Kit Cavendish-Private Nurse

by Margaret Malcolm

  She was down on her hands and knees grubbing in the rich dark earth, and Kit was certain she was singing, although the sound stopped with an abrupt gasp as Kit appeared.

  “I’m so sorry, Miss Day,” she said apologetically. “I do hope I didn’t hurt you?”

  “No ... oh no, you just surprised me,” Sue said breathlessly. “I didn’t hear you coming.”

  “I think you were too immersed in your job to hear anything,” Kit suggested. “I know it’s the way I get when I do any gardening.”

  “Oh. Do you like gardening?” Sue asked with the nearest thing to friendliness that she had yet shown.

  “Yes, I do, although I don’t get much opportunity to indulge in it now,” Kit explained regretfully. “But when I was at home I used to help my father a lot.”

  “I used to help mine,” Sue said in such a low voice that it seemed almost as if she was talking to herself. “But here, of course, there are gardeners—” She stopped suddenly as if she felt she had said too much, then went on anxiously, “Please, would you mind not saying anything about seeing me here? You see, it might get Peters, the head gardener, into trouble, because he said I could have this bed for myself...”

  “I promise I won’t say a word,” Kit told her unhesitatingly, though she felt her anger rising. Why, in such a huge garden, shouldn’t Sue have a patch for herself if she wanted it? And immediately she got her answer.

  “Thank you,” Sue said gratefully. “You see, Aunt Ruth says everything works more smoothly if everybody has their own particular job and is responsible for it. So ... so she wouldn’t like me doing what’s really Peters’s work, or neglecting my own, which is in the house.”

  “I see,” Kit replied, but she was not appeased. Perhaps there was something in Ruth’s idea—or there would have been if human beings were machines. But they weren’t, and everybody was the better for having a hobby that took them right away from their work. But she did not say that to Sue. It wouldn’t have helped. “But this is the sort of day that would tempt anyone out of doors, isn’t it? Spring in the air—it’s a marvelous time of year!” Satisfied that they were on friendly terms at last, and anxious not to try to force the pace, she gave Sue a smile and turned to go. “Nurse ... just a minute, please!”

  Kit turned. She had stood up and was facing her with desperate determination.

  “Yes, what is it?” Kit asked gently.

  “I ... I want to ask you something. Of course, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  “Well, suppose you tell me what it is and then I can judge,” Kit suggested, doing her best not to feel uneasy at the growing tension in Sue’s manner.

  “Yes,” Sue almost gasped. “Yes, I will. It’s—” She faltered, twisted her hands nervously together, and then suddenly seemed to make up her mind. “It’s about you and Noel,” she explained.

  “What about us?” Kit asked, unable to keep a slightly cool note out of her voice.

  “Oh, please, don’t be angry,” Sue begged desperately. “I’ve just got to know.”

  “Well?”

  “Is he ... is he in love with you?”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Kit’s first reaction to Sue’s question was one of sheer annoyance. Was Noel in love with her, indeed! Weren’t there enough complications in this household without the introduction of such an absurd one as this? Then, realizing just how much her answer meant to Sue, Kit’s anger faded.

  “No, he is not!” she said emphatically.

  “Oh!” Sue’s face cleared to some extent, but she was still not entirely convinced. “Are you quite sure?”

  “Quite,” Kit told her crisply. “You see, though I don’t think it’s always possible to be sure if someone is in love with you, I’m quite sure you know when they aren’t.”

  “Oh?” Sue looked interested. “How?”

  “Oh dear!” Kit shook her head. “I’m not honestly sure. I only know it’s true. And I’m quite, quite sure that Noel is no more in love with me than I am with him. And what, for goodness’ sake, ever made you wonder?”

  Sue’s eyes fell. “I just got the idea,” she muttered.

  “Just out of your own mind?” Kit pressed. “Or because someone else suggested it to you?” And then, as Sue did not reply, she went on, “Please tell me, Miss Day. You see, it’s rather important to me.”

  “Is it?” Sue asked suspiciously. “Why?”

