Promise the Doctor by Marjorie Norrell Read Free Book Online Page A

Terrace was paid to the end of the quarter, so there was no worry about that side of affairs. By the time she relaxed in the seat beside Pete on their way to Vanmouth, Joy felt life had already taken a more rapid and more interesting turn for all of them.
    ‘I hope Mr. Belding can find something for you in Vanmouth, Pete,’ she said, once Wilborough was left behind and they were speeding through the green countryside, dappled with the thin April sunshine. ‘It won’t seem like home without you, it seems you’ve always been there.’
    ‘I have, just about.’ Pete frowned at the road. ‘It won’t seem right going across the road to Mrs. Parrot’s every evening, but she was very sweet about it when I went to see her. She remembers my folks very well, which is more than I do. It seems to me that I’ve always been with you and the others. It’ll be like parting from a real family of my own, once you’re all gone ... especially you, Joy.’
    ‘You must come and see us just as soon as we’re settled in. And you’ll be able to have your holidays at Vanmouth as well,’ Joy said quickly. ‘Oh, look over there! Isn’t that a skylark? It seemed to come down from such a great height and straight to the ground.’
    ‘It’ll have a nest not far away.’ Pete liked to study birds whenever they were in the country. ‘They never come close enough for one to trace them as easily as all that, though.’ He went on to talk at some length of the various means by which birds and other forms of wild life disguised the entrances to their homes as a protective measure, and for the time being his attention was diverted. Joy heaved a sigh of thankfulness. She loved Pete, but as an older brother. Until recently she had thought he felt the same way about her, but now she was not so sure, and she did not want any emotional complications in addition to the domestic changes into which they had all been plunged willy-nilly.
    ‘When I fall in love, ‘she thought as the car engine hummed beneath the bonnet and the miles fell behind them, ‘I’ll know, I’m sure. I seem to know I’ll feel ... differently, right from the beginning. It won’t be Pete or anyone I’ve known all my life. It’ll be someone right out of the blue ... but I know I’ll feel differently about him, whoever he is, right from the beginning!’

 
    CHAPTER V
    Vanmouth, of which she had heard much but never visited, proved a delightful surprise to Joy. The town was larger than she had expected, the traffic brisk and busy. There were several important-looking modern blocks of flats and offices which contrasted strongly with other parts of the town where the buildings were somewhat older although in an excellent state of preservation. Every road and traffic island bore its banks of flowers, and the streets were wide and tree-shaded. Around the town itself were cliffs on three sides, with what looked like a veritable forest of trees sweeping down almost to the sea and golden shore which made the fourth side of the township.
    ‘It’s lovely,’ Joy breathed as Pete slowed down to ask someone directions as to their route. ‘I think we’re going to like living here. I wonder where St Lucy’s is? Matron said it was in Vanmouth itself, but she didn’t say where.’
    ‘I expect someone will be able to tell us.’ Pete turned into a wide road and slowed down to ask further directions of a passer-by.
    They had not much further to go. Ahead they could see the gleam and glitter of the sun-flecked sea, but the road curved more than once, with little side roads on either side, and, as Pete remarked as they turned again into a wide half crescent, the distance through the town and the distance of the shore to the nearest houses, must both be equally deceptive.
    ‘Mr. Belding said Fernbank stood alone, almost the last house in its road before the sea ... no, the last house,’ she corrected herself quickly, remembering about the piece of land beyond her future home which