The Nightingale Girls

CHAPTER Twenty-Five



‘I HAVE A very important job for you to do and I want you to listen carefully while I explain it.’

Millie was surprised. Her first three days on Wren hadn’t been a spectacular success. As far as Sister Wren was concerned, she seemed to make a mess of everything.

‘Why are you taking so long?’ she’d demanded that morning, as Millie returned from collecting up the breakfast dishes. ‘You’re here to work, not gossip with the patients.’

But Millie couldn’t help it. The women were so much fun, and terribly keen to stop her for a chat. It seemed rude to hurry by, and Millie did feel for them, being stuck in bed away from their families. It must be so terribly boring, she thought, seeing the same faces day after day.

Sister Wren didn’t see it like that, unfortunately. Millie had only been working with her for a few days, but she had already realised that Sister had little time or sympathy for most of her patients.

Given their dismal relationship so far, it was very surprising she should be entrusting Millie with an important task now.

‘Yes, Sister.’ She stood to attention.

‘The consultant, Mr Cooper, is doing his round later this morning,’ Sister Wren explained. It might not have been her real name, but she lived up to it perfectly. She looked exactly like a bird, with her tiny frame, beaky nose and dark, darting eyes. The thin hair under her cap was a dusty brown colour, like a sparrow’s wing. ‘It’s very important that when he arrives everything is in order. Mr Cooper is very particular, and I do not want any complaints from him.’ She eyed Millie severely. ‘When he arrives on the ward he likes to wash his hands straight away. So I will need you to have a basin of water ready for him.’

‘Yes, Sister.’

‘It must be waiting by the door, with a towel over it. The water must be neither too hot nor too cold. Is that understood?’

‘Yes, Sister. Not too hot and not too cold.’

‘Good. See that it’s done correctly, please.’

She started to walk away. ‘Sister?’ Millie called after her, puzzled.

Sister Wren turned slowly back to face her. Too late Millie remembered that humble pros were not supposed to speak unless spoken to.

‘Yes?’ she said icily.

‘What is the important job?’

Sister Wren stared at her. ‘I’ve just explained it to you. Don’t tell me you need telling again?’

‘No, I just—’ Millie had had visions of being called on to give her opinion on some medical matter, or at least being allowed to pass the consultant some notes. ‘I just didn’t think fetching a basin of water was that important, that’s all.’

Sister narrowed her eyes. ‘You get it wrong and you’ll see how important it is,’ she said.

After the bedpan round it was time to clean the ward. As Millie and Lucy Lane swept, polished and buffed every inch of floor space, Millie kept her eyes fixed on the doors.

‘Why do you keep staring like that?’ Lucy asked.

‘I don’t want to miss the consultant when he arrives.’

‘Don’t worry, you won’t. I heard the staff nurses talking. Apparently someone always rings from another ward to warn us when he’s on his way.’

Reassured that she wouldn’t be caught unawares, Millie was able to relax and get on with her cleaning. She was determined to make a perfect job of it, to show Sister Wren she could be a good nurse.

‘Watch it, love, you keep on polishing it like that you’ll wear a hole straight through the floorboards!’ one of the women cackled cheerfully as Millie skimmed around her bed with the mop.

‘Really?’ Millie said anxiously. ‘This is how they taught us to do it in training. Have I got it wrong, do you think?’

‘Bless you, love, you carry on.’ The woman beamed at her. ‘You can go round and do mine afterwards. God only knows what state it’s got in since I’ve been in here. I don’t suppose that old man of mine has lifted a finger.’

Millie finished the polishing, which passed even Sister Wren’s eagle eye.

‘You took your time about it, I must say,’ was her only comment. ‘Now get the patients washed and ready. And see you’re a bit quicker about it this time.’

Millie loaded up a trolley with combs, flannels, towels and a bowl of water, and she and Lane made their way around, taking one side of the ward each. Every patient had to be washed, their hair combed, put into a clean nightdress and generally made presentable for Mr Cooper’s arrival.

‘This is very nice, I must say,’ said Miss Desmond, as Millie carefully combed through her bleached-blonde curls. Blanche, as she liked to be called, was a voluptuous woman, her fleshy curves barely contained within the richly patterned red silk nightdress she wore. She was due for a hysterectomy to get rid of her fibroids. ‘So what’s all this in aid of? Are we going for a night out?’

