“Learn what?” Dr. Parker’s voice came from the doorway, where he stood with a large parcel in his hands and the most extraordinary expression on his face.
“That.” Gitch pointed with excitement at the collar of Ida’s blouse, proving that the injured finger worked just fine indeed.
“Pardon?” Dr. Parker looked understandably baffled.
“Gitch asked me if I couldn’t embroider the hem of her pinafore with flowers like my collar.”
Dr. Parker’s face took on a “haven’t we been over this?” expression.
“And I was just asking Gitch if she’d like to learn how to do it herself, and perhaps all the girls if they wanted.”
The doctor’s expression softened. Ida raised her eyebrows at him as if to say, “See? I have learned my lesson.”
“Nurse Landway says it’s like sewing, only with colors. She says I’m smart enough to learn, but I’m not so sure.”
Dr. Parker smiled. Ida took no small pleasure in the fact that she saw a great deal more of the doctor’s striking smiles lately. “I expect there’s only one way to find out.”
“That’s what she said.” Gitch sighed. The child’s eyes fixed on the parcel. “Whatcha got?”
Ida was glad the child asked—she’d been wondering the same thing, given the doctor’s unusually cheerful expression.
“What do I have, Miss Martin?” When she nodded, he continued, “I have a surprise for Nurse Landway.”
Ida couldn’t have been more stunned. “A surprise? For me?” She didn’t know what to make of it.
Dr. Parker set the parcel on the counter, and the package made an odd metal thunk as it landed. Whatever it was, it was heavy. He nodded toward it as he stepped out of the way. “Go ahead, open it.”
“You got a present!” Gitch was practically jumping up and down.
Ida gave the doctor a tentative grin. It surely wasn’t yarn, so she had no idea what he could have brought her as a surprise—especially with that look in his eyes. “I won’t know for sure until I open it, will I?” She stepped forward, slipping her finger under the twine and pulling until it released the brown paper wrapping.
Ida gasped.
Eight magnificent tins of what could only be paint stood in a perfect stack. Paint! And in the most glorious colors! She read the names aloud, running her hands along the square of color on each label in euphoria. “Canary, Sky Blue, Cherry Red, Lettuce Green.” Each one as vivid as the next, eight splendid tins of bright, beautiful color. Daniel Parker had brought her paints—Ida couldn’t think of a single gesture that would bring her more joy. The affirmation in his “surprise” raised a lump of deep gratitude in her throat. “Oh, Dr. Parker, they’re wonderful.” She read the next row. “Moss Green, Deep Blue, Wine Color and Pink Tint. They’re all just beautiful. Beautiful,” she repeated, at a loss to describe what the arrival of these tins meant to her. Ida surely hoped her face showed the thankfulness filling her chest, for no words could even come close.
“There’s a whole rainbow in there,” Gitch said. “You could paint anything you wanted with all those colors.”
“Maybe just start with the window trim in the girls’ common room.” Ida could see it in Dr. Parker’s eyes—he understood exactly what this gift would mean to her.
“How? Why?” Her breath tingled in her chest as she ran a hand across the set of tins again. So much color. Such an extravagance of hues. Had he brought her even just one tin, she’d have been pleased. But eight? Had he presented her with a box of jewels or a trip around the world, Ida could not have been more pleased.
“Let’s simply say—”
“I’m gonna go tell the other girls we’re getting pretty colors in our rooms!” With one last look at the brilliant stack of cans, Gitch ducked around Dr. Parker to speed out the door.
“Going to go,” Dr. Parker called after her, then turned to face Ida again. The room suddenly felt too small for so grand a gesture. She’d been standing closer to him at breakfast the other day and not felt as intimate as she did just now with yards between them.
“Why?” she repeated softly.
“Because you are right. It is too drab in here. We’ve lost sight of the wonderful views around us. I can’t make flowers bloom like Mrs. Leonard did, but you have a gift for bringing color into the world. I’d be foolhardy not to let you use the talents God gave you to make the children’s lives brighter.”
