Read Tabitha in Moonlight for Free Online Page B

ruthlessly into its severe bun, there was a pinkness in her cheeks which gave her eyes an added sparkle, although her greeting was sedate enough. She had already done her morning round, and primed with her mental list of plasters due for changing, extensions that needed adjusting, pains for investigation and several urgent requests from patients to go home, she advanced on Jimmy’s bed, where she stationed herself opposite Mr van Beek, handed him the patient’s board wordlessly, and waited while he read it.
    â€˜The plaster’s due off, I see, Sister.’ He glanced at Tommy Bates. ‘If Mr Bates would be good enough to do this, I will come back presently and have a look.’ He smiled at the jubilant look on Jimmy’s face. ‘That doesn’t mean that you’re going to get up and walk home—but we will have it X-rayed just once more, and if the result is what I expect it to be, then we’ll get you on your legs again. I’ll discuss it with Sister presently.’
    He turned away, leaving Jimmy grinning at Tommy Bates, who played rugger himself and was already wielding the plaster cutters with a masterly hand. Mr van Beek had reached the next bed when he asked over his shoulder:
    â€˜Where do you play, Jimmy?’
    â€˜Half-back, sir.’
    â€˜Ah yes—done during a tackle…’
    â€˜Rugger player yourself, sir?’ ventured Jimmy.
    Mr van Beek gave a half smile. ‘Er—yes, but some years ago, I’m afraid.’ He turned away and became instantly engrossed in a sub-capital fracture of femur which Mr Raynard had dealt with a few weeks previously, by means of a metal prosthesis. Old Mr Dale was a difficult patient, now he saw a new face to which he might grumble. Which he did at some length, while Mr van Beek listened with an impassive face and Tabitha and George Steele stood impassively by, listening to Mr Dale blackening their characters with no sign of discomfort, for they shared the view that an irascible old gentleman of well over seventy who had grumbled all his life was now too old to change his ways, and as neither of them had done any of the things of which they were accused, they didn’t allow him to worry them. Nor, it seemed, did Mr van Beek, for when the old gentleman had at last finished complaining, he said soothingly:
    â€˜Yes—we all appreciate how tiresome it is for you to stay in bed, Mr Dale, and how irksome it is for you not to be able to sit in a chair.I feel sure that it has been explained to you why this is. However, as it distresses you so much, I fancy we may be able to help.’ He looked at Tabitha, his grey eyes twinkling. ‘Gentle traction here, I think, Sister, don’t you?’ He removed his gaze to Mr Steele. ‘I’ll leave you to deal with that, if I may, Steele. A couple of weeks should suffice—that will bring us to a month after the operation, will it not? Time enough for the prosthesis to have become firm.’
    He turned back to the patient and explained, in a reasonable voice which brooked no contradiction, why the treatment was to be changed, and added: ‘And I should prefer it, Mr Dale, if you refrain from complaining about my colleagues without reason. Mr Raynard operated most successfully upon your hip, and, if you will allow it, your treatment is equally successful.’ He smiled, the gentle smile Tabitha liked to see. ‘You should join the team, not fight against it, you know.’
    They were at the next bed when they heard Mr Dale chuckle, and Tabitha, who had been envisaging the horrors of getting traction on the recalcitrant old man, smiled and caught Mr van Beek’s eye. Mr van Beek winked.
    Mr Prosser welcomed them with all the pleasure of a host inviting old friends in for a drink, and a great deal of time was lost while he and Mr van Beek discussed the nutritional value of fish and chips and the psychological effect of eating them from newspaper.