Staff Nurse in the Tyrol (2 page)

The porter was waiting for her to catch up. Beyond him through the wide doors she could see the street, the taxis sweeping up to collect their passengers and drawing swiftly away again. She would have to go, have to take the chance that Greta wasn’t somewhere searching for her. Where was that address? She opened her purse and began to look for the slip of paper. Her fingers tugged frantically at the contents, but it simply wasn’t there. What was she going to do? She looked back toward the various lines. Perhaps the inquiry clerk could speak English and tell her where her hospital was, but it looked as if a lot of other people were wanting their questions answered too.

The porter was waiting patiently. He had a taxi for her and the driver was watching her. They must be thinking she was very stupid. What a beginning to her brave new adventure! What a good thing her parents weren’t there to see the mess their daughter had got herself into. Slowly she became aware that someone was looking in her direction. It was seconds before she recognized where she had seen him before. She had rebuffed him last time, but he had been helpful in spite of it. She couldn’t afford to be standoffish now. She smiled at him and hoped that her discomfort wasn’t too apparent. To her very great relief he came toward her.

“Is mam’selle in difficulty again?” His smile was slightly mocking.

Sonia smothered the impulse to retort sharply. “My friend hasn’t turned up. Could you tell the driver for me where the hospital is, please?”

To her astonishment he looked at her rather hard and frowned. “The hospital? Is mam’selle not feeling well, then?”

Sonia glared at him and then softened it into a smile hastily. “Not ill. I’m a nurse and I’m going to work there.”

There was no doubting the mockery in his expression now. “How very interesting. I wonder how many of your patients can speak English. By the way, which hospital are you going to grace with your presence? There are several, you know.”

Sonia began to think she was living in a nightmare. “I had it written down on a slip of paper, but I can’t find it. We went by tram last time.”

“H’mm. That doesn’t sound like the hospital in Maximilian
-
strasse.”

“No, it wasn’t that one. I know, because Greta was going to take me there as well, only we didn’t have time.”

He looked at her thoughtfully. “If only you had gone by train I would have said it was the one at Solbad Hall, run by the nuns.”

“There were some nuns, but there were sisters as well on some of the wards,” Sonia said timidly.

“What did you say your friend’s name was?” he asked abruptly.

Sonia stared at him. “Greta Helptmann,” she said slowly.

The man laughed, but there was no merriment in it. “I might have known it.” He handed some coins to the porter and spoke to him rapidly in German.

Sonia watched in bewilderment while her cases were put into the taxi. Then with a little bow he gestured toward the back seat. “If you would like to get
in...”

Sonia obeyed with the feeling that the situation was completely out of her control. But she was too tired to protest. The sleep she hadn’t had on her journey was beginning to press down on her, making her brain feel like cotton wool. She was almost beyond surprise when he climbed in beside her and slammed the door. He leaned forward and spoke to the driver.

The taxi started off with a leap that jolted them into a friendliness that neither of them felt.

“You needn’t worry. I’m not kidnapping you. That’s not my line. But if you’re going to work at the same hospital as Greta, I might as well introduce myself. I’m Michael Bradbury, surgeon, at the Krankenhaus St. Anton out beyond Berg-Isel, which I presume is the hospital you want.”

Sonia drew a deep breath. “You must be the English surgeon Greta was telling me about.” Was it only her imagination that he looked embarrassed and angry?

“For my sins, I expect I am.” He looked at her more closely. “Greta didn’t return the compliment. What is your name?”

For some absurd reason she was reluctant to give it. “Sonia Allison,” she said at last.

“You look like a Sonia,” he said unexpectedly. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Shall we drop the luggage at the hospital, leave a message for Greta who probably had to change her off-duty at the last moment, and have lunch?”

Sonia hesitated. She couldn’t fathom why he attracted her and infuriated her in the same breath. Perhaps it was because he appeared so sure of himself, and it had the effect of making her feel the exact opposite.

He smiled, and it was a strangely warm one. “Please say yes.”

For some reason this made her laugh. “Yes, thank you very much. I am hungry,” she admitted frankly. “Breakfast seems such a long time ago.”

“Didn’t you have something on the train?”

“By the time I had worked out the right word and the price, the attendant had reached the other end of the train.”

“It’s far quicker if you just point at what you want, then hold out a handful of small change and say
danke schon
rather helplessly. They’re so flattered by your two German words and the fact that you’ve used them that they rush to your assistance.”

“I’ll remember that next time.” She began to watch for familiar landmarks.

She could see the red trams in front of them leaping along the track like toys. There was Mont Isel ahead and soon there would be a glimpse of the statue of Andreas Hofer. Above were the wooded slopes of the hills rising toward Igls and Lans.

“Why have you come to nurse in Austria of all places?” He flung the question at her.

She turned and looked at him curiously. “I might be tempted to ask you the same thing. I wanted to work in a hospital that was as different as possible from the ones at home. Everything seemed so much more exciting here.”

“How very young you are! Just because it’s done in a different language do you expect to find caring for the sick any different, the work any easier?”

Was he teasing or was he angry with her? Sonia wasn’t sure. “It isn’t that,” she said defensively. “I think there is something of the old spirit of nursing here and it seems more real.”

“Why?”

“Perhaps seeing the nuns on the wards in their white habits has something to do with it.”

“Now you’re being childish. Why should it be any different from anywhere else? Pain and sickness are the same whether you say them in German, English, or any other language you fancy.”

“I think nurses are needed more.” She felt she was losing the argument.

He laughed bitterly at that. “You’re right. They’re needed desperately. So much is needed: new buildings, money for drugs, new equipment. They have so little and they work so hard.”

