The Doctor's Undoing by Allie Pleiter Read Free Book Online Page B

quite the heavy hand,” Miss Landway replied with a sparkle returning to her eyes.
    â€œShe is very good at what she does. Her job is enormous. If you don’t realize that now, you will soon. I’m not so sure her firm hand isn’t absolutely necessary in order to get things done.” He picked up his own cup. “Surely an army nurse can grasp that.”
    Miss Landway smirked. It wasn’t an expression Daniel often attributed to women, but it applied in this case. “Not
this
army nurse.” She thought for a moment. “I’ll find a way, you know.”
    â€œA way to what?”
    She nodded toward the door. “To shower those girls in a rainbow of colored socks. You just watch. My mama always said I could teach a mule how to be stubborn.”
    Daniel believed it. “Really?”
    â€œIf I can give each girl socks in as many colors as I can, provided they all get the same number of socks, do I have your permission to do so?”
    He didn’t see how this would help, but then again he didn’t see how he could say no. “Yes. But only if your regular duties do not suffer and only if the gifts are equal for all.”
    Miss Landway stuck out her hand. “Dr. Parker, you have a deal.”
    He found himself shaking her hand. The odd feeling in the pit of his stomach forced him to add, “Miss Landway, what will you do if the boys want socks, as well?”
    It was a joke, but she didn’t take it as such. She gave his hand a comically forceful shake. “I’ll just knit faster, Dr. Parker.”
    Land sakes if he didn’t believe her.
    * * *
    Dr. Parker had been right—a weekend started with such discontent quickly dissolved into a marathon of unpleasantness. Ida prayed hard during the Home’s simple Sunday church service that her impulsive gift wouldn’t do much harm, but the lack of classes seemed to allow the children extra time to acquire cuts and scrapes, sore stomachs and aching heads. This was an altogether different kind of nursing care. While the army had been a flood of dire needs, Ida found her current post to be a wearyingly steady drip of little grievances. It required a particular sort of endurance—and a mountain of grace.
    She was just cleaning up after the third queasy tummy of the afternoon—a particular torment in this heat—when Ida heard a rap on her door. Mr. Grimshaw towered over a feisty-looking boy of about eight, clutching him by the elbow so hard the lad looked like a marionette strung up by a puppeteer. It wasn’t until Ida let her gaze fall from the dizzying height of Mr. Grimshaw’s face that she noticed the boy’s bloody knuckles.
    â€œOh my,” she said, reaching for a basin and cloth. “Only one way to get those.”
    â€œI imagine you’ve dealt with a badly thrown punch or two in the army.” Mr. Grimshaw nearly hoisted the boy onto the examining table.
    â€œUsually they come in pairs,” Ida replied, peering at the boy’s angry scowl. “Where’s the other one?”
    â€œJake Multon is down the hall with Dr. Parker,” Grimshaw replied.
    â€œHe’s hurt worse,” crowed the boy, obviously seeing himself as the victor in the scuffle. “I hope he has the shiner for a...ouch!”
    Mr. Grimshaw had pinned the boy’s good arm with his spindly fingers. “That’s enough of that. You’ll both be sweating it out in the laundry room for a week if I have my say.”
    Ida couldn’t help but groan right along with the boy. In this weather, she couldn’t think of a worse punishment than standing over enormous vats of hot water washing the orphanage’s endless stream of dirty linens. “Maybe not.”
    That raised one of Grimshaw’s bushy dark eyebrows. “And why not?”
    Ida poured water into the basin and pointed downward, instructing the boy to submerge his bloody knuckles. The resulting yelp