by Betty Neels
There was a letter by the first post in the morning. She had got the job. She did an excited little jig in the scrubbing-up room, begged permission to go to the office at once, and presented herself, rather breathless still, before the Principal Nursing Officer's desk.
Miss Mint heard her out, expressed regret that she should want to leave, but added in the same breath that it was a splendid thing to broaden one's mind when young and that should Lavinia wish to return to Jerrold's at some future date, she could be sure of a post-if there was one vacant-at any time. She finished this encouraging speech by observing that probably she had some holidays due to her, in which case she should be able to leave sooner.
Lavinia becamed at her. `Oh, Miss Mint, I have-a week. I knew you would understand about me wanting to go somewhere where I could have Peta with me ... I only hope I'll make a success of it.'
Miss Mint smiled. `I can think of no reason why you shouldn't,' she said encouragingly. `Come and see me before you go, Staff Nurse. I shall of course supply references when they are required.'
Lavinia went through the rest of the day in a daze, doing her work with her usual efficiency while she thought about her new job.
She spent a good deal of her lunch hour writing to accept the post, and only restrained herself by a great effort from writing to Peta too, but there was always the danger that their aunt would read the letter, and telephoning would be just as chancy; she should have thought of that sooner and arranged for her sister to telephone her on her way home from school. Now the news would have to wait until she paid her weekly visit on Saturday.
The days flashed by; she received particulars of her job, how she was to travel, and the day on which she was expected, as well as the gratifying news that her references were entirely satisfactory. She had a few pounds saved; the temptation to spend some of them on new clothes was very strong, so on her morning off she went along to Oxford Street.
It was a splendid day and the gay summer clothes in the shop windows exactly matched her mood; discarding all sensible ideas about practical rainwear, hard-wearing shoes and colours which wouldn't show the dirt, she plunged recklessly, returning to the Nurses' Home laden with parcels; new sandals-pretty pink ones to match the pink cotton dress and jacket she hadn't been able to resist, a pale green linen skirt with a darling little linen blouse to go with it, and as well as these, a long cardigan which happily matched them both. There was a dress too, pale green silk jersey, and as a sop to her conscience, a raincoat, coffee-coloured and lightweight. She laid everything out on her bed and admired them and tried not to think of all the money she had spent, cheering herself with the thought that she still had something tucked away and enough besides to get her through the first month in Amsterdam before she would be paid. And when Peta joined her, she would buy her some pretty dresses too; Aunt Gwyneth's ideas ran to the serviceable and dull for her niece; the two of them would scour Amsterdam for the sort of clothes girls of Peta's age liked to wear.
Her sister was waiting for her when she got to Cuckfield on Saturday morning and so was their aunt. There was no chance to talk at all until after lunch, and then only for a few minutes while Aunt Gwyneth was telephoning. `It's OK,' said Lavinia softly. `I've got the job-I'm going two weeks today. I'll tell Aunt when I come next week, but only that I'm going-nothing about you yet-and don't say anything, love, whatever you do.' She smiled at Peta. `Try not to look so happy, darling. Tell me about your exams-do you think you did well?'
She didn't stay as long as usual; her aunt had a bridge date directly after tea and was anxious for her to be gone, and a tentative suggestion that she might take Peta out for the evening was met with a number of perfectly feasible reasons why she shouldn't. That was the trouble with Aunt Gwyneth, thought Lavinia crossly, she never flatly refused anything, which made it very hard to argue with her. She wondered, as she went back to London, how her aunt wouldd take the news of her new job.
She thought about it several times during the ensuing week, but theatre was busy and there really wasn't much time to worry about anything else. Saturday, when it came, was another cloudless day. Lavinia, in a rather old cotton dress because she was starting on the business of packing her things, felt cheerful as she walked the short distance from the station to her aunt's house. And her aunt seemed in a good mood too, so that without giving herself time to get nervous, Lavinia broke her news.
It was received with surprising calm. `Let us hope,' said her aunt ponderously, `that this new venture will improve your status sufficiently for you to obtain a more senior post later on-it is the greatest pity that you did not take up nursing immediately you left school, for you must be a good deal older than the average staff nurse.'
Lavinia let this pass. It was partly true in any case, though it need not have been mentioned in such unkind terms. Everyone knew quite well why she had stayed at home when she had left school; her mother was alone and Peta was still a small girl, and over and above that, her mother hadn't been strong. She said now, schooling her voice to politeness: `I don't know about that, Aunt, but the change will be nice and the pay's good.'
`As long as you don't squander it,' replied Aunt Gwyneth tartly. `But it is a good opportunity for you to see something of the world, I suppose; the time willl come when I shall need a companion, as you well know. Peta will be far too young and lively for me, and I shall expect you, Lavinia, to give up your nursing and look after me. It is the least you can do for me after the sacrifices I have made for you both.'
