Jo Staveley

Jo Staveley combines a practical role in Combe Island’s medical care with a capacity for sustained personal loyalty. She supports Adrian Boyde after Nathan Oliver deliberately prompts his return to drinking, later explains the isolation and companionship that helped Boyde through recovery, and helps care for Adam Dalgliesh during the SARS quarantine. Her actions are generally unshowy: she visits, watches, asks direct questions, and gives care its necessary limits.

Identity and Place on Combe Island

Jo is Guy Staveley’s wife and a member of the island community. The evidence places her in the surgery, wearing a white coat and studying a file, and shows her involved in nursing and in decisions about access to medical supplies. It does not specify her formal job title, but her familiarity with the surgery and her authority in the sickroom make her an active part of the island’s care rather than a bystander to Guy’s medical work.

Her first appearance in these scenes is away from the surgery. Dalgliesh recognizes her crossing the headland from Adrian Boyde’s cottage by her confident stride and fair hair. She has gone there because Boyde should not be left alone after a terrible day. She has shared osso buco with him, but he is teetotal, so she asks Dalgliesh to share a glass of wine rather than drink alone. Wearing a red jacket, she joins him at the table; after drinking, she stretches her legs and settles into the quiet. The encounter places her concern for Boyde beside her own wish for company, without turning either into a grand declaration.

Care for Adrian Boyde

Jo’s account of Boyde’s history explains why her visit matters. Boyde had been sober for more than a year while working on Combe Island after leaving the church. During a service of Holy Communion, he dropped the chalice and collapsed drunk. Jo says Oliver had invited him to supper and given him wine, knowing that Boyde was an alcoholic. In her understanding, Oliver did it deliberately, to observe what happened when an alcoholic was made to drink for a character in his book. Boyde’s hard-won sobriety was undone in a single evening, and Jo identifies the relapse as a calculated act of exploitation rather than an accidental lapse.

When remaining in London became impossible, Jo took Boyde to an isolated cottage near Bodmin Moor. They stayed there for six weeks, during the off-season, when cheap accommodation was easier to find. She kept Guy and Rupert Maycroft informed that she was all right and that Boyde was with her, but did not tell them where they were. She did tell Jago Tamlyn, who came to relieve her on weekends. Jo says that one or the other of them kept Boyde in sight at all times; she could not have managed without Jago’s help.

The care was demanding and repetitive, but Jo’s memory of it is not simply one of burden. They walked, talked, cooked, played cards, watched old BBC serials, and read. She remembers Boyde as kind, intelligent, sensitive, amusing, and not given to complaining; looking back, she recalls being happier during those weeks than she had been for years. When Boyde felt ready, they returned to Combe Island, where no one asked them to explain their absence. Her account links his recovery to close company and ordinary shared routines, while also showing how the island’s habit of not asking questions can protect privacy.

Understanding Boyde and His Faith

Jo and Boyde were able to communicate about why he had left the church, though she says she does not understand religion. Alcoholism was part of the explanation, but he had also lost faith in some of the church’s dogma. Boyde came to believe that God could not be both good and all-powerful, and that life was a struggle between good and evil, God and the devil. Jo finds it difficult to see why that conclusion troubled him; she had thought the Church of England allowed considerable freedom of belief. The difference between them does not prevent care or conversation: she can accompany Boyde through a crisis without claiming to share his religious understanding.

The Surgery During Quarantine

When SARS reaches Combe Island, Jo is seen in the surgery as Dalgliesh’s condition worsens. Kate Miskin asks after him; Jo reports that his temperature is higher than they would like, that he is not comfortable, and that it is too early to know how the illness will develop. She has no experience nursing SARS patients. Her response acknowledges the limits of what she can promise while still giving Kate a concrete account of his condition.

Jo initially says that Guy is with Dalgliesh and that a visit is unlikely that night. When Guy arrives, he confirms that Dalgliesh is resting and should not be disturbed, and raises the possibility of transferring him to the mainland the following morning if his condition allows. Jo’s presence in the surgery does not displace Guy’s judgment; the two coordinate care, and she relays the decision to Kate.

Kate’s abrupt questions about whether visitors can obtain medicine from the surgery surprise Jo. She explains that visitors would ask her, that prescription drugs are locked away, and that other supplies had been needed when she and others nursed Martha Padgett. Mrs. Burbridge had occasionally helped by taking what she needed. Jo asks whether Kate has found drugs, making clear that anything recovered did not come from the surgery. The exchange reveals both a practical distinction between controlled medicines and ordinary supplies and Jo’s alertness to the possibility that Kate’s questions concern an investigation.

Care, Authority, and Affection

Jo’s care becomes firmer when Dalgliesh insists on getting out of bed. After asking about Kate’s injuries, she gives her a mask to use if he begins coughing, permits Kate to see him only briefly, and says the sergeant must wait rather than enter with her. The precautions are specific to the risks and the patient’s condition; Jo does not treat Dalgliesh’s wish to see Kate as a reason to abandon them.

Her insistence is tempered by affection. She says he is not well enough, yet her voice is warm when she complains that he needs to be reminded she is in charge of the sickroom. That combination characterizes her wider role: she offers company to Boyde without pretending his relapse is small, and tends to Dalgliesh without allowing his authority to overrule necessary care. Across the island’s private crises and public emergency, Jo’s contribution is grounded in attention to what another person needs now—company, supervision, information, or a mask—and in the willingness to provide it without making care a performance.