He could not have said anything more perfect in all the world. “I don’t know what to say.”
He smiled. “Miss Landway at a loss for words? Grimshaw would never believe it.”
Mr. Grimshaw and the boys—they deserved color, too. “If the girls’ common room meets with your approval, may I have your permission to do the trim in the boys’ room, as well?”
He crossed his arms over his chest, teasing in his eyes. “Am I to understand you are both asking permission and waiting for approval? Are you quite sure you’re Ida Landway?”
Something fell away between them. The carefully tended wall of employer and employee slipped down to reveal a timid, fresh partnership that went beyond children, medicine or education. When she heard him say her name, her view of him shifted from Dr. Parker the institution, and took a small step toward Daniel Parker the man. The man who had just brought her paint to bring beauty into this tiny world they shared.
“Quite sure,” she said, wishing the words did not sound so breathless. “Thank you. Thank you more than you can ever know.”
“The Sky Blue is my favorite,” he said in the tone of a secret. “What’s yours?”
“All of them. Every single one of them.”
There was a moment of powerful silence, as if the air itself had changed between them. Ida wanted to look anywhere but into his eyes, but at the same time couldn’t pull her gaze away from their intensity. He seemed both bothered and more comfortable, which made no sense at all.
“Yes, well,” he said, taking his glasses off and then putting them right back on again, “I’m glad you like your surprise.”
“Oh, I do—I really do.” Her words came out in a tumble to match the one in her stomach, and Ida fought the urge to put her hands up to the heat she felt rising in her cheeks.
“Yes. Good. Well then, it’s almost time for fencing.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets.
“Oh, you wouldn’t want to be late for that. And thank you again. Really.”
Dr. Parker coughed, nodded once at her, nodded again at the tins of paint, and then fumbled from the room.
Ida stared after him. Well, I never! She couldn’t remember a time she’d been more shocked—and for an army nurse, that was saying something.
* * *
Daniel stared at the ceiling and tried to get the sparkle in Ida Landway’s eyes out of his mind. It wasn’t working.
He’d been especially vigorous in fencing this afternoon, unnerved as he was by how his simple gift seemed to change things between them. He hadn’t intended for the gesture to become so important...had he? No, surely not. It was an impulse, a “wouldn’t it surprise her if I...” ambush of a thought that came over him as he passed the hardware store window.
An impulse would have been one can of paint, Daniel argued with himself. You bought her eight. How was it that this woman could annoy him to pieces and intrigue him to distraction at the same time? He found her vitality energizing, even if it was the kind of electricity just as likely to shock as it was to provide power.
Folding his hands behind his head as he lay on the couch in his parlor, Daniel allowed himself the luxury of dissecting his thoughts on Ida Landway. She was unlike any other woman he’d known—socially or professionally. She wasn’t a socialite by any stretch of the word, but neither was she as coarse as her backcountry upbringing would dictate. Down-to-earth, perhaps, but Daniel found the lack of
pretense refreshing. He never had to guess what Ida was thinking—she spoke her mind, with force and clarity. After all, thanks to her nursing scholarship from Columbia, she was an educated woman.
He’d known plenty of well-educated women, but many of them had struck him as dull while Ida had such a wit about her. He recalled the verbal sparring they’d had when she discovered the boys’ fencing. Ferocious West Virginia elephants? The boys still talked about her appearance, even at today’s class. He liked matching wits with her, just as much as he enjoyed dueling with the older boys. Only with the boys, Daniel could be assured of a victory. Lately, it was difficult to know who came out on top in any conversation with Ida Landway.
Why have You brought her here, Lord? It was a valid question—even though Daniel had sought out an army nurse and reviewed her file, he couldn’t escape the same notion Ida had: that God Himself had brought her to the Parker Home. The children adored her, but it was more than that.
Daniel rolled on his side, frustrated. Out of the corner of his eye he spied Meredith’s pink booties, still sitting on the windowsill waiting to be returned to the toddler’s feet once Miss Landway’s sock project came to fruition. She’d turned so many things in his world upside down in the space of three weeks—he ought to be firmly put out by it.
