Read Online Nurse Lang by Jean S. Macleod - Free Book Online Page A

and on the dim, old furniture set around the walls, and their footsteps rang hollowly against the stone as they crossed the floor.
    Beyond them in the shadows of the deep staircase well, a door opened and a tall woman in a grey dress stood silhouetted against the light from an inner room.
    “Serena,” Grant said, leading Moira forward, “this is Miss Lang. She has come home with us to nurse Philip.”
    “I got your telegram.”
    The thin, uncompromising voice struck chilly on Moira’s ears and she looked at Serena Melmore appealingly.
    “I hope we can do something for him,” she said.
    Serena’s eyes met hers for the first time. They were a pale yellowish-brown with dark flecks in them and they seemed to pierce straight through her, searching for something. Otherwise, Serena was a handsome woman. She had the Melmore features, the high, arched nose which tended to give the men of the family an autocratic look, and the firm, shapely mouth and determined chin. She had well-shaped hands and feet and a slim, upright figure which gave her dignity, and she knew how to wear her clothes. Moira thought that she would be about thirty years of age, probably a little older, but it was difficult to tell exactly with people like Serena.
    “Philip will get all the attention he needs at the hospital,” she said. “We are very well used to these situations at Mellyn.”
    And you could have managed very well without my help, Moira mused. Well, that was for Grant to decide. He was, after all, the man in authority.
    The reflection did little to reassure her in the light of Serena’s obvious resentment, however. It was plain that the older woman had made up her mind to dislike her from the beginning, treating her presence at the Priory as an intrusion, a slight, maybe, on her own ability to cope with the situation. Yet, Serena's animosity did not seem to end at personal pride. Behind the pale eyes there was a watchfulness bedded deeply in suspicion, and Moira was glad when Grant said into the lengthening silence:
    “I think we should get Philip settled into his room right away. The journey will have tired him and he’s had enough excitement for one day.”
    Serena turned immediately, walking towards the stairs.
    “Everything is ready,” she said. “I have a meal waiting, but if you think Philip should have his on a tray in his room I’ll get it ready while Holmes helps you carry him up.”
    She had excluded Moira with a few brief, well-chosen words, rejecting her usefulness where Philip was concerned from the first. Grant had made his plans, unexpectedly and without consulting her, and she was leaving him in no doubt about how she felt. Authority had been taken out of her hands, and she resented it quite openly.
    Feeling helpless and inadequate in the circumstances, Moira stood aside while Grant went out to the car again to speak to his brother. Serena remained behind in the hall with her back to her, as if she had forgotten her presence there altogether, and when Philip was carried in she stepped briskly to her cousin’s side.
    She made no comment on his accident, looking down at him and smiling briefly as she welcomed him home.
    “Grant will take you up to your room,” she said. “I have everything ready for you.”
    For the second time she had repeated that efficient little formula, and there could be no doubt that it was calculated to exclude all other forms of help.
    Holmes brought the cases in from the car when he came downstairs again.
    “Miss Melmore will be down to show you to your room, I expect,” he told Moira, touching his cap as he went out to put the car away, and she singled out her own case and set it down near the foot of the stairs.
    There was something slightly unnerving about standing there waiting for Serena in the empty hall. The house was so very still, with only the small sounds of the garden drifting in through the open door, the twitter of birds and the noise of a garden-roller being dragged across