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She shook her head firmly. Deep inside her she admitted the idea of having dinner with Sean MacInnon was exciting, but she knew it was not for herself he was asking her. At best he was only trying to make up for the tactless remarks he had made that morning. Perversely she refused point-blank: 'Not interested.'

'How do you know that when I haven't told you anything about it?' he enquired, his dark eyes twinkling. Leaning forward he touched her hand, making her nerve-endings tingle. 'You must admit that this evening's going to be pretty miserable if you're going to sit around feeling sorry for yourself. Surely it would be a whole lot happier for you if you went out.' He leaned back, regarding her. 'Go home and put your posh frock on. I'll take you somewhere really swish. You'd like that wouldn't you? Go on, admit it.'

Her chin went up and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. 'Just what is all this in aid of?' she asked him. 'After all, I'm not exactly your type, am I?'

The corners of his mouth twitched. 'And just what
is
my type? What makes you think you know it?'

She blushed furiously. 'What I mean is that there must be some reason other than—' She was getting herself into a mess. 'That there must be something in it for you,' she ended lamely.

He chuckled and gave her hand a squeeze. 'Well now—that would be up to you, Katy, wouldn't it?'

She bit her lip as she looked into the mocking eyes. 'I meant—I thought—' She looked at her watch. 'Heavens! Is that the time? I have to go now. No, don't get up. I can catch a bus at the corner.'

He caught her wrist. 'I'll pick you up at half-past seven.'

She tried frantically to escape but he was holding her fast, his eyes serious now as they looked into hers.

'I said half-past seven, Katy. I want to tell you about this idea of mine and if you turn it down then, well, fair enough. I mean it.'

'All right then,' she said meekly.

He let go of her wrist and she elbowed her way through the crowds, glad to allow them to swallow her up. Outside she gulped at the fresh air. Within her chest her heart thudded unevenly and her wrist still tingled from his grasp.

At the flat Tracy and Sonia were getting ready to go on night duty. The first thing they asked her was the owe question Katy had been dreading. When she broke her news to them they looked at each other in dismay.

'Oh, what rotten luck!' Tracy said at last. 'We were both so sure that you'd have passed too.'

The 'too' told her that they had been lucky in their results and she shrugged resignedly. 'So you've passed. I thought you would. Congrats!' She went through to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee and the two girls looked at each other helplessly.

'What are you doing to do with yourself tonight, Katy?' Sonia asked. 'You won't hang around here brooding, will you? Why don't you take yourself off to the cinema?'

Katy lifted her head. 'As a matter of fact I'm going out to dinner with Sean MacInnon,' she announced casually. There was a stunned pause as the girls took in this remark and Katy smiled to herself. Their shock took some of the sting out of the day's disappointment. Sonia was the first to recover.

'When did this happen? When did he ask you?' she asked.

'Oh, when I had a drink with him on the way home this evening. He gave me a lift.' Katy was enjoying herself. Both Tracy and Sonia had masses of boyfriends and although they were kind to her they sometimes seemed a little patronising. No need for her to tell them about the idea he wanted to discuss with her.

Sonia laid a hand on her arm. 'Look, love, I'd go carefully if I were you. Sean has—well, a bit of a reputation, and you—'

Katy turned and looked her in the eye. 'What about me? I'm silly and inexperienced, is that what you were about to say?'

Sonia coloured. 'No need to be so touchy. I was only trying to warn you!'

Sonia had come to nursing later than most. She was twenty-seven and knew her way around. Sometimes her 'woman-of-the-world' attitude irritated Katy and as she turned back to the boiling kettle on the stove her cheeks flushed a deep pink. Tracy stepped in:

'I'm sure Katy can look after herself, can't you, love?' she said kindly. 'And Sean can be very sweet when he wants to. I think it was very nice of him to invite you out tonight.' She smiled and patted
Katy's shoulder. 'What were you thinking of wearing? Is there anything of mine you'd like to borrow?'

'According to you two he's either being kind or he wants to seduce me! I can't see any reason to dress up for either of those, can you?' Katy's eyes flashed their green fire and the other two girls looked at each other.