Only he wasn’t. It was as if he hadn’t even recognized the rut he was in until she came and startled him out of it. Routines were comfortable, predictable and efficient. He’d liked, even depended upon, his routines. Ida’s disruptions—and there seemed to be a new one every day—were irritating, uncomfortable...and filled with all the vitality he and the Home lacked.
Maybe, just maybe, time would settle them into a smoother working relationship. So far she’d done more good than harm, and Daniel found he didn’t like the thought of the Parker Home without her in the infirmary.
It’s only been three weeks, he told himself as he rose to get ready for bed. Give her time. She may surprise you.
He laughed at himself as he doused the light in his parlor. May surprise you? She’d done nothing but surprise him from the moment she set foot on the property.
Chapter Eleven
Friday just after lunch, Daniel was going over plans for an upcoming outing with Mr. Grimshaw while the boys were out in the yard when the calamity broke out. The shouting, yelling and—what was that yappy noise?—came through the window in such a burst that both he and Grimshaw sprang to their feet and made for the window that looked out onto the grass.
There, with her back to him in a circle of noisy boys, stood an impeccably dressed woman. A small white creature ran in crazed circles at her feet. When the woman turned toward the animal, Daniel was shocked to recognize the visitor as none other than Isabelle Hooper. MacNeil, who had evidently just let her in through the visitors’ gate, stood beside her with a baffled expression on his face. Mrs. Hooper, it seemed, was here with her dog—if that indeed was what that thing was. Mother had told him stories of Chester the ridiculously coddled poodle, but he’d never met the animal—until now.
“A dog?” Grimshaw balked, scratching his forehead. “Someone’s brought a dog?”
Without attempting to hide his displeasure, Daniel sighed. “I expect this is Nurse Landway’s doing.”
“A dog?” Grimshaw repeated, clearly at a loss for other words as the noise level kept going up in the yard.
Daniel had been hoping for a quiet Friday afternoon. A series of academic tests taken this week had left the boys boisterous and argumentative under the strain. Yesterday’s fencing had been a lesson in chaos—and now this. This was a poor time for any visitor, much less Isabelle Hooper and her dog. He’d been trying to gain Mrs. Hooper’s attentions for any number of months now, but this? A surprise visit—and one with Chester to boot—hardly seemed destined to end well. Lord, deliver me!
No one was going to deliver him from this but himself, it seemed. With a grumbling sigh, Daniel lifted his coat from the back of his chair and began to roll his sleeves down to button the cuffs. “I’ll go greet our guest. Guests. Grimshaw, would you be kind enough to run by Miss Landway’s office and ask her to join me in the front room?” Daniel hated the thought of admitting the jumping, running beast into his parlor, but he could think of no other way to keep the boys away from the yapping dog long enough for a conversation to take place.
By the time he made it to the front gate and Mrs. Hooper, word of the dog’s presence—or just the high-pitched bark—had evidently reached the girls, for he found Mrs. Smiley vainly trying to herd the girls back inside away from the dog. For a panicked second, Daniel could not tell if the sounds emanating from Isabelle Hooper were cries of fear or laughter. Thankfully, a closer view showed that the woman seemed to be as amused as the dog as it leaped from lap to lap and hand to hand, barking and jumping.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Hooper,” Daniel shouted as he made his way into the circle of excited children surrounding the woman.
Mrs. Hooper produced a rubber ball from her handbag—an act that made Daniel’s eyes pop in surprise—and handed it to the nearest boy. “Here. Chester simply loves to chase this.”
“Here, Chester, here, boy!” cried the boy, followed by a chorus of “Here, Chester!” seemingly from every child in the yard. Chester, good sport that he was, proceeded to chase the ball and plant happy licks on everyone he could reach.
“My goodness, Ida was right,” Mrs. Hooper said, adjusting her hat, which had slipped off to one side. “They really do enjoy each other.”
Daniel motioned two boys apart so that Mrs. Hooper had an exit from the circle. “Miss Landway asked you to bring...” He found himself hesitating just a bit before addressing the dog by name. “...Chester with you for a visit today?”
