Kit Cavendish-Private Nurse (5 page)

“Yes,” Kit said slowly, “I did hear that one of the kitchen maids had been dismissed.”

“But you don’t know why?” Miss Catchpole leaned forward, her hands on her knees. “Then I’ll tell you. Lena’s mother was taken very ill indeed. So ill that the girl was sent for. Mrs. Baylis was at the office, so Lena went to talk to that niece of hers...
”

“Sue Day,” Kit said automatically. She did not want to listen to Miss Catchpole, but those beady eyes seemed to hypnotize her.

“Sue Day,” Miss Catchpole repeated. “Well, she, being apparently quite human, sent the girl home. Who wouldn’t? Well, Mrs. Baylis was furious with her niece for permitting it. What’s more, she had a note delivered to the girl’s home saying that as she was absent without leave, she need not come back. The next day Mrs. Palmer died. Well?”

Kit stood up quickly.

“I don’t believe it,” she protested. “I can’t believe it ... it’s too horrible...”

“But you can’t assure me, in so many words, that it isn’t true?” Miss Catchpole asked significantly.

Kit was silent. Having overheard that conversation between Mrs. Baylis and Sue, to say nothing of the lies Mrs. Baylis had subsequently told about the reason for the dismissal of the girl, how could she contradict the story?

“I assure you that until this morning I had no idea that was why the girl left.”

Miss Catchpole nodded.

“That I can quite believe,” she said. “But it doesn’t answer my question, does it?”

“No,” Kit agreed, picking up her handbag and gloves, “it doesn’t. I’m not in a position either to confirm or contradict the story. I just don’t know...”

“But you know something, my dear!” Miss Catchpole said shrewdly.

“I’m afraid you are letting your imagination run away with you,” Kit said coldly and, she knew, unfairly. “You will forgive me if I go now, won’t you? I’m sure you’ll understand that since I’m employed by Mr. and Mrs. Baylis, it would be wrong of me to listen to idle gossip.”

“Not idle gossip, my dear,” Miss Catchpole said quietly. “As you, to your consternation, are only too well aware! Goodbye, Kit. And thank you for coming!”

Kit went out into the street. Completely oblivious of her surroundings, she hurried along, tormented by her thoughts.

There must be some explanation, there must be,
she told herself.
No one could be so inhuman—

“Hey, look where you’re going, Nurse Cavendish! You nearly walked through me!”

Startled, Kit saw Noe
l
Baylis blocking her way.

“I’m sorry,” she said breathlessly. “I was thinking...”

“I’m sure you were,” he agreed, watching her intently. “And not very pleasant thoughts either, I’d say. Why, my dear girl, you’re shaking. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Kit said hastily.

“Tell that to your grandmother,” Noel suggested. “She might believe it. I don’t.” He slipped an arm through hers and propelled her in the direction of his car.

“I’m all right,” Kit protested, but Noel was adamant that she go in the car.

To her relief he made no effort to ask questions or, indeed, to talk at all. She sat hunched up beside him, bemused by what had happened ... until, suddenly, she realized that far from going in the direction of Moneyhill, they were going the other way.

“Mr. Baylis, please, I must get back!” she protested. And then, as he took no notice, she caught him by the arm and shook it. “Take me back at once!”

“Steady now,” Noel said coolly, correcting the swerve her action had caused. “You’ll have us both in the ditch—and then there would be trouble! And stop looking so scared. I’m not about to abduct you! I simply intend to have that little talk we’ve postponed far too long, and I
want
to make sure we aren’t interrupted.”

Kit’s mouth set in a firm, resolute line. She realized that at the speed they were traveling they were already so far from Ravenslea that even if he stopped and let her out, she could not walk back to the house in time. She had to listen to what he had to say and convince him as quickly as possible that he was wasting his time.

He slowed and turned into a side lane.

“This should be safe enough,” he commented, and came gently to a halt. He took his cigarette case out of his pocket. “Cigarette?”

“No, thank you,” Kit said stiffly.

Noel looked at her thoughtfully.

“So you won’t talk?” he suggested. “I didn’t think you would, so instead, Tm not going to ask questions. I’m going to tell you things. You were having tea with Miss Catchpole, and something she said upset you. Don’t trouble to deny it, I know what she’s like. She wanted to get some information out of you and when she didn’t succeed, she gave you some. Yes, I thought so,” he said, as involuntarily, Kit caught her breath. “About my father and Ruth, I suppose?”

“No,” Kit said firmly.

“No?” Noel’s eyes narrowed speculatively. “Well then, my second guess is ... about Lena Palmer?”

Kit turned to him appealingly.

“Mr. Baylis, please do try to understand my position at Moneyhill. My job is to nurse your father. I have neither the right nor the wish to become involved in family affairs,” she said earnestly.

