by Betty Neels
She bristled at his careless tone; she could have been a middle-aged matron in a starched apron. She looked up and caught the Norwegian’s merry eye and smiled involuntarily.
They hadn’t far to go now and once wrapped in his blanket the Norwegian regaled them with lighthearted talk, speaking an almost perfect English, smiling at Annis from time to time, a secret smile which gave her the pleasant feeling of sharing a joke with him.
Jake took the plane down neatly and once the first little bustle of their return had been done with told her to take Julsen over to the surgery. ‘I’ll be along in a minute,’ he told her. ‘I’d better have a look at him before he goes to his hut.’
Annis was surprised to find that she felt a little shy of her patient; perhaps it was the way he looked at her—half laughing as though he could read her thoughts and sense her excitement at meeting him. She opened up the surgery, found a dressing gown for him and went to put on her white gown, and by the time she had done that the doctor had joined them. But she need not have bothered with the gown, for he told her composedly that he wouldn’t need her. ‘Perhaps you could see to the stores,’ he suggested blandly, and held the door open for her before shutting it firmly behind her.
Annis, a little put out, went back to the main hut and dealt with the provisions, handed out the things she had bought for the men, ticked off her list with the boss and then sped away to get the evening meal. The men had done all the hard work, it was only left to her to cook it. She did so in a rather absentminded manner, her thoughts centred on the new arrival.
He came to supper presently and found a seat opposite her, so that every time she looked up it was to find his eyes upon her. She found it disconcerting but nicely disturbing too. Life at the station was pleasant enough, but there had been no hint of romance. She was on excellent terms with all the men, just as she was on excellent terms with Freddy, but somehow Ola Julsen was different.
And within the next few days she discovered how different. He went on and off duty just the same as everyone else, but somehow he was always free when she was and if he wasn’t, she would find something left for her in the sitting room of her hut; a fossil, a seabird’s feather, a book of poetry with marked passages, so that he was never far from her thoughts. And when they were both free at the same time, they walked along the narrow strip of flat rocky ground by the station, or sat watching the ever-changing sea, and once or twice he took her out in one of the boats. They talked a great deal, at least Ola did most of the talking; Annis was content to sit and listen to him describing Norway and its beauties. He seemed to know the entire country very well, but when she asked him where he lived, he made some evasive answer, nor did he tell her much about himself. He had parents and a brother, he had been to university and taken an honours degree, he was determined to make a name for himself in the world of electronics…
He asked her a great deal about her own life, though, wanting to know, half laughing, if she had plans to marry, what she intended to do when she left Spitzbergen, and she answered all his questions quite honestly because it didn’t occur to her to do otherwise. She knew that she was happy; Ola was so different from Arthur.
But she didn’t let her romance interfere with her work. She worked, in fact, a good deal harder, feeling guilty that she should be so content with her simple life, and after his first few attempts to talk to her about it, Freddy had given up his halfhearted advice. She had looked at him in surprise when he had first broached the subject of her spending so much of her time with Ola. ‘But only when I’m free to do so,’ she pointed out reasonably. ‘He’s good company.’ And when he had tried again a day or two later: ‘Don’t you like him, Freddy?’
‘No,’ said Freddy, ‘and don’t ask me why, because I don’t know.’
‘In that case it’s nonsense to object to me seeing him.’ She added impatiently: ‘We’re not sly about it, you know, anyone can see us—heaven knows there’s nowhere to hide round here.’ She had laughed at him and Freddy had smiled reluctantly.
The only other person to say anything to her was Jake, and he merely remarked in the most casual of voices that it had been a lucky day when Ola had joined them. ‘Nice for you,’ he had continued placidly, ‘he’s a good talker.’
She had murmured a reply and applied herself to the old-fashioned Thomas’s splint she was padding.
It was ten days or so after their expedition to Ny Aalesund that she and Ola walked along the treacherous shoreline in order to get a better view of some seabirds she hadn’t seen before. They were some distance from the station but still within sight of it when Annis noticed the doctor perched on the rocks some yards ahead of them, his binoculars to his eyes. At the same time there was a shout behind them and one of the men, a young Finn, came running towards them. ‘He’s coming too fast,’ said Annis. ‘If he slips he’ll fall into the sea.’
The words were hardly out of her mouth before the boy stumbled, rolled over and slid with a sickening splash into the icy water. ‘He’s concussed, he’ll drown—Ola, help him!’
The Norwegian hadn’t moved, he still didn’t move when Jake passed him, kicked off his heavy boots and slid into the water. It was Annis who stumbled over the rocks, took precarious hold of one of them, ready to do what she could when Jake surfaced. It seemed a lifetime before he reappeared, the unconscious boy with him. Annis leaned nearer and then paused to shout over her shoulder. ‘Don’t just stand there, Ola, go for help—a stretcher and four men at least—and hurry!’
She turned back to where Jake’s head showed above the dark water. ‘What shall I do?’ she asked him urgently, and was shocked at his white face. ‘Jake?’ she called again, terrified that he was going to drown before help reached them.
