Before he started the car he asked, “All set? No more shopping? I’ll wait if you want to explore the whole town.”
Lindsay said dryly, indicating the three small packages, “I already have, and I’m quite finished, thanks.”
“Then off we go.” Alden started the car. “Did you see Amalie and the two doctors?”
Lindsay felt her cheeks warm with a blush and answered, “Yes, I saw Amalie. Since Dr. Potter and Dr. Corbett have offices in the hospital, it would be a bit difficult to visit there without seeing them, don’t you think?”
“Difficult and, I’d say, rather foolish,” Alden agreed, eyes on the road ahead. “I do hope our dear Dr. Corbett is enjoying his usual splendid health.”
Something in his tone made Lindsay look sharply at him.
“Don’t you like Dr. Corbett?” she asked frankly.
“The question is—do you?”
She caught her breath in a small, soundless gasp.
“Well, yes, of course I do,” she managed. “He seems thoroughly competent, and I’m sure he is or Dr. Potter wouldn’t have him working with him.”
“I’m not asking if you admire his capabilities as a doctor, but if you find him charming as a man,” Alden stated flatly, even harshly.
“Well, as a man I like him, though I’ve always thought charming a poor word to describe a man!”
“What word would you use to describe him? Lovable? Debonair? Delightful? Handsome?”
“Oh, don’t be silly!” Lindsay protested hotly.
“As a writer, I’m curious to know what sort of word a girl like you would use to describe a man she’s falling in love with.”
Lindsay caught her breath and stared at him, outraged.
“How dare you accuse me of that?” she gasped.
“Well, he’s an attractive kind of a guy, and I understand the femmes here in town are pretty sold on him.”
“How nice for Dr. Corbett!”
“But not so nice for the gal who hands him her heart, eh?”
“About that I wouldn’t know!”
His eyes were on the road ahead, and his jaw was set and hard.
Lindsay said, before he could speak, “Look, Alden, I don’t want to quarrel with you. Remember, I didn’t ask you to bring me into town with you. It was your idea. I appreciated the invitation, and it’s been a lovely day—up to now. So let’s not spoil it by bickering, especially when I haven’t the faintest idea what we are bickering about. Whatever your argument with your editor, remember it had nothing to do with me. I am not to blame, and I don’t want you to take your ‘mad’ out on me. Else I’ll get mad, too, and we’ll be fighting like the cats of Kilkenny by the time we reach the ferry.”
Alden said grimly, “Of course you know what’s the matter with me.”
“I haven’t the faintest idea, unless it’s that you have to revise your article.”
“I’m jealous.”
That jolted Lindsay, and for a moment she could only stare at him speechlessly. Alden spared a glance at her astounded face before he once more turned his attention to the road ahead of them as it wound between tall, moss-hung trees.
“That’s right,” he said as though answering the question she had been too astonished to frame. “I’m jealous of you and Dr. Corbett. He’s crazy about you, and I’m afraid that because of your common interests and all, and the fact that he is a darned attractive guy, you may be falling for him.”
“Well, of all the utterly cockeyed ideas I have ever heard!”
“What’s cockeyed about it? You’re a beautiful girl. I’m an impressionable guy, and we’re both single, so why should you think it’s cockeyed that I am falling in love with you?”
Lindsay asked cautiously, “This isn’t just a gag? I mean, you are serious? But no, you couldn’t possibly be. It’s too utterly crazy!”
“What’s crazy about it?”
“The whole bit. Just because you and I have been thrown together at Bayou House, and because you are lonely, you get ideas about falling in love with the only available gal—”
“It’s not that at all. I’d fall in love with you if you were one among hundreds of enticing females.”
Suddenly, uncontrollably, she tipped back her head and laughed. Alden scowled at her angrily.
“Now that’s an insult—” he snapped—“a deliberate, premeditated insult. The least you could do when a guy tells you he loves you is to be gentle and sweet. If you can’t say, ‘Yes,’ you could at least restrain your unseemly mirth.”
