Trudie fixed her gaze on him as long as she could as she found herself being wheeled away to the X-ray unit. He smiled at her reassuringly, lifted his hand in a small salute, and stepped outside to light a much needed cigarette. Through the faint spiral of blue smoke he appraised the entrance to the hospital. Although he had come and gone through these doors every day for the past five years, Philip felt that never before had he really appreciated how it must appear to the anxious relatives and friends whose loved ones were somewhere within these walls. Not that Trudie—Nurse Hislop—was either a relative or a special friend, he hastened to tell himself. Yet she was someone with whom he was in close personal contact, and whom he hoped would be working alongside him as part of his team, for some time to come.
He turned as a step behind him heralded the approach of the Casualty nurse. She was smiling as she came toward him, and although he knew she would have been smiling whatever her news Philip felt his spirits lift as she greeted him.
“The X-rays are ready Dr. Malham,” she said, and he followed her to where Dr. Soames was waiting with the still-wet plates.
“Nothing to worry about, thank heaven,” Frank Soames announced. “I took plates of the skull too, as Nurse was complaining about pain in her head and dizziness. But there’s no sign of anything more than extensive bruising both to the leg and the head. She’s very slightly concussed, of course,” he ventured, “but I think she’ll be all right after a day or so in bed.”
“As you say, thank heaven,” Philip said sincerely. “She’s a very lucky girl, and I’m a lucky man. I could well have had a charge of manslaughter to face, and none of it either her fault or mine.”
Trudie had been wheeled back now from the X-ray unit and was eyeing Philip anxiously. With a smile he went over to reassure her.
“Nothing to worry about,” he said cheerfully, “although I expect you’ll feel sore for a day or two. There’s nothing more than bruising anywhere, thank goodness. A day or two in bed...”
“Oh, but I can’t!” Trudie interrupted, color flooding her small face. “I mean... all the beds are needed and ... Dad’ll be expecting me. I asked Nurse Anderson to telephone home and let Mrs. Thornton know I was coming—” She halted abruptly and the color rushed back as she lifted her gaze to meet Philip’s. “I haven’t said yet how ... honored ... and delighted I am that you’ve asked me to come to the extension,” she said awkwardly. “I’ll do my best, always, Dr. Malham. I won’t let you down.”
“I wouldn’t have asked for you if I had thought you ever could or would,” Philip said easily. “I’m glad you are happy to join me.” He paused a moment, then went on diffidently, “You live at The Cedars, that white house with the row of cedar trees at this end of Thrackwaite, don’t you?” he asked.
“Yes.” Trudie nodded, mentally conjuring up a picture of “home” that Philip’s sketchy description evoked in her mind. “I don’t think many people call it The Cedars, though. It’s been known as “the doctor’s house” for three generations now, ever since my great-grandfather first set up in practice there. Why?”
“Because I pass there on my way home,” Philip said slowly. “I could drive you there, providing there’s someone to look after you and see to it that you take things easily for the next few days.”
“Mrs. Thornton can do that.” Trudie smiled. The housekeeper had always wanted to nurse and was delighted if any of the family had a slight indisposition that would allow her to minister to them. She loved to “fuss,” as the boys termed it, and Trudie had no doubt at all that, if she allowed herself to be spoiled, Mrs. Emma, as she was known to them all, would delight in that spoiling.
“There would be no necessity for me to move if I didn’t want to do so,” she clarified the situation for Philip’s benefit. “Mrs. Emma just loves waiting on people and fussing over them, especially if they are not well.”
“You may not dismiss this so lightly,” Philip smiled, “once the stiffness sets in around the bruises. Just lie still,” he advised. I’ll pop along and attend to one or two things I had forgotten. Then we’ll be on our way to Thrackwaite.”
Trudie obediently lay still. To be strictly truthful she was disinclined to move. The least effort of movement set the pain throbbing in her head, and talking was still quite an effort. In addition to all this she still felt dizzy when she attempted to sit up.