Lavinia forbore from commenting that she had had nothing done for her at all; even holidays and days off had been denied her, and though she was a fair-minded girl, the worthy stockings, edifying books and writing paper she had received so regularly at Christmas and birthdays could hardly be classed as sacrifices. And her aunt could quite well afford to pay for a companion; someone she could bully if she wanted to and who would be able to an
ewer back without the chain of family ties to hold her back. She sighed with deep contentment, thinking of her new job, and her aunt mistaking her reason for sighing, remarked that she was, and always had been, an ungrateful girl.
Lavinia wasn't going to see Peta again bet'ore she left England, although she had arranged to telephone her at a friend's house before she went. She spent the week in making final arrangements, aided, and hindered too, by her many friends. They had a party for her on her last night, with one bottle of sherry between a dozen or more of them, a great many pots of tea and a miscellany of food. There was a great d°al of laughing and talking too, and when someone suggested that Lavinia should find herself a husband while she was in Holland, a chorus of voices elaborated the idea. `Someone rich-good-looking-both with an enormous house so that they couldd all come and stay...' The party broke up in peals of laughter. Lavinia was very popular, but no one really believed that she was likely to find herself such a delightful future, and she believed it least of all.
She left the next morning, after a guarded telephone talk with Peta and a noisy send-off from her friends at Jerrold's. She was to go by plane, and the novelty of that was sufficient to keep her interested until the flat coast of Holland appeared beneath them and drove home the fact that she had finally left her safe, rather dull life behind, and for one she didn't know much about. They began to circle Schiphol airport, and she sat rigid. Supposing that after all no one spoke English? Dutch, someone had told her, was a fearful language until you got the hang of it. Supposing that there had been some mistake and when she arrived no one expected her? Supposing the theatre technique was different, even though they had said it wasn't... ? She followed the other passengers from the plane, went through Customs and boarded the bus waiting to take her to Amsterdam.
The drive was just long enough to give her time to pull herself together and even laugh a little at her silly ideas. It was a bit late to get cold feet now, anyway, and she had the sudden hopeful feeling that she was going to like her new job very much. She looked about her eagerly as the bus churned
its way through the morning traffic in the narrow streets and at the terminal she did as she had been instructed: showed the hospital's address to a hovering taxi-driver, and when he had loaded her luggage into his cab, got in beside it. The new life had begun.
CHAPTER TWO
THE HOSPITAL WAS on the fringe of the city's centre; a large, old-fashioned building, patched here and there with modern additions which its three-hundred-year-old core had easily absorbed. It was tucked away behind the busy main streets, with narrow alleys, lined with tiny, slightly shabby houses, round three sides of it. On the fourth side there was a great covered gateway, left over from a bygone age, which was still wide enough to accommodate the comings and goings of ambulances and other motor traffic.
Lavinia paused to look about her as she got out of the taxi. The driver got out too and set her luggage on the pavement, said something she couldn't understand, and then humped it up the steps of the hospital and left it in the vast porch. Only when he had done this did he tell her how much she needed to pay him.
As she painstakingly sorted out the guldens he asked: `You are nurse?' and when she nodded, refused the tip she offered him. London taxi drivers seldom took tips from a nurse either, sometimes they wouldn't even accept a fareI perhaps it was a worldwide custom. She thanked him when he wished her good luck and waited until his broad friendly back had disappeared inside his cab before going through the big glass doors, feeling as though she had lost a friend.
But she need not have felt nervous; no sooner had she peered cautiously through the I)orter's lodge window than he was there, asking her what she wanted, and when he discovered that she was the expected English nurse, he summoned another porter, gave him incomprehensible instructions, said, just as the taxi driver had said: `Good luck,' and waved her into line behind her guide. She turned hack at the last moment, remembering her luggage, and was reassured by his cheerful: `Baggage is OK.'
The porter was tall and thin and walked fast; Lavinia, almost trotting to keep up with him, had scant time in which to look around her. She had an impression of dark walls, a tiled floor and endless doors on either side of the passages they were traversing so rapidly. Presently they merged into a wider one which in its turn ended at a splendid archway opening on to a vestibule, full of doors. The porter knocked on one of these, opened it and stood on one side of it for her to enter.
The room was small, and seemed smaller because of the woman standing by the window, for she was very large-in her forties, perhaps, with a straight back, a billowing bosom and a long, strong-featured face. Her eyes were pale blue and her hair, drawn back severely from her face, was iron grey. When she smiled, Lavinia thought she was one of the nicest persons she had ever seen.
`Miss Hawkins?' Her voice was as nice as her smile. `We are glad to welcome you to St Jorus and we hope that you will be happy here.' She nodded towards a small hard chair. 'Will you sit, please?'
Lavinia sat, listening carefully while the Directrice outlined her duties, mentioned off duty, touched lightly on uniforms, salary and Ihe advisability of taking Dutch lessons and went on: `You will find that the medical staff speak English and also some of the nurses also-the domestic staff, they will not, but there will be someone to help you for a little while. You will soon pick up a few necessary words, I feel sure.'
