The Nightingale Girls - By Donna Douglas Page 0,73

or Charlie as she called him in her head. He had been in an odd mood as she’d helped him to pack that morning, as if he had something weighing on his mind.

Helen did her best to cheer him up. ‘I bet you’re looking forward to getting out of here?’ she’d said, as she carefully folded his spare pair of pyjamas.

‘I don’t know about that. I’m not sure I’m ready for the big wide world yet, Nurse T.’

‘You’ll be fine,’ she reassured him. ‘You’ve learned to cope really well with your new leg.’

‘Oh, I can manage all right in here. But what’s it going to be like when I get out there?’ He turned his gaze towards the window.

‘You’re bound to feel a bit nervous at first,’ she said briskly. ‘But I bet in a couple of weeks you’ll be happily drinking pints in the Rose and Crown and won’t even remember this place!’

‘I won’t forget you in a hurry.’

Helen was on her hands and knees, clearing out his locker. She was glad he couldn’t see her blushing face.

‘Helen? Have you listened to a word I’ve said?’

She looked at her mother across the table. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘I thought not.’ Constance’s mouth pursed with irritation. ‘I hope you’re more attentive than this when you’re working on the ward?’

‘Yes, Mother.’

‘I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that you’re representing me at the Nightingale. I do not expect you to let me down.’

‘No, Mother.’

‘And if you make a mistake, be sure I will find out about it.’

‘I know, Mother.’

As they nibbled their sandwiches, her mother quizzed her. How were her studies? What had she learned? Was she doing better than the other students?

Helen did her best to answer tactfully. But she made a mistake when she tried to tell her mother a funny story about one of the pros on her ward who had got confused by Sister’s instructions to give a patient an air ring to sit on after his haemorrhoid operation.

‘She thought Sister meant give him an airing. The Staff Nurse caught her trying to drag him outside, howling in pain!’

She hoped her mother would laugh, but Constance Tremayne’s face grew serious.

‘Really, Helen, I see nothing to laugh about,’ she said sternly. ‘A patient’s life could have been put at risk.’

‘He only had haemorrhoids!’ Helen protested.

‘Perhaps, but tomorrow it could be someone with a heart condition or a head injury. You may smile, Helen, but I’m serious. Quite honestly, I don’t know what you young nurses are thinking about these days. When I was training—’

Helen mentally tuned out, playing with the crumbs on her plate. It was going to be a long afternoon, she could tell.

She hurried back to the ward just before five, but Charlie had already gone. Two pros were making up his bed with fresh sheets, ready for the next patient.

‘He left half an hour ago,’ Amy Hollins told her. ‘If you ask me, he couldn’t wait to see the back of this place.’

‘I don’t blame him,’ Helen sighed. But she couldn’t help feeling a pang of disappointment that she’d missed saying goodbye.

The following morning Helen was surprised to see him coming through the doors as she was taking TPRs at the other end of the ward. Charlie was leaning heavily on his stick while balancing an enormous bunch of chrysanthemums in his free hand. She felt a sudden wave of panic and lost her count while taking Mr Stannard’s pulse.

‘Looks like someone’s got a secret admirer.’ Mr Stannard grinned at Helen, showing off his few remaining teeth. ‘Who’s the lucky girl, I wonder?’

‘I really wouldn’t know.’ Helen quickly copied the previous figure on his chart and moved away. Her own pulse had started racing so hard she couldn’t keep count of that, either. She tried to ignore the conversation that was going on at the other end of the ward between Charlie Denton and Staff Nurse Lund. They talked for a minute or two, then he left. Shortly after, Lund summoned Helen over.

‘Mr Denton brought these flowers in to thank us for looking after him. Isn’t that kind?’ she said.

‘Very kind, Staff. Shall I put them in water?’

‘Good idea, Tremayne. But be sure you’re back before Sister returns from her break, won’t you?’

Helen didn’t understand the look Lund gave her until she found Charlie Denton waiting for her by the sluice-room door.

‘The nurse said I could have five minutes with you.’ He looked so different all dressed up in a suit and shirt, his red-gold hair brushed