“Dad’ll give me something to ease all this,” she consoled herself. “Once I get home I’ll be all right.”
It was impossible to hold any sort of conversation during the journey, with Trudie reclining alone on the back seat. Beyond looking back from time to time to make certain Trudie was all right and as comfortable as could be expected, Philip devoted his attention to driving.
“Mrs. Thornton will be expecting you,” he called once, speaking over his shoulder. “I asked Nurse Anderson to telephone her so that it wouldn’t give her too much of a shock when we arrived.”
“That was very thoughtful of you,” Trudie said sincerely. “I really am grateful.”
“That’s all right. It was the least I could do,” Philip answered so abruptly that Trudie was convinced that his kindness had been prompted by a feeling of responsibility and not from any personal concern at all.
From her reclining position in the back of the car she looked out at the lovely countryside. Evidence that spring was really here at last burst into view on all sides. The treetops were breaking into leafy green, outlined against a sky of clear and cloudless blue. The May sun shone, not with any warmth, but with cheer, and now and then there was a froth of color as they passed some early flowering lilac or laburnum. From time to time the strong perfume of the white hawthorn flowers reached her through the partly opened windows.
“If you want to change your position I’ll stop the car and help you,” Philip called over his shoulder. “I know it isn’t what you might term a long drive, but you’ve had quite a bruising and you’ll soon feel stiff and sore.”
“I’m fine, thank you,” Trudie assured him truthfully. She did feel stiff and more than a little sore, but that was to be expected. She doubted very much if any change of position would help a great deal.
She studied the back of his head as they drove along. It was a well-shaped head, she reflected, firmly set on the strong broad shoulders and carried proudly erect. Abruptly she stifled a sigh. What must he be thinking of her. Philip was known throughout the hospital as “keeping himself to himself,” never more than friendly to all, intimate with none. Trudie thought anxiously, but try as she would she could not recollect having ever seen anyone with him in his car except occasionally, one or other of the doctors. How he must be hating this intrusion into his daily affairs!
“Just around the next bend in the road, I think,” Philip’s words reached her, breaking her train of thought. “Sit tight when we stop. Don’t try to move by yourself.”
Trudie doubted very much if she could have moved very far unaided, but she made no comment, merely pulling herself up a little to watch as the white house with the green shutters came into view. She had always loved her home. Low and long, flanked in the driveway by the cedar trees some long-ago Hislop bride had planted, it looked very attractive in the spring sunshine. Emma Thornton came to the door to greet them and Trudie was grateful to this kindly, cheerful woman who devoted as much care to the house and the family therein as if they were her own.
“Oh, Miss Trudie!” she began as anxiety clouded her round, rosy cheeks and showed in her soft brown eyes. “Whatever were you doing? Mary didn’t say much on the telephone, only that you’d been in an accident and Dr. Malham was bringing you home. Where are you hurt, and how badly?”
“Now there’s nothing to worry about, Mrs. Thornton.” Philip descended from the car and came around to lay a reassuring hand on that lady’s arm as he introduced himself. “We’ve had her X-rayed and, thank goodness, there’s nothing more than severe bruising and shock for us to worry about. She saved a child’s life,” he ended seriously
, “but she could well have lost her own. She is,” he smiled down at Trudie, “a very lucky young lady as well as a very brave one.”
“It isn’t being brave if you don’t stop to think before you act,” Trudie interposed. “If I’d stopped to think it might have been too late. As it was I just acted on the spur of the moment ... so that wasn’t being brave, not really.”
“We’ll argue when we get all the facts of the case and not before.”
Philip turned as the newcomer descended the short flight of steps to the door and saw a tall young man with fair hair, almost as fair as Trudie’s own, but with gray eyes where hers were blue. All the same there was no mistaking him for anyone but Trudie’s brother. From inside the car Trudie performed the introductions, half-laughing as she ended, “But get me out of here first, Malcolm. You can go on being a lawyer once we’re inside, but I don’t want to be here when Dad gets in.”
