Seaside Hospital (2 page)

How typical of Jacky to write like that, knowing full well that Lisa would at once revive the old gnawing anxiety about her younger sister that had always been there when they were living together at Aunt Agatha’s. Poor, long-suffering Aunt Agatha, who had brought the girls up, always said that in spite of her efforts the sisters were cut out in the pattern that providence had decided on; one to have the fun and the other to do the worrying. And how like Jacky to discover where Lisa could be found and jump dramatically into her life again.

Walking toward the theater Lisa was aware of an odd reluctance to see her sister again. Stopping to look at the “stills” of “Jacqueline” outside, she saw that the camera had caught Jacky’s lithe young limbs in action. It was a picture that spoke of glowing health; Jacky’s happy-go-lucky, disarmingly selfish nature peered out from tiptilted blue eyes rather like a kitten’s. Like a mischievous kitten, too, Lisa reflected, Jacky charmed everyone with her sense of fun; and she was as irresponsible as a kitten and as adept at wriggling out of awkward situations. And the minute that Lisa came face to face with her sister, after three years, she knew that Jacky hadn’t changed one bit.

Despite the fact that the sisters had parted after a quarrel over one of Jacky’s scrapes, Lisa realized that her sister had apparently forgotten all about it. Jacky threw herself at Lisa, kissing her with easy affection and holding her off to look at her.

“Lisa darling, you haven’t changed a bit! Do you know, that’s the first time I’ve seen you in nurse’s uniform! Isn't it perfectly hideous? Do you like nursing? Whatever made you take it up? Oh, sit down, darling, do!”

“How are you, Jacky?” Lisa asked, sitting on a chair that her sister hastily cleared of litter. She found Jacky as overwhelming as ever.

“Fine in health, but very low in spirits,” Jacky said dramatically. “I’m in the most ghastly mess, and it wasn’t my fault.”

It never was Jacky’s fault, according to Jacky, Lisa reflected. “Tell me all about it, right from the start.”

“It’s my last boyfriend. It never was meant to be serious. We both agreed on that from the start. But he won’t let me go, and now I have a new boyfriend. He’s good looking and rich and altogether marvelous, and Lisa, it’s the
real thing
.”
She squinted sideways at Lisa. “If all goes well, I’ll be married and rich and happy and you won’t have to worry about me any more.
”

“You never used to ask for help to sort out your boyfriends,” Lisa said slowly. “What exactly is the trouble behind all this that necessitated that letter of yours to me?”

Jacky sighed. “Well, actually, it’s the cigarette case. It’s gold, you see. Solid gold, he said.”

Lisa’s heart beat a little faster. “Go on. Who said it was solid gold? And what happened to it?”

“Well, I did ask Ellard to lend me some money—I really needed some badly—and I didn’t know where to find you. He passed me the cigarette case to take a cigarette, and we were arguing at the time, and I must have forgotten to pass it back to him—and that was the beginning of it.”

Money. That had always been Jacky’s trouble. She could never make her money last, and she was wildly extravagant. Also, Lisa knew only too well, Jacky never learned, no matter what happened to her. Easy come, easy go, that was Jacky. “Where is it now?” Lisa asked, despairingly.

“In a pawnshop in Girtonminster,” Jacky said, in a small voice. “Don’t look so horrified! It’s not as if I’d stolen the thing. I found it in my pocket when I got home and he forgot to remind me about it, and he’s always picking up money at the races—it isn’t as if he was short of cash—so I just raised a bit on it. Only he’s suddenly thought of it and he wants it back, or else he’s threatening to go to the police; and to be candid, Lisa, I just haven’t a bean. Truly I haven’t. I just couldn’t get it out of pawn if I wanted to!”

“How much did you raise on it?” Lisa whispered. She had been saving since she started her nursing career. She was conscious that there might just be enough money to redeem the cigarette case and get Jacky out of trouble. But Lisa was definite in her mind that this would have to be the last time.

Jacky mentioned the figure, which did not seem a great sum for a solid gold case, but Lisa knew it would make a hole in her savings.

“He doesn’t know I’ve pawned it,” Jacky went on eagerly. “He just demanded it back, but I said I didn’t have it. I said I didn’t want to bother him while he was driving, so I just slipped it into his pocket, and he must have lost it himself.”

“And if I get it back for you, what will you say then?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I’ll say I found it in the pocket of the coat I was wearing that night,” Jacky said lightly. “Lisa, darling, does that mean you’re going to be an angel and pay up yourself? Marvelous—and I can get over to Girtonminster after rehearsals and—”

“Jacky, I’m not giving you money to get it,” Lisa said with finality. That would never do. She was only too aware that Jacky could not be trusted to refrain from spending the money long before she got to Girtonminster. “I can’t get the money this afternoon, anyway. I’ll just have to wait till I get my next free time—”

“But that will be too late,” Jacky wailed.

