by Pauline Ash
“Why did you wait outside the hospital for me?” she asked him heatedly.
“No other way to contact you, Lisa. What’s the idea of not being available on the telephone?”
“Avoiding Jacky’s calls,” Lisa said briefly. “We aren’t allowed private calls in hospital hours, but she just won’t believe that.”
“She wouldn’t,” he said grimly. “I just wanted to ask you if you’d spend an hour or two with me this afternoon. I’ll drop you off if you’ve something else planned.”
“I hadn’t,” she admitted honestly. “Not apart from trying to study for my exams, that is,” and she had to smile ruefully.
“You know, Lisa, you’ve a very lovely smile,” he told her seriously. “I must be very careful or I’ll begin to think too much of you.”
“You think that would be bad?” she asked, laughing in spite of herself at the fleeting alarm in his face.
“I’m a confirmed bachelor, my dear. The rule of my life has always been to like women but never to fall into the trap of love. That way lies disaster.”
“I shouldn’t worry about it if I were you, Ellard. I can’t see you falling in love with anyone,” she assured him.
“But you don’t dislike me any more, do you?” he asked shrewdly. “I can tell you don’t. You’re such an honest little soul, Lisa; you couldn’t hide anything for long.”
“Am I as transparent as that?” she asked in dismay.
“Not transparent. Just ... well, honest, and I’m not used to meeting honest women. It’s rather refreshing,” he finished lightly, as if already afraid of having said too much.
“Where are we going?” she asked presently, feeling that she was beginning to enjoy trips in this lovely car with Ellard as a companion. It was not that she was getting to like Ellard any more than she had done at first. She tried to analyze her feelings, and could only decide at last that, though Ellard might well be as selfish and reckless as Derek had been, he was old enough to know how to disguise his feelings, so that she did not feel that he was interested only in himself. Derek, lovable as he had been, had sometimes made her feel that there was only one person in the world who mattered—Derek Frenton. Ellard was clever enough to make her feel sometimes that Lisa Bryant counted a little.
“I thought you’d like some tea at a nice quiet place,” Ellard said, “and then I’d rather like to buy you a little gift. Just to show you that I think you’re rather nice. No strings attached,” he added, laughing, as she swiftly sat upright and looked searchingly at him. “You may not know it, but I’m the sort of chap who likes to show my friends when they please me.”
In spite of her protests, he did buy her something. It was a really beautiful powder compact (more valuable than she realized), and represented a touch of luxury that she had never had before and found hard to resist.
“Do take it, Lisa, to please me,” Ellard urged.
She reddened. Her own compact was quite a small, ordinary one, very much the worse for wear. She was uncomfortably aware that he had been looking at it the last time she had taken it out of her purse.
“All right,” she agreed. “But don’t give me presents too often, Ellard. I’m ... well, I don’t want gifts for being friends with people. It isn’t my way.”
“I know that, my dear,” he told her quietly. “That’s one of the endearing things about you.”
It was a happy, restful three-hour break. Ellard set out to make it so and finally dropped her at Oakdale Walk, a quiet road near the hospital, in good time to return to duty.
She went onto the children’s ward with a happy smile on her lips. But it soon vanished.
“Are you going to the garden party with anyone special, Nurse?” Sister Rudolph asked. “Don’t hesitate to say so, if you are.”
“I’m not going at all, Sister. I’m spending the day with Nurse Thorley’s family,” Lisa replied.
“Oh, a date that can be broken,” Sister exclaimed in a relieved voice. “Good, because I want you to take our three convalescent children to the party. It will do them the world of good, and you can have extra time to go to your friend’s home later.”
Lisa’s heart sank. Sister Rudolph was one of the few people whose requests could not be refused, because she was such a dear. And so, against every instinct in her, Lisa agreed to do it, knowing she was being forced into going to Derek’s home.
Somehow she got through the rest of that week, and managed to spend her free hours pulling up, her neglected studies in anticipation of the moonlight fishing. When that day arrived, however, the weather showed signs of breaking.
