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Blurb:Could it really be a convenient marriage?de Weijnen didn't ask Octavia to , he told her. Octavia's father hadid she wasn't in any state of mind rational decision. Besides, Lucasin to take no for an answer. After ^, Octavia found herself falling inher husband! Although they had sed to love each other for the rest s,she had no idea how Lucas felt about her.NEVER WHILE THE GRASS GROWSBY BETTY NEELSCHAPTER ONEsister octavia lock swept through the swing doors of Casualty on a waveof vague ill-humour;she had over-slept and as a consequence had had no breakfast save a cupof tea, drunk far too hot and as much toast as she could cram into hermouth with one bite, and over and above that, it was a gloriousSeptember morning with enough of autumn in the air to make her wishthat she was at home and not in a London hospital, hemmed in by narrowstreets and rows of shabby little houses. And now, to make mattersworse, she could see at a glance that Casualty, even at eight o'clock in the morning, was already filling itself up fast. Her senior, SisterMoody, who tended to take her time in coming on duty after breakfast,would as a consequence doubtless live up to her name. Octavia's eyelighted upon a small forlorn boy sitting by himself and, her ill-humourforgotten, she swept him along with her on the way to the office,asking his name and what was the matter as they went."Stanley," he told her tearfully, and his mum had sent him alongbecause he'd burnt his arm the day before.Octavia sighed, popped him into a cubicle and began to take off histoo-small jacket. It amazed her that although patients crowded intoCasualty, a vast number of them took their time about it.And if I'd been this mum I'd have brought Stanley here pretty smartly,she reflected, gently laying bare a sizeable burn wrapped in a

handkerchief. The blisters weren't broken, and that was something tobe thankful for; she slid the handkerchief away and replaced it withgauze, said: "OK Stanley, the doctor will come and make that much morecomfortable for you," warned a student nurse about him, and went intothe office. One of the night Sisters was already there ready to leaveand Octavia listened carefully to the night report, happily short andfairly uneventful, before she remarked gloomily: "You may have had agood night, Joan, but I've a nasty feeling that we're in for aperfectly foul day--are you on tonight?"Her companion grinned smugly."Nights off-you'll have Snoopy Kate on...""Oh, lord, and I'm on till nine o'clock. Sister Moody wants theevening; I'll have to have a split." She paused and smiled suddenly:"It's my weekend off, though."They parted then, Joan to breakfast and bed, Octavia into Casualty tocast an eye over the patients already being treated and then those whowere waiting. There was nothing urgent; cuts and bruises, septicfingers, a fractured collarbone which a nurse had already put into acollar and cuff, a number of small children with earache, sore throatsand the like and the usual sprinkling of elderly men and women formorning dressings and stitches to be removed. She had just finishedher round when Sister Moody arrived, nodded briefly and retired to theoffice, to stay there for a good deal of the day, doing the paper work and only coming out when an urgent case came in;not that she did much to help then; explaining comfortably to Octaviathat at her age it would be ridiculous to expect her to take too activea part in the work while Octavia was perfectly capable of coping.Octavia started her daily round of the cubicles and dressing rooms andsmall theatre, checking this and that with care but not wasting time.Nurses would be going to their coffee break in an hour and the quickerthe light cases were dealt with the better. She could hear the steadyhum of voices through the theatre door and all the sounds that wentwith it; the clatter of bowls, the faint click of instruments tossedinto receivers, the telephone--she would have to go and give a hand.All the same, she paused by a window and gazed out into the streetoutside, full of traffic and people hurrying to work, a tall girl witha splendid figure and a lovely face crowned by rich brown hair, drawn

back neatly under her cap, although a number of small curls had escapedto frame her face. Her eyes were hazel, large and heavily fringed andtopped by black brows and her mouth curved gently, and as though theseweren't enough, she had a happy nature, marred only occasionally by afiery temper. She turned away from the window presently and went back into Casualty, rolling up her sleeves as she went.The day went as most days went; a steady trickle of minor casualties,interrupted frequently by the more severely injured as well as a smallgirl with a perforated appendix and an elderly man who had been foundalone, half starved and dirty in a pokey little room in one of the rowsof small houses close to the hospital. He had opened weary eyes asOctavia bent over him and told her fretfully to leave him alone,"Because what's the use of getting me on my feet again?" he wanted toknow."I've nowhere to go and no one to bother about me."Octavia, taking his blood pressure, gave him a motherly smile."You just wait," she admonished him kindly, 'there's no reason why youshouldn't be fit enough to get a job. You just need fattening up, youknow. How old are you? ""Sixty--who'd want the likes of me, I'd like to know?""Let's worry about that when the time comes- first we'll get youbetter." She turned at the tap on her shoulder."Here's the doctor to have a look at you."He had pneumonia, not badly--nothing that a few days in hospitalwouldn't put right. Octavia arranged for him to be admitted to themen's medical ward and when he asked her if she would visit him,promised cheerfully that she would."Now that's a great shame," she declared to John Waring, the CasualtyOfficer."A nice man like that thrown out of work because the family went toSwitzerland--the least they could have done would have been to try andget him fixed up with someone else, or even taken him with them--Imean, after fifteen years working for them," she paused."I'm not sure what a handyman does..."