‘No such luck, I’m afraid, Miss Desmond. The consultant is doing his rounds.’

‘Ah. That explains why Sister is all of a twitch this morning.’ Blanche nodded knowingly. ‘She’s got a soft spot for Mr Cooper,’ she explained, when Millie looked blank.

‘Surely not!’

‘Where do you think she’s gone now? Off titivating herself in that sitting room of hers, I expect,’ Blanche said. ‘You watch her when he turns up. She’ll go all fluttery and girlish. And then she’ll try and lure him back to her sitting room for tea and biscuits. Although I reckon it’ll take more than a cup of Earl Grey to get him interested in her!’

She roared with laughter. Millie caught the staff nurse’s warning frown and quickly gathered up the washing things, guilty at being caught idling yet again. Lucy was making much faster progress up her side of the ward, she noticed.

‘Mind you, I can’t say I blame her. He is a handsome devil,’ Blanche went on. ‘And he’s got a lovely speaking voice, too. I wouldn’t mind having a crack at him myself.’ She turned to Millie. ‘Reach into my locker and get my make-up bag, will you love? Can’t have him seeing me looking a state, can I?’

Millie watched in fascination as Blanche applied deep red lipstick to her generous mouth. ‘Not that I know why I’m bothering,’ she said. ‘There’s only one part of my body that man ever looks at, and it ain’t my face!’ She laughed so hard her hand shook, wobbling her lipstick. ‘Sounds like every man I’ve ever met!’ She winked at Millie.

‘I don’t know how you can bring yourself to talk to that woman.’ Lucy fell into step beside Millie as she wheeled her trolley back down the ward. She had already finished and tidied her own trolley away, as usual.

‘You mean Blanche? She’s lovely. And she makes me laugh. Besides, she likes the company. None of the other women seem to want to talk to her for some reason.’

‘I’m not surprised. Who’d want anything to do with someone like her?’ Lucy frowned at Millie. ‘You do know what she does for a living, don’t you?’

‘She runs her own business from a flat off the Mile End Road, she told me.’ Millie noticed Lucy’s expression. ‘What’s so funny?’

‘You are. God, you’re such an innocent, Benedict!’ Lucy lowered her voice. ‘She’s a tart. A prostitute. She sells her body for money.’

‘That’s not true!’

‘Ask her, if you don’t believe me. Ask anyone,’ Lucy shrugged. ‘Everyone knows what she is. Everyone but you, that is,’ she said with a smirk.

Millie glanced back over her shoulder at Blanche Desmond. Among all the drab, worn-out women she shone like a bright flame with her blonde hair and scarlet satin gown.

‘Well, I don’t care,’ she declared. ‘I still think she’s delightful.’

‘My mother would die if she knew I was having anything to do with women like her.’

‘And my father says we should treat everyone with respect unless they give us a reason not to,’ Millie said firmly.

They were interrupted by Staff Nurse Cuthbert, stepping in front of them.

‘When you’ve quite finished gossiping, Sister wanted to know if you’ve finished with the patients?’ They both nodded. ‘You’ve washed them, combed their hair, changed their nightgowns? What about their teeth?’

Lucy nodded. Millie looked blank. ‘What about them?’

Cuthbert stared at her. ‘Don’t tell me you haven’t done their teeth? You have to take them out and clean them,’ she explained with exaggerated patience.

Millie glanced at Lucy. Her expression was smug, as usual.

‘What, all of them?’ Millie looked up and down the ward in horror. ‘That will take forever.’

‘Well, you’d better get on with it, hadn’t you?’

‘You could have told me I had to clean their teeth,’ she whispered to Lucy as she clattered back down the ward with her trolley.

‘I thought you knew,’ the other girl said carelessly.

‘Won’t you help me?’ Millie pleaded.

‘Not a chance. I’ve done my bit. And hurry up about it! They’d better be cleaned and put back in before Mr Cooper shows his face or there’ll be real trouble.’

Millie felt close to tears as she hurried back to the sluice. With so much to do and no one willing to give her a hand, she had horrible visions of not getting the job done in time and ending up in Matron’s office yet again.

