The pool of St Branok

"That was why you went ... because they needed you so badly. Mr. Russell told us all about it. They must have been pleased to see you."

"The authorities were skeptical of us at first. They just thought of us as a pack of useless women ... but Miss Nightingale soon made them change their minds."

"Grace, what is it you want to tell me?"

She was silent for a while, staring ahead of her at the bronze-colored flowers, her mouth tight, her eyes almost appealing.

She said: "Jonnie ... was brought in. It was an amazing coincidence."

"You mean ... wounded? Was it such a coincidence? You were there and he was there and the wounded would be brought in for you to nurse."

"He wasn't in my section. I happened to walk through the ward and see him. He looked so ill. I just went and knelt by his bed. I shall never forget his face when he saw me. I believed he thought he was dreaming. He was wounded in the leg. It was rather bad and they were afraid of gangrene."

"It must have been wonderful for you to have found each other."

"Oh it was ... it was ... I asked if I could be moved to that part of the hospital where he was. One of the women changed places with me. It had happened before when someone was brought in who knew one of the nurses. So I looked after him. I had always ... been fond of Jonnie."

"And he was fond of you," I told her.

"Yes, we had a great deal in common. I was with him every day. He used to look for me. I was so moved to see his face light up when I came. I nursed him. They had to take a bullet out of his leg and I was there when they did it. They had very little to kill the pain. That sort of thing is heartrending. He held my hand while they did it. Then ... afterwards ... I nursed him and he began to recover. If his recovery had been longer he might not have died." She bit her lips and seemed unable to continue.

Then she turned to me and pressed my hand. "I had him walking again soon. They needed men. He had a few days' leave and then was to join the men outside Sebastopol. When you are in that position ... when you feel you are facing death and the chances are that you can't be lucky twice ... a kind of desperation gets hold of you. It might have been like that with Jonnie. Perhaps I ought to have realized it, but I was fond of him, Angelet, very fond. I loved him, Angelet. We had this little time together. I got leave and we went out together. There was little on our side of the Bosphorus and they took us back and forth to Constantinople on the other side in little boats they called caliques ... and we dined in the city. We were reckless ... like two people who know they have not long to be together. Constantinople is different from any place I have ever seen. There are two cities really—Christian Constantinople and Stamboul. Bridges connect them and if ever the nurses went out—which they did occasionally in parties—they were warned not to cross the bridges into Stamboul. I was not afraid of anything with Jonnie. It was a wonderful evening. We sat in an alcove in this restaurant which he knew of and we ate exotic foods—caviar and peppers stuffed with meat. It was all very strange and foreign. But I did not notice the food. We talked and talked ... not of the war, not of the hospital but of the future and what we should do when we were home again. He wanted to go to Italy. He was fascinated by the site at Pompeii and he talked as though I should be with him. Then suddenly he took my hand and said, 'Will you marry me?' "

I drew breath sharply. Somewhere in my dreams I had thought of marrying Jonnie. Then I had thought of marrying Ben, it was true. But I went back to Jonnie after Ben had gone to Australia.

"I said I would," she went on. "It's easy there, Angelet. There is no formality. You have to pay them well and you can get a priest to marry you. It is probably some unfrocked priest from England ... I don't know. But he married us ... and that was what we both wanted. We spent three days together ... and then I went back to the hospital and he went to Sebastopol. That is my story, Angelet. You know the rest. He never came back."

"So you ... you are Jonnie's wife?"

She nodded. "What do you think they will say, Angelet?" she asked anxiously. "They might not ... accept me."

"What do you mean? You are Jonnie's wife. Therefore they must."

"I am afraid they will say it is no true marriage."

"How can they? Don't they have certificates? Do you?"

"I have one, but, as I say, it was different from the way it is done here. We knew of this priest. He had married one or two other people. It might be that they won't accept it. They could raise all sorts of objections ... if they wanted to."

"They wouldn't do that. Why should they?"

"Angelet, you must see. Jonnie belongs to a different family from mine. I worked for your mother."

"What has that to do with it?"

"They might say ... everything."

"I don't see how they can if you are married with a certificate to prove it"

"If they wanted to disprove it ..."