'Well—I suppose we asked for that,' Sonia said. 'Come on, we'd better get a move on or we'll be late.' And without another word they left.

Katy sighed and chewed her lip. If only she didn't flare up like that. The Irish temper she had inherited from her mother would get her into serious trouble one of these days. Tracy and Sonia were only trying to be kind, she told herself. Except that they always made her feel like a backward child when it came to the opposite sex. She drank her coffee and thought objectively about what they had said, remembering that Sonia had been quite keen on him at one time, until something had happened to put her off. Katy could hear her now holding forth about him: 'He's just a playboy who likes to play the field. Anyone who gets into his clutches had better play the same game as his or prepare to be hurt!'

There were other rumours as well but Katy had always allowed them to go in one ear and out of the other. In a closed community like a hospital there were always plenty of rumours. Sean was attractive and an incurable flirt. Three quarters of the nurses
in the place fancied him and there was no way that anyone who had been out with him was going to admit to a boring evening—or even a tame one.

The stories were more than likely exaggerated. Nevertheless Katy couldn't help feeling a
frisson
of excitement as she opened her wardrobe and looked at its contents. He had said he would take her somewhere 'swish', and she didn't want him to be ashamed to be seen with her. Her clothes looked incredibly dull and she wished she hadn't been so waspish when Tracy had offered to lend her something. Opening Tracy's wardrobe she peered inside. She had one or two really lovely things—like the flouncy black skirt and the little camisole top that went with it. She took them out and held them against herself. If only she could get her hair to lie smooth and sophisticated like Sonia's dark shining pageboy, or Tracy's sleek bouncy wedge. She sighed and pulled out her pins, letting the auburn mass tumble about her shoulders. Maybe with this gipsyish skirt it wouldn't matter if she looked a bit tousled.

By the time seven-thirty came around she was ready and waiting, sitting bolt upright on the edge of a chair and trying hard not to nibble her fingernails. Maybe he wouldn't turn up—or if he did suppose the girls had been right and he was the Casanova of all time. Could she handle him? Could she put him in his place without looking a complete fool? She groaned aloud. If only she had said no and stuck to it!

When
the doorbell rang Katy almost fell off her chair with fright. Scrambling to her feet she took a last hasty peep into the mirror. Her small heart-shaped face peered out anxiously from the mass of auburn waves. Her green eyes were huge and bright with excitement, her cheeks pink, 'I'll just have to do,' she told her reflection desperately. Why was it that she never seemed to achieve the effect she set out to? Taking a deep breath she opened the door.

'Oh—hello,' she said breathlessly.

His dark eyes flicked over her, the corners of his mouth lifting. Was he laughing at her? Did she look ridiculous after all? Involuntarily her hand went to her hair. She reached down her coat.

'I'm ready—shall we go?'

'But of course.' He offered her his arm with mock solemnity and once again she got the impression that he was amused, like a grown-up indulging a child.

'It's been quite a day. I could certainly do with a drink,' she said in a desperate attempt at sophistication. He looked at her in surprise then roared with laughter.

'Then a drink you shall have, little Katy. What
will it be—ginger pop or lemonade?'

As Sean parked his car outside the restaurant he turned to look at his companion. She hadn't spoken a word since they had left her flat. Switching off the ignition he turned to her, one arm along the back of her seat.

'Well, let's have it—what did I do?' He grinned. 'I must say this makes a change. It's usually on the way home that they won't speak to me!'

She raised her eyes defiantly to his. 'If you must know, I don't like being laughed at and treated like a child,' she told him. 'I find it humiliating and I've enough humiliations for one day. I am twenty-one, you know—almost twenty-two.'

He nodded gravely .'I'm sorry.'

'I know I'm not sophisticated like Tracy and Sonia,' she went on. 'And right now you're probably regretting the time you're wasting on me—' She bit her lip, wincing inwardly. She was doing it again—going too far. Any minute now she'd ruin the evening completely. She stole a look at him, her cheeks burning. He was smiling, this time respectfully.

'I promise to treat you with all the reverence due to an old lady of going on twenty-two—how's that?'

