Ring for the Nurse Read Online Free PDF Page B

Robinson returned Felicity ’ s smile. “ I fancy he ’ ll be very trying, but there, the poor laddie, we won ’ t have to mind that! ”
    Felicity choked back a groan. ‘ Poor laddie! ’ How awful! How could Sister refer to Guy Brenton like that. It was typical of the way her mind worked; fit and well, he had been the all-important Honorary Surgeon, the most respected of persons; as a patient He immediately became in her mind nothing but an ailing child. Felicity could only pray that at least in his presence Sister would make a supreme effort to smother that maternal feeling. “ I expect we ’ ll manage, ” Felicity commented briefly.
    “ Now for this morning ’ s arrangements, ” Sister Robinson went on briskly. “ Mr. MacFarlayne from the Memorial Hospital it attending Mr. Brenton—and incidentally will take over the ward during his illness. He wants the case in the theatre at nine, he is setting and plastering the arm and further X-rays will be taken in the theatre. See to the preparations for taking the patient down. Mr. MacFarlayne will do the ward round as soon as he has finished operating. ”
    A few minutes later, Felicity with some trepidation entered the small private room at the end of the ward, but Guy Brenton was still in a semi-conscious condition and was certainly not aware of anything going on around him. It was an odd sensation for Felicity to look down on those immobile features. She felt that it was the first time she had seen Guy Brenton properly, certainly the first time she had really studied his face; she had merely accepted the impression that he was attractive without the temerity—or perhaps the opportunity—to consider him at leisure. Although the lips were drained of colour, his skin appeared tanned against the dead white of the pillow, and his dark hair, usually so carefully brushed back, had fallen across his forehead. Although the lids were lowered, Felicity could picture the deep brown eyes which could be so scathing in their glance and the firm, mobile lips which rarely smiled, ye t when they did so changed the whole expression of his face. A streak of light through the half-drawn curtains outlined the strong contour of chin and jaw which in their stillness could have been carved of stone. With an instinctive gesture, Felicity smoothed back the hair from the high forehead with gentle fingers, but as he stirred uneasily beneath her touch, she quickly dropped her hand, and with an almost furtive movement hid it palm upward behind her back. What had possessed her to do that? Angry with herself, she turned away and busied herself preparing the pre-ana e sthetic injection. Why on earth should she have felt so guilty about a simple and quite natural impulse, she chided herself, a sympathetic touch of her fingers which she had bestowed upon her patients more times than she could number. After all, this man was her patient and she ’ d got to make up her mind to treat him as she would any other, it was absurd to get herself all tied up in emotional knots.
    With the Irishman O ’ Brien ’ s help, Guy Brenton ’ s inert body was lifted to the trolley and wheeled to the theatre. The routine was familiar, Felicity had done it all so many times before. Diana Weste, Staff Theatre Nurse, had never dashed out quite so quickly to assist to wheel a stretcher into the anaesthetic room, she usually left that to a more junior nurse, but today no one was allowed to forestall her.
    “ Well? ” she stooped to whisper to her friend. “ What ’ s happening ... are you to nurse him ... are they getting him moved? Go on, tell me? How did old Robinson take it? Is she in a flap ... the story soon got round hospital, everyone knows now, even Theatre Sister is as rattled as if she were preparing to receive royalty! ” Diana glanced down at Guy Brenton ’ s unconscious form. “ Goodness, he ’ s handsome, nicer asleep than awake, I wouldn ’ t mind finding that sort of face on my pillow! ”
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