“I see your point,” Noel admitted. “And I don’t blame you. But try to see mine. I’m honestly and deeply worried on my father’s account. As a result, I’m past caring about other people’s feelings—yours included, I’m sorry, but that’s how it is.”

“About your father...” Kit repeated. “Yes, well, of course you are. But plenty of people get over the trouble he has.”

“Oh, sure ... if they’re allowed to,” Noel retorted somewhat grimly.

“Allowed to! But surely you don’t think...” Kit couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

“That Wrinch tried to deliberately upset him in the hope that he’d pop off?” Noel suggested. “No, on the contrary. But it goes deeper than that.” He hesitated for a moment. “You realize, I suppose, that for all she ratted on him, my dear stepmother was concerned in that upset?”

Kit sighed impatiently. Now he had really gone too far. “Mr. Baylis, will you please take me back? I have to be on duty in half an hour.”

“You will if you’ll only be sensible,” Noel told her inflexibly. “Clearly, I have to explain things a bit more to you. My stepmother was father’s secretary and a very competent one, too. Then they were married. For a time she enjoyed reorganizing the house, and I admit she did it well. Then she became bored. She even suggested that she go back to the office, but father wouldn’t hear of it. But when he was taken ill, she had her chance and she jumped at it. Did you say something?”

“Had she not done so, he would have been greatly worried,” Kit said coldly. “As it is, she was able to put his mind at rest.”

“Oh, sure,” Noel agreed ironically. “But you’re missing the point. She enjoyed stepping into father’s shoes because, for the first time in her life, she had unlimited power, and that, to her, is the most precious thing of all.”

“You may be right,” Kit fenced, only too uncomfortably aware that she thought he was. “But even so...”

“Of course I’m right,” Noel insisted impatiently. “This Lena Palmer business Do you know what made her so angry? Not that the girl needed time off—had she been there, she’d almost certainly have let her go. No, it was Sue daring to act on her own initiative, and the girl taking it for granted it was all right. Undermining Ruth’s authority, in other words.”

“But what does that have to do with Mr. Baylis’s health?” Kit asked.

“Have you never heard the saying that while power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely?” he asked somberly. And when Kit did not reply, he went on, “If my father makes a complete recovery, how do you think my stepmother will feel about relinquishing the power his illness has given her?”

CHAPTER FIVE

Kit stared at Noel in utter horror.

“But you don’t mean ... you can’t mean...
”
she stammered.

“That Ruth hopes my father will die?” Noel said with brutal frankness. “No, You see, Ruth knows, as I do, that the terms of my father’s will entirely preclude the possibility of her being undisputed boss after his death.”

“Then what...?” Kit asked anxiously.

“If,” Noel
replied
deliberately, “father makes only a partial recovery, or even if he does eventually get fit enough to work again, but can be convinced that he is still a semi-invalid, it will be inevitable that Ruth will stay in the saddle indefinitely. That’s what she wants.”

“You can’t know...
”
Kit protested, but without much conviction.

“Oh, yes, my dear girl, I do know. I know Ruth. That’s quite enough,” Noel insisted. “But the devil of it is there’s nothing I can do about it. I mean, the way father is at present, it’s impossible to warn him, because whether I convinced him or not, he’d blow his top, and we don’t want any more of that!”

“We certainly don’t,” Kit agreed emphatically. She pondered for a moment. “Look, Mr. Baylis, let’s assume that you are right. Mrs. Baylis would be perfectly willing to carry on working—” “Willing!” Noel snorted derisively. “She’s determined to, I tell you!”

“All right,” Kit conceded, “she’s determined to. Well, is that a bad thing? No, wait a moment, let me finish. Supposing your father is a semi-invalid from now on—and I know Dr. Heathfield has warned you that it may be the case—then Mrs. Baylis will have to carry on. On the other hand, if, as we sincerely hope, he is able to work again, he will still have to be careful not to overdo it. It seems to me that with her knowledge of the work, Mrs. Baylis is ideally suited to relieve him of a lot of strain.”

“It sounds lovely, doesn’t it?” Noel retorted dryly. “The only thing is, you’re missing the crucial point. If the old man goes back, naturally he’ll be the one to give the orders. And that wouldn’t suit her ladyship in the least. She wants to be the undisputed boss, my dear!”

Kit shook her head.

“Honestly, I think you’re letting your imagination run away with you,” she told him. “Perhaps it’s natural in the circumstances, but don’t you think you’re letting personal prejudice play too big a part—I mean, you don’t have the least bit of real evidence—”

“No?” Noel countered grimly. “Then what about the way Ruth and Wrinch did their utmost not to let father see the annual report? If that doesn’t smell of
skullduggery
, I don’t know what does!”

