Read Online Moonlight on Butternut Lake by Mary McNear - Free Book Online Page A

yet, so she’d studied instead. Or tried to study, anyway, because in her heightened state of alertness, every sound she heard—every branch creaking outside her window, every wave lapping on the lake’s shore below, every car passing on the distant road—left her feeling on edge.
    Mila, relax, s he’d told herself. You set the alarm. Nobody’s getting into this cabin without your knowing about it. But she couldn’t relax, and she couldn’t concentrate very well either. Still, as she worked her way slowly, and falteringly, through a section of practice questions, she reminded herself what was at stake here. If she was going to go to nursing school, she had to be prepared for the entrance exam. And being prepared for the entrance exam, which she’d take in the fall, meant spending every available minute studying for it this summer. She tried not to think about the logistics of all this, though. Tried not to think about the fact that taking the exam meant she’d actually have to emerge from hiding long enough to take it, and that applying to and getting accepted to nursing school meant actually having the freedom to attend it. Something she could never do in the shadowy half world that being in hiding had forced her into.
    Now, though, she pushed that thought out of her mind, finished stretching her aching back and shoulders, and put her study materials back in the top drawer. But she didn’t get up right away. Instead, she picked up a pencil and chewed thoughtfully on it as she thought about Heather. Her friendship with Heather was the reason she was studying for this test. God, she missed her. Missed her in a way she had not known it was possible to miss someone before tonight. She thought back, now, to the first time she’d met her, over seventeen years ago. Mila remembered it as clearly as if it had been yesterday. She’d been inthe third grade then, and her teacher, Mrs. Williams, had taken her to her school’s administrative office.
    â€œIs the nurse here?” Mrs. Williams asked the school secretary. “This little girl is burning up,” she said irritably. “I left a message for her mother, but she hasn’t returned my call yet.”
    The secretary looked up, briefly, from a stack of papers on her desk.
    â€œThe nurse is in her office,” she said. “She’s new. Just knock on the door.”
    Mrs. Williams led Mila through the administrative office, to a door marked “Nurse,” and knocked on it, sighing impatiently. And Mila stood beside her, feeling miserable. Her head ached terribly, and she felt so chilled that even with her scratchy wool sweater on she could barely keep her teeth from chattering. Worst of all, though, was the fact that she knew Mrs. Williams was angry at her. Angry at her for not feeling well. And angry at her for having a mother who wasn’t returning her calls. Mrs. Williams already disliked her, Mila thought, and inconveniencing her like this wasn’t going to help matters.
    But as she was thinking about this, the door to the nurse’s office opened, and the young woman who’d opened it smiled at both Mrs. Williams and Mila and asked, “Can I help you?” Mila blinked at her, wondering who she was. She couldn’t be the nurse, she decided. She looked too young, and too casual, to be a nurse. She was pretty, with bright blue eyes and long shiny blond hair, and she was wearing the same kind of clothes Mila was wearing, a sweater and a pair of blue jeans. No, Mila thought, this must be the nurse’s friend. Because while she didn’t know a lot about nurses, it seemed to her that they should look official somehow. Serious. And this woman didn’t look like either of those things.
    â€œAre you the new nurse?” Mrs. Williams asked, and Mila realized that her teacher didn’t believe it either.
    â€œAs a matter of fact, I am,” the woman said pleasantly. “My