A Nightingale Christmas Promise

by Donna Douglas

‘Have you ever planed a bit of wood before?’ Tom asked.

  ‘No,’ Anna admitted. ‘But I’m sure I can manage it.’

  ‘Here, let me show you.’

  He set down the trowel and came over to take the plane from her hands. ‘You run it along the length of the wood, like this. Keep it steady, and follow the grain, don’t go against it.’ He handed it back to her. ‘Now you try.’

  It was more difficult than Tom had made it look. It took Anna a while to get the smooth, sweeping motion right. But she was determined to master it, conscious of him watching her from the other side of the room.

  ‘You know, you don’t have to help,’ he said. ‘I don’t mind doing it all by myself.’

  Anna smiled. ‘You say the same thing every time I come. I’m beginning to think you don’t want me here!’

  Tom looked away, blushing. ‘You may do as you please,’ he muttered.

  ‘Then I want to help,’ Anna said. ‘The more help you get, the quicker we’ll be finished.’

  ‘And the sooner you can come home?’ Tom finished for her.

  ‘That’s right.’ Anna looked around. She couldn’t wait to show her mother and Liesel their new home.

  ‘Mind, we ain’t going to get finished at all with you planing great chunks out of that wood!’ Tom said.

  Anna looked at him. His face was unsmiling as usual, but there was a tell-tale glint in his black eyes.

  ‘I can’t help it. The wretched thing keeps sticking.’

  ‘That’s because you’re pressing down too hard. Here, let me show you.’

  Tom laid down his trowel and came over to her, wiping his hands on his trousers.

  ‘Don’t lean on it,’ he said. ‘Just guide it, and let it find its own way. Like this –’

  He stood behind her, his work-roughened hands on top of hers, guiding the plane. His long fingers were caked in plaster dust, his fingernails bitten to the quick.

  ‘It’s working!’ Anna grinned in delight as the plane glided along the length of wood. Tom went with her, his strong hands guiding hers.

  ‘Told you. You just have to let it find its own way.’

  Anna reached the end of the skirting board and straightened up to admire her handiwork. ‘There,’ she said. ‘What do you think?’

  It wasn’t until she turned round that she realised how close he was to her, so close she could feel the warmth of his breath. His eyes weren’t black at all, she thought, but a very dark grey, the colour of wet slate …

  Tom released her abruptly. ‘I reckon you can manage by yourself now,’ he muttered. Before Anna could react, he was on the other side of the room, the trowel back in his hand, his broad back turned to hers.

  He did not speak to her again, except for a gruff goodbye when Anna left.

  Anna went straight from the bakery to her grandmother’s house to visit her family. It had started to rain, but the butler left her on the doorstep for ages before he finally let her in.

  ‘Miss Dorothy is out,’ he announced as he took her coat.

  Miss Dorothy? Anna winced. So her grandmother had decided her mother was to be a spinster again, had she? ‘And my sister?’

  ‘Miss Liesel is in the drawing room with Mrs Grey.’ He looked askance at Anna’s work clothes. ‘I’ll show you in.’

  ‘Thank you, I’m sure I can find my own way.’

  She heard laughter as she approached the drawing room. Anna pushed open the door and there was Liesel, pacing up and down with a book on her head while Hester Grey sat in her crimson plush-covered armchair, watching her.

  ‘Put your shoulders back,’ she instructed. ‘Lift your chin … Keep your eyes forward, child!’

  ‘What is going on?’

  Liesel turned, and the book fell from her head with a clatter.

  ‘Now look what you’ve made me do!’ She bent to pick it up. ‘Grandmother is teaching me to be a lady. Look!’ She placed the book back on her head and demonstrated a few wobbling steps.

  Hester watched her with approval. ‘That is so much better,’ she declared. ‘You no longer slouch and stomp like a servant.’

  She turned her cool gaze to Anna. ‘My dear, what a pleasant surprise.’ There was no warmth in her smile. ‘But – good gracious – what are you wearing?’ She lifted her pince-nez to peer at her. ‘Is that a man’s shirt?’

  ‘And you’ve got bits in your hair!’ Liesel joined in, laughing.

  ‘It’s plaster.’ Anna picked a blob from her hair.

