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‘Unconventional?’ Magnus’s voice rose in disbelief. ‘We are incredibly fortunate that Mrs Monk has not attempted to sue us for the way you treated her.’
Hamilton’s tone kept the same slightly patronising calmness. ‘Magnus, you’ve worked with the woman for weeks now. Haven’t you ever really looked at her? She understands. She may hate me, and be thoroughly sentimental about the children. I dare say she even loathes Radnor. God knows, he’s an unlikeable man. He’s selfish, greedy, and treated his daughter like a cross between a child and a servant.’
His voice rose a little, becoming smooth, more urgent. ‘But Magnus, she understands! I saw it in her face, in the way she moved her hands on the machine, the way she knew what to do for Radnor when he was failing. She’s a born nurse, whatever else she is. She knows what I’m doing, and she knows it can work. She wouldn’t deliberately sabotage it because that would be a sin against the very practice of medicine. She couldn’t do it, whatever she threatens. And what’s more, Magnus, she knows that I know it. She might hate me for that, but she won’t strike against me because it would destroy who she is as well.’
Hester froze. Her stomach was knotted and her hands were so tightly clenched they hurt. The arrogance of him was breathtaking. And the thing that made her want to curse him with every word she could think of was that he was right. Personally she loathed him, but professionally she understood what he was doing. Her vision of what it could achieve if he succeeded infinitely far outweighed any petty and self-indulgent ideas of vengeance, or whatever might be considered justified for what had caused her no more than fear, pity and a small degree of hardship. What was any of that, compared with saving countless lives?
For Maggie, Charlie and Mike it was different. But they were not dead. Whether he would have bled them until they were she did not know. He had not been put to that test. She thought he might have failed it, but she could be wrong.
‘Did you kill Adrienne Radnor, Hamilton?’ Magnus asked.
‘What? What the devil are you talking about?’ Hamilton sounded utterly confused.
Magnus was suddenly really angry. ‘I’m talking about Adrienne Radnor. Don’t pretend you didn’t know she was dead. She was murdered, strangled. Three days ago. She was found in a ditch by the side of the road, half a mile from her home.’
‘God in heaven, Magnus! Did you think I did that? Whatever for?’
Hester heard the disbelief in his voice and, much as she wished not to, she believed his amazement, even his sense of outrage. He could barely grasp what his brother thought of him.
‘Because she threatened your continued work,’ Magnus answered. ‘What did she know that could possibly have got in your way? You’re a help to all the people who matter! You’re safe now. Just—’
‘I never touched her!’ Hamilton shouted back. ‘For God’s sake, Magnus, pull yourself together. I hadn’t seen her since the case was dismissed, nor had I intended to. Now turn your attention to the present. We have work to do.’
‘You hadn’t seen Miss Radnor?’
‘No, I hadn’t. Now stop wasting time with something we can’t alter or help. I want to use Mrs Monk again. She will save time because she already knows all she needs to be of use. It will take me weeks to train someone else to take her place, even if I can find someone with her intelligence. I haven’t time or the patience to deal with a woman who’s forever asking questions about everything and then making short-sighted judgements. And another thing: Mrs Monk doesn’t need to be told what to do in an emergency. She just does it, and tells me later.’
‘I thought you didn’t like her,’ Magnus said drily. ‘You certainly gave that impression.’
Now Hamilton’s voice sounded incredulous. ‘For God’s sake, Magnus! I neither like nor dislike her. She irritates me at times because she makes judgements that get in the way of my work. But that is the other side of the coin. You have to accept that if she has sufficient intelligence and strength of will to make her own decisions, and act on them, then she will at times make mine also. I must watch her carefully enough to prevent it. I require her. Please send her to the laboratory.’
Hester heard his footsteps on the floor and she turned and walked away as quickly as she could, without looking behind her.
Nevertheless, half an hour later Hester stood in front of Hamilton Rand’s desk by the window of the laboratory and he sat looking up at her.
‘I have no time for emotional games, Mrs Monk, and I hope we are beyond that now.’ He regarded her quite candidly. For once his hazel-coloured eyes appeared to conceal nothing. ‘This work’s importance I do not need to explain to you. I think you are almost as well aware of it as I am. In some cases, such as death from the shock of blood loss in difficult births, you feel even more deeply than I do. I am quite aware that you disapprove of my use of the blood of children, even though it works. I, in turn, do not bear you any grudge for testifying so powerfully against me in court. You acted according to your conscience. It is childish to bear any ill will because of that.’ If he saw her surprise, he gave no sign of it.
‘I wish you to assist me in this continued work, from time to time, as I need you. If you need to haggle about pay, then do it with Magnus. He understands that kind of thing.’
She searched his face, but she could find no intention of insult in his face. He was speaking of practicalities, no more. Should she reply tartly that she had come back to work with patients who needed her skills, and only that? She was angry with herself for being complimented that he knew she understood what he was doing.
‘It has nothing to do with money!’ she said firmly. ‘I came here to take the place of a friend, who is unfortunately still unwell. Who will you get to do that, if I don’t?’
‘For heaven’s sake, woman, there was other nurses,’ he said impatiently. ‘Not of your experience, perhaps, but adequate. We’ll make more funds available. People are falling over themselves to devote to the cause since Radnor’s dramatic appearance.’ He said it with a slightly twisted smile. It was the first time she had seen any sense of humour in him. She wondered if he had always been like that, or whether Edward’s death, his parents’ deaths and his own sacrifice of his medical career had erased all laughter inside him. Was his all-consuming obsession with his work his shield against painful memories, and the emptiness that would otherwise consume him?
That would not be difficult to understand.
‘Mrs Monk!’
‘Good,’ she said decisively. ‘Pay somebody else. In fact pay several people. It is often good nursing that saves lives. That takes time, care and practice. If you can make this blood transfusion work, then you will need many nurses skilled in the treatment of shock, negative reactions, fear, all the distress both physical and emotional that go with it.’
‘And you’ll help?’ he said, moving forward a little, his face eager.
Before she could answer there was a sharp rap on the door behind her and then it was flung open. Two uniformed policemen came in, leaving the door swinging behind them. They walked purposefully, unsmiling, towards Rand. Neither of them spoke to Hester.
‘Hamilton Rand?’ the larger of the two said peremptorily.
‘Who the devil are you to walk in here without a by-your-leave?’ Rand demanded. ‘Whatever you want
