‘Their first steps, eh? Shame I won’t be there to see it.’
Dora saw his expression falter, and hastened to cheer him up. ‘I’ve brought you something . . .’ She rummaged in her bag. ‘We went to the photographer’s and had it taken a few weeks ago, on the twins’ birthday. I was going to send it to you, but . . .’
Her voice trailed off. Two weeks after the family photograph was taken, the evacuation of Dunkirk had begun. ‘Anyway, it’s a good likeness of the kids, don’t you think?’ she went on.
Nick stared at the photograph and Dora could see his face working as he struggled not to cry. ‘They’ve got so big. I bet they’ll hardly recognise me when they next see me.’
Dora caught the trace of sadness flitting across his face. ‘Of course they will,’ she said firmly. ‘You’re their dad.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Look at Danny’s face. It’s a real picture, ain’t it? I don’t think he could make out what was happening at all.’
‘I’m not surprised. No one’s ever taken his picture before.’ Nick smiled fondly at the image of his beloved brother. ‘Can I keep it?’
‘Of course. I brought it for you.’
‘Put it there, on the locker, where I can see it.’
Dora propped the photo against the water jug. ‘There, that should be all right.’ All the time she was aware she was trying to keep herself busy, doing silly little things to ignore the fact that her husband was gasping so painfully for every breath. Trying to convince herself that everything was normal and that Nick wasn’t in a hospital bed recovering from a gunshot that had nearly claimed his life.
Recovering. She clung to the word desperately. Nick was alive, and he was recovering. He was luckier than many, and so was she.
They chatted about inconsequential things. Dora told him how well they’d settled back in Griffin Street, funny little stories about the twins and the rest of the family. She even told him about Octavius the rabbit.
‘Nanna keeps talking about cooking him, but she picks him up and cuddles him when she thinks no one’s looking,’ she said. ‘When I came home the other night he was in the house sitting at her feet like a pet dog. She reckoned she didn’t want to leave him out in the rain.’
Nick laughed. ‘Your nanna always was contrary!’
After a while, Dora stopped thinking about his injuries. It was as if they were together in London again, and he’d just come home from work and she was telling him some funny tale.
‘I wish I could see them all again,’ Nick said suddenly.
She reached for his hand and squeezed it. ‘You will,’ she promised. She hesitated. She didn’t want to ruin their time together by thinking about the future, but she couldn’t help it. ‘Have they said anything about what’s going to happen?’
His expression darkened. ‘Not really. But I’ve been told once I recover they’ll send me back.’
She forced herself to stay composed. ‘Do you mind going back?’
Nick’s smile was grim. ‘I’ll have to go where they send me, won’t I? Anyway, it’s got to be better than being stuck in this place, doing bloody jigsaws!’ he added.
Dora’s face must have given her away, because his fingers tightened around hers. ‘Don’t worry about me, love,’ he said. ‘I’ll be all right. I survived Dunkirk, I reckon I can survive anything. It’s you I worry about.’
‘Me?’
He nodded. ‘You’ve got so much on your plate. I just wish I could be there to protect you and Danny, and the kids.’
Dora managed a smile, even though she was aching inside. ‘Don’t you worry about us,’ she said. ‘We’ll be all right. I’ll look after them all until you get home.’
They talked for another half an hour, holding hands and chatting about everything and nothing. Dora wished she could put her feelings into words, but it wasn’t her way. It wasn’t Nick’s way either, but she could read his love for her in the way his gaze never left her face.
All too soon, she had to leave to catch the last train back to London.
‘I don’t suppose I’ll be able to visit you again,’ she said glumly, as she gathered up her belongings.
‘I don’t expect you will,’ Nick said. ‘Besides, I don’t want you rushing down here every five minutes, not when you’ve got the kids to look after. I should get some embark-ation leave before I’m sent back, so I’ll see you then.’ He held on to her hand. ‘You will be all right, won’t you?’
‘I told you, don’t you worry about me. I can take care of myself.’
They were both making light of it, but she could see in his eyes that he was as afraid as she was.
She leaned forward and he kissed her. The touch of his lips on hers opened floodgates of emotion and desire.
