Seaside Hospital

by Pauline Ash

  “You, here!” Jacky spluttered, turning around to stare at her sister. “I don’t know how you’ve got the nerve to come!”

  “Eh? What did you say?” Lisa gasped, stunned.

  “No wonder you weren’t keen on being introduced to Derek,” Jacky said bitterly. “You were seeing him all the time, behind my back!”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Lisa sat down, her face a study.

  “I think you’d better explain what you mean, Jacky.” Looking rather taken aback at her sister’s calm manner, Jacky began to bluster.

  “You can’t deny it! I’ve only just seen you both, kissing and petting, down in that cove!”

  “Good heavens, how did you happen to be down there?” Lisa said wearily.

  “You can’t deny it!” Jacky said shrilly. “I was with one of the girls, and she laughed at me—me!—and said everybody knew and they were all laughing at me because I thought I was going to marry him! Oh, how could you be so mean, you and your preaching ways! You’ve got a nerve, preaching at me, when all the time—”

  “Now listen!” Lisa said, standing up and taking her sister by the shoulders, to give her a sharp shake. “He was my boyfriend first.” That acted like a shower of cold water over Jacky, and Lisa took advantage of her astonished silence to tell her, quickly and concisely, a few things she felt it was high time that Jacky knew.

  “You didn’t know that, because you never even asked me if I had a boyfriend,” she told her sister. “You came to this town and promptly got going with the richest young man in the place—well, we were going steady, Derek and I, and he threw me over for you!”

  Jacky’s eyelids began to bat very fast with excitement. It made good hearing, that she could take Lisa’s boyfriend away from her as easily as that.

  “Well, I got used to it,” Lisa went on, “and now it doesn’t matter, because I’ve met someone else. I wouldn’t have seen Derek anymore—he means nothing to me now—but you stole his mother’s clip and wanted it returned, and there was no other way but for me to ask Derek to take it back for you! Oh, don’t look so alarmed—he doesn’t know you were the one who took it,” Lisa said impatiently. “But it meant seeing him again, and if any of your friends have said they’ve seen us together, then you only have yourself to blame.”

  “You didn’t have to kiss him this afternoon!” Jacky began, the stormy note back in her voice.

  “You might as well know about that too,” Lisa said grimly. “His father doesn’t like the idea of him going out with a showgirl, and he threatened to cut him off without a penny if he didn’t come back to me. His father seems to think it would be good for him to be engaged to a nurse. Well, dear Derek made a bargain with me that he’d get the clip back, no names mentioned, if I went out with him again.”

  “I don’t believe it! He wouldn’t do that!”

  “Oh, stop it, Jacky! Don’t act for me. I know you too well. I suspect you know perfectly well what Derek’s like, by now, but you needn’t worry. He broke his word and told his father that I gave him the clip, so I’ve cut clean from him and this time it’s for keeps. The fact that he was kissing me this afternoon is no fault of mine—if you’d been near enough, you’d have heard what I said to him about it! Now, let’s forget about Derek and concentrate on something else.”

  “You really mean you’ll leave Derek alone?” Jacky insisted.

  “You have my word,” Lisa said wearily. “But I advise you to mend your ways, if you want to marry into that family. They know nothing about your little weakness, so for goodness’ sake have a bit of sense and stop taking what doesn’t belong to you!”

  Again Jacky batted her eyelids, but this time, Lisa felt uneasily, it was from fright. Something tugged at Lisa’s heart, but she refused to think about it. There was no sense in anticipating trouble before it came, and perhaps she was only imagining that Jacky looked rather scared.

  “Jacky, there’s a child in our hospital who was injured in a road accident, and he’s calling for his parents,” Lisa said desperately.

  “Oh, gosh, you haven’t come to talk to me about those old patients of yours, have you?” Jacky said, restlessly moving her shoulders. “You know I hate hospitals and that sort of thing.”

  “But you know this child, and I think you know his parents. They haven’t come forward, and you’re the only one who knows anything about it.”

