that surprised him, ‘If my young brother lived here, he would be most keen to join your sailing club.’
‘So he doesn’t live near, then?’ he commented with the chaos of the night before still upon him.
‘No. I’m afraid not,’ she replied, and when a small child in one of the cots began to cry she went to him and lifting him carefully, soothed the little boy gently until he was comforted, and watching her Daniel thought that whoever had designated her to be sister-in-charge of the children’s ward had got it right.
On the point of departure, he informed her, ‘Needless to say, I’ve seen the two lads with the injuries and am treating them myself now that I’m back. We are talking about a badly fractured leg and a spinal problem at the moment, and tonight I intend to visit my old friend Ely who is in a hospital in the town centre with a heart problem and doesn’t know about the boat and the sea rescue.’
His wife has sensibly kept it from him under the circumstances. As there was never really any time for chatting in his working day he turned to go, yet it didn’t stop him from turning for a last look at her with the child in her arms.
* * *
The day had run its course. The night staff had arrived and Darcey and those she worked with were homeward bound. She had been the last to leave as she’d needed to discuss problems with the night sister that had arisen with one of their young patients just before the changeover, and when she left the ward the corridor outside was empty apart from a small group gathered near the exit consisting of Daniel Osbourne, the attractive woman who had been waiting for him in the car at the station, and two small girls who were cuddling up to him.
If there had been another exit close by she would have taken it, but there wasn’t, and hastening past the small family group she was out in the cold winter night in a flash, her curiosity about his background satisfied after seeing the happy family group.
As Darcey walked the short distance to her apartment loneliness was wrapping itself around her. It was something that she’d only experienced since Alex had gone, and having just seen the happy family group in the corridor it had hit her even more as she thought that she had been right in her surmise that Daniel Osbourne would have an attractive wife and adorable children, and didn’t begrudge him them. He was too charismatic and attractive not to have a family of his own.
* * *
Engrossed with his visitors, he hadn’t seen her coming swiftly towards them and by the time it registered she was past and going through the outer doors of the hospital into the night. As he gazed after her Daniel was conscious of her solitariness and hoped that there was someone else in Sister Darcey Howard’s life besides the unavailable young brother that she’d mentioned.
Cordelia and the children had been on their way home from the birthday party of one of their friends and as they’d had to pass the hospital she had taken them to see him briefly. When the passer-by had disappeared she asked, ‘Who was that, Daniel?’
‘The day sister in charge of the children’s ward,’ he replied briefly, and volunteered no further information because he had none, and once those he loved had said goodbye he didn’t wait long before calling it a day and returning to the familiar solitude of his apartment, which usually replaced the day’s strains and stresses with tranquillity, but not this time. He was restless, couldn’t settle, but wouldn’t admit to himself that it had anything to do with having watched Darcey leave without any assurance that once she had taken off the garments of her profession she wouldn’t be exploring the night life of the promenade on her own, as she had done the night before.
* * *
Daniel was not to know there was nothing further from Darcey’s mind. She was feeling low and lost, and after a snack followed by a shower Darcey went to bed and until drowsiness took her into sleep, she spent the time listening in vain for the phone to ring.
A fourth day had dawned with no more contact from Alex and as the three young men were staying anywhere they could with friends and relatives until flight time she was wishing she had been more adamant about him keeping in touch. But something new was appearing in her life as well as his. Alex was happy in the choices he was making, so why shouldn’t she be the same?
The opportunity was there that hadn’t been present before for her to experience something new in the form of a freedom of her own after all the years that she had cared so devotedly for her young brother. She had put him first in everything and suddenly that was no more, the need for it was gone.
But she still had to know that all was well with him before even contemplating anything else, and, as if he’d read her mind, just as she was about to go to present herself on the ward, Alex called. He told her that he hoped that she would be happy in her new job and that he would keep in touch when he could. To hear his voice was solace after the hours of anxiety that he had caused her.
* * *
Over recent days the smile with which the new ward sister greeted Daniel and his entourage on their arrival on the ward had been missing, but he saw that today there was a change, not totally but she was more relaxed, less pale and stressed than of late.When he stopped at the first bed in the ward, where its little occupant’s condition was causing concern, Darcey was as clear and confident as she always was when doing the rounds with him and was tuned in immediately to his comments, just the same as while he was examining the young girl who had suffered a spinal injury after falling off a swing the previous day and was in much pain.
At that moment the child was in a fretful doze, unaware that she was the centre of attention. Daniel read the notes clipped to the bottom of the bed and said, ‘Sister, I want this child to have a scan and some blood tests to check if there is some injury that hasn’t shown itself previously and has surfaced during the night.’
‘Yes, Mr Osbourne,’ she said levelly, and immediately sent for a porter to follow his instructions. Then, picking up her desk phone, she rang the parents of the injured child to explain there was a new development regarding their daughter’s accident, which came as a shock as they had been at her bedside until late the previous evening and had only left when she had fallen into a deep sleep that had indicated no cause for alarm.
But the little girl had awakened in a winter dawn feverish and in pain, and as the porter moved swiftly towards the ultrasound unit with the crying child on the trolley Daniel was close behind, having left his second-in-command to do the rest of the rounds in the children’s ward.
* * *
The doctor’s name was Brendan Stokes and Darcey braced herself to spend the next hour or so being patronised by him. He had already asked her for a date and been refused because he was arrogant and pushy, and it annoyed her that on something as important as caring for sick children he was still eyeing her up and down. While Daniel Osbourne was just the opposite, this one was the opportunist of all time, she thought.
But having seen the man on her mind in the corridor with his family the other day, it was easy to understand his contentment. With a wife and children of such a kind he must be totally happy. His interest in her would be merely keeping an eye on a newcomer to Oceans House, and as far as she was concerned looking after Alex all those years had left little time to make any commitments with the opposite sex.
There had been a couple of times in the past that she’d let herself be dated by local Romeos, but always Alexander had been her main concern, which had put a dampener on every occasion.
When Daniel came back, she observed him questioningly and he said with reasonable calm, ‘I was concerned that we might have
