Nurse Hilary by Peggy Gaddis Read Free Book Online

or to point out whatever she wanted to know.
    “ Reid says that he is her favorite football, that nobody else will stand for her bad temper and her abuse. He claims it makes her feel better if she can bully somebody who can ’ t talk back; and he insists that it rolls off him like water off a duck ’ s back, ” Angela explained huskily, very carefully not looking at the two across the room. “ But he ’ s—well, he ’ s really a grand guy, and it just kills me to watch her stage these scenes. ”
    “ Oh, this isn ’ t unusual then? ” asked Hilary.
    “ Ha—I wish it was! It happens once a week, sometimes more often, ” Angela admitted grimly. “ Her lawyers took Reid in because they didn ’ t have anybody who could get along with her, and she insisted they give Reid a job, and she has never let him forget it. It ’ s a darn shame, for Reid is a very capable attorney in his own right, even if he is only a year out of law school. He could set up shop for himself and get established in a few years. But no, old Aunt Kate insists he stay under her thumb. ”
    “ I can ’ t imagine any man of spirit putting up with it. ”
    “ Oh, she ’ s all the family he has, just as he is all the family she has, ” Angela admitted unwillingly. “ She took him in hand when his mother and father died, and he was only five years old. She has brought him up, educated him, and now she demands her pound of flesh—right over the heart. She would, being the Duchess. ”
    The old woman ’ s angry voice rose again as she glared at Reid.
    “ What does that firm of shysters think they are doing to me? Do they think I’m such a fool I don ’ t know when I ’ m being robbed deaf, dumb and blind? ” she cried furiously. “ I ’ d like you to remind them that I know a little something about business myself; I made my money myself, by shrewd investments and taking a chance here and there that I knew would pay off. They can ’ t get away with cheating and swindling me. I ’ ll sue—I ’ ll have them disbarred. And you ’ re working hand in glove with them. ”
    On and on and on went the ugly, ranting old voice, and Angela stood up suddenly, her face quite white.
    “ I can ’ t take any more of this, ” she said huskily. “ I ’ ll do something drastic if I have to listen. Let ’ s get out of here, fast! ”
    Hilary was equally anxious to escape the unpleasant scene, and all over the room people were rising and slipping away, as anxious to avoid the unpleasantness as Hilary and Angela.
    Outside, in the corridor, Angela drew a deep breath, put her shoulders back, and said huskily, “ Can you think of a better candidate for a murder than that—that— ” She bit back the word, but Hilary understood what she meant.
    Angela smiled suddenly.
    “ You ’ re nice, Hilary. I like you, ” she said with a rather endearing childlike simplicity. “ I hope you ’ ll stay a long time. You must come and have dinner with me on your night off. We ’ re halfway down the drive to the left in a grove of pines. ”
    “ Thanks, I ’ d like to, ” Hilary answered, and smiled as the girl swung her cashmere coat about her shoulders and started across the lobby.
    Dr. Marsden, hat in hand and overcoat over his arm, was just leaving his office and paused to wait for Angela, his smile a warm and welcoming one. Angela greeted him eagerly, thrust a possessive hand through his arm, and they went out into the cold gray twilight together.

 
    Chapter Seven
    Hilary had thought, when she got out of uniform and showered and donned a beige wool frock that was new and very becoming, that she might run in town and spend an hour or two with her mother. But when she came downstairs just before dinner time, a cold sleety rain driven by a strong north wind was lashing against the many-windowed building, and she thought of the fifteen or more miles to town along the Expressway, and decided not to risk it. Driving was perilous enough on the Expressway in