a little while, they all bade her goodbye. Adelaide watched them go with regret; it seemed unlikely that she would meet them again.
The professor made no attempt to go with them. Adelaide hesitated.
‘I must go and help the others; I’m not doing my share. It was delightful meeting your family, Professor.’
She was about to turn away when an attractive young woman put her hand on the professor’s arm. Adelaide looked at her. This must be Margriet. At once, and irrationally, she disliked her. Freule Keizer was extremely good-looking, with blonde hair and blue eyes and a magnificent figure; she was dressed with the simplicity of wealth with a sparkling bandbox finish that caused Adelaide to put an involuntary hand up to tidy away the curly wisps escaping from her cap. She was suddenly aware of the lemonade stains on her apron and its deplorably creased condition.
Margriet spoke. ‘There you are, Coenraad. I wondered where you had got to.’ She gave Adelaide a cursory glance. ‘Are you coming?’
The professor had apparently not heard her.
‘Sister Peters, I should like you to meet Freule Keizer.’ He turned to the girl beside him. ‘Margriet, Sister works with me in the clinic.’
The young women shook hands and smiled politely. Margriet’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
‘How awful for you, having to work.’ She made it sound like an insult.
‘But I enjoy it, you know,’ Adelaide protested. She was struggling to overcome her dislike of Margriet, who looked astonished and turned to the professor.
‘You don’t know how lucky you are. You’ve at last got a nurse who is wedded to her work.’ Her tone made it clear that work was all that Adelaide could hope to wed. Her glance rested on Adelaide’s hair and she allowed her beautiful eyebrows to arch slightly. She smiled. ‘Such unusual hair! You must find it a great drawback.’ The professor, listening idly, heard Margriet’s last remark.
‘How bad your English has become, Margriet. I don’t think that drawback is the word you mean.’ He sounded reproving.
Margriet laughed—she had a charming laugh.
‘Do forgive me, Sister—there, I have forgotten your name already. It’s quite true, my English is shocking; that’s because I dislike speaking it, I suppose.’ She turned to the professor. ‘I must go and say goodbye to Lisette and Paula. Shall I wait for you in the car?’ She didn’t wait for him to reply, but said goodbye to Adelaide with cold charm, and slipped away.
‘I must go too, Professor.’ Adelaide looked pink and was breathing rather quickly, struggling to regain her temper.
The professor said, ‘Of course, Sister, but don’t forget that we shall all be meeting in my office in an hour’s time to open our presents.’
When Adelaide got to the office it was just striking six o’clock. She was the last one to arrive and found Zuster Wilsma and the other nurses grouped around the desk, laughing and talking with the doctors.
The professor looked up as she came in. ‘Good, now we can begin,’ he cried, and pushed a pile of gaily coloured parcels in front of the youngest nurse. ‘You first, Nurse Eisink.’
They all watched as she undid each parcel and admired the contents in turn. Zuster Steensma followed, her homely face alight with pleasure, and then Zuster Wilsma, and lastly Adelaide. As she unwrapped the first package she asked:
‘But how can I thank the givers if I don’t know who they are?’
Dr Beekman laughed. ‘That’s the whole idea, Sister. You mustn’t know. Remember St Nicolaas gave them to you, and thank him.’
She did this, piling up the pretty trifles in front of her. The last two parcels were elegantly wrapped and tied with ribbons. She opened the flat box first, and gazed with delight at the fur-lined suede gloves inside.
‘They’re beautiful!’ she exclaimed, and tried them on. They fitted perfectly. She looked around at the faces of the others watching her; it was impossible to tell from their expressions which of them had given her the gloves. ‘Thank you, St Nicolaas,’ she said, and added, ‘I can’t think who they are from.’
She opened the last parcel. It was quite small, and she almost dropped it when she saw what it was, wondering who could possibly afford to give her Madame Rochas perfume. Perhaps all the staff had put together. She took a blissful sniff, and thanked the Saint with a fervour which left her audience in no doubt as to her delight.
The two men opened their parcels together amidst a good deal of laughing and joking from the nurses, and by the time they had finished it was almost seven o’clock. The doctors got ready to leave, Dr Beekman reminding Zuster Wilsma, who was on duty until the night staff came on, that he was on call. No sooner had they gone than Adelaide sent the two junior nurses off duty. They lived in Amsterdam, and were looking forward to an evening at home with their families, and more presents. Zuster Wilsma rammed the last of the paper and string into the wastepaper basket; she looked forlorn. Adelaide remembered that she lived in Amsterdam too.
‘You live in Amsterdam, don’t you, Staff Nurse? You go home too. I’ve nothing to do for the rest of the evening.’ Her Dutch was clumsy, but Zuster Wilsma understood her and grinned with delight. She shook hands with Adelaide and tore off as fast as she could go. It seemed very quiet when she had gone. Adelaide sat down and looked at her presents again, wondering who had given them.
It was almost eight o’clock when she heard the ambulance bell. She went quickly to Casualty, switching on the powerful light over the couch and opening the door for the ambulance men. The blue flasher shone on the man hurrying towards her with a blanketed bundle in his arms. He laid his burden gently on the couch and took the blanket away. The little girl looked about two years old; she was unconscious, her little face the colour of skimmed milk. Even as Adelaide reached for the oxygen mask the blue tinge deepened, and the harsh breathing became more agonisingly difficult. Adelaide pushed an airway gently between the tiny teeth and slipped the catheter attached to the sucker down it. She switched on the motor, which made a reassuring purr. While she had been working, she had been aware of the mother standing close by. Now, with the essentials done, she turned to her. ‘Bronchitis?’ she asked. The woman nodded.
Adelaide beckoned to the ambulance man, glad he was one she had met several times before.
‘You’ll stay?’ She pointed to the sucker and oxygen mask. He nodded and she went quickly to the phone on the desk and asked for Dr Beekman urgently. When she heard the voice on the other end of the line, she said in her quiet efficient voice:
‘Dr Beekman? There’s a small girl just in—bronchitis and laryngeal stridor. She’s unconscious and her respirations are very difficult. Will you come, please?’ The voice said ‘Yes’ as she put down the phone and went back to the child, who looked worse. She cleared the sucker, put it carefully down the little throat again and gave it to the man to hold again, then sat about laying up a trolley. The tracheotomy instruments were always kept ready; there wasn’t much for her to do. She drew up a local anaesthetic into a syringe and was putting a sandbag under the small shoulders when she heard a car draw up outside. The ambulance man glanced at her—he wanted to be on his way; she thanked him as he hurried away, and said over her shoulder:
‘The doctor is here. Everything’s all right,’ and smiled reassuringly at the mother, sitting quietly in a corner. She turned back to the child, who
