‘It’s not a straitjacket, Nurse. And Captain Waterford has enough trouble breathing, don’t you think?’ Dr Logan looked rueful.

Dulcie stared down at the needle in her hand. ‘Sorry, Doctor. I wasn’t paying attention.’

She started to unpick the stitches, her thoughts straying straight back to Sam.

What if he refused to see them? What if he turned them away, after they had come all the way up from Cornwall? Surely he wouldn’t be so cruel …

Two o’clock struck and Dulcie was so nervous she jumped, pricking herself with the needle. She let out a yelp of pain.

‘Are you all right, Nurse?’ Dr Logan was staring at her. Even Captain Waterford turned his sunken eyes to meet hers.

‘Yes. Yes, I’m sorry.’ Dulcie sucked the end of her finger. Dr Logan’s brows rose, but he said nothing.

She quickly finished fitting Captain Waterford’s cotton jacket, then waited while Dr Logan examined him. All the while her gaze kept straying up to the clock on the wall.

Finally, Dr Logan finished writing up his notes and they were about to leave. Dulcie prayed he wouldn’t ask her to make up an ice pack or anything. She wasn’t sure her nerves could stand it.

As they left the patient’s room, Dr Logan said, ‘Do you have another appointment, Nurse?’

Dulcie looked round at him, startled. ‘No, Sir.’

‘It’s just you kept looking at the clock. I wondered if there was somewhere you needed to go?’

Dulcie blushed. ‘I’m sorry, Doctor. Sam – Sergeant Trevelyan – is expecting a visitor today, and I’m rather worried about it.’

‘Worried? Why?’

Heat scalded her face. ‘Because I organised it, Sir.’

Dulcie explained what she had done. Dr Logan listened in his usual careful way, his head bowed.

‘And you say Sergeant Trevelyan didn’t want this visit to happen?’

‘No, Sir. But I thought it would do him good. I did ask you for your advice,’ Dulcie reminded him.

‘Good Lord. Did you?’ Dr Logan looked startled. ‘And what did I say?’

‘You seemed to think it was a good idea.’ She looked up at his grave expression. ‘It won’t do any harm, will it, Sir?’

Dr Logan shook his head. ‘Time will tell, Nurse,’ he said. But he didn’t look very convinced.

So much for trying to impress him, Dulcie thought as she watched him striding away down the ward. She had been so preoccupied she had even forgotten to flirt with him.

There was no sign of Sam or his family when she returned to the ward. Dulcie was still staring at his empty bed when Nurse Hanley bustled up in a flurry of crackling starched linen.

‘There’s an amputation coming up from surgery,’ she announced. ‘Fetch Nurse Trott and make up bed eight, please.’

‘Where is Sergeant Trevelyan?’ Dulcie asked.

Nurse Hanley’s face twitched with displeasure. ‘Really, Nurse, I do wish you would stop answering all my instructions with a question,’ she snapped. Then she added, ‘As far as I am aware, Sergeant Trevelyan is on the terrace with his family.’