Nightingales on Call (13 page)

In the two weeks she had been in PTS, she had seen enough of brooms to last a lifetime. Every morning they had to sweep and damp dust the practice room, cleaning out lockers no one ever used and making the bed that no one ever slept in. When they weren’t cleaning and making beds, they spent the morning rolling bandages, stitching splints, and learning to wash the glassy-eyed dummy, in the Nightingale’s approved way.

And when they weren’t in the practice room, they were crammed together on hard wooden benches in the classroom, listening to dreary lectures on nutrition and physiology, or reciting lists of muscles and bones.

Effie gazed longingly towards the window. It was a glorious day outside, and she hadn’t had a breath of fresh air for ages. She’d thought once she came to London her life would be one exciting round of parties, dances and trips to the cinema. But so far the most exciting thing to happen to her had been her set’s guided tour of the local sanitation works.

The heat of the classroom overcame her and she stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. Almost immediately, Sister Parker’s voice rang out, loud and clear across the room.

‘I’m sorry. Are we boring you, O’Hara?’

Effie looked up. Sister Parker’s sharp gaze was fixed on her. ‘Er . . .’

‘Perhaps you feel there’s nothing more I can teach you?’ Sister Parker went on. ‘After two weeks, I imagine you already know everything there is to know, is that correct?’

‘Um, I – not at all, Sister.’ Effie found her voice at last.

‘Let’s see, shall we? Perhaps you’d like to explain why we should not use a dry duster when we clean?’

‘Er—’ Effie heard a couple of unkind sniggers coming from the front row of benches as she scrabbled around in her non-existent notes for the answer. The girl next to her, a bespectacled mouse called Prudence Mulhearn, slid her notes a few inches closer. But squint as she might, Effie couldn’t make out the other girl’s spidery handwriting.

Sister Parker sighed. ‘Don’t trouble yourself, O’Hara, I can see we’re never going to get a sensible answer out of you. Padgett?’ She turned to one of the girls in the front row.

‘Because a dry duster would only flick the dust from one place to another, Sister,’ she replied primly.

‘That is correct, thank you.’ Sister Parker turned back to Effie. ‘You see, O’Hara, you might know more if you bothered to listen. Unless that is too much trouble for you?’

‘No, Sister.’ Effie lowered her gaze to the top of her desk, heat flooding her face.

‘You have a long way to go before you will prove to me that you deserve your place here. And you can start by staying behind and copying out all the notes on this afternoon’s lecture. After which, perhaps, you may finally understand what a duster and broom are for. Because I have to say, from watching you in the practice room this morning, you seem to have failed to grasp their function at all.’

It wasn’t fair, Effie thought later, as she sat alone on the bench, her hand cramped around her pen. All she’d done was yawn. She didn’t even know how Sister Parker had seen her do it – the old biddy must have eyes in the back of her head.

Sister’s eyes were fixed on her now. Every time Effie took a moment to glance up from her paper, Sister Parker was standing in front of her, hands folded, unblinking blue gaze watching her from behind her pebble spectacles.

Finally Effie finished copying out the notes, and handed them to Sister Parker to inspect. She could feel perspiration trickling down inside her heavy uniform as she waited for the elderly Sister Tutor’s approval. If Sister Parker made her copy out the notes again Effie didn’t know what she would do.

But just as she doubted her legs would hold her up any longer, Sister Parker handed her back the sheaf of notes.

‘Perhaps that will teach you to pay more attention in future,’ she said. ‘Really, O’Hara, I know you come from a long and illustrious line of nurses, but I have to say I am most disappointed in you so far. Most disappointed.’ She shook her head in sorrow.

‘Yes, Sister.’

It was a relief to escape back to the nurses’ home, although not such a relief when she found Katie in their room. Effie groaned inwardly. She’d forgotten it was her sister’s evening off.

Katie sat on the bed, brushing out her bushy dark curls. ‘Why are you so late?’ she asked.

Effie thought about making up an excuse, but she knew there was no point. Like their mother and the rest of Effie’s sisters, Katie seemed to have a way of knowing when she was being untruthful. It was most annoying.

‘I had to stay behind and copy out some notes,’ she said, bracing herself for another lecture.

Katie stopped tidying her hair and lowered her brush. ‘You didn’t? Oh, Effie, I hope you haven’t been getting into trouble?’

