Nurse Kelsey Abroad Read Free Page B

likes and dislikes and, where their illnesses permitted, these were catered for as they would have been in any small, well-run hotel. Because of this, as s h e repeatedly assured her anxious mum, the meals of the nursing staff were a little more varied than the meals at the General had been, where emphasis was laid upon energy-supplying foods rather than on those likely to tempt the palate.
    Mary Kelsey enjoyed cooking. Nothing pleased her more than to have her family pass up their plates for second helpings, and when one of them came home unexpectedly, as Jane had done tod a y, she always put herself out to do something special. After Angela’s phone call she had studied the contents of her larder, fridge and cupboard, and the result had ended triumphantly with a luscious-looking glazed bacon loaf, a mocha trifle , a good idea, Mary thought, as it disposed of the half sponge cake she had despaired of ever being eaten, and a selection of home-made biscuits, a speciality of hers, and a well-filled apple pie, always a family favourite.
    She was putting the finishing touches to the table as Dudley drove into the small, curved driveway. At the sound of the car she switched on the light b el ow the kettle. Jane always liked a “good cup of tea” the moment she came in.
    It was at that moment the phone rang again and this time it was Angela once more, but telling her briefly just what she had offered to Jane.
    “She’ll hesitate, of course, Mrs. Kelsey,” Angela’s brisk tones came clearly over the wire, “but that’s only because she wants to make quite certain her going so far away won’t leave you so bereft now that Betty’s gone from home. Of course, as I pointed out to he r, you’ll still have Susan and the boys, and Mr. Kelsey, of course. I don’t think, from what I know of you, you’re likely to allow missing Jane for a time to stand in the way of something I know that, in her heart of hearts, she would really like to do.”
    “Of course I wouldn’t stand in her way,” Mary said, a little bewildered by the suddenness of the statement. “But w here is this place? Sounds to me it may well be behind the Iron Curtain.”
    “I think it may well be,” Angela said vaguely, “but that hasn’t prevented my friend from enjoying every minute of her stay there, and I do know Jane has always longed to travel and to nurse at the same time. The hospital is quite a well reputed one, you know. I met the doctor in charge, a Doctor James Lowth, when Ann went out there. He’s English. His people come from somewhere in Surrey, I believe. He has an assistant who is also English, Irish or something like that, and there are two qualified English nurses on the staff as well as the girls who’ve been recruited and trained in the hospital itself. I really think Jane would enjoy the whole thing tremendously. She can always have an agreement for so long, and then it will give the authorities an opportunity to look out for someone else to take her place if she decided her first engagement was long enough. Ann signed to stay six months at first, then re-signed for another two years. She ought not be leaving for another three months or so, but her fiancé will lose the position open to him in Australia if they leave matters so long, and that would hardly be fair to him or to Ann herself . That was why she wrote to me to see if he could recommend someone to take her place immediately. Of course I thought of Jane first and foremost.”
    Mary Kelsey, who didn’t much care for Angela Power but who respected her for her nursing capabilities as well as for her businesslike approach to life in general, merely made a sound which might or might not have signified agreement, but it was an extremely thoughtful woman who soon replaced the receiver and turned to greet the two young people who had just entered.
    “Hello, darling,” she greeted her daughter with an affectionate kiss which was returned with unexpected fervour. Jane was normally