Tender Nurse by Hilda Nickson

Author:Hilda Nickson [Nickson, Hilda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nurses
ISBN: 0373007450
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1962-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

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.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.