being taken by ambulance to neighbouring hospitals, the really ill ones were being bedded down in the far wing, which was happily undamaged.

"There you are. Rose I've been so worried about you Percy got you out?

How is Shirley? " She eyed Rose's face.

"Are you all right? You're a kind of pea green..."

"I'm fine. Are all the children still here?"

"Yes I'm on my way there just now. I came back to report to Casualty Sister, she's doing all the checking. Come with me we've got the little ward at the end you know the one? It's too small but we'll have to manage. I say, you were a brick to stay. Rose..." Staff Nurse White, who wasn't a talkative girl, said shyly, "I wouldn't have dared I was scared stiff..."

"So was I, if there been anyone there to hear I'd have screamed."

"But Percy?"

"Not Percy Mr. Werdmer ter Sane."

Doris White paused in her headlong rush through the crowds.

"Him? He rescued you? Where was Percy?" She gulped, "Rose, he told me he was going back for you."

"He changed his mind. At least he did get to us, but he went away again. But don't let on..."

The ward they entered was crowded with cots, beds, nurses and doctors with a porter or two thrown in. The babies were all at one end, bawling with rage at being disturbed, to everyone's relief. The toddlers were two to a bed at the moment, apparently unaware that anything untoward was afoot; Shirley had a bed to herself with one nurse working the ventilator and another one controlling the flow of oxygen. Mr. Cresswell was there, so was Sybren; they looked at her as she and Doris went across the ward, Mr. Cresswell with a warm welcoming smile tinged with faint alarm at Rose's unfortunate colour; Sybren with a cold eye which apparently hadn't noticed.

All the same he was the one to catch her as she crumpled up in an untidy heap. With a muttered word to Mr. Cresswell he strode out of the ward, across the back of the still crowded entrance and kicked open the door of the nurses' home.

There were a lot of people there too, going to and fro in a purposeful manner. He stopped a distracted woman with a fierce hair-do and a blue overall.

"Which room is Staff Nurse Comely's?" he barked at her.

She put an agitated hand on her substantial bosom.

"You can't come in here..."

"I can and I will, which room?"

"I'm the warden..."

Mr. Werdmer ter Sane, not naturally a patient man, was losing his temper now.

"I don't give a d.a.m.n what you are. The number?"

She told him, gobbling with annoyance.

"And why don't you get into the hospital and give a hand instead of wringing your hands here?" he demanded and took the stairs two at a time.

It was a good thing he was a large strong man; Rose wasn't heavy but she had a room on the second floor. By the time he reached her door he was breathing rather faster than usual.

He laid Rose gently upon her bed, took off her cap. covered her with a blanket and felt her pulse. It was quite satisfactory; he fetched a gla.s.s of water from the wash basin and sat down on the side of the bed and studied her. There was nothing faintly glamorous about her; her hair was in a deplorable state, hanging in wisps around her pale face. Her ap.r.o.n had been dragged askew and she had laddered her tights and there was a cut on one arm where she had caught it on some wreckage on their way to safety. He bent and kissed her very gently and waited patiently until she opened her eyes a few minutes later.

"Where..." she began and stopped. Heroines in novels always asked where they were when they had fainted. Instead she said, "I'm sorry I fainted. So silly."

"So sensible. Nature's way of putting you out of action so that you can recoup your strength." He sounded as dry as one of her text books.

She sat up, the pea green had given way, thankfully, to pallor, and she drank

the water he was offering.

"I'm quite all right, thank you," she told him in a voice which belied her wan appearance.

"I'm sure you want to get back.""How long were you there alone?" he asked."Oh, not long. I'm not sure..." She forced her voice to it's usual matter-of-fact calm.

"One doesn't notice time when one is busy."

"Or when one is scared out of one's wits," he commented blandly.

"You're a very brave girl, Rose. You could have killed Shirley if you'd

panicked and you could both have been killed there."

"You came..."

"Yes." He got up.

"I'm going to find someone to bring you a hot drink and you are to lie there

warm and quiet for at least half an hour, after that you may return to duty.

Those are doctor's orders."

He went very quietly and she put her head back on the pillow, glad to rest it. Ten minutes later one of the home sisters came in with a tea tray.