He had edged nearer, treading water. ‘My God, it’s cold. Here, have you got a good hold on that rock? Then catch hold of anything you can reach—his overalls are tough, get a grip on them.’
She clutched a fold of heavy wet cloth so that she took a little of the boy’s weight, not much but perhaps it helped Jake; she hoped so, because she didn’t think that she would be able to stay as she was for more than a few more minutes. She was shaking with fright, too, and icy cold, her chattering teeth clattering away in her head so that she was barely aware of running feet and then the cautious approach of half a dozen men. One of them pulled her gently back while two more leaned down and dragged the unconscious boy on to the rocks and she cried idiotically: ‘Oh, get Jake out—he’ll drown!’ But there was no need for her to say anything, three men were hauling on him already, breathing heavily and grunting with the effort as they tried to get a hold on him. She stared at him. He looked strange and he hadn’t uttered a word; not until they were on the point of dragging him out too did she hear him say in a tight voice: ‘Go easy, will you? I’ve busted my leg.’
Her teeth didn’t chatter any more, she forgot that she was shivering with cold. The men with the stretcher were waiting beside her. She turned to the nearest and said calmly: ‘Go to the surgery, bring the splints behind the door and the straps, scissors and one of the sterile packs on the top of the cupboard.’ She barely watched him go before saying urgently: ‘Will you try and get two men on each leg as you lift him; get him straight on to the stretcher—it’s going to be difficult…’
It was; by the time they had done it the man was back with the splints. She knelt down beside Jake and took a huge icy hand in hers. ‘Which leg, Jake?’
‘The left—just below the knee.’ He smiled very faintly at her and then spoke to one of the men. ‘Paul, get something warm for Annis to put on and bring some Aqua Vitae, we all need a nip.’
She wasn’t listening; she was snipping his trouser seams with numb hands, anxious to see what the damage was. It was vital to get him indoors as soon as possible, but it was equally vital that she should see just how bad a fracture he had. Bad enough, but it could have been worse; both bones were broken, their jagged ends just showing through the wound below his knee; she didn’t
dare to bring them into alignment, all she could do was to lay a sterile dressing over the area of fracture and bandage it lightly. And while she was doing it someone came to drape a thick sweater round her shoulders and offer her a drink of Aqua Vitae; its fiery taste took her breath and made her eyes water, but it warmed her too. Jake was given a long drink too and she asked: ‘Do you feel anything, Jake?’
‘Not a thing, now. It’s a compound, isn’t it?’
‘Yes—we’ll take you to hospital at once. Harald must go too.’
One of the men turned to look at her. ‘How come you stayed here? Why didn’t Ola send you? He should have—dangerous it was, leaving you here…’
Annis didn’t speak; the same ugly thought had been at the back of her mind ever since Ola had turned and run back to the station and left her. It was the doctor who said: ‘I daresay he thought Annis might slip on the rocks—and that would have been a disaster.’ He added something in Norwegian and was answered by grunting replies, and then she was finished; the splint neatly tied and Jake ready to be carried back to the station.
Once in the surgery she kept two of the men with her to help and while they were stripping Jake of his wet clothes, answered the boss’s questions. There weren’t many of them; she made short work of them and asked: ‘The plane—can Jake be taken at once? It’s a nasty fracture, it needs an expert to set it.’
‘They’re getting it ready now—you’ll go with them both, Annis. We’ll manage for a day or two. Stay there and do what you can to help and send a message from the hospital—they’ll radio us if you ask them. Is there anything you can’t leave?’
She thought. ‘No. There’s Max’s hand—it’ll need dressing each day, but the stitches aren’t due out for another three days, and there’s Eding’s bruised leg… Nils’—Nils was the first aid man—‘can cope with them.’
‘Good—get some dry clothes on and something warm and pack a few things. I’ll have a word with Jake. Is he in pain?’
‘No, I don’t think so, but he will be as soon as he’s warmer. I’ll get him to write himself up for something so that I can give it at once. Have you radioed the hospital?’
The boss smiled gently. ‘Ten minutes ago.’ He patted her arm. ‘Run along.’
Thinking about it afterwards, Annis couldn’t remember much about the flight. Harald regained consciousness before they started, and Jake, who had remained stubbornly aware of what was going on all around him, even to the giving of advice as to what should be done about his leg and Harald’s head, had to submit to her coaxing presently and allow her to give him a pain-killing injection.
An ambulance had been waiting for them and men to help in the difficult task of getting the two men off the plane and into it, and they were ready and waiting for them when they had reached the hospital. Harald had been X-rayed and put to bed under observation, and Jake had been taken straight to theatre and his leg examined before he too went to X-ray.
‘An untidy fracture,’ she had been told. ‘It will be necessary to give a general anaesthetic, but there is no reason to suppose that it will be troublesome; we will reduce the fracture and put the leg in plaster and leave a window over the wound.’ The surgeon had smiled at her kindly. ‘I am to understand that you will remain for a few days? That will be of great help to us. If you could look after your two patients? You will be relieved, of course, and there will not be a great deal to do…’ His nice grey eyes twinkled suddenly. ‘I think that Jake will wish to do everything for himself.’
