Freya’s Bribery Threat

“Thank you Donald I’ll be making a change over from night shift supervision to day shift and we have a gap day and a half to adjust sleeping patterns between the next day shift, so, I have this Thursday off and wonder if that would be a good time for you and Brenna? I should be ready by 9am.”

“I need to have your address, Raina.”

Raina gave him the address and he wrote it down on the pad by the phone.

“Fine, see you Thursday morning at 9am then and wear casual clothes.”

Thursday morning came and Raina stood outside the entrance of her apartment building wearing jeans and T Shirt looking down the street. She had no idea what kind of car to expect so watched each passing car anxiously. Right on time a Mercedes car pulled into the curb in front of the building and Raina strained to see who might be inside those tinted windows. A young child exploded from the car and ran to meet Raina. She’d grown taller in the one year since Raina had last seen her and was glowing with health now. Her dark long hair cascaded below her shoulders and trailed behind her as she ran to meet her imagined substitute mother. She cried as she hugged Raina and then spoke in her Austrian dialect.

“Why did you take so long to meet me, Raina? I needed to see you since you were so kind to me in hospital. Don’t tell dad I said this, but he’s really excited you agreed to be with us today too. So, be kind to him as he likes you a lot, OK? Let’s go because dad says we may not be able to park here.”

Brenna bundled Raina into the back seat and sat with her in the back instantly fastening the seat belt. Then leant over to take Raina’s arm. Raina greeted Donald and thanked him for taking her on a day’s outing.

“Where are we going Donald? I’m looking forward to the shared day with you two.”

Donald beamed with pleasure.

“We’ve been hoping for a long time you’d agree to meet up with us Raina so are excited to have you here at last. First, I’m going to take you to our apartment and leave the car there. Brenna wants to show you around there. Parking around London is hopeless, and I keep the car for trips to my parents’ estates at Cambridge. I’ve arranged for a London taxi to take us to the Thames lunch cruise later and we’ll go exploring around London later in the afternoon. When you are ready to go home, we’ll drop you back to your apartment. We are going to do everything possible to make this day a happy one for you in the hope you may agree to make this a regular feature.”

Raina luxuriated in the plush seating of the Mercedes and speculated on the kind of money this family must have available to them. But when they pulled into the parking garage of the apartment in an upper-class neighbourhood she was really impressed and wondered what she was about to see inside the building. She gasped as they entered the home.

“This is beautiful”

Brenna pulled her to her room and showed her the spacious room with ample cupboards and her art room and musical instruments. She had a piano and violin.

“These were my mother’s, she said pointing to the instruments and I’m taking lessons now.”

Donald hovered in the background proudly watching the excitement. Raina shook her head in admiration and turned to face Donald.

“What do you do for a living Donald?”

Donald laughed.

“Well, I must confess to being part of what people scoffingly refer to as the upper-class Raina, but my parents have always been mavericks. My dad has taught at Oxford and Cambridge and retired in our family estate near Cambridge. My early education was in England and Europe and after gaining my master’s I went to Vienna to research further on my chosen field of early European history. It was there I met my wife Aniya who was studying at the music conservatorium. After coming back to London I commenced work on a PhD and continued to teach but that has been interrupted by my wife’s demise.”

Raina was interested to know more about this woman Aniya who’d instilled this language Brenna favoured into her. Raina was Slavic and it appeared there may be some Slavic connection with this woman Aniya too.

“Tell me about this Aniya, where did you meet, and I presume she was raised in Vienna?”

“No, she was one of the minority ethnic groups in Austria and her parents came from the Tyrol Mountains area of Austria. They were a large Slavic family surrounded by those who spoke the Austrian version of the Germanic tongue and kept to themselves. They worked their children hard and disciplined hard. Aniya was free spirited and often in trouble with her parents. Those raised in the Tyrol Mountains are natural musicians though untrained and it was expected the children would learn many instruments. She was locked out of home as punishment for some minor lapse and climbed a tree next to the home and entered her room. She’d done this many times before. She collected some clothes, tied them in a cloth slung a violin over her shoulder and climbed down heading down the road until she found a horse and cart willing to take her to the nearest village. She slowly made her way to Vienna begging rides and food and arrived in Vienna penniless and homeless and playing her violin for money to survive. It was by chance a master from the conservatorium of music heard her playing on the street as he passed by and recognized she had unusual talent that could be trained to be a professional. He took her into his home and concentrated on teaching her both professional music and social graces. When I met her much later, she was playing both piano and violin professionally and I first contacted her at one of her performances in a chance encounter. It was a mutual attraction, and we were married within six months.”

Raina listened enthralled.

