She pushed Blackie with her foot and unintentionally sent him skittling along the carpet, just as Matron opened the door. ‘He was about to take a chunk out of my ankle,’ Elsie exclaimed by way of a greeting. ‘He understands English, that dog. I only said I couldn’t take him for a walk because I saw you arriving and had to light the fire, and he went for me.’

Matron wasn’t listening as she stooped to greet her beloved dog, who was attempting to run up her legs. ‘I’ll walk him myself,’ she said. ‘We got the overnight boat because the weather was due to turn today, so they said.’

‘Would you like a bit of breakfast first? I got Cook to stock up your fridge ready for your return. Here, give me your coat.’

Matron had begun to undo the buttons on her coat as she spoke. ‘Dr Gaskell was hoping you would suggest just that and he’s on his way up here in a minute. We didn’t dare eat on the boat. Honestly, it does terrible things to your constitution.’

‘Is he behind you, Dr Gaskell?’ Elsie looked out of the open door onto the landing.

‘He will be. You know what he’s like – Mrs Tanner had just opened the tea hatch and called out to him. He’s becoming such a gossip as he gets older. I don’t know what Mrs Gaskell would say if she could see him.’

As Elsie turned on the gas ring in Matron’s small kitchen, she realised she was grinning. The hospital had been a strange place with both Matron and Dr Gaskell away, and everyone had felt it. She placed the frying pan onto the flame and waited for the lard to melt before she laid the bacon rashers down. The familiar sound of Matron on the phone came through the door.

‘Oh yes, it was a very successful trip. I recruited one nurse there and then, and I don’t care what the board says, she will be an asset to this hospital and Dr Gaskell agrees with me. Could you bring me up the bed statement in one hour and I would like a ward-by-ward report on each patient, please. Also, ask Theatre Sister to come with you, I want to know how the new theatre technician is working out. And this new swab regime I’m reading about in the first letter I opened, has that been put in place yet?’

Elsie turned the rashers and sighed with contentment. Matron was back.

*

A fortnight after her return to Liverpool from Tarabeg, Mary Kate hovered at the end of the driveway with the keys in her hand, her heart beating madly in her chest.

Mrs O’Keefe was standing next to her. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?’ she asked.

‘Actually, I do,’ said Mary Kate, dropping the keys into her pocket.

‘I thought so. Only a madwoman, as your Granny Nola would say, would do this alone. Come on.’ She hooked her arm through Mary Kate’s and propelled her into a walk of purpose down the driveway of the house in which Mary Kate had spent the happiest days of her life.