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'There may well be a case for ACTH,' Yona answered guardedly, in case he was setting a little trap for her.

When he beamed approval, she knew she'd been right about the trap. He then went on to explain to the bemused houseman the different uses for the various types of steroids. But he was well behindhand, thanks to that surprise early morning meeting, and he had to complete the round without any more testing questions for his new registrar. 'And now, Doctor, you're down to visit our research laboratory, if my memory serves me correctly,' he said.

Yona agreed, but Sister Evans intervened. 'Those per
sonnel people have rung, asking to see Dr MacFarlane at noon,' she said, revealing her own thinking on the newfangled human resources jargon.

'How inconvenient,' said the boss with a sigh. 'Never mind—best get it over with before you start work. One-thirty in Outpatients, then,' he went on. 'Dr Price will take you to lunch, won't you, Charlie? I'd take you myself, but I have to show a party of visitors from Bolivia round the department.' He was away before anybody could delay him further.

'Does the professor always operate flat out like he did this morning?' Yona asked her immediate junior, when he'd told her how to find the staff canteen via Admin.

'Almost always, but this morning there was the extra incentive of impressing you, I guess.'

'Because I'm new and he wants to set me an example,' she assumed.

'Because he admires your famous father,' corrected Charlie. 'He was ever so chuffed when he found out whose daughter you are. Here, have I said the wrong thing?' he asked as her brows drew together in a frown. .

'No. of course not,' she denied quickly, because he looked so crestfallen. 'It's just that I'd hoped I'd got this job on my own merits and not because my father has made a name for himself in medicine.'

'And I'm sure you did,' he said earnestly. 'I'm nearly sure he never found out until after he'd made up his mind to offer you the job.'

'I hope you're right,' she said with equal earnestness. 'It's so galling to be thought of as just Daddy's girl when you've been qualified and working hard for six years.'

His eyes widened. 'Six years? You must have been an infant prodigy, then.'

'And you must have taken a charm course,' she riposted.

'Good lord! Is that the Admin block? It looks more like a five-star hotel.'

'As befits the most important bit of the whole hospital,' he said satirically. 'See you later, then, quean—as we call pretty girls around her.'

After completing the paperwork relevant to her appointment, Yona was surprised to be ushered into the office of the assistant chief administrator, Medical Division, for what turned out to be a pep talk. Team spirit was the thing, Yona was told, something that seemed to consist of keeping Admin personally informed of every decision, large or small. Yona was then told how lucky she was to have been chosen for a post in Salchester Royal Infirmary.

'Oh, I realise that,' she returned firmly. 'Professor Burnley is very highly regarded throughout the medical profession.'

'You misunderstand me,' said the AC AMD, looking nettled. 'We don't go in for personality cults here. Our philosophy is that every member of staff is of equal importance.'

I'll bet! thought Yona. Aloud she said, 'Certainly the front-line troops need their back-up staff—if you'll forgive the military analogy—but a hospital without its doctors and nurses would make a nonsense of most other departments, would it not?' Yes, that found its mark, judging by your expression! 'But I'm afraid I'm keeping you from your lunch. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me—I found it very informative.'

I was probably way over the top there, decided Yona after the woman had told her rather shakily that she was free to go. But what a nerve she's got—lecturing me as though I were a potential trainee stamp-licker straight from school!

'You didn't enjoy that little session,' commented Charlie Price when Yona eventually joined him in the canteen, after taking two wrong turnings.

She smiled and gave him a potted version of the interview, and was soothed by his indignation. 'I dare say she meant well,' she felt able to say then. 'And no doubt she has a relevant health-care qualification.'

'Are you kidding?' asked Charlie. 'She came to us from a firm of management consultants that had gone bust.'

At that, Yona burst out laughing, drawing interested glances from nearby tables. Charlie seized that chance to make some introductions. What a pleasant lot, she thought later when going to join the boss as instructed. And a vast improvement on Mr Michael. Preston!

She was five minutes early, but the professor was already there, eating a stale-looking sandwich and drinking coffee from a paper cup. 'You've caught me,' he said, looking like a naughty schoolboy. 'But my wife has threatened to leave me if I miss lunch more than twice a week.'

'I'm surprised that she allows you even two weekly lapses,' returned Yona, who was warming rapidly to her new boss. 'I do hope it'll not be long before you let me take some of the load off your shoulders, sir.'

