The Blue Diamond by Annie Haynes Read Free Book Online Page B

dare. It would be as much as my place is worth if her ladyship or Mrs. Parkyns got to hear of it.”
    â€œYou won’t need to keep the place much longer if we settle on the cottage,” Jim reminded her. “You must come, Minnie; there’s the dearest little sitting-room and the regular picture of a kitchen.”
    Minnie hesitated, but the wish to hear more of her future home overcame her scruples.
    â€œWell, just this once,” she conceded. “You won’t keep me long, Jim?”
    A light gleamed in the man’s eyes.
    â€œNot a minute longer than you want to stop, Minnie. Now I must go back to Mrs. Parkyns.”
    Minnie’s face was still flushed as she walked slowly up the backstairs; half-way down the corridor leading to the sick-room one of the other maids ran after her.
    â€œThis parcel has just come up from Lockford for Nurse Marston; will you give it to her, Minnie?”
    Minnie took it and tapped at the pink-room door.
    â€œHer ladyship will see you in the small library when the guests have gone, nurse,” she announced. “This has come for you.”
    Nurse Marston stepped into the passage, pulling the door to behind her.
    â€œAh, my things for the night!” she said as she took the parcel from the girl’s hands. “Mother said she would send them; but I don’t think I shall go to bed, though they have given me this room,” nodding to the door of that next the one occupied by her patient. “However, I can’t decide that till I have seen her ladyship. But I will put my things out”—unfastening the parcel—“and here’s my knitting. If I do sit up I like a bit of work in my hand, and I am anxious to get mother’s stockings done before winter. I knit them all myself, Minnie.”
    â€œDo you really?” The girl looked much impressed. “You will ring if you want anything, nurse,” she went on. “Wright will bring your supper up; and I will let you know when the folk are going.”
    â€œThank you, Minnie!” the nurse responded as she laid her modest belongings in the big wardrobe and the drawers that looked so ludicrously out of proportion with their contents.
    A few minutes later she was back with her patient, who was apparently asleep, and stood regarding her with a puzzled expression.
    â€œI cannot be mistaken,” she murmured, “and yet—”
    She shrugged her shoulders as she crossed the room and, taking her knitting in her hand, sat down before the fire, watching the flames with absent eyes, while her fingers clicked the steel pins with mechanical regularity.
    She had scarcely moved, save to give her patient the required nourishment, when several hours later Mavis tapped at the door.
    â€œYou wanted to see mother, nurse,” she began. “The people are going now, so if you—”
    The nurse came softly across the room.
    â€œI would go at once, Miss Mavis, but Minnie promised to come and sit with the young lady while I went. I hardly care to leave her alone.”
    Mavis came into the room.
    â€œOh, I will stay, nurse! I dare say Minnie is busy with the cloaks.”
    She drew nearer the bed and looked at the fair pale face, at the cloud of golden hair spreading over the pillows.
    â€œHow lovely she is,” she said with involuntary admiration.
    â€œShe is pretty,” Nurse Marston admitted, with a kind of grudging reservation.
    â€œIs she unconscious?” Mavis went on. “Does she hear anything we say?”
    â€œIt is impossible to tell how much she understands,” the nurse said repressively. “She lies for the most part in this kind of stupor, and I must ask you not to talk before her, Miss Mavis. It might do harm.”
    â€œOh, I am so sorry! “ Mavis exclaimed penitently. “It was very thoughtless of me. You will be afraid now to trust me with her.”
    â€œWell, I am rather anxious to speak to her ladyship, so if