“Simeon won’t take the boat out, will he?” Mary asked doubtfully. “The weather forecast isn’t so good.”
“If he doesn’t trust the sky, he won’t go,” Lisa said, hurrying off duty that evening. She would only have two hours out in the old man’s boat, but it would be well worth it. She left the old bicycle at the side of the jetty and went aboard.
“The other party’s not shown up,” the old man grunted. “If he’s not here in five minutes, us’ll go without him, lass. Don’t think much of that sky, but weather won’t break till we get back, I reckon.”
Lisa nodded and sat quietly in a corner, taking deep breaths of the evening air, redolent of tarry rope and seaweed, mixed with the special yet not unpleasant odor of Simeon’s favorite tobacco.
She prayed the other person would not come. She liked being alone in old Simeon’s beloved craft. It would not be such fun with a stranger on board.
Then her hopes died as she heard hasty footsteps crunching over the shingle.
“Aye, in the nick o’ time. Thought he’d never get off them wards, that I did,” Simeon muttered. “Just going to cast off, we was,” he shouted over the side.
Lisa stood up, wondering who the other passenger could be; then she sat down hurriedly in sheer astonishment and dismay.
It was Randall Carson.
CHAPTER FOUR
If Lisa was overcome with astonishment, Randall Carson was no less surprised. As he climbed aboard, he stood stock still, staring at her.
Simeon at once sensed the tension, but jumped to the conclusion that the surgeon, who had operated on him, did not care to go fishing with a woman aboard. He hastened to assure him that Lisa was no ordinary woman.
“ ’Tis one of your own nurses, Mr. Carson, sir,” the old man said, “and a right good lass and no mistake. She’ll not get in the way, nor chatter overmuch. Now, us’d better be pulling out, or we’ll miss what weather there is, by the looks of that sky.”
Lisa said a breathless good evening to Randall Carson, but he contented himself with a curt nod, before sitting down as far away from her as possible.
The evening was spoiled as far as she was concerned. Before they were out of sight of the shore, the sea became extremely choppy, and even old Simeon lost hope.
“No good putting the nets down tonight, Mr. Carson, sir. Shall I turn back?”
Randall Carson’s jaw jutted out. “Turn back? Oh, I think not, the weather isn’t bad yet. Personally I like a good blow. Such a change from the stuffy atmosphere in the hospital.”
Simeon frowned. “What do the little lady think, now? Agreed, lass, as we don’t go back just yet?”
Before Lisa could say one way or the other, Randall Carson struck in coldly: “Nurse Bryant surely took the risk of bad weather, when she insisted on coming on this trip tonight.”
Lisa thrust her chin out. Not for worlds would she admit to feeling queasy after that. “I haven’t said I want to go back yet,” she reminded him stiffly, and turned her head away.
“So be it,” Simeon said, but he cast a very thoughtful look at both of them from time to time.
The moon was blotted out with racing clouds, and even the old man decided at last that it was no fun staying out in that rolling swell. “Best be turning back now,” he told them firmly.
Lisa sat with her eyes closed. What a miserable trip it had turned out to be, she reflected, as sh
e sat white-faced and angry at what she considered was sheer awkwardness on Randall Carson’s part. At the same time she was glad that he kept far enough away from her so that he would not guess that she was feeling far from well.
At last she could not bear it any longer, and she decided that if she did not move to stretch her cramped limbs she really would be ill. She let go of the seat and began to move cautiously along. And then, as they were nearing the shore, a great breaker washed right over the side, and knocked her over, so that her head struck a wooden locker. She was out cold.
Randall Carson helped the old fisherman get his craft alongside the jetty, hampered by the swell of the angry sea; it was not until they had tied up that they realized that Lisa was lying in a huddle where she had been thrown by the force of the wave. Simeon was upset. He liked Lisa. Randall Carson was able to assure him, however, that she would soon be all right.
When she came to, she was no longer being thrown about, nor was the floor beneath her feet tilting at an alarming angle. A soft light was snapped on, and she saw that she was inside someone’s car. Its brown leather interior assured her that it was not Ellard Lindon’s luxurious model; then she realized that the man bending over, getting something out of the pocket of the back seat, was Randall Carson.
