Acting Sister, page 18
They turned into the hospital courtyard. Many of the visiting doctors’ cars had already gone. Sally noticed that Dr Bridgewater’s was still here, a dirty rotund little car, and he always said that he could never afford a better one. He was waiting for an old aunt to die and leave him her money and bring his ship in, but the whole hospital felt that this was one of those ships which would never make port.
‘It just can’t end here,’ said Ferdie, and he stopped abruptly. There was real pain in his voice.
That was the moment when Sally saw a girl bearing down on them, a countrified-looking girl, with rosy cheeks and bright auburn hair. She looked nervously at them.
‘Excuse me, but could you possibly tell me where the nurses’ home is? I’m new and can’t find it.’
‘Yes, of course,’ and Sally pointed it out. Instinctively she noticed that the girl was very new, and could remember the flood of anxiety when she first arrived, wondering if she would hate it or like it, and wanting to like it so much.
Ferdie volunteered his help. He had always been the man to make the most of the moment. ‘You’ll love it,’ he said, and then, ‘what’s your name?’
‘I’m Fern Durrant. An ancient aunt did that one on me,’ and she laughed; then she went into the nurses’ home.
‘Nice girl!’ said Ferdie, looking after her, and there was that sentimental look in his eyes, that half smile about his mouth, something which worried Sally.
‘You like girls, don’t you?’ Perhaps it was idiotic to say it, yet she did say it.
‘Yes. I always have done. Maybe I’ll be some nice girl’s difficult husband one day. I would have liked you to be the girl.’
She shook her head. ‘Somehow, Ferdie, I doubt if that is possible.’
He looked at her. ‘Mike Steele?’ he said, and then, ‘No, don’t tell me, I sort of know already. The bother with falling in love is that it is one of those things which happen. You can’t command it, anyway I can’t.’
She said, ‘I know,’ and turned away.
Maybe he had got it right there, she had fallen deeply in love, maybe she had worked a little too hard and was on edge. I need a long night’s sleep, she told herself.
Next day Mike and she were going down home, and it ought to be one of the nicest evenings ever. She took life easily, had a long sleep, and how she had needed this, and she woke feeling far better. When one was recovering from the strain of work in the theatre it all took time. One discovered how hard it had been only when one looked back at it, and not at the time.
She was wondering if she ought to let Mike know that she knew about his wife. Or should she just enjoy this one night and make tomorrow the new day?
She put on the crisp cyclamen dress which had been one of Mummy’s nicest gifts. It had a slim shoe-lace of a sash, of vivid lapis lazuli blue, and was exquisite. Round her throat she fastened the little necklace of seed pearls which her stepfather had given her on her twenty-first birthday, one of her most cherished possessions. She felt happiness radiating through her, and felt better, almost as though she were a new girl.
As she went along the corridor she looked through the open door of the recreation room, and saw Fern Durrant sitting there. She went inside to speak to her, for she knew that a word now would make all the difference.
‘You’ll like it here,’ she said. ‘It gives you a wonderful chance of learning. The experience is marvellous. The best hospital I know.’
The girl smiled. ‘I’m sure,’ she said.
‘You’ll love it.’
It was one of those supremely calm evenings, when the heat had lifted and the little wind of evening had come with the hour. The traffic was reasonable, and Mike was silent as he drove. She had an idea that tomorrow’s operation was worrying him a little, it would take a full four hours, and it became difficult to maintain concentration for so long. They went through Chipstead, leafily lovely, and along the lane to the top of Reigate Hill, then dropped down into the town. One would have thought that they would have caught up with the Brighton traffic here, but it was one of those easy evenings, an evening when everything went right. They turned through the town and along to Trumpet Hill. It was heaven to turn in at the garden gate of home, two people who had said very little to each other, for he was obviously worried. Then, as he turned round towards the house, he said,
‘This is a lovely peaceful place.’