  Jacky sat very still, and Lisa could almost hear the sharp intake of her breath.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said at last, resuming the buffing of her nails.

  “Think back, Jacky. It isn’t so long ago, and it’s very important. There’s an old boatman who says he saw you through his binoculars, sitting on a seat by those people, watching the little boy; it would have been just before he wandered onto the road and was knocked down. A little redheaded boy, and they say his mother was redheaded, too, and his father was well dressed—black coat, pin-striped trousers.”

  Lisa saw that Jacky did remember them. They were the obvious sort of people not easily forgotten, she felt, but Jacky was clearly not going to cooperate.

  “Good heavens, I must see thousands of people about this place every day,” she said, shrugging. “How can you expect me to remember every one of them?”

  “You ought to be able to remember these people because of something that happened in the ladies’ room not long afterward,” Lisa said sharply, watching her. “You picked up a diamond ring that, had been left behind, they say.”

  “Who says?” Jacky asked shrilly, jumping up.

  “The cloakroom attendant. She remembers you.”

  “You’ve been snooping behind my back! Why don’t you mind your own business and leave me alone?”

  “Jacky, it is my business,” Lisa said desperately. “I don’t care what happened about the diamond ring—I merely mentioned it to remind you of the incident. Jacky, you must believe me, all I care about is getting that child well again, and that means bringing his parents to his bedside.”

  “You said that before. What’s it have to do with me?”

  “Because you were listening to their conversation and you might have heard something—anything—that would give us a clue why they don’t come to him.”

  “Did you mean it about the ring and not being interested?” Jacky asked, a sly look coming into her eyes. “I didn’t take the thing, anyway. I was only looking at it, but people tell lies about me, and you can’t expect me to—”

  “Jacky, you had dark glasses on—the woman admits she’d never be able to identify you. She only guessed it was you, and I put two and two together after Simeon told me what he knew. No one cares about the ring—the woman got it back again—but what did she say when you were sitting near her?”

  Jacky relaxed and then began to look amused.

  “She said quite a lot of things,” she chuckled. “In fact, they were having a beautiful row. I enjoyed myself.”

  “Don’t pretend to be heartless—I know you’re not as heartless as that. What were they saying?”

  Jacky shrugged. “The general impression was that they’d contracted a secret marriage, and the man’s old mother wouldn’t be exactly delighted to have the news, would cut him off just like that. Do you really expect those two to come forward for the child? Why, it’d blow everything open for them!”

  Lisa was appalled. “Poor little boy,” she whispered. “Oh, but I don’t—I can’t believe it. Even if the father wouldn’t risk things by coming, his mother surely would.”

  “Oh well, you’d better go now,” Jacky said. “I’ve told you what they said, and you can see you won’t get anything from that. Did you really mean it about Derek?”

  “Oh, never mind about Derek—are you sure you know nothing else? Did they mention any names? District? Anything that would give me a clue how to find them, or only one of them? Don’t you see, he’ll die, that little boy, if they don’t come.”

  “My, you do take it to heart, don’t you?” Jacky s
aid in an amused voice. “Sorry, but if you think I’m going to disclose their addresses and bring them down like a ton of coal on me—I’m pretty sure they realized I’d been listening in. That was why I drifted off to the ladies’.”

  “You know their addresses?” Lisa gasped.

  “What if I do?” Jacky said, her eyes narrowing. “I’m not going to risk losing Derek because of what they’d say—”

  “How could they say anything? On your own admission you only listened to their private conversation and looked at a ring that was left behind—Oh no! Jacky, you didn’t take anything else, did you?” The thought struck her, prompted by Jacky’s look of guilt and anxiety rather than from anything Jacky had said.

