‘Hopefully you’ll be flown to one of the big hospitals in Calcutta when you’ve recovered enough to be moved,’ Madge said as she fluffed up her pillow and helped her move to a more comfortable position.
Later that evening when darkness had fallen, Madge checked on Miho and was pleased to see that she had drifted into a light sleep. Pain was still etched on those delicate features, but at least she was resting and hopefully would not be bothered by the noise coming from the next ward. It’s supposed to be empty, Madge thought to herself, but the sound of footsteps echoed quite clearly. In fact, when Madge listened a little more intently she realised there were two sets of footsteps walking slowly towards the adjoining DI ward. She popped her head round the door, but could see nothing in the unlit interior and the footsteps stopped. A frightening thought crossed her mind; she began to wonder if the Japanese POWs had found out about Miho and were coming to finish her off once and for all.
Madge’s mind went into overdrive as she walked back to Miho’s bed to lift the top sheet over her head in the hope that the two POWs would walk past without noticing her. She lifted the sheet as gently as possible but the movement still woke Miho from her shallow slumber and Madge instantly put a finger to her lips to indicate silence. She then put a hand to her ear to try and get the now wide-awake patient to listen and within seconds the footsteps started again. Hit them with anything you can get your hands on, the self-defence expert had told the nurses, but there was nothing to hand and the footsteps were coming closer and closer. A vivid flashback to the scene in the kitchens at Stoke Mandeville when the troubled British soldier had held a knife to her throat crossed her mind. You were just a teenager then, she told herself, so this time keep calm. Madge was just a month short of her twenty-second birthday.
She peered under one of the shutters to see if any of the guards were close, but she was on her own and she decided to have one last peep round the corner before starting a rumpus that would wake the whole hospital. The flop, flop of two sets of footsteps was now frighteningly close, but she still couldn’t see a thing until two huge, jet-black eyes set in a horned head turned to stare directly at her. Surely not, Madge thought. This can’t be real. I must be having a nightmare. She looked again to see if the horns had been a trick of the light.
A sacred cow had found its way into the ward! By the time the beast actually lumbered past Miho’s bed the two girls were laughing so much they were close to tears and thanking their lucky stars it hadn’t left a very stinky visiting card.
Madge missed her gentle patient when Miho was eventually moved to Calcutta and often wondered what happened to the brave young woman.
24
The Himalayas at Sunrise
Within minutes of starting a shift one morning Madge was instructed to go straight to see Matron Olive Ferguson in her office. Wondering what on earth this summons was going to be about, she knocked tentatively on the door and was greeted with the usual cheery, ‘Good day, Graves,’ before being told to draw up a chair, sit down and listen.
‘It has finally been brought to my attention exactly what you girls were up to at the casualty clearing station,’ said Matron, with such a stern face that Madge thought she was really in for the high jump this time, although she still couldn’t think what she’d done wrong. Matron Ferguson continued by saying that she had received a full report from the doctor who had been with them throughout the six weeks, and it left her with no option but to take instant action.
Matron drew a long breath, shook her head and told Madge with a very solemn face, ‘I am instructing you to take a much deserved holiday as soon as you can,’ then burst into deep, throaty laughter. ‘You girls did us proud the way you worked round the clock without a single day off for six weeks. The CCS crew thought you were all wonderful.’ She went on to point out that the Japanese were on the run and everybody would be going home sooner rather than later. ‘We are already well into summer so take the holidays you are owed and see a bit of India.’
Madge left Matron’s office thinking of the week she had spent in Calcutta with Basil and wished he was still around so they could enjoy the Himalayas together. She was on a BOR ward that morning and, as luck would have it, Grace was nursing in the DI ward right next door. Their paths crossed late in the afternoon when they stepped out for a breath of fresh air and Madge told her about Matron’s offer.
‘Let’s talk about this after work,’ said Grace. ‘I’ve always thought that to come to India and not see the Himalayas would be a very silly thing to do.’
Phyl and Vera inevitably got wind of the conversation in the nurses’ mess later that evening and said that as somebody would be having a birthday towards the end of July, it would make the perfect celebration.
‘Who’s that?’ asked Grace.
‘Could be somebody with a birthday on the twenty-fourth of July and a name beginning with M,’ said Phyl, who added that the best place to stay in Darjeeling was definitely the Windamere Hotel. ‘The views from Observatory Hill are just amazing and the bar is always full of very wealthy and very handsome tea
