Boitelo looked relieved. “The doctor was there. He was very kind to me and said that he was very pleased to see that I had been a theatre nurse, as he thought that such people were hard workers, and that I would be a good person to have in his clinic. Then he spoke about what the job would involve. He asked me if I understood about confidentiality and about not talking to people about things that I might see or hear while I was working in the clinic. I said I did.

“Then he said to me, ‘I have a friend who has just had an operation in the Princess Marina. Maybe you can tell me how he is doing.’

“He gave me the name of his friend, who is a well-known person because he plays football very well and is very handsome. I had been on duty for that operation and I was about to say that I thought that it had gone very well. But then I realised that this was a trick and that I should say nothing. So I said, ‘I cannot speak about these things. I’m sorry.’

“He looked at me, and for a little while I thought that he was very cross and would shout at me for not answering his question. But then he smiled and he said, ‘You are very good at keeping confidences. Most people are not. I think that you will be a very good nurse for this clinic.’”

Boitelo took a further sip of her tea. “I had to work out a month’s notice at the Princess Marina, but that was simple enough. Then I started and I found that the work was very enjoyable. I did not have to stand about as I had to do in the theatre, and I was also permitted to do things that nurses sometimes are not allowed to do. He let me do little surgical procedures on people—dealing with an in-growing toe-nail, for example, or freezing off a wart. I liked freezing off warts, as the dry ice made my fingers tingle with the cold.

“I was happy in my work, and I thought that I must have been one of the luckiest nurses in the country, to work for this doctor and to be allowed to do all these things. But then something happened which made me wonder. I was puzzled by something, and I decided to check up on it. And that was when I learned something which made me very worried. I have been worrying about this thing so much that I decided to come and speak to you, Mma Ramotswe, because people say that you are a good woman and that you are very kind to those who come to you with their troubles. That is why I am here.”