The King's Nurse [Elvis]

Chapter 9 - Using Some Tough Love

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I was the first one in from riding. The guys told me that I could go ahead and leave Traveler out there in the fields to graze until the horses would be put back into the stables. They would take care of putting the saddle and other things away. Lisa protested me leaving, which made me feel wonderful. That girl and I hit it off pretty well pretty quickly. It was horrible and prideful of me, but I kind of liked that she was more a fan of me than Ginger. 

I came into the house from the back entrance. I took off the hat and fixed my hair a little, mainly my shorter bangs and blew air out of my mouth in exasperation. "Okay, I think that's enough horse riding for me for a while. Ow..."

The inside of my thighs ached from the riding. Yeah, no more riding.

I heard guitar playing coming from somewhere on the first floor. It was coming from the Jungle Room. Curious, I followed the music into the kitchen then stopped just before the Jungle Room. I recognized the tune, but it wasn't from one of his songs. I stood there, leaning against the wall, listening, letting the music seep into my heart.

"Beautiful..." I muttered.

After a couple of minutes, I decided to go on into the kitchen and get a little snack. I was told I could raid the pantry whenever I wanted, I just had to stay away from the things that were labeled "EP" that belonged to Elvis. Or more, he didn't want anyone to touch his food. The floor creaked as I walked to the kitchen, and it wasn't a little creak. This house wasn't even that old, almost forty years, yet it creaked. The guitar playing stopped.

"Is that you, Gertrude?" Elvis called from the Jungle Room. I left the kitchen and showed myself in the Jungle Room, and Elvis was sitting on a large chair that was facing the entrance. "Oh, hi, Karen."

"Hello. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your playing. It was beautiful. 'Let It Be', right?"

His brows rose. "You like The Beatles?"

I came more into the room and stopped at the first sofa that faced away from the entrance to the room. "Oh, yes. Aside from you, I love The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Doors, and don't hate me for this, the Bee Gees."

He chuckled, showing his cheekbones. "You have a fine taste in music, Karen... aside from that last one." I laughed, and he pointed to me. "My clothes look good on ya. Maybe I should give 'em to ya."

I felt my cheeks warm at his complement. "Oh, no, that's not necessary. It was just for today. I'm a city girl through and through, so... horseback riding isn't my thing. I'm going to be feeling these aches for the rest of the week, probably."

I moved around a little to stretch my muscles as he said, "You get used to it. Lisa's gonna wanna ride again with ya, I hope you know. That girl really likes ya."

I smiled, and I stopped stretching. "I like her, too. As I've said before, she's a special girl, and not because she's the daughter of the most famous man on the planet."

"I wouldn't call myself that famous."

One of my brows rose. "Really?"

He saw the look I was giving him, and his smile emerged again. "Really."

"Any person who has a TV or radio knows who you are, and that's a lot of people. I mean, people in middle China probably know who you are. Middle Africa and so forth. In fact, I went on a medical charity trip to Jordan in Africa, and they knew who you were. They asked me if I knew you since, well, to them, all foreigners knew each other."