“Whew! Isn’t it a scorcher, I’m nearly frizzled!” Janet Ling burst into her friend’s room without ceremony and flung herself across the bed. “I’ve only just come off duty, got myself caught up in a ‘to-do’ with a nurse who fainted from the heat. Can’t think why she had to wait until I was about to go off before throwing a faint, still it would have been worse if it happened in the middle of his lordship’s round this morning!” Janet laughed cheerfully. “That would have been the last straw, wouldn’t it, although no doubt he has a natty manner with swooning females, and Pamela Long is a pretty piece of goods.” She pushed herself up into a sitting posture and scrutinized her friend. “You look all in yourself, what’s the matter, darling, and you’re frowning at me as if I were the great Raynal himself!” she teased.
“I’m not frowning at you, I’m frowning at my own morbid sentiments,” Kay protested. “But I didn’t know I was looking as grim as you suggest; I am tired too and this heat’s nearly got me down.” She rose to her feet and pushed the window open wider. “There really isn’t a breath of air, just look at those black clouds rolling up in the sky; I expect we shall have a storm before the evening’s out.”
“Perhaps that’ll clear the air, in more senses of the word than one,” Janet retorted meaningly. “Come on, Kay, confess to your girl-friend that you were moping over that stupid affair with Raynal. It’s silly of you to take it to heart, it doesn’t matter at all, these things never do; they assume alarming proportions when they happen, then later on one wonders how one could have been so idiotic as to mind. You’ve looked a bit like a thundercloud yourself ever since you had words with him. Like the storm, it’ll blow over and whatever you may think and whatever you say, you must admit that he never bears malice. On those occasions when there’s been a terrific row with a nurse about something, he’s been as sweet as pie to her the next day.”
“That’s just it, I don’t particularly want him to be ‘as sweet as pie’ to me, his brand of charm doesn’t work in my case, that suave, silky manner is one of the things I dislike most about him.” There was a restrained violence in Kay’s usually cool voice.
“Now, don’t get hot about the collar,” Janet spoke cajolingly. “You say you don’t want him to be nice to you, but you’ll find it tough going if he takes it into his head to be upstage and stands on his dignity. You can’t have it both ways,” she ended practically.
“I don’t really care if he’s nice or not. The only thing I care about at present is getting away from here, away forever, I mean,” Kay amended.
“Steady on, darling, you’ve got things out of their right perspective.” Janet rose from the bed and walking to the window, slid her arm through her friend’s. “I’m going to prescribe for you ... a dose of the gay lights and soft music of the West End, and a couple of strong cocktails to help you on your way ... alternatively you can stay here and have a nice drink of Enos! Now, which is it to be?” she queried laughingly and turning from the window, she picked up a tumbler from the shelf above the wash-basin and stood dramatically waving the glass in one hand, the bottle of fruit salts in the other. “You can have your choice, only if it’s to be cocktails, I intend to be with you on the party, if Enos...” She grimaced as she replaced tumbler and bottle. “If Enos, you drink alone!”
Kay seemed to relax under the influence of the other girl’s raillery and turning towards Janet with her customary calmness, she spoke with quiet determination. “You’re quite right, Janet, I’m a fool to worry about that man, I should not have let myself get her up and now you’ve made me see reason, I’m all in favor of your idea ... your idea of cocktails and getting out of this place.” She smiled and the smile brightened her pale features and brought the light back to her brown eyes. “Go and change and map out a plan for the evening, while you’re dressing. I’ll leave it all to you. I think it’s a lovely idea, it was just what I was needing... anyway we ought to celebrate...” “I’m glad to celebrate, but I don’t really need an excuse, anyway what have we got to celebrate?”
“You forgetful creature!” Kay exclaimed. “Why, we’re going to celebrate Robin’s letter, of course.”
“Of course!” Janet echoed. “What a pig I am not to have remembered! Everything has been just too much for me today but we’ll celebrate all right—two drinks instead of one—and yes, an extra one on top of that just to wish luck to the absent Robin.”
Half an hour later, the two friends, dressed in their summer frocks, hurried from the hospital.
“Come on, Kay, there’s our bus queue,” Janet said as she guided her friend towards the long, straggling queue of people waiting at the curb. “It’s a miserable way to begin an outing but there’s no help for it, perhaps we shan’t have to wait long,” she added, but her tone was doubtful. “My feet are the last word in discomfort and these hot pavements are just about the end; I feel as though I’ve got elephant’s hoofs, or whatever it is that elephants have!”
“I don’t feel as though I shall be able to stand much longer either, and two buses have already gone by, full up. I suppose,” there was a shade of hesitancy in Kay’s tone. “I suppose it would be a fearful extravagance to have a taxi?”
