My troubled history with Mabel Mullens had much to do with Aisling’s dislike of her. There was one significant spat in particular, which happened during a lesson.
Mabel was sitting in front of me and Aisling. As usual, Aisling was leaning up on her elbows, swinging on her stool and whispering to me. She found it nigh on impossible to concentrate for long periods of time, especially in class. She was better at practical things, but when she was forced to sit, she would wriggle and distract me, which I found irritating. I helped Aisling with her theory and, later on, when our group of new nurses was unleashed on the public, she would teach me how to manage people. We were a good team.
Aisling also had a remarkable knack for never getting caught playing about. She had such an innocent-looking face that no one could believe she would ever do anything wrong. The result was that in any situation it was I who was cast as the Machiavel – such was the curse of being tall, dark but not necessarily handsome, and a girl. People forever assumed my severe frowning was because I was plotting something and not because I was actually concentrating.
Mabel hated our silly antics and would frequently shoot us spiteful looks. This time, she turned around to berate us while the doctor giving the bandaging lecture was facing the board. ‘Will you two be quiet! It’s so annoying, you whispering all the time while the rest of us are trying to think,’ she hissed.
Aisling was having none of it. ‘Oh, give it a rest, Mullens,’ she spat. ‘Like you’ve ever had a thought that someone else didn’t put there. The only reason you’re pretending to pay attention is because there’s an unmarried man in the room.’
‘What’s wrong with that? Isn’t that the natural thing?’ Mabel said, and she smirked. The nurse sitting next to her looked shocked but then started smirking and laughing too.
‘No educated man who can string a sentence together is going to be interested in you,’ Aisling said.
‘I can assure you, when I have a man’s attention, the last thing he’s thinking about is forming sentences,’ said Mullens.
Some of the other nurses started to giggle. The doctor at the front of the class sensed something was going on and looked over, so everyone settled down for a couple of minutes.
But Aisling was getting increasingly worked up.
‘You realise she’s trying to antagonise you on purpose,’ I said.
‘Well, it’s working,’ said Aisling.
‘Don’t give her the satisfaction.’
‘I can’t let her have the last word,’ said Aisling. She leaned forward and whispered at the back of Mabel’s head, ‘I’m sure the only thing you’ve learned in the last ten months is how to kneel and open your mouth. But then I expect you knew how to do that anyway.’
Mabel gave an audible gasp, picked up a roll of bandages from her table and threw it at us. Aisling and I ducked quick enough and the roll flew between us and travelled across the floor. Another nurse bent down and scooped it up, just as the doctor noticed the flurry of movement and gave us a stern look. I waited until he’d turned back to the blackboard.
‘Are you happy now?’ I whispered to Aisling.
‘Why do you let people walk all over you?’
‘Wait, are you angry with me now?’
‘I’m always the one that sticks up for the both of us.’
‘That’s not true,’ I said.
‘Shhh!’ A nurse from another table tried to quiet us.
‘You shush!’ I spat back.
Without thinking it through, I picked up another roll of bandages and threw it straight at the back of Mabel’s head. My aim was perfect – I was very proud of that. The bandages bounced off Mabel’s head in the only way a tightly wound roll could, sailed across the room and came to a stop at the feet of the doctor. He was young and nervous and clearly felt intimidated at being surrounded by such a large group of female students, with only his moustache for armour.
I still had my hand in the air from where I’d thrown the bandages, so there wasn’t even any need to winkle out a confession.
‘Chapman? Really?’ the doctor said. ‘Well, I didn’t expect that. I think you’d better go and see Matron, don’t you? I don’t know what’s the matter with everyone today. There must be something in the air.’
Matron Luckes was surprised to find me outside her office yet again. She was most disappointed, she said, to learn that I had engaged in such childish behaviour. I had to work hard to convince her that yes, this behaviour was out of character indeed. Outside, Aisling had waited for me. We walked arm in arm back to our quarters, laughing at how surprised we both were to learn I was such a good shot with a set of bandages.