Guardian Nurse Read Free

packing also did not take long. She simply had very little. When her mother had become ill, and sold the house, she had lived almost in a suitcase. She supposed after four years she had got into the habit.
    She went to bed early, but did not sleep. She had finished her conjectures on the unattractive ... in manners, anyway ... B. West, but something he had said, a name, now kept her wide-eyed.
    Muir. Doctor Muir. But it could not be Scott.
    She thought of Scott, and was annoyed at the prick of tears in her eyes. Scott, so utterly different in looks and ways from the property king who had interviewed her this afternoon, the man who was to be her employer. B. West. B. for Boss.
    She had met Scott in the nursing home where her mother was a patient and she was a nurse, and the young doctor had attracted her at once. Scott was gentle, considerate; initially she had simply appreciated his kindness to her mother, but soon it had been more than that. And it had not been just on her side, either; a woman senses in a man what she feels in herself. She is aware of a sudden sweet glance, a fleeting touch. Oh yes, Scott had known something as well. Then why ... why ...
    But she shouldn’t go on like this. There had never been anything said; there had been nothing agreed, not even silently. She could never blame Scott. All the same when he had told her he was leaving the hospital and joining the lucrative and social Meldrum practice she had known there were only two ways he could join, by buying himself in ... or through Pamela Meldrum. And Scott had no money.
    Her glance had said so to him, and his glance back had not denied it. She had not seen him after that. She, too, had resigned from the hospital, and from then on she had only accepted the posts Miss Clegg had offered out of the Meldrum kingdom — yes, the Meldrum practice had been that, she thought. Over the months she had succeeded in putting Scott at the back, if not out, of her mind, but now, with a casual mention of a Doctor Muir he was with her again, his kindness, his gentleness, his concern. Oh, Scott, Scott!
    But no, she shrugged to the darkness, Scott is doctoring anywhere but a remote Riverina village. Probably he’s now taking out expensive appendixes, treating expensive nerves. And he’s married to Pamela.
    The car called for her promptly at nine-thirty. Frances was glad the others had left for work, for they would have embarrassed her with their gasps at the very affluent looks of the large lavish estate wagon. She was a little embarrassed herself.
    The man driving it, young, from the country, too, judging by the width of the brim of his hat, diminished her embarrassment, however, by flinging open the door to the seat beside him and waving her in.
    ‘Don’t want to be the lady bountiful?’ he grinned at her. ‘I don’t blame you, it is rather an eyeful, isn’t it, but it runs like a song.’
    ‘At its price it should run like grand opera.’ Frances had seated herself. ‘Why is it quite this grand?’
    ‘Why not when you have the money? I’m Bill Furness, overseer.’
    ‘I’m Frances Peters, nurse and teacher. Well, for one reason: showiness.’
    ‘Wouldn’t occur to him, he would buy this for the space alone. Must have space for the kid. ’
    ‘Jason?’
    ‘Yes, the sonno. We need more room than the usual car affords for that leg of his.’
    ‘Yes,’ Frances agreed.
    Bill Furness was negotiating the city traffic with caution. ‘Thank heaven in another two days I’ll be able to drive without having eyes as well at the back of my head. And yet’... a lit tl e laugh ... ‘after I get back to Mirramunna I always yearn for the bright lights. Still, it should be different this time with you there.’ He gave her an appreciative look.
    ‘I’m signed up to nurse, teach and guard the child,’ she stated. She hoped he would pick up the ‘guard’ and comment on it. Perhaps enlighten her.
    He didn’t. He grinned, ‘There’s always time