“Is that why you’ve come?” she asked softly.

His handsome features seemed to harden. “Perhaps it’s the only way I know of doing things.” He seemed to have withdrawn into a world of his own.

Sonia was silent. They had turned off the main road now and were passing swiftly through the woods. The cool shade laid a gentle hand on them after the harsh brilliance of the sunshine they had left. The scent of the pines was as tangy as she had remembered it, and she could see the broad forest trails winding between the tree-trunks. Perhaps tomorrow she could retrace her steps where she and Joan had walked. The woods ended abruptly. Ahead of them were the green lawns of the hospital, the soft gray stone of the older buildings contrasting with the severe, white stucco of the new wing. Everywhere there were flowers that seemed so symbolic of the Austrian way of life.

With a scrunch of gravel the taxi drew up by the main entrance. Michael Bradbury said something to the taxi-driver who got out and began to unload the luggage.

“Stay where you are. I’ll leave a message with the porter in Inquiry for Greta, and then we can see about lunch.”

Sonia leaned her head gratefully against the back of the seat. She had to admit there were advantages in being looked after. She would remember to be her own independent self tomorrow after she had had some sleep. It would be easier then. She was only half awake when he reappeared.

“Don’t spoil our lunch by falling asleep now,” he protested.

Sonia gazed at him drowsily. “I’ll wake up when we get there. I’m just being lazy.”

He snorted. “Make the most of it, then. You won’t have time at St. Anton. It’s no place for idlers.”

There was a brief sparkle in her eyes. “That’s one thing I’m not. It’s one reason why I’m here.”

Again she was aware of that slow, considering look she was beginning to wonder if that handsome face was a mere facade, which hid a man of far grimmer purpose than his first appearance implied. He nodded either in agreement or approval and sat beside her in companionable silence.

The taxi had returned to the main road now and was heading back toward the city.

“Where are we going?” she asked. She didn’t really mind. She was quite content to go on sitting here as long as it was necessary.

“Oh, just to a little restaurant in Maria-Theresienstrasse. It has good food and good service. There’s usually some music as well. I thought it would make a pleasant reintroduction to Innsbruck for you. You did say that you had been here before?”

“Yes, we were here in June.”

“We?”

“I came with another nurse.”

“And you didn’t win her to the cause, eh?”

Sonia flushed. His teasing tone seemed to bring back her shyness. “She was engaged to be married.”

“And you were not?”

“No.” Her tone was curt.

He put a conciliatory hand on her arm. There was something curiously vital about his touch that made her feel uneasy. It was as if she had been brought into brief contact with some elemental force.

“Don’t sound sorry about it. At least your strength of purpose won’t be weakened by beseeching letters begging you to return home. Well, here we are.”

The driver opened the door for Sonia. She stepped out stiffly. Oh dear, why had she ever said she’d come? She could have had a snack with Greta and probably been in bed by now. She couldn’t remember when she had felt so utterly weary. It left her feeling oddly defenseless and yet keyed up as if she had been sipping some rare wine.

Michael paid the driver and slipped a hand under her elbow. “Come on, mam’selle. Let us eat.”

“Why do you pretend to be a foreigner?”

“I don’t and I’m not, at least not any more than the average Englishman, who is a mixture of races whether he admits it or not. But since I’ve been here I’ve had to learn a smattering of many languages. I suppose I tend to retain a few words of each in my everyday vocabulary.”

“Have you just returned from England?”

“What a curious little creature you are! No, I’ve not been back to England, and there is nothing that would tempt me to return. I’ve been having a holiday in Spain, if you must know.” He pushed open the door of the restaurant for her.

The rush of delicious tantalizing smells that greeted them reminded Sonia of how hungry she was.

When Michael spoke to him in German, the waiter bowed and led them to a table near the window. Sonia sat down gratefully and looked around with interest; Mirrored walls picked up the reflections of flowers, gay table cloths, the bright colors of the women, and seemed to create an impression of fantasy, of something not quite of this world.

Michael held out a menu to her. “What would you like?”

Sonia ran her eyes down the alarming array of foreign dishes. “I’ll leave it to you, if you don’t mind. My phrase book leaves out all the words I need.”

“That’s a cowardly excuse, but I’ll accept it this once. If you choose to live in a country not your own, the least you can do is to learn its language. Or are you one of these people who bring their country with them like a snail in its shell and set up a way of life no different from the one they left behind?”

Sonia moved the cutlery in front of her restlessly. “I don’t think so. I enjoy soaking up new impressions, but it takes me a little time to learn a new language. I’m shy about trying out words because I’m sure I’m mispronouncing them.”

“Don’t let that stop you. The Austrians will correct your mistakes ever so gently and politely and will take you to their hearts for trying to speak to them in their own tongue.” He surveyed the menu dispassionately. “We’ll try th
e
plat du
jour.
It looks very promising. Wine? To drink to your new country. I suggest the white wine. It’s not as rough as the red and is more refreshing on a day like this. You’ll find they serve it in tumblers, but its iced and very
pleasant ...
if you don’t have more than one glass.”

Sonia laughed. “So we discovered. We forgot we weren’t just having pop.”

He nodded. “So you know, then. I don’t need to instruct you further.”

They took the tram back to Berg-Isel and just missed their connection because they had stopped to look at a new block of apartments. So they started to walk, and the road seemed so hot and dusty that not even the glimpses of the River Inn could refresh them. They were more tired than they realized. It seemed hours before they came through the last of the trees and the hospital buildings lay in front of them.