‘You’d best go,’ Nick said hoarsely.
Dora’s smile wobbled. She felt a tear rolling down her cheek, but Nick brushed it away with his thumb.
She smiled. ‘You just make sure you come back safe,’ she said.
He smiled back. ‘You just make sure I have a home to come back to,’ he replied.
She walked away. She took a few steps, then turned. He was staring at the photograph, sadness darkening his eyes, as if he wanted to commit their faces to memory for ever.
Chapter Sixteen
‘YOU DON’T MIND, do you?’
Eve caught the appealing look Cissy gave her from under her lashes, and her heart sank.
‘Sister asked me to assist in Outpatients this morning—’ she began, but Cissy cut her off.
‘Oh, she won’t mind, as long as one of us is there,’ she dismissed airily. ‘Go on, you know you’re so much better at this sort of thing than I am.’
‘This sort of thing’ was an elderly tramp who sat between them on the wooden bench, stinking of stale sweat and cheap booze. He looked up from one to the other with sad, yellowing eyes, then coughed wheezily and spat into a dirty handkerchief.
Cissy winced. ‘Please?’ she begged. ‘He’s so dirty. I’m afraid he might have TB or something. I don’t want to catch it.’
‘Shh! He’ll hear you.’
‘Nonsense, he’s as deaf as a post. Aren’t you, you old goat?’
‘Baxter!’
‘So will you swap with me? Go on, as a favour,’ Cissy wheedled.
Eve sighed. There was no point arguing. Once Cissy had made up her mind not to do something, that was it.
And she was very fussy about what she did and didn’t do, as Eve had found out in the three weeks they’d been working together. Cissy didn’t like going near any patient who was dirty, or smelly, or whose head needed delousing. She wouldn’t clean up vomit because it made her retch, and she would only scrub the toilets if Eve had checked first that there was nothing unpleasant for her to encounter.
As usual, Cissy took her silence for assent.
‘You will? Thanks, you’re a brick. I won’t forget this,’ she called over her shoulder as she hurried off to Outpatients. ‘We can have lunch together, how about that?’
If you remember, Eve thought. Cissy was full of promises she never kept. She turned to the old man with a resigned sigh. ‘Come on, mister,’ she said, encouraging him to his feet. ‘Let’s take you to see the nurse. She’ll sort you out.’
It was a struggle to get the old man into the consulting room. He could barely shuffle and leaned heavily against her, his arm around her shoulders. Eve nearly buckled under his weight and the stench of his filthy clothing.
Nurse Kowalski raised a quizzical eyebrow as they staggered in. ‘I thought you were in Outpatients today?’ she said.
‘I was, but I swapped with Baxter.’
‘Did you indeed?’ Dev Kowalski sent her a shrewd look. ‘And I suppose that was her ladyship’s idea? You shouldn’t let her bully you, you know, Ainsley. You ought to stand up for yourself.’
‘I didn’t mind,’ Eve murmured.
‘Yes, well, you should. I’ve heard the way she speaks to you, ordering you about as if you’re her servant. It’s not up
to her what she does and what she doesn’t.’ Kowalski shook her head. ‘Honestly, the way she goes on anyone would think she ran this place, not Sister. Anyway, what have we here?’ She turned to the old man.
‘He says he’s got a rash on his feet.’
The old man’s cough rolled up from his chest like an approaching train, ending in another noisy session with his grubby handkerchief. Nurse Kowalski frowned. ‘He’s got a nasty chest infection too, by the sound of it. Let’s get his shoes and socks off and we’ll take a look, shall we? You’d best give him a hand, I don’t think he can manage by himself.’
Eve crouched down to unlace his old boots. They had been patched and crudely mended several times, and the soles were hanging off.
Meanwhile, Nurse Kowalski was still holding forth on the subject of Cissy Baxter.
‘You know why she wants to help in Outpatients today, don’t you? So she can throw herself at Mr Cooper.’ Dev Kowlaski shook her head in disgust. ‘As if a respectable married man like him would ever be interested in a silly little thing like her!’
‘But Cissy has a boyfriend,’ Eve said.
