Free Lorimers at War by Anne Melville Page A

arrival in the country, but as the days passed she found herself more and more tired. Then she could hardly drag herself out of bed in the morning, and merely to move about the hospital became an unbearable effort. Yet in spite of the tiredness her head ached so much that she was unable to sleep. Even before the night when she found herself sweating in bed, her body glowing and almost bubbling with heat, even before that she recognized the symptoms. Typhus! She took her own temperature and was just able to read that it was 105° before she collapsed.
    Returning to consciousness, she found Sergei’s forearmpressing down on her chest. Her lungs were bursting and there was an almost unbearable pain in her heart. She seemed to have forgotten how to breathe, but Sergei’s pressure continued until the pain became too great to endure. She screamed, and at once the tensions in her chest snapped and relaxed. Her lungs emptied and filled again, emptied and filled. Sergei slid down to the floor and sat there for a moment, apparently as exhausted as herself.
    When he stood up again he was smiling. He began to sponge her – not only her face but her whole body. She ought to have felt shocked, but somewhere in her memory was the realization that this had happened before when she was almost but not quite unconscious. Like an expert nurse he rolled her first to one side of the bed and then to the other so that he could change the sheets. She was clean, she was cool and – although still too weak to move – she was better.
    â€˜In these three weeks you have died twice,’ Sergei said. ‘No heartbeat, no breathing. Even Christ was content with one resurrection. You have always been a most demanding mistress. Keep still and I will find you a proper nurse.’
    Nurse Cameron arrived within a few moments. She took Kate’s temperature and gave an unprofessional sigh of relief.
    â€˜Crisis over?’ asked Kate. Her body was so weak that she could only whisper, but her mind was as clear as though she had never been ill.
    â€˜We’ll be needing to feed you up, Doctor. But it should be plain sailing from now on.’
    â€˜And Dr Forbes?’
    â€˜I hoped you wouldn’t ask that so soon.’
    â€˜You mean – she died of the typhoid?’
    â€˜I’m afraid so.’
    Kate was silent for a few moments, but her responsibility for the hospital overcame her sadness.
    â€˜Who’s in charge now?’
    â€˜The army sent us an officer. Major Dragovitch. He’s seen to the general administration while I’ve done my best to look after the medical side.’
    â€˜So who’s been caring for me?’
    â€˜The Russki,’ said Nurse Cameron. ‘He’s spent three weeks in this room with you. Nursing and talking. Whenever you were at your lowest he’d talk non-stop, almost as though he thought you’d be too polite to die in the middle of a conversation. How he expected you to understand his foreign lingo I can’t imagine. I’m not saying a word against him, though. The reason you didn’t die is because he wouldn’t let you.’
    He came back an hour later and looked critically at his patient.
    â€˜You’re not to think that you’re better,’ he said. ‘There must be at least three weeks of convalescence. As much of it as possible in the sunshine. I shall arrange for you to go back to the tented hospital so that you can lie in a bed outside all day.’
    â€˜Yes, Doctor,’ said Kate. ‘And Sergei – thank you.’
    They smiled at each other. In this unexpected life, Kate realized that Sergei had become her closest friend. It was an unlikely enough fate which had brought Kate herself to Kragujevatz. She had often wondered what equally surprising story might explain Sergei’s exile from his own country, but had never before liked to enquire. But now weakness and gratitude combined to make her feel that there