'You must be a very formal lot up there in Edinburgh,' he said, 'if registrars are still calling the consultants 'sir'. Some of the younger ones here get their first names—even from students sometimes, though I'm bound to say I find that just a trifle too egalitarian.'

Yona recalled Charlie calling Mr Preston Mike before she said, 'I was brought up the old way—sir.'

'Yes, you would be,' he replied. Was that another reference to her famous father? She hoped not. 'Anyway, behind the scenes I'm Ted,' he invited.

'Thank you—and I'm Yona,' she was saying when brisk, firm steps in the corridor were followed by a single brief
rap on the door before Mike Preston came in. He had added a tie and a white coat to his morning outfit but, in Yona's opinion, he still didn't look the part.

'I hope you don't mind, Ted,' he began, without so much as a glance for Yona, 'but I've told Senga Taggart that she can come this afternoon. She can't manage the usual follow-up clinic. Her niece is getting married that day.'

'No problem,' agreed the professor, 'and it will be nice for our new colleague to meet up with a fellow Scot,' he added, by way of bringing Yona into the picture. 'You've not yet met my new registrar, Mike—Mr Mike Preston— Dr Yona MacFarlane.'

'We met this morning—briefly,' said Mike Preston. He didn't add that he'd caught her trying to read something on her boss's desk, as she'd been prepared for. Yona was grudgingly grateful for that. 'You'll find us Lancastrians very direct and down-to-earth after the rarefied atmosphere of Edinburgh, Dr MacFarland,' he warned.

MacFarland, indeed! She'd show him. 'We Scots are a hardy lot, Mr Prescot,' she retorted, chin well up. 'It'll be our dreadful weather, no doubt.'

His eyes narrowed at that and the merest twitch at the corner of his mouth suggested that he'd recognised a worthy adversary. Meanwhile, the professor, who hadn't noticed the name mis-calling, was welcoming their first patient.

Mrs Brown had walked in slowly and painfully with the aid of elbow crutches. She wore a supporting brace on her right knee and, in the absence of a nurse, Yona helped her onto the examination couch and took off the brace, revealing a thickened, swollen knee stuck in about twenty degrees of flexion.

'You'd make an excellent nurse, Doctor,' Mike Preston
murmured satirically as Yona resumed her place to one side to give the consultants room.

'They teach attention to detail in rarefied Edinburgh,' she murmured back, but he gave no sign of having heard that. He was already palpating the patient's knee with sure and gentle hands.

After the examination, he said gently, 'I'm very sorry if that was painful, Mrs Brown.' Then he studied the X-rays, before saying to Ted, 'No doubt about it—a replacement is the only answer.' Speaking to the patient again, he went on, 'You do realise, I hope, that replacing your knee joint is not an instant cure? There'll be weeks of hard work with the physios before you're really mobile again.'

'I'm not afraid of hard work, Doctor,' Mrs Brown said hardily. 'If I had been, happen I'd not have worn my bones out scrubbing. But I'll be damn glad to get rid of the pain— if you'll excuse the language.'

He smiled at her in a friendly way Yona hadn't supposed him capable of. 'Professor Burnley tells me you've already made a good start by losing some weight, so I'm sure you'll do just fine. I'll put your name on the list and get you in as soon as I can. I'm sorry I can't give you a definite date, but accidents and emergencies play havoc with our waiting lists.'

'Get me fixed up before Wakes Week, and that'll do me,' Mrs Brown responded cheerfully when Yona had replaced her support and helped her to stand up.

'Please, what is Wakes Week?' asked Yona when the patient had gone.

'A throwback to the days of the Lancashire cotton mills,' explained Ted. 'They all used to shut down for the same week in July, and the towns were totally quiet, with all who could afford it going off to places like Blackpool and Morecambe. Is there nothing like that in Scotland?'

'Oh, yes! In Glasgow, they still talk about the Fair Fortnight—also in July. In bygone days, the shipyard workers would go 'doon the watter'—that is, down the Clyde on the steamers to all the little seaside resorts.'

'Trust the Scots to go one better and have two weeks off,' observed Mike Preston.

'Yes, superiority will out,' returned Yona smoothly.

