The Doctor's Undoing by Allie Pleiter

Author:Allie Pleiter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Daniel was in the hospital four days, although to Ida it felt like four weeks. After that first day, she’d stayed away despite how much she wanted to go every hour and check on him. She was not Daniel’s family. He had his mother tending to him, and quite frankly she was needed here at the Home with the doctor out of commission.

Ida kept herself busy tending to nursing tasks, helping out the other staff as much as she could and working with Isabelle to coordinate the delivery of the socks. Despite regular reports of Daniel’s recovery, everyone had seemed on edge and in an especially sour mood with him away from the Home.

Now—Friday and the first of August—the whole Home had brightened this morning with the good news that Daniel was coming home today. In fact, the doctor was due here any minute, and Ida was tacking a series of floral watercolors up in his room so he’d have something pleasant to look at while he recovered. According to Mr. Grimshaw, Daniel had staunchly refused his mother’s demands that he convalesce with her at the Parker house, which didn’t surprise her. She’d meet the formidable Amelia Parker minutes from now, but she’d heard enough stories to hint that Daniel’s mother would be a suffocating nursemaid. Provided he weren’t too gruesome a sight—and that was certainly a danger given his injuries—Ida knew the company of the children would be Daniel’s best medicine.

The door opened behind her and an elegant woman with Daniel’s dark eyes and piles of graying curls bustled into the room. She looked startled to find Ida in Daniel’s private quarters, casting her eyes up and down Ida before pronouncing, “You must be the army nurse.”

“Ida Landway, ma’am. I was just ensuring everything was ready for Dr. Parker’s return.”

“I’m sure everything is more than ready,” came Daniel’s weary voice from behind the woman.

Mrs. Parker stepped aside, letting Daniel into the room. He was upright, but battered looking. The paleness of his complexion made his dark eye stand out even more. Eye, not eyes, because the left side of his head was covered in a thick bandage. An artist would have a field day with the spectrum of blue and purple bruises along the left side of his jaw. Her prediction that he would look as if he’d been in a boxing match was not so far off. His expression, what she could see of it, told Ida he knew on some level the sight he was. It was a sentiment she’d seen so often among soldiers—craving company but worried they were too unsightly to have it.

“You’re sure about this, Daniel?” Mrs. Parker was clearly not happy with her son’s choice to recuperate at the Home. Mothers were the same everywhere—no matter their son’s age, they wanted to tend to them under their wing when hurt.

“Quite certain, Mother. There’s no need to make this more than it is. Besides, why go to the expense and trouble

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.