“I’m sorry.” Lindsay managed an apology, though her eyes were dancing. “I didn’t mean to laugh, honestly. It’s just that today Dr. Corbett warned me that he was in grave danger of falling in love with me, and he didn’t seem at all pleased at the prospect! And now you! And neither of you has the faintest idea what it means. It would scare you simple if I said I’d marry you. Come to think of it, you hadn’t asked me to, had you?”
“Well, no, but I was leading up to it.”
“Then don’t, Alden, please! I like you a lot. But I’m years away from any thought of getting married to anybody.”
“Even Dr. Corbett?”
“Especially Dr. Corbett!” she answered rashly.
Alden grinned and relaxed.
“Oh, well, then I needn’t have rushed my fences! I could have waited and let you get better acquainted with me, before I warned you about what was happening to me, couldn’t I?”
“You could, indeed,” Lindsay told him. “And now, for Pete’s sake, let’s forget all this nonsense.”
“Nonsense? I resent that!”
“Oh, sorry. Well, anyway, let’s forget it and just go on being friends. I think that would be much more comfortable, don’t you? I mean, if we are going on living at Bayou House, it will be much less difficult if we are just friends, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t! I think being a properly engaged couple would be a lot more fun,” Alden insisted. “Besides, I don’t expect to be here more than another week, or two at the most.”
“Neither do I,” Lindsay cut in swiftly. “I met the woman Dr. Potter thinks can replace Amalie, and he is going to bring her out in a few days. And as soon as she is settled in, I can go back to the hospital and my regular job.”
“And be finished with the Bayou.”
Lindsay drew a deep breath. “And be finished with the Bayou,” she echoed.
Ahead of them the ferry was waiting. As Alden carefully negotiated the way down the bank, across the log road and onto the ferry, he said, “And that will be a grand day for you, won’t it?”
“Can you doubt it?”
“No, I can’t. Well, anyway, I can come calling on you when you get back to your regular job, and that’s more than Corbett can do. So I guess I win, after all.”
He looked so smugly pleased at the thought that Lindsay didn’t have the heart to point out that Dr. Corbett too would be free of the Bayou and the small county hospital in a few more months, and who knew where he might decide to set up shop for himself?
It had been quite a day, she told herself as the car drove off the ferry and set out on the makeshift road to Bayou House.
Chapter Ten
Lindsay had not expected Miss Jennifer to accept Clara Bates without a battle. But it proved to be less tumultuous than she had expected.
Of course, Miss Jennifer was extremely unpleasant to Lindsay, complaining furiously of Lindsay’s “abandonment” and her lack of a sense of duty. But Clara said briskly, “Now stop bullying her. She’s young and lovely, and she has a right to a life of her own. And I’ll be here with you to take care of you and keep you from being lonely. So you be a good girl now and stop ranting.”
Miss Jennifer glared at her.
“Who are you calling ‘a good girl?’” she demanded. “You keep a civil tongue i
n your head, young woman!”
Clara laughed heartily.
“You keep on calling me ‘young woman,’ and I’ll be so flattered it won’t even be funny,” she retorted. “I’ll make a deal with you, Miss Jennifer. You treat me civil, I’ll treat you civil. I’m a lot bigger than you are, and if I have to, I can wallop you!”
Miss Jennifer gasped in outrage.
“Why, you wouldn’t dare lift a hand to me, you—” she sputtered furiously.
Clara’s eyes met hers steadily, and Clara stood with her clenched fists on her ample hips, looking down at the woman in the bed, and said deliberately, “Don’t tempt me!”
Miss Jennifer glared, and Lindsay, standing in a corner of the room, looked from one to the other uneasily, yet unable to restrain the twinkle that danced in her eyes.
“You know what’s wrong with you, Miss Jennifer? I’m going to tell you,” Clara stated flatly. “All your life you’ve been the Big Cheese around here. People were scared of you. They still are, and you’ve become a big bully. But now that you are bedridden and helpless, you have to learn a few things.”
