The Nightingale Sisters (35 page)

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Mortimer. I was miles away.’

‘I should think you were!’ Maud looked outraged. ‘Good gracious, I’ve had to listen to your ceaseless nonsensical chatter for weeks. You’d think you’d have the decency to listen when I finally want to speak!’

‘You’re right, it was thoughtless of me.’ Millie dredged up a smile from the depths of her stout shoes. ‘What was it you were saying?’

‘It doesn’t matter.’ Maud’s thin mouth turned down sulkily. ‘It really isn’t important, not now.’

She followed Millie’s gaze as it strayed back across towards William’s voice on the other side of the screen.

‘You rather like him, don’t you?’ she remarked.

‘Who?’

‘You know perfectly well who. That young man. The one who calls himself a doctor. On the other side of the screens. The one you’ve been listening to when you should have been listening to me. What’s his name? Ah, yes! Tremayne.’

‘Mrs Mortimer, Please!’ Millie shot an anguished look towards the screens as Maud’s voice rang out.

‘Please what? Do you honestly think he hasn’t noticed you watching his every move?’ Maud sniffed.

‘There. You’re all finished.’ Millie changed the subject hastily straightening Maud’s nightgown and refastening it. ‘I’ll make your bed comfortable now.’

‘Is he the reason for your broken engagement?’

Maud’s gaze was as sharp and penetrating as a scalpel. Millie looked away. ‘Of course not,’ she muttered, bending to tuck in the sheet.

‘Very well, don’t tell me the truth,’ Maud said huffily. ‘As long as you’re not lying to yourself.’

‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘I think you do.’ Maud sent her a long, considering look. ‘You know,’ she said after a long pause, ‘there are times when I wish I had swum the English Channel.’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Millie blinked at her.

‘I told you, I wanted to do it when I was a girl,’ Maud explained impatiently. ‘When we lived in Deal I used to stand and look out to sea all the time. I’d tell myself that one day I would take the plunge, so to speak, and swim the Channel. I thought I might be the first person to do it, but of course Captain Webb beat me to it,’ she smiled. ‘Then I thought I might be the first woman to do it. I used to swim out to sea, wondering if I’d ever be brave enough to go all the way to France.’

‘Why didn’t you?’

Maud gave a little shrug. ‘A thousand and one reasons. I went to school, then to university, then I was married . . . I told myself I still had time, but somehow I never did it.’ She smiled wistfully. ‘Oh, I’m not saying I didn’t lead a very full life, or that I didn’t achieve a great deal. But somewhere in the back of my mind I’ve always had this nagging little regret that I wasn’t brave enough to strike out and make that swim.’ She looked down at her hands, her fingers curling in towards her palms like the edges of a dying leaf. ‘But of course it’s too late now, isn’t it? Too late for regrets.’

She looked up at Millie. ‘Do you understand what I’m saying to you?’ she said. ‘Regret is a terrible thing, child. You must never reach my age knowing there are paths in life you wish you had taken.’

Millie was too flustered to speak for a moment. She didn’t want to hear this; her life was already in a mess without a stranger trying to confuse her even more about her feelings.

‘As I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ She finished straightening the bed hastily, desperate to escape.

‘Where are you going?’ Maud asked, as Millie pushed the screens back from around the bed. ‘Aren’t you going to stay and help me with my crossword?’

‘I can’t, I’m too busy.’

‘But I’ve been looking at it all day. I’ve worked out most of the clues, I just need you to fill them in for me . . .’

Maud suddenly seemed very small and vulnerable. Her sharp blue eyes were usually so clear and incisive, but looking into them now Millie could see the milky veil of old age over them.

‘Please,’ she whispered.

Her plea touched Millie’s heart. Any other day she would gladly have spent time with her. But today she was tired and upset, and the last thing she needed was to suffer a vicious tongue lashing from Maud Mortimer. She’d had enough criticism from Sister Hyde that day.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, glancing at her watch. ‘I don’t have time this evening. I’m supposed to be going off duty soon. Perhaps one of the other nurses could help?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Maud said, turning her face away.

Her sulkiness rankled with Millie. She was a nurse, she reminded herself, not Mrs Mortimer’s personal servant.

But then she told herself not to be so selfish. Maud was an old, sick lady, she was bound to be demanding. ‘I’ve got tomorrow off, but I’ll be back on Monday,’ Millie said. ‘Perhaps we could do the crossword together then?’

