‘We can’t get rid of her. She’s been here for years. Besides, she’s a widow, she needs the money.’

‘We need the money!’ Edward reminded her. ‘Think what we can do if we save on her wages. We might be able to bring down our prices, or even start offering customers tick again.’ He let her hands drop. ‘Of course, if you don’t think it’s a good idea …’

‘No! No, it’s a very good idea,’ Anna assured him hastily. ‘I’m just a bit worried about telling her, that’s all.’

‘I’ll tell her,’ Edward said. ‘Believe me, it would be a pleasure to give the old bag her marching orders!’

‘No,’ Anna said. ‘I should be the one to do it. Promise me you’ll leave it to me – please?’

‘If I must,’ Edward sighed. Then he smiled and grabbed her hands again. ‘Just think, in a couple of weeks we’ll be working together like we used to. How does that sound?’

For a moment Anna felt a pang, thinking of the Nightingale Hospital and all the good times she’d had there. She had made so many friends, it would be sad to leave them all behind.

Then she remembered the previous night, and all those buckets and bowls and bedpans. She certainly wouldn’t miss nights like that.

She grinned at Edward. ‘I think it sounds like heaven,’ she said.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

‘What are you supposed to be doing, Nurse Moore?’

Dulcie’s heart sank at the sound of Sister’s voice. She turned round, stifling a sigh, to see Miss Parker bearing down on her.

‘I was going to take blood from the patient in bed fourteen, Sister.’

‘And how do you propose to do that, Nurse?’

Dulcie looked down at the kidney dish in her hands, filled with the hypodermic apparatus and covered with a cloth. ‘The usual way, Sister.’

Miss Parker gave an exaggerated sigh. ‘How long have you been working on this ward, Moore?’

Too long, Dulcie thought. ‘A month, Sister.’

‘Then you should know by now that particular patient doesn’t like needles.’

‘Then what am I supposed to do, Sister?’

Miss Parker sighed. ‘Ask Duffield, she’ll tell you.’

‘Yes, Sister.’

Dulcie walked away, quietly furious.

Ask Nurse Duffield. Nurse Duffield will show you. That was all she seemed to hear. She was getting sick and tired of it.

She watched Grace at the other end of the ward, laughing with a patient. That same man had glared at Dulcie in hostile silence this morning when she had tried to make conversation with him.

It was as if Grace had found her natural home, Dulcie thought. On Monaghan, she had always been so awkward and clumsy. And yet in the four weeks Dulcie had been on Wilson, she had not seen Grace drop or spill a single thing. She moved around the ward with assurance, perfectly content and untroubled by all the shrieking and moaning going on around her.

And of course she knew exactly what to do about the troublesome patient in bed fourteen.