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‘Did anyone tell Chalkie?’

‘No But I think that was out of synore it I suppose when you’ve been so near death people’s reputations cease to matter But they all kne he felt about ile The e ways so you?’

‘Most of them, yes I think theti else She just told iven et a second chance in life’

Avice lay down and stared at the ceiling ‘I suppose she was right No one has to know No one has to knowanything’

Frances raised an eyebrow, unconvinced ‘Even after all this?’

Avice shrugged ‘England’s a big place There are a lot of people And Chalkie will look after you now’

As Frances failed to reply, Avice asked, ‘No one told him in the end, did they? Not after all that?’

‘No,’ Frances said ‘No one told him’

On the other side of the door, where he had been listening, still holding two stone-cold tin ently away from the hard surface, and closed his eyes

23

There were ros took place and, as it was Dutch Territory, nedThe dentist usually ed from creations out of whiteto army policy, the bride returned to Australia soon after

A Special Kind of Service Joan Crouch

Morotai, Halular,’ said Audrey Marshall, ‘but you saw them You sahat it’s done to her’

‘I find it all rather hard to believe’

‘She was a child, Charles Fifteen, frorant you’

‘So what harm would it do?’

The matron pulled open a drawer and took out a bottle of pale brown liquid She held it up and he nodded, declining the addition of chlorinated water that sat in a jug on her desk They had meant to talk earlier, but there had been an accident on the road to the American radar unit: a jeep had collided with a Dutch supplies lorry and overturned, killing onetwo others Captain Baillie had spentin for the incident with the Dutch CO One of the men had been his batman; he was shaken and exhausted

He took a sip, plainly not wanting to have to consider this new proble else ‘It could cause all sorts of trouble The man doesn’t know his own mind’

‘He knows he loves her It would make him happy And, besides, what can she do? She can’t stay in nursing now everyone knows She can’t stay in Australia’

‘Oh, co place’

‘Someone found her here, didn’t they?’

‘I don’t know’

Matron leant over the desk ‘She’s a good nurse, Charles A good girl Think what she’s done for your men Think of Petersen and Mills Think of O’Halloran and those wretched sores’

‘I know’

‘What harot no money, has he? You said he had no family to speak of’ Her voice dropped a little ‘You knoell as I do how ill he is’

‘And you know I’ve tried jolly hard to discourage this kind of thing All that bloody paperwork for a start’

‘You’re on good tern whatever you hand them’

‘You’re convinced that this is a sensible idea?’

‘It would bring hiive her a lifeline She’d be entitled to go to England She’ll make a superb nurse over there What harhed deeply He put down his glass on the desk and turned to the wo, Audrey’

She smiled with the satisfaction of someone who knows the battle is won ‘I’ll do what I have to do,’ she said

The chaplain was a prag he had seen, he had been easily persuaded to help The young nurse, a favourite of his, was a perfect illustration of the redee, he told himself And if it enabled the poor soul beside her to be even partly lifted from the horrors of his last weeks, he felt pretty sure his God would understand When the ht the Alratulating themselves on their solution, and with perhaps the faintest curiosity as to how their plan would be received by its subjects, the three sat in the ood sense with another drink For rin, re on the pallor of Captain Baillie’s face She couldn’t stand to see a man with a pale face: she alanted to check them for blood disorders