“But you’ve got it all wrong,” Kit told him earnestly. “You heard me say that Victor asked about it beforehand.”

Noel gave her a resigned look.

“You’re too good for this world, Nurse Cavendish,” he remarked. “ You missed the point entirely. Dear Victor didn’t want father to see that report. Just why, I don’t know, but my bet is that there was something in it that he would have disapproved of, and Ruth and Wrinch jolly well knew it. They’re hand in glove ... oh, nothing romantic—they’re both too cold-blooded for that. But business ... that’s another matter.”

“But, Mr. Baylis, I’ve told you, Victor wanted to show your father the report,” Kit insisted. “It was I who ... oh!”

“See what I mean?” Noel asked significantly. “They were pretty certain father would ask for a copy of the statement. Wrinch didn’t want to show it to him, but neither did he want to admit that So, in case of accident, he very carefully shifted the responsibility for not showing it on your shoulders. A tricky customer, our Mr. Wrinch!”

“But,” Kit said, “you’re basing all that on the supposition that although Victor insisted that it has been a wonderful year, something has gone wrong with the firm, presumably through mismanagement. But if that’s so, Mr. Baylis must have
had some
idea about it because, until November, he was in charge himself.”

“Hm,” Noel frowned. “On the face of it, that sounds reasonable enough, I admit. And yet I know, really know, I’m right.”

“But there is another thing,” Kit went on. “If Victor didn’t
rea
ll
y want your father to see the report, why did he bring a copy with him? He could easily have said he hadn’t one with him, but would send it on, and then not do so.”

“I can answer that one,” Noel told her promptly. “Wrinch is hand in glove with Ruth. But he doesn’t have her nerve. And besides, he has an inborn liking for running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. He wasn’t taking any chances. If
father insisted
on seeing the wretched thing, Wrinch was quite prepared to sell Ruth down the river because nominally, at any rate, father is still the boss. So, to cover himself, he brought the report but said nothing to Ruth. When father blew his top, Wrinch lost his head. Well, he had his reward—Ruth ratted on him. But that’s ancient history. What I want to know now is what are you going to do about it?”

“Nothing,” Kit told him firmly. “For one thing, I’m not convinced that you’re right. And for another, my job is to look after your father. I do wish you’d all remember that and not try to involve me in family squabbles that aren’t my affair.”

“Well, I suppose I can’t blame you for feeling like that,” Noel admitted. “It’s a sordid enough business, goodness knows. Still, talking to you has at least helped me to see things more clearly. I realize that it’s my job—” he pondered momentarily, then went on with a certain satisfaction “—and though I don’t see any solution yet, I’m pretty certain I’ve got something up my sleeve that might help. And now I suppose I’d better take you back.”

“Oh, my goodness, yes!” Kit exclaimed, glancing at her watch. “Unless you can do it in ten minutes, I’m going to be terribly late.”

Noel laughed.

“Much as I like a bit of speed, I’m afraid I can’t do that. But I’ll do my best. Hold onto your hat!”

But Kit was almost half an hour late when, breathlessly, she apologized to Nurse Stoke who came out onto the landing to meet her.

“That’s all right, my dear. I saw who brought you home!” Nurse Stoke said with a coy significance that, to Kit’s annoyance, made her blush. “A proper charmer, that young man!”

“But, Nurse Stoke, you mustn’t imagine...
”
Kit protested earnestly.

Nurse Stoke laughed.

“Now, you mustn’t mind me teasing! It’s true I’m old enough to be your mother, but I’m no spoilsport. After all, you’re only young once. Besides, I got on nicely with my knitting—practically finished the second sleeve.”

It was on the tip of Kit’s tongue to ask her if she had said anything to Mr. Baylis about Noel bringing her home, but she decided that the less said the better. She went into Mr. Baylis’s room. He greeted her with a smile and asked if she had enjoyed her outing.

“I had tea with an old friend—Miss Catchpole,” Kit explained, evading a direct question. “Do you want anything?”

“Not at the moment.” He looked at her thoughtfully. “I suppose you have a lot of friends around here.”

“Not as many as I once had,” Kit told him. “You see, a lot of my friends left when they grew up, just as I did.”

“Yes, there couldn’t have been much around here for youngsters to do five or six years ago,” he commented. “Different now.”

“Very different,” Kit agreed with an unconscious sigh.

“You don’t like the change?” he asked with interest.

“I think one always feels a bit sentimental about the place where one lived as a child,” Kit replied, anxious not to criticize the development in which he had played a part. “And perhaps one rather takes it for granted it’s always going to look the same.”

“I know what you mean,” Mr. Baylis said as he put down his glasses. “Sometimes I feel guilty about the part I played in having the new town built here. I mean, when one thinks of all that growing land locked up under steel and concrete, it makes you wonder...
”
he shook his head.

