Читать книгу Stowaways in the Abbey - Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley - Страница 4

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A maid appeared at the door of the passage, calling her. “Miss Jen! The doctor wants to see you.”

“See me? There’s nothing the matter with me!” Jen protested. She laid the Mother Superior gently on the grass, chased Timmy away, and went racing to the house.

The doctor and Mrs. Shirley were waiting on the terrace. “The doctor wants to speak to you, Jen dear,” Mrs. Shirley explained.

“I’m all right.” Jen looked up at Dr. Brown in an injured way. “I haven’t got a cold or a headache.”

“Good!” he smiled. “Nor a sore throat? Nor any aches and pains anywhere?”

“Not one. I’m as right as can be.”

“And what about that ankle I was called to see, a few weeks ago?”

“I’d forgotten it. It doesn’t hurt. I’ve been dancing, and I took five wickets last Wednesday in a match.”

“Congratulations! Then we may say the ankle is cured.” He turned to Mrs. Shirley. “She’s all right. I’ll be in again to-morrow, and I’ll send the nurse at once.”

“Nurse!” Jen gasped. “Are Joan and Joy so terribly ill? Oh, please tell me!”

“Not at all,” he said hastily. “Joan will be almost well again in a day or two; not much the matter with her—quite a slight case. But you mustn’t see her, of course. Joy will take longer. We can’t allow Mrs. Shirley to do nursing, you know; she’d be our next patient.”

“Oh! I’m sorry; I didn’t think. Of course, she mustn’t make herself ill,” Jen cried.

Mrs. Shirley smiled and sighed. “I’d like to do it, but no one will hear of it. Joan is sure that in a day or two she’ll be able to help, but just at present I’m afraid we must have somebody.”

“I suppose I couldn’t do anything?” Jen asked wistfully.

“I expect we shall find you can do a great deal,” and Mrs. Shirley turned to say good-bye to the doctor as he hurried to his car.

Jen stood on the terrace, her face aglow with hope. “Then—oh, Auntie Shirley, you aren’t going to send me back to school before Monday? Oh, let me stay and help you!”

Mrs. Shirley was small and frail, her dark hair turning white; Joan, tall and strong and with vivid bronze hair, was like her father, and in every way she tried to take care of her mother. Jen could readily believe that even a strange nurse in the house would seem better to Joan than the thought of her mother burdened with extra work.

Mrs. Shirley put her arm round her would-be assistant. “Jen, dear, I have something to tell you. The doctor confirmed what I suspected. The girls have measles, Joan slightly, Joy rather badly——”

“Measles!” Jen said slowly. “Measles! Oh—hard lines! Where did they catch it? Nobody’s had it at school.”

“Dr. Brown says there have been several cases in the town, and there are a number of fresh ones yesterday and this morning. He wasn’t surprised. But don’t you see what it means, Jen? You were with the girls last night; you and Joan were sitting in the Abbey, and you were with Joy at tea before she went to bed.”

Jen looked at her round-eyed. “You mean—I may have taken it from Joan and I’ll begin presently? Could she give it to me last night, before you knew? Then”—her mind leapt to the consequences—“I can’t go back to school! They won’t have me, will they? Won’t I be in quarantine?” her eyes blazed.

“Jen, you’re a naughty girl,” Mrs. Shirley scolded, but laughed in spite of herself. “I believe you’re pleased!”

“Pleased! It’s marvellous!” Jen shouted. “I can stay here and help you. There’ll be heaps I can do without going into the—the infected quarters of the house! You’ll keep me, won’t you? There isn’t anywhere else I could go, if they won’t have me at school!”

“I’m sure Miss Macey won’t want you. It would mean keeping you apart from the rest of the girls until the danger is past. Of course you must stay here. It’s our fault that you’ve been in contact with the infection, though we couldn’t know what was going to happen.”

“It was simply sweet of you to infect me!” Jen cried exuberantly. “I never was so glad about anything before! Right in the middle of the summer term—oh, marvellous!”

“Jen, you’re really very naughty,” Mrs. Shirley said laughing. “I sincerely hope we haven’t infected you, and that in a fortnight Dr. Brown will send you back to school.”

“Yes, but a fortnight’s holiday, in the summer—oh, Auntie Shirley, I know I’m bad, but would you mind if I danced a jig? I think perhaps a morris, with some very high capers, might work off my joy a little.”

Mrs. Shirley shook her head at her. “And what about your place in class?”

“I don’t care two hoots. I’m not taking any exam., and if I’m bottom I shall have a good excuse. I’ll be able to say I missed a fortnight; nobody could expect me to be anything but bottom.”

“And what about cricket?”

“I’m sorry, of course,” Jen admitted. “I shall have to let Jack down again. She’ll be sorry she put me in the team; I haven’t been much use to her. First my ankle, and now the Abbey measles! But Jack will know it can’t be helped. She wouldn’t like me to give the whole team measles! I’ve played for her in three big matches anyway. What can I do to help you first, Auntie Shirley?”

“I must go up to the girls again. You might phone to your friend and tell her what has happened. You know how to do it, don’t you?”

“Rather! Yes, I’d like to tell Jack. If I do it at once I may catch her before she goes to her committee. She mustn’t come here, of course.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have a dull time and be very lonely, Jenny-Wren. We can’t have friends here for you, and we can’t let you be with Joan or Joy.”

Jen made a grimace. “I like to be with people! I’m a person who likes company.”

“Naturally sociable.” Mrs. Shirley smiled. “You certainly are. What will you do with yourself? You’ll have to keep away from everybody, you know.”

“I may go in the Abbey and talk to the cats, mayn’t I?”

“Oh, surely! But don’t wander underground and lose yourself.”

“I won’t,” Jen promised earnestly. “I love the Abbey, every bit of it, but somehow I feel I can be satisfied with the upstairs parts of it just now.”

“Your experiences in the vaults are still too fresh in your memory,” Mrs. Shirley assented. “That’s a promise, then. You won’t go wandering alone in the passages.”

“No, Auntie Shirley, I won’t. I don’t want to see those tunnels again for a long while.”

“Then I shall feel safe about you. Go and talk to Jack; presently I shall ring up Miss Macey and ask her to send some things for you.”

“Yes, I’ll need more clothes. I came for a week-end, and I seem likely to stay for quite a long time.” In spite of herself Jen could not keep the exultation out of her voice.

“Joan will be shocked when she hears you are pleased, Jen.”

“Oh, no, she won’t! She’ll understand and she’ll laugh. Auntie Shirley, I bet you sixpence Joan laughs! Give her my love, and say I’m terribly sorry she’s ill, but I think it’s frightfully nice of her to have something infectious,” Jen pleaded.

Mrs. Shirley laughed and shook her head again as she went indoors.