“We’ll have to take a chance on that,” Lisa said firmly. “I’ll redeem the thing and take it to this man and explain, and that, I hope, will be the end of it. What’s his name and address?”

“Ellard Lindon. He lives at the Royal Hotel.”

“I don’t want to go there. Doesn’t he have an office?” Lisa objected. The name seemed familiar, which puzzled her, but she couldn’t remember where she had heard it before.

“Yes, he has a place at the upper end of High Street,” Jacky said and obligingly wrote it down. “Darling, I just don’t know how to thank you for this. I don’t suppose you have any spare cash on you that I could borrow? I really am awfully low.”

Lisa emptied her purse and said warningly, “Jacky, this is the last scrape I get you out of,” as she got up to go. But it was obvious that Jacky was unimpressed.

All she said was, “Well, when you do fix everything, ring me at once and let me know it’s all right!”

Lisa promised that she would and made her escape from the stuffy little dressing room with its harsh lights. People were gathering on the stage for rehearsals, and someone was playing an out-of-tune piano. All this was Jacky’s background.

At the time, Lisa felt she might not be able to go over to Girtonminster until the weekend, but it happened that Sister Casualty was asked for a spare nurse for the short-staffed children’s wing, and Lisa shrewdly decided that such a transfer would move her out of Randall Carson’s sphere for a while. So with the change of duty came a free afternoon on Wednesday, which Lisa used to go to the pawnshop with her savings.

The cigarette case was no doubt valuable, but it was too flashy for Lisa’s taste. As she left the smoky town of Girtonminster on the bus for Barnwell Bay, she wondered what the owner of the case would be like, and for the first time her heart beat a little faster as she realized what she had undertaken to do for her sister. It was all very fine for Jacky to say that she would return the case and explain, but supposing the owner should become unpleasant about it? In the circumstances, Lisa felt that his anger, to say the least, would be justified.

None the less, it was with a firm step and head held high that Lisa, in her simple polka-dotted summer dress and neat straw hat, stepped up the flight of stairs to the first-floor office she sought. A clerk showed her into a room far different from what she had expected. It was quietly furnished in browns and rusts, with panelled walls and discreet lighting; the man she had come to see rose from behind the big desk and looked as surprised as she was.

“Mr. Ellard Lindon?” she asked, but it really wasn’t necessary, for the name clicked into place in her memory as one that had been on a file in St. Mildred’s casualty department on that disastrous Monday morning. The man himself was the debonair, but angry, casualty who had fallen on his arm outside the Royal Hotel.

It was obvious that he had not recognized Lisa as the nurse at the hospital. Lisa was immensely relieved.

“I’m Lisa Bryant, Jacky Bryant's older sister,” she said at once. “I’m sure you must be very busy, so I won’t keep you long.”

“Well, do sit down and tell me all about it,” he said, smiling. “Don’t tell me you’ve come to express your disapproval of my friendship with young Jacky!”

He was smiling, lazily amused, but his eyes narrowed a little, as if he were suspicious of the visit altogether. He had a poise and an easy charm that unnerved her. This man would not be prone to those rages and moods and anxieties that the men of the hospital world showed. Lisa doubted if this man displayed real feelings at all.

“No, I haven’t,” Lisa replied. “I merely came because Jacky is rehearsing, but she wanted this returned to you, as I understand
it’s valuable.” She took the gold cigarette case out of her handbag and passed it to him.

“Oh yes, thank you,” he said easily. “I seem to remember that I lost this quite a long time ago. I’d almost forgotten it. Where did she find it?”

Lisa looked at him closely, her face troubled. It was obvious that he did not believe the story, and she ought to tell him where it had been. But for Jacky’s sake, she decided that it would be best to say nothing. The cigarette case was returned, safely; she had paid for its return herself, and she had given Jacky a warning.

“Does it matter?” she asked, rising to leave. “It’s safe, and you must be very glad to have it back again.”

“No, that won’t do, you know, Miss Bryant. Please sit down again. You may not know it, but this little article wasn’t lost at all. Jacky hung on to it. And it isn’t the first time such a thing’s happened. I believe you know that, too.
”

She colored and sat down, her legs refusing to support her. Jacky’s scrapes had always worried her, but they had been with younger men. This man was a lot older than either Jacky or Lisa, and
he
knew all the answers.

“I saw this case in a Girtonminster pawnshop,” he told her calmly. “I wondered what Jacky would do about it, but I had no idea that she had a sister, I couldn’t imagine what the outcome of it would be. I suppose you redeemed it with your own money? You interest me, Miss Bryant. Do you always get your sister out of her scrapes?”

“Oh, look, Jacky’s young and irresponsible,” Lisa urged. “I’m not like her. I’m not the frivolous type, and I don’t need money so badly. It just doesn’t occur to me to do the things she does. That’s why she needs helping. I haven’t seen her for three years, and I’ve no idea what—”

“Ah, then that explains everything,” he said blandly. “I think I’d better enlighten you as to what has been going on. I’ve known Jacky for quite a large part of those three years, and frankly I’m getting rather tired of it. She takes, all the time, and has very little to give back and—you will forgive me, my dear Miss Bryant—but I must point out that when I say “takes,” I really mean that. This little incident is small compared with some of the things she does.”

