Plantation Doctor

Plantation Doctor Read Free Page A

Book: Plantation Doctor Read Free
Author: Kathryn Blair
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short-leave trips up the coast. The skipper can’t take you aboard without the completed forms.”
    Lyn firmed her lips. “He doesn’t have to take me. I’m not going back to Freetown.”
    “Yes, you are,” he said abstractedly, but writing quickly.
    “I’m staying here tonight and setting out for Akasi tomorrow.”
    “You’re setting out for Akasi this afternoon — the long way round. The boat is in, and waiting.”
    “It needn’t wait any longer,” she said tartly. “I’m not going!”
    He straightened. “Get this. You’re not making the inland tr ip to Akasi alone. Even if you’d done it before I’d advise against it. For a girl who is setting foot in Africa for the first time it’s out of the question — so don’t argue.”
    Desperately, she twisted to confront him. “If I were to do as you suggest I might be stuck in Freetown for weeks. I can’t cable Mrs. Latimer, and letters take an impossibly long time from the coast into the bush. From Cape Bandu I’m only three or four days away.”
    “It’s all true enough, but I’ve told you I haven’t time to arrange anything else.”
    “I’m not asking you to. What makes you think I’d be safe in Freetown? I don’t know anyone there.”
    He paused, then said with exasperation. “What the deuce are you doing so far from England, anyway? Didn’t you realize before you came that West Africa is no place for an unattached woman ! ”
    “Of course I did, but I didn’t see myself floating around anchorless in a tropical city. That’s what you’re trying to make me do.”
    The following silence was rather brittle, as if Adrian’s irritation might be developing into something stronger and less governable. Lyn gathered the impression that he was visualizing two sets of dangers and spinning a mental coin.
    He slipped the pencil into his pocket. “It’s the hell of a situation. I’ll have to think it over,” he said, and went along the corridor to wash his hands.
    Lyn gave a cautious little sigh of victory, though she could not yet relax entirely; the man was incalculable. But it did look as though she might anticipate a night between cool sheets in one of those austere bedrooms, and she still had a card up her sleeve.
    She picked up a couple of magazines and hastily dropped them again. Those beastly silver-fish moths were everywhere in their hundreds, darting about on their hair-like legs and chewing over the surface of paper so that the print was undecipherable. The whole house needed DDT treatment; here, where pests thrived in myri a ds, spraying was probably necessary every few days.
    Adrian came back and sat down to his lunch-tray. Lyn politely wandered to the open door and took an i nterest in the garden. She heard hi m moving papers while he ate. Presently she turned about.
    “Mind if I share your coffee? I didn’t get any.”
    “Help yourself. I’ll call for another cup.”
    He pushed cigarettes across the table and felt for his lighter. Lyn leaned over to his flame and inhaled gently as she withdrew.
    “Have you made your choice?” she asked.
    “Practically.” He blew a cloud of smoke and got to his feet. “I have to write a couple of urgent letters. Excuse me.”
    Tenaciously, she said, “Do you know a woman named Melia Ducros?”
    He raised his eyebrows. “She used to take care of the house for Mrs. Grayson. Has she been here?”
    “Yes, looking for work. She seems a reliable type and she’s willing to go with me to Akasi.”
    “What are you trying to convey — that two frightened women are better than one? I’ll never believe that Melia Ducros wouldn’t be of the least help on that sort of jaunt. She’s a good servant, but nothing more.”
    “She’s white, and you told me there were no white women.”
    “I’d forgotten her.” His shoulders shrugged impatiently. “Out here you occasionally come across her type; they’re bits of driftwood washed up by the tide of civilization, and they don’t actually belong

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