Free The Doctor's Undoing by Allie Pleiter Page A

expression—an annoyed smile. “I’m able to fetch my own linens from the laundry room.”
    â€œOh, I’m sure of that. Still—” he continued walking toward her office “—what kind of example for gentlemanly behavior would I be setting for the boys if I were to be found walking next to you while you carried such a load?”
    Nurse Landway darted ahead of him, reaching the infirmary door before he did and standing in front of it. “There are no gentlemen in training to be found here. So I’ll be fine and dandy.” She reached out her hands for the pile of folded cloths.
    â€œI can at least place them in the cabinet for you.” He reached for the doorknob.
    She angled in front of him. “I’ll be fine, really.” With her chin tipped up at him—for he had perhaps half a foot on even her statuesque figure—she looked defiant.
    Daniel had the distinct impression she was hiding something. Her eyes darted back and forth and he watched her hand tighten on the office doorknob. He stole a glance over her shoulder to notice faint shapes of color through the thin curtains she had strung over the door’s glass window. Rather a lot of color.
    â€œMiss Landway, allow me to enter.”
    Were she a child, he would call her stance squirming. Given that she was a fully grown woman, Daniel didn’t know quite how to describe it. She winced. “You don’t want to do that.”
    Ida Lee Landway was most certainly hiding something. “I’m quite sure I do.”
    She hesitated again, this time giving a pitiful tug on the table covers, which Daniel was now sure he would not surrender even at gunpoint.
    â€œKindly open your office door, Miss Landway.” He kept his words polite but his tone firm.
    She gave a small whine, ducked her head like a guilty child and pushed the door open.
    A riot of color greeted his eyes. Boxes and baskets of yarn in a kaleidoscope of bright hues filled every available surface of the office. It was as if the circus Mrs. Smiley was just bemoaning had arrived and subsequently exploded in the infirmary.
His
infirmary.
    Miss Landway cut in front of him. “I can explain.”
    Knowing he had come to deliver his approval for her little project, he found the entire situation amusing. Still, the sight before him only proved Mrs. Smiley’s point: someone needed to mind Miss Landway’s limits. And that someone was him. “I expect you shall.”
    She began rearranging the boxes, as if that would somehow render them invisible. “My dear friend Leanne—Mrs. John Gallows, that is—had the most extraordinary luck when she went looking for donated yarn.” She turned to him and laid a hand on her chest in a theatrical gesture. “We had no idea she’d get such enormous and immediate replies when she went asking. It’s a blessing, really.”
    â€œYou sought donations?” He looked around to find someplace to deposit the linens, and couldn’t see a single empty surface.
    She moved a box to the floor, gesturing for him to put down the stack of cloths, which he did. “Well, not exactly. I was telling Leanne about the whole business with Meredith’s booties and the idea I had. I was asking her if she’d help me. There are twenty-six girls after all, and we’d want each of them to have more than one pair of socks, so—”
    â€œWe?” he cut in.
    Miss Landway planted a hand on one hip. “You did say I could go ahead if I could guarantee each girl received equal gifts.” Sparks of defiance lit her eyes—she’d become much more invested in this than he’d realized.
    Part of him liked that. Another part of him felt as if he was watching the year’s greatest headache form right in front of his eyes. “I did. And I told you I’d think about approving your recruitment of a core of volunteers to assist.” He put his hands in his