Lisa felt sick. “You don’t mean—you can’t mean—”

“I mean that Jacky—to put it mildly—helps herself to things that don’t belong to her, if she needs money badly. As far as I know, she’s only indulged in this little habit with me. I’m sure you understand what I’m saying.”

“I don’t believe it!” Lisa said, but she sounded unconvinced, even to her own ears.

“Unfortunately it’s not only true, but I have proof. Things were coming to a head between Jacky and myself when you stepped in today.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Lisa whispered.

“Ah, you see, that is the question,” he continued suavely. “I have financial interests in the company Jacky is in at the moment. I could be nasty, very nasty. Or I could just have her removed from the company. Either way, I doubt if she’d have a very easy time afterward. On the other hand—and this depends on you—I could say nothing about it, and forget the whole thing.”

Lisa felt cold and her head whirled. She had no doubt that he meant what he said. She had known Jacky to do such things often, but she herself had been there to straighten it out before there was trouble. Jacky would never call it “stealing”—she would merely call it “borrowing” and believe it.

A sudden panic overcame Lisa as she wondered what would become of them, now that this outsider had the upper hand. Lisa could see Jacky in court, sent to prison, or at best, out of a job and dependent on Lisa. Worse, Lisa saw herself suspended from the hospital, if it got to Matron’s ears. St. Midlred’s was very strict as to family background.

Ellard Lindon watched Lisa shrewdly. She was anxious, worried about the outcome for her sister, but she had courage.

“I don’t understand,” she said, her clear eyes meeting his bravely. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you, my dear. In my world, I see a great many girls of Jacky’s type, and I’m tired of them. Now you, on the other hand, are a new type to me. You interest me very much. Do I make myself clear? No? Then let me say that I will refrain from proceeding against the light-fingered Jacky, if you yourself will, shall we say, take her place?”

Lisa had promised to let Jacky know the result, so she found a telephone booth and called her sister.

“You’ve really managed it, Lisa darling?” Jacky said, sounding gay and unconcerned. “I’m free of him? No strings at all? Bless you, darling! Now listen, you must meet my honey of a rich boy. No. I’m not going to tell you his name yet. Come to the show on Saturday and watch the stage box. My handsome guy’s there every night with a great basket of flowers for me. Come around backstage afterward and be introduced. No more time now, honey. ’Bye!”

Easy, careless thanks, and not even enough interest to ask exactly how she had achieved the miracle with Ellard Lindon, Lisa thought, as she hung up. She felt hurt.

She left the booth and walked through the crowds of laughing vacationers, and saw neither them nor the sunshine on the sea. All she could think of was Ellard’s proposition—that she should be a hostess, a companion—which she had had to agree to as the price for Jacky’s freedom.

Well, she considered, she had lost Derek. There was no one else, so what did it matter? It came to this: she, who had always given up something for Jacky, must now make a choice, and she had made it—her private life or her hospital career. She could not give up her work; she loved it, it was part of her.

Ellard had made a date for dinner early next week, thus leaving Saturday free for Jacky’s show, when he would have to be in London. So Lisa went with her friend Mary Thorley to the little Coronet Theatre, with their complimentary tickets, and settled down to what was for them a carefree evening of lights, dancing and singing.

“Your sister really is a peach,” Mary said, halfway through. Mary was enjoying herself. Besides watching the stage she kept up a running commentary on the people she recognized in the audience. “Look who’s in the stage box—that awful Lady Frenton with her daughter Thalia. You’ve heard the rumor about her and our dear Randall Carson? Mama’s trying to get her engaged to him. Poor girl, I feel sorry for her.”

The knife turned in Lisa’s heart. She had met Thalia, a sweet, gentle girl, who would probably be very unhappy with the highly efficient and rather autocratic surgeon.

Later, Mary said triumphan
t
ly, “Hey, Randall Carson’s in the stage box. Just behind her. Fancy managing to drag him along, too!”

Randall Carson.
Lisa’s heart beat a little faster. Was he likely to become engaged to Derek’s sister Thalia, she wondered, or ... was he Jacky’s new boyfriend? He was rich. He was in the stage box. She had not told Mary about that, and she could only wait with bated breath for the show to come to an end at last, and the lights to go up.

But it wasn’t Randall Carson who stood up and leaned over with the huge basket of flowers. Another young man emerged from the shadows of the stage box. Lisa caught her breath as she recognized him. She couldn’t believe her eyes, as she saw that well-remembered profile, the glint of the lights on that crisp, copper-colored hair, as he presented the exuberant, scintillating Jacky with the huge florist’s basket. It was her own Derek
—
Derek Frenton.