Patient Nurse by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online

nor did she want one. She’d paid too high a price for her feelings already. She wasn’t going to fall back into the trap of loving him. Loneliness was safer.
    Sometimes Noreen wondered about the argument with Ramon that had sent her cousin out into the cold rain with pneumonia. She’d had antibiotics for the bronchitis, which she insisted that she could give herself, without Noreen’s help. Later, Noreen had discovered the full bottle of antibiotic tucked between the mattress and box springs.
    Isadora had been furious with Ramon for not taking her with him to France. Or at least, that was what she said. But the maid had alluded to a furious argumentbefore he left, and that had never been mentioned again. At least, not to Noreen. Ramon had said something about Isadora punishing him for not letting her go along. There had been the mention of a lover, as well. Despite Isadora’s attempt to portray her marriage as perfection itself, Noreen had known better.
    Odd how Ramon tried to idolize the marriage, now that Isadora was gone.
    Noreen wondered if Isadora had really meant to die, or if she’d just miscalculated about the dangers of any such drastic exposure with pneumonia, and she’d died because of it. Perhaps it hadn’t occurred to her that damaged lungs could collapse and become fatal. Despite living with a surgeon for four years, she hadn’t seemed to know much at all about medicine or illness.
    Ramon didn’t know that Isadora had deliberately exposed herself to the rain and cold. The maid, after finding Isadora’s body, had collapsed in hysteria and never came back, even to get her check. Noreen hadn’t seen her again. So Ramon only knew that Noreen had left Isadora alone, and Isadora had died. Neither he nor Isadora’s parents would let Noreen tell her side of the story. They grieved and cursed her and even two years after the fact, they all still blamed her.
    It wasn’t as if they loved her, of course, or as if they cared about her own grief for her beautiful, selfish cousin. Despite their spats, Isadora and Noreen had grown up together, and they felt some sort of affection for each other. But the Kensingtons locked Noreen out of their lives. It had come as a gigantic surprise when her aunt had invited her over for coffee and cake the week of her uncle’s birthday. The conversation had been stilted, and Noreen hadn’t enjoyed it. She supposed thatpeople were talking about their avoidance of Noreen and their refusal to forgive her. She couldn’t think of any other reason they’d have wanted her company. Her aunt did hate gossip.
    She went to work and managed to get through her shift without much difficulty, but the amount of breathlessness she was having disturbed her.
    That afternoon, she got an appointment with a colleague of her Macon surgeon, and was worked in at the end of the day.
    He had tests run, and he listened to her heart. He was a tall, fair man with an easy smile and a nice disposition.
    â€œYou’re a nurse,” he reminded her. “Can’t you tell when a heart isn’t working properly?”
    â€œYes. But I hoped it was just overwork.”
    â€œIt is,” he said. “And that valve is leaking a little more than it was. You need to schedule the surgery, and it should be soon. I don’t want to alarm you, but if that valve goes all at once, there may not even be time to get you to a hospital. Surely you know that?”
    She did. How could she tell him that at times she thought it might be a relief not to have to face another day of Ramon’s cold antagonism and accusation?
    I’m dying of unrequited love, she thought to herself and laughed out loud at the whimsical thought. I have a broken heart, in more ways than one.
    â€œIt isn’t cause for levity,” the doctor said firmly, misunderstanding her chuckle. “I want to talk to Dr. Myers, the surgeon, and get you scheduled for surgery.”