She was filling the basin with water when she had a brainwave. She didn’t have to go round to every bed, cleaning each set of teeth individually. Surely all she had to do was collect up all the teeth and clean them at the same time?

Pleased with herself, she hurried back down the ward with the trolley, collecting up everyone’s teeth and throwing them into the basin of water as she went. Most of the women in the ward had false teeth – during training Sister Parker had explained how East End women often had their teeth removed at an early age to save on expensive dental treatment when they got older. When she had a basin full Millie carried them carefully back to the sluice, briskly trotting as fast as she could get away with, without breaking into a run.

She was just rinsing the last of the teeth under the tap and feeling rather pleased with her own ingenuity when Lucy appeared in the doorway to the sluice.

‘What are you doing now?’ she demanded. Millie suppressed her annoyance. Lucy had become insufferably bossy since they’d started work on the ward.

‘Cleaning the teeth. Look.’ Millie showed her the basin. But instead of being incredibly impressed by her time-saving brainwave, Lucy just stared at the bowl then at Millie and back at the bowl again.

‘How are you going to tell which teeth are which?’ she asked.

‘That’s easy, I’ll just . . .’ Millie’s smile faltered slightly ‘. . . I mean, I’ll . . .’

Then full realisation hit her and she stared in horror at the assortment of teeth in the bowl. They all seemed to be grinning up at her.

‘Oh, Benedict, what have you done now?’ Lucy put her hand over her mouth, her eyes as big as saucers above it. They stared at each other for a moment.

Then the phone rang.

‘Mr Cooper’s on his way.’ Lucy thrust the basin at her. ‘Get this lot handed out stat.’

‘But how will we know who to give them to?’ Millie asked.

‘I don’t know, do I? You’ll just have to guess for now and sort it out later.’

Fortunately Staff Nurse Cuthbert was busy and Sister Wren had retired to her sitting room, so they didn’t witness Millie hurtling up and down the ward, skimming false teeth into the laps of surprised patients.

By the time she had reached the other end of the ward, Sister Wren had emerged from her sitting room, her ashy brown hair looking suspiciously teased under her starched cap. The staff nurses and Lucy had already gathered at the doors to the ward, ready to greet their illustrious visitor when he arrived.

‘Benedict!’ Sister Wren snapped at Millie. ‘Is that the basin for Mr Cooper? Put it down at once.’

‘But Sister—’

‘I said, put it down!’ Sister Wren hissed furiously. ‘Roll your sleeves down, put your cuffs on and come over here.’

With a quick, guilty glance at Lucy, Millie hastily put the bowl on the stand at the far end of the ward, covered it with a towel and hurried back to join Sister Wren and the other nurses, who were busy patting their hair and smoothing down their aprons. All she could hope now was that Mr Cooper didn’t mind too much that the water in the bowl was stone cold.

She was still fastening the studs on her cuffs when the doors swung open and the Great One himself entered, followed by his firm, a procession of two registrars, a pair of senior housemen and several medical students. Millie could immediately see why Blanche had put on lipstick and Sister had teased her hair. Mr Cooper looked like Errol Flynn in a white coat.

‘Sister Wren,’ he greeted her with a nod.

‘Mr Cooper,’ she simpered. Her voice was high and fluttery, and nothing like the sharp tone she took with her nurses. ‘Your water is ready, if you would care to step this way?’

‘Thank you.’ Millie and Lucy exchanged panicked looks as he strode over to the basin, his retinue following behind. Millie crossed her fingers behind her back. The whole ward seemed utterly, deathly silent, although she guessed that was because they had been struck dumb by their ill-fitting teeth.

Mr Cooper hitched up the sleeves of his white coat, flicked the towel aside and plunged his hands into the water. Millie closed her eyes and prayed.

Please don’t let it be too cold, please . . .

For a moment nothing happened. Then Mr Cooper said in his deep voice, ‘Sister, would you mind explaining why there is a set of false teeth in the bottom of this bowl?’

Sister Wren opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter a word, a voice rang out from the far end of the ward.

‘Oh, they’ll be mine, Doctor. The nurse forgot to give me back my set.’ They all turned to see Blanche grinning toothlessly at them all. Her bright red lips only emphasised the gaping cavern of her mouth.