'Well—all right.' It was no use. She'd never get the hang of handling a situation coolly.

Sean had chosen a country club on the outskirts of the town. It was quiet this evening and when Katy joined him in the bar, having divested herself of her coat and taken another panic-stricken look into the mirror, he was waiting, two tall glasses before him. He nodded towards them.

'I hope this will be to madame's taste.'

She eyed it suspiciously. 'What is it?'

'A champagne cocktail.'

'Oh!' Her cheeks turned pink as she sipped it experimentally. It was delicious and the bubbles tickled her nose, making her wrinkle it.

'Well—is it all right?'

She nodded, relaxing a little. 'It's lovely. I've never had—' she glanced at him—how naive he must think her. 'Such a nice one,' she finished. Better not to let him know just how inexperienced she was.

He leaned back and regarded her thoughtfully. 'Tell me about yourself, Katy. I've known you for a long time in a vague sort of way yet I don't really know anything about you.'

She shrugged. 'There isn't much to know. I suppose I've led rather a routine sort of life so far. School, then straight into nursing.'

'What about your family?' he asked. 'You mentioned your father.'

'I'm an only child,' she told him. 'My home is at Kensbridge. It's about twenty miles away—near the coast.'

'I know it well. I have an aunt there.' He grinned. 'You see, already we have things in common.'

'Dad works at the research laboratory there,' she went on. 'He's been alone since my mother died as I told you. He's one of those vague dreamy types.

Sometimes I wonder if he remembers to eat.'

'And you plan to go and see that he does,' he finished for her.

She nodded decisively. 'It seems the obvious thing to do.'

'Has he pressed you to go home and keep house for him?' he asked.

She looked up in surprise. This was getting to be more like an interview than a dinner date. 'Good heavens no!' she said.

'Then don't you think you might be mistaken in feeling that's what he wants?' He leaned forward. 'Listen, Katy. I happen to know that you are a good nurse—especially with the children. Will you at least listen while I tell you about the job I have in mind for you?'

She nodded. 'I'll
listen—
but that's all.'

He took a long drink from his glass. 'Do you read?' he asked.

'Read? Well, yes, a bit.'

'Have you read a book called
Devil's Country?'

'Last year's rave best-seller—yes, I read that. But why are we talking about books? I thought you were going to tell me about a job.'

'I'm coming to that. It would only be a temporary job—for the summer. If you took it, it would give you time to think and get things straight in your mind. At the end of the summer you could still go home and look after your father if that was what you still wanted—or you could go back into nursing.'

She frowned. 'What sort of job is it? Something to do with selling books?'

He laughed. 'No. I'll explain. Jake Underwood, who wrote
Devil's Country
is a very old friend of mine. He's a widower with a small son, but quite recently he married again. The family has taken a beautiful old house in Yorkshire for the summer. Jake is commissioned to write a sequel to his book and he needs to be somewhere quiet, where the press and the public can't get at him, in order to do it. The success of his first book has been quite overwhelming. Toby—that's his little son—is eight and an asthmatic. Jake would like a girl to go with them to be assort of nurse-companion for him while they're there.'

'What about school?' Katy asked.

Sean shook his head. 'For the past six months he hasn't been able to go to school, his asthma has been too severe. Luckily Claire, Jake's second wife, is a teacher, so she has been able to tutor Toby at home. They're hoping that the pure air up there in Yorkshire will benefit Toby too.' He smiled at her. 'It would be rather a nice job. Toby is a pleasant child and I'm sure you'd get along with the Underwoods. It would almost be a holiday for you and they're offering a good salary. Why not give it a try?'

She considered for a moment, pursing her lips. It certainly did sound interesting and tempting-—but it was nursing and she had made up her mind to give that up. If she were going to carry on she might as
well stay on at St Anne's. She voiced this thought and he said:

'I'm sure you're being too hasty about that too. Why don't you take time out to think about it? This would be the perfect way to make up your mind without having to rush.'

She looked at him speculatively. 'I get the distinct impression that you are in some way involved in this case yourself. Have you been treating the little boy?'