Maud turned her head to look at her. ‘I’ll have to check my diary,’ she said.

Millie smiled, in spite of herself. ‘You do that, Mrs Mortimer.’

As Millie left, she called after her, ‘You’ll remember what I said, won’t you? No regrets.’

Millie turned to look back at her. ‘What on earth would I have to regret?’

Dora had never been to a dance before. She stood in the doorway, gazing in awe at the cavernous room, alive with noise and colour. At the far end, on the small stage, a dance band in evening dress was already playing a lively number, their brass instruments catching the light, while the floor was filled with dancers swinging each other around. Dora had never seen anything like it. It was as if her Nanna’s wireless had suddenly burst into vivid, noisy life in front of her.

‘What a dump,’ Lucy Lane said. In spite of her dismissive attitude earlier, as soon as she found out Millie was going she had decided to invite herself along anyway. Now she stood in the doorway, looking around as if there was a bad smell under her turned-up nose.

‘Well, I think it’s smashing,’ Katie O’Hara said loyally. ‘It’s better than sitting in our room studying, anyway. And it’s a good excuse to get dressed up.’

‘You call that dressed up?’ Lucy gave her outfit a scathing glance. Dora caught Katie’s blushing face and felt for her. It wasn’t Katie’s fault that her best dress was one of her Irish mother’s home-made creations, a flouncy style in black and white that did little to flatter her plump figure.

Dora thanked her stars that her own mother was more skilled with a needle, although her faded blue flowery dress had seen better days. Lucy, by contrast, was done up to the nines in fashionable dark green crêpe, with a string of real pearls around her throat.

Dora glanced at Millie. She looked lovely as ever in a pale yellow dress, her blonde curls catching the light from the lanterns strung overhead. But her downcast expression made her look like a sad angel.

‘What do we do now?’ Dora asked, looking around. There was no sign of Joe, although it was difficult to recognise anyone in the swirling crowd.

‘Wait to be asked to dance, I suppose.’ Katie flashed an encouraging smile at a group of young men who were loitering by a pillar on the other side of the room.

‘O’Hara! Do you have to be so shameless?’ Lucy hissed at her.

Dora wasn’t sure she wanted to be asked. She didn’t think she would ever be able to move herself around the dance floor as fast as the other dancers, especially after so many hours on her feet on the ward.

Millie seemed to feel the same. ‘I’m going to sit down,’ she said.

‘No one will see us over there!’ Katie wailed, but Millie was already heading determinedly for the corner table. ‘It’s all right for her, she’s engaged,’ Katie hissed furiously to Dora. ‘She should give the rest of us a chance!’

Dora smiled, but secretly she was relieved to be hidden away. She was beginning to wonder if coming to the dance had been such a good idea. She had come for Joe’s sake, but there was no sign of him.

Lucy wouldn’t let her forget that either. ‘Looks like your young man has stood you up,’ she remarked.

‘I told you, he’s not my young man,’ Dora replied through gritted teeth.

‘Obviously,’ Lucy smirked.

Dora scanned the dance floor, torn between disappointment that he wasn’t there, and relief that she didn’t have to dance or make awkward conversation. She had been so worried that by turning up tonight she might give him the idea that she was interested in him. Now she realised with a pang that he wasn’t remotely interested in her.

‘Well, this is ridiculous!’ Katie declared, standing up. ‘If someone doesn’t ask me to dance in the next minute, I’m going to ask them.’

‘You can’t do that!’ Lucy looked scandalised.

‘Why not? I used to do it all the time at the village dances at home.’

‘This is different. You’re in London now, not some little Irish village in the middle of nowhere. You can’t act like a clod-hopping hoyden here. You have to be sophisticated.’

‘I’d rather be a clod-hopping hoyden who gets to dance than a sophisticated wallflower!’

With a last defiant look at them, she plunged determinedly into the seething mass of dancers, searching for a partner.

‘Look at her.’ Lucy shook her head in despair.

‘Leave her alone. At least she knows how to enjoy herself,’ Dora said. ‘Anyway, it looks as if her plan’s worked.’ She nodded towards the dance floor, where Katie was dragging a very handsome but rather surprised-looking young man on to the dance floor. ‘Maybe we should try it?’ She smiled at Millie, who seemed to be a million miles away. ‘What do you reckon, Benedict?’