  Jacky thought about it for a minute and then opened her handbag to remove a small flat velvet case, which she silently opened. Lisa gasped. Inside it, on a bed of satin, lay a superb brooch. “Diamonds,” Jacky said, biting her lip. “The poor chump tried to buy her off with it. They were having such a row that he didn’t know what he was doing and slipped it into his coat pocket. This was asking for it. I just had to borrow it to look at it.” Lisa’s hand trembled as she handed it back to her sister, but Jacky pushed it away. “I don’t want it,” she said fiercely. “You have it. I don’t want the thing.”

  “Oh, Jacky, Jacky, will you never learn that you can’t keep taking valuable things and then have someone else put them back for you. It’s just plain stealing—”

  “It isn’t, it isn’t! I just borrow them to look at!”

  “It is not. It’s stealing, and one day the police will catch up with you and you’ll go to prison.”

  Jacky burst into violent sobbing. “It isn’t, it isn’t. If that happens to me, it’ll be your fault for not helping me. You’ve only got to get rid of it. If it was stealing, I’d keep it, wouldn’t I, or sell it and spend the money? But I don’t want any part of it.” She stopped crying and looked cunning again. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do—I’ll give you the names and addresses you want, if you’ll get rid of that thing and not let anything happen to me.”

  Lisa left the Coronet Theatre in a dreadful state of mind. Jacky had been called down for rehearsals almost at once, after that last suggestion of hers. She had dabbed on extra makeup and gone downstairs gaily; her piquant little face held no trace of anything that might indicate the recent ravages of tears.

  Lisa herself felt beyond tears. How could she have agreed to such a dreadful suggestion? As it was, she had the stolen article in her handbag, because Jacky simply refused to keep it. In that mood, Lisa was always just a little afraid of what her sister might do. Jacky alternated so quickly between tears and laughter, excitement and the depths of depression and despair, that it seemed dangerous to force the issue. And so Lisa took the velvet case with the diamond brooch in it and returned to the hospital. Mary met her with an odd look on her face.

  “That child is creating quite a stir,” she said.

  “Christopher? Is he worse?” Lisa, breathed.

  Mary nodded.

  “More reporters have been down. London ones this time. I wonder what’s really at the back of it.”

  “Well, it’s obvious he’s no ordinary vacationer’s child,” Lisa mused. “His clothes were very good—”

  “Yes, I know. Someone’s taken great care of him—so where are they now?”

  “Mary,” Lisa said, desperate to confide in someone and yet not daring to trust the indiscreet, yet generous, Mary with too many details. “Here’s a hypothetical case. Suppose I ran across someone who knew how to contact that child’s parents. It is a matter of the child’s life—”

  “Then you’d have to go ahead,” Mary said at once.

  “Even if the person wanted to bargain with you to hide something you knew they’d done wrong?” Lisa said.

  “What’s hypothetical about that?” Mary said bluntly. “It’s true, isn’t it? It isn’t just something you’ve thought up? If you know such a person, it doesn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done, there shouldn’t be any bargaining or any hiding of facts—you should tell the police, and leave it to them.”

  Lisa turned away. She couldn’t, she just couldn’t report her own sister to the police. There must be some other way. Besides, what good would it do? Jacky would deny everything, put on a lot of hysterics, work herself up to get ill, lose her job, and be the bane of Lisa’s life, but—they would get no information out of her. Lisa was certain of that. So what would be the use of such a course?

  “Who is it who knows, Lisa?” Mary asked.

  “Oh, forget it. It’s just guesswork.” Lisa muttered, wishing she had not said so much.

  “Pity. The poor little chap’s pretty bad,” Mary said glumly. “I wonder if Randall Carson will go to Lady Frenton’s house party now? He ought to, as it’s for his clinic she’s raising the money.”

  Mary searched her friend’s face, before she asked diffidently, “Will you be going with him, Lisa?”

  “Nothing’s been said, and I doubt it,” Lisa said quietly.

  As she had expected, Sister approached her the minute she went onto the wards. She would have to tell her as much as she could, Lisa knew.

  “Well, Nurse? Did you have any better luck?”

