Grasp a Nettle

‘Of course. They’ve very kindly arranged for the night.’

‘Good. I’ll be around for a while and I shall be in early in the morning. Doctor Toms had to go straight from theatre. He’s quite satisfied.’

She looked at him rather shyly. ‘Thank you, Professor van Draak, I’m very grateful,’ and felt snubbed when he replied coldly: ‘You have no need to be; it is my work.’ He opened the door, preparatory to leaving. ‘Someone will fetch you very shortly.’

He had gone, leaving her feeling that even if he didn’t like her, and it seemed that he didn’t, he might have been a little less terse. But he hadn’t been terse with Aunt Bess, he had been kind and patient and moreover clever enough to see exactly how contrary she was, and deal with it in the only way she would accept. Jenny had seen her aunt make mincemeat of those who crossed her will too many times not to know that she was the last person to listen to cajoling or persuasion. She got to her feet and walked up and down the little room. Well, the man was a professor of surgery; presumably professors had that little extra something that set them above the rest. She stopped in front of a mirror and poked at her hair in an absent-minded fashion. All the same, he was arrogant and much too indifferent in his manner. She wondered if he were married and if so, if he were happy, although it was no business of hers. Only it had been providential that he happened to be staying with Doctor Toms, for Cowpers, excellent though it was was too small to have consultants attached to its staff and it would have meant her aunt travelling miles to Bristol or Poole or Southampton. As it was he had been allowed to make use of the small hospital’s theatre. She had noticed that he was known to the staff there, too. Possibly he had stayed with Doctor Toms before and come to know the staff there—she would have to ask Doctor Toms.

A nurse came to fetch her then and she went along to the back of the hospital, where the three private rooms were. Miss Creed was in the first of these, surrounded by a variety of equipment, looking very shrunken and frail. She opened her eyes as Jenny went in, smiled a little and closed them again, but presently she said in a thread of a voice: ‘All over?’

Jenny sat down by the bed. She had been keeping a tight check on her feelings, for Aunt Bess loathed emotion or tears. Now she could have wept with sheer relief, but she managed a steady: ‘Yes, my dear, and very satisfactory, too,’ aware as she said it that the Professor had come in silently and was standing behind her. He said something low-voiced to the nurse and went to the foot of the bed. Miss Creed opened her eyes again. ‘Pleased with your handiwork?’ she asked in a woolly voice.

‘Yes, I am, Miss Creed, and you will be too in a very short time. Nurse is going to give you an injection and I should like you to go to sleep again.’

His patient submitted an arm. ‘No choice,’ she muttered, and then: ‘Don’t go, Jenny.’

‘No, Aunt Bess, I’ll be here when you wake.’

So she sat in the chair through the night’s long hours, fortified by cups of strong tea the nurses brought her from time to time, trying to keep awake in case Aunt Bess should wake and want her. But her aunt slept on and towards morning Jenny let her heavy lids drop over her tired eyes and dozed herself, to be wakened gently by the Professor’s hand on her shoulder, and his voice, very quiet in her ear. ‘Your aunt’s regaining consciousness.’ And when she sat up, her copper head tousled and no make-up left on her face at all, he whispered, ‘You’re tired. You will go to bed when your aunt has spoken to you; I would send you away now, but of course she won’t remember those few brief moments directly after the operation. You can return later on.’ And when she would have protested: ‘They will let you have a bed here for a few hours.’

It had been worth the long tedious wait. Aunt Bess opened her eyes and spoke in a normal voice. ‘Good girl,’ and then: ‘Where’s that man?’

‘Here,’ answered the Professor quietly. ‘Everything is quite satisfactory, Miss Creed. I want you to sleep as much as you can. Jenny must go to bed now, she has been up all night.’

‘We’re fond of each other,’ said Aunt Bess in a quite strong voice. ‘I’d do the same for her. But send her to bed, by all means.’ Her voice faded a little and then revived. ‘You will anyway, whatever I say.’

