Seaside Hospital Read Online Free PDF Page A

demanded. “You promised! It was the least you could do! You know I was waiting to introduce my new boyfriend!”
    “I did come to the show,” Lisa assured her, “and I enjoyed it, but there were rather a lot of people obviously waiting to go backstage afterward—”
    “Yes, I wanted them all to meet my sister!” Jacky declared. “There was Derek, my new boyfriend, and his mother and sister — a title in the family and frightfully rich—and one of the surgeons from your old hospital. He looked a bit grim, but given the time, I bet I could loosen up that tongue of his,” Jacky finished cheekily.
    “Did you tell them you had a sister who was a nurse at St. Mildred’s?” Lisa asked quickly, in an agony, of suspense.
    “No!” Jacky said. “I was too furious to say anything about what you did for a living.”
    “Thank heavens for that. Jacky, please don’t mention it to anyone at all.”
    “Don’t worry, I’m not likely to. It made me feel such a fool to keep looking for you and have to admit that my own sister hadn’t shown up, so I just forgot about you. Really, Lisa, it was too selfish of you, darling!”
    Selfish! Lisa almost gasped, until she remembered that Jacky hadn’t changed at all. According to her, everyone was selfish who didn’t do just as she wanted them to.
    “I had to get back to the hospital,” Lisa said patiently. “We can’t stay out as late as we like, you know. Never mind, I’ll come another time, but I can’t promise when that will be. I’ve got a change of duty. I must go now ... and, Jacky, we aren’t really allowed private calls, so don’t ring me up again, will you?”
    Jacky ignored that and said imperiously, “Lisa, you really will have to come to the garden party just to make up for letting me down last Saturday. This is really important. Lady Frenton — that’s Derek’s mother, you know!—is giving it and I’m to present the prizes. She likes someone from a good local show. Now you must promise to come!”
    "I will if I can manage it,” Lisa said, but when she put the receiver down she felt sick at heart. The garden party to be held at Penderby Towers had been an event that Lisa had been looking forward to. Derek was to have taken her. Now he was taking Jacky to this highlight of the Barnwell Bay season.
    Lady Frenton held it every year, to raise funds for the hospital and to get herself well and truly in the limelight. The national as well as the local press would be represented, and undoubtedly the enterprising Jacky would receive all the publicity she needed. Lisa, who had been puzzled about Lady Frenton’s attitude toward her pampered son’s new choice of girlfriend, now guessed that Derek’s mother was probably just using Jacky for her own ends.
    The thought that Derek preferred Jacky to herself was no real surprise to Lisa, although the knife still turned in her heart as she remembered those bright, laughing eyes of his, the coppery hair that was never really tidy, and that tall lithe frame exerted in sports or poised for dancing. He and Jacky would make a splendid lighthearted couple, she considered, with never a thought of anything serious—just fun all the time.
    Mary was waiting for her. “What are you doing with your four hours off?” she demanded.
    “I ought to study,” Lisa said, thinking of the next examination ahead. “It’s so hot, and I did promise young Arty Benny I’d get him some new crayons and books to color. His mother’s left him some more pocket money, arid coloring’s all he really cares about.”
    “Jerry and Mike, those two medical students, want to go to the new carnival, and they’ve invited me and a girlfriend,” Mary said. “What do you say, Lisa? You could do your shopping on the way. Come on, let’s go out in the fresh air. I’m tired of broiling in this uniform. I wonder what cantankerous old grandfather designed these stiff collars and cuffs?”
    After their meal, they dashed to change; Lisa in a crisp