‘Well, he’s not going to,’ Annis had said, and had had to eat her words a dozen times since, after only a day, she was only too aware that Jake was a bad patient; he never complained and up to a point did exactly what he was told to do, but he insisted on washing himself and only a firm hand on his huge chest had restrained him from getting out of bed the moment the plaster on his leg was dry.
‘You’ll stay where you are, Doctor,’ said Annis crisply. ‘You’ll get up all in good time, in the meantime you’ll oblige me by wriggling your toes as frequently as possible.’
He had laughed then. ‘My dear Annis, I’ll do anything to oblige you.’
She was on her way to the door to give Harald a blanket bath. ‘Yes, I know, but only when it suits you.’
He was up the next day, sitting in a big chair by the window, looking down on to the stream below, declaring that he was perfectly able to go back to the station, and only dissuaded by his colleagues by pointing out that he would have to have another X-ray in a day or two and finish his antibiotics as well as being certain that the small wound above the break was completely free from infection. Besides, Harald needed another day or two’s rest before he could be moved; his concussion had proved light, but he still complained of headache. So after the first couple of days Annis found herself with little to do; the doctor was friendly and now that he had arranged things to suit himself, a model patient, but he showed no desire to have more of her company than her professional duties warranted and there was not much more to do for Harald. She gave a hand in the wards, struggling with a word or two of Norwegian while she made beds and undertook routine tasks which she supposed were the same in hospitals all over the world.
It was on the fourth afternoon, finding herself free for a couple of hours, that she was wondering what to do with them, when one of the nurses who spoke a little English came to tell her that there was someone to see her.
It would be Ola, she thought excitedly, frantically brushing her hair and doing her face. Thank heaven she had already changed into slacks and a shirt…
He was waiting outside and came to meet her with a charming smile. ‘Annis, my dear—you see that I have come to see you. I travelled on the Coastal Express and this evening I fly out again.’
She was breathless at the sight of him. ‘Oh, is there a plane going back to the station? We’re not going for another day or two.’ She smiled widely at him. ‘Oh, Ola, it’s so nice to see you again.’
‘And I find it more than nice to see you.’ He took her arm. ‘We will take a little walk, it is pretty if we go past the shop. There are a few trees and one can pretend that we are far from this desolate land.’
‘Well, you know, I don’t find it so very desolate, but I have got an hour to spare…’
‘An hour is so short a time.’ He squeezed her arm against him. ‘And I have much to say. It has been very pleasant meeting you, Annis. You are such a lovely girl and we have had so much time together. I shall miss you.’
They were climbing the dusty road past the shop and although the sun was shining, Annis felt cold. ‘You’re going away?’
He gave the little rumble of laughter which she had found so charming. ‘But of course; I came only for a few weeks, I must return to Norway.’
‘Oh, to your work…’
‘Yes, and to my wife.’
The cold spread over the whole of her. ‘I didn’t know you were married; you didn’t tell me.’
‘Of course not, if I had done so you would have ignored me, would you not, Annis? Even though you were so greatly attracted to me—you are, I think, that kind of a girl; it is not, how do you say, cricket, to allow another girl’s husband to get too attentive.’ He laughed down at her. ‘And you would not have kissed me so very warmly, would you?’
Annis stopped and took her arm away from his hold. ‘It’s time I got back,’ she said steadily. ‘No, I don’t suppose I would, and since you mention cricket, I don’t think you know the rules very well yourself, do you, Ola?’
She spoke in a calm little voice which gave away none of her raging feelings. Humiliation, and anger and a hopeless sorrow were jumbled up inside her, and the sorrow was winning fast. At any moment she might burst into tears, something she was determined not to do at any cost. She walked a little faster. ‘How long will it take you to fly back?’ she asked politely.
He looked surprised and relieved but not the least ashamed of himself, which helped her enormously not to cry. She kept the conversatio
n determinedly upon nothing much in particular until they reached the hospital, when she looked at her watch again, declared that she was late, and left him before he could say so much as goodbye.
She still had half an hour before she was on duty. She made her way through the building and along the corridor which led to the small wing where the nurses lived, almost running in her effort to get to her room and have a good howl. She was passing the doctor’s room when he called her and she instinctively went in; he was her patient and anything could have happened.
He was still sitting by the window, looking like a thundercloud.
‘What is Julsen doing here?’ he demanded. ‘And what exactly…’ He stopped, examined her face for a long moment and said quite gently: ‘No, it doesn’t matter, Annis.’ He picked up some papers, not looking at her now. ‘Don’t hurry back on duty—there’s nothing for you to do for an hour or so.’
CHAPTER FOUR
ANNIS TOOK NO NOTICE of Jake’s advice. She cried herself to a wet and soggy stop, had a shower, changed into her uniform overall and put on a pair of dark glasses. Then she went on duty at the time expected of her; even if her heart was broken she still had a job to do.
She went first to Harald, fast becoming his normal self, and then to Jake to give him his final antibiotic jab.
He barely glanced up from his book as she went in to his room and his ‘Hullo’ was brief. It wasn’t until she was rubbing the place she had injected that he put up a deliberate hand and removed her dark glasses.