  “Because, with nurses, as with doctors, there must never be any cause for their personal integrity to be in doubt,” Kit explained gravely. “And that’s perhaps even more important in the case of a private nurse who is received on trust into people’s houses. There must not be any idle gossip. It could do irreparable harm. Do you understand what I mean?”

  “Yes, I suppose I do,” Sue replied. “Well then, yes, it was someone else’s idea, though they don’t know that I—” She broke off, her eyes wide and scared.

  “You mean, you overheard something you weren’t meant to hear?” Kit suggested. And when Sue nodded, she went on, “Well, you’ll be doing both Noel and me a good turn if you will not only disabuse your own mind of the whole thing but will also tell whoever it was you overheard that it’s a lot of nonsense. Will you do that?”

  But Sue did not answer directly.

  “You call him Noel,” she said accusingly.

  “Yes, I did, but only to distinguish him from his father,” Kit explained patiently. “In fact, we’re not on first-name terms.”

  “But you went out with him in his car,” Sue insisted.

  “No, I didn’t,” Kit contradicted, wondering if there would ever be an end to the bother Noel’s insistence had caused. “I went out to tea with an old friend, and Mr. Baylis saw me coming out of her house. He took me for a short run, and then brought me back home. That was all.”

  “But you were half an hour late coming on duty.” Sue accused.

  “Yes, I was.” Kit was rather surprised at the remark. So far as she knew, only Nurse Stoke had been aware of her late return, and she had implied that she would keep it to herself, now it appeared that she must have told someone else. “Mr. Baylis was rather concerned about his father’s, health and we discussed it longer than either of us realized.”

  “Oh,” Sue said flatly. “Why was he worried?”

  “It was shortly after his father’s relapse,” Kit explained. “He was concerned that such a thing should not happen again.” And that, of course, was perfectly true, though it was not the whole truth.

  “I’m sorry if I’ve annoyed you, but I ... I had to know. You see I ... I like Noel so much...” She turned her head, but not before Kit saw the tears in her eyes and guessed her little secret. Kit hesitated, full of sympathy yet reluctant to get herself further involved in the affairs of this impossible family. Then Sue’s wistful little face turned the balance.

  “Look, Sue, just for a few minutes I’m going to pretend that you and I are real friends, and I’m going to ask you something. Of course, you can tell me to mind my own business, and if you do, well, that will be that. We’ll forget all about it.”

  “All right.” Sue said, clearly apprehensive of what might be coming, yet at the same time eager to know.

  “If you like Noel Baylis so much,” Kit said slowly, “why do you nag at him so? You do, you know,” she added with a whimsical smile.

  “Of course I do—because I like him so much,” Sue replied unhesitatingly and with a resoluteness that Kit had only previously seen when she was attacking Noel. Clearly, what she felt for him was the most dominant emotion in her life, and she could not hide the fact.

  “I realize that maybe he doesn’t like it,” she added, “but if I don’t try to ... to wake him up, who will?”

  “Perhaps he might do it for himself—if you leave him to do his own thinking,” Kit said thoughtfully.

  “Do you think so?” Sue asked eagerly.

  “I imagine, from the little I know of him, that he’s the sort of person who can think for himse
lf,” Kit said discreetly. “So perhaps if you were more friendly and less critical, even if, sometimes, you asked his advice—”

  “Oh!” It was evidently a new idea to Sue, and for a moment or two she digested it in silence. Then she shook her head forlornly.

  “No, I couldn’t do that—ask his advice, I mean. You see, my problems are the sort I couldn’t discuss with him—not possibly.”

  “But you could be friendly,” Kit smiled, but again Sue shook her head.

  “I might be anywhere else. But not here.” And then, in a sudden burst of confidence she said, “Haven’t you realized that this isn’t a friendly house? There’s too much ... too much...” She broke off and her eyes dropped from Kit’s. “I must go in now,” she finished hurriedly. “I’ve things to do.”

  “And I must go down to the village,” Kit said, accepting the abrupt conclusion of the conversation without comment.