"I had no idea," she began comfortably, "Mr. Werdmer ter Sane came looking for me and told me. You poor child, what a frightful experience, left alone like that. You were doing your duty, of course, but I can think of any number who wouldn't have stuck their necks out when there was a chance of getting killed or burnt to a crisp."

She put the tray down and poured the tea out and then poured something into it.

"What's that?" asked Rose."Whisky, my dear. Mr. Werdmer ter Sane ordered it for you. Drink it up,there's a good girl."

Rose had swung her legs over the bed.

"I must get back--there'll be such a lot to do," she began.

"Bound to be." Home Sister was unflappable.

"I popped over a little while ago to give a hand." She chuckled.

"He didn't think much of our warden, I might have known she'd go to pieces-still that's neither here nor there. They've got everyone out, no one killed in the hospital, thank heaven, but several poor souls who were out in the street; quite a few children hurt, but not badly--your wing got the full blast, most of the centre and the other wing are more or less intact--and the nurses' home, of course. They have transferred the children who've been hurt and two of the student nurses, one of the porters and a domestic worker. I hear almost all the equipment has been damaged though."

She re-filled Rose's cup, stood over her while she drank it and picked up the tray.

"I'm going back on duty. Sister."

"Yes, dear. Put on another ap.r.o.n first and do your hair, you look more like yourself again now."

Ten minutes later Rose went back into the hospital. There still seemed to be a great deal of confusion but the entrance hall was emptying fast although there were several men there with cameras. She hardly noticed them but slipped back into the ward, had a word with Doris and went to look at Shirley. The child actually looked better; she was checking things with the nurse looking after her when Mr. Cresswell joined her.

"Feeling better?" He gave her a kind smile.

"A nasty experience. Rose, but I--we are all proud of you, it takes pluck to be brave when there's no one there to see. Mr. Werdmer ter Sane is in theatre, checking the damage; we decided that you ought to go off-duty until tomorrow but we knew that you wouldn't take any notice of anything that we said." He went on briskly, "Now let's see who we've got left here--I've sent two of the babies over to Margaret's, they've got respiratory failure and they'll do better over there; they can come back when we are straight. "

After that things fell slowly into place. The hospital was full of firemen and police and television cameras but work went on in the wards wherever possible. Rose gathered her team around her and gave the children their suppers and their medicine, rearranged the cots and beds, sent nurses to their supper in turn, conducted the senior nursing officer round her small patients, did another round with the registrar who had been off duty and had just arrived back, and then found some paper and wrote the report. The Kardex was gone in the ruins; a new one would have to be made out tomorrow, in the meanwhile she made a quick resume of the day's happenings ready for the night staff, most of whom were already on duty anyway.

It was a boon and a blessing when the electricians managed to get the electricity going again and the reserve ventilator could be brought in and fixed up. Rose sent the student nurse who had been looking after Shirley off-duty, conferred with Doris White and did a final round of the sleeping children.

"You go to supper," she told Doris, 'and take everyone with you, and ask someone to save me some food, will you?

I'll be along as soon as the night people have settled in. " Which took rather more time than she had thought; it was long after the usual hour when she left the ward and she was now so tired she loitered along the pa.s.sage, stumbling a little over the hoses still lying around, not looking where she was going. She stumbled over Mr. Werdmer ter Sane's large feet too, which brought her to a sudden halt.

"Oh, sorry, Sir." She looked at him with tired eyes, and her gentle mouth drooped at his curt, "You should be in bed. What are you doing traipsing around?"

"I'm going to my supper," she told him with dignity.

"Good night.

Sir. "

He put his hands on her shoulders, pinning her gently to the spot.

"Oh, Rose, what has happened to us? I thought we had become friends more

than friends. But you don't trust me, do you?"

"Does it matter? And I did trust you until Mies told me." She wriggledunder his hands."Oh, does it matter?" she asked again."I'm so tired."He let her go then."Of course. How thoughtless I am. Good night. Rose and sleep well."He had gone. She went to the canteen and ate what was on her plate and went to bed. She wanted to cry but she was too tired.

