Seaside Hospital by Pauline Ash Read Free Book Online

to Chertonbury.”
    “I only have an hour left,” she said, shaking her head. “I daren’t risk being late back, after last night.”
    “I’m sorry about that, Lisa,” he said, sobering. “I’ve been thinking about it. Do get in, I want to talk to you. I’ll make sure you’re back at the hospital in time.”
    He had a persuasive way about him, she reflected; it was hard to be cross with him for long. She climbed in, and he drove smoothly along the cliff-top.
    “What on earth made you take up nursing, Lisa? It must be awful in that hospital on a wonderful day like this! Good heavens, my dear girl, you were made to be petted, not worked like a slave.”
    “We don’t work like slaves, and you’re mixing me up with my sister. My aunt always said that Jacky was the one who was born to be spoiled.”
    “So you both lived with an aunt, did you? Haven’t you got any real home background?”
    “No, not any more.”
    “What do you do with yourself on holidays?”
    “I go home with my best friend, Mary Thorley. Her parents have a farm farther along the coast. They’re very nice.”
    Ellard seemed unusually thoughtful as he drove. “When am I going to see you again, Lisa?”
    “Now you know I’m a nurse, you can guess how little free time I have. I’ve another late pass this month due to me, but I’m saving that—” and then she broke off, biting her lip, as she remembered too late that there was now no reason to save that late pass. It had been planned weeks ago, before she and Derek had parted. “I just remembered. I don’t have to save it at all,” she said quietly.
    He stopped the car and looked searchingly at her. When he wasn’t smiling, he looked a lot older than she was, a man who might well be impatient of emotions and loyalties. She watched him uncertainly, as he asked the question she had been dreading. When it came, she didn’t know how to answer it.
    “A broken affair? Did I cause that?”
    “No, you didn’t cause it,” she managed.
    “Jacky, then!” he said, with finality. “That girl leaves a trail of trouble behind her, and I don’t think she’s even aware of it!”
    Lisa looked straight ahead. Whatever Jacky had done, she wasn’t going to talk about her to this man.
    “Jacky’s doing all right for herself,” Ellard went on, casually picking up the local paper from the back seat and holding it so that Lisa could see it. “That wouldn’t be your late boyfriend, I suppose, Lisa?”
    That was probing too deeply. Fiercely she turned on him, her anger driving away the tears that had been so near.
    “Look, Ellard, you made a bargain with me and I’m going to do my best to keep to it. Let’s leave it at that, shall we? After all, my private affairs are not any concern of yours.”
    For a moment his face darkened, and her heart began to beat faster. Then he smiled until his face crinkled up and his eyes were mere slits of amusement. “That’s another thing I like about you, Lisa. You look such a quiet little thing, and then all in a minute you get up your temper and put me well and truly in my place. Only,” he warned, as he put the car in gear again, “don’t do it too often, poppet, will you?”
    Lisa had given Mary a very brief account of the dinner date with Ellard the night before. Mary didn’t ask any questions, but when Lisa admitted that she had been to Chertonbury for tea with Ellard instead of spending all her break working on her notes for the next lecture, she could not help looking surprised.
    “I thought you didn’t care for him much, Lisa.”
    Lisa fixed her cap and went soberly beside Mary down to the wards, taking a long time to find an answer to that question. At last she said, “Oh, I don’t think he’s going to be so bad after all.” Quickly changing the subject, she said, “I’m in a bit of a spot about the garden party, Mary. My sister wants me to go, but how can I this year?”
    “Get out of it,” Mary advised decisively. “Of course you