Read Online Marie's Journey (Ginecean Chronicles) by Monica La Porta - Free Book Online Page B

sense of calm pervaded the place, and that surprised Marie even more. Her attention was directed toward the thirty-something brunette with short tresses and a curvaceous body, who made a summoning sound without looking at her. Expecting directions, she walked closer to the woman who exuded an air of command.
    “Don scrubs. Wear gloves. Start changing the dressings on bed one.” The brunette was busy stitching a large gash on a man’s forearm. She raised her dark eyes from the wound to give an immobile Marie a puzzled look. “You know how to do that, right?”
    Marie, dazzled by the sight, shook her head slowly. The man was in pain and his face was white, but he was stoically suffering the treatment. Blood gushed from the jarred wound and the brunette swiftly cleaned it with a white cloth she immediately discarded inside a bin at her feet.
    “What are you doing here, then?” The brunette’s mood was changing before Marie’s eyes.
    “I thought I was going to train as a nurse?” She automatically stepped back, almost eager to be sent back to peeling potatoes.
    The man under the brunette’s care moaned in pain as she threaded the needle in and out of his skin. “I’m sorry, but it’s better this way. The longer it takes the more painful it is for you.” She patted his arm in a display of tenderness Marie found out of place. “The rector sent me another useless, snotty girl,” the brunette said under her breath, but loud enough to be heard. The man smiled through thin, bloodless lips.
    Marie had already reached the door and was, for once, looking longingly at the darkness of the stairs when the brunette called her back. “Where do you think you’re going?”
    “I thought—” Sweat freezing on her forehead, Marie understood she wasn’t getting away from that job.
    “Do you want to start training or not?” The brunette gave a good look at her handiwork and applied two more stiches. “Better?” she asked the man, who nodded in response. “Good.”
    “I’d like to train.” Marie couldn’t believe her eyes and her ears. The woman was so attentive to the man’s needs and he wasn’t afraid of her.
    “Then you’ll train all right.” The brunette showed her the cubicle where the scrubs and the gloves were stacked in two neat piles. “You’ll learn more here than anywhere else.” She had finished with the man and gently helped him to sit on a nearby bed. “I’m Doctor Rane. But you can call me by my name. No need for formality around here. It’s going to be just you and me, anyway. What’s your name?”
    “Marie.”
    “Nice meeting you, Marie.” Rane removed her gloves, discarded them, and offered Marie her hand. “Today, you’ll help me with some chores to get you accustomed to what we do here. In a day or two, you’ll know if it’s for you or not.” Rane smiled a beautiful, all white-teeth smile.
    Marie wondered if the doctor was temperamental or menstrual. Either way, she wasn’t sure she was going to like working with her in such a confined space.
    “Come here. I’ll show you how to properly dress a wound.” Rane made a sign to join her at bed number one, where a man was soundly sleeping. “Time for your medication,” she whispered, leaning toward the blond head.
    The head whispered back, “Okay.”
    “What do you need me to do?” Marie saw the cart with medicines parked by the bed and remembered the bulgy envelope Tora had given her four floors up and an entire universe apart. She proffered the package to Rane, hoping she knew what to do with it.
    “Thanks, we go through more first-aid kits than I can count.” She took the package from Marie and tore the seal. “Good, I needed some penicillin and I can always use the tincture of iodine. You wouldn’t believe the condition these men arrive in. Sometimes, I don’t understand the way pure breeds use them.”
    Marie didn’t understand where Rane’s speech was going and didn’t want to know. She didn’t find her words