“How do we start, sir?” Malcolm turned deferentially to Philip. “I can lift her—carry her—but I don’t want to hurt her.”
“I can carry her,” Philip said easily, “and I’m more accustomed to this sort of thing than you are. If you’ll just lead the way.”
Trudie had begun to protest that she could walk, perhaps with a little help. Philip silenced her smilingly, telling her that at the moment she was not the nurse but the patient, and she subsided into silence. Mrs. Thornton led the way into the comfortable lounge. A wide, long sofa had been drawn up before a cosy-looking fire of logs and cones, and Emma indicated that Philip should lay his burden there.
“I’ve some coffee on the boil if you would care for a cup, sir?” she asked Philip. To Trudie’s surprise he accepted gratefully, just as he accepted Malcolm’s proffered cigarette.
“Comfortable?” Malcolm asked, bending over her. Trudie nodded. “Then relax, and I’ll do the honors when Mrs. Emma brings in the coffee,” her brother offered. To Trudie’s immense surprise he and Philip, in no time at all, were chatting together as easily as if they had been friends for years. It did not occur to Trudie that Malcolm, having only recently passed his final examinations as a lawyer, was trying himself out by pretending Philip was a client. Whatever the magic it certainly appeared to be working, and after a few minutes or so, Trudie felt herself relax, listening to them discussing the differences in the training for their respective professions.
“Here we are.” Mrs. Emma bustled in, pushing a laden trolley ahead of her. Malcolm poured the coffee. Philip, as though he did this sort of thing every day of his life, passed cookies and cakes, and conversation became general. For Philip the experience was completely new. He had been a lonely child and a lonely young man. Now he did not notice whether he was lonely or not, he simply accepted the state of being alone as part of daily living. He would never, in his wildest flights of imagination, have thought of himself sitting in a strange house and casually consuming coffee and cake and keeping up an interesting conversation with someone whom he had met only half an hour or so ago.
Malcolm, for his part, was making his own appraisal of Philip. The Hislops were a united family, and all of them knew that Trudie, in common with many of her fellow nurses at St. Catherine’s, thought the world of the young surgeon. Malcolm knew Trudie admired Philip’s work and his devotion to duty wholeheartedly, but whether her feelings for him went further than admiration, Malcolm had no means of knowing. He only knew that his young sister had suffered enough through the death of her twin in such unknown circumstances and surroundings, and that she had worried, if not openly, about how and where he had spent those last months. Malcolm watched Philip closely and vowed to himself that if this man meant more heartache for Trudie then out he should go. But if this were to be the beginnings of a lasting and more important association, then he would do all in his power to help. In addition, he liked Philip. It was obvious Philip liked him too, at least as much as he had ever accepted friendship so far. They talked on and the afternoon passed without any of them noticing the time.
It was only when the door opened to admit a big burly man in his late fifties that Philip realized with a sense of shock how the time must have flown.
“I didn’t realize it was so late,” he began apologetically, rising to shake hands with Trudie’s father, whom he had met on previous occasions when Dr. Hislop had referred patient’s to Philip for consultation or surgery. “I must be going...”
“Not on my account, I hope,” Dr. Hislop said quickly. “I just looked in for a quick cup of tea before evening office hours. We don’t dine until after that is over. If you’d care to join us...”
For a moment Philip hesitated. He was fearful of overstaying his welcome, but both Trudie and her brother added their invitation to their father’s, and he could no longer feel he might be intruding.
“It’s most kind of you,” he began. “If I could let them know at home...?”
“Telephone in the hall,” Malcolm said quickly. “I’ll show you.” He broke off as the door opened again, and a whirlwind rushed into the room.
“Ask Mrs. Emma to hold dinner a little while, will you, Malcolm?” the newcomer was saying. “There are some slides I must examine—Oh, sorry,” he broke off in confusion. “I didn’t see anyone here. I thought that was a patient’s car outside.”
“A patient arrived in it, anyway,” Malcolm grinned and went on to introduce Philip and to explain what had happened. “We were just persuading Dr. Malham to stay for dinner,” he ended.