She smiled confidently at Lavinia, who smiled back, not feeling confident at all. Certainly she would make a point of starting lessons as soon as possible; she hadn't heard more than a few sentences of Dutch so far, but they had sounded like gibberish.
`You wish to live out, I understand,' went on the Directrice, `and that will be possible within a week or so, but first you must be quite certain that you want to remain with us, although we should not stand in your way if before then you should decide to return to England.'
`I was thinking of staying for a year,' ventured Lavinia, `but I'd rather not decide until I've been here a few days, but I do want to make a home for my young sister.'
Her companion looked curious but forbore from pressing for further information, instead she rang the bell on her desk and when a young woman in nurse's uniform but without a cap answered it, she said kindly:
`This is Juffrouw Fiske, my secretary. She will take you over to the Nurses' Home and show you your room. You would like to unpack, and perhaps it would be as well if you went on duty directly after the midday meal. Theatre B, major surgery. There is a short list this afternoon and you will have a chance to find your feet.'
Lavinia thanked her and set off with Juffrouw Fiske through more passages and across a couple of small courtyards, enclosed by high grey walls until they finally came to a door set in one of the-the back door, she was told, to the Home. It gave directly on to a short passage with a door at its end opening on to a wide hall in which was a flight of stairs which they climbed.
`There is a lift,' explained her companion, `but you are on the first floor, therefore there is no need.'
She opened a door only a few yards from the head of the stairs and invited Lavinia to go in. It was a pleasant room, tolerably large and very well furnished, and what was more, her luggage was there as well as a pile of uniform on the bed.
`We hope that everything fits,' said Juffrouw Fiske. `You are small, are you not?' She smiled widely. `We are quite often big girls. Someone will come and take you to your dinner at twelve o'clock, Miss Hawkins, and I hope that you will be happy with us.'
Nice people, decided Lavinia, busily unpacking. She had already decided that she was going to like the new job-she would like it even better when she had a home of her own and Peta with her. Of course, she still had to meet the people she was to work with, but if they were half as nice as those she had met already, she felt she need have no fears about getting on with them.
The uniform fitted very well. She perched the stiff little cap on top of her tidy topknot and sat down to wait for whoever was to fetch her.
It was a big, well-built girl, with ash blonde hair and a merry face. She shook hands with enthusiasm and said: 'Neeltje Haagsma.'
For a moment Lavinia wondered if she was being asked how she did in Dutch, but the girl put her right at once. `My name-we shake hands and say our names when we meet-that is simple, is it not?'
Lavinia nodded. 'Lavinia Hawkins. Do I call you juffrouw?'
Neeltje pealed with laughter. `No, no-you will call me Neeltje and I will call you Lavinia, only you must call the Hoofd Zuster, Zuster Smid.'
`And the doctors?' They were making for the stairs.
'Doctor-easy, is it not? and chirurgensurgeon, is it not?-you will call them Mister this or Mister that.'
Not so foreign after all, Lavinia concluded happily, and then was forced to change her mind when they entered an enormous room, hacked with nurses sitting at large tables eating their dinner and all talking at the tops of their voices in Dutch.
But it wasn't too bad after all. Neeltje sat her down, introduced her rapidly and left her to shake hands all round, while she went to get their meal; meat balls, a variety of vegetables and a great many potatoes. Lavinia, who was hungry, ate the lot, followed it with a bowl of custard, and then, over coffee, did her best to answer the questions being put to her. It was an agreeable surprise to find that most of her companions spoke such good English and were so friendly.
`Are there any other English nurses here?' she wanted to know.
Neeltje shook her head. `You are the first there are to be more, but not for some weeks. And now we must go to our work.'
The hospital might be old, but the theatre block was magnificently modern. Lavinia, whisked along by her friendly companion, peered about her and wished that she could tell Peta all about it; she would have to write a letter as soon as possible. But soon, caught up in the familiar routine, she had no time to think about anything or anyone other than her work. It was, as the Directrice had told her, a short list, and the technique was almost exactly the same as it had been in her own hospital, although now and again she was reminded th
at it wasn't quite the same-the murmur of voices, speaking a strange language, even though everyone there addressed her in English.
Before the list had started, Zuster Smid had introduced her to the surgeon who was taking the list, his registrar and his houseman, as well as the three nurses who were on duty. She had forgotten their names, which was awkward, but at least she knew what she was doing around theatre. Zuster Smid had watched her closely for quite a while and then had relaxed.
Lavinia, while not much to look at, was competent at her job; it would take more than working in strange surroundings to make her less than that.
The afternoon came to an end, the theatre was readied once more for the morning's work or any emergency which might be sent up during the night, and shepherded by the other girls, she went down to her supper and after that she was swept along to Neeltje's room with half a dozen other girls, to drink coffee and gossip-she might have been back at Jerrold's. She stifled a sudden pang of homesickness, telling herself that she was tired-as indeed she was, for no sooner had she put her head on her pillow than she was asleep.
