Free Nurse Kelsey Abroad by Marjorie Norrell Page B

this happened along it seemed so exactly right—I don’t know how better to put it than that, and now I’ve seen for myself something of your work here, I know I did the right thing in accepting.”
    “Congratulations.” She wasn’t certain whether or not she could detect a note of sarcasm in his tone, but he went on: “And the first reason, the personal one which is—or appears to be—so important to yourself? That couldn’t have, by any chance, something to do with a broken romance, a shattered engagement, a love affair which didn’t come up to expectations because your fiancé found someone else? Or could it?” he probed.
    Jane knew her colour had risen, and she knew she was suddenly angry. Had she come to Dalasalavia for any of these reasons she could not in the least imagine what that could have to do with Dr. Jim Lowth.
    “I really fail to see what possible concern my own private and personal emotional problems have with the work I shall be expected to do while I’m here,” she said with a reserved primness which was not lost upon him. “It may interest you to know I have no boy-friend, no fiancé or intending fiancé . I have a twin sister recently married and now in New Zealand with her husband. I have twin brothers, both of whom are at college and come home for vacations. I have a younger sister, and because she was the only one left at home I hesitated a long time, knowing my mother will be lonely when Dad is out all day. Mother said this was an excellent opportunity to see how well I like this sort of work—being away from home and somewhere none of us knew anything about—and finally I decided to come.”
    “I’m not being either impertinent or inquisitive,” Jim Lowth said, suddenly very serious. “You’ll see for yourself the semi-disruption Nurse Palmer’s leaving has occasioned. We have two other British nurses here, you may have met them this morning?” He waited for her nod of assent before continuing.
    “Nurse Dawlish,” he smiled a little, and she was amazed by the change in his countenance, “is rather a battleaxe, I agree, but she’s come up the hard way, and she never forgets it. She wouldn’t look twice at anything which even remotely savoured of romance. She’s told me something of he r home life, and I can well understand that what her mother must have gone through was enough to scare her daughter from ever even attempting the same mistake.”
    He was silent for a moment, and Jane waited. When he had smiled, she realised, she had glimpsed the real man, the humane being behind his brisk, professional mask. That glimpse had been sufficient to convince her that, once he allowed her to get to know him better as a person, if he ever did, she would like him very much, but would he ever allow his guard to fall sufficiently for her to find out what sort of person he really was?
    “Nurse Wroe,” he said now, thoughtfully, “is rather another story. She’s been engaged twice. The first fiancé was killed in a car crash. She sometimes talks about him . I gather it took a long time for her to pick up the pieces, and when she did it was to get herself engaged again, this time to a pilot of a commercial airline. He’d been flying for years and had a wonderful record, but, to quote Nurse Wroe, he met his jinx when he met her. They were to be married in the autumn of the year she came out here. She could have married—a Dalasalavian, admittedly, but a pleasant chap—any time she wanted, and have lacked for nothing. Yet she’s shut herself up inside, and all she wants to do, or so she says, and I must admit her way of life adds proof if such were needed, is to be of use to as many people as she possibly can be in the space of a lifetime, providing, and these are her words again, ‘it doesn’t involve modern living.’ That,” he pressed the tips of his fingers together and leaned back in his chair, raking her from head to foot with the glance from those bright hazel eyes,