LITMIR.BIZ

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recommend that you are entirely unsuitable for training. If I can’t train you, no one else could.’

      She bent her head over her desk and Araminta went back into the ward where there was a third-year nurse and Melanie, who had taken such a dislike to her. Neither of them took any notice of her as she went to the side ward and started on the bed. She very much wanted to speak her mind, but that might upset the patients and, worse, she might burst into tears. She would have her days off and when she came back she would go and see the Principal Nursing Officer and ask to be moved to another ward. Unheard of, but worth a try!

      It was almost seven o’clock by the time she had finished readying the room and making up the bed. She went down the ward, wishing the patients a cheerful goodnight as she went, ignoring the nurses and ignoring, too, Sister’s office, walking past it, out of the ward and along the corridor, then going down the wide stone staircase to the floor below and then another staircase to the ground floor.

      She was trying to make up her mind as to whether it was too late to go home, or should she wait for the morning, but she was boiling with rage and misery. Nothing was turning out as she had hoped, not that that mattered now that she would never see Marcus van der Breugh again. The pain of loving him was almost physical. She swallowed the tears she must hold back until she was in her room.

      ‘I shall probably be given the sack,’ she said out loud, and jumped the last two steps, straight into the doctor’s waistcoat.

      ‘Oh,’ said Araminta, as she flung her arms around as much of him as she could reach and burst into tears.

      He stood patiently, holding her lightly, and not until her sobs had dwindled into hiccoughs and sniffs did he ask, ‘In trouble?’

      ‘Yes, oh, yes. You have no idea.’ It seemed the most natural thing in the world to tell him, and, for the moment, the delight of finding him there just when she wanted him so badly had overridden all her good resolutions not to see him again, to forget him…

      He said calmly in a voice she wouldn’t have dreamt of disobeying, ‘Come with me,’ and he urged her across the corridor and into a room at its end.

      ‘I can’t come in here,’ said Araminta. ‘It’s the consultants’ room. I’m not allowed…’

      ‘I’m a consultant and I’m allowing you. Sit down, Mintie, and tell me why you are so upset.’

      He handed her a very white handkerchief. ‘Mop up your face, stop crying and begin at the beginning.’

      She stopped crying and mopped her face, but to begin at the beginning was impossible. She told him everything, muddling its sequence, making no excuses. ‘And, of course, I’ll be given the sack,’ she finished. ‘I was so rude to Sister Spicer, and anyway, she said I was no good, that I’d never make a nurse.’

      She gave a sniff and blew her nose vigorously. ‘It’s kind of you to listen; I don’t know why I had to behave like that. At least, I do, I had been looking forward to my days off, and I would have been home by now. But it’s all my own fault; I’m just not cut out to be a nurse. But that doesn’t matter,’ she added defiantly. ‘There are any number of careers these days.’

      The doctor made no comment. All he said was, ‘Go and wait in the nurses’ sitting room until I send you a message. No, don’t start asking questions. I’ll explain later.’

      He led her back, saw her on her way and went without haste to the Principal Nursing Officer’s office. He was there for some time, using his powers of persuasion, cutting ruthlessly through rules and regulations with patience and determination which couldn’t be gainsaid.

      Araminta found several of her new friends in the sitting room, and it was Molly who asked, ‘Not gone yet?’ and then, when she saw Araminta’s face, added, ‘Come and sit down. We were just wondering if we’d go down to the corner and get some chips.’

      Araminta said carefully, ‘I meant to go home this evening, but I got held up. I—I was rude to Sister Spicer. I expect I’ll be dismissed.’

      She didn’t feel like a grown woman, more like a disobedient schoolgirl and she despised herself for it.

      Molly said bracingly, ‘It can’t be as bad as all that, Mintie. You’ll see, when you come back from your days off you’ll find it will all have blown over.’

      Araminta shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. You see, Molly, I think Sister Spicer is probably right; I’m not very efficient, and I’m slow. I like looking after people and somehow there’s never enough time. Oh, you know what I mean—someone wants a bed pan but I’m not allowed to give it because the consultant is due in five minutes—that sort of thing.’

      ‘You’ve not been happy here, have you, Mintie?’

      ‘No, to be honest I haven’t. I think it will be best if I go and see the Principal Nursing Officer and tell her I’d like to leave.’

      ‘You don’t want to give it another try?’ someone asked, but Araminta didn’t answer because the warden had put her head round the corner.

      ‘Nurse Pomfrey, you’re to go to the consultants’ room immediately.’

      She went out, banging the door after her.

      ‘Mintie, whatever is happening? Why do you have to go there?’

      Araminta was at the door. ‘I’ll come back and tell you,’ she promised.

      Dr van der Breugh was standing with his vast back to the room, looking out of the window, when she knocked and went in. He turned round and gave her a thoughtful look before he spoke.

      ‘Have you decided what you want to do?’

      ‘Yes, I’ll go and ask if I may leave. At once, if that’s allowed. But I don’t suppose it is.’

      ‘And what do you intend to do?’

      ‘It’s kind of you to ask, doctor,’ said Araminta, hoping that her voice wouldn’t wobble. ‘I shall go home and then look for the kind of job I can do. Probably they will take me back at the convalescent home.’

      They wouldn’t; someone had taken her place and there was no need of her services there now. But he wasn’t to know that.

      ‘I feel responsible for this unfortunate state of affairs,’ said the doctor slowly, ‘for it was I who persuaded you to look after the twins and then arranged for you to come here. I should have known that it would be difficult for you, having to catch up with the other students. And Sister Spicer…’

      He came away from the window. ‘Sit down, Mintie, I have a suggestion to make to you. I do so reluctantly, for you must have little faith in my powers to help you. I have a patient whose son is the owner and headmaster of a boys’ prep school at Eastbourne. I saw her today and she told me that he is looking urgently for a temporary assistant matron. The previous one left unexpectedly to nurse her mother and doesn’t know when she intends to return. I gave no thought to it until I saw you this evening. Would you consider going there? You would need to be interviewed, of course, but it is a job with which you are already familiar.’

      ‘Little boys? But how can I take the job? I am not sure, but I expect I’d have to give some sort of notice.’ She added sharply, ‘Of course I have faith in you, I’m very grateful that you should have thought of me.’

      ‘But if it could be arranged, you would like the job, provided the interview was satisfactory?’

      ‘Yes. You see, that’s something I can do—little boys and babies and girls.’ She paused, then explained, ‘It’s not like nursing.’

      ‘No, I realise that. So you are prepared to give it a try? I have seen the Principal Nursing Officer. If you go her office now you may make a request to leave. It is already granted, but you need to go through the motions. I will contact my patient and ask her to arrange things with her son. You should hear shortly.’

      He went to the door and

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