Visiting Consultant by Betty Neels

Author:Betty Neels [NEELS, BETTY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction
Published: 2011-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Sophy was awake long before seven the next morning. Utrecht had a great many churches; all of them chimed the hours; most of them played delightful little tunes too, led by the seven great bells of the Dom and its magnificent carillon. Sophy, lying in bed listening to them, realised that she had no need of her alarm clock, and got up and dressed and was wondering what to do, when there was a tap on her door and two young women came in. She had met them both the previous evening, and tried in vain to remember their names, and when this proved impossible, she stood smiling at them, hoping they would speak first. They must have read her thoughts, for the taller of the two smiled back, revealing white teeth in a pretty mouth.

‘It is all strange, is it not? We take you to Ontbijt and then the theatre. I am Janie Gerritsma, Men’s Surgical, and this is Annie Visser, Women’s Surgical.’ She waved a hand at her companion—a small dark girl with black eyes. Sophy was glad to see that their uniform was very similar to her own, which Matron had insisted that she wore while she was in Utrecht . Only their caps were different—bonnet-shaped and hanging loose over their hair at the back—very becoming, thought Sophy, who nevertheless considered her own frilled muslin cap made her plain face rather more interesting.

The dining room was full of nurses, all looking exactly alike. Sophy wondered how she was going to tell the first-year nurses from the second-year nurses, and the second-year nurses from the third-year nurses, and those in turn from the Ward Sisters. Her two companions sat her down between them at a table at the far end of the room, and she was greeted by a chorus of good mornings. She looked around her with relief. So this was the Sisters’ table; somehow or other she must remember their faces—their names would have to come later. She breakfasted off coffee, and slices of bread which she spread with butter and then, with some doubt, thin slices of cheese. There was sausage on the table too, and a rather red jam, but no marmalade; she decided to keep to the cheese and while she was eating it, derived an odd sort of comfort from the thought that Max was probably eating cheese too.

The theatre block was a splendid edifice; Max had never commented on the theatre in London ; he must have found it deplorably old-fashioned. Perhaps the fire had been a blessing in disguise, and the new theatre would be as modern and well equipped as this one. She was alarmed to find that she really didn’t care what the new theatre was like, and made haste to turn her rather unhappy thoughts to what she was doing. Max had been right, the nurses all spoke basic English, and with the aid of the dictionary she had had the forethought to bring with her, the difficulty of language was far less than she had expected.

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