got up and started toward the door. I said, Wait a minute, and he paused and turned around.
"Well?"
"Well, I'd kind of like to have the reddish-haired girl. She wants the job, and I'm sure she'd be just fine."
"Fine for what?" Claggett said. "No, don't tell me. You just take care of golden-haired Miss Aloe, and forget about your pretty little redhead."
I said I didn't have anything like that in mind at all. Whatever it was he thought I had in mind. My God, with Connie and Manny to contend with, I'd be crazy to start anything up with another girl.
"So?" said Claggett, then cut me off with a knifing gesture of his hand as I began another protest. "I don't care if you did promise her the job. You had no right to make such a promise, and she knows it as well as you do."
He turned, and stalked out of the room.
I expected him to be back almost immediately, bringing the ex-police matron with him. But he was gone for almost a half an hour, and he came back looking wearily resigned.
"You win," he said, dropping heavily into a chair. "You get your red-haired nurse."
"I do?" I said. "I mean, why?"
"Because she spread it all around that she had the job. She was so positive about it that even the nurse I had in mind was convinced and she got sore and quit."
"I'm sorry," I said. "I really didn't mean to upset your plans, Jeff."
"I know." He shrugged. "I just wish I could feel better about the redhead."
"I'm sure she'll work out fine," I said. "She got off to a bad start today by letting Manny lock the door and pull the bed trick. But-"
"What?" said Claggett. "Oh, well, that didn't bother me. That could have happened, regardless of who was on duty. The thing that bothers me about Miss Redhead Scrubbed-Clean is that I can't check her out."
I said, Oh-not knowing quite why I said it. Or why the hair on the back of my neck had gone through the motions of attempting to rise.
"… raised on a farm," Jeff Claggett was saying. "No neighbors for miles around. No friends. Her parents were ex-teachers, and they gave her her schooling. They did a first-class job of it, too, judging by her entrance exams at nursing school. She scored an academic rating of high school graduate plus two years of college. She was an honors graduate in nursing, and I can't turn up anything but good about her since she made RN. Still"-he shook his head troubledly. "I don't actually know anything about her for the first eighteen years of her life. There's nothing I can check on, not even a birth certificate, from the time she was born until she entered nurses' training."
A linen cart creaked noisily down the hallway. From somewhere came the crash of a dinner tray. ( Probably the redhead pounding on a patient .)
"Look, Jeff," I said. "In view of what you've told me, and after much deliberation, I think I'd better have a different nurse."
"Not possible." Jeff shook his head firmly. "You promised her the job. I went along with your decision, when I found that my matron friend wasn't and wouldn't be available. Try to back down on the deal now, and we'd have the union on us."
"I'll tell you something," I said. "I find that I've undergone a very dramatic recovery. My condition has improved at least a thousand percent, and I'm not going to need a nurse at all."
Claggett complained that I hadn't been listening to him. I'd already engaged a nurse, the redhead, and the doctors said I did need one.
"I've probably got the wind up over nothing, anyway, Britt. After all, the fact that I can't check on her doesn't mean that she's hiding anything, now does it?"
"Yes," I said. "I think it's proof positive that she was up to no good during those lost years of her marriage, and that she is planning more of the same for me."
Claggett chuckled that I was kidding, that I was always kidding. I said, Not so, that I only kidded when I was nervous or in mortal fear for my life, as in the present instance.
"It's kind of a defense mechanism," I explained. "I reason that I can't
"Well?"
"Well, I'd kind of like to have the reddish-haired girl. She wants the job, and I'm sure she'd be just fine."
"Fine for what?" Claggett said. "No, don't tell me. You just take care of golden-haired Miss Aloe, and forget about your pretty little redhead."
I said I didn't have anything like that in mind at all. Whatever it was he thought I had in mind. My God, with Connie and Manny to contend with, I'd be crazy to start anything up with another girl.
"So?" said Claggett, then cut me off with a knifing gesture of his hand as I began another protest. "I don't care if you did promise her the job. You had no right to make such a promise, and she knows it as well as you do."
He turned, and stalked out of the room.
I expected him to be back almost immediately, bringing the ex-police matron with him. But he was gone for almost a half an hour, and he came back looking wearily resigned.
"You win," he said, dropping heavily into a chair. "You get your red-haired nurse."
"I do?" I said. "I mean, why?"
"Because she spread it all around that she had the job. She was so positive about it that even the nurse I had in mind was convinced and she got sore and quit."
"I'm sorry," I said. "I really didn't mean to upset your plans, Jeff."
"I know." He shrugged. "I just wish I could feel better about the redhead."
"I'm sure she'll work out fine," I said. "She got off to a bad start today by letting Manny lock the door and pull the bed trick. But-"
"What?" said Claggett. "Oh, well, that didn't bother me. That could have happened, regardless of who was on duty. The thing that bothers me about Miss Redhead Scrubbed-Clean is that I can't check her out."
I said, Oh-not knowing quite why I said it. Or why the hair on the back of my neck had gone through the motions of attempting to rise.
"… raised on a farm," Jeff Claggett was saying. "No neighbors for miles around. No friends. Her parents were ex-teachers, and they gave her her schooling. They did a first-class job of it, too, judging by her entrance exams at nursing school. She scored an academic rating of high school graduate plus two years of college. She was an honors graduate in nursing, and I can't turn up anything but good about her since she made RN. Still"-he shook his head troubledly. "I don't actually know anything about her for the first eighteen years of her life. There's nothing I can check on, not even a birth certificate, from the time she was born until she entered nurses' training."
A linen cart creaked noisily down the hallway. From somewhere came the crash of a dinner tray. ( Probably the redhead pounding on a patient .)
"Look, Jeff," I said. "In view of what you've told me, and after much deliberation, I think I'd better have a different nurse."
"Not possible." Jeff shook his head firmly. "You promised her the job. I went along with your decision, when I found that my matron friend wasn't and wouldn't be available. Try to back down on the deal now, and we'd have the union on us."
"I'll tell you something," I said. "I find that I've undergone a very dramatic recovery. My condition has improved at least a thousand percent, and I'm not going to need a nurse at all."
Claggett complained that I hadn't been listening to him. I'd already engaged a nurse, the redhead, and the doctors said I did need one.
"I've probably got the wind up over nothing, anyway, Britt. After all, the fact that I can't check on her doesn't mean that she's hiding anything, now does it?"
"Yes," I said. "I think it's proof positive that she was up to no good during those lost years of her marriage, and that she is planning more of the same for me."
Claggett chuckled that I was kidding, that I was always kidding. I said, Not so, that I only kidded when I was nervous or in mortal fear for my life, as in the present instance.
"It's kind of a defense mechanism," I explained. "I reason that I can't
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