After three days, although Anna still felt exhausted and the slightest movement caused sharp pains to shoot from her wound, she summoned sufficient spirit to challenge the nurses" insistence that she remained too weak to get out of bed. Moving from bed to wheelchair demanded both energy and fortitude, the pain almost unbearable when she tried to stand up straight. Biting her lips, she fought down rising giddiness and, grateful for a helping arm around her shoulders, lowered herself onto a black vinyl seat. Slippers and dressing-gown were quickly extracted from the bedside locker. "I"ll be fine in just my nightdress," Anna remarked, as the nurse tucked thick, quilted fabric around her. "It"s awfully hot in here."
"Maybe so, but we can"t have patients roaming the corridors half-dressed."
S