‘Yes. She shall come back when she has rested; you will feel more like talking then.’

Jenny found herself whisked away to an empty room in the pleasant nurses’ home adjoining the hospital. She wasn’t sure of the time, and she was too tired to care. She had a bath, drank the tea one of the nurses brought her, and fell into bed, asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.

She was wakened by one of the day Sisters. ‘Your aunt is asking for you,’ she was told. ‘I’m sorry to wake you like this, but she’s being a little difficult—you could come?’

Jenny shook the sleep from her head. ‘Yes, of course. Is she worse?’

‘No—just unable to settle and not very operative. Here’s a dressing gown and slippers—you don’t mind? We can go through the passage.’

Jenny wrapped herself in the voluminous garment, several sizes too big for her, and thrust her feet into equally large slippers and allowed herself to be led through the covered way to the hospital. ‘What’s the time?’ she asked, half way there.

‘Not quite midday. If you could persuade your aunt to have an injection… We’ll bring you a light meal and you could go to sleep again. You must be worn out.’

‘I’m fine,’ declared Jenny sturdily, and stifled a yawn as she lifted dark, delicately arched brows at the sound of her aunt’s voice, raised in wrath.

And indeed she was in an ill humour; flushed as well, sitting up against her pillows, her blue eyes brilliant under her bandaged head. ‘There you are!’ she cried imperiously. ‘And where have you been, may I ask—leaving me to these silly girls? And where’s that foreigner? I thought he was here to look after me? Heaven knows I shall be expected to pay him a king’s ransom.’

Jenny perched beside the bed. ‘I was having a nap, Aunt Bess—I sat with you during the night and I was a bit sleepy. And Professor van Draak was here for most of the night too, he must have been tired after operating. What’s worrying you, Aunt?’

Miss Creed moved her head restlessly. ‘I want to go home,’ she stated. ‘I’m sick and tired of these people, all shouting at me to have an injection; I do not want to sleep.’

Jenny sighed soundlessly. ‘Look, dear, you’ve had an operation and of course you don’t feel quite the thing, and until you have a nice long sleep you won’t feel much better. We know you don’t feel sleepy, but the injection will send you off in no time…’

‘And what’s he doing here?’ interrupted Miss Creed, looking past Jenny’s shoulder.

The Professor had loomed up beside Jenny. He said now in his calm way: ‘I’ve come to give you your injection, Miss Creed—your niece has explained why you should have it.’ He nodded to Jenny to hold her Aunt’s arm firmly and slid the needle in without further ado.

‘I’m not accustomed to being treated in this manner,’ his patient began angrily. ‘I like my own way…’

‘And so do I,’ agreed the Professor pleasantly. ‘You will feel much more yourself when you wake up—tired and not inclined to do much, but much more comfortable in your head.’

‘Bah…’ began Aunt Bess, the lids falling over her tired eyes, ‘I don’t believe…’

Jenny heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Poor dear, she must be feeling ghastly,’ she said softly, and went on sitting where she was, overcome by tiredness once more. She yawned hugely, pushed up the sleeves of the ridiculous dressing gown and lifted her arms to sweep back her tide of hair, hanging all over the place. She would have gone to sleep then and there if the Professor hadn’t said in a cold voice, ‘Go back to your bed, Miss Wren. I see that you are still in need of sleep.’ His tone was so very icy that she opened her eyes to take a look at him. His face looked icy too, the brows drawn together in a frown.

‘Fallen down on the job, have I?’ she asked pertly, tiredness forgotten for the moment in a wish to annoy him. He had been up most of the night too, but he didn’t look as though he had; he was probably one of those iron-willed men who didn’t allow himself to feel tired or happy or sad or anything else… She opened her mouth to tell him so, but yawned instead and fell asleep, sitting upright, swaying a little.