‘No, I haven’t!’ Effie flopped down on the bed and pulled off her shoes. ‘I just yawned, that’s all. I didn’t mean to do it,’ she added quickly, seeing her sister’s face fall. ‘It was so hot and stuffy in that classroom, it’s a wonder I didn’t doze off completely!’

But Katie wasn’t listening. ‘You know, you shouldn’t upset Sister Parker,’ she said. ‘You have to get through PTS if you want to work on the wards. It’s only twelve weeks, Effie,’ she pleaded. ‘You can manage that long without getting into trouble, surely?’

‘Of course I can. You don’t need to talk to me as if I’m a child!’ Effie flared back at her. ‘For heaven’s sake, it was just a stupid yawn, that’s all. It’s not the end of the world.’

‘It will be if you don’t pass PTS.’

‘I’ll pass it, don’t you worry.’ Effie rubbed her cramped toes. ‘You look nice,’ she said, trying to distract her sister. ‘Where are you going tonight?’

‘I’m out dancing with Tom.’

Effie brightened. ‘Could I come?’

‘Certainly not!’

‘Oh, go on, Kitty. I haven’t been for a night out since I arrived, and I so want to have some fun.’

‘You can have fun with the rest of your set.’

Effie rolled her eyes. ‘They wouldn’t know the meaning of the word! Honest to God, all they ever do is study. They’ve got their nose in books all the time, and when they haven’t they’re chanting lists of bones to each other. I’ve never met such a boring bunch of girls in my whole life.’

‘It wouldn’t hurt you to settle down and do some studying yourself,’ Katie said, through a mouth full of hairpins. ‘I don’t think you’ve even looked at those books since you arrived.’

‘Not you, too!’ Effie stared at her sister in despair. And to think Katie had always been her favourite sister. ‘Mammy would be proud of you. You’ve turned out just like our Bridget.’

But in spite of all her pleas and cajoling, Katie still refused to take Effie out dancing with her. When she’d gone, Effie made a half-hearted attempt to look through one of her books, then gave up and wandered downstairs to find the other girls. If she was going to be bored to death, she might as well do it in company, she decided.

As she’d expected, they were gathered in the sitting room downstairs, studying. Half a dozen pairs of eyes looked up as Effie walked into the room, then immediately dropped back to their books.

Effie waited for someone to speak to her, but no one did. She prowled around the sitting room, searching for something to do. On either side of the empty fireplace were shelves filled with tattered old novels, board games and a pack of cards, but nothing sparked her interest.

Effie took the cards out of their box and counted them, just for something to do. She couldn’t imagine any of the girls wanting to play whist with her. She would have more luck asking that glassy-eyed dummy in Sister Tutor’s classroom.

‘Why don’t we put some music on?’ Her voice sounded overly bright in the silence of the room. She was halfway across the room to the gramophone when one of the girls, Anna Padgett, looked up.

‘Look here, do you have to? We’re trying to study.’

‘Don’t you ever stop?’ Effie flicked through the records piled up beside the gramophone.

‘Actually, no. There’s too much to learn if we ever want to pass PTS. As you might find out if you ever bothered to do any work,’ Anna muttered under her breath.

Effie glared at her. Anna Padgett had unofficially declared herself the head of their set, just because she had already done a year’s training as a cadet nurse at another hospital. All the other girls looked up to her because of her age and experience, but Effie wasn’t impressed.

‘I thought you already knew it all?’ she retaliated. Padgett certainly behaved as if she did. She was always going on and on about the way they did things at her old hospital.

Anna opened her mouth to speak, but Prudence Mulhearn got there first.

‘Why don’t you come and join us?’ she suggested kindly. She was a tiny little thing, pale-haired and bespectacled. It made Effie laugh when they were paired together to practise their washing or bedmaking. Prudence barely came up to her shoulder. ‘You never know, you might find it useful.’

‘Oh, leave her be,’ Anna dismissed the suggestion. ‘If she wants to fall behind and fail PTS, that’s her look out.’

Effie had been about to refuse Prudence’s offer. But Anna Padgett’s spiteful comment piqued her, and she grabbed the book Prudence was holding out.

‘Right,’ she said. ‘What are we studying?’

‘Diabetic diets,’ Prudence replied, her nose already buried in her notes. ‘We’re trying to work out the Line Ration scheme, but I simply can’t understand it.’

