Cassandra Austin Read Online Free

when Martin gave him an opening, “I believe I’ll check on Miss Sparks’s grandmother, then call it a night.”
    “Why, that’s so kind of you,” Nedra said.
    He gave her a polite smile as he rose. She had been batting her eyes at him all through dinner, and he didn’t want to encourage her. The others, except for Mr. Bickford, wished him good-night as he left the dining room.
    The kitchen bore the evidence of the huge mealJane had recently prepared. Adam wondered if her entire store of pots and pans had been called into service. Still, the room seemed clean in spite of it, a trick of organization, perhaps.
    He moved cautiously toward the little bedroom. He didn’t want to startle Jane, yet he didn’t want to disturb the sick grandmother by calling out to them. At the doorway he paused. Jane sat beside the bed, her face in her hands. She was crying softly. He could hear the grandmother’s labored breathing above the quiet sobs.
    He felt like an intruder, but he couldn’t make himself leave. He moved to the far side of the bed and lifted Grams’s bony hand, feeling for the pulse. It was faint and rapid. He gently returned the hand to its place on the sheet.
    He should leave. There was nothing he could do for the old lady. Nothing he could do for the granddaughter, either, he told himself. Wrapping her in his arms and letting her cry on his shoulder didn’t seem very professional. Besides, judging by the cool glances she had given him at dinner, she wouldn’t be disposed to accept.
    He rested his hand gently on the cloth that lay across the woman’s forehead. It was cool and damp. Even in the state she was in, Jane hadn’t neglected this small service.
    She would be embarrassed if she looked up and found him watching her, Adam knew. He ordered his legs to take him out of the room, but found himselfstopping beside Miss Sparks instead. His hand was drawn to the narrow, slumped shoulder.
    At the moment of contact her head jerked upright. “Doctor. I didn’t hear you come in.” She brushed frantically at her tear-streaked face.
    Adam crouched down beside her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
    “Is she…?”
    “Not much change from this afternoon. Are you all right?” He wanted her to say no, to ask him to stay with her.
    “Of course.” She sniffed once. “Did somebody need something?”
    He shook his head. It seemed to him she was the only one who needed anything, and he didn’t know how to give it. “Let me ask the folks out there to clean up for you.”
    “Oh, you can’t do that,” she said, rising to her feet. “They’re paying guests.”
    Adam straightened slowly. “They’re also your friends.”
    “No, please. I can do it. I can check on Grams every few minutes.”
    “Then let me stay and help.”
    “Don’t be silly. I’m used to doing it, really.”
    She was all but shooing him out of the room. He took the hint, but at the door he turned. “There might still be time, you know. We should do everything we can to save her.”
    Jane shook her head. “No. She’s dying. But I couldn’t see her in pain any longer.”
    Adam nodded. It was what he expected. Back in the kitchen, he could hear voices from the dining room. He had already told the others good-night, and, not wanting to see Nedra again quite so soon, he left through the back door.
    Miss Sparks’s backyard contained a tidy garden and shed, clotheslines and a small chicken house and pen, making his own yard seem barren. The sun was just sinking below the horizon as he reached his back door. His first day here hadn’t turned out to be quite what he expected. His little house seemed too quiet and lonely as he went up the stairs to his bedroom.
    He lit a lamp and lifted a book from the pile he had left against a wall. Shelves here and in the examining room were a top priority. He would look into hiring a carpenter tomorrow.
    He removed his shoes, coat and tie and worked the collar buttons loose. He settled onto the bed, his