  ‘Plaster, indeed!’ Hester looked unimpressed. ‘No, sit over there,’ she instructed as Anna went to sit down on the couch. ‘I’m afraid you’ll mark the silk.’ She picked up the small handbell by her side and rang it. ‘I can see I’ll have to teach you how to dress, too.’

  Anna lifted her chin. ‘I’m quite all right as I am, thank you.’

  ‘That is a matter of opinion,’ her grandmother muttered under her breath. Liesel giggled. ‘Really, your education has been neglected for far too long,’ Hester went on. ‘I don’t know what your mother was thinking of. But then, I suppose she had no choice.’ She shook her head, her face sorrowful.

  ‘I daresay our parents considered there were more important things in life than parading about with books on our heads,’ Anna said.

  ‘Like kneading dough and working in a shop?’ her grandmother replied sweetly.

  Anna gritted her teeth. ‘We were happy to help with the family business.’

  Hester turned to Liesel. ‘Is your sister always this quarrelsome?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, she is.’ Liesel shot Anna a spiteful look.

  Thankfully, just then their mother returned. She was wearing yet another new dress, Anna noticed, an old-fashioned style in a thick pale yellow fabric.

  ‘Anna!’ She greeted her with a warm hug. She was wearing a different scent, too. It was heavy, almost sickly, like violets.

  The same scent Hester Grey always wore.

  ‘Did the bookshop have the volumes I asked for?’ Hester asked.

  ‘Yes.’ Dorothy handed her one of the parcels. ‘And I bought you these gloves, too. I know how fond you are of Brussels lace.’

  ‘Thank you, my dear. That’s very thoughtful.’

  Anna saw the way her mother smiled and felt a pang of something like jealousy. How well her mother and sister had settled in to life at Belgrave Square, practising deportment and shopping for trifles like proper ladies of society.

  The butler arrived, bringing in the tea.

  ‘Although I hardly think Anna is dressed for it,’ Hester pointed out. ‘Look at her, Dorothy. Quite a hoyden, don’t you think?’

  ‘I’ve been working at the bakery,’ Anna defended herself.

  ‘Have you? How wonderful.’ Her mother turned to her, smiling. ‘How are you getting on?’

  ‘It’s nearly finished,’ Anna said proudly.

  ‘What’s this?’ Hester asked. Her tone was pleasant but her gaze was sharp, passing from Anna to her mother and back again.

  ‘The bakery is being rebuilt,’ Dorothy explained.

  ‘Really? You never told me?’ Her smile masked the accusing note in her voice.

  ‘Tom reckons we should be able to move back in within a month,’ Anna said to her mother.

  ‘I don’t want to go back to Chambord Street,’ Liesel announced.

  ‘Liesel!’

  ‘I don’t care. I like it here.’ She folded her arms mutinously.

  ‘But Chambord Street is our home.’

  ‘No, this is our home now.’ Liesel pouted. ‘I don’t want to live over a shop anymore. Only common people live over shops.’

  Anna noticed her grandmother hiding a smile behind her hand.

  ‘I want to go to finishing school and learn how to be a young lady,’ Liesel went on.

  ‘And where will we get the money for a finishing school?’ her mother said.

  ‘Grandmother will pay. She said so.’

  ‘I haven’t discussed it with your mother, my dear,’ Hester
protested mildly. ‘There is still a great deal to be decided.’

  ‘There’s nothing to be decided,’ Anna declared. ‘Papa would never allow it.’

  ‘Papa might not be –’ Liesel opened her mouth then closed it again.

  ‘What?’ Anna said. ‘What were you going to say?’ But her sister remained obstinately silent.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  They had lost another patient during the night.

  Private Norris, or Nobby as the other soldiers affectionately called him, was a cheeky young man, brought in with severe bullet wounds to his arm and chest. By some miracle the doctors had managed to save his limb, but they could do nothing to stem the infection that weakened his chest.

  Nobby had fought valiantly for more than a week, and even seemed to recover for a few days. But then the illness took over and after that he began to decline rapidly.

  Sadie heard the sad news from the night sister when she and the other probationers came on duty that morning.

  ‘I know he was a particular favourite,’ the sister said. ‘The other men are going to take it very hard, I think.’

