The Nightingale Girls - By Donna Douglas Page 0,83

right good laugh. And they say that’s the best medicine, don’t they?’

It was kind of them to try and make her feel better, Millie thought as she washed the bowl in the sluice room sink. But she still felt utterly foolish.

‘Really, Millie, you must try to think in future,’ she warned herself.

‘Did you know that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness?’ a voice said behind her.

Millie swung round. A young man stood in the sluice-room doorway. She recognised him as one of the housemen she’d seen with Mr Cooper that morning.

‘Of course, presenting a bowl of false teeth to the hospital’s Chief Consultant in full view of his entire firm may also be considered an act of insanity,’ he drawled.

His grin irritated Millie. ‘Have you come to gloat?’ she snapped.

‘I’ve come to tell you not to take it to heart.’ He wasn’t much older than she was, tall and lanky in his white coat, his dark hair flopping into his eyes. There was something familiar about him, but she wasn’t sure what. ‘If it’s any help, I actually think Cooper was secretly quite amused.’

‘Sister certainly wasn’t.’

‘Sister Wren has no sense of humour.’

Millie frowned at him. ‘Do I know you?’

‘I don’t think we’ve been introduced. I’m William. Will, to my friends. And you are?’

‘Benedict.’

‘No first name?’

‘You can call me Nurse Benedict, if you like?’

He smiled. He had a nice smile, Millie thought . . .

‘Thanks for trying to make me feel better,’ she said.

‘I’m a doctor. It’s my job.’

I’m a doctor. Something about the way he said it made her think. She looked up at him, more closely this time. The last time she’d seen that tall, lanky figure it had been looming out of the fog towards her . . .

‘It’s you!’ she cried. ‘You ran me over!’

‘I’m sorry?’ He frowned. And then, slowly, it dawned on him. ‘You!’

‘You owe me a new pair of stockings.’

‘And you owe me a new rear bumper.’ But we could call it quits if you promise to come out with me one night?’ he added cheekily.

Millie had opened her mouth to reply when she heard voices in the corridor.

‘Sounds like Mr Cooper’s coming back,’ said William.

He ducked out of sight, then stuck his head round the door again. ‘It’s been nice meeting you, Nurse Benedict. Perhaps I’ll run into you again sometime.’

‘Not literally, I hope!’ Millie was still smiling to herself as his running footsteps echoed away down the corridor.

Chapter Twenty-Six

AT NINE O’CLOCK, just before the day staff went off duty, Sister Hyde gave her final report to the night nurses who were taking over the Female Chronics ward.

‘Mrs Tyler in bed two has been in a great deal of pain from her arthritis today. Dr Grange has prescribed Cincophen, but she may need extra pain relief during the night.’ Like the other sisters, Sister Hyde didn’t need to consult any notes. She knew by heart the state of every patient on her ward. ‘Miss Fletcher in bed four suffered a convulsion at ten-past four this afternoon. She has been quiet since, but you must keep an eye on her. And we have had one admission today. Mrs Mortimer, bed six.’ She swept them with a warning glance. ‘You may need to watch her. She has been rather trying.’

Helen glanced across at Amy Hollins, who was barely listening. She had hoped that after their three months on Male Surgical they might get a break from each other. But here they were, stuck on night duty together, with only a solitary pro to keep them company. And even she was acting as a runner between several wards.

Sister Hyde finally went off duty, after leaving a long list of jobs to keep the nurses busy.

‘She’ll be lucky,’ Amy whispered as the doors closed behind her. ‘Come on, let’s get this lot settled quickly and then we can relax.’ She stretched and yawned.

Helen suspected Amy hadn’t been to bed. After their shift finished at seven in the morning and they’d had breakfast, they were sent straight to bed in the night nurses’ block, where a sister prowled the corridor to make sure they didn’t get up before noon. Helen usually couldn’t wait to crawl into bed, but she knew some nurses were more interested in their social lives than sleep, and managed to evade Sister’s beady eye to go off for the day with their boyfriends.

She would have asked Amy, but the other girl would probably think she was prying. Better just to stay