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 of girl left? I mean, before Suzy was appointed in her place?’
‘Oh, very quiet and kind of earnest; she always did exactly what Joan told her to do and she never once asked for time off to go ashore or anything like that, and she never went to any of the cabarets or went dancing when she was off duty…’
‘I have a horrid feeling,’ observed Octavia meditatively, ‘that I’m going to be a square peg in a round hole.’
She had no chance to test her theory for the moment, however; Sister Wise had disappeared for the time being, leaving Mary and herself to make sure that everything was exactly as it should be before the first of the passengers came on board the next day. It wasn’t until the following morning that she found time to discuss their duty hours with them, because she had come to bed long after the two of them were asleep. ‘Having a go at charming the boss,’ Mary had observed over breakfast. ‘She looks much younger by electric light…’
Octavia had laughed at that. ‘Mary, if I didn’t know what a nice girl you were I might think you were being catty!’ She poured second cups of coffee for them both. ‘Besides, Doctor van der Weijnen is old enough to take care of himself. Which reminds me—he’s a professor, too—I remember seeing it in the Casualty Book.’
Mary bit into a slice of toast. ‘Whatever made him take on this job? You don’t think he’s hiding from someone, or perhaps…’
‘Lord no, Mary—you heard what he said; he’s filling in for Doctor Blamey—possibly they’re friends and he’s got a couple of weeks’ holiday.’ She pushed back her chair. ‘Oughtn’t we to start thinking of this boat drill? It’s almost time.’
It was hard to take boat drill seriously. Octavia, swamped in a life-jacket, was inspected by the Captain and a little posse of officers, among whom were Doctor van der Weijnen and Colin White, who winked at her. She didn’t look at the Dutchman—easy enough, for her eyes were on a level with his tie, although she found herself tempted to glance up at him. Leave that to our Joan, she told herself severely, and obedient to orders tested the whistle dangling from her life-jacket.
They dispersed for coffee after that and Sister Wise joined them, notebook and pen in hand. ‘The duty hours,’ she explained loftily. ‘Eight o’clock until two o’clock and on call from ten o’clock at night until eight o’clock the following morning. Then from two o’clock until ten o’clock in the evening, the third rota is on call from eight o’clock until two o’clock and then free for the rest of the day—which means that on every third day we’re each free from two o’clock and on each third night one of us will be on call. Should there be a case during the night, whoever is on call must endeavour to cope by herself; we can’t have all three of us up all night. Of course, these times are changed when we are in port; we’ll settle that later.’ She fixed Octavia with a cold stare. ‘I hope you’re quite satisfied, Octavia?’ Not at all what Mary had told her—in fact a dreadful muddle, decided Octavia; such airy-fairy duty hours would end in confusion.
‘It sounds fine. I expect we have to do a bit of give and take between us?’
‘Naturally, but do understand that I am the one who arranges the duty hours.’
The first passengers arrived in the afternoon and the great ship, filling itself slowly with excited people, took on a holiday atmosphere. Octavia, her chores done, stood with Mary on deck and watched them come on board; mostly couples, and most of those not so very young, but there was a sprinkling of younger men and women
