Read Online Nurse Jess by Joyce Dingwell - Free Book Online

plutocrat, anyway. ” Again Barry looked bitter.
    “ Will you lose much when you work for the Tourist Bureau? ” enquired Jessa.
    “ I ’ ll gain, I never made a great deal on the run. But it was mine, the same as Dad ’ s was Dad ’ s, Granddad ’ s likewise. And that ’ s payment on its own. ”
    “ You ’ ll sell Matthew Flinders? ”
    Ba groaned and answered, “ Postpone the bitter day. ”
    They lapsed into silence awhile. Barry broke it.
    “ Funny to think of Mrs. Macquarie sitting here all those years ago, ” he said thoughtfully.
    “ Watching for ships from England ... homesick ...” nodded Jessa.
    “ I ’ d be homesick, ” preferred Barry. He looked hopefully at Jessa, saw no agreement, and shrugged.
    “ People, not places, ” he remarked once again of her, “ and before all varieties of people, babies, and that —”
    Jessa cut in and finished for him, “ That ’ s what you can ’ t understand. Don ’ t start it all again. ”
    She glanced at her watch. “ Matron Martha won ’ t understand either if I walk in late. Particularly on my first helping of Nights. I ’ d better get moving, young Barry. Thanks for the afternoon. Expe ct two passengers on Wednesday week ’ s out flight. ”
    “ If I am still operating “
    “ You say that every time. Dear little ray of sunshine, aren ’ t you? ”
    They put the paper bag in the tidy, said goodbye to Mrs. Macquarie, climbed the hill above Woolloomooloo and crossed the Domain to Jessa ’ s bus.
    She was not late, but she only just had time to get into her uniform and run. She scurried down to her ward and began the night feeds.
    Sister Valerie worked with her.
    “ V.I.P. party visited this afternoon, Nurse Jess. Doctor Elizabeth, a new and very lucrative patron, and Professor Gink. ”
    “ Oh—he ’ s back? ”
    “ Back and departed again. He took a look at his Master X, then flew off to Tasmania, I believe. ”
    “ Will he be long? ”
    Sister Valerie said, “ Russell, will you take your food properly? ” To Jessa she replied, “ I don ’ t know. Quite likely he will. ”
    When Jessa went up to her room she looked at the spectacles again. All this time wasted, she thought. I could have had them properly mended.
    Being on Nights had its advantages. One could shop — and transact business—during the day. The next morning before she went to bed Jessa took the glasses round to an optician.
    “ They ’ re rather battered, miss, ” said the attendant dubiously. “ If I fix the wing like you ask it will probably weaken the rest of the frame, ”
    He looked at Jessamine speculatively. “ The best job, ” he advised, “ would be the entire job. New rims. I ’ d do the very latest style.
    Jessa saw Professor Gink taking out of his pocket spectacles really worthy of a Professor.
    “ Yes, ” she agreed, “ I suppose it would. ” She asked, “ How much? ”
    It was rather dear, and what was more she had to leave a deposit, but it made no difference, because curiously but quite definitely her mind was made up.
    She came back to Belinda to snatch some sleep before she started work.
    As she approached the long corridor that evening she glanced upwards, as she found she always glanced now, and saw a lanky shadow. Only one shadow in all Belinda could reach two-thirds of the wall up to the ceiling like that, only one shadow could have such gangling, dangling, daddy-longlegs legs.
    Rounding the corner , she bumped into the substance.
    “ Oh—oh, it ’ s you, ” she gasped, pretending surprise. It would not have been polite, she thought, to have taken that shadow for granted.
    “ Good evening, Nurse Jess, determined to knock me over, aren ’ t you? ”
    Jessa said, “ Good evening, Professor Gink. ”
    They stood a moment, both as awkward as each other.
    Professor Gink said, “ How is the Perfesser? ” at precisely the same moment as Jessa said it.
    They felt more awkward still.
    “ I thought you had gone away again, ” Jessa