Free Staff Nurse in the Tyrol by Elizabeth Houghton

back. The nun nodded approvingly and then pointed at the tags on the rest of the feeding bottles and then toward the name plates on the cots. She went to the door, nodded encouragingly to Sonia once more, and went out.
    Sonia quite happily fed one baby after another. This was a far easier morning than she had expected. Of course once she was working on the adult wards it wouldn’t be nearly as easy, but by that time she would have more German phrases to juggle.
    She had reached the last baby, who took his feed very slowly and kept stopping to regard Sonia with large blue eyes. “Bitte, Liebling, ” she coaxed.
    The baby responded by pulling the nipple out of his mouth and gurgling at her happily.
    “You have to be firm about it, Sonia. He’s playing you up.”
    Startled, Sonia glanced toward the door. She hadn’t heard Michael come in.
    “He’s rather sweet. I expect he’s had all he wants anyway.” Expertly she put him across her shoulder and rubbed his back.
    The baby cooed and put out a chubby hand to clutch at her hair.
    Michael laughed, but it was gentle laughter without mockery. “You seem to have a way with the kiddies,” he remarked.
    Sonia disentangled the small fist from her hair. “I like babies,” she said quietly.
    Michael looked at her sharply. “You should get married and have some of your own, then.”
    Sonia glanced at him warily. “I will some day. I’m not in any hurry.”
    He snorted. “I’d forgotten. You’re the girl who has never been in love.”
    “You needn’t make it sound like a crime.”
    He moved restlessly around the small room, picking up the charts, pausing to play with one of the babies. All the time Sonia was conscious of his presence, and she had a feeling that for some reason he was resenting her.
    “Did you want something?” she asked in final desperation.
    He looked at her thoughtfully. “I’m always wanting something, but there isn’t anything you can do about it. I doubt if you’d understand. You’re too...”
    “Don’t tell me that I’m too young!” she burst out angrily. “Is understanding something that comes with gray hairs? I thought it was a willingness to listen sympathetically to someone.”
    “Perhaps you’re right,” Michael said moodily. “I’ll try your sympathetic ears some time. Not now, I have work to do. There’s a clinic to finish, and then I’m on emergency this afternoon. Stop spoiling that baby!”
    Sonia looked down at the child in her arms and smiled at its sleepy face. “This kind of spoiling never hurt anyone,” she said softly. “Perhaps if you’d had more of it, you’d...”
    “Shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about, you sentimental little fool!”
    His anger seemed to take both of them by surprise, and he had the decency to look somewhat ashamed.
    “Sorry, Sonia,” he muttered. “It’s not your fault. ”
    The door shut firmly behind him and the nursery seemed unexpectedly empty without him. Sonia tidied everything away and left a row of freshly washed bottles in the rack. Perhaps she had better find Greta. It must be nearly lunchtime...
    “What did Michael want?” Greta opened the door.
    “I don’t know ... unless he was just doing his round,” Sonia said uncertainly.
    She wished she knew more about the daily routine so that she could know what to expect. She also wished Greta wouldn’t flit from sunshine to storm with quite such bewildering rapidity.
    “He’s already done it ages ago. What did he say?”
    Those blue eyes could be disconcertingly probing, and Sonia moved uneasily.
    “Nothing really. He seemed very cross about something.”
    Greta stamped her foot. “It pleases you to make the mystery! I tell you it does not please me! Before you come all is well between Michael and me. Now it is not so. He has changed, and it is you who are to blame!”
    Sonia shrank away from her. “Greta! You must listen. It’s nothing to do with me, I promise you. It happened when he w as only a