Jess had always considered herself a fairly patient person. Not endlessly patient, obviously; she was a registered nurse and a single mother, not a saint, and there were limits to the amount of human nonsense she could absorb before privately thinking something uncharitable. But kindness came naturally to her. She had spent most of her adult life looking after people when they were frightened, ill, confused or having some of the worst days of their lives, and nursing had taug