Promise the Doctor (3 page)

‘Not exactly.’ She knew what the woman meant, and was glad she had inspired the confidence that it is the duty of all nurses to inspire in their patients, but there was every possibility that Miss Paling
would
be transferred, and she must do her best to make certain the little lady was not upset by the change. ‘You’ll like Sister Kelly, too,’ she said confidently. ‘She’s a great friend of mine.’

‘But I couldn’t talk to her about Jackie,’ Miss Paling persisted. ‘She might not understand, and I feel sure that
you
would.’

‘And I’m equally certain Sister Kelly would be just as understanding,’ Joy told her soothingly. ‘Tell me about Jackie, and I’ll see if there’s anything I can do.’

‘Jackie’s my companion,’ Miss Paling’s thin fingers were plucking nervously at the sheet over her too thin body. ‘He’s a Minah bird, and he’s a darling. I’ve left him with a neighbour for the present, but they’re going away very soon, I don’t know quite when, and I’m worried about what’s going to become of Jackie until I get home.’

‘I’ll have a word with the Almoner and get her to come and have a chat with you. I’m certain she’ll be able to think of some means of coping with Jackie’s welfare until you are able to take care of him yourself.’

‘Thank you, Sister,’ Miss Paling blinked away the ready tears of weakness and smiled up at her gratefully.

‘You don’t know just how much you’ve put my mind at rest. Jackie’s a darling, but at a time like this he’s quite a responsibility, you know. And I love him ... so much you might think I’m crazy.’

‘I don’t think you’re in the least crazy,’ Joy assured her gravely. ‘I think Jackie is a very lucky Minah bird to have such a thoughtful and understanding owner. Don’t worry any more about him. You can take my word that Miss Stanningley, the Lady Almoner, will find some way of taking care of him for you.’

Leaving Miss Paling still saying how grateful she was—and how much more settled she would be in herself once she knew Jackie was going to be all right, Joy went across to the young girl who had been brought in as the emergency appendix. With one thing and another there was absolutely no possibility of a quiet moment in which she could even open the flap of Miss Barnes’ letter and gain just a hint as to what she might find herself having pledged to look after ... whether it turned out to be another Minah bird, an aged parrot, a family of cats or whatever it was ... but after her conversation with Miss Paling she had begun to feel a little bit apprehensive, and she knew her uneasiness would remain until the letter had been read.

CHAPTER III

‘I should read it anyway.’ Marcia had stepped into Sister’s office for a moment. ‘I couldn’t bear to wait until the afternoon tea break. It’s
hours
away yet!’

‘Not really,’ Joy smiled at her friend’s enthusiasm, ‘but I feel just the same way ... only I keep remembering how annoyed Matron would be if she walked in and found me reading a private letter on duty.’

‘I shouldn’t worry about it, anyway.’ Marcia gave the toss of her auburn curls which she invariably did when any discussion of restrictions of any kind arose. ‘There are nurses wanted everywhere, and I’m sure every hospital hasn’t got someone at its head who swears by the rules laid down in the early days of nursing! Some Matrons nowadays are really quite human. Where my sister’s doing her training, up in the West Riding of Yorkshire, they have a youngish Matron and she’s absolutely marvellous at understanding how different things are today.’

‘The basic rules remain the same,’ Joy said firmly, although secretly she had to admit that their Matron
was
a bit of a martinet she would say nothing against her, whatever her private thoughts might be! ‘I shall just have to contain my soul in patience until I’m in Mr. Belding’s car and on my way home. I wonder,’ she mused aloud, ‘if he’ll mind stopping at the supermarket in Wigmore Street. I wanted some mushrooms in the first place. Now I think I’d better get some cooked chicken as well...’

‘If he’s going to help to eat it, then he ought not to mind stopping to collect it!’ Marcia observed reasonably enough. ‘But I shouldn’t splash too much, not until you know what your inheritance consists of. Somehow Miss Barnes doesn’t remain in my memory as the sort of person to have won the pools and hoarded her ill-gotten gains for years without spending any of it!’

‘No, she wasn’t like that,’ Joy agreed, a mental picture of the late Miss Muriel Barnes clearly before her.

‘She’s more likely to have left me a whole load of responsibility of some sort or another. Somehow, since I’ve chatted with Miss Paling I’m beginning to worry as to exactly what she
did
mean when she referred to her “dearest possession”. Could be any one of a thousand things.’

‘Sister! Would you please come and take a look at Mrs. Bredon?’

Nurse Bagshaw looked a little frightened and distressed and Joy rose at once.

‘I’ll be back in a moment, Staff,’ she spoke over her shoulder, ‘then we can finish going through those lists.’

There wasn’t much time to spare, after all, during the afternoon. What had promised to be a fairly peaceful day was shattered by one event after another, and when at long last young Cadet Nurse Lenton brought in Joy’s afternoon tea, she was only too happy to sit back and relax for those few minutes it would take to drink the welcome brew.

