Nurse Linnet's Release by Averil Ives Read Free Book Online Page B

hand he caught her with a fierce movement into his arms, and she felt his mouth pressed almost ruthlessly to hers. She had never been kissed like it before—in fact, she had been kissed so few times that this was an experience in any case. And for a few moments she had neither the will nor the desire to resist him. Then she made a determined effort to free herself.
    “Please ... ! ” she said.
    “I’ve been wanting to kiss you all the evening! My lovely little Linnet ... ! ”
    She dragged her mouth away from his, and drew back into her corner of the car.
    “This is merely spoiling things.”
    “Oh, no, it isn’t! And considering that I shan’t see you again for three weeks ... Unless you’ll have lunch with me tomorrow? Linnet, say you’ll have lunch with me tomorrow! At the Savoy, at one o’clock? I’ll be waiting for you just inside the entrance.”
    “I can’t,” Linnet answered weakly, knowing that she would.
    “But I’ll be waiting for you! You won’t let me down, Linnet—you wouldn’t let anyone down, you sweet, adorable girl! And if you’re not there by one I’ll wait all the afternoon until you do arrive!”
    He went round and opened the car door for her and she slipped lightly out on to the pavement. He caught at her hand and crushed it between both his own, and then carried it to his lips. “Good night, little Linnet!”
    Linnet stole into the hall where the light still burned dimly, and fortunately the lift gates were open. As they clanged quietly shut and just before she started to shoot upwards someone emerged from matron’s office at the very end of the hall, and for an instant as he passed the lift Linnet felt sure he recognized her through the gilt bars, just the same as she recognized him; Dr. Shane Willoughby. She wondered what he was doing here at this hour, and whether perhaps all was not well with Diana Carey.
    Upstairs and safely shut away in her own room she went to the window and looked out. Both cars were still there, although Dr. Willoughby’s was about to draw away from the kerb. The silver-grey Bentley was still and motionless, and she had the feeling that Guy was sitting there behind his steering-wheel and perhaps looking upwards at her room, or where he imagined her room to be, for she had told him it was in the front of the house. In which case Dr. Willoughby would have guessed that he had been her escort for the evening, and she was not sure why this sudden intrusive thought displeased her a little.
    And, in any case, it was nothing to do with Adrian Shane Willoughby what she did with her free time, even if he had given her tea that afternoon. And he had only done that because he wanted her to promise him something.
    She undressed without putting on her light, glad of the darkness and the sight of the far-away brightness of the stars outside her window as she mechanically made ready for bed. And although, in the darkness, she also drew a few tissues from her drawer and wiped the make-up off her face, she left her lips untouched. She merely touched them experimentally, with the tips of her fingers, and discovered that they were burning a little.

 
    CHAPTER V II
    In the morning she wakened to find Cathie sitting on the foot of her bed and examining her with interest in the bright daylight that flooded the room.
    “Well,” Cathie inquired, in a bland, smooth tone, “and what happened to you last night? You were not in your room at ten o’clock, and you were not in it at half-past ten. After that I gave you up and went to bed myself. But what happened to you?”
    “I went out,” Linnet answered, stating the obvious.
    “Darling, I didn’t suppose that you were hiding in the wardrobe, although I never looked in there. But Jane Farr said you had a telephone call. Who was the man?”
    “How do you know it was a man?”
    Cathie gave vent to a sigh of exasperation.
    “Linnet, be your age! Even you don’t receive telephone calls from eager women friends who want to