‘Oh, it’s you, returned at last,’ he said as he rubbed his face. ‘I was just resting my eyes.’

Elsie had followed Matron with the trolley and they smiled at each other.

‘Good, well, that means your eyes will be fresh and ready to take in these plans I’ve just been given by the architect.’

Elsie handed Dr Gaskell his tea and he winked at her. ‘Indeed. We’re going to need lots of new staff. I was thinking to myself, er, while I was resting my eyes, do we have enough room in the doctors’ accommodation and in the nurses’ home, to take in the extras? We need a whole new firm of doctors and you would need to add a further ten nurses on to the next intake.’

‘You know I love a challenge,’ Matron said, unable to hide her excitement. ‘Thank you, Elsie, I’ll serve myself,’ she added, aware that the hospital had its own ears and that news travelled fast. She waited for the baize door to swing shut and then, her eyes bright, said, ‘I have had what I think is another one of my excellent ideas.’

Dr Gaskell bit into his buttered crumpet and with his mouth half full asked, ‘Is it one of your more modest ones, too?’

‘Stop,’ she said, pouring her tea. ‘Now, I have a question for you. If we had a Nurse of the Year award, who would you say should win it? Oh, and by the way, I am thinking of introducing such a thing.’ She pointed to her chin with her napkin. ‘You have butter on your chin,’ she said.

He wiped his chin distractedly. ‘Well, you know’ – he leant forward and put his plate on the trolley – ‘we had a special intake in Nurse Tanner’s year. They were all so enthusiastic, not as stuffy as others, and one of those nurses has shone out to me – the nurse who specialed Dr Marcus.’

‘Exactly.’ Matron jabbed her teaspoon at him as she finished stirring her tea. ‘You mean Nurse Brogan.’

‘I do indeed. Why?’

‘Because I have had a marvellous idea.’ She looked sheepish. ‘Even though I say so myself. I think we should try to repeat the success with Nurse Brogan times ten. Liverpool is an Irish Catholic city, as you know, and many of our patients come from the rural west. It has only just occurred to me what a huge bonus it would be if they could be looked after by nurses who shared their roots. I see that almost as a healing advantage – what do you think?’

‘Well, I don’t know how you intend to make that happen,’ he replied. ‘I don’t think I have seen one application for a post from the west of Ireland since we interviewed Nurse Brogan.’

‘I know, and isn’t that a shame. You won’t be surprised to hear that I have an answer for that.’ She paused to make sure he was paying attention. He was. ‘Let’s go ourselves to check the place out. Make contact with a local employment agency and set up an exclusive arrangement whereby they send girls to us. What do you think?’