The Nightingale Girls - By Donna Douglas Page 0,81

worn-out women she shone like a bright flame with her blonde hair and scarlet satin gown.

‘Well, I don’t care,’ she declared. ‘I still think she’s delightful.’

‘My mother would die if she knew I was having anything to do with women like her.’

‘And my father says we should treat everyone with respect unless they give us a reason not to,’ Millie said firmly.

They were interrupted by Staff Nurse Cuthbert, stepping in front of them.

‘When you’ve quite finished gossiping, Sister wanted to know if you’ve finished with the patients?’ They both nodded. ‘You’ve washed them, combed their hair, changed their nightgowns? What about their teeth?’

Lucy nodded. Millie looked blank. ‘What about them?’

Cuthbert stared at her. ‘Don’t tell me you haven’t done their teeth? You have to take them out and clean them,’ she explained with exaggerated patience.

Millie glanced at Lucy. Her expression was smug, as usual.

‘What, all of them?’ Millie looked up and down the ward in horror. ‘That will take forever.’

‘Well, you’d better get on with it, hadn’t you?’

‘You could have told me I had to clean their teeth,’ she whispered to Lucy as she clattered back down the ward with her trolley.

‘I thought you knew,’ the other girl said carelessly.

‘Won’t you help me?’ Millie pleaded.

‘Not a chance. I’ve done my bit. And hurry up about it! They’d better be cleaned and put back in before Mr Cooper shows his face or there’ll be real trouble.’

Millie felt close to tears as she hurried back to the sluice. With so much to do and no one willing to give her a hand, she had horrible visions of not getting the job done in time and ending up in Matron’s office yet again.

She was filling the basin with water when she had a brainwave. She didn’t have to go round to every bed, cleaning each set of teeth individually. Surely all she had to do was collect up all the teeth and clean them at the same time?

Pleased with herself, she hurried back down the ward with the trolley, collecting up everyone’s teeth and throwing them into the basin of water as she went. Most of the women in the ward had false teeth – during training Sister Parker had explained how East End women often had their teeth removed at an early age to save on expensive dental treatment when they got older. When she had a basin full Millie carried them carefully back to the sluice, briskly trotting as fast as she could get away with, without breaking into a run.

She was just rinsing the last of the teeth under the tap and feeling rather pleased with her own ingenuity when Lucy appeared in the doorway to the sluice.

‘What are you doing now?’ she demanded. Millie suppressed her annoyance. Lucy had become insufferably bossy since they’d started work on the ward.

‘Cleaning the teeth. Look.’ Millie showed her the basin. But instead of being incredibly impressed by her time-saving brainwave, Lucy just stared at the bowl then at Millie and back at the bowl again.

‘How are you going to tell which teeth are which?’ she asked.

‘That’s easy, I’ll just . . .’ Millie’s smile faltered slightly ‘. . . I mean, I’ll . . .’

Then full realisation hit her and she stared in horror at the assortment of teeth in the bowl. They all seemed to be grinning up at her.

‘Oh, Benedict, what have you done now?’ Lucy put her hand over her mouth, her eyes as big as saucers above it. They stared at each other for a moment.

Then the phone rang.

‘Mr Cooper’s on his way.’ Lucy thrust the basin at her. ‘Get this lot handed out stat.’

‘But how will we know who to give them to?’ Millie asked.

‘I don’t know, do I? You’ll just have to guess for now and sort it out later.’

Fortunately Staff Nurse Cuthbert was busy and Sister Wren had retired to her sitting room, so they didn’t witness Millie hurtling up and down the ward, skimming false teeth into the laps of surprised patients.

By the time she had reached the other end of the ward, Sister Wren had emerged from her sitting room, her ashy brown hair looking suspiciously teased under her starched cap. The staff nurses and Lucy had already gathered at the doors to the ward, ready to greet their illustrious visitor when he arrived.

‘Benedict!’ Sister Wren snapped at Millie. ‘Is that the basin for Mr Cooper? Put it down at once.’

‘But Sister—’

‘I said, put it down!’ Sister Wren hissed furiously. ‘Roll your sleeves