She eyed Octavia’s case. ‘I hope you haven’t brought too much with you—you’ll be lucky if you get a chance to wear evening clothes more than a couple of times. We usually sunbathe in the afternoons when we’re free, but you can do what you like; use the library or do some shopping or swim.’ She added with a nasty little edge to her voice: ‘Just remember you’re not a passenger, that’s all.’
Octavia gave her a cool glance. ‘Oh, I won’t do that. Do I fetch my uniform?’
‘It’ll be brought here. You’d better unpack. Mary and I are going down to the hospital, so come down there when you’re ready and I’ll show you round.’
Left to herself, Octavia put away her things, thankful that she hadn’t brought a great deal with her, for there wasn’t all that much space left for her. Mary, she reflected, would be pleasant enough, but she didn’t think she was going to like Joan Wise. She seemed jealous of her authority, which was a bit silly, seeing that they were all three trained nurses, and Octavia suspected that if anyone was going short of their off duty it wouldn’t be Sister Wise.
It didn’t take her long to tidy away her wardrobe and presently she left the cabin, went back through the door and into the foyer, and studied the ship’s plan on one of the walls. Sister Wise hadn’t told her where the hospital was, but it couldn’t be all that hard to find. It took a few moments to decide which was the front and which the back of the ship, and to discover that the staircases were numbered; it was just a question of finding the right staircase nearest the hospital, which was several decks below her.
She did rather well, meeting no one at all and taking careful note of where she was going. The hospital was clearly marked, with a waiting room for patients beside it. Octavia opened its door and went in, agreeably surprised to find that it looked very like St Maud’s on a very small scale. She could hear voices coming from a half-opened door at the end of the passage, but she paused to peep in the doors on either side of her. The doctor’s surgery on her right, and very nice too, beautifully fitted up and elegant to boot; the other door revealed a four-bedded ward and beyond it, another bigger ward. She closed the door and poked her pretty head round the next door—the duty room, much better than the office they had on Casualty at Maud’s. She had reached the half-open door by now and pushed it wide. This was the theatre, small but otherwise the prototype of any hospital theatre, with a small anaesthetic room next to it and the scrub room leading from it. She was taken round it at leisure, giving her time to discover where everything was and ask all the questions she wanted to. They were in the anaesthetic room when a young man in slacks and a sweater joined them, to be introduced as Colin White, the junior doctor.
He shook Octavia’s hand and beamed at her. ‘I say, this is jolly,’ he told her. ‘I had no idea…’ He stopped and went a little red in the face, then went on; ‘I hear this is your first trip, so I hope you enjoy it. It’s my sixth and Mary has been at it for several months, and Joan here is an old hand, aren’t you, Joan?’
Sister Wise’s eyes flashed, but she smiled thinly. ‘Oh, a very old hand,’ she repeated. ‘Now run along, there’s a good man, I’ve got to show Nurse Lock everything this afternoon; there won’t be much time after today.’
He went reluctantly, stopped to ask Octavia if he might show her round the ship later on and when she said yes, beamed more widely than ever.
They were on the point of leaving the hospital when Mary whispered: ‘Oh, here’s the boss.’
Octavia had turned back to read a notice she hadn’t seen, but she looked round, curious to see if the senior doctor was as nice as Colin White appeared to be. He did indeed look nice, and very handsome—even more so than when she had seen him for the first time in Casualty. He advanced to meet them, in no hurry at all, looking faintly annoyed about something and when he saw her, frowning fiercely. Octavia, a forthright girl, ignored the frown.
‘Well,’ she exclaimed cheerfully, ‘fancy meeting you again! Of course, now I think about it, you just had to be a doctor.’
CHAPTER THREE
OCTAVIA was aware that Joan Wise was staring at her; so was Mary, but Mary was smiling whereas Joan wasn’t. As for the newcomer, his frown had deepened if anything so that she was tempted to add: ‘You don’t look at all pleased to see me.’
He didn’t answer that; merely said formally: ‘How do you do, Miss Lock,’ and turned to Joan Wise, who gave him a dazzling smile and fluttered her eyelashes at him.
‘We didn’t expect you quite so soon,’ she told him in what Octavia privately thought to be a ridiculously sugary voice. ‘I’ve just been showing our new nurse round.’
His heavy-lidded eyes rested upon Octavia for a few seconds. ‘Ah, yes—of course, although I’m sure she will have no difficulty in coping. She is Casualty Sister at St Maud’s and is very experienced.’
Nicely said, approved Octavia silently; it was a pity that his tone had implied that she was not only experienced but no longer in the first flush of youth. Common sense reminded her that she wasn’t, but what girl wants to be reminded that thirty isn’t all that far off, even if she were as pretty as a picture? Octavia frowned in her turn and caught his eye; it was disconcerting to see a decided twinkle there.
He spoke to Mary next with a quiet casualness which put that rather shy girl at her ease, and then turned to Octavia. ‘Although we have met and I know your name, I think perhaps you won’t know mine—van der Weijnen, Dutch. I should explain too that I am filling in for Doctor Blamey—he will be rejoining the ship when we return to Southampton.’ He smiled at her briefly and added to Sister Wise: ‘We are fortunate in having someone as experienced as yourself, Sister Wise, to guide us through any possible pitfalls.’
Octavia suppressed a smile. Anyone less likely to need guiding than the new doctor she had yet to meet, and as for Joan Wise…she was much more likely to give anyone a good push into a pit and then stand on its edge and point out their error. She stood quietly while the doctor and Sister Wise exchanged small talk and presently, dismissed by a nod from Sister Wise, accompanied Mary up on deck to see what was going on.
‘She’s got her claws into him,’ observed Mary. ‘She’s all of thirty-five, you know, and all the older men are married—I don’t know if this one is, but I thought he was rather nice when we met him the other day, but of course he’s only with us for a fortnight.’ She looked anxiously at Octavia, ‘Do you think that’s time enough?’
‘Plenty, as long as he’s willing.’ Octavia paused and went on thoughtfully, ‘But I shouldn’t think he’d be all that easy…’
‘He was super, calling you Sister like that when Joan had just said Nurse in that scornful voice. I’ve not been a Sister, only a staff nurse; I expect you’re frightfully clever…’
‘Lord no—just luck. You know how a job comes up and there’s no one much for it? I was just lucky.’
‘He said you were very clever,’ persisted Mary.
‘Oh, he was just being pleasant—making conversation.
In any case, we only met the once and that for a very short time—he brought someone into Casualty one evening and I happened to be on duty.’ Octavia leaned her elbows on the ship’s rail and gazed down at the activities on the dock below. ‘Gosh, aren’t they busy? Are we free now or do we have to take duty in turns?’
‘Joan will tell us presently; she arranges the duties and she hates anyone to ask to have them changed, but if she’s in a good mood, I expect she’ll let you go ashore if she doesn’t want to.’
Octavia turned to look at her companion. ‘Tell me, Mary, what sort