Coronation Wives by Lizzie Lane Page B

footsteps.’
    ‘My brother Geoffrey is expected to do that, though I’m not sure it’s ever likely to happen.’
    ‘Shame. It’s a great profession. I don’t think there is any other that is quite so satisfying.’ His sincerity was palpable. He seemed to glow as if she had pressed a button that sent a wave of electricity through his body.
    ‘So what made you become a doctor?’
    He told her how he’d left his family on their Suffolk farm. ‘My mother had polio,’ he said and lowered his eyes to his coffee. As if to overcome his deep felt hurt, he took a hefty swig before continuing. ‘She got it about the same time as Franklin D. Roosevelt. I felt I had to do something about it once I was old enough.’ He shrugged. ‘In my own small way of course, not on the grand scale like some who are trying to perfect a vaccine. I’ve done a lot of research on the subject and feel I have a lot to offer, but you know how it is. The old guard of the medical profession are not always appreciative of progress.’
    His frankness surprised and delighted her. He was talking to her as if she were an equal and not merely someone who typed up the notes after the preliminary examinations. She asked him, ‘Is your mother dead?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘I’m sorry, it’s just that I thought …’ Her voice petered out. She hated making mistakes like that and possibly upsetting people.
    Jonathan seemed unconcerned. It was as though he’d been waiting for someone who would understand what he was talking about and not just on a medical level. He said, ‘That’s why I went to work at the sanatorium under Professor Pritchard. My mother thinks it’s wonderful. She’s a brave lady. Life goes on, she said to me. You can’t just lie back and die when things happen to your body that you have no control over. You have to go forward. Don’t you think so?’
    ‘Yes. Yes. Of course.’
    He smiled broadly as though he’d broken through some sort of barrier. ‘I knew you’d agree. We’re alike, you and me.’
    She grinned ruefully. ‘We must be. We both hated the Coronation Ball.’
    He laughed at her flippancy then surprised her by taking both her hands in his. Her first inclination was to draw back, but his expression had turned deadly serious. This was not an attempt at seduction. He spoke profoundly.
    ‘Never let anyone force you into doing something or being anything other than what you are.’
    ‘I don’t intend to.’
    His smile returned. He let go her hands. ‘I’m glad. Really glad.’
    Both in the coffee bar and on the way home he talked incessantly about his job. He became increasingly animated as he expounded theories on how patients might better be served.
    ‘At present they have this crazy idea that even when the contagious period is over, parents should be kept at arm’s length from their children. To the outside world they appear insensitive, but in their learned opinion they really feel that emotional upset – parents visiting, children getting upset when they leave – is detrimental to recovery. I think otherwise.’
    No doctor, not even her father, had ever spoken to her like this. His openness gave her confidence.
    ‘I know little about polio except how debilitating it can be. I’ve seen people – children even – with irons up their legs or withered arms. I understand it attacks the nervous system to varying degrees.’
    He nodded vigorously. ‘It does indeed. And every summer is the same – a batch of cases, mostly children. Incubation of the disease is approximately from three to thirty-five days. In some cases it attacks the respiratory system. These are the patients that need the help of an iron lung for a while.’
    They hardly noticed the taxi coming to a standstill.
    ‘Are you both getting out,’ said the cab driver, half-turning in his seat. If he was hoping to see them in an intimate clinch, he was disappointed.
    ‘We’re there?’ Janet peered out at her home in Royal York Crescent in