Kowalski laughed. ‘That wouldn’t stop someone like her. I’m telling you, you’d do well to keep your distance from that one, Ainsley. She’s a cruel little cat.’
Eve was silent as she struggled to unpick the knotted laces. Whatever Kowalski said, as far as Eve was concerned, Cissy Baxter was everything she wanted to be. All right, so she could be a bit selfish sometimes, but that was only because she had the confidence to know what she wanted. If Eve was only a fraction as pretty and self-assured as Cissy was, she was sure her life would be completely different.
She pulled off the old man’s boot, exposing a worn, filthy sock. The ammonia tang of ancient sweat nearly knocked her backwards.
Holding her breath, she pulled off the sock, exposing weeping, crusty patches that spread up over his ankle and crept beyond the ragged hem of his trouser legs.
Nurse Kowalski looked over her shoulder. ‘Ringworm,’ she declared. ‘We’ll put some iodine on it and see if that helps.’ She turned to Eve. ‘Perhaps you’d like to have a go at applying it?’
‘Me?’ Eve looked around, to see if one of the junior students had come into the room behind her. ‘Why?’
Dev Kowalski smiled. ‘You always seem interested in what we’re doing. And if you learn how to do these things, you might be able to help us out a bit more when we’re busy.’
Eve couldn’t imagine a time when anyone would trust her enough to let her loose on a real patient, but she nodded eagerly.
‘I’d like that,’ she said. ‘If you’re sure you don’t mind showing me?’
The rest of the morning went by in a blur of cuts, coughs, boils, burns and infections of various types. Dev Kowalski was very kind, showing Eve how to clean wounds and apply fomentations, and letting her practise her dressings. But it all took longer than usual, and by the time Eve finally emerged from the consulting room for lunch, Cissy had already gone.
Eve was disappointed, but not surprised. She washed her hands, took off her apron and hurried off to find her.
Cissy was deep in conversation with Jennifer when Eve arrived in the dining room. They were sitting at one end of the table, their heads together, having a lively chat. Eve went to the hatch to collect her plate of stew and dumplings, then found a seat beside them.
Jennifer looked up at Eve as she put her plate down. ‘Do you mind?’ she said coldly. ‘This is a private conversation.’
‘It’s all right,’ Cissy said. ‘I told her she could join us.’ But she sounded half-hearted about it.
It was a very awkward mealtime. Eve sat beside them, her head down, feeling left out as they whispered together. From what she could make out, Jennifer was telling Cissy all about someone called Johnny who had sent her a note asking her out. From what she could also gather, Cissy didn’t seem too keen.
‘Are you sure, Jen?’ she kept saying. ‘There’s something not quite right about him, if you ask me.’
Eve looked up and caught Jennifer’s eye. Jennifer glared back at her and turned her shoulder to Eve, deliberately blocking her out. A moment later, she got up to leave and Cissy followed, with an apologetic shrug at Eve.
So much for having lunch together, she thought.
She was heading back across the courtyard after her break when she heard footsteps behind her.
‘Excuse me,’ a voice said. ‘Could you direct me to the Porters’ Lodge? I seem to have lost my bearings.’
Eve turned around and found herself yet again looking up into the lively green eyes of Oliver Stanton.
‘It’s you!’ He grinned and whipped off his hat in greeting. ‘We seem to bump into each other everywhere, don’t we? It must be fate.’
‘I suppose so.’ Eve tried to smile back at him, but all she could think about was the last time they’d met, and the terrible thrashing Aunt Freda had given her.
‘I didn’t know you worked here?’ he said. ‘I thought you helped your aunt in her shop.’
‘I’m here three days a week. War work,’ she explained.
He nodded. ‘Same here. That’s why I have to report to the Porters’ Lodge. I’m starting my first shift at two o’clock.’
‘Oh.’ Eve frowned. ‘You’re not joining up, then?’
‘No, I’m not.’ Oliver was silent for a moment, then went on, ‘I haven’t seen you at church recently?’
‘No, I’ve been busy. There’s a lot to do in the workshop now I’m not there every day.’
For all her strict observance of the Sabbath, business came first for Aunt Freda. Eve also suspected she was trying to keep her away from Oliver. Her aunt still didn’t believe their meeting in the blackout had been an accident.