  Sadie looked around the ward. She had already felt the sombre atmosphere as the men woke up to the news that their brave little pal had lost his fight.

  ‘He was so young,’ she said to Dulcie, as they did the bed round together. ‘Only seventeen. He told me he’d lied at the recruiting office so he could enlist and do his bit.’

  Dulcie said nothing. Her usually smiling face was sombre as she stripped off the bedclothes.

  ‘At least he didn’t suffer in the end,’ Sadie went on. ‘I’m glad Miss Carlyle was with him when he died. She didn’t leave his side all night, so the night nurse told me. She sat with him, sponging his face and holding his hand and talking to him. And there we were, thinking she counted herself too good for nursing!’

  ‘Any of us would have done the same,’ Dulcie muttered, her head down.

  ‘I know, that’s our job, ain’t it? But Miss Carlyle, she’s a doctor. She could have just done a quick in and out, like most of the other students do. But not her.’ Sadie pulled her corners of the bedsheet taut, the freshly starched smell rising up to greet her. ‘I must say, I’m not surprised. I mean, I know she can be a bit sharp sometimes, but that’s just her way. Underneath it all she’s got a good heart.’

  ‘Oh, she’s an absolute angel!’ Dulcie snapped.

  Sadie looked up at her in surprise. ‘You all right?’

  ‘Of course.’ The reply came out from between gritted teeth.

  Sadie watched Dulcie punching a pillow into submission. ‘It don’t look like it,’ she said. ‘Come on, you can tell me.’ Sadie straightened up and folded her arms. ‘Man trouble, is it?’

  Dulcie looked at her sharply. ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘Because it nearly always is with you!’ Sadie rescued the pillow from Dulcie’s hands. ‘Come on, out with it!’

  Dulcie shook her head. ‘I can’t.’

  Sadie saw her friend’s look of distress and her heart sank. ‘Here, you ain’t …’

  ‘No!’ Dulcie shook her head. ‘No, it’s nothing like that.’ She bit her lip. ‘It’s just – I’ve got a secret.’

  ‘What kind of secret?’

  But before Dulcie could reply, Nurse Hanley bore down on them, bristling with her usual efficiency. ‘Hurry up, Nurses. Sister will be on the ward at nine, and she won’t want to see half these beds unmade,’ she bellowed.

  ‘Yes, Sister.’

  By the time the staff nurse had bustled off to bully someone else, Dulcie had fallen silent again.

  ‘Well?’ Sadie hissed.

  Dulcie shook her head, her mouth a tight line. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she murmured.

  Sadie looked across the bed at her friend’s unhappy face. ‘If this secret of yours is making you feel that wretched, then I reckon you should tell someone about it.’

  Dulcie raised her miserable gaze to meet Sadie’s. ‘Even if it breaks someone else’s heart?’ she said.

  Kate’s sleepless night was beginning to tell on her.

  She had managed to snatch a couple of hours’ rest before she was summoned back to the ward to help with the new patients who had arrived that morning. But her brain was still foggy from the little sleep she had had, her limbs felt heavy and her eyes ached so much she could barely read the patients’ notes in front of her.

  But it had been worth it, she thought. Poor Private Norris had been so afraid, she hadn’t wanted to leave him.

  Kate had felt helpless. She had become a doctor because she wanted to make people better, to save lives. It always hit her hard when she failed. But there was no medicine she could prescribe, no procedure she could perform, that would have helped poor Nobby Norris. All she could do was sit there and watch him slip away.

  She had still been sitting there, his cold, lifeless hand in hers, when the night sister came to check on them just before dawn. It was she who had gently guided Kate away to the kitchen and made her a cup of tea. Together they had stood at the window and watched as the pearly pink dawn rose above the rooftops.

  ‘There was nothing I could do for him,’ Kate said.

  ‘You did more for him than you might think.’

  ‘How?’ Kate turned on her, raw from lack of sleep. ‘I held his hand. What good did that do?’

  The night sister smiled. She was a mature woman in her fifties, with the wise, lined face of someone who had seen many nights like the one Kate had been through. ‘Sometimes that’s all that is needed, Miss Carlyle. Any good nurse will tell you that.’