“What a beautiful story Donald. You were obviously very happy.”

“She had the fire of her ethnicity in her blood and was often hard to fathom with her artistic temperament. Sometimes it was hard for Brenna and I, but there was an underlining bond that somehow kept our marriage together.”

Raina laughed.

“While our nationalities were different, I think I can understand that Slavic personality. The war in my country knocked some of that fire out of me and I’m just beginning to recover Donald. This outing with you reminds me of the happy times spent with my family before they were all killed in a bombing. My fiancé was killed in that war too and that’s why I came to London to heal.”

Donald glanced at his watch.

“The taxi is due in a few minutes, so we’d better wait at the curb to enjoy the day planned.”

That evening Raina basked in the pleasure of a happy day outing and had no problem getting to sleep. She hoped Donald Cartwright liked her because she wanted to enjoy his company again as soon as she had time off from her busy schedules at the hospital. She was almost asleep when her phone informed her there was a text to be read. She sleepily picked up her phone and read the message. It was from Donald Cartwright.

“Thank you, Raina, for agreeing to spend time with us today. I hope you had a good time and will agree to another meeting with us again as soon as possible. Brenna is just glowing at having spent time with you and I hope she was not too clingy as we went from place to place.”

Raina smiled happily and quickly texted back.

“Sorry I can’t chat more as I’m on duty again tomorrow but look forward to our next outing when I can get a day off from work. I had a lovely time, and you were so generous and attentive. I think I could get used to this.”

It had been a couple of weeks since Freya was assigned to the same shift Raina was currently assigned to and Raina remembered the evening when Freya had struggled for a while to do her duties. Raina’s practiced eye surveyed the nurse as she spoke to her.

“Did you talk with your doctor about the difficulties you experienced when we last worked together?”

“Yes Raina, and I’ve not had any problems since that evening. The baby is developing normally, and my tests are good. You’re looking rather radiant today along with your normal friendly professionalism. You have the same look I can remember when I first met my husband. Do you have something to share with us all today?”

Raina turned red in the face and looked at the nurse quizzically. It was an attempt to cover up look that convinced Freya she was onto something juicy.

“OK out with it boss. Who is the lucky man, and do we know him?”

 All the nurses were relaxed with Raina, and they shared what was going on in their families as if they were all part of an extended family. It was not that way with all supervisors and they’d each learned by experience who to joke with and who to be cautious about what they said. Freya felt free to push further. Raina pretended to be annoyed but Freya pressed her further for information.

“Is it someone I know?”

Raina shook her head, but Freya knew she was covering up and spent the morning working thinking about this new secret she was sure the rest of the nurses would die to know. Raina tried to avoid her but eventually had to check on Freya’s assigned section as she accompanied one of the doctors on his rounds. While the doctor was examining a child Freya whispered in Raina’s ear.

“If you tell me, I promise not to tell the rest but.”

She left the rest of the sentence hanging and Raina understood the threat and was genuinely annoyed now.

“We’ll talk later.”

Freya backed off as she saw her boss irritated for the first time they’d worked together in the children’s ward. Perhaps she had to be guarded with this woman in future. At the end of the shift after the changeover procedures had been accomplished Raina approached Freya in the corridor and Freya braced for a tongue lashing. Instead of that Raina gave her a quick hug and steered her into a place where no one could hear them.

“OK Freya you blackmailer you got me there. I did have an encounter with someone I like. I’m not telling you who it is because I don’t know if he’s interested yet, but I hope something develops between us.”

Freya smiled.

“It wouldn’t have something to do with a girl called Brenna Cartwright, would it? I know you’ve been talking with her by phone because you were complaining about that some time ago and felt it could be considered unprofessional. The father is a real handsome hunk as I recall so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been smooth-talking you. Go for it! He’s a keeper and it appears not attached as I’ve never seen any woman visiting Brenna. I’ll keep your secret if you share how things develop.”

Raina gave Freya a playful slap.

“Go home you blackmailer and stop prying into my affairs.”

On reaching home that evening Raina began her home routines. A shower then change of clothes to something relaxing casual, preparation of food and eating in front of the TV. Housekeeping and time with a good book to relax before taking rest for the night. She was just sitting down in front of the TV with her food when the doorbell chimed. This puzzled and irritated her. It was not the time of month when maintenance checked in to see everything was working well in her rental apartment and no one ever visited apart from that. Her work schedule didn’t really work well with getting to know the people in other apartments. She put the tray aside and went to the door looking through the peep hole. It was someone wearing a delivery jacket, so she opened the door. Probably a mistaken delivery meant for someone else in the building.

To be continued.

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