‘I should open it now.’ Marcia lifted her own cup and fixed an interested gaze on the bulge of the letter Joy still carried unopened. ‘I honestly don’t know how you can sit there so calmly, when for all you know you might have in your pocket the key to a lifetime of ease and leisure!’

‘I hardly think so,’ Joy laughed, but the temptation
was
great, there was no denying the truth of that statement. ‘Well,’ she said reluctantly, ‘just a peep I By the look of the envelope it’ll take me hours to get through all this. I ought to save it until this evening.’

‘I’d be consumed with curiosity,’ was Marcia’s only comment, and with a half-stifled laugh at her own feelings of guilt, Joy took the letter into her hands and began to tear the thick, heavily gummed flap.

She was quite right in her assumption that there would be a great deal to read through, but as she scanned the first of the pages she gave a startled little gasp.

‘What is it?’ Marcia was agog with curiosity. ‘Anything good?’

‘Just a large house,’ Joy said faintly, ‘with, it seems, an equally large garden, with a view of the sea and the shore which, so Miss Barnes had written, can’t be beaten anywhere along the coast. She’s left me the house and grounds, the contents and sufficient money to attend to the upkeep, the rates and all that sort of thing. It’s in the form of an annuity of five hundred pounds a year, and she says it will last until I can pass it on to someone else. There’s an elderly couple who’ve looked after her house and garden, and who’ve cared for Miss Barnes and her sisters for as long as they can remember. She says her father promised them they’d have “shelter and care” to the end of their days, so whatever they’re like they’ll have to stay.’

‘And what about the sisters?’ Marcia asked quickly. ‘Are they in a nursing home or something?’

‘Dead,’ Joy was still scanning the letter. ‘It says here ... “now that I am the last of the family”, so they must be.’

‘Very interesting, Sister Benyon, I agree.’ Matron’s cool tones brought Joy, scarlet-faced, to her feet, and she flung a quick look in Marcia’s direction which the girl correctly interpreted as ‘make yourself scarce ‘, and which she needed no second instruction to obey.

‘I was just scanning Miss Barnes’s letter as I drank my tea,’ she was beginning, but Matron cut in almost at once.

‘There will be ample time for that later,’ she said quietly, ‘when you have left the hospital precincts. In the meantime, I suggest you take the letter to your wardrobe and lock it up, then it will not remain as a continual temptation to you, not being close at hand. There is just one other point.’ She raised her hand as Joy was about to apologize. ‘You were barely on time this morning, as I saw from my window. That is why I am, as you are well aware, strongly opposed to my nursing staff living out of the Nurses’ Home. I realize quite well how difficult it must be for you always to get away in sufficient time to arrive at the hospital early, but I would like you, for the future, to make a little more concentrated effort to do so.’

She sailed majestically from the office, and Joy, her cheeks still burning, hurried to the Sisters’ cloakroom to put away the offending epistle. Fortunately everything in the ward was in order, and having had a word with the patient she had come especially to see, Matron left, her face impassive as usual, but Joy felt angry with herself for yielding to Marcia’s pleas to know the contents of the letter, when it had really been against her own better judgement.

‘Was she
very
angry?’ Marcia whispered half an hour or so later as they worked together establishing a blood transfusion for Mrs. Potter, newly brought up from the theatre.

‘Not more than I expected her to be,’ Joy whispered back. ‘She mentioned that she saw I was barely on time this morning, which is true, but I thought it had passed undetected. I know she doesn’t like her staff living at home, but,’ she could not help the sigh as she thought of the chaos there had been that morning, ‘she simply doesn’t understand how difficult things can be when there’s a family to contend with and Cousin Emma isn’t feeling so good.’

‘Get another job,’ Marcia advised briskly. ‘I would. There are nurses wanted everywhere, and I don’t suppose Vanmouth is any exception to the rule! All you have to do is to give a month’s notice ... and you’ll have to do that, anyway, if you’re going to live in this house Miss Barnes left you! Or move into the Nurses’ Home and leave the family to fend for themselves by way of a change.’

‘I suppose I shall,’ Joy said slowly. ‘I hadn’t really got as far as thinking along those lines. It’s all too new. I hadn’t even thought about the fact there won’t be any more quarter days for the rent, either. If we
do
move, that is. And there isn’t much point in owning a house and having the rates paid for me if I don’t live in it,
and
all the family as well. There are some good schools and what-have-you in Vanmouth, I think,’ she began doubtfully. ‘There’s the problem of the twins completing their education. They’re both bright as buttons, and I’d hate to do anything to upset things for them. Then there’s Pete. He’s just beginning to earn himself something like a wage. He’s been a long time on what was merely pocket money, you know. And there’s Mother. She’s always wanted something she could do at home ... something in her own line, like a typing bureau or something. We’ve never been able to afford a room for her, and there certainly isn’t even a vacant corner in the house at Cranberry Terrace.’

