Staff Nurse in the Tyrol by Elizabeth Houghton Read Free Book Online Page A

soft humid stickiness that made the curls cling to her forehead.
    She decided to go to her room and change. The dress she had put on after her bath looked as tired as she felt. The corridors seemed longer than ever, and she was beginning to wonder if she would ever find her room when a door opened and Greta came out.
    She seemed a little startled to see Sonia. “Did you get lost?” she asked.
    There was a sound of voices behind her and she closed the door quickly. “You have come too far. It is the turning before this to the left that you take. I have not time to come with you.”
    “It’s all right, Greta.”
    Sonia turned around and went back the way she had come. Hadn’t one of those voices been Michael’s? The words had been German, but there had been some undertone, some inflection, that could only be English. She tried to remember exactly where the children’s ward was; Greta had taken her around so quickly that other day. She was almost certain it was up on the next floor. She pulled herself together. Why should it matter that Greta was talking to Michael? After all, they had been friends, good friends, for a long time, and she was only a newcomer.
    This time she found her room without any difficulty, and by the time Greta knocked on her door she had slipped into her favorite dress. The soft yellow of its skirt was set off by a narrow black velvet sash, and the scooped neckline showed the golden tan that still lingered from her holidays.
    Greta whistled admiringly. “Very nice. It must be so wonderful to have money ... parents to spoil you.” Bitterness crept into her voice. “Next year, I too may have the chance.”
    Sonia’s face was troubled. “I bought the dress with my own money, Greta. My parents try to spoil me, but I won’t let them. It isn’t what I want. ”
    Greta shrugged her shoulders. “Then you are mad. I cannot understand. Myself, I would take everything. Come, Stefan and Michael will be waiting for us.”
    Sonia couldn’t help noticing how Greta’s voice lingered over Michael’s name, making a musical sound of it.
    “I’m ready. Where are we going, Greta?” She was beginning to feel excited and the feeling spread through her tiredness like sunshine through the fog.
    “We could go to the Maria-Theresia Bar or perhaps the Pony-Aim. Stefan may already have chosen the place for us to go. Michael, he does not care as long as there is music and not too many tourists. He does not like the English.”
    Sonia laughed. “But he is English! How silly!”
    Greta closed the door behind them and began to lead the way down the corridor. “That is something you do not tell Michael. I know you do not care for him, but he is my friend.”
    They had reached the main entrance before Sonia could say anything, and for this she was thankful. She couldn’t account for the oddly lost feeling that had gone through her at Greta’s words She only knew that it had happened.
    It was Stefan who was waiting at the porter’s lodge, and Sonia saw Greta look eagerly past him and watched her face change with disappointment. Greta didn’t seem to notice the sad little smile that touched Stefan’s mouth.
    “Michael will come later. There w as an emergency in the operating room. He is sorry.”
    Greta pouted. “Why couldn’t you have taken the case, Stefan?”
    Sonia longed to put out a comforting hand to the man who stood beside her, but she dared not. She had a feeling that his sensitiveness would flinch away from her sympathy.
    He laughed, but his laugh had the quality of breaking glass. “Because it was Michael’s case, and he is not in the habit of giving them to other surgeons even when they are his friends.”
    “I hear the tram coming. Stefan! Sonia! Come!”
    Then they were running down the drive, the three of them, throwing laughing encouragement at one another. Breathlessly they scrambled up the steep steps into the small red tram.
    “Thank goodness we made it! I couldn’t have walked that