Tender Nurse (12 page)

IT WAS late that night when Virginia returned to the hospital. Andrea waited up for her. It appeared that her mother had had a severe attack of food poisoning, but was very much better when Virginia left her.

 “Did you have a nice time with Martin?” she asked Andrea.

Andrea gave an ecstatic sigh. “Wonderful! I can’t think why I ever disliked him. He’s not really snobbish or conceited at all. He made me feel that the honor and pleasure of the evening were all his — that I’d actually done him a favor by going with him.”

Virginia eyed her with an amused twinkle. “Well, isn’t that the way a man should think?”

“Yes, I suppose so, but Martin is different.”

“Is he?”

Andrea gave a half smile. “Now Virginia——”

Virginia laughed. “All right. Tell me the rest in the morning. I’m off to get my beauty sleep. ‘Night.”

Andrea put out her light. Martin was a wonderful man and a great one. She was proud to have won his friendship and regard. She would treasure the memory of tonight for always. She went to sleep immediately, as a contented child, happy without the necessity of analyzing the source.

During the following week, even Julia Fisher’s harsh tongue failed to have a great deal of effect on her, and for some reason, her treatment of Andrea was worse than before. Any unhappiness that this brought, however, was more than off-set by Martin’s continued friendliness. His smile was warm and seemed meant for her alone. As before, Andrea continued to be on duty with Nurse Craig, so that only in the mornings did she suffer from Julia’s malice. Martin had determined that if the Sister’s treatment of her did not improve, he would find some way of putting a stop to it, but Andrea appeared to be so unaffected by it that he thought it best not to say anything.

Toward the end of the week, however, Andrea was dismayed to discover that she was no longer to be on and off duty with Nurse Craig, but with Sister.

“You’ve been put on call duties too.” Jean told her. “It means that the nurses who are on duty until eight- thirty, are called up in the night if there’s an emergency.”

“Oh, I see. Is Sister on call too?”

“No, never. If there’s a call on my evening off, the senior pro takes it and night Sister helps out.”

The new duties began on Monday. After a busy morning, there still remained three more operations before tea. If Julia Fisher had been harsh previously, she was doubly so now.

“Handle the patient more carefully, Nurse—for goodness sake don’t throw him on to the table— he’s not a sack of flour. Nurse, the patient has just had an operation, do you want to yank out his stitches? Get to the other end of the man, Nurse Grey — don’t leave all the heavy lifting to someone else.”

Though smarting under the injustice of these remarks, Andrea said nothing. To have made any protest would have brought a further reprimand — one of insubordination. She could only silently hope that Martin would know that she did handle the patients carefully and that she did not shirk her share of the heavy lifting.

Martin glanced at Andrea. He thought she was beginning to show signs of strain. So far, she had taken Julia’s treatment of her very well. He wondered what was the cause of such sudden concentration on Andrea.

The operations were finished and Julia sent Sally McAllister to make tea for the surgeons and anaesthetist. To Andrea she snapped: “You can clear away your trolly now, Nurse Grey, and be careful with those syringes.” As Andrea had not yet broken a single syringe since she had been in theatre, she felt the remark as unfair and unjust as the others had been. Julia continued: “There have been far too many needles blunted lately, too. You should know by now how to clean and sterilize them properly.”

Martin peeled off his gloves. When was Julia going to stop this ranting? All so unjust. She was getting Andrea near to tears.

“When Staff Nurse comes back,” Julia was saying, “you can go to tea, but I want this whole place cleared up before you go off at six.”

Andrea turned a pale face to her superior. “I have a lecture at five-fifteen, Sister.”

“What!” A look of extreme exasperation crossed Julia’s face. She turned to Martin. “Really, the time these nurses take from the work to attend lectures — and they’re no wiser for them.”

Martin’s brows shot up. “Surely, Sister, you and I have both had to gain much of our knowledge from the lecture room.”

“Yes, but not in the patient’s time.” She turned again to Andrea. “Well, Nurse, you can go to tea at a quarter to five instead of half past four. Mind you have the anaesthetic room clean and tidy and all these instruments cleaned and in the sterilizer before you go.’’