“How did I get here?” she gasped.
“I carried you up from Simeon’s boat,” he said, coolly, but she was quick to notice the usual harsh note was missing from his voice. “Here, drink this. It’s all right, it’s only brandy. Good. Now, let’s have a look at that head. You’ll have an outsize bruise, but you were lucky to get away with nothing more serious. Aches, does it?”
She had a pounding headache, but she would not admit it. “A bit,” she said unwillingly. “I’ll be all right, sir.”
His lips tightened as she said that, but he merely remarked, “Oh, here comes the rain. Lucky the car wasn’t too far away,” and he closed the windows and started up the engine.
He had wrapped her in a thick rug, but she was still shivering. He glanced sideways as he drove carefully up the ramp to the road and said, “Still, feeling queasy?”
“I’m not queasy!” she denied indignantly, but it was no use saying that to Randall Carson, and she knew it. The knowledge that he did know just how ill she was feeling made her angrier. Her brief answers to his questions sounded more churlish than she had intended, especially as he seemed to be sorry for his former unfriendliness and was trying to make amends.
“Do you often go out in Simeon’s boat?” he asked.
“No. I seldom have the opportunity,” she said.
“Do you like moonlight fishing?”
She shuddered at the memory but said stiffly, “In good weather, I do.”
He gave up that subject and tried the only other topic he could think of which might interest her. “Will you be going to Lady Frenton’s garden party, Nurse?”
Lisa was furious. Why did he have to remind her of that obligation, she thought, when she was feeling so wretched?
“Yes, sir,” she said and saw his jaw suddenly tighten. She wondered what had upset him. For just a fraction of a second she dared to think he might be jealous—that he believed she would be going with Ellard. He had already seen them together in Ellard’s car. But that was ridiculous. Why should Randall Carson care about her friends? Randall himself said no more but drove carefully through the now blinding rainstorm, stopping only when he reached the main door of the nurses’ residence.
“Better watch the weather, the next time you go on the water,” he said in clipped tones, and having helped her out, he drove off without stopping to see if she was even inside the door.
“Never mind the weather,” Lisa muttered as she dragged herself up to her room. “I’ll take good care to find out who is likely to be coming too, next time!”
Derek Frenton had developed the habit of taking Jacky to her lodgings every night after the show. Jacky liked that. Everyone soon came to recognize the high-powered silver roadster, and the good looking young man driving it. The night after the storm he took her to supper with him, intending to break it to her that his father had delivered an ultimatum to him. It was difficult to broach a subject with Jacky, especially if she was in a bubbling, happy mood.
“Isn’t it all such fun, Derek? Don’t you think so?”
“Yes, rattling good fun,” he agreed, and she was quick to notice that some of his usual enthusiasm was lacking.
“Oh, I think it’s marvelous to be young and on top of the world and your career and everything. Do you realize, Derek darling, I shall probably have my name up in big lights in London after this season? Derek, will you be proud to know me then?”
“Oh, jolly proud,” he agreed. “Listen, Jacky, I—”
“Derek, will your parents be proud to have a new member of the family whose name is up in lights over a London theater?”
“Well, actually, old girl, that was what I wanted to talk to you about,” Derek said unhappily and poured out more champagne. “They’re a bit peculiar, you know. Not keen on stage people.”
Jacky’s face set a little, then she turned on the brilliant smile again, so quickly that he hardly noticed the change. She would not let him see how anxious she was about her future, and how little faith she had in that pet dream of a London show and herself as the star in it.
“Do you mean they don’t like me?” she asked bluntly.
“Now would my mother ask you to open the garden party for her if she didn’t like you?” he countered, without much conviction.