They stood in awkward silence for a moment, then Oliver said, ‘Anyway, if you could point me in the direction of the Porters’ Lodge . . .?’
‘Of course. Sorry.’ Eve pulled herself together. ‘You need to go back past the main building the way you came, down the drive, and it’s the little brick building just inside the main gates.’
‘I must have walked right past it. I didn’t realise the Nightingale was such a big place,’ he said.
‘It is a bit of a rabbit warren,’ Eve agreed. ‘But you get used to it.’
‘I hope so.’ He glanced up at the clock tower. ‘Anyway, I’d better get a move on. I don’t want to be late on my first day, do I?’ Oliver turned on his heel and hurried across the courtyard. ‘Thanks for your help,’ he called back to her. ‘I expect we’ll bump into each other again before long!’
Not if I see you first, Eve thought, hurrying away. The last thing she wanted was to give her aunt another reason to be suspicious.
Chapter Seventeen
‘GOING OUT AGAIN?’ her mother asked, as Jennifer applied her lipstick in front of the mirror.
‘It’s Friday night, ain’t it? I always go out on a Friday night.’
‘And where are you going tonight?’
‘The Palais, with Cissy. Same as always.’ Jennifer didn’t meet her mother’s eye in the mirror.
‘Well, that’s odd. When I met Marge Baxter in the queue for the butcher’s earlier she told me she was going out to bingo with her Cissy tonight.’
Jennifer caught her mother’s shrewd gaze reflected in the mirror and knew the game was up.
‘So who is he?’ Elsie Caldwell asked. ‘I’m guessing there’s a boy involved in all this? And I want the truth this time, my girl. None of your stories!’
Jennifer paused. ‘His name’s Johnny,’ she said slowly.
Her mother folded her arms. ‘And what’s he like, this Johnny? Is he a local boy?’
Hardly a boy, Jennifer thought. ‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know? Where did you meet him?’
‘At the Palais. You’d like him, he’s a real gentleman,’ she put in quickly.
Elsie Caldwell’s frown deepened. ‘I’m not so sure about that. And I can�
�t imagine your father will like the idea, either.’
‘Oh, Mum! You don’t have to tell him, do you? This is the first time I’ve been out with Johnny, it might not even come to anything!’
‘All the same, I expect your father will want to meet him. You know how protective he is of you.’
‘Don’t I just?’ Jennifer muttered as she turned back to finish her lipstick. It was a good thing her father was on duty at the police station tonight. Being hauled up in front of Sergeant Alec Caldwell would put any man off!
‘What time’s he supposed to be picking you up?’ her mother asked.
Jennifer glanced at the grandfather clock. It was ten past seven, but she didn’t want to admit to her mother that Johnny was late. She just hoped he didn’t stand her up, or she’d never hear the last of it.
But before she could reply, her brother Wilf called out, ‘There’s a car outside. It’s stopping outside our house!’
‘That’ll be him.’
Her mother looked stricken. ‘You didn’t tell me he had a car!’
‘You didn’t ask.’ Jennifer shrugged. She dropped her lipstick into her bag and closed the clasp. ‘Don’t you dare go running out there!’ She made a grab for her brother as he slipped past her towards the front door.
‘Get in here, Wilf!’ Elsie seized him by his collar and pulled him back. ‘Your sister doesn’t need you embarrassing her.’
Jennifer gave him a smug look. In truth, she was more worried about him reporting anything back to her mother.
Elsie smoothed the lapels of her daughter’s coat. ‘Enjoy yourself, love,’ she said. ‘But take care, won’t you? Be sure to keep yourself respectable,’ she added in a low voice.
‘Mum!’
‘I mean it, Jen. I know what men are like. Especially men with cars,’ she said. ‘Your dad will be off duty at eleven, so I want you home by then. No sneaking in in the early hours like you do when you’re out with Cissy. And you’d best tell your – friend to park that thing around the corner,’ she added as an afterthought. ‘I don’t want your dad seeing it before we’ve had time to get him used to the idea of you having a boyfriend.’
Nightingales at War Page 12
