The Nightingale Nurses (39 page)

Rose sat back on her heels and smiled up at her daughter. Even in her polish-smeared pinnie, with her dark hair caught up in a headscarf, she still looked beautiful.

‘Hello, stranger,’ she said. ‘To what do we owe this honour?’

‘I had a couple of hours off, so I thought I’d come round and see you.’

It wasn’t the only reason Dora had come back to Griffin Street. It had been three days since she had last spoken to Nick, and she was desperate to find out what had happened with him and Ruby.

She had seen him around the hospital, but only from a distance. Every time she tried to speak to him, he seemed to disappear. If she didn’t know better, she would almost imagine he was avoiding her deliberately.

She couldn’t very well turn up on Ruby’s doorstep, which was why she’d come home. If anyone would know what was going on, it was her grandmother. Nanna Winnie made it her business to know everything that happened in Griffin Street.

‘Who is it, Rosie?’ Nanna’s voice called out from the kitchen.

‘And she reckons she’s deaf!’ Rose Doyle rolled her eyes. ‘It’s our Dora come to visit, Mum,’ she called back.

‘Is that right? I’m surprised she can still remember the way, it’s been that long!’

Rose and her daughter exchanged wry smiles. ‘Nice to see some things haven’t changed!’ said Dora.

‘Oh, you know your nanna. She’ll never change.’ Rose wiped her hands on an old rag. ‘Come in, love. I’ll stick the kettle on. I dunno about you, but I’m gasping for a brew.’

The Doyles’ kitchen was warm and comfortingly familiar. Nanna sat in her old rocking chair by the fire, a basket of mending by her side. Dora’s youngest brother Little Alfie sat at her feet, playing with his wooden train set.

‘Thought you were dead,’ were her grandmother’s first words.

‘Don’t be like that, Nanna.’ Dora put down a fat brown paper bag on the table. ‘Not when I’ve brought you a nice treat.’

‘What’s that, then?’ Nanna craned her neck to see.

‘Winkles. Got ’em off the market on my way here.’

‘Lovely!’ Nanna smacked her toothless jaws in anticipation. ‘Bring us a bowl, Rose, I’ll do ’em now.’ She put down her mending and raised herself laboriously from her rocking chair. ‘I suppose you’ve heard the news?’

Dora tried not to smile. She could always rely on Nanna Winnie. ‘Heard what, Nanna?’

‘About him and her. The happy couple.’ Nanna nodded towards the wall that separated their house from the Rileys and the Pikes next door. ‘He’s left her.’

Rose came out of the scullery, a brown china bowl in her hands. ‘Blimey, Mum, give Dora a chance to get her coat off before you start spreading gossip!’

‘It ain’t gossip. It’s fact. Mrs Prosser told me.’ Nanna arranged herself at the table and pulled out the pin she always kept fastened to the bosom of her pinnie. ‘Don’t just sit there, give me an ’and.’ She nodded to Dora who sat down at the table and took the pin Nanna handed her. As she opened up the brown paper bag, she caught a whiff of salty sea air from the winkles.

‘What happened?’ she asked.

‘Well, that’s the mystery, ain’t it? Although there are some stories going round . . .’ Nanna held the winkle shell at the end of her nose, stuck the pin in and deftly twisted out the blob of glistening grey-brown flesh. ‘But the top and bottom of it is, he’s packed his bags and moved out.’

Dora kept her eyes fixed on the small blue-black shell she held between her fingers. ‘Has Nick moved back next door?’

‘Gawd love us, why would he want to do that?’ Nanna cackled. ‘Talk about out of the frying pan into the bleeding fire! Can you picture it, leaving your missus and moving under the same roof as her mother? And as for his own mum . . . well, I reckon he’d want to stay as far away from her as he could.’ She flicked another winkle into the bowl. She worked so fast, Dora had barely finished one before Nanna had got through half a dozen. ‘No, no one knows where he’s lodging. Only time we see him is when he drops round to see that brother of his.’

She sent Dora a shrewd look. ‘We thought you might know more about it?’

‘Me? Why should I know?’

‘There’s some who reckon you’re the reason why they parted.’

‘Me?’ The shell Dora was holding slipped from her fingers and rolled across the table.

‘I told you not to say anything, Mum!’ Rose came in from the scullery again, this time with the tray of tea things. ‘It’s not going to do anyone any good, passing on gossip like that.’ She set the tray down firmly on the table.

‘It’s not true, is it?’ Nanna peered at Dora.

‘No, Nanna, it’s not true.’

‘Told you!’ Nanna turned to Rose in triumph. ‘I said to you, didn’t I, our Dora’s got more sense than to get herself involved with a married man. Whatever Lettie Pike says.’

Dora caught her mother’s eye as she handed over a cup of tea. There was something about the way Rose Doyle looked at her daughter that made her think she wasn’t quite as convinced.

‘I might have known Lettie would be behind it,’ Dora muttered, spooning sugar into her cup. If Ruby’s mother started spreading her nasty rumours at the hospital, who knew where it might end?

An image of Amy Hollins came into Dora’s mind then. She’d heard all about her being ushered in shame from the nurses’ home after her affair with a married man came to light. Now no one even dared speak about her. It was as if she had never existed.

