The Nightingale Girls - By Donna Douglas Page 0,37
it. A good nurse should be dedicated enough without needing to be rewarded by – entertainment.’ She fingered the gold cross around her neck, her only adornment against her sober fawn suit. ‘When I was training—’
‘My nurses are dedicated,’ Kathleen cut her off before she went into another long-winded story about the good old days. Irritation prickled up her spine. ‘But they are also young women. Most of them will be spending Christmas working on the wards, away from their loved ones. Your own daughter among them, I have to say.’
Mrs Tremayne’s jutting cheekbones were tinged with pink. ‘And I’m sure my daughter will be only too glad to do her duty,’ she said stiffly.
Kathleen caught the amused glint in James Cooper’s eyes. ‘I dare say she will, Mrs Tremayne. As will our other nurses,’ she agreed patiently. ‘But that is exactly my point. While you are sitting down to enjoy your Christmas dinner, they will be on their feet for fourteen hours, cheerfully changing beds, cleaning out sputum mugs and fetching bedpans, or trying to bring some comfort to a dying woman who knows she will never spend another Christmas with her children. Perhaps you would like to explain to them why you feel they do not deserve a little diversion?’
‘Hear hear,’ James Cooper muttered.
‘Indeed,’ Gerald Munroe agreed. ‘And I for one quite enjoy the Christmas Dance. A chance to see all the young ladies dressed up in their finery. Very pretty girls, some of them, I must say.’
He glanced around the table. Everyone stared back at him without commenting.
‘Shall we take a vote?’ Philip Enright suggested, with a touch of desperation.
In the end, Mrs Tremayne was defeated. Only Lady Fenella voted with her, although Kathleen suspected she didn’t quite understand what she was voting for.
‘Someone will not be getting a Christmas card from Mrs Tremayne,’ James Cooper observed when the meeting finally broke up and they were heading back to the wards.
‘I’m sure I can contain my disappointment.’ Kathleen looked rueful. ‘I really wish I knew why she disliked me so much,’ she sighed.
James Cooper’s brows rose. ‘I would have thought it was obvious. You stand up to her, unlike the rest of us. You must remember, Mrs T is accustomed to having her own way in these meetings. She certainly isn’t used to anyone leading a rebellion against her.’
‘I’m not interested in leading any kind of rebellion,’ Kathleen said. ‘I thought we were all supposed to be on the same side?’
‘Only if that side happens to be Mrs Tremayne’s.’
Kathleen massaged the tense muscles at the back of her neck. ‘At least she didn’t get her way over the Christmas Dance. I’m very glad about that. Apart from anything else, I think it’s an excellent way of improving relations between the staff.’
‘I think it’s the “relations” she’s worried about.’ Mr Cooper smiled as he opened a door for her. The expression ‘tall, dark and handsome’ could have been invented with him in mind, she decided. ‘Mrs Tremayne prides herself on being the hospital’s moral guardian, don’t forget. She thoroughly disapproves of anything that encourages fraternisation between the male and female staff. She believes all doctors are sex-crazed beasts in white coats. And the nurses aren’t much better, either.’
‘If doctors and nurses are going to fraternise at all, I would far rather it happened under the watchful eye of the senior staff than locked away in the basement by the stoke hole!’
‘By the stoke hole, eh?’ Mr Cooper looked amused. ‘I do hope that isn’t the voice of experience, Matron?’
‘That would be telling, Mr Cooper.’
‘I’m deeply shocked.’ His eyes were extraordinary, she thought. A clear, sapphire blue, fringed with very long dark lashes. She could imagine they had a devastating effect on his female patients.
They reached the other side of the courtyard and Mr Cooper turned to her. ‘This is where I have to leave you. I’m due in theatre, and thanks to Mrs Tremayne, I’m already at least two hysterectomies behind on my list.’
‘And I’m late for my ward round.’
‘I hope you make sure all those patients have had their baths, since you’ve wilfully done away with all the written records?’
‘Don’t.’ Kathleen shook her head. Mrs Tremayne couldn’t have been more shocked if she’d announced she was doing away with all the beds. Kathleen wasn’t sure how she’d found out but she suspected Miss Hanley might have had a hand in it. She’d already made it quite clear where her loyalties lay.