Free Judgement By Fire by Glenys O'Connell Page B

far
too thin and delicate to maintain its hold.
    Lauren’s heart
tugged as, for a sickening moment, she thought that if her friend moved her
hand suddenly that fragile skin would tear and the IV needle would come loose…
    Then Lucy
opened her bright, intelligent blue eyes, not asleep but resting, and turned a
megawatt smile on Lauren, quickly dispelling the appearance of fragility.
    “Thank God! A
sane face amidst all this hospital madness! They woke me up at 5:30 this
morning to take vital signs to see if I was doing okay. Good God, I told them,
how could anybody be doing okay when someone wakes them up to stick needles in
them, drain blood from them, and ask asinine questions in the middle of the night?”
    “I see you’re
being as good a patient as ever?” Lauren couldn’t resist teasing, but the
malevolent look Lucy turned on her was redirected immediately on the head of a
poor lab nurse who crept in with the obvious intention of taking blood samples.
    “What the hell
do you want? Don’t you know I’ve already given enough to keep the blood bank
stocked for the next decade?” Lucy growled.
    The young
technician gave a sickly smile as she snapped on clean gloves and pulled out
the rubber tourniquet to tie about Lucy’s upper arm.
    “Touch me and
die!” Lucy warned.
    It was evident
that the nurse had already been warned of Lucy’s grizzly-bear-with-a-hangover
disposition and she kept right on going. Even though she obviously longed to
make a quick getaway, her movements were firm, gentle and efficient as she
found a vein, inserted the syringe, and drew blood.
    Lauren saw
Lucy about to go into orbit, and rapidly intervened. “What did you think of the
campaign yesterday—er, before you checked out on us?” she asked, baiting Lucy
because she knew that would get her attention.
    It did. Lucy
gave her a knowing look. “Well, I really didn’t think you’d be so chipper about
it all, not after what happened, but I really do admire your standing up to
them—even though what happened was an accident, I’m sure.”
    Jon Rush’s pale
face flashed before Lauren’s eyes, the trail of red blood contrasting with the
white skin as it flowed from under the silky blond hair at his temple, and her
stomach cramped in a sudden spasm. She was grateful for the intervention of
another nurse, who told her the consultant was on his way to see Mrs. Howard
and she would have to leave the room.
    Lauren deposited
the magazines she’d brought onto Lucy’s bedside table, kissed the pale cheek
and told Lucy to be a good girl and play nice to the nursing staff, which
raised a howl of angry denial from the other woman. Grinning, she escaped
outside, accidentally bumping into another nurse as she left
                “Well, it’s Lauren
Stephens, isn’t it? The wildlife artist from West River. I recognized you from
your picture! I must say, it did look bad but I really admire you, standing up
for your rights like that. We’ve lost too much of our forests and open spaces
to the big companies, trample all over ordinary people, they would…” Then the
nurse bustled on, leaving Lauren looking after her in puzzlement.
    How could a
nurse she’d never seen before in her life recognize her from her picture? She
didn’t think Lucy carried snapshots of her friends around with her so how…?
                The answer came to her
as she walked past the hospital gift shop in the lobby. Several of the daily
papers were displayed on a shelf outside the store and Lauren gasped as she saw
pictures of herself apparently in various stages of using her protest sign to
brain the handsome blond unarmed executive of Rush Co.
    In the final
picture, featured on the front page of a tabloid Lauren particularly despised,
Jon Rush appeared to lie helplessly at her feet while she stood over him
victoriously holding her club in the air while another large man grasped her
wrist and appeared to be restraining her from raining more blows