“Who dares to suggest that a taxi is an extravagance on a night like this?” A male voice broke in and turning abruptly Kay was both pleased and surprised to find Martin Grig at her side. “Even my Scots thrift deserts me when my feet are aching and the inner man is calling out to be fed. Let’s get cracking and pick up the first ‘curb-crawler,’ otherwise the rest of these folk may get the same idea and all the taxis will be snapped up. I’m going down Piccadilly-way and will drop you two off wherever you like.” He stepped forward as he was speaking and hailed a passing cab, and helped the two girls inside. Leaning forward, he gave a direction to the driver and then seated himself on the small seat opposite his companions. They made a pleasing picture, he decided mentally, both so attractive and yet so different, Kay Somers with her red-gold hair, her tall, slender body and her rather autocratic bearing, and Janet Ling, so dark and petite, eyes as brown as her hair, her face full of animation and sparkle even in repose. He wondered if perhaps she had Latin blood in her, she was most unusually vivacious and colorful for an English girl and this notion was accentuated by the deep sun-tan on her smooth clear skin.
“Don’t stare so, Mr. Grig, you’re making me feel quite embarrassed and it takes a lot for anyone to embarrass me!” Janet expostulated. “I suppose I don’t look as tidy and respectable as I do in uniform?” she queried gaily.
“Hoots, girl, I was just thinking how bonny you both looked. As for being tidy and respectable, I feel this grey flannel suit ... a relic of my student days ... doesn’t do you justice, but it was so hot tonight, I couldn’t face my best dark suiting, even for the West End.”
Lighting a cigarette he sat back and smiled at Kay. “Well, young woman, you gave me a shock when you flew off the handle with Raynal this morning ... and I’m sufficiently inquisitive to wonder what happened after he so tactfully got me out of the way.”
“To be truthful, I completely blotted my copy book,” Kay confessed. “Anyway, please let’s forget it for the present; candidly it’s still most uncomfortably on my conscience.”
“No good having a conscience in hospital; believe me, I could cheerfully have told Raynal this morning to go to hell, when he shooshed me out of your office as if I were a naughty schoolboy. Och, but he’s a grand person to work with and I’ll be more than satisfied if I’m ever half the surgeon that he is ... nor can he give me so many years either.” Martin Grig ended in a tone of genuine admiration.
“I say, where’s this vehicle taking us?” Janet asked with a quick change of subject. “You are so engrossed with the old hospital and its ways, that you seem to be ignoring the fact that Kay and I have come out to forget the wretched place and to enjoy ourselves for a change. We had made up our minds to drown our sorrows in drink ... you know, two rounds ... one on Kay and one on me...” She laughed gaily. �
��Then, we were going to have a spot of food, going to do ourselves proud and feed at one of the more select of Soho’s restaurants. Neither of us felt like facing the staff dining hall this evening.” She ended in explanation.
“I’m rather in like case,” Martin replied. “Can’t we join forces and have a meal together, that is unless...” he broke off hesitantly.
“Unless you remind us too much of hospital, I suppose you were going to say?” Janet smiled at him mischievously.
“I wasn’t going to say anything of the sort,” Martin protested. “I just wondered if perhaps I’d be in the way.” He turned towards Kay. “What do you think of my idea? I suspect that you’ll have the casting vote, I have an idea that Janet does what you want both outside the hospital as well as in.”
“Thanks very much.” Kay spoke doubtfully. “If you are sure...”
“Of course I’m sure,” Martin interrupted. “You must come and dine with me. I belong to a club that’s got a fine terrace where we can have dinner out of doors, now how does that appeal to you? I usually go there when I’m alone because I nearly always run into a pal, it’s much frequented by the profession ... the medical profession, I mean ... but otherwise I think you’ll like it,” he ended laughingly.
“That sounds lovely.” Janet spoke eagerly. “Kay, it would be heaven to feed outside and not to have to go on to a stuffy Soho interior.”
“It sounds like a dream,” Kay agreed. “But are you sure that we shan’t be a nuisance?” she addressed Martin in a more serious manner.
“A nuisance?” Martin echoed. “I’ve never before heard two pretty girls called a nuisance ... I consider myself a proud and lucky man.”
Kay felt that she and Janet were the lucky ones, as they seated themselves at a table on a wide terrace and were served with delicious cold food and drank a well-iced fruit-cup. With the trees in the near distance, and the roar of London’s traffic subdued, she felt that she was no longer in the metropolis. The cool of the late evening, the luxury of her surroundings and the pleasant, easy conversation of her companions, made her forget the difficulties of the day and she felt relaxed and contented again, with the happy thought of Robin and all that he was going to mean to her, as a beautiful backcloth to the stage she was creating of her future. She recalled her brief discussion of Robin with Janet and for a moment a tiny cloud of doubt marred the serenity of her outlook, but Janet surely couldn’t be right in imagining that time could have changed their affection. There wasn’t even the faintest chance of anything altering her relationship with Robin; why, dear old Robin ... there just never could be, there was a deeply rooted friendship and an unselfconscious intimacy, which their long years of childhood and adolescence had nurtured. She had been most desperately lonely when Robin had first gone abroad, and it had seemed that the sun had disappeared from the heavens for good, but time had helped to fill the void and then her work, so hard and uncongenial, had completed the cure. But in the remote fastnesses of her mind, Robin was always there and although she had never actually admitted the fact, not even to herself, she had never been able to imagine a future without him. All these hard years, she had cherished a hope that one day he would come back to marry her and now that hope had become a reality. She clasped her hands tightly together in her lap as though she would keep her happiness a prisoner within her palms.