The Professor looked more annoyed than ever. ‘Will you open the door, Nurse?’ he asked the student left to sit with Miss Creed, and swept Jenny up into his arms as though she were a tiresome child and carried her back down the covered passage, to put her gently on her bed and pull the blanket over her. Jenny, dead to the world, rolled over. If she had been awake to hear his: ‘Troublesome girl, to plague me so,’ uttered in a cold voice, she would most certainly have answered him with spirit. As it was she gave a delicate snore.

CHAPTER THREE

JENNT DIDN’T WAKE until almost four o’clock and then lay for a few minutes gathering her still sleepy wits. She supposed she should get up; she had had another three hours’ sleep and possibly, if her aunt was better, she would be able to go back to Dimworth later on in the evening.

But when she found her way to Aunt Bess’s room presently, she found Sister there once more, and as she stood in the doorway, wondering if she should go in or not, she was lifted neatly out of the way by the Professor, who took no notice of her at all, but went straight to the bedside, where he bent over Miss Creed, murmuring to Sister with an infuriating softness, so that Jenny, very worried by now, couldn’t hear a word. She was on the point of asking what was the matter when he spoke without turning his head. ‘Come in, Miss Wren. I have something to say to you.’

She went to stand by him, looking first at his face and then at her aunt’s, calm and unconscious. The look on her face caused him to say quickly: ‘No need to get alarmed; your aunt has had a relapse. We’re going to give her some more blood and change the electrolytes—I think that should put things right. She hasn’t been as quiet as she should.’

‘No danger?’ asked Jenny anxiously.

‘I think not.’ He gave her a considered look and she said at once:

‘May I stay here with her? I’ve had a good sleep, perhaps if I’m here when she comes round, I could persuade her to take things easy for a few days. She’s rather strong-willed.’

He smiled faintly. ‘Sister has had quite a difficult time of it this afternoon, I’m sure she will be glad of your help.’ He glanced across the bed to where Sister stood. ‘Perhaps Miss Wren could have a meal now and relieve you and nurse? I see no reason why she shouldn’t sit up with her aunt, she has had a good rest.’

Jenny’s charming bosom swelled with indignation. A good rest, indeed! Two periods of sleep of barely three hours on top of a night sitting up in a chair after driving down from London—the man wasn’t only made of iron himself, he expected everyone else to be the same. She was willing to stay up for an endless succession of nights for Aunt Bess, she conceded illogically, but he assumed too much. She was in two minds to refuse a meal, just to show her independence, but she would probably be famished if she did. She said, outwardly meek, ‘I’ll be glad to do that, Sister, if you agree to it.’

So she was given her meal and installed in a chair by Aunt Bess’s bed, primed with instructions and with the promise of relief for half an hour round about midnight. There wasn’t much chance to sit down, though, what with half-hourly observations and keeping an eye on the drips. Adjusting them, Jenny thought that when her aunt wakened, she would want to know about those and probably do her best to remove them. Marking up her charts neatly, she sincerely hoped not.

The evening passed quietly. Aunt Bess showed no sign of rousing. The Professor arrived again about nine o’clock, this time with Doctor Toms, examined his patient, nodded distantly to Jenny and went again.

‘And good riddance,’ declared Jenny as the door shut quietly behind him, and then jumped visibly as it opened again. ‘I heard that,’ declared the Professor in his turn.

The hospital was quiet; the nights usually were, for casualties went to Yeovil and the patients, for the most part, slept for the greater part of the night. The night staff, small but efficient, managed very well, calling up the day nurses if anything dire occurred. About midnight Night Sister put her head round the door. ‘Everything OK?’ She smiled in acknowledgement of Jenny’s nod and whispered: ‘Someone will relieve you in a few minutes,’ and went her soft-footed way, to be followed almost at once by a student nurse. Jenny ate a hurried meal and went back once more and the nurse, whispering that the patient hadn’t stirred, crept away.

It was two o’clock in the morning, just as Jenny was changing a drip, that her aunt opened her eyes and said in a normal voice ‘You should be in bed,’ and then: ‘I feel a great deal better.’

