Cottage Hospital by Claire Rayner

Author:Claire Rayner [Rayner, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-84982-049-3
Publisher: M P Publishing Limited
Published: 1993-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

For a long moment there was silence in the brilliantly lit Casualty room. Then Mike Foreman spoke, his voice unnaturally high and strained.

“My God – I’m sorry, Sister. We – we’d only just realised who she was – I didn’t know when I sent for you – I was going to send nurse to stop you –”

Barbara stood still and silent, staring at Mary’s face, the face that was so familiar, yet so strange in its still emptiness. Then she raised her head and looked at Mike.

“Stop me?” she said stupidly.

He came and stood beside her, putting his hand on her shoulder with clumsy sympathy.

“I wouldn’t have had this happen for the world,” he said miserably. “I’m – sorry.”

She nodded dumbly, and looked again at Mary’s face. Then, with an almost visible effort, she said, “What are you going to do? How – how bad is she?”

“I’m waiting for a radiologist to come from Dover with a portable machine – our’s is on the blink. But I think she’s got a fracture, I’m afraid. She’s deeply unconscious – I’ve asked Josephs to come from Dover in case she needs a decompression – more than that, at the moment, we can’t do –”

Barbara nodded again. Mary, with a fractured skull? Mary needing an operation?

“It’s impossible!” she thought wildly. “Mary’s much too efficient to let a thing like this happen –”

At the back of the room the policeman moved slightly, and Barbara looked up at him. “What happened?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

“It was the cliff road, Sister,” he said, his voice thick with embarrassment. “Far as we can tell, she missed that right bend near the Crown, right at the top there, and hit the wall – how she didn’t go right over was a miracle –”

“I see.” Barbara’s voice was low. “Does Geoffrey – have you told her husband?”

“We’ve only this minute found who she was –” The policeman held out Mary’s smart handbag, looking incongruous in his big red hand. “Shall I ’phone now? or p’raps you’d rather –” His voice died away, and he looked at her helplessly, clearly bewildered by the turn events had taken.

Barbara shook her head decisively. “I think you had better call him,” she said clearly. “I must stay here. There’s work to do –”

“No!” Mike’s protest was sharp. “My dear, you can’t look after her yourself. I couldn’t let you – it would be too unkind –”

“I’m the only trained nurse here,” Barbara said levelly. “The nurses on duty are all cadets and untrained staff. And you can’t manage on your own.”

“Matron –”

“ – is staying overnight in London. So that’s that,” Barbara said crisply. “Look, we’d better put her in that empty private room. The radiologist can take her films there, and it’s next door to the theatre. I think we can move her on this table – unless you’d rather she stayed here?”

Mike pulled himself together. “No, you’re right. She’ll be better in a bed. I’ll put up a plasma drip as soon as we get her settled.

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