‘Oh dear. Can you tell me where she was heading? Is she on her way back here to the hospital?’

‘She is, with Mrs O’Keefe. And Cat is going to meet her there – at the hospital, that is. She will have asked Pam next door to look after the children so she can come,’ said Joan, not realising that Matron would not have a clue who she was referring to. ‘They might sleep there at Pam’s and she could come back here, if she wants too.’

‘Ah, very well, I shall catch them here on the ward. So sorry to have bothered you. Goodnight.’

And with that, all Joan could hear was the dialling tone.

*

Matron replaced the receiver on the phone and looked over her desk to Dr Gaskell. He was sitting across from her, accepting a cup of tea from her housekeeper, Elsie O’Brien. ‘She’s on her way back here. I missed her. She’s in a taxi already,’ she said as she picked up her own cup and saucer.

Dr Gaskell sighed. ‘May I ask permission for her to stay this evening? I don’t think we have long. Just a few hours at the most, I’m guessing. William is sitting with him now, until she gets back here.’

‘Of course. But it is very difficult. She isn’t his wife and I’m treading a very thin line here.’

‘Has his wife been in touch today?’ Dr Gaskell raised his eyebrows. There was nothing he and Matron kept from each other.

‘Has she? Only four times. It’s so difficult. She doesn’t want to come herself, other than for her once-a-day mawkish stare, but she keeps checking that no one else is visiting either. I don’t enjoy having to lie, and I can tell you, if he hadn’t trained here as one of our own doctors, my job would be so much easier. It would be his wife visiting and no one else. Having said that, Lavinia Marcus is possibly the most unpleasant woman I have met in my entire career. She challenges me every time I speak, and on the telephone she is just plain rude. Sadly, I think she is clever enough to know that the end is near. I don’t trust that woman, she is up to something.’

Dr Gaskell peered at her over the rim of his cup. It was the first time he’d ever heard Matron admit that she’d found it difficult to deal with a relative.

‘It’s a good job Sister is more concerned about the welfare of our poor Dr Nicholas than she is about scandal on her ward. An estranged wife and a live-in mistress, both visiting… If you’d told me years ago that I’d need to tolerate this, I’d have told you you were mad. Was there ever a nicer doctor to train at this hospital or a better GP in Liverpool? It is breaking my heart, and there is no one more used to sadness than me.’

Dr Gaskell was not in the least surprised at this revelation. To everyone on the outside, Matron appeared to be all head and no heart, an austere figure who ran the best hospital in the northwest. Only he knew that there was deep compassion beneath that no-nonsense demeanour and crisply starched navy uniform, which she still wore at the longer length.