‘Good,’ said Jenny, ‘and so you will if you stay very quiet, Aunt Bess. And I’ve been to bed, so don’t bother about me.’ She smiled down at her aunt, trying to be matter-of-fact and casual, because Aunt Bess hated tears or a display of emotion. ‘How about a drink?’

She was giving it when the Professor came silently into the room, smiled at his patient and put out a hand for the charts.

He studied them carefully, grunted his approval and gave them back to Jenny without looking at her. ‘You’re better,’ he told Aunt Bess, ‘well enough for me to explain why you must lie quiet for a little longer.’ And he explained very simply, in a quiet voice before adding: ‘I should like you to go to sleep again now, but if you find that impossible will you lie still and relax, then there will be no need to give you another injection at present. Your niece will prop you up a little more, I think…’

‘Don’t you go to bed either?’ asked Aunt Bess.

‘Oh, certainly.’ He smiled again and strolled to the door. ‘I’ll be in to see you again after breakfast.’ His hand was on the door handle when he said: ‘Miss Wren, will you hand me the charts? There are one or two things I should like to alter. Sister will return them presently.’ He barely glanced at her and she supposed that she deserved it.

Aunt Bess went to sleep after that, remarking with some of her old tartness that Jenny and the Professor didn’t seem to be on the best of terms, and Jenny, sitting in her chair once more, trying to keep awake for the last hours of the night, couldn’t help but agree with her.

She was in bed and asleep very soon after the day staff came on duty, so that she missed Professor van Draak’s visits in the morning, and in the afternoon he brought Sister with him, just as though Jenny were a visitor, and waited pointedly until she had gone out of the room before he examined her aunt. However, he joined her presently in the corridor, reassured her as to her aunt’s condition, gave it as his opinion that she was now out of danger, and suggested that there was no need for Jenny to stay the night. ‘I shall be passing Dimworth as I return to Doctor Toms,’ he remarked without much warmth. ‘I could give you a lift.’

It would have been nice to have refused him, but she hadn’t much choice; there would be no one free at Dimworth to fetch her and she had no intention of telephoning Toby. She thanked him with a chilliness to equal his own and went back to sit with Aunt Bess.

Her aunt didn’t seem to mind her going—indeed, she began to give a great number of messages, repeated several times in a muddled fashion, and added a list as long as her arm of tasks to be done at Dimworth, falling asleep in the middle of it. Jenny kissed the tired, still determined face and went out to where the Professor would be waiting for her. He got out and opened the car door for her and she had barely settled in her seat before he was driving away.

Jenny, having difficulty with her safety belt, said crossly: ‘You don’t like me at all, do you, Professor?’ and was furious at his laugh.

It was a nasty laugh, full of mockery and the wrong kind of amusement, and his: ‘My dear girl, you flatter yourself, and me too—I have no interest in you at all, although to be quite honest I must admit that I haven’t much time for tart young women with red hair.’

‘I expect you pride yourself on being plain-spoken,’ said Jenny sweetly. ‘I call it rude. Just by way of interest, what kind of girl do you like?’

He allowed the car to slow and shot a sidelong glance at her. ‘Tall, calm, sweet-tempered—with good looks, of course; fair hair, blue eyes, a pleasant voice…’

‘A cardboard creature,’ cried Jenny, ‘and even if you did find her, she’d be a dead bore as a wife.’A thought struck her. ‘Have you found her? Perhaps you’re married.’

‘What an impertinent girl you are.’ He spoke quite pleasantly. ‘No, I am not married. When do you intend to visit your aunt again?’

A neat snub, if ever there was one. ‘I’ll drive over after breakfast. When do you return to Holland?’

‘Wishful thinking?’ he enquired. ‘When your aunt is recovered.’

Jenny shifted in her seat, uncomfortably aware that she hadn’t expressed nearly enough gratitude. ‘Oh no…well, I’d like to thank you for what you’ve done for Aunt Bess. I know you saved her life and I’m deeply grateful—I hope it hasn’t spoilt your holiday here.’

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