‘You’ll have to find someone to marry you first.’

‘I bet I find someone before you do!’

It was a spiteful comment, but Miriam deserved it. Dulcie waited for Grace to say something, to tell her off for being mean. But Grace was silent as she stirred her spoon around her cup.

Come to think of it, she had barely spoken a word since the wedding, Dulcie thought.

‘I don’t think it matters what kind of wedding you have,’ Sylvia Saunders piped up. ‘I’d marry Roger anywhere, so long as it meant we were together. But that’s what true love is all about, isn’t it?’ She sent Dulcie a meaningful look.

‘I agree,’ Miriam said. ‘Isn’t it wonderful to see two people so happy and in love?’ she sighed. ‘You can see how much they adore each other.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ Mary Finnegan put in. ‘Edward Stanning is a very handsome man.’

‘Yes, Anna Beck is a lucky girl.’ Miriam’s eyes gleamed. ‘Can you imagine, waking up to a man like that?’

Grace knocked over her cup with a clatter, making them jump. They all stared in horror at the brown tea stain spreading over the snowy white linen tablecloth.

‘Honestly, Duffield, do you have to be so clumsy all the time!’ Miriam Trott snapped.

‘Typical Duffer! We can’t take you anywhere!’ Mary Finnegan laughed.

‘Let’s get this mess cleared up.’ Sylvia snatched up a napkin and began dabbing the stain.

Usually Grace would have been in there too, blushing like mad and stammering apologies while she tried to help, her long limbs and pointed elbows getting in everyone’s way.

But this time she didn’t move. She sat watching them, a dazed frown on her face. It wasn’t until Miriam snapped at her that she finally galvanised herself and grabbed a napkin.

There was definitely something on her mind, Dulcie thought. But she didn’t think any more of it until much later that evening, when they were walking from Walford House to the hospital building together to begin their respective night duties.

‘Typical,’ Dulcie moaned. ‘New Year’s Eve and I’m working. I swear Miss Sutton does it on purpose, just to spite me.’

Grace said nothing. She plodded next to Dulcie, her head down.

‘I bet they’ll be having a party in the Students’ Union bar,’ Dulcie went on. ‘I know a lot of the doctors go. Perhaps Dr Logan will be there?’ Although she couldn’t imagine it. Robert Logan was proving to be annoyingly anti-social. He hadn’t turned up to the Christmas show, or any of the festive parties and get-togethers that follow it.

At least it meant none of the other nurses had had a chance to get their claws into him, but neither had Dulcie.

Perhaps all that would change tonight? Perhaps he would turn up to a New Year’s Eve party, and when midnight struck some nurse would seize her chance to grab him for a kiss …

Please God, don’t let it be Miriam Trott, Dulcie thought.