“Of course you’ll stay, won’t you, sir?” Geoffrey Hislop was as dark as his sister and brother were fair, but Philip had no means of knowing then that he resembled, his late mother more than any of the others. It was from her Geoffrey had inherited his dark eyes and coloring. “It was kind of you to bring Trudie home for us.” With the three men extending their invitation and Trudie’s gaze asking him not to refuse, Philip had the strangest sensation that this was truly genuine friendship, and that here was a warm and generous welcome such as he had seldom encountered. He had never known family life of any kind. Here, in this small circle, no one appeared to be pushing the invitation on Trudie’s account. He felt suddenly and sincerely that he was wanted for his own sake, and the thought was warming. They were all openly inviting him as a friend of the family, opening wide the door to their small circle and embracing him as one of them. To the man whose home life consisted of the efficient but somehow impersonal ministrations of an all-male staff, the sensation was by no means unpleasant.
“If you are certain it won’t mean a great deal of extra trouble for Mrs. Thornton,” Philip began doubtfully, but Geoff did not give him time to continue.
“Mrs. Emma likes what she calls ‘a full house,’ Dr. Malham,” he assured Philip. “The more the merrier.” He did not say it, but the look on the faces of the other three told Philip how much they still missed the other brother—Trudie’s twin—and how great was the gap left by his untimely death.
“I’ll just go and look at these slides,” Geoff said abruptly. “Be back in a little while.”
“And I must see what or who is awaiting me in the office,” Dr. Hislop smiled. “Make yourself comfortable, Malham. Malcolm will look after you. See you at dinner,” he grinned suddenly, like a young boy, “unless I have one of those emergency calls you fellows only get to hear about later!”
“That’s the family,” Malcolm said lightly. “In and out like those little characters in a cuckoo clock. Come along, I’ll show you where the phone is. You’ll be able to find it yourself then, any time you come.”
Smiling as he realized that, unless he so wished it, this need not be his only visit to The Cedars, Philip followed Malcolm, leaving Trudie alone, staring into the fire and wondering where this would—or could—lead in the days ahead.
“The telephone is in the little closed alcove under the stairs,” Malcolm said, pointing. “We had to have it enclosed and an extra bell put on the outside of the door because Dad said it was impossible to hear what people were saying unless he was usin
g the office or study extension. There’s always so much noise with four young people milling around the house all the time. I suppose,” he grinned suddenly, making himself look years younger “we’re by no means as noisy now as we once were.” Philip had been puzzling over that remark “four young people,” and almost as if he had read his thoughts Malcolm spoke again.
“Sorry,” he apologized almost without knowing why, “it’s difficult to always remember Garth won’t be ... coming home.” He turned abruptly, leaving Philip to make his telephone call. “I’ll be with Trudie,” he called over his shoulder. “You’ll find your way back all right?”
Philip nodded and opened the door of the little alcove. Within moments his call was answered by the measured tones of Foster who had charge of the domestic side of the place and who had been with Philip since he had first set up Conrey House for himself.
“I won’t be home for dinner, Foster.” Philip found it difficult to say the words. This was an entirely new experience. The only other times he had not been home when expected was when an emergency operation claimed his attention, or when he was away at some conference or meeting and Foster was not expecting him anyway. “If I’m needed,” Philip went on smoothly, “I shall be at Dr. Hislop’s house, The Cedars, in Upper Thrackwaite. I’ll give you the number in a moment.” Without quite knowing why, he added, “Don’t keep anything for me, and if it’s late don’t wait up. I have no idea what time I’ll be in.”
“Very good, sir.” There was a slight pause; then Foster asked tentatively, “There’s nothing wrong, is there, sir? I mean ... you are all right? You haven’t been involved in an accident or anything of that nature?” The man’s bewilderment showed in his tone, and Philip repressed a smile as he pictured the frown on Foster’s forehead under his scant silver hair.
Nurse Trudie is Engaged Page 3
