‘I know.’ Holly flushed guiltily. ‘But there’s something about this little chap that’s touched me.’

‘Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.’ The night nurse stifled a yawn then got up and stretched. She was stiff after sitting so long in the chair.

‘I’ll get off and get some sleep then. Dr Nason should be here soon. Matron asked him to pop in to look at Robbie before beginning his house calls.’

Holly sat down and took Robbie’s hand in hers. It was burning hot yet clammy to the touch and his chest was rattling alarmingly.

Soon after Dr Nason arrived and instantly ordered her to get some bowls of hot water. ‘Drape a sheet over the bed and get some steam round him,’ he ordered. ‘That might relieve his chest a little.’

Holly raced away to do as she was told but as the morning wore on he showed no signs of improvement.

‘Has his mother been?’ she asked the matron when she too came to see the child and she told her then of his mother’s reaction when she had visited her.

The woman shook her head. ‘But never mind. Let’s just concentrate on getting him well for now. He wouldn’t know if she was here anyway.’

After a while the steam did seem to ease his breathing and just before lunchtime his eyes opened and he blinked. ‘Where am I?’ he asked groggily and Holly could have laughed aloud with sheer joy. It looked now like this little fighter might beat the illness after all.

‘You’re safe and you’re here with me at the hospital.’

He frowned and nodded. ‘Oh yeah, I remembers now. Yer give me some milk an’ cake, cherry cake.’

‘I certainly did. Would you like some now?’

He shook his head. ‘No, but I’s right firsty.’

She held a glass of water to his lips and he drank it greedily, then lying back against the pillows he drifted off to sleep again.

‘I think the fever has broken thanks to your vigilant care,’ Dr Nason told her when he visited again later in the day. ‘Well done, nurse. Now just make sure he gets plenty of fluids down him and I’ll be back to see him in the morning.’

Holly sighed with relief. Earlier in the afternoon one of the babies on the ward had died. She had seen its tiny lifeless body being wheeled away to the mortuary and she was sure she couldn’t have borne it if it had been Robbie. But thank God now he should start to recover.

Every day that week she saw signs of improvement in him and one morning the matron called her into her office.

‘I’ve just had a visit from Robbie’s mother, Mrs Smith,’ she informed her. ‘I told her that he was doing really well and that if he continued to make progress he might be able to go home next week, and do you know what she said?’ The woman’s eyes were flashing with disgust and indignation. ‘She had the nerve to ask could we keep him here for as long as we could because Robbie didn’t get on too well with her latest man! The cheek of the woman! Anyway, I told her that if she didn’t want him back at home I could possibly obtain a place for him in the workhouse. I expected her to argue but instead she was very happy with the idea. She said to go ahead, it would solve a lot of problems for her and sailed out of here without a care in the world!’