Nurse with a Dream Read Online Free

tells me it’s about four miles from here.”
    “Four miles in a straight line across the moor. Six by road. We used to buy turkeys there, until I disagreed sharply with Connie about prices. Don’t tell me this is part of the journey, too? Or—Guy’s a nice boy, isn’t he?” Her kind grey eyes twinkled. She lit a heavy silver candlestick and offered it to Jacqueline. “We have no electricity upstairs. Good for trade, our guests adore it. Mind your head on the beam.”
    The girl bent her head obediently as she followed her hostess. “I don’t know anybody at Timberfold. I only want to see the farm. My father lived there as a boy. He hated the family, but he loved the old house and the wood which surrounds it. Does a wood surround it?”
    “It does. A fir plantation, rather dark and gloomy. The landing floor is uneven, watch your step.” She halted with her hand on the heavy glass knob of a door. “You are not afraid of disappointment?”
    “The first step turned out so well, after all, that I have gained a lot of courage for the next. But frankly I am a bit scared of Timberfold. When you bought your turkeys, did Saul Clarke live there? He was my father’s half-brother—a big, dark man. At least, I was never quite clear which was Uncle Saul and which was the Ogre in Jack and the Beanstalk.”
    They both laughed, and Mrs. Medway opened the door to a charming room of oak and chintz, with white-painted walls and a light two-poster bed. “Not a pleasant character, your Uncle Saul! I think he must be dead. Connie Clarke—is she your aunt?—is a widow, and Guy must be her son. We’ve only been here three years. I seem to remember hearing Connie’s husband got pneumonia and died during the war. Home Guard duty, I believe.”
    Jacqueline shook her head. “That’s wrong somewhere. Connie was the nasty little maidservant who took sides with Saul against Peter—that was Daddy—because he was like his mother, fair and small and more refined. They used to lock him in a cupboard till he yelled himself sick; then let him out and laugh. Saul married May—she was pink and white, like mayblossom, and too delicate for a farm.”
    “I don’t wonder you’re not interested in the family, they sound horrid. There’s no May there now, only Connie and Guy; but where they fit in, I can’t tell you. Sure you’ll be all right? Bathroom third on the left, lots of hot water. Breakfast is at nine, cup of tea eight-thirty.”
    “Music in my ears. Sorry, I can’t stop yawning. Good night, Mrs. Medway, and thank you.”
    Jacqueline examined her room with interest. There was a small casement window set into a thick stone wall. The floor was made of wide polished boards which sloped away to one corner disconcertingly. She tried a pencil on the floor and it rolled away so fast she had almost to plunge under the valanced bed to recover it. Over the chimney-piece there was an embroidered picture of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace, the flames very splendidly done in scarlet, yellow and orange, and not much faded. The pillows were softest down, and the bedcover was an intricate patchwork pattern.
    I feel like the Queen of Sheba, she thought; the half has not been told me. If Timberfold is half as good as this, I’ll want to cry with happiness. A piping hot bath to-night and early morning tea to-morrow—and I thought it would be like a climbers’ hut! I’ll bath first and unpack afterwards—if the inn is full there may be a run on the bathroom later. Luckily my washing things are on the top.
    The candle threw shadows up and down the white walls of the passage; shadows which looked so much like long waving legs that she was unpleasantly reminded of the ghost of the hairy leg reputed to haunt St. Simon’s. She dismissed it, only to remember the inn was three hundred years old and had no doubt sheltered a few unsavoury characters in its time. Had travellers been murdered here—for their money-bags? Were throats