the staff nurses talking. Apparently someone always rings from another ward to warn us when he’s on his way.’
Reassured that she wouldn’t be caught unawares, Millie was able to relax and get on with her cleaning. She was determined to make a perfect job of it, to show Sister Wren she could be a good nurse.
‘Watch it, love, you keep on polishing it like that you’ll wear a hole straight through the floorboards!’ one of the women cackled cheerfully as Millie skimmed around her bed with the mop.
‘Really?’ Millie said anxiously. ‘This is how they taught us to do it in training. Have I got it wrong, do you think?’
‘Bless you, love, you carry on.’ The woman beamed at her. ‘You can go round and do mine afterwards. God only knows what state it’s got in since I’ve been in here. I don’t suppose that old man of mine has lifted a finger.’
Millie finished the polishing, which passed even Sister Wren’s eagle eye.
‘You took your time about it, I must say,’ was her only comment. ‘Now get the patients washed and ready. And see you’re a bit quicker about it this time.’
Millie loaded up a trolley with combs, flannels, towels and a bowl of water, and she and Lane made their way around, taking one side of the ward each. Every patient had to be washed, their hair combed, put into a clean nightdress and generally made presentable for Mr Cooper’s arrival.
‘This is very nice, I must say,’ said Miss Desmond, as Millie carefully combed through her bleached-blonde curls. Blanche, as she liked to be called, was a voluptuous woman, her fleshy curves barely contained within the richly patterned red silk nightdress she wore. She was due for a hysterectomy to get rid of her fibroids. ‘So what’s all this in aid of? Are we going for a night out?’
‘No such luck, I’m afraid, Miss Desmond. The consultant is doing his rounds.’
‘Ah. That explains why Sister is all of a twitch this morning.’ Blanche nodded knowingly. ‘She’s got a soft spot for Mr Cooper,’ she explained, when Millie looked blank.
‘Surely not!’
‘Where do you think she’s gone now? Off titivating herself in that sitting room of hers, I expect,’ Blanche said. ‘You watch her when he turns up. She’ll go all fluttery and girlish. And then she’ll try and lure him back to her sitting room for tea and biscuits. Although I reckon it’ll take more than a cup of Earl Grey to get him interested in her!’
She roared with laughter. Millie caught the staff nurse’s warning frown and quickly gathered up the washing things, guilty at being caught idling yet again. Lucy was making much faster progress up her side of the ward, she noticed.
‘Mind you, I can’t say I blame her. He is a handsome devil,’ Blanche went on. ‘And he’s got a lovely speaking voice, too. I wouldn’t mind having a crack at him myself.’ She turned to Millie. ‘Reach into my locker and get my make-up bag, will you love? Can’t have him seeing me looking a state, can I?’
Millie watched in fascination as Blanche applied deep red lipstick to her generous mouth. ‘Not that I know why I’m bothering,’ she said. ‘There’s only one part of my body that man ever looks at, and it ain’t my face!’ She laughed so hard her hand shook, wobbling her lipstick. ‘Sounds like every man I’ve ever met!’ She winked at Millie.
‘I don’t know how you can bring yourself to talk to that woman.’ Lucy fell into step beside Millie as she wheeled her trolley back down the ward. She had already finished and tidied her own trolley away, as usual.
‘You mean Blanche? She’s lovely. And she makes me laugh. Besides, she likes the company. None of the other women seem to want to talk to her for some reason.’
‘I’m not surprised. Who’d want anything to do with someone like her?’ Lucy frowned at Millie. ‘You do know what she does for a living, don’t you?’
‘She runs her own business from a flat off the Mile End Road, she told me.’ Millie noticed Lucy’s expression. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘You are. God, you’re such an innocent, Benedict!’ Lucy lowered her voice. ‘She’s a tart. A prostitute. She sells her body for money.’
‘That’s not true!’
‘Ask her, if you don’t believe me. Ask anyone,’ Lucy shrugged. ‘Everyone knows what she is. Everyone but you, that is,’ she said with a smirk.
Millie glanced back over her shoulder at Blanche Desmond. Among all the drab,