And then it would be time for the Christmas show. Any patient who was fit enough would be moved down to the staff dining room, where the nurses and doctors would entertain them with songs and skits and monologues.

This was the part of the day Dulcie was most excited about. Because there she would be able to see Dr Logan again.

Since he had moved full-time to Wilson, Dulcie had only had the briefest of tantalising glimpses of him, not nearly enough for her to work her magic. She had had to rely on Grace Duffield for all the news, and she was utterly hopeless.

‘I’m truly sorry, Moore, but I don’t know anything,’ she had said last time Dulcie pestered her for information. ‘Can’t you ask someone else? Finnegan or Saunders? I’m sure they’re friendlier with him than I am.’

The idea of asking Sylvia Saunders for help made Dulcie shudder.

‘But you work with Dr Logan every day. Surely you must speak to him?’ she had insisted.

‘Not if I can help it,’ Grace replied firmly.

Dulcie couldn’t understand it. If she was working alongside Dr Logan, they would be practically engaged by now. It had all made her even more determined to get herself moved to Wilson ward.

In the meantime, she was pinning all her hopes on the Christmas show. Dr Logan was bound to be there and Dulcie had made sure she was looking her best. She was going to be singing “The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery”, dressed as Marie Lloyd, complete with an extravagant feathered hat and a parasol.

And she was going to make sure Robert Logan knew she was singing it to him.

Dulcie could hardly wait. But before then, she had to put up with Sylvia Saunders trilling on about the duet she was planning to perform with Roger.

‘I’m so nervous about it,’ she had confessed with a fluttery little laugh at breakfast that morning. ‘I’ve never performed in public before.’

Then, as all the other nurses fussed around her, reassuring her that her voice was angelic and she would do very well, Dulcie couldn’t resist putting in, ‘Oh, if you’re half as good as Roger and I were last year, you’ll be fine. I seem to remember we brought the house down with our duet last Christmas. Not that anyone will be comparing, I’m sure,’ she had added with an arch look.

That had shut her up. Sylvia blushed deeply and changed the subject.

‘Why did you have to say that?’ Anna scolded Dulcie in a whisper.

‘Oh, she deserves to be brought down a peg or two,’ Dulcie dismissed. ‘She’s so smug, constantly talking about her fiancé this and her fiancé that.’

‘She’s just happy,’ Anna said, but Dulcie wasn’t listening.

‘Honestly, I’ll be glad when this wretched wedding is over,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I can stand listening to her going on and on about it for another five months!’

‘Talking of weddings,’ Anna said, looking down at her hands, ‘Edward and I are getting married.’