‘You do meet your troubles halfway, I must-say,’ Marcia said meaningly. ‘I shouldn’t think about all that. I’d be off like a shot, and if the family know what’s good for them they’ll be along with you, you just see if they don’t. Anyhow, it can’t be like moving into the unknown. At least you’ll have Miss Barnes’ solicitor to advise you. I should take the plunge and hand in your notice. Vanmouth’s a lovely place. A little select and choosy, but a very pleasant place to live in, I should think. It ought to work wonders for that sister of yours. One never knows. The prospect of being able to walk along firm, golden sand whenever she felt like it might produce the impetus to try again which she seems to have been lacking for so long.’

There wasn’t time for any further conversation just then. In the usual manner of hospitals the world over, everything was geared to a timetable, a timetable which took emergencies and crises in its stride and expected the staff to be able to do the same thing. The remainder of the afternoon wore by at an amazing speed, but whenever she had a few seconds in which she could think of her own concerns, Joy found Marcia’s words returning to her, until by the time she came off duty at half past four she had made up her mind that it would be foolish not to take the advice of the other girl.

Her heart seemed to be playing tricks as she tapped on Matron’s door for the second time that afternoon. She need not have worried. Matron, having heard so much of what Mr. Belding had said to her, was not in the least surprised when Joy asked to give her month’s notice and said she would be leaving for Vanmouth as soon as was possible.

‘I expected you to do this, Sister,’ Matron sighed.. ‘I’m not in the least surprised, nor do I blame you. I have visited Vanmouth on more than one occasion, and found it a delightfully unspoiled resort. I suppose you will continue to nurse?’

‘I hope so,’ Joy agreed. ‘I shall have to find out what hospitals there are in the area when I arrive.’

‘There is the small St Lucy’s at Vanmouth itself,’ Matron surprised her by saying. ‘And there is the larger General Hospital some miles out of the town. I should imagine it would be more convenient in your case if you could find employment at St Lucy’s. And I will certainly do anything I can to help. I might also add,’ she lifted her head and looked directly into Joy’s eyes, ‘that should you, at any time while I am still Matron here, wish to return to Wilborough General, we shall be delighted to have you with us again.’

‘Thank you, Matron. That’s very kind of you.’ Joy felt her colour rising again and was annoyed with herself. Why should she blush simply because Matron had been surprisingly and unexpectedly pleasant and understanding?

‘You are a good nursing Sister,’ Matron commented, rising from the chair behind her desk, an action which Joy correctly read as being an indication that the interview was at an end. ‘I have only one last word of advice,’ she concluded. ‘Beware that you don’t always allow your heart to rule your head! It is not always a wise thing to do when one is a member of our profession?’

‘I’ll remember, Matron,’ Joy promised, and even as she walked out of the hospital and across to where she saw Mr. Belding sitting at the wheel of an enormous saloon car, she was still wondering if, all the time she had been on Matron’s staff, she had been misjudging her when she had found herself full of resentment when she had been told off for just arriving on time, or for some little thing which might be held at her door because of her home circumstances.

‘You look worried, Sister Benyon.’ Jules Belding made the observation as he drove down the hill from the hospital and, following her directions, joined the main stream of traffic at its foot. ‘There isn’t anything wrong, I hope?’

Mr. Belding, probably by reason of his long association with the problems and worries of humanity in all phases and stages of life, seemed to invite confidences, and almost before she knew where she was Joy found herself telling him about how she had been ‘on trial,’ as it were, ever since she had arrived at Wilborough General.

‘I rather think Matron’s bark is worse than her bite,’ he observed, weaving his way through the tea-time traffic. ‘Before you joined us this afternoon, she was full of praise for the way in which you conducted your ward, for almost everything about you.’

‘Almost?’ Joy pounced on the one word. ‘What was wrong?’

‘Just what she has said to you now, my dear.’ Mr. Belding halted at the traffic lights. ‘You have a heart which, as Matron put it, would embrace the whole world, were it possible. That’s the sort of thing which leads to a heart being broken if you’re not very careful,’ he warned. ‘I’m not advising you to be hard or anything like that. You are the sort of person who couldn’t be, anyhow. But do try now and then to think a little of yourself! Now,’ he changed gear smartly and fell into line, ‘tell me about this little family of yours into whose midst you intend to thrust me, a stranger. And by the way,’ his shrewd grey eyes twinkled kindly, ‘have you any shopping you wish to do on your way home? I know the arrival of unexpected guests always results in my wife telephoning local shops at the last minute, despite the fact that there is always a large, well-stocked fridge and cupboards full of whatever she’s likely to need.’

‘I did want to get something from the supermarket at the corner of Wigmore Street ... just round the next bend, and it’s the first shop on the corner of the junction, this side.’

‘And I see we are allowed a parking time of twenty minutes.’ Mr. Belding scanned the notice and switched off the engine, not two yards from the shop. ‘Take your time,’ he advised. ‘Do you require any help?’