“Yes, Sister.”

Andrea wheeled her trolly into the sterlizing room. She could not bring herself to look at Martin. What must he be thinking of her? He took her part just now, but it hardly seemed likely that he would want to hold to any avowals of friendship with the young, stupid, inefficient person Sister Fisher was making her seem. Where had she gone wrong that Sister had suddenly become so down on her?

It was nearly half past four already. It was going to be as much as Andrea could do to get even a cup of tea if she was to do as Sister had bidden. A determined look came into her eyes. She would do it, even if she had to do without tea altogether.

She did not see the frown on Martin’s face as he followed Sister through the doorway, his assistant at his heels. He longed to pause and speak to Andrea for a moment, but sandwiched as he was between the Theatre Sister and his colleague, it was nigh impossible. The drinking of tea or coffee after an operation list almost amounted to a ritual. In any case, there was the operation book to be signed and the ward case-sheets to be filled in — instruction as to post-operative drugs and special nursing treatment, followed by a brief resume of tomorrow’s work.

George had been called to the receiving ward where a case of severe heart failure had just been admitted. It was not until evening that the two men met again, when George looked in on Martin for a late drink and smoke before turning in.

“Another full day tomorrow, I see,” George remarked, settling himself in an armchair in the living room of Martin’s flat.

“Yes,” answered Martin quietly, “and I hope to goodness Sister is in a better mood. She’s very efficient in a cold sort of way, but the kind of atmosphere she creates isn’t good for the patients. She gets the staff all jumpy — or strained — according to their temperaments. There should be an atmosphere of peace and harmony before an operation.”

“Pity she can’t be moved to another department,” said George.

“I gather Matron seldom changes the Sisters around — at least not the ones with specialized experience like theatre work.”

“She’s certainly got the job at her finger tips,” George murmured.

“She even began ranting at Andrea this evening because the child had a lecture.”

“Oh, that’s a common grouse with some of the Sisters. They grudge the nurses having lectures in their on-duty time.”

“But she seems to be making a dead set at Andrea these days. She was fairly decent toward her when she first came into theatre. I just can’t understand it,” Martin said worridely.

“Can’t you?” George asked pointedly.

Martin shot him a quick glance. “Why — can
you
?”

“Jealousy,” said George briefly.

“Jealousy?” echoed Martin. “Of whom, for heaven’s sake.”

George eyed his friend pityingly. “Of course, I suppose a lot of the hospital gossip goes over your head. I’m not such a big shot as you, so I hear more of it.”

“What in the world are you blabbering about?”

George shuffled deeper into his chair. “Julia is jealous of Andrea on your account.”

“That’s nonsense,” Martin said uncomfortably.

“Is it? You took Julia out once or twice, didn’t you?”

“Well, good heavens, one has to take a woman out sometimes. The Sisters on the male side are mostly engaged, as for the others—well, Sister Brown is fifty if she’s a day.”

“Is that why you took Andrea out — because you ‘had to take a woman out sometimes’?”

Martin reddened. “No. Anyway, hang it all, that evening out was sheer accident. It would have been a foursome if Virginia’s mother hadn’t taken ill. Besides, there’s this fellow Godfrey.”

George thought the last remark, though irrelevant, showed how Martin’s mind was working.

He got up. “I’ll turn in. Got a busy day tomorrow.”

The two men said good night, and George went along to his own quarters. Martin was a stubborn, impenetrable fellow at times. What were his feelings toward Andrea? Was she just “a woman to take out sometimes,” or was he really falling for her? He certainly seemed concerned about the way Julia was treating her. Perhaps Martin wasn’t clear about his own feelings. Come to think of it, he wasn’t even sure of his own. Virginia was a grand girl and her people were fine, but — he got into bed, switched off his thoughts with the light and was soon asleep.

