‘Woop-Woop?’ asked Sister Pedder, affronted. ‘Well! I know it’s not Sydney, but it’s not quite Woop-Woop either, you know!’

‘Don’t get shirty, young Sue; Woop-Woop is just Luce’s nickname for his home town,’ soothed Sister Langtry.

‘Oh, Luce Daggett!’ said Sister Dawkin, comprehending. She bent a fierce eye on Sister Pedder. ‘If you’re seeing him on the sly, ducky, you’d better wear your tin pants—and don’t let him reach for his tin-cutters.’

Sister Pedder reddened and bridled; fancy being stuck on neuro with this old dragon! ‘I assure you that there’s no need to be concerned about me,’ she said haughtily. ‘I knew Luce when we were both children.’

‘What was he like, Sue?’ asked Sister Langtry.

‘Oh, not much different.’ Sister Pedder began to lose her defensiveness, liking the fact that Sister Langtry was interested in her. ‘All the girls were crazy about him, he was so handsome. But his mother took in washing, which made it a bit difficult. My parents would have killed me if I’d looked sideways at him, but luckily I was a couple of years younger than Luce, so by the time I got out of the primary school he had already gone to Sydney. We all followed his career, though. I never missed one play he did on radio because our local station used to rebroadcast them. But I missed seeing him when he was in that play at the Royal. Some of the girls went down to Sydney, but my father wouldn’t let me.’

‘What was his father like?’

I really don’t remember. He was the stationmaster, but he died not long after the start of the Depression. Luce’s mother was very proud, she wouldn’t go on the dole. That’s why she took in washing.’

‘Does he have any brothers? Any sisters?’

‘No brothers. Two older sisters, very pretty girls. They were the handsomest family in the district, but the girls came to no good. One drinks and the less said about her morals the better, and the other got herself in the family way and still lives with her mother. She kept her baby, a little girl.’

‘Was he good at school?’

‘Awfully clever. They all were.’

‘Did he get on with his teachers?’

Sister Pedder laughed a little shrilly. ‘Good lord, no! The teachers all detested him. He was so sarcastic, and yet so slippery they could never manage to pin him down hard enough to have much excuse to punish him. Besides, he had a habit of always getting back at the teachers who did punish him.’

‘Well, he hasn’t changed much,’ said Sister Langtry.

‘He’s much handsomer now! I don’t think in all my life I’ve ever seen anyone so handsome,’ said Sister Pedder, lapsing into a reverie and smiling.

‘Oooops! Someone’s riding for a fall!’ Sister Dawkin chuckled, eyes twinkling, but not unkindly.

‘Don’t take any notice of her, Sue,’ Sister Langtry said, trying to keep her source of information in a receptive frame of mind. ‘Matron’s on her back and she’s got heat oedema.’

Sister Dawkin removed her feet from the bucket and rubbed them sketchily with a towel, then picked up her shoes and stockings.

‘There’s no need to talk about me as if I wasn’t even here,’ she said. ‘I am here, all thirteen and a half stone of me. Oh, my feet do feel better! Don’t drink the water in the bucket, girls, it’s full of Epsom salts. I’m off; I’ve got time for a quick nap.’ She pulled a face. ‘It’s those darned boots we have to wear after dark do my feet in.’

‘Have you elevated the foot of your bed?’ called Sister Langtry after her.

‘Years ago, love!’ came the faint reply. ‘It’s a lot easier to look for the pair of boots that are never there, and I don’t mean my own, either!’

This raised a laugh, of course, but after their spurt of amusement died the two sisters left at the table could do no better than an uncomfortable silence.

Sister Langtry sat wondering whether it was advisable to warn Sister Pedder about Luce, or at least make the attempt. In the end she decided that was where her duty lay, and reflected how unpalatable duty often was. She was well aware of the special difficulties young Sister Pedder faced at Base Fifteen, how friendless and isolated she must feel in this nest of senior sisters. There weren’t even any AAMWAs for her to mix with. Still, Luce was a definite menace, and Sister Pedder looked ripe, nubile and ready for mischief. And since Luce represented childhood and home town, her guard would be down.

‘I do hope Luce isn’t giving you any trouble, Sue,’ she said at last. ‘He can be difficult.’

‘No!’ said Sister Pedder, coming out of her daze with a start.

Sister Langtry picked up her cigarettes and matches and dropped them into the basket at her feet. ‘Well, I’m sure you’ve been a nurse long enough to be able to look after yourself. Just remember that Luce is a patient in X because he’s a little disturbed. We can handle that, but we can’t handle you if it rubs off.’

‘You make him sound as if he was a leper!’ said Sister Pedder indignantly. ‘After all, there’s no disgrace in battle fatigue; it happens to a lot of fine men!’

‘Is that what he told you?’ asked Sister Langtry.

‘Well, it’s the truth,’ said Sister Pedder, with just enough doubt in her voice to make Sister Langtry think something had happened which had given Sister Pedder pause to wonder already. Which was interesting.

‘No, it is not the truth. Luce has never been any closer to the front lines than the orderly room of a base ordnance unit.’

‘Then why is he in X?’

‘I don’t think I’m at liberty to tell you more than that he displayed some rather disagreeable characteristics which made his COs feel he might be better off in a place like X.’

‘He is strange sometimes,’ said Sister Pedder, thinking of that hideously passionless, automatic, merciless ramming, and of those savage bites. Her neck had been so deeply bruised, the skin broken in places, that she had thanked her lucky stars for the precious little container of pancake makeup she had bought at the American PX in Port Moresby on her way up here.

‘Then take my advice, and don’t see Luce any more,’ said Sister Langtry, picking up her basket and rising to her feet. ‘Truly, Sue, I’m not coming a matron act at you, and I’m not preaching. I have absolutely no wish to pry into your personal business, but Luce happens to be my business in every way. Steer clear of him.’

But that was too much for Sister Pedder to take; she puffed up with indignation, feeling chastised and belittled. ‘Is that an order?’ she asked, white-faced.

Sister Langtry looked surprised, even a little amused. ‘No. Orders come from Matron.’

‘Then you can stick your damned advice up your jumper!’ said Sister Pedder recklessly, then gasped. The precepts and disciplines of her training were too fresh still for her to be able to say things like that without immediately becoming devastated by her own temerity.

However, her retort fell sadly flat, for Sister Langtry had gone from the room without appearing to hear it.

She sat on for a few moments longer, chewing at her lip until the skin shredded, torn between the huge attraction she had for Luce and the feeling that Luce didn’t really care two hoots about her.