“Hi, I’m Alex White,” she said congenially, and the girl sitting on the bed smiled at her.

“I’m Lizzie Hatton. Welcome to Buckingham Palace. That’s what they call it. They gave the nurses the best dormitory.” Lizzie stood up and stretched when she said it. She was wearing pink satin pajamas with candy canes on them. “Sorry about the pajamas. My brother gave them to me for Christmas.”

“My sister wanted to give me a straitjacket when I enlisted,” Alex said and they both laughed.

“My family would have done the same,” Lizzie said and showed Alex where everything was. The room looked as bare as any army barracks, but Lizzie had put a jar of flowers on the desk to cheer the place up. “Where are you from?” Lizzie asked her. She liked the look of her. She looked friendly and nice and happy to be there. All of the nurses had enlisted, so they were pleased with their choice and rarely, if ever, complained. It was a nice change from civilian life, where everyone at the hospital where she had worked groused about everything all the time. Life was harder in the army, but they didn’t mind.

“I’m from New York,” Alex said. “You?”

“Boston,” Lizzie answered. “We lucked out with this post. It’s supposed to be one of the best in the country. And it’s three thousand miles from my parents, which is a definite plus.”

“And mine.” Alex grinned back at her, and sat down on her own bed, which she hadn’t made up yet. She’d never made her own bed in her life until she joined the army. “What ward do you work on?” she asked, curious about her new roommate. She seemed like a very nice young woman.

“General. They move me around a lot. We get a lot of shell shock and trauma cases, along with the physical stuff.” She thought of Alfred as she said it.

“I requested psychiatric, but I don’t know my assignment yet. I’ll be happy with whatever they give me.”

“You’ll love the city. It’s beautiful,” Lizzie said happily. There was something about Alex that suggested she was well brought up and well educated, but you never knew in the army, and met all kinds. They were all equal here.