Andrea’s free day for this week was Saturday. So also was Julia Fisher’s. She had deliberately arranged it that way. She wanted to make quite sure that on duty, at any rate, Andrea would have no opportunity whatever of being alone with Martin. During the whole of the busy week from Monday to Friday, she concentrated the full battery of her attack on Andrea. Wherever the Nurse went, whether in the anaesthetic room, the sterilizing room or the operating theatre itself, the cold blue eyes focussed upon her and the Sister lashed out with the venom of her tongue. Mercilessly, she took full advantage of the fact that hospital etiquette — which Andrea had, by now, learned to accept — made retaliation impossible.

Coupled with this treatment of Sister’s was the feeling that she had completely lost touch with Martin. Never once was she able to as much as catch his eye. When he walked past her he seemed not to notice her. During the operations he concentrated fully on his work, speaking only to his assistants and to Sister. When he was scrubbing up Andrea was busy in the anaesthetic room. Vaguely she wondered if she had upset him in any way. It wasn’t possible that he was being influenced against her by Sister Fisher’s attitude. He knew surely that she was not the clumsy, inefficient, slacker that her superior’s continual rebukes implied.

Anxiously she looked to George for some clue to what was wrong but even he seemed unusually quiet, almost to the point of absent-mindedness. The week passed for Andrea like a nightmare. Consequently, the prospect of a whole free day spent with Godfrey seemed like a heavenly awakening.

At ten thirty he was waiting outside the hospital gates in his car. He opened the door for her.

“Hello, sweetheart, it’s good to see you,” he said warmly. “And how lovely you look.”

She was wearing a pale yellow cotton dress with vivid splashes of color in an unusual design and swirling, full skirt.

“It’s good to see you too, darling,” she returned with unusual fervor. “I’ve never been so thankful to see the back of that place for a while.”

He looked at her more closely. “You do look a bit tired. Have you had a busy week?” he asked anxiously.

She sank back in her seat. “Busy isn’t the word for it. I’ve been able to do nothing right.”

He was immediately full of concern for her and so distressed at the very suggestion of her being anything but happy, that Andrea was sorry she had given vent to her feelings so frankly. She gave a light laugh and laid a hand on his arm.

“Don’t let it worry you, darling. There are bound to be bad patches, everybody has them. Let’s enjoy ourselves. Tell me what you’ve been doing.”

Relief showed in his eyes. “You’re wonderful, darling.” He started up the car. “First of all, where would you like to have lunch?”

“That depends,” she said teasingly.

“On what?”

“On where we’re going to spend the day.”

“I’ve got tickets for a show at the Theatre Royal — but perhaps you’d like to get away from Cliftonville for a change?”

“Oh — actually, darling, I’m not sure what I want. I’d like to fly over hill and dale — stand on a mountain top — walk beside peaceful water.”

He smiled fondly. “That sounds like a tall order, but I know what you mean.”

“Do you?”

“ ‘He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul’.” he quoted softly.

He sensed that she was restless, that she wanted to escape for a while. Sensitive to her every mood, he wondered if anything special had happened to cause the change since he had last seen her. She had been happy then and absolutely in love with her job.

“I know the very place,” he said, steering the car at right angles to the Cliftonville road.

“Oh, where, Godfrey?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.

“Windermere.”

“Windermere! The Lakes! How lovely, Godfrey. What a wonderful idea. But what about the theatre tickets?”

“Oh, we’ll be back in plenty of time. We can be there for lunch if we go non-stop. Can you get along without coffee?”

“Of course. I’ve got some fruit in my bag. We can nibble as we go along.”

When they were clear of the main throroughfare, Godfrey asked: “How is Virginia’s mother?”

“Much better. Virginia went home again on Wednesday after I’d rung you — and her mother is being sent home today.”

“Good. I’m very pleased to hear it. I only wish I had been on hand to be of some assistance. I suppose Dr. Howard has a super car — not like my old erode.’ ‘

“It is a bit newer than yours, but it’s not all that luxurious.”

“A bit more reliable than mine though, I should imagine. As a matter of fact, darling, I’m thinking of getting another.”

“Are you? How lovely! But can you afford a new car?”

“Well I’ve managed to save a little, and what I get for this will help toward another. It won’t be a brand new model, of course. Actually this old faithful has been giving me qite a bit of trouble lately and I want to be able to take you out without fear of breakdowns.”