Part 3 (2/2)

Sister, we'll have him in theatre in half an hour, please.

Have you written him up, Penrose?

Yes?

Very well, check on that boy I've just done in theatre, will you and I

shall want you for this case.

Sister, is there anything worrying you or can you cope?

' ”Mr Cord's plaster has had to come off it's being replastered now I got Mr Tim ms to see to it.

Mr Briggs is.

I've sent for his wife.

The boy you operated upon during the night is satisfactory there's nothing else, sir.

' ”Good girl.

Lean heavily on Tim ms if you need help and if that's not enough, give the theatre a ring.

' ”Yes, sir.

Would you like coffee?

' ”Yes.

Mr van Diederijk will too, won't you, Sarre?

' The big man inclined his head gravely.

”We are not delaying Sister?

' The?

' she smiled at him, forgetting her rather pale unmade-up face and

screwed-up hair.

”No, not at all.

Mary, our ward maid, will have the tray ready, she's marvellous.

' She led the way down the ward and into her office, saw the two

gentlemen served and then excused herself.

The boy had to be got ready for theatre and over and above that, the routine work of the ward mustn't be halted. When she went back to her office presently for an ident.i.ty bracelet the two men had gone and presently the porters came and Alethea, sending her most senior student nurse with him, despatched the patient to theatre, before turning her attention to the work waiting for her.

She had the time now to wonder at the sudden and unexpected appearance of Doctor van Diederijk; had he taken up an appointment at Theobald's?

She frowned and shook her head as she adjusted the weights on Tommy Lister's pinned and plated leg, suspended from its Balkan Beam.

No; she would certainly have heard about that, and yet he knew Sir Walter.

Staying with him, perhaps?

Over in England for some seminar or other?

Now she considered the matter, he looked well-established, as it were, self-a.s.sured in a quiet way, and wearing the beautifully tailored garments which proclaimed taste and money, however discreetly.

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