He Sat Me by the Warming Racks, So I Pulled the Funding novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Letters He Kept

Curtis demands that Maureen restore the withdrawn fellowship money, but she refuses as Lowell reveals Curtis intercepted her nursing-school offers and Rosalind admits she kept them; Maureen sets her pin beside the letters and commits to speaking at Sunday's church luncheon.

Curtis stared at my signature and asked me to put the fellowship money back.

The signed withdrawal still lay between us and Dr. Lowell Hendry.

'You can reverse this today, Maureen,' Curtis said. 'The hospital needs that money, and you know what this will look like.'

He had spent my money in public and wanted me to repair the scene in private.

'I won't put it back.'

My fingertips had gone numb against the table. I kept them there.

Lowell watched Curtis, not me.

Curtis set his badge beside the withdrawal. It had failed at the garage gate and the pavilion offices.

'You have taken money meant for patients,' he said. 'Do you intend to explain that to the staff?'

The woman outside the glass conference-room wall looked up from her papers.

Curtis had already chosen the story he wanted her to hear.

'You can tell them whatever you like,' I said. 'The payment came from my account.'

'I thought we were both proud of what I built.'

'You were proud enough to put your name on the pavilion.'

Lowell folded his hands on the table.

'Dr. Ainsley, my late wife was dean of Maureen's nursing school.'

Curtis looked at him. 'I know who your wife was.'

'Then you know she kept a file about Maureen.'

Lowell had the file beside him. I had not seen it before.

Curtis's gaze moved to it and then back to me.

'What is this supposed to prove?'

Lowell opened the folder and placed a copy of a school letter on the table.

'You signed for this letter,' he said. 'The school offered Maureen a way back. You refused it in her name.'

Curtis did not touch the paper.

He had signed the school's offer himself. The signature was his.

I read the date, then the line that said the place would be held for me.

That was the choice I had never been given.

'It was a favor,' Curtis said. 'You had chosen your life with me.'

'You decided that for me.'

'I kept you from taking on a burden you didn't need.'

'You kept the letter.'

The conference-room door opened behind Curtis.

Rosalind came in holding a stack of envelopes against her chest.

She had brought every letter.

'You needn't make this uglier than it is,' she said. 'I kept them safe.'

Her eyes settled on the school seal at the top envelope.

'You told everyone at the gala that you gave up nursing by choice,' I said.

Rosalind's fingers tightened around the envelopes.

'You said it yourself, Maureen. I merely repeated what you had told us.'

I remembered the guests watching Curtis accept their praise. I had answered Rosalind because she asked whether I regretted my decision.

She had given them my own words without the question that came before them.

The school letters stayed in Rosalind's hands.

I reached inside my blouse and pulled out my silver student-nurse pin.

I set it beside the envelopes.

Rosalind looked down at it.

I had carried it through every year I told myself I had made the right choice.

No one had asked me whether I still wanted to go back.

Lowell slid the copy of the letter closer to me.

'My wife kept a place open for you,' he said. 'If you want to contact the school, I can help.'

'You can give me the school's number,' I said. 'I can make the call.'

He nodded and wrote it on the edge of his card.

I took the card. Curtis's badge still lay beside the withdrawal, and his signature was on the school's offer.

The office staffer beyond the glass had stopped sorting her papers.

I used my phone to call the woman organizing the church luncheon.

'I will speak on Sunday,' I said. 'Please make sure Curtis and Rosalind are there.'

Curtis moved closer to the table.

'You are going to use a church luncheon to punish me?'

'I am going to correct what you told them.'

Rosalind looked from the pin to the letters.

'People will think you are trying to embarrass your husband.'

'I know what they may think.'

Curtis turned toward the open door. The staffer lowered her eyes to her papers.

Then he faced me again.

'I will be there on Sunday,' he said. 'I will tell them you're a liar.'

Rosalind clutched the letters against her chest.

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