Ted said he hoped he wasn't going to have a rerun of Bannockburn on his hands and how about getting in the next patient?

Five more potential candidates for surgery came and went, all receiving the same meticulous assessment. 'How often are these clinics held?' asked Yona while they were waiting for the famous Senga Taggart.

'Once a month,' both consultants said together.

'Why?' asked Mike.

'I was thinking that if they were any more frequent, you must have a very long waiting list. However—'

'I have,' he said. 'I get plenty of direct referrals from GPs as well.' He was looking at his watch and frowning. 'Surely Senga should be here by now? I'm due in Theatre in fifteen minutes. I wonder what can have—?' He broke off when a thunderous knock on the door was promptly followed by the lady herself.

She was obviously a great favourite with both men. 'It's good to see you after so long, Senga,' said Ted.

'And looking so well, too.' That was Mike's contribution.

She accepted that as no less than her due and she asked, before either of them could introduce Yona, 'So, who's the lassie, then?'

Ted did the honours. 'Meet our new colleague, Dr MacFarlane. She's a fellow countrywoman of yours.'

'Is that so?' she responded. 'Then she'll be richt guid at her job. Whaur are ye from, hen?'

'I'm Edinburgh born and bred, Mrs Taggart,' said Yona with a smile.

'I'm frae Glasgow myself,' responded Senga with a definite air of one-upmanship. 'Have ye telt them the auld saying yet, Doctor?'

'Not yet, but I can guess the one you mean.' Yona turned to the men. 'If you were to drop in around teatime in Glasgow, they'd say, "I'll just put on the kettle," but in Edinburgh they'd say, "You'll have had your tea." Or so it's said...'

'Aye, that's the one, though I'm bound to say I've met some real nice Edinburgh folk in my time,' Senga confided, causing chuckles all round.

'But I've no' come here just for a blether,' she said reprovingly. 'You'll be wanting to-know how I'm tholing your latest bit of handiwork, Mr P. Well, it's just fine. See?' She stretched and bent her elbow several times. 'I'm full o' spare parts he's put in,' she told Yona. 'He's awful clever, ye ken—for a Sassenach,' she added provocatively.

'Any more of your cheek and I'll send you back to Glasgow for the next new bit you need,' Mike threatened good-humouredly. 'But, while you're here, I suppose we'd better check you over.'

Yona stood by and watched, thinking what a good team these two men made—even if they had forgotten her for the moment.

When Senga Taggart left, Mike went with her without another glance in Yona's direction. She was surprised at the strength of her resentment.

'Well, that concludes the first part,' said Ted. 'And now we've got...' he counted the folders '...six new patients, and four of them referred as query rheumatoid arthritis.' He paused. 'Something we know everything about except the cause, despite all the theories flying around. I'll just carry on as usual if that's all right with you, Yona, but just you butt in if there's anything you want to ask,' he invited as he pressed the buzzer on his desk.

In the space of the next three hours six patients came and went—and all of them were as obviously impressed by Professor Burnley's painstaking approach as Yona was.

'Now, then, tell me how what you've seen so far today compares with what you're used to,' he commanded when the clinic was over.

'Would you think I was dodging the issue if I said it feels just like home?' she asked.

'Not at all—I'd be flattered. Go on.'

'From the small sample of both in- and outpatients I've seen, the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis appears similar—as are your treatment methods.'

'It's good to have one's regime endorsed from such a source,' he said, but worrying her again if only he'd known it. But he probably meant Edinburgh in general and not her father in particular. Dr MacFarlane senior was an eminent neurologist.

'I was very impressed by the way you picked up that dermatomyocitis two patients back,' he was saying.

'Were you really?' she asked, surprised. 'I thought it was pretty obvious.'

'To the specialist observer maybe—but the GP had failed to spot it.'

'Is that so surprising?' she asked. 'It must be horrendous to be in general practice and never know what weird disorder is coming through your door next. At least in hospital we're sticking to the same kind of disorder—most of the time anyway.'

'That's very true,' he agreed. 'You're a bright girl, Yona
MacFarlane, and I can see you're going to be a great asset to the team.' He glanced at the clock. 'Not quite six, so an early finish for once,' he said. 'I'll do the letters for this lot while it's all fresh in my mind, but you may as well take yourself off now. I hope today hasn't been too confusing for you.'