Romance Classics (79 page)

After breakfast the next morning, Scott went for a brisk walk, studying the town that was to be his future home, and liked very much what he saw. And when he discovered that he was in front of a new red brick building, set back a little from the street, with an ambitious young lawn growing lustily, and read the sign, HAMILTON GENERAL HOSPITAL, he remembered with pleasure Doctor Searcy's friendly call the previous night. Without waiting to decide whether he should telephone for an appointment, he went up the walk and up the steps to the entrance.

Inside the small, neat lobby, a pretty nurse in crisply starched white smiled warmly at him, and Scott smiled back, sniffing happily the familiar, loved odor that is inescapably part of a hospital.

“I'm Doctor Etheridge. I wonder if I could say hello to Doctor Searcy, or is he too busy this time of the morning?”

The nurse's eyes warmed and she said eagerly, “Oh, good morning, Doctor Etheridge. Doctor Searcy is just completing his morning round. He'll be very glad to see you, I'm sure. I'll go and find him.”

She went quickly down the hall, the rubber heels of her smart white Oxfords making the slightest possible sound against the well-waxed linoleum.

A man came along the corridor: short, stockily built, his thick graying hair bushy above his weather-tanned face, his eyes friendly and eager.

“Well, well, Doctor Etheridge, this is very pleasant. Delighted to meet you,” said Doctor Searcy, and gave Scott a firm handshake.

“Come along, Etheridge,” said Doctor Searcy, and led the way to a small, very tidy office, where he waved Scott to a chair and seated himself behind his desk. “Well, well, tell me about things. How's Caine getting along? What's he working on right now?”

Scott plunged into shop-talk, and in a matter of moments they had gone well along the path that leads to friendship between two men who have many interests in common.

Later, Doctor Searcy showed him over the hospital proudly, and Scott could congratulate him wholeheartedly and warmly. It was a small but thoroughly modern plant, well staffed, well equipped, and Doctor Searcy was exceedingly proud of it.

Scott said good-bye at last and went out into the crisp noon-day, rejoicing all over again that he had had the colossal luck to stumble on Hamilton as his home. He was halfway down the walk when a voice called to him, and he turned to see a middle-aged woman, short, stout, comfortable-looking, her crisp white uniform marking her as a nurse.

“I missed meeting you when you were making the rounds with Doctor Searcy, Doctor Etheridge. I'm Alice Mowbray, superintendent of nurses. That's a highfalutin' way of saying head nurse, because with a staff of only six nurses — ” She made a little gesture with a plump, blunt-fingered hand that dismissed the thought. “However, I was wondering if you had found a place to live?”

“I'm at the hotel.”

“Yes, I know. But are you planning on living there? Permanently, I mean?”

“No, I don't think so.”

“What I had in mind is that I have an apartment I thought you might like,” explained Miss Mowbray. “I own a little cottage and I fixed up this apartment, two rooms and a bath, and it's quite comfortable. I wondered if you might be interested.”

“It sounds quite interesting.”

Alice Mowbray smiled and fished a key from her capacious pocket.

“I can't leave the hospital, of course, but if you'd care to you may go out and look the place over,” she suggested. “I thought perhaps you might want to get settled before your equipment arrives and you begin having office hours.”

“Well, that's very kind of you.” Scott accepted the key and she gave him detailed directions as to the cottage's location.

And a little later Scott stood in the living room of the apartment. He was delighted with it. A fellow could feel completely at home here, he told himself happily. There were bookshelves built into the living room's east wall; there was an old-fashioned desk, with a telephone on it; there were comfortable old chairs; a neat rug. The big double-bed looked comfortable; and the whole place was spotlessly clean.

He went back to the hospital, gave Miss Mowbray a month's rent, obtained permission to move in immediately, and went happily back to the hotel to check out and get himself installed in his apartment before it was time to go out to River's Edge for his dinner date with Kate.

Suddenly, in the midst of unpacking and stowing his belongings about the apartment, he stopped and laughed.

“Where did the idea ever originate, I wonder, that Southern people were slow and lazy? Things couldn't have moved as fast as this anywhere else in the world!” he told himself contentedly.