“But you’ve provided work for hundreds and hundreds of people,” Kit reminded him.

“That’s what my wife tells me,” Mr. Baylis said, looking more cheerful. “And of course she’s right. What’s more, though there’s not much room for sentiment in business, I’ve always felt I owed a duty to the people who work for me. It’s odd, you know, the way power has changed hands,” he went on reflectively. “In the old days, even to some extent when I was a youngster, it was in the hands of the landed proprietors, people with titles, most likely, and I’ve no doubt they felt it was their job to
l
ook after the people on their estate, much the same as I do now. Yet a great many of them have had to sell their land, and here am I, who started out with nothing, taking their place in a way. Yes, it’s certainly odd.”

He smiled rather doubtfully at Kit as if he was not quite sure of her understanding him and then returned to his book. But somehow Kit was left with the feeling that if only she could work it out, Mr. Baylis had given her the key to the problem that perplexed Noel. But the more she tried to discover what it was, the more it evaded her. So at last she resolved to put the matter aside, though not without wishing that there was someone whose advice and reassurance she could seek. Her father, had he been at hand. Or, even better because he would be able to appreciate her point of view, Jason. But that was not possible in the meantime. Jason was attending a medical conference in Copenhagen and would not be back until the following week. There was nothing to do but wait, for it did not occur to her that had she repeated Mr. Baylis’s remarks to Noel, he might have perceived their significance as she could not.

A few days later Mr. Baylis brought up the question of Noel entering the firm. He and his wife were alone together at the time as Noel had driven Sue into Minsterbury to do some shopping, and Ruth had told Kit that there was no need for her to stay as she herself would be in all afternoon.

“If you’re really quite sure...
”
Kit said doubtfully.

Nurse Stoke had left and Kit had not expected to have more than an odd hour that day.

“Quite, thank you, Nurse,” Ruth said crisply, and then, as if she realized she had sounded a little ungracious, added, “You mustn’t be offended, Nurse, when I say that we do enjoy being on our own together. Since I have to be away so much during the week, I do like to make the most of every opportunity.”

Her face softened into a wistful smile as she spoke, and Kit responded with instant sympathy.

“Yes, of course you do, Mrs. Baylis,” she agreed. “I’ll prepare the dose of medicine that
Mr. Baylis
is to take at four o’clock, and that, apart from tea, is all that’s necessary.” She hesitated momentarily. “Oh, there is just one other thing...
”

“Yes, Nurse?” Ruth asked pleasantly.

“If, by any chance, Mr. Baylis’s condition should worry you at all,” Kit said, choosing her words very carefully, “you’ll find some capsules in the medicine chest. I’ll show you where they are.”

She did so, and Ruth read the directions carefully.

“I see. I crumple up a handkerchief, put the capsule into it and break it. Then I hold the handkerchief to my husband’s nose for him to breathe in the vapor. Quite simple ... though naturally, I sincerely hope I won’t have to do it.”

“Yes, of course,” Kit agreed and went off to change.

Ruth went back to her husband.

“I’ve sent Nurse Cavendish out for a few hours,” she told him smilingly. “She’s a nice girl, but I do like it when we’re on our own!”

He put out his hand and took hers.

“So do I, my dear, though I feel I’m being selfish. After all, you work all week and then devote your free hours to an invalid. You ought to have more freedom yourself, you know.”

Ruth rubbed her cheek against his gray hair.

“You know, at times you really are rather dim, darling,” she said softly. “Hasn’t it dawned on you yet that I’d rather be with you than anywhere else?”

Mr. Baylis kissed her hand.

“It is beginning to dawn on me,” he admitted. “Though it still seems a miracle to me.”

They talked in a desultory way for a time. Then Ruth began to work on a piece of embroidery, and Mr. Baylis went back to his book. Suddenly he looked up.

“Ruth, has Noel said anything to you about going to work?”

“Not recently,” she replied carefully. “And to be quite honest, I’ve had so much on my mind that I’ve rather tended to shelve the matter.”

“I’m not surprised,” he said tenderly. “You’ve taken on so much—still, it’s time the boy settled down. I think I’ll have a word with him.”

“Oh—” Ruth’s hands paused in her work. “Just as you like, darling, but I can manage, you know. Things are easier now that I’ve got back into the running of the office.”

“No, I think it’s my job,” Mr. Baylis replied thoughtfully. “And yon needn’t worry, my dear. I’ve learned my lesson. Whatever attitude Noel takes, I won’t be upset.”

An hour later, when Noel came into the room to inquire if there was any tea, Mr. Baylis hardly waited for him to sit down before he opened the matter.

“We’ve been talking about your joining the firm, Noel,” he said eagerly. “How do you feel about it?”

If Noel was surprised at his father’s question, he gave no indication.