Free Nurse in Love by Jane Arbor

difficulty—Thelma, in her case—stand in her way ? ”
    “Of course not!”
    Simon’s glance was keen, intent, causing Sara to lower her eyes before his. “I’m glad you feel like that about it,” he said quietly.
    The next moment he was nodding carelessly towards the other group and saying: “Well, if Carter has come back to ask Kathryn again, he may soon be able to offer himself solo. Rumour has it in our common - room that Thelma would like to have a stab at the great Brand himself — ”
    “And they claim that men never gossip!” ventured Sara.
    “There’s gossip,” retorted Simon loftily, “and there are ‘matters of public interest’. And the future fate of an important consultant comes into the latter category, I’d have you know!”
    They laughed together, and then Simon looked at his watch. “Come on,” he said. “I’d better return you to prison—with many thanks.”
    “It’s not prison !”
    “Do you really like it, then?”
    “I love it!”
    “Bless you, I believe you do,” said Simon. And his hand brushed briefly and lightly against her cheek as he helped her on with her coat.
    Sara’s way to her room led past the Sisters’ bedrooms, and as she reached Kathryn’s door, Kathryn looked out.
    “Oh, Sara,” she said, “you are much later than usual. You weren’t at su p per, nor in your room, so I’d begun to wonder whether there was anything wrong with Carol? Come in for a minute and tell me.”
    “No, Carol is fine.” Sara followed Kathryn into her room, taking a breath of fresh night air with her. “But I haven’t been at the Thorleys’ until now. I — I’ve been having dinner with Dr . Glenn.”
    “With Simon Glenn?” Kathryn stared, then lau gh ed. “He’s houseman on your ward, isn’t he? I didn’t know you knew him so well.”
    “But I don’t,” protested Sara. “It’s just that he’s so persistent and so—unpredictable that I found myself dining with him almost without knowing how I came to be there! He teases me a lot, but he’s kind and considerate on the ward, and he wants to meet Carol so much that he has made me promise to take him to Barbara’s next time I go. Barbara won’t mind, will she?”
    Kathryn noting her friend’s glowing cheeks and bright eyes, was thinking that Simon Glenn, wanting to know Carol, could have found no surer way to Sara’s heart. But she suspected that Sara was attracted to him for his own sake, and she was glad. Simon Glenn, she knew, had a reputation for easy conquests, but beneath his veneer of gay self-confidence she believed he was sincere and good-hearted. He was clever, too, and she kn ew that he was earmarked for the next registrar’s post that fell vacant at the Wardrop. Somehow, set against her own heartache, this first budding romance of Sara’s seemed so fresh, so unhampered, so real.
    Sara was saying: “Do you know who was at the restaurant we went to? Your Dr . Brand, with Miss Carter and her brother, Dr . Carter —you know? And Simon—I mean Dr . Glenn—says that Dr . Carter is coming back to hospital. Had you heard that?”
    “I had, yes. Dr . Brand told me,” said Kathryn slowly.
    “Did he? Yes, and of course he’d know because he knows Thelma so well, apparently. S—Dr . Glenn—says that their names are being coupled together, that —”
    “Sara, you’ve no right to repeat gossip like that !” The sharp rebuke of Kathryn’s tone was so unusual that Sara started with surprise.
    “I’m sorry,” Kathryn said more quietly. “But common-room gossip is so cheap, somehow, though I know we all indulge in it when we’ve got nothing better to discuss. But when I’m tempted to it I try to think how I should hate to be the subject of it. Though I dare say, when I refused Steven Carter, I was.”
    “Dr . Glenn knew about it, certainly,” admitted Sara rather shamefacedly. “But I’m afraid I did mention it to him before he told me he knew.”
    “It doesn’t matter,” said Kathryn