He had reached town two days ago. One night he had spent at River's Edge, one night here in Hamilton. Yet here he was with an office, an apartment, a list of acquaintances whom he hoped to make friends; and at the back of his mind the vision of an exquisite blond girl who smiled at him with provocation in her lovely eyes and whose kiss was tangy-sweet and exciting…. And tonight he had a date with Kate Ryan. There was a thoughtful look in his dark eyes as he went about the task of settling himself in his new home….

Kate came down the stairs to meet him as the houseman opened the door, and Scott's eyes widened. Had he actually forgotten, in the few crowded hours since he had seen her, how lovely she was? Her shining, dark red hair was tucked into a small soft knot at the back of her head; she wore a jade-green dress. And she was breathtakingly lovely.

“Good evening, Doctor Etheridge.” She smiled at him, the faintest possible hint of mockery in her smile. “You have been quite the busy little bee, haven't you? Not only an office, but an apartment as well.”

Scott stared, and then whistled.

“They tell me that there are places in Africa where news travels with the speed of light and without any known means of communication, but from what I've discovered Hamilton goes Africa one better. I told you about the office, of course.”

Kate laughed and led the way into the living room.

“Oh, it's really quite simple. Aunt Jane went to the hospital this afternoon to call on one of our tenants' children. And Alice Mowbray was boasting her head off that she had ‘snagged' you as a tenant for her apartment. But you are not far wrong about the way news travels here. Hamilton is no place to try to keep a secret!”

“I'll remember that and conduct myself most circumspectly,” Scott promised, impressed.

The laughter went out of Kate's eyes and she said quietly, “You will have to, won't you? In a town the size of Hamilton, doctors have to be like Caesar's wife, above reproach. That's why I'm wondering — ” She broke off, hesitated, and turned to walk away from him toward a table where a great blue vase was filled with pink and blue and white Canterbury bells. And while her fingers fumbled with the flowers, unnecessarily rearranging them, she spoke over her shoulder. “I'm just wondering if perhaps you wouldn't be very smart to cancel our date for the movies tonight.”

Scott stared at her, his brows drawn together in bewilderment. “That's about the silliest thing I ever heard an allegedly sensible girl say,” he said at last, roughly. “If I have to allow my prospective patients to censor the list of my friends, then I'll adopt some other profession. And besides, don't you think you are over-emphasizing the town's feeling toward the Ryans?”

Kate smiled faintly. “You've had forty-eight hours to hear them talk. What do you think?” she asked coolly.

“I think that there's been a lot of misunderstanding all the way around,” said Scott curtly. “I had dinner with the Parhams last night.”

“Yes, I know,” said Kate softly, and smiled at his startled look.

“Chloe Parham is very anxious to meet you,” said Scott sharply. “She is afraid that if she and her friends come to call, you will snub them; that they will bore you, and seem provincial to you.”

Kate's eyes were wide and resentful. “What a perfectly silly thing to think,” she said hotly.

“Well, I don't know. You think Hamilton hates Yankees — ”

“What do you think?”

“I'm from New England, never been South before in my life, and couldn't want to be treated with more warmth and friendliness and hospitality.”

“You are a man, young, attractive, and eligible.”

“Oh, for Pete's sake — ”

For a moment they all but glared at each other, until suddenly Kate laughed. “Oh, Scott, we're quarreling. Nothing could be sillier.”

Scott laughed in genuine relief. “Nothing could,” he agreed, and went eagerly on. “Just to prove to you that Chloe and her friends want to welcome you, they've asked me to bring you to a party tonight. Chloe thought it would give you an excellent chance to meet them all. Would you like it?”

Kate hesitated for a long moment, considering.

“It might be fun, at that. We'll decide later. It's a very good movie,” she was saying when Jane came in, greeting Scott with her usual brisk good humor. A moment later Tim appeared, happy and booming and bluffly glad to see Scott.

When dinner was over, Kate said lightly, “If we're going to make the nine o'clock show, Scott, maybe we'd better get started.”