  “Yes, Sister. I did find out that someone was sitting quite near to these people. It seems that there’s no proper home background. The father married the mother secretly and is frightened of his own mother’s displeasure, that he’ll be cut off—so the wife and child have to be kept firmly in the background.”

  “Yes, I was afraid it was something of that sort. Did you manage to find out who the parents were?”

  “Not yet, but I’m hoping to soon. Sister. It’s difficult, but I think I may be able to.”

  Sister looked worried. “Time is running short, Nurse. We’ve had to use the newspapers to help us.”

  That was usually the last desperate resource.

  In the big evening newspapers was a paragraph asking the public if they knew of such a little boy. It included a graphic description of him and the accident and finished by saying that they would not be able to save him if one or both parents did not come to him soon.

  Lisa went off duty at eight with a heavy heart.

  Ellard telephoned and said he wanted to see her at the Royal Hotel. Something was in his voice that made her hesitate as she was about to refuse.

  Mary looked in at her door as she went by.

  “Hello, going out?”

  “Just for a little while. There’s someone I have to see,” Lisa said. Mary’s face changed, so Lisa said impatiently, “Oh, Mary, let’s not be like this—just trust me if I won’t tell you everything at the time. I’m not being secretive. It’s just—oh well, if you must know, Ellard Lindon just phoned and said he wanted to see me.”

  “Well, why couldn’t you say so, without making a mystery out of it?” Mary said crossly. “I tell you all about my Jerry.”

  “Mary, you’re in love with Jerry, and it’s all fair and above board, and your father approves of him and there aren’t any complications—”

  She broke off as she realized how much she had blurted out in her anxiety and worry.

  “And are there complications about Ellard and you?” Mary asked quietly, and rather worriedly. “Isn’t it all fair and above board? And does it have anything to do with the person who knows the names of those people, and you don’t want to go to the police about?”

  Lisa looked frankly distressed.

  “Mary, I’d tell you everything, but honestly, I don’t want it all over the hospital and—”

  Mary was offended at once.

  “So you can’t trust me now, is that it?”

  “I didn’t mean that, but you just don’t realize you’re letting secrets out. Look at that business of Randall Carson and me—everyone was talking about it, and he was furious and blamed me for talking about what he pleased to term ‘just one evening out together.’ Don’t you see?”

  “Well, yo
u can’t blame me for that. Neither Jerry nor I realized you wouldn’t want anyone to know. Goodness, you weren’t making any secret of it yourselves, looking completely soppy and out of this world, while you were both dancing—at the Gloucester, of all places!”

  Lisa had to admit that there was some truth in that, although she did not like the way Mary had put it.

  “Well, anyway, I can’t tell you about this business, my dear, because this doesn’t happen to be my secret to tell. I can only beg of you not to breathe a word to anyone about what I’ve told you tonight.”

  “I’m sure I shan’t say a word, not even to Jerry,” Mary said, and went into her own room and banged the door.

  Lisa sighed, and left to go to the Royal Hotel where Ellard was waiting for her.

  This time he was in the lounge. The place was much less crowded than the last time she had been there, and she saw with relief that he made no move to take her up to his sitting room. He ordered drinks for them both and stared somberly at her. “You haven’t had your holidays yet, have you, Lisa?”

  “No, I haven’t. They’re due pretty soon.”

  “That’s fine. Push ’em forward a bit.”

  “What did you say?” she gasped.

  “I said push ’em forward. We’re going for a little trip, you and I, and there’s no time like the present.”

  “What are you talking about, Ellard? You must know I can’t push my holidays forward like that. I have to wait my turn.” She looked, frankly worried, at him. “Besides, I don’t understand how your trip comes into it.”

  “We’re going abroad together. It was to be a surprise. You know me, Lisa, I never waste time over a lot of trifling arrangements. I make up my mind on the instant and go. And between ourselves,” he broke off to smile twistedly at her, “there are times when things get a little uncomfortable for me in this country, and I get out of it for my health, until everything blows over. I’m sure you don’t have to ask me what I mean by that.”