It had been at Matron’s retirement drinks some years ago that she had first really talked to her colleague, Mr Charles Lamberty, a consultant high up in the nursing home. Of course, they had exchanged a few words in the delivery suite when he was performing a caesarean or had been in charge of a complicated delivery, but it had never been intimate talk. Suddenly and alarmingly she found Mr Lamberty gazing into her dark eyes enquiring about where she had trained, information she was happy to share with him, and where she had been educated, information she was less happy to share. Some weeks after the retirement party another social event followed, and this time there was no doubting that their relationship had suddenly slipped from professional to personal. When Charles had suggested driving her home, Edith had demurred, saying she was sleeping on site, and it was in the nurses’ dorm in a very narrow bed, aged well over thirty, that Edith had lost her virginity.

It was a perfect secretive arrangement; Edith simply couldn’t have asked for more. She was happy with her wealthy, good-looking older consultant who treated his mistress to luxuries she could never have afforded: a gold watch, a string of pearls, the occasional silk underwear and nylons when he could get them, all of which Edith sneaked into her locker to be worn on the rapturous occasions she spent with Charles.

When the news got out and gossip spread, Edith immediately handed in her notice. She didn’t want to be in the nursing home or the area itself when the scandal broke; her primary concern was to avoid at all costs bringing shame upon her beloved, for whom she was prepared to sacrifice her life. Her mother, ever a loose cannon, had to be played carefully; if she heard about Edith’s affair with a married man (fortunately in Harrogate, which Mrs Mann barely frequented), she would without question use it as another means to threaten or blackmail Edith whenever she wanted money from her. If Edith acted swiftly, she could get away from her mother, whom she would continue to pay weekly if only to keep her drink-sodden and quiet.