Nightingales Under the Mistletoe Read Free Page A

come to me, I’m far too busy.’
    Jess found Maynard in the bathroom, warming towels on the radiator. She was a lively, green-eyed blonde of about Jess’s age.
    ‘Oh, hello,’ she greeted Jess over her shoulder. Maynard was the first person to smile at her since she’d walked through the hospital gates. ‘Where did you spring from?’
    ‘I’m Nurse Jago. I’ve been sent down from London.’
    ‘Have you? Poor you.’ The girl looked sympathetic. ‘I’m Nurse Maynard, but you can call me Daisy.’
    ‘What do you want me to do?’
    ‘Mrs McCready needs an emollient bath. She’s a diabetic and her skin is itching like mad. Do you think you could prepare the linseed bag for me? You’ll find everything you need in the prep room next door.’
    ‘I’ll do it now.’ As Jess turned away, she happened to glance at the contents of the bath tub. ‘Is the water supposed to be that colour?’ she asked.
    ‘Oh, yes, it’s always brown, unless you run the taps for ages and ages,’ Daisy replied cheerfully. ‘I think it’s rust in the pipes, or something.’
    ‘Shouldn’t Sister get someone to look at it?’
    ‘Oh, she’s tried. But finding a decent plumber is nigh on impossible since they’ve all been called up. We just have to put up with it.’
    Jess eyed the mucky brown water dubiously. It didn’t look at all safe. ‘What about when you want to make a hot drink for the patients?’
    ‘Sister says it’s all right as long as we boil it properly. And if it tastes foul most of the patients are too ill to complain anyway!’ She gave Jess an apologetic smile. ‘I daresay it’s not what you’re used to in London, is it?’
    Jess thought about working in the bombed-out hospital, sweeping fallen masonry from the floors every morning and boiling instruments for hours over spirit stoves when the power went off. Once she’d even assisted with an operation by shining a torch over the surgeon’s shoulder.
    ‘I dunno about that,’ she said. ‘We had to make do in our own way.’
    ‘I’d love to go to London,’ Daisy said, unfolding another towel. ‘I suppose you’ll find it all very dull down here. All we get are old ladies with diabetes, heart problems and bronchitis.’
    Jess went off to the prep room. It was a tiny space lined with shelves and glass-fronted cupboards containing a variety of preparations in jars and bottles. Two other cupboards were filled with equipment and dressings. In front of her was a counter with a sink and a stove top.
    Jess found a pan in the cupboard, filled it with water and set it on the stove. As she went to pick up the sack of linseed from the floor, a scurrying motion caught her eye.
    ‘Bloody mouse!’ She went to catch it but it had already disappeared down a hole in the skirting board.
    ‘I know. They’re everywhere unfortunately,’ sighed Daisy Maynard behind her. ‘But they’re not nearly as bad as the rats.’
    ‘Rats?’ Jess swung round in horror.
    ‘Not many,’ Daisy assured her hastily. ‘And we hardly ever see them up here. They’re mainly in the Fever Wards,’ she said, as if that would make Jess feel better.
    She examined the nibbled corner of the hessian sack and hoped she’d never see the damage a rat could do.
    As she set about weighing out the linseed into a bag and boiling it up, Daisy stood in the doorway and chatted. Jess found out she was twenty-one years old, her parents were dead and she lived with her brothers and sisters. One of her brothers was in the army, and her elder sister was a housemaid at Billinghurst Manor. They lived in one of the workers’ cottages on the castle estate.
    She also found out that Sister Allen was bitter because her naval officer boyfriend had jilted her, and the previous staff nurse on Female Medical had had to leave quickly for ‘family reasons’.
    ‘And we all know what that means, don’t we?’ Daisy gave her a sidelong look.
    ‘Do we?’
    ‘You know!’ Daisy mimed a pregnancy bump on the front of