“Such as?” Miss Jennifer demanded, her voice shaken, her eyes wide with shock.
“Such as that other people have rights and privileges in this world and that nobody owns anybody any more. People are free and can come and go as they like. I’ll stay here and look after you, and we’ll let Lindsay go back where she’s really needed.”
“She’s needed here!” Miss Jennifer growled.
“No, she’s a registered nurse, and you don’t have any need for a registered nurse. All you need is somebody to be with you, to see you’re fed and bathed and took care of. You need companionship, Miss Jennifer, and you know something? So do I!”
Miss Jennifer stared at her, caught by a note in her voice.
“Yes, Miss Jennifer, living by myself, like I’ve done since my man died, has been a mighty lonely business,” Clara said quietly. “To live here with you in this fine, big house will be just about the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me.”
Miss Jennifer was still staring at her. Clara leaned above her, and her voice was not quite steady as she pleaded, “Let me stay, Miss Jennifer? Please?”
Miss Jennifer made a little gesture with an arthritic hand and said gruffly, “Oh, stop weeping and wailing. Of course you can stay. I can’t live here alone, and since the only relative I have is so anxious to get away from me, I’ll have to let you stay. But mind you, I’m the boss! You’ll take orders from me! And don’t you forget it!”
Clara smiled. “Of course, Miss Jennifer. I’ll take orders and do exactly what you say.”
Miss Jennifer glanced at Lindsay and said gruffly, “Well, if you’re in such a hurry to get away, hadn’t you better start packing?”
“You’re sure you won’t mind my leaving, Aunt Jennifer?”
Miss Jennifer’s smile was thin with scorn.
“Would it matter to you if I did?” she sneered.
Lindsay drew a deep breath and said quietly, “Now that Clara is here, I’m afraid it wouldn’t.”
“I didn’t think so,” snapped Miss Jennifer.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Jennifer.”
“I’ll bet you are!”
Clara said gently, “You run along now, Lindsay. We’ll be just fine won’t we, Miss Jennifer?”
The look Miss Jennifer gave her was by no means friendly. But it was not definitely hostile, and Lindsay took some comfort from that as she left the room.
She spent the afternoon packing, getting ready to leave, and in the late afternoon she came back to the verandah and heard the murmur of voices from Miss Jennifer’s room.
She was waiting for Alden’s return, anxious to tell him that she could leave tomorrow. He was later than usual, and shadows of dusk were gathering when at last she heard the sound of a car entering the drive. She got up from the swing and walked to the steps, watching the turn in the drive that would reveal and identify the car. She was startled to see that it was a strange car, and the man who got out and came toward her was also strange. He was dressed in the kind of hunting clothes that city men feel are right for hunting trips in the jungle. And as he saw her, he took off his wide-brimmed hat and smiled winningly.
“I was told that there was a trained nurse here who might just possibly be willing to render first aid to a badly injured man until the guide, Hutchens, can get back with the doctor,” he told her. “I’m Steve Porter. Hutchens took four of us on a hunting trip day before yesterday, and this afternoon Bud Tillman, one of our party, was badly hurt. Hutchens says it may take some time for him to find the doctor and bring him out, and he thought maybe you might be willing to lend a hand until then. I’m afraid Bud’s in pretty bad shape.”
He spoke swiftly, the words tumbling out, and Lindsay said quickly, “Of course. I’ll be glad to do what I can. Just a moment until I get my first aid kit.”
“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Steve protested. “We always come equipped with one. Some of the fellows can be so clumsy with guns.”
“Then I’ll just let my aunt know that I am going,” Lindsay told him, and went swiftly back into the house.
She explained the summons, and Miss Jennifer said sourly, “Oh, sure, you rush right out and break your neck trying to help a stranger, but can’t be bothered to look after your own flesh and blood!”
“Now, Miss Jennifer—” said Clara soothingly.
But Lindsay was gone. As she reached the drive, Steve Porter was waiting to help her into his car.