The silence seemed to go on forever. Millie could feel everyone staring at her, but she couldn’t look up from the shiny floor. She’d done a good job of polishing it, she thought. But it would take more than a spot of cleaning to save her now.

‘Nurse . . . my office . . . immediately.’ Sister Wren turned on her heel and stalked out of the ward. Millie trailed after her.

She braced herself as best she might, but couldn’t have prepared herself for the full force of Sister Wren’s wrath. ‘Never . . . in my whole career . . . utterly humiliated.’ Cords of suppressed rage stood out on her thin neck. ‘Dumbfounded . . . disgrace to nursing . . .’ Millie let the words wash over her, until finally the storm blew itself out.

‘Well? What have you to say for yourself?’ Sister demanded when she finally paused for breath.

‘It was an accident, Sister.’

Sister Wren closed her eyes, mentally composing herself. ‘You,’ she said, enunciating slowly and carefully, ‘are one big accident waiting to happen. I would send you to Matron but I’m sure she’s already seen more than enough of you. Now please get out of my sight. And be sure I will be mentioning this in my ward report. How we are going to survive the next three months with you on my ward, I have no idea.’

Lucy was waiting for her in the sluice when she returned. ‘What happened?’

‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ Millie’s hands shook as she washed them under the tap. ‘Has Mr Cooper gone?’

Lucy nodded. ‘He said he’d come back and continue his round when Sister had finished dealing with you. He didn’t look too pleased.’

‘Oh dear.’ He would probably go straight to Matron too. Millie had a sudden, horrible vision of being packed off unceremoniously back to Billinghurst. Her grandmother would be delighted. ‘What do you think I should do?’ she pleaded.

‘I’d stay out of everyone’s way, if I were you.’ Lucy could barely hide her glee.

But first Millie had to sort out the puzzle of the teeth. She was so miserable she could barely speak as she trailed up and down the ward with her bowl. But the women did their best to cheer her up.

‘Don’t worry about it, love, worse things happen at sea,’ Blanche said. ‘Besides, it gave us all a right good laugh. And they say that’s the best medicine, don’t they?’

It was kind of them to try and make her feel better, Millie thought as she washed the bowl in the sluice room sink. But she still felt utterly foolish.

‘Really, Millie, you must try to think in future,’ she warned herself.

‘Did you know that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness?’ a voice said behind her.

Millie swung round. A young man stood in the sluice-room doorway. She recognised him as one of the housemen she’d seen with Mr Cooper that morning.

‘Of course, presenting a bowl of false teeth to the hospital’s Chief Consultant in full view of his entire firm may also be considered an act of insanity,’ he drawled.

His grin irritated Millie. ‘Have you come to gloat?’ she snapped.

‘I’ve come to tell you not to take it to heart.’ He wasn’t much older than she was, tall and lanky in his white coat, his dark hair flopping into his eyes. There was something familiar about him, but she wasn’t sure what. ‘If it’s any help, I actually think Cooper was secretly quite amused.’

‘Sister certainly wasn’t.’

‘Sister Wren has no sense of humour.’

Millie frowned at him. ‘Do I know you?’

‘I don’t think we’ve been introduced. I’m William. Will, to my friends. And you are?’

‘Benedict.’

‘No first name?’

‘You can call me Nurse Benedict, if you like?’

He smiled. He had a nice smile, Millie thought . . .

‘Thanks for trying to make me feel better,’ she said.

‘I’m a doctor. It’s my job.’

I’m a doctor. Something about the way he said it made her think. She looked up at him, more closely this time. The last time she’d seen that tall, lanky figure it had been looming out of the fog towards her . . .

‘It’s you!’ she cried. ‘You ran me over!’

‘I’m sorry?’ He frowned. And then, slowly, it dawned on him. ‘You!’

‘You owe me a new pair of stockings.’

‘And you owe me a new rear bumper.’ But we could call it quits if you promise to come out with me one night?’ he added cheekily.

Millie had opened her mouth to reply when she heard voices in the corridor.

‘Sounds like Mr Cooper’s coming back,’ said William.

He ducked out of sight, then stuck his head round the door again. ‘It’s been nice meeting you, Nurse Benedict. Perhaps I’ll run into you again sometime.’

‘Not literally, I hope!’ Millie was still smiling to herself as his running footsteps echoed away down the corridor.