  As Kate moved from bed to bed, she was suddenly aware of one of the probationers trailing behind her. But whenever she turned around, the girl looked away and seemed to take a sudden interest in straightening a patient’s bedclothes or rearranging their belongings on the bedside locker.

  Befuddled by sleep as she was, Kate had begun to think she was imagining it, until she arrived at the bed of a new arrival, a gunner with auricular fibrillation. She was listening to the uneven stutter of his heart when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl standing at the foot of the bed.

  Kate pulled the stethoscope from her ears. ‘Yes? What is it?’

  The probationer bit her lip. It was the curly-haired girl, the one whose laughter could always be heard the length of the ward. Sister was continually telling her to be quiet but now she looked as if she was having trouble uttering a sound.

  ‘Can I talk to you, miss?’ she whispered finally.

  Kate picked up the man’s medical notes. They were blank apart from his name, age and rank. Corporal John Rayner of the Royal Field Artillery, twenty-nine years old.

  ‘Isn’t there someone else who could help you?’ she said impatiently. ‘I’m rather busy.’

  ‘It’s nothing to do with a patient.’

  Kate looked up briefly from filling in Corporal Rayner’s notes. The girl – her name had slipped Kate’s mind – looked as if she might cry.

  ‘What is it?’ she sighed.

  ‘It’s about Dr Latimer.’

  ‘What about him?’

  ‘Is it true you two are courting?’

  Kate’s hand stilled briefly, then went on writing. ‘I don’t really see that’s any business of yours—’ she started to say, but the girl cut her off.

  ‘He told me he loved me,’ she said.

  Kate stared at her. Suddenly the girl’s name came back to mind. Dulcie. A silly, frivolous name for a silly, frivolous girl.

  ‘I didn’t know about you, I swear.’ Dulcie’s words came out in a rush. ‘He told me I was the only girl for him.’ She blushed. ‘But then yesterday, I saw the two of you together outside the Casualty block, and you were holding hands, and you looked so in love.’ She wrung her own hands, her face full of distress. ‘But when I asked him about it, he said there was nothing to it. Said you were just friends, that you were useful to him.’

  ‘Useful?’

  Dulcie’s blu
sh deepened. ‘On account of your father being important, miss,’ she murmured.

  All the blood drained to Kate’s feet, leaving her light-headed. She could only stare at the girl in front of her.

  ‘Anyway, I wanted to ask you,’ Dulcie went on. ‘I do like Char—Dr Latimer, but I wouldn’t want to take it further if he’s already spoken for.’ She stared at Kate with wide, innocent eyes. ‘I’m not that kind of girl, you see. I’d never go after someone else’s young man, not if I thought they were serious.’

  ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Kate cut her off. She finished writing Corporal Rayner’s notes. ‘Now please go away and find something else to do.’

  ‘But, miss …’

  ‘Go away, Nurse. Stat!’

  Dulcie hurried off, her head down. Kate could feel the probationer watching her as she unlocked the medicine cupboard and measured out the digitalis. She was still watching when Kate finished administering the medication. Kate ignored her, forcing herself to walk calmly the length of the ward, straight through the double doors and out into the passageway that led to the private rooms.

  It was only when she was out of sight that her legs began to shake and she leant back against the wall for support.

  This couldn’t be real. She was tired, not thinking straight. There was no other explanation for it.

  Charlie Latimer. He had told her he loved her, too. They had even talked about getting engaged …

  ‘Sis?’

  When she opened her eyes again Leo was standing in front of her, his face full of concern.

  ‘Kate, what is it? What’s wrong?’

  She held herself rigid, fighting the urge to burst into tears, and throw herself into the comfort of her brother’s arms.

  ‘Nothing. I’m just a bit tired. I was up all night with a patient.’

  ‘You poor girl.’ Leo was instantly sympathetic. ‘You should go and get some rest.’

  ‘I can’t. There are no other doctors on the ward.’

  ‘I’ll take care of the rest of your round.’

  ‘But they’re not your patients.’

  Leo patted her shoulder. ‘Leave it to me,’ he said gently. ‘I’ll sort it out. Now go and lie down before you fall down.’

  ‘I shouldn’t.’ But as Kate turned her head towards the doors leading back to the ward, she could see Dulcie deep in conversation with Sedgewick, another of the probationers.