when people die and their own inadequacy, always poor and often hungry and tired. They make bad jokes about Sir Herbert, but they admire him immensely."
"Do you?" Suddenly he seemed more interested.
"Yes," she answered with surprise. "Yes. I think I do, now."
"Be careful, Hester!" he said again, urgency mounting in his voice.
"You already said that, and I promised I would. Good night."
"Good night..."
* * * * *
The following day she had several hours off duty, and used them to visit two people for whom she had formed a considerable friendship. One was Major Hercules Tiplady, although the "Hercules" was a secret between them which she had promised not to reveal. She had been nursing him privately during his recovery from a badly broken leg while she was involved in the Carlyon case, and she had grown unusually fond of him. She did not often feel more than a regard and a responsibility toward her patients, but for the ' major she had developed a genuine friendship.
She had known Edith Sobell before the case. It was their friendship which had drawn her into it, and through that hectic time they had become very close. When Edith had left home it had been Hester who had made it possible by introducing her to the major, and from that had sprung his offer to employ her, a widow with no professional skills, as his secretary and assistant to help him write his memoirs of his experiences in India.
Hester arrived in the early afternoon, without having given notice of her intention because there had been no time. However, she was welcomed in with delight and an immediate abandonment of all work.
"Hester! How wonderful to see you. How are you? You look so tired, my dear. Do come in and tell us how you are, and let us fetch tea for you. You are stopping, aren't you?" Edith's curious face, at once plain and beautiful, was shining with enthusiasm.
"Of course she is staying," the major said quickly. He was fully restored to health now and walked with only the barest limp. Hester had never seen him active before, and it was quite startling to have him upright and attending to her, rather than her assisting him. All the marks of pain and frustration were gone from his face and he still looked as scrubbed pink and clean and his hair stood up like a white crest.
She acquiesced with pleasure. It was a warm, very sweet feeling to be among friends again, and with no duties to perform and nothing expected of her beyond tea and conversation.
"Who are you with now? Where are you nursing?" Edith asked eagerly, folding herself into a large armchair in a characteristic gawky mixture of grace and inelegance. It delighted Hester to see it: it meant she was utterly at home here. There was no perching on the edge of the chair, back straight, skirts arranged, hands folded as a lady should. Hester found herself relaxing also, and smiling for no particular reason.
"At the Royal Free Hospital on the Gray's Inn Road," she replied.
"A hospital?" Major Tiplady was amazed. "Not privately? Why? I thought you found it too..." He hesitated, unsure how to say what he meant diplomatically.
"Restricting to your temper," Edith finished for him.
"It is," Hester agreed, still smiling. "I am only there temporarily. It was very civil of you not to remind me that I am also fortunate to find a hospital which will take me after my last experience. Lady Callandra Daviot is on the Board of Governors. She obtained the position for me because their best nurse, another from the Crimea, was murdered."
"Oh how terrible!" Edith's face fell. "How did it happen?"
"We don't know," Hester replied with a return to gravity. "Lady Callandra has called Monk into the case, as well as the police, of course. And that is why I am there."
"Ah!" The major's eyes lit with enthusiasm. "So you are engaged upon detection again." Then he also became very grave. "Do be careful, my dear. Such an undertaking may become dangerous if your intent is realized."
"You have no need for concern," Hester assured him. "I am simply a nurse working like any other." She smiled broadly. "Such dislike as I have collected is because I served in the Crimea and am bossy and opinionated."
"And what was the dead nurse like?" Edith inquired.
"Bossy and opinionated." Hester gave a wry smile. "But truly, if that were a motive for murder there would be few of us left."