose he couldn
’
t forgive Nora for not believing in him all along; and she felt that the T. & C. was just a lucky fluke and still wasn
’
t too much in favor of it. Then the money began rolling in; and Pop wanted to bring me out here to live, and had a swanky apartment built on the top floor of the Club. I hated it, and I
’
d seen this cottage; so I made a deal with Pop: give me the cottage, move it back here, let me bring Nora with me, and we
’
d come here to live. Finally I wore him down; he was so busy with getting the Club equipped, filled, and working smoothly that I suppose I should be ashamed of insisting on my own way. But I got it, and here Nora and I are. And there Pop is with his cherished dream come true.
”

Hilary said thoughtfully,
“
So the Club means that much to him. I suppose, then, it
’
s no wonder he is so appalled at the bare idea of putting charity patients into the empty wards.
”

Angela all but choked on the cake she was about to swallow, and her blue eyes were enormous.

“
Migosh, Hilary, you didn
’
t spring
that
on him?
”
she gasped.
“
No wonder you had a row with him! That
’
s—why, that makes him perfectly livid, just to hear those wards mentioned. He and Stu went about fifteen rounds, with no holds barred, before he agreed to the clinic.
”

Hilary nodded.

“
I know,
”
she admitted wryly.
“
Dr. Marsden told me about that. And Middy warned me, too. But, well, one of Dr. Marsden
’
s patients, desperately in need of just what a bed in one of those wards could have given him, died.
”

Angela said quietly,
“
I’m
so sorry, Hilary. Stu will be terribly upset, I know. But I really love Pop, and I think I probably understand him better than anybody in the world, and
I’m
convinced that nothing you or anyone else could ever say to him could persuade him to open those wards to anybody except the type of people for whom they were meant
—
really ill people who could pay the T. & C.
’
s rates, plus all the extras of any hospital.
”

“
It seems such a terrible waste, and there
’
s such a desperate need,
”
Hilary reminded her.

“
Sure,
”
Angela answered,
“
but the T. & C. is the dream of Pop
’
s life come true. Nothing, but
nothing,
is going to be allowed to lower its high-toned standard of
‘
only the best is good enough for our guests, and the best costs plenty!
’
”

Hilary nodded, and for a moment the two sat in thoughtful silence. Then Nora came in, glancing at the tray.

“
Have you two finished?
”
she demanded.
“
I
’
ve got work to do, and I won
’
t have time to clean up this room again before your company comes.
”

Angela gave her a look that tried to be haughty but was too full of affection to be completely convincing.