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confined up there with Miss Curtis fussing round him was more than he could bear.
    ‘Well, one of the registrars wanted to talk to you,’ Miss Curtis said unwillingly, finding it going deeply against the grain to oblige Miss Lucas but knowing Max’s moods well enough to realize that there was no way she would get him to come and do his letters, as she wanted. ‘She’s in Spruce, I believe – said she wanted to talk to you about one of herpatients -’
    ‘Miss Lucas?’ Max brightened. ‘Oh, well, that’s settled then. I won’t go back to the boardroom. I’ll be in Spruce till it’s time for the Board, Miss Curtis, and then there’ll be lunch and then I’ll be on my way to Friern and Dr Samuelson. You can leave as early as you like. I won’t be back here till Monday morning.’ And he went away towards Spruce leaving Miss Curtis alone and yearning at the top of the stairs.
    One of these days I’ll have to replace her, he was thinking. Poor soul sees my widowed state as altogether too interesting and I can’t cope with that for long. And again the guilt rose in him as he thought of Emilia and irritably he pushed the ward doors open and went in search of the surgical registrar.

4
    ‘I see,’ Max said at length, and put down the chart, centring it neatly on Sister’s desk. ‘I see. A reactive depression following injury - not unusual. I’ve dealt with a great many similar cases this past few years, Miss Lucas.’ Including myself, he thought, looking down at the chart. Isn’t that my problem? A reactive depression after the appalling injury of losing Emilia? ‘I doubt you need worry unduly. He’ll recover in time. There’s little I or any other psychiatrist can do to hasten that recovery, I’m afraid. Patience has to be the only prescription.’
    ‘I haven’t given you the whole picture, I think, sir,’ Charlie said carefully, and reached for the notes. ‘Perhaps I didn’t write it as clearly as I might have done, and -’
    He put out his hand and stopped her before she could reach them. ‘Never mind the notes, Miss Lucas. You tell me, in your own words, why it is that you’re so worried about this young man. His case doesn’t seem to me to be so severe, nor is his injury sufficient to justify the significance you give it, unless that photograph is a particularly poor one. I thought it seemed clear enough. Of course I’ll look at the man myself in a moment, but meanwhile -
is
the injury so very disfiguring, do you believe?’
    ‘Perhaps not to you or to me, sir,’ Charlie said and pushed her hands into the pockets of her white coat, so that he wouldn’t notice how tightly she had them clenched. It was getting more and more difficult to get the importance of the situation across without telling him why she was so worried; yet she’d promised Brin she wouldn’t do that; it had been medically wrong to make such a promise, but it was understandable that he should demand it and - she took a deep breath and looked up at Max.
    ‘The thing is, sir, that he’s an actor. You must know quite a lot about him actually - after all, he is a relation of yours and -’
    Max laughed suddenly. ‘We’re a large clan, my dear, and I sometimes think that half London is related to us! Let me see, who is this chap? I know his name of course, but not all his links with the family - ’
    ‘I think he’s a distant cousin of yours, sir. His sister is Katy Lackland, the actress, you know? His home is in Yorkshire - I mean, that’s where his father lives, and he has another sister and brothers there, but now he lives in London, or has since he started on his career as an actor. That was just before the War. Well, he was in that flying bomb raid that did so much damage to the Regent Palace Hotel. Do you remember? It caused rather more fuss than usual because there was a direct hit and - ’
    ‘I remember,’ Max said, his voice expressionless. Emilia, he thought, his voice screaming inside his head. Emilia,