“The wind appears to be getting up, I’m afraid that we may get rain after all.” Martin Grig’s prosaic words broke into her reverie.
“We need not go inside yet all the same, need we?” Kay asked. “It’s so lovely out here, the first time I’ve been cool all day, I’ve enjoyed it so much.” The contentment of her expression indicated the truth of her statement, and Janet, glancing up at her, thought that she looked unusually Madonna-like and serene.
“This has turned out to be an even finer celebration than we’d hoped,” Janet addressed Kay, then turned in explanation to Martin Grig. “You didn’t know, did you? We are soon going to lose Kay, she is leaving to get married.”
“Going to get married!” Martin Grig exclaimed in barely disguised surprise. “But that is marvellous news! My heartiest congratulations, Sister!” He lifted his glass towards her. “All the best of luck! You’ll be a great loss to the hospital, and Raynal will miss you too,” he added as an after-thought.
“A good miss, I should think.” Kay acknowledged his toast with her own glass and smiled her response.
“It won’t be so easy to get anyone to run Surgical Two as well as you do...” He continued, voicing his thoughts aloud, then went on: “Tell me, Sister, when is the wedding to be?”
“I’m getting married during my summer leave, at the end of the month. Of course I’ll be coming back for a bit, until Matron is fixed up.”
“Och, girl, that’s grand news. I’m glad to know you won’t be forgetting us altogether. Where are you going to settle, or isn’t that decided yet?”
“At Thorndene—in Surrey—it’s only just over an hour’s run from town. It’s near my own home, I know every inch of the place—my fiancé is taking over his father’s farm there.”
“Can you imagine Kay a farmer’s wife?” Janet laughed. “I’m sure she’ll be a wizard at producing sterile milk and will probably insist on milking the cows in rubber gloves!” She turned to her friend, a puzzled frown crinkling her smooth brow. “What do you do on a farm, Kay? I’d be completely lost and the very sight of a cow scares me stiff!” She broke off as a low rumble of thunder threatened in the distance. “Storms scare me stiff, too!” she ended with an exaggerated shudder.
Further conversation was interrupted as the waiter approached the table and handed Martin a note. With a murmured apology, he read it and then rose to his feet. “Sorry, girls ... I’ll have to hurry you, I’ve got to get back to hospital, Raynal wants me.”
While Kay and Janet collected their bags and gloves, Martin settled the account, then followed them from the restaurant. There was little time for conversation until they were again seated in a taxi on their way back, then it was Janet who broke the silence. “Mr. Raynal seems to be a perpetual menace today, he’s even managed to curtail our outing.” A closer crack of thunder caused her to add truthfully: “Not that I really mind, at least we’d finished dinner, and if there is going to be a storm I’d feel much happier in my own room ... but it’s been a marvellous evening, a real thrill ... thanks a lot,” she added sincerely.
“Yes, it was lovely,” Kay joined in. “We ought to be thankful you weren’t called back earlier, but what a life a surgeon has!” She sighed. “At least we have regular off-duty hours.”
“And we don’t get re-called at all odd hours of the day and night,” Janet interposed thankfully. “You surgeons ought to join a union!”
The quadrangle clock was striking nine as Martin paid the taxi and the two girls mounted the steps leading to the stone-flagged hall of the hospital. Rain was now falling in heavy thundery drops and they had scarcely gained the shelter of the doorway before Peter Raynal approached them.
“Is Mr. Grig with you?”
“Yes, sir, he’s just paying off the taxi,” Janet explained. “He knows you want him, he got your message at his club.”
“Yes, I was lucky to get hold of him!” he spoke abruptly, almost with annoyance.
Kay, glancing quickly at Raynal, was surprised by his impatient manner. It was barely half an hour since they’d had his message ... surely no case could be as urgent as that? ... He was usually so calm ... it was odd to see the obvious restlessness he was displaying at these few moments of delay, while Martin paid off the taxi.
As Janet and Kay prepared to walk away, Peter Raynal laid a detaining hand on Janet’s arm. “Wait a moment, I owe you both an apology ... curtailing your evening.. He broke off abruptly as Martin ran up the steps and joined them. “Grig ... sorry to call you back, but you’ll have to assist with an emergency ... I’ve got to get off at once ... It’s Christine ... they apparently phoned through to Mrs. Raynal from t
he school; the child’s had an accident, they want me down at once.”
Peter Raynal, Surgeon Page 3