‘It is home, and that must always be the happiest place in England to me. They are lovely parents, and both of them have been so good to me.’
‘They are jolly nice people even if he is the world’s most difficult patient,’ and he laughed. ‘Do you think that he will stick to that diet, for it is vital that he should?’
‘Yes, I do. We talked about it, and I think that he is privately scared stiff over it. It’s cruel, but it is the only way to make him do it.’
‘Yes, of course.’
They stopped outside the blue-painted front door, with the silvery fittings to it. They walked through it into the panelled hall, and across it to the long drawing-room which looked up the garden. Her stepfather and her mother were playing croquet there at the far end. The sound of the balls clipping together came pleasantly through the evening air. She said, ‘Look, they’re over there and quite happy.’
‘I’m happy, too,’ and Mike put his persuasive arm round her. ‘We are such lucky people to meet as we did.’
‘Our luck came because I saw Man and Eire together. The Welsh say it brings the best fortune of them all.’
‘It brought me all the luck there was. I thought once that you were a bit stand-offish, at moments cold to me, as though you were half afraid of me. You silly girl!’
‘I thought that you were married.’
He looked at her with startled surprise. ‘My goodness, and I never told you that much! I was married ‒ a long time back, one of those wretchedly unhappy affairs which come to some of us for no reason. She was delicate, I had known her since she was a girl, and she found strain hard to bear. She ‒ she developed psychiatric trouble.’
‘I thought she was still alive.’
He nodded, and out of the distance came the sound of the croquet balls. ‘She came of weak stock. I had treated her mother at one time, and I stupidly believed that my strength could save things for her. I couldn’t. I believed that I could teach her to conquer her inhibitions, but it did not work out that way. Maybe it was my own fault.’
‘Far more likely that it was fate.’
He paused and sighed. ‘You’re a very understanding girl, you know. Maybe if I speak the truth, it was a bit of both. I got her good treatment, and none of that sort of thing was very pleasant in those days, but it was the only way that we knew. She did not recover. There came the awful moment when sheer common sense told me that she could not get better, because her life was ending. Then it did end.’
‘Perhaps …’ and she stopped quickly.
‘You are going to say that perhaps it was the better way, and you are so right, but in my own heart the best way would have been her complete recovery. One always longs for the impossible, and the whole of that experience hurt me more than I had ever thought could be. Nothing could have helped her, though one fought hard against it as one always does.’ He paused, and there came the sound of the croquet coming nearer through the summer’s evening. ‘Then I gave myself up to my own life, and dedicated myself to surgery. I did too much, that was how we met, I was on holiday trying to feel better, and getting right away from it all.’
‘I know,’ and she smiled.
He reached out his hands and clasped both of hers in one of his own. She had the feeling at this particular moment in her life, that St Gray’s was slipping into the background, and the good fortune that had shone on Man and Eire together was coming to her. There were always new girls like Fern to come into the work, new people to carry on where the older ones left off, new devotion to be given. The work of a great hospital continues for ever, and that is its tremendous gift.
He was closer to her now, much taller than she was, a man with deeply violet-blue eyes, the colour of which she had never seen in quite the same way in any other man, and with a demanding mouth.
‘I’m too old for you,’ he said, ‘for you are the sweetest thing!’
‘Not too old. Never too old. Oh Mike, do let us take what life offers to us, forgetting the past and trusting to the kind future. It was that which brought us together. The only way to succeed is to go forward together, hand-in-hand.’
He looked at her, and those violet-blue eyes were more beautiful than they had been before. ‘For ever,’ he said.
He took her into his arms then, he was a man in love, a man whose life was spent in working for others, and suddenly he stood on the threshold of complete happiness himself. Sally felt slipping away from her the old background, and standing before her a forester’s cottage in the heart of Epping Forest, a cottage with a garden and everything that it could offer. She wanted to find words to explain how she felt, and they evaded her. Then suddenly she turned to him with brimming eyes.