‘Sorry?’ Millie looked up vaguely. Dora moved closer to her.

‘We don’t have to stay, you know?’ she said, over the blaring of the music. ‘We can go home.’

‘Nonsense, I’m enjoying myself,’ Millie said, although her smile was strained.

‘Are you sure? I know I nagged you into coming—’

‘I would only have sat moping in my room if you hadn’t.’

Dora frowned. ‘Why? Is something wrong?’

Millie’s smile brightened a fraction. ‘Of course not. I’m just tired, that’s all. Anyway, we have to stay,’ she added. ‘You never know, your young man might be looking for you.’

‘I doubt it,’ Dora said. ‘If he was here he would have—’

And then she saw Joe, pushing through the crowd towards her.

‘There you are!’ he said. ‘I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I was beginning to think you hadn’t come. But then my mate Tom got collared by your friend, who told him there were a bunch of nurses sitting over here.’ Joe smiled around at her friends. Dora had forgotten how handsome he was, dressed in his best suit, his fair hair neatly combed.

‘This is Joe,’ she introduced him, feeling suddenly proud. It gave her a little lift to see the look of utter disbelief on Lucy’s pinched face.

‘Would you like to dance?’ he asked.

‘Oh, no, I can’t . . .’ Dora was about to refuse until she caught Millie’s encouraging nod. ‘Well, all right then,’ she said. ‘But I’m warning you, I’m not very good.’

‘That makes two of us,’ he said, offering her his arm.

The first dance was a lively swing number. Dora was hopeless at first, tripping over and colliding with other couples. But Joe was a better dancer than he’d let on, and with his firm guidance she soon found her feet.

‘You see?’ he grinned. ‘It’s not as hard as it looks, is it?’

She was completely out of breath after two more dances. When the band slowed to a more sedate tempo, she went to leave the dance floor, but Joe pulled her back.

‘Don’t go yet,’ he said.

‘But my friends . . .’

‘They’re fine.’ He nodded across the room, to where Katie was still whirling around in the arms of Tom. She might have taken him by surprise at first, but he seemed to be enjoying her company now. Even Lucy had found a partner to dance with, while Millie seemed quite happy chatting with some other girls who had joined their table.

‘You see?’ he said, drawing Dora in to him, his hand circling her waist. ‘There’s nothing to stop you dancing with me.’

She held herself rigid at first, scared by the unfamiliar feeling of his arms around her. But gradually, as the music took over, she found herself relaxing.

‘I’m glad you came,’ Joe said, his face so close to hers she could feel his warm breath fanning her cheek. ‘I wasn’t sure if you would, or if you’d just carry on playing hard to get.’

Dora pulled away slightly to look at him. ‘I’m not playing at anything,’ she said.

He smiled. ‘I’m glad to hear it.’

She wondered if she should set him straight, tell him outright she wasn’t interested, that they could never be more than friends. But she was enjoying the moment, and she didn’t want to spoil it.

Joe was very attentive to her all evening, fetching drinks, making sure her friends were kept entertained, and dancing her off her feet. Dora was astonished at how often she took to the dance floor, and how much she enjoyed being in Joe’s arms.

She caught the admiring glances some of the other girls were giving him, and wondered why he had ever asked her to come to the dance. In spite of the way he acted, she couldn’t believe he was really interested in her. Perhaps he was just being kind because of what she’d done for Jennie, she thought.

‘Are you having a nice time?’ he asked, when they were dancing again.

‘Smashing, thanks. It makes a change to be out of uniform, anyway!’

‘You look lovely.’

She looked away so he wouldn’t see her blushing face. ‘You don’t have to say that.’

‘I mean it.’ He glanced down at her, his green eyes crinkling. ‘Why don’t you like it when anyone pays you a compliment?’

‘I dunno.’ She shrugged, embarrassed. ‘I’m probably not used to it, I suppose.’

‘Are you trying to tell me I’m the first man to fancy you?’

An image of Alf flashed into her mind. Suddenly Joe’s arm felt like iron around her waist, pinning her against him. Panicking, she wrenched herself free from his grasp and stumbled off the dance floor away from him. The room seemed too hot, too crowded, she couldn’t breathe . . .

And then her heartbeat slowed again, and she felt like an idiot. She couldn’t even look at Joe as he followed her, shouldering his way through the dancing couples to get to her.

‘Dora?’ He caught up with her as she headed for the door. ‘Where are you going?’