The Doctor's Undoing. Allie Pleiter

that.”

      Ida Lee Landway was most certainly hiding something. “I’m quite sure I do.”

      She hesitated again, this time giving a pitiful tug on the table covers, which Daniel was now sure he would not surrender even at gunpoint.

      “Kindly open your office door, Miss Landway.” He kept his words polite but his tone firm.

      She gave a small whine, ducked her head like a guilty child and pushed the door open.

      A riot of color greeted his eyes. Boxes and baskets of yarn in a kaleidoscope of bright hues filled every available surface of the office. It was as if the circus Mrs. Smiley was just bemoaning had arrived and subsequently exploded in the infirmary. His infirmary.

      Miss Landway cut in front of him. “I can explain.”

      Knowing he had come to deliver his approval for her little project, he found the entire situation amusing. Still, the sight before him only proved Mrs. Smiley’s point: someone needed to mind Miss Landway’s limits. And that someone was him. “I expect you shall.”

      She began rearranging the boxes, as if that would somehow render them invisible. “My dear friend Leanne—Mrs. John Gallows, that is—had the most extraordinary luck when she went looking for donated yarn.” She turned to him and laid a hand on her chest in a theatrical gesture. “We had no idea she’d get such enormous and immediate replies when she went asking. It’s a blessing, really.”

      “You sought donations?” He looked around to find someplace to deposit the linens, and couldn’t see a single empty surface.

      She moved a box to the floor, gesturing for him to put down the stack of cloths, which he did. “Well, not exactly. I was telling Leanne about the whole business with Meredith’s booties and the idea I had. I was asking her if she’d help me. There are twenty-six girls after all, and we’d want each of them to have more than one pair of socks, so—”

      “We?” he cut in.

      Miss Landway planted a hand on one hip. “You did say I could go ahead if I could guarantee each girl received equal gifts.” Sparks of defiance lit her eyes—she’d become much more invested in this than he’d realized.

      Part of him liked that. Another part of him felt as if he was watching the year’s greatest headache form right in front of his eyes. “I did. And I told you I’d think about approving your recruitment of a core of volunteers to assist.” He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “I see you didn’t find waiting for such approval necessary.”

      She spun about the room, her hands flung wide. “Well, my stars, I didn’t think it’d all happen this fast!”

      When he didn’t reply, she turned to face him with pleading eyes. It was obvious it would rip her heart out if he told her to send back the yarn. He wasn’t going to do that, of course, but in many ways this was the baby booties all over again. Charity may be the heart of the Parker Home for Orphans, but procedure gave it the bones to endure. He had to make her understand that if she was going to last, and Daniel found he wanted this nurse to last.

      He pinched his nose and pushed out a breath. “I’m pleased at your initiative, truly I am.”

      She looked as if she were holding her breath. “And?”

      “And I am not going to ask you to send all this back, but—”