“I don’t know,” she said, slowly, beginning to feel that the bright future with a rich young husband was beginning to slip away. “I can’t weigh up your mother. She’s very charming, and I know she adores nice clothes and furs and jewelry, but I don’t know how she feels about people. Look, Derek, why don’t we get engaged?” She grinned impudently as she said it, and he laughed uneasily. “Oh, have a heart, Jacky. Honestly, I couldn’t afford a ring at the present time. I only have what I get from the guv’nor, you know, and at present my father isn’t very pleased with me. I shall have to go easy.”
“Who said anything about an engagement ring?” she countered, pouting prettily. “I have an idea. Let’s run off and have a secret wedding. Let’s, it’d be fun! And then your people couldn’t say a thing about me, once the thing was done. I’d be their daughter-in-law, and they couldn’t undo it.”
Derek looked blankly at her, dismay showing plainly in his face. He began to think quickly. Did she really want to be married to him, or was she just interested in his family’s money? Determined to put it to the test, he said, “I say, do you really mean that? I didn’t think you were the sort of person who’d like to be hard up, Jacky.”
“Hard up? Who said anything about being hard up? Your people have pots of money!”
“Yes, but they’d jolly soon cut me off without a penny, and you’d have to keep us, old girl. I’ve never earned a bean in my life, and between ourselves, I’d hate to have to work.”
Jacky concentrated on her glass of champagne while she recovered from the shock. Then she put it down and screwed up her nose entrancingly at him.
“Silly old Derek, who said anything about you going to work? Just as if your people would want you to! Why, anyone can see they adore you, and they have so much money, they wouldn’t miss giving us a little.. Why, your mother’s jewelry alone must be worth a fortune.”
“Oh, don’t talk about Mother’s jewelry,” Derek said, repressing a shudder. “That’s a very tricky subject. We’ve only just had another family row about it that I’d rather forget.”
“Why?” Jacky asked warily.
“Well, Mother’s so careless about it. Dad gets absolutely furious. He’s the careful one, he’s had to work so hard for his wealth. Only recently my mother lost a valuable brooch, and we thought it had been stolen.”
“Well, had it?”
“I’m not sure, but it turned up again. Dad thought one of our foreign maids ha
d taken it, but as it was found again, she was given another chance. But don’t talk about Mother’s jewelry to me, that’s all. I’d rather not remember that painful subject.”
Jacky cleverly let the subject of their own future—and the matter of the lost brooch—drop, but the way the Frentons had let the subject of that valuable loss be hushed up stayed in her mind. When the day of the garden party dawned, she could think of nothing else. By skilful questioning, and a pretended interest in the house, Jacky discovered just where his mother’s rooms were, and that she was in the habit of leaving her jewelry lying on the dressing table.
The day of the party was hot. The storm, which had certainly cleared the air at the time, brought the weather in hotter than ever, and with it a wave of street accidents that kept the staff of St. Mildred’s on their toes.
“Gosh, I shall be glad to get away from the sound of ambulance bells, won’t you, Lisa?” Mary asked.
“I wish I didn’t have to go to this do with those children,” Lisa sighed, “but they’re so thrilled, bless them, that I haven’t the heart to let them know I’d rather be with you at your home. You are going home, aren’t you, Mary?”
“Not without you,” Mary replied. “I’m going to the party after all. Jerry and Mike asked me specially when they found I didn’t have a date. Still, it can be fun with people like those boys.”
Mary went in a bright, new, printed silk dress, but Lisa put on a fresh brown check uniform, the distinctive garb of a St. Mildred’s second-year nurse, her pale hair almost completely hidden beneath her starched cap. All three children had discarded their calipers and were overjoyed with the thought of being able to get about again. The grounds of Penderby Towers looked inviting, with their smooth lawns, concrete paths, the great ornamental pond with lilies and goldfish and the marquees and sideshows and bunting.
Lisa saw, with a sick feeling in her stomach, that Randall Carson was there, with Thalia, her mother, and Derek. Lisa hoped that she could get away with the children as soon as Jacky—brilliant and sophisticated in a white full-skirted nylon dress and jacket and a saucy little sky-blue hat—successfully opened the party, but her hopes were soon dashed. Derek caught sight of the St. Mildred’s uniform, and broke away from his party to come over to her.