  After the difficulties following her visit to Miss Catchpole, Kit resolved that she would pay no more visits to old friends in Ravenslea, at least while she was still at Moneyhill. It might, though, be an idea to stay at one of the Minsterbury hotels for a few days when her engagement terminated, particularly as this would give her an excuse to postpone any visits until then without hurting anyone’s feelings. She would also be able to tell her parents what she proposed doing, thus relieving their minds of the fear that she might be giving offense, as, she had picked up from their letters, they felt she might be.

  Having made up her mind about this, she spent as little time in the village as possible, going either for walks locally in the direction away from town, or else going into Minsterbury.

  In the back of her mind, was the feeling that in Minsterbury there was the possibility of a chance meeting with Jason, but in this she was disappointed. She thought she saw his retreating back on one occasion, but he was too far away for a meeting to be possible.

  Jason had not been to Moneyhill again, and it seemed unlikely that he would be, for Mr. Baylis’s condition was now steadily improving. He seemed to be taking life far more easily now, and, in fact seemed happier than he had been since she’d arrived, though he gave no reason to Kit for this state of affairs.

  All the same, Kit could not feel entirely at ease. Perhaps she never would in this house simply because of what had already happened, but she had an uncomfortable feeling that the undoubted calm was simply the forerunner of a storm. Certainly Mrs. Baylis seemed to have something on her mind, and to Kit there was always the possibility that she and Noel would sooner or later meet in headlong collision. Consequently, it was something of a relief that Noel was spending most of his time out of the house, though when he was present, he seemed to be in a particularly elated frame of mind—something, Kit was sure, that annoyed Mrs. Baylis, absurd though that seemed.

  Of Sue, Kit saw even less than usual. Victor, too, was completely out of the picture. He did not come again to Moneyhill, and since he lived in Minsterbury in his old home, and made the journey to work by car, there was little possibility of a chance meeting. This, Kit felt, ought to have helped to set her mind at rest. Actually, it did nothing of the sort. It was that remark of Noel’s that Victor and Mrs. Baylis were hand in glove that she found so disturbing. It gave her the feeling that though he never put in an appearance he was very much a force to be reckoned with. He was clever—she had always acknowledged that—and so quite equal to playing a waiting game if he thought it would be to his advantage. And that could apply equally to his personal affairs.

  And it was in this mood of indecision that she decided, one bright, frosty day, that she would go for a long walk in an attempt to clear the cobwebs from her mind.

  Suffolk was mainly a flat country, and there was little in the way of hills in the neighborhood, but such as there were assumed a greater importance than they otherwise would have in comparison with the surrounding flatness. So she decided to walk to Flack Hill, although it meant a total of about eight miles, with no chance of a shortcut back if the weather altered.

  However, she dressed in clothes that would stand up to most things—an old tweed suit, a lightweight raincoat and sturdy shoes. She tucked her wallet into her pocket so that she could leave her handbag behind. She slung a small satchel over her shoulder as she wanted to buy food in the village so that she could lunch in the shadow of the old null at the top of the hill.

  Her spirits rose as the walk progressed. The sun was shining, the air was clear, and Ravenslea, particularly Moneyhill, was behind her. In fact, as she reached the top of the hill, she was singing happily to herself.

  “Oh, who will o’er the downs so free—” she caroled gaily, sitting down on a convenient stone and unpacking her satchel.

  “Oh, who will with me ride—” chimed in another voice—a man’s voice.

  And Jason came around from the other side of the hill, dressed, as Kit was, for a country ramble and smiling in the old, infectious way.

  “Now who can say that there isn’t such a thing as providence or coincidence ... or downright good luck,” he commented while Kit got her breath. And then, with an envious look at the food she was unwrapping, “I wish I’d thought to bring something! But it was a sudden impulse.”

  “We’ll share,” Kit insisted, trying not to notice the erratic way her heart was behaving.

  “I’m too hungry to refuse,” Jason admitted, sitting down nearby. “Though I’ve a guilty conscience about robbing you.”

  “You needn’t have,” Kit assured him, passing him a still-warm meat pie. “I was just wondering how on earth I could have let my greed so outrun my appetite.”

  “I’m glad you did,” Jason said.