‘It’s quite simple,’ Anna explained. ‘The doctor prescribes a certain number of Rations every day. One Ration is one complete Line and consists of one A and one B portion. Any A portion can be added to any B portion, but you mustn’t combine two A or two B portions.’

‘And the A portions are carbohydrates?’ Prudence said

‘Exactly. There’s a list of them at the back of the book.’

‘We should test each other,’ one of the other girls, Celia Wilson, suggested. ‘One of us could call out a food, and the others have to say whether it’s A or B.’

The next moment they were throwing words across the room to each other and calling out the answers. Effie stared at them blankly. How could anyone get so excited about how much carbohydrate there was in a stick of rhubarb?

Of course, Anna Padgett knew all the answers without even having to look at her book.

‘I learned it all at St Martha’s,’ she said dismissively, when one of the other girls admired her knowledge. ‘I was on Male Chronics for a while, so we had a lot of patients on special diets.’

‘Why did you decide to come here, then?’ Effie asked. ‘I wonder you didn’t carry on at your old hospital. It would have saved you a year’s training, surely?’

Anna Padgett sent her a pitying look. ‘Because I wanted a certificate from the Nightingale, of course,’ she said. ‘Everyone knows it’s one of the best hospitals in the country. If you’ve trained here, it sets you apart from all other nurses. Surely you know that?’

‘I didn’t,’ Effie admitted. ‘I only came because all my sisters trained here.’

She felt the other girls staring at her.

‘Do you really want to be a nurse?’ Anna asked.

‘Of course.’ A blush rose in Effie’s face. The truth was, she hadn’t really thought about it. She was so keen to escape from Killarney that she would have done anything that meant getting on that boat to England. And following in her sisters’ footsteps was the easiest thing to do.

And now she was here, of course she wanted to see it through and become a nurse. But she didn’t see why the other girls had to make such hard work of it.

She closed the book and handed it back to Prudence. ‘I’ve had enough of studying,’ she said. ‘I’m going outside to get some fresh air.’

‘That won’t help you get through PTS,’ she heard Anna mutter as she closed the door behind her.

Effie hurried along the hall towards the front door and barged straight into Jess, who was laden down with a mop and bucket. The bucket fell from her hands, slopping dirty water all over the tiled hall floor.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry. Here, let me help—’ Effie reached for the mop, but Jess held it away from her.

‘Do you want to get me the sack?’ she hissed.

‘But it was my fault.’

‘All the same, Sister Sutton would have a proper fit if she came out and saw you cleaning up after me.’

Effie watched helplessly as Jess wielded the mop, cleaning up the dirty puddle. ‘It’s my fault for using the front door,’ the maid muttered. ‘Sister Sutton gave me strict instructions to use the basement steps to the kitchen. But I didn’t think it would hurt to take a short cut just this once, especially as she’s still at supper . . .’

‘And then I knocked you off your feet. I’m sorry,’ Effie sighed. ‘I can’t seem to do right for doing wrong today.’

‘I know how you feel,’ Jess sympathised. ‘I was supposed to finish an hour ago, but I’m all behind with my work.’ She finished mopping up the spilled water and squeezed the mop into the bucket. ‘There, all done. Sister Sutton will be none the wiser.’

She looked hot and worn out, Effie thought. Her dark hair was fastened up in a bun, but stray strands had escaped and clung damply to her face.

An idea struck her. ‘Have you got the rest of the night off?’ she asked.

Jess nodded. ‘Thank the lord.’

‘Why don’t we go out?’

‘What? You and me?’ Jess couldn’t have looked more startled if Effie had suggested they should sprout wings and fly off the roof of the nurses’ home.

‘Why not? I’m going to go mad if I don’t get out of this place soon. And anyway, I haven’t thanked you properly for finding my luggage for me.’ Effie beamed at her. ‘I’ve got some money. Not much, but I could treat you to a cup of tea in the café on the corner. What do you think?’

Jess’ frown deepened. ‘I think,’ she said, ‘that we shouldn’t even be talking to each other, let alone going off for cups of tea.’

Effie stared at her blankly. ‘Why not?’

‘Because . . . because that’s not the way they do things here.’ Jess darted a look over her shoulder towards the front door, as if she expected Sister Sutton to come barging through it at any second. ‘Besides, I’m already going out tonight,’ she added.

‘Oh.’

Effie’s disappointment must have shown on her face, because Jess added more kindly, ‘Look, why don’t you try and make friends with your own lot? You’ve got far more in common with them than you have with me.’