Anne Douglas by The Handkerchief Tree Read Free Book Online

temperature, as that’s slightly up. Also, I’d like you to stay in the dormitory over the weekend. Rest is very important, isn’t that right, Matron?’
    ‘It is indeed, Doctor.’
    ‘And either Matron or Nurse will superintend your taking the tablets, Shona, so no need to worry about that.’
    ‘Oh, certainly not, we never let you young people take tablets yourselves.’ Matron smiled at Shona. ‘But let’s give you one now, eh? Nurse, could you fetch a glass of water, please?’
    ‘Well done!’ Dr Mark cried when Shona bravely gulped down the tablet. ‘Not easy for you, swallowing at the moment, I know.’
    Her spirits now were sinking fast. It was time for her to go, time for someone else to be called in to see Dr Mark. Better go, then. Say goodbye. Surely, though, she would see him again?
    ‘Thank you, Doctor,’ she murmured. ‘And thank you, Matron. When do I take the linctus?’
    ‘Three times a day after meals,’ said Matron. ‘See, I have it here, it’s on the label, but Nurse will bring it to you in the dormitory with your tablet. Doctor, shall we call your next patient?’
    ‘Thank you, Matron.’ Mark’s vivid blue gaze, however, had moved to Shona at the door, and he suddenly strode across to join her.
    ‘Just in case I don’t see you again, Shona, I want to wish you the best of luck for the future. Stick to your guns, aim for what you want and you’ll do well.’
    ‘Goodbye, Doctor Mark,’ she managed to say calmly as they shook hands. ‘I hope your dad will be better soon.’
    ‘Nice of you to think of him, but don’t worry, I’ll see that he is.’
    ‘Shona, Nurse will be along soon to see you in your dormitory,’ Matron called when Mark had left the door. ‘And if Wilfred Hunter’s out there, please tell him to come in now.’
    ‘You can go in now,’ Shona obediently told the scared-looking boy waiting in the corridor, and smiled as he scuttled in. The last person he wanted to see was the doctor. How unlike herself!
    In the dormitory, she felt overcome by sudden weakness, as though her legs were made of wool, and sank down on her bed, lying back against her pillow. There were three other throat patients already in bed, two of whom appeared to be sleeping, while the third, another fourteen-year-old, named Mavis Maxwell, was reading
Jane Eyre.
    ‘Hey, Shona,’ she called hoarsely, ‘you’ll get wrong, lying on your bed with your shoes on!’
    ‘So who’s going to tell anyone?’
    ‘I’m just saying.’
    ‘Well, don’t say. Just read your book.’
    ‘Think I’ll leave it for now. I liked it when Jane was in that Lowood school and I kept thinking, oh, glad that’s no’ me, but now she’s got mixed up with this awful Mr Rochester, I’m no’ interested. I mean, what does she see in him?’
    Not feeling up to a discussion, Shona closed her eyes but then the thought came – why were folk attracted to other folk? Why were all the girls attracted to Dr Mark? Because he was a nice-looking young man and they didn’t see many of them, but if there were other nice-looking young men around, perhaps Dr Mark’s charm would fade? Not for her. Right from that first day by the Handkerchief Tree, she’d felt a special bond with him, felt that he himself was special to her, and that she might even be special to him.
    But now, as her head ached and her throat throbbed, she knew she must see the situation clearly. ‘If I don’t see you again’, had been the words that had shown her why, for it was obvious enough that her path and Mark’s were never likely to cross in the future.
    There would be no point at all in thinking that she could ever be special to a man she would never meet, a man older than her who would have all kinds of interests and friends she could never share. To keep thinking about him was a piece of nonsense and could only lead nowhere, so take a stand, she told herself, stop thinking about him and think about what you want to do. Yes, about her future.