CHAPTER NINE.

the next few days went by in a well ordered chaos; it was surprising how swiftly the great piles of debris round the hospital and in the streets around it were cleared away. An army of workmen moved in, mending doors and windows, hanging huge tarpaulins over gaping walls as in the meantime the hospital fell into its routine, or something approximating to it. At least the little patients suffered no discomforts although there was a certain amount of improvisation with equipment and there was, for a day or two, a shortage of crockery and everything which everyone had tended to take for granted as being to hand when needed. But on the whole, they managed very well; all the small tiffs which occurred between the various wards and departments were forgotten, at least for the time being. The laundry supplied the linen to the wards without complaint, even allowed extra; the dispensary forbore from wasting the ward sister's time by querying entries in the dispensary book and there was an unending supply of egg and chips and soup in the canteen.

Rose went about her work, outwardly her usual matter-of-fact self, while inwardly she was as miserable as she had ever been in her whole life. If this is being in love, she told herself fiercely, then the quicker I forget about it the better. Mr. ; Werdmer ter Sane had come twice during the week and on both occasions she had been off- j duty. Anyone would think, she mused bitterly, s that he had looked in the off-duty book so that

he wouldn't have to meet me.

Which was exactly what he had done. Percy had avoided her but she had hardly noticed that, in fact she didn't think about him at all. She wanted to forget those awful moments

when she had been alone with Shirley and he was

all part and parcel of them. She would never for- 1 get how she had felt when she had heard Sybren's voice, calm and unhurried, and she supposed that she never would. j The ward settled down; Sister c.u.mmins, still j brooding over the fact that she hadn't been there when she would have been most useful, had the ward organised by now even though it wasn't entirely to her liking, and Shirley, to everyone's delight and surprise, regained consciousness and began to pick up once more.

Towards the end of the week Rose encountered Percy Pride as she was on the way to the path. lab. He had been avoiding her and she hadn't minded; he had behaved shamefully and he must be feeling awkward about it, besides Sadie had told her that he had been on the carpet and advised to transfer to the convalescent home in Surrey run by St. Bride's.

But if she had expected an apology from him she was to be mistaken. He stopped in front of her and said sourly: "So--how is our little heroine getting on? Did you a good turn, didn't I, leaving you to hog the limelight?"

Rose gave him the kind of look she would have given something nasty under a stone; she wished that she could be like Sadie with a quick, telling retort on her tongue, but she couldn't think of anything to say.

Percy eyed her narrowly and when she didn't speak, "Oh, well, it didn't do you much good with Mr. Werdmer ter Sane, did it? He's off home and I dare say he'll forget about brave little Rose once he gets there. You are not quite his cup of tea, are you?"

Rose, holding the path lab specimen in its dish carefully in one hand, reached up and smacked his cheek. It made a very satisfactory sound and was just as good as the kind of caustic remark she was sure Sadie would have made to him. She didn't wait to see the results of her slap but walked on down the stairs into the lab. If she was a little nervous about coming out again in case he was lurking, she had no intention of admitting it, even to herself.

Back on the ward she gave herself no time to think about Sybren; he was going home, Percy had said, and there was no point in him lying about that, and probably once there, he would forget her. Instead she kept her mind on her work, longing at the same time for five o'clock to come so that she might go off-duty. She had her two days off but she wasn't going to Aunt Millicent's; she would potter around until lunch time and then take herself up to Regent Street and do some window-shopping and there was bound to be someone off-duty on her second day; they could go to Kew Gardens or take rolls and cheese into Regent's Park. She tackled Shirley's small wants with zest and not long after five o'clock she went off-duty.

She was almost at the bottom of the big staircase leading to the entrance hall when she saw Sybren standing talking to Mr. Cresswell.

She couldn't go back; he was facing her and would have seen her.

As indeed he had; he said something to Mr. Cresswell and crossed to the stairs so that they came face to face on the bottom step.

She searched his face and could find nothing comforting in it.

"You're leaving--Percy told me." She putout a hand.

"So I'll say goodbye.. "

He ignored the hand and she dropped it to her side.

"You want it to be goodbye. Rose?"

She said in a rush, "Yes, oh yes, and I do thank you for rescuing me and Shirley and I hope that you will be very happy..."

He lifted his eyebrows at that.

"Happy, should I be?"