He saw a good-humoured face with slightly prominent blue eyes and glossy brown hair.
She looked, he thought, just what a hospital nurse for a nervous case ought to look.
Cheerful, robust, shrewd and matter-of-fact.
Nurse Leatheran, he thought, would do.
Chapter 2.
Introducing Amy Leatheran
I dont pretend to be an author or to know anything about writing.
Im doing this simply because Dr Reilly asked me to, and somehow when Dr Reilly asks you to do a thing you dont like to refuse.
Oh, but, doctor, I said, Im not literary not literary at all.
Nonsense! he said.
Treat it as case notes, if you like.
Well, of course, you can look at it that way.
Dr Reilly went on. He said that an unvarnished plain account of the Tell Yarimjah business was badly needed.
If one of the interested parties writes it, it wont carry conviction.
Theyll say its biased one way or another.
And of course that was true, too.
I was in it all and yet an outsider, so to speak.
Why dont you write it yourself, doctor? I asked.
I wasnt on the spot you were.
Besides, he added with a sigh, my daughter wont let me.
The way he knuckles under to that chit of a girl of his is downright disgraceful.
I had half a mind to say so, when I saw that his eyes were twinkling.
That was the worst of Dr Reilly. You never knew whether he was joking or not.
He always said things in the same slow melancholy way but half the time there was a twinkle underneath it.
Well, I said doubtfully, I suppose I could.
Of course you could.
Only I dont quite know how to set about it.
Theres a good precedent for that. Begin at the beginning, go on to the end and then leave off.
I dont even know quite where and what the beginning was, I said doubtfully.
Believe me, nurse, the difficulty of beginning will be nothing to the difficulty of knowing how to stop.
At least thats the way it is with me when I have to make a speech. Someones got to catch hold of my coat-tails and pull me down by main force.
Oh, youre joking, doctor.
Its profoundly serious I am.
Now what about it?
Another thing was worrying me.
After hesitating a moment or two I said: You know, doctor, Im afraid I might tend to be well, a little personal sometimes.
God bless my soul, woman, the more personal you are the better!
This is a story of human beings not dummies!
Be personal be prejudiced be catty be anything you please!
Write the thing your own way.
We can always prune out the bits that are libellous afterwards!
You go ahead.
Youre a sensible woman, and youll give a sensible common-sense account of the business.
So that was that, and I promised to do my best.
And here I am beginning, but as I said to the doctor, its difficult to know just where to start.
I suppose I ought to say a word or two about myself.
Im thirty-two and my name is Amy Leatheran.
I took my training at St Christophers and after that did two years maternity.
I did a certain amount of private work and I was for four years at Miss Bendixs Nursing Home in Devonshire Place.
I came out to Iraq with a Mrs Kelsey.