And so was she, she reminded herself. There had been a time when she had measured her year by muck spreading and sowing, lambing and calving. It was the life she had been born to, and the life she enjoyed.

She would have preferred to speak to Dr Carlyle about her idea, but she was away on a walking holiday in Scotland with her fiancé Dr French. He was on leave from his posting in France.

Instead, she knocked on Dr Logan’s door.

‘Come.’

As Grace fumbled with the doorknob, she could imagine him sighing with impatience inside the room.

Robert Logan was sitting behind his wooden desk, a pile of papers in front of him. The reports for the Medical Board, Grace guessed.

He looked up at her. ‘What is it, Nurse? Is it one of the patients?’

‘No, Sir. I just wanted to speak to you about something.’ She glanced down at the reports. ‘But I can come back when you’re not so busy …’

‘No, stay. Please.’ He sat back in his seat, took off his glasses and rubbed a hand wearily over his eyes. ‘I would be pleased of the distraction, actually.’ He replaced his spectacles and looked up at her. ‘What was it you wanted?’

Grace looked around her at the book-lined walls, suddenly very nervous. She kept her hands clasped together, her elbows tucked in at her sides in case she knocked something over.

‘I’ve been talking to Albie – Corporal Sallis.’

‘Talking to him?’ Dr Logan raised his eyebrows. ‘I’d be very surprised if you got a word in edgeways, Nurse.’

Grace smiled. ‘Very well, I was listening to him talking about London, and how much he loved it. And I wondered – might it be possible to organise an outing for some of the men?’

Grace risked a glance up at him. Dr Logan’s dark eyes were fixed on her so intently behind his spectacles that she almost lost her nerve.

‘An outing?’ he said.

‘We wouldn’t have to go far.’ Grace was gabbling now, the words tumbling over themselves. ‘Just around the park, perhaps, or to a café? We might even go to a concert? People are always sending us free tickets.’

Dr Logan went on staring at her, and Grace felt her confidence start to crumble.

‘On second thoughts, it might not be a very good idea,’ she mumbled. ‘It would probably be too much for the men. They need peace and quiet, don’t they? The noise, the busy streets, the people … I daresay it would set them back in their treatment.’

‘I think it’s a capital idea,’ Dr Logan said.

Grace stared at him. ‘You do?’

He nodded. ‘It would give them a taste of normality. Of course, we’d have to be careful which patients we took. They would have to be the more robust of the men, the ones who were responding best to treatment.’ He looked up and gave her one of his rare smiles. ‘Let me think about it, Nurse. But we will definitely organise something.’