Regan's Pride by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

Funny, he never told me about any of Corrie’s mishaps.”
    â€œThat’s surprising,” the doctor said coolly, a sentiment that Ted could have seconded. He glanced down at Coreen’s still form. “She’s got two left feet. Her husband told me that a woman friend of Coreen’s let her take up the glider and she flew it too close to the trees. Good thing it was insured. She needs to be watched. And I mean watched, until she’s past this latest trauma. Then I’d strongly suggest some counseling. Nobody has so many accidents without an underlying cause. Perhaps she’s running from something. Running scared.”
    Ted thought about that later when he and Sandy weredrinking black coffee in the waiting room, waiting for them to move Corrie down into a private room. She was conscious, but barely out from under the anesthetic.
    â€œDid you know that she’d had this sort of accident before?” Ted asked his sister.
    She nodded. “I went to see her in the hospital. Or tried to. Barry didn’t like it that I was there, and he wouldn’t let me do more than wish her a speedy recovery. He kept everyone away from her, even then.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you say anything?”
    â€œYou didn’t want to know, Ted,” she replied honestly. “You hate Corrie. That was the last thing she said to me before I left, and there was a look in her eyes…” She grimaced. “She said something about my trying to remember the good times she and I had. It was an odd way of putting it, and I was afraid then that she planned to go up. She loves skydiving, but she’s clumsy.”
    â€œI only remember Coreen ever being clumsy one time before she married,” he said curtly. “How long has she been acting this way?”
    She looked at him levelly. “Since about a month after she married Barry…about the same time he decided that Corrie and I shouldn’t spend so much time together.”
    He was shocked. His white face told its own story, added to the way he was smoking. He wondered if his attitude at the funeral had driven Corrie into that airplane. Had he made her feel so much guilt that she couldn’t even live with it? He hadn’t really meant to, but he’d been fond of his young cousin, who’d always looked to him for advice and support, even above that of his own parents. And Coreen had let Barry drive drunk. That was the thing that haunted him. It was as if she’d condemned him to death.
    â€œWell, I’ll go over to the house in a day or so and have Henry open it up for me, so that I can get her clothes and things,” Sandy said heavily. She finished her coffee. “Tina will probably have the locks changed soon and Corrie will have no place to go at all. I’ll take her up to the apartment in Victoria with me….”
    â€œWe’ll bring her to the ranch,” Ted said firmly. “We can watch her, without letting her know that we are.”
    Sandy searched his face. “You won’t be cruel to her?”
    His jaw tautened. “I’ll keep out of her way,” he said, angry at the implication that he could hurt her now, when she could have been killed. His blue eyes impaled her. “That should please her.”
    He got up and moved down the corridor. Sandy stared after him with open curiosity.
    Â 
    Coreen was lying quietly in bed, feeling the bruises and cuts and breaks as if they were living things. The door opened and a familiar man walked in.
    â€œHello,” she said groggily, and without smiling. “Did you come to gloat? Sorry to disappoint you, but one funeral is all you get this week.”
    He put his hands into his pockets and stood over her. Bravado, he concluded when he saw the faint fear in her eyes that underlaid the anger.
    â€œHow are you?” he asked.
    She put a hand to her bruised forehead. “Tired,” she said flatly.
    â€œJumping out of