Nurse in Waiting Read Online Free PDF Page A

over to open the door for Joanna, but she said nothing at all.
    Outside, Joanna was surprised to find that her hands holding the tray were trembling very slightly.
    She disliked scenes and was inclined to blame herself completely for any which involved a patient. But had the one which had just passed been in any way her fault? Surely not. It had been Roger Carnehill who had used his too-keen perception to bait her upon some dictatorial attitude which she had been careful to avoid, but against which he was overready to defend himself in advance. He had deliberately created that ‘brush’ of hostility between her and the younger girl!
    She began to think about Roger Carnehill, being caught into the interest of him as a ‘case’, and being anxious, out of her newly awakened liking and admiration for his mother, to do her very best by him.
    She was going to succeed with him—she must! But first of all she must get his co-operation. Was he going to give that easily—or not?
    Before she went back to the sickroom she rang up Dr. Beltane’s Tulleen number.
    He answered the telephone himself, inquired briskly about her journey and when she had arrived, and then said:
    “Frankly, I’m glad you are there, Nurse. I think we may see some improvement in the patient now. But I warn you—he may need handling. Part of his difficulty is psychological as much as physical, I suspect. But I’ll be over at Carrieghmere in the morning. I’ll talk to you then.”
    “Thank you. Doctor,” replied Joanna. “I’m afraid I am rather in the dark as to the history of his case. Mrs. Carnehill seemed to imply that he gets depressed and moody.”
    “Yes. he does. I tell you—he wants handling. Any difficulties so far?”
    “No—none,” hedged Joanna. “I’m going back to him now—to make him ready for the night.”
    “Good. Well, I’ll see you in the morning, Nurse. Goodbye.”
    She returned to Roger to find that Shuan was no longer with him. He was reading and did not at first look up when she began to move about, doing some deft and unobtrusive tidying of the room.
    But when she had finished and turned round to ask him about the making of his bed she found that his eyes were upon her.
    She put her question, and he replied laconically:
    “Shuan and Cook—being the sturdiest members of the household—usually do it between them. If you yank twice at that bell-rope someone will come. It’s a recognized signal.”
    He watched her find the bell-rope and pull it. Then he said;
    “Don’t you think I paved the way rather well—for the ultimate dismissal of Bambina and Co., I mean?”
    “If that was your object, I think you did it extraordinarily clumsily,” retorted Joanna briskly. “You upset Miss Ferrall quite unnecessarily.”
    “But you mean them to go, don’t you? Don’t you?” he persisted.
    “I certainly don’t think that three dogs of that size are suitable as permanent inhabitants of a sickroom,” Joanna admitted. “But —”
    “But you meant to go about their dismissal oh so tactfully and quietly! Almost so that no one would realize they had gone—until they had! But I warned you that you would have to fight Shuan about it—”
    “—And proceeded to make quite sure that I should!” put in Joanna imperturbably. “It doesn’t matter about me. I can take care of myself. But you knew Miss Ferrall would be hurt at the suggestion that I —”
    “Oh, call her Shuan, for goodness’ sake!” It was his first sign of ordinary irritation since the scene with his mother. Joanna wondered whether it was a healthy sign or not, but felt that she would rather deal with plain irritability than an oblique kind of hostility which it was difficult to pin down.
    “Well, ‘Shuan’, then,” she said. “You knew that she wouldn’t like the idea. So w hy did you do it?”
    He looked at her oddly. “Shock tactics—for you!” he said unexpectedly. “I was having a small bet with myself as to whether, being put to it,