“Well, actually I do think we talked about a time next week, but Chester and I were on this end of town and it is such a lovely day. Besides, I found I couldn’t wait to meet my girls.”
Daniel looked toward the door behind Mrs. Hooper, willing Ida Landway to appear on the scene and explain. When she did not yet appear, he ventured, “Your girls?”
“Oh, that’s right, we’re to keep this a secret, aren’t we?” She pulled Daniel to the side, completely unalarmed that her four-legged associate was mired in a mass of cooing, petting, giggling children. Daniel feared the small dog might be crushed, but Mrs. Hooper seemed to harbor no such concerns. “The girls I’m knitting socks for,” she explained in a whisper. “We’ve each been assigned four, and I found I wanted to meet them before I put on the final touches.”
Daniel had no idea how to respond. The whole thing baffled him on multiple levels. Visits? Assignments? A dog?
“Mrs. Hooper!” came Miss Landway’s voice from behind him, a very satisfying panic pitching her greeting high. “I thought you and Chester were coming next week.”
“And we are, dear, but...” The woman’s eyes darted back and forth between Daniel and Miss Landway, picking up on the tension now strung between them. “Perhaps it wasn’t the smartest idea to just show up.”
“No, truly—”
“It’s quite fine—” Daniel and Miss Landway both gushed refutes at the same time, moments before a red ball sailed through the air, just missing Daniel’s forehead and causing him to duck.
Daniel straightened, determined to take control of the situation. “We always welcome visitors, Mrs. Hooper, but we’d have been so much better prepared to receive you if you had let us know you were coming.”
“Pshaw, Dr. Parker. I require no reception. You have other concerns than receiving old ladies.”
Concerns that involve a crazed dog, Daniel thought as he applied a casual smile. “Why don’t you come into the front room and we can have a chat there. Chester will welcome a bit of rest from his many...admirers, too, I expect.”
“Delighted.” She turned to the children and gave a small whistling
sound, which brought Chester to her side immediately, much to the dismay of the children. “Give me some time to talk with Dr. Parker and Nurse Landway, children, and I promise Chester and I will come back outside for another visit.”
In response to that promise, Mr. Grimshaw displayed an amused resignation while Mrs. Smiley’s face was pinched tight with irritation. Clearly, the pair of teachers had come to the same conclusion Daniel had: hope of any further classroom accomplishments for the afternoon had just disappeared.
“I was going to tell you—” Nurse Landway started in a whispered voice just behind him.
“Next week?” Daniel threw back over his shoulder as softly as he could manage, only barely able to keep the irritation from his voice. It was going to take every ounce of control he had to make Mrs. Hooper feel as if her visit was the high point of his day. Here he’d just been thinking how nicely Miss Landway was finally fitting in—he’d gone and bought her paints, for goodness’ sake—and she went and did something like this. An animal visit! An invited animal visit!
A whining chorus of “Why can’t Chester stay out here with us?” and “We never get to play with dogs!” sounded in his ears as he held the door open for Mrs. Hooper and Miss Landway. Mrs. Hooper looked as if the whole thing had been great fun. Miss Landway had the good sense to look guilty.
“Isabelle,” said the nurse, “why don’t I go arrange for some iced tea and coffee to be brought while you talk to the doctor. And perhaps a dish of water for Chester?”
“A fine idea, dear. And darling of you to think of Chester. He’s had quite the exercise with those youngsters. But coffee?”
Miss Landway managed an “I’m so sorry about this” smile as she nodded toward Daniel. “Dr. Parker prefers coffee.”
“In this weather? Goodness, I don’t know how you stand it.”
“Thank you, Miss Landway,” Daniel said, motioning toward the small setting of tables and chairs. He didn’t know whether to admire Miss Landway’s cunning exit, or be annoyed at having been left alone to entertain Mrs. Hooper and Chester. The latter was eyeing him with large pleading eyes and a panting pink tongue, oblivious to all the chaos he’d just caused.
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