“I'd like to show you over the place, Scott. Matter of fact, I've got a little business proposition I'd like to make you,” said Tim while they waited for Kate to go upstairs for the light wrap she would need. “I'm employing rather a lot of people. I thought perhaps it might not be a bad idea to set up a sort of clinic, maybe one or two mornings a week, if you could give it the time, or think it wouldn't make you too unpopular with your Hamilton friends.”

“That's a wonderful idea!” Scott was honestly impressed and genuinely interested.

Tim beamed at him.

“I thought I could get a nurse who would live here on the place,” he said eagerly, “and who could assist you on your clinic days.”

“Wonderful!”

Jane said hesitantly, “Wait a minute, Tim. Maybe it wouldn't be wise for Scott to label himself in Hamilton eyes as a black man's doctor, which is exactly what they would call him.”

Scott stared at her, honestly dumbfounded. “Surely you don't think a doctor practices his profession according to race, creed, or color. Good grief, all humanity is entitled to a doctor's best efforts,” he protested, incensed.

Jane smiled at him faintly and lifted her angular shoulders in a shrug. “Oh, well, I thought maybe you'd better take time to think it over,” she said as she withdrew her opposition. “After all, you're new down here. Maybe you'd better talk it over with Doctor Searcy.”

Kate came in then, a lightweight coat a shade darker than her dress swung over her shoulders cape fashion. She looked swiftly from one to the other as she said, “I'm ready, Scott.”

“We'll go into this more fully, Mr. Ryan,” said Scott firmly.

“Sure, sure. Come out for the day on Sunday and we'll go over the place and you can see what you think,” said Tim. And a little later, Kate and Scott were in his car driving toward town.

“I take it Dad mentioned to you his idea for a clinic for his employees,” she said quietly.

“It's a wonderful idea, and I'm all for it,” said Scott flatly.

Kate nodded. “I thought you would be. Dad has discussed it with Jane and me. But — well, don't make up your mind all in a hurry, Scott. After all, this means a great deal to you — your new life in Hamilton — and you don't want to get off to a bad start by flying in the face of the town's most cherished traditions.”

“There's one small item that neither you nor Jane seemed to have considered,” Scott pointed out grimly. “I'm a doctor. The passport of a patient to my attention is not the color of his skin or his religion; it's whether he is ill or suffering, in need of whatever skill and ability I may possess. I think your father's got a great, a wonderful idea.”

“Of course,” said Kate, and her voice was carefully expressionless. “Doctor Searcy suggested he should import a black doctor.”

“Well, perhaps that might be a good idea.”

“So if you feel it would not be wise for you — ”

“I don't care an awful lot for the suggestion that I must walk softly and hide my innermost feelings if I am to be a successful practitioner in Hamilton!”

“Oh, well, it's early yet to decide. You and Dad can look things over Sunday; meanwhile, you can talk to Doctor Searcy and Doctor Blair and, of course, the Parhams.”

“Not the Parhams,” Scott stated flatly. “At least not Stuart Parham. I know in advance what he would say.”

Kate looked at him sharply.

“Am I to understand that you are not overly impressed with Mr. Parham? I do hope you are not allowing any feelings for the River's Edge people to influence you in that decision?”

“Not in the least. It's just that Parham is the type of man who could easily become an opinionated bigot. True, he was my host last night and has sponsored me in the town and I appreciate it. But I can't imagine myself ever feeling for him anything of what I feel for your father.”

“Thanks,” said Kate softly, her smile warm and steady.

The car had to be parked around the corner halfway down the block from the theater. Scott and Kate walked back, talking lightly, suddenly feeling like warm friends. As they emerged into the brilliantly lit space beneath the theater marquee, a voice called gaily, “There they are.” And the next moment they were surrounded by a gay and laughing group.

Chloe laughed up at Scott, slipping her hand through his arm with a little possessive gesture.

“This is a stick-up, pal,” Chloe told them gaily, “you don't want to waste a whole evening in a stuffy theater tonight. The picture will be on for three days and anyway, it won't be nearly as much fun as Liss's party.”