  “Have you been here before?” Kit asked, feeling that at this moment silence would be unbearable.

  “Yes, once or twice,” Jason explained. “I found it by chance, but since then I’ve come back because it turned out to be a good spot for solving problems.”

  “It is,” Kit said eagerly. “That’s why...”

  “Why you came today?” Jason finished. “What’s your problem, Kit? Anything I can help you with?”

  “Jason, there’s nothing I’d like better,” Kit said earnestly. “Particularly as it concerns you...”

  “Oh?” Jason sounded noncommittal.

  “It’s about the Baylises,” Kit explained. “It’s rather a long story and rather an involved one—so involved that I felt I’d have to get it sorted out in my mind, but it will be much better telling you.”

  Jason nodded.

  “Yes, you have to marshal your thoughts clearly to explain it to someone,” he commented. “Nothing like it, as I’ve found over and over again.”

  Encouraged by his understanding, Kit plunged into her story, trying to simplify it as much as possible and yet leave nothing out.

  “My heavens, what a setup!” he commented. “Well, let’s get down to it, Kit. Summing up, what you’re afraid of is that there’s real trouble brewing, and you’re afraid of the effect it may have on Mr. Baylis.”

  “Yes,” Kit agreed.

  “And at the same time, you don’t see what you—or anyone else—can do to protect him. And I must say, nor do I.” He pondered, and Kit waited silently. “Confound it, you can’t make people over just to suit yourself—or in this case, our patient. Mrs. Baylis is a very determined woman who likes her own way. But, on the other hand, Noel may be unfairly prejudiced against her, perhaps because she has taken his own mother’s place or because they’re naturally antagonistic. He’s convinced she’s deceiving his father in some way, and that seems to him a terrible thing. So it is. But regarding the situation dispassionately, far more harm might be done if he disillusions his father than if things are left as they are. Mr. Baylis may be living in a fool’s paradise, but then again, he may not. One can’t be sure, any more than one could say with certainty that he would not almost automatically take his wife’s part, even if he didn’t agree with her actions. In that case, he would be extremely angry with Noel.”
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  “And that would mean a bad upset,” Kit sighed despondently. “Which there simply mustn’t be.”

  Jason nodded.

  “Quite. On the other hand, suppose Noel is not mistaken. Surely, sooner or later the father is bound to find out if his wife and Wrinch have been up to some skullduggery. And then what? Possibly an even worse upset, with Mr. Baylis feeling that he couldn’t trust either his wife ... or his son, since he was suspicious and kept quiet.” He paused, deep in thought. “Wrinch,” he said suddenly. “I’ve a feeling that he’s the weak link. You’ve known him all your life. What’s he really like?”

  “I’ve begun to wonder if I really know,” Kit said slowly. “Ambitious—I think I always knew that. And very determined to get what he wants. But I don’t think I ever realized until lately that he could be...” She paused, frowning, as she tried to think of the right word.

  “Two-faced?” Jason suggested quietly. “Is that it, Kit?”

  “Yes, I think it is,” she admitted reluctantly. “It isn’t a nice thing to say about an old friend, but it’s true. And I didn’t realize, either, that though he’ll take a chance, he’s not what you would call a natural gambler...” She looked at Jason to see if he understood.

  “I know. He can’t resist it, but he doesn’t enjoy it. That’s why he likes to provide a loophole in case of accidents. As he did over that confounded report. Hm.” He rubbed his hand thoughtfully over his chin. “Kit, stop me if I’m wrong, but I understood Grainger to say that although you and Wrinch had been completely out of touch for four years or so, nonetheless it was his doing that brought you to Moneyhill. Is that right?”

  “Yes,” Kit said steadily. “But I didn’t know that until I got here and he told me.”

  “I see. Ever asked yourself why he did that?”

  “Yes, I have,” Kit answered, “because it doesn’t make sense.”

  “No?”

  “No. You see, years ago, Victor wanted to marry me. And ... and I had to say no.” She turned her face away from Jason, remembering the reason why she had been unable to give Victor the answer he had so persistently sought.