‘Oh Mike, I am so happy,’ was what she said.
The Romance of Jenny WREN by Sheila Burns
1944. Young Wren Jenny is in love with dashing Naval Officer Robin Stephens. But can she trust him to take care of her heart and happiness?
When Jenny meets Robin on a packed train in wartime London she is swept off her feet by his good looks and easy charm.
Jenny is heartbroken when an illness means she must leave her beloved Wrens. Dr John MacTavish is kind and attentive. But is his interest in Jenny purely professional?
Robin’s mother offers Jenny a way to continue serving her country. But will Robin hinder Jenny’s duty to her war work?
Jenny’s sister falls for a married man and wants to break off her engagement to a war hero. Can Jenny make Hermione realise that she is making a mistake? And when it comes to matters of the heart, is Jenny making the biggest mistake of her own?
A moving 1940s wartime romance from the bestselling author of The Village Nurse.
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The Village Nurse by Sheila Burns
1967. Claire Dale suffers a broken love affair with a doctor and leaves her job as Sister at St Julian’s Hospital. She starts a new life as district nurse in a small country village, where romance and trouble follow her.
Claire is in love with handsome surgeon Chris Long, and thinks he loves her too. Then she discovers him in the arms of nurse Lucille Gray, and realises she must get far away from Chris and the hospital. A job as district nurse in the little village of Charnworth seems the perfect solution.
Claire finds that her new post has its challenges. The locals are wary of a pretty young nurse from the city, and she is involved in a car accident which leaves a young man, Terence Anderson, badly injured. But with hard work and determination, Claire settles into her role of delivering babies and caring for her village patients.
When Chris makes a surprise appearance, Claire realises that she still loves him. Will she take Chris back, even though she knows she could never trust him? Or is there another path to more lasting happiness?
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A Nurse’s Duty by Sheila Burns
1939. When young Nurse Katy Day falls in love with the wrong man, can she put a nurse’s duty before her own happiness?
Katy is secretly in love with handsome surgeon Dr Ray Harper. They work well together and he admires her nursing skills. But she is surprised and disappointed to learn one day that he is married. Katy realises that her dreams can never become reality.
Life gets more complicated for Katy when Dr Harper’s wife is admitted as a patient. Iris Harper is a difficult and demanding woman, and it is clear the marriage isn’t a happy one.
Katy is torn when Dr Harper asks her to nurse Iris back to health. Could a new start in Australia be the answer to her dilemma?
Then a medical emergency forces Katy to decide if she can stay true to herself and also find lasting happiness.
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Wonder Cruise by Ursula Bloom (Sheila Burns)
Thirtysomething Ann Clements takes a Mediterranean cruise which opens her eyes to the wider world, and to herself.
London, 1934. Ann Clements is thirty-five and single, and believes nothing exciting will ever happen to her. Then, she wins a large sum of money in a sweepstake and suddenly can dare to dream of a more adventurous life. She buys a ticket for a Mediterranean cruise, against the wishes of her stern brother, the Rev. Cuthbert, who has other ideas about how she should spend her windfall.
Ann steps out of the shadows of her mundane life into the heat of the Mediterranean sun. Travelling to Gibraltar, Marseilles, Naples, Malta and Venice, Ann’s eyes are opened to people and experiences far removed from her sheltered existence. As Ann blossoms, discovering love and passion for the very first time, the biggest question is, can there be any going back?
An engaging and witty story about an unforgettable 1930s woman; Ann Clements will stay with you long after the last page.
‘Ursula Bloom writes in a delightful way, with a deep understanding of human nature and a quick eye for the humorous things in life. Wonder Cruise … is one of the most entertaining novels we have read for a long time.’ Cambridge Daily News
‘Vividly entrancing.’ Scotsman
‘… with every book she adds something to her reputation … related with all Miss Bloom’s liveliness and easy skill.’ Daily Telegraph
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Sheila Burns, Acting Sister