“This is mighty fine of you, Miss Mallory,” he said as he backed the car and went down the drive. “It’s a mighty lucky thing for Bud that you are here. Hutchens said he might have the devil of a time finding one of the two doctors and getting them out here.”
“I hope I can be of some service,” said Lindsay.
“Oh, I’m sure you can, Miss Mallory, and the whole party will be eternally grateful. Bud’s not a bad guy; he’s just stubborn, that’s all, and hates to take orders.”
“Was he shot?”
“Well, no, as a matter of fact he got tangled up in some of these strangler-fig bushes and blackberry briars. I wouldn’t really know just what kind of jungle stuff he got caught in, but his clothes were ripped to shreds. I’m afraid he’s in pretty bad shape.”
“Then I may not be able to help him,” Lindsay worried. “He may require surgery; perhaps blood transfusions. It’s hard to say just what he will need, of course, until I can examine him. Some of this jungle growth is poison. But I’m sure Jay Hutchens warned you about that, since he knows the place like the palm of his hand.”
They were advancing as fast as possible along the makeshift road, winding its way through trees and bushes, and splashing into black-muck pot-holes.
They came at last to a small clearing. In the center of it there was a rough wooden shack, little more than four walls and a rickety roof. The car’s lights illumined its darkness; not a ray of light was visible.
For the first moment a thread of apprehension brushed Lindsay. She turned to the man beside her, but in the frail light from the instrument panel she could barely catch the gleam of his white teeth in a smile that, somehow, deepened the chill on her spine.
“Out, sister; end of the line,” he told her, and the friendliness and courtesy were gone from his voice. “Behave yourself and you won’t get hurt. Yell, if you want to, but it would be a waste of breath, as I’m sure you know as well as I do. Nothing to hear you but the ’gators and the water moccasins.”
From inside the cabin a voice called cautiously, “That you, Steve?”
“Who was you expecting?” the man called back.
The door of the hut was pulled open, and Lindsay could see the frail glimmer of yellow light that scarcely pushed at the shadows of the small room. She was thrust forward, and a shadow in a far co
rner called out softly, “Careful, Steve. We don’t want the lady hurt.”
“Not yet, anyway,” another voice growled. Now Lindsay could see a huddle of shadows in the far corner of the room, two or three that loomed faintly in the darkness and were almost indistinguishable in that faint light.
The only light in the hut came from a kerosene-oil lantern that stood on a box beside the cot. Lindsay was pushed forward to the side of the cot and looked down at a man who lay face down, spread-eagled on the cot. Feet and hands were tied to opposite sides of the cot; his back was exposed to the dim yellow light that seemed trying to shudder away from the ugly sight. For the man had been brutally, unmercifully beaten, and his back was a horror.
Lindsay’s voice caught in her throat at the sight. She took a backward step and trod on the man who had said his name was Steve. He caught her by the elbows and thrust her forward again, as though enjoying her shock and revulsion at the sight of the brutally beaten man.
“Patch him up, sister,” Steve ordered. “We can’t afford to have him die on us.”
“But this was no accident,” Lindsay managed a panting breath. “He’s been beaten unmercifully.”
Steve addressed the three shadows at the far corner of the room.
“Smart gal, ain’t she?”
“Too smart for my taste,” snapped one of the shadows.
“Quiet, Bo!” The voice was gentle, cultured, yet in it there was a faintly menacing rasp. “This is all your fault, you know, and I shan’t forget it. You were told to rough him up a bit, not to kill him. I told you I wanted him scared; not dead!”
“Well, sure, Judge, only the guy fought back!” whined the other voice.
“This man should have been in a hospital hours ago,” Lindsay addressed the three shadows.
“Out of the question,” said the softly menacing voice. “Patch him up, Nurse! And get on with it.”
“Now that’s out of the question, Judge whoever-you-are,” Lindsay told him hotly. “I’m not a doctor, and I don’t have the necessary equipment to take care of a case like this.”
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