‘Let’s talk about something else, shall we?’ Rose said. ‘There’s enough unhappiness in the world without us making more. Tell us how you’re getting on at that hospital. How are those girls you share a room with?’

‘Oh, God, you haven’t heard about poor Tremayne, have you?’ Dora put down her cup. Nanna and her mother listened gravely as she told them about Charlie’s death.

‘That poor girl,’ Rose sighed. ‘Fancy losing your husband like that when you’re still a bride. I’m surprised she hasn’t gone home to her mother. She sounds as if she needs looking after, the little lamb.’

‘I don’t think her mother’s the type to look after anyone,’ Dora said grimly. ‘You know, she didn’t even come to the wedding or Charlie’s funeral? Left Helen to go through it all by herself.’

‘Well, that ain’t right,’ Rose declared. ‘A mother’s place is at her daughter’s side. Even if she doesn’t always agree with what she does.’

There it was again, that look over the rim of her teacup. Dora opened her mouth to ask why, but her mother shot a warning glance at Nanna Winnie.

‘Let’s clear these tea things away, shall we?’

They left Nanna Winnie still happily shelling winkles at the kitchen table, and Dora followed her mother into the curtained-off scullery. Rose tipped the dregs of the tea down the sink and ran the tap over the cups, then turned to face her.

‘Now,’ she said, her low voice muffled by the rush of running water, ‘I want the truth, Dora. Have you and Nick Riley been carrying on behind Ruby’s back?’

‘No!’ Blood rushed to her face.

‘Are you sure? You look me in the eye and tell me, girl.’

Dora stared into her mother’s steady dark brown gaze. ‘I haven’t, Mum, I swear.’

Rose held her gaze for a moment, then she nodded. ‘I can see that now. I’m sorry for doubting you, love. I should have known you were better than that.’ She turned off the tap. ‘I reckon I know what’s really been going on, anyway.’

‘What . . . do you mean?’ Dora asked.

Rose turned to look at her. ‘I ain’t blind, ducks. I’ve seen the way Nick Riley used to look at you, and the way you looked at him, too. You two were made for each other, if you ask me. Until that vicious little cat Ruby came along and ruined it all.’ She crashed the cups together in the sink in her agitation. ‘I wouldn’t have put it past her to get pregnant on purpose, just so he’d have to marry her.’

‘Or to lie about being pregnant in the first place,’ Dora said quietly.

Rose swung round to face her. ‘Tell me you’re having me on?’

Dora shook her head. ‘It’s the truth.’

‘But she lost the baby . . .’

‘She lied about that, too.’

‘The wicked—’ Rose trailed off, words failing her. ‘And does her mother know?’ Dora nodded.

Her mother turned away from Dora. ‘I can’t believe Ruby would stoop that low,’ she murmured. ‘When I think about all the poor women who lose babies every day . . . she’s making a mockery of them, that’s what she’s doing. A mockery.’

‘You won’t tell Nanna, will you?’ Dora whispered. ‘I don’t want it spread all over Bethnal Green.’

‘I don’t see why not!’ Two bright spots of colour blazed on Rose’s high cheekbones. ‘The Pikes are quick enough to spread gossip about you . . .’ She paused, collecting herself. ‘No, you’re right,’ she agreed. ‘It wouldn’t do any good to anyone. And it certainly won’t make you feel any better, will it?’

‘No,’ Dora sighed. ‘It won’t.’

She pulled the teatowel off its nail beside the sink and dried the cups. Her mother watched her consideringly.

‘I reckon you two will be together in the end,’ she said.

Dora smiled sadly. ‘How do you work that out?’

‘Because you belong together.’

‘It doesn’t always work out like that though, does it? You said yourself, Nick’s a married man.’

‘Marriages can end.’

‘Yes, but gossip doesn’t.’ Dora hung the teatowel back on the hook. ‘Can you imagine what Lettie Pike would say if Nick left Ruby and we started courting? My name would be mud.’

‘Take no notice of her.’ Rose shrugged. ‘No one else does. She’s picked on this family before, and we’ve always come out the other side. Sticks and stones, as they say.’

‘But I don’t just mean round here,’ Dora said. ‘They’ve got rid of a nurse from the Nightingale for carrying on with a married man. If Lettie started spreading rumours like that about me . . .’

‘If she starts spreading rumours about you, then we might start spreading a few of our own about her girl,’ Rose replied.

‘Mum!’ Dora laughed, shocked. ‘I thought you’ve always told us not to sink to her level?’

‘You’re right.’ Rose’s brown eyes twinkled. ‘But I can’t very well stop your nanna doing it, can I?’

‘What’s so funny?’ Nanna Winnie’s voice carried through from the other side of the curtain as they giggled together. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Nothing, Mum.’ Rose sobered quickly. ‘I meant what I said, though,’ she told Dora softly. ‘If Nick divorces Ruby and you and him get the chance to be together, then you should do it, and never mind what anyone else says. Like I said, there’s enough unhappiness in this world, so you might as well grab a bit of happiness while you can. You just look at your friend Tremayne if you don’t believe me.’

Her mother’s words stayed with Dora when she left the house ten minutes later, just in time to see Nick Riley letting himself out of next door’s back gate.

‘Nick?’ She saw him pause for a moment, his hand on the latch. Then, still keeping his head down, he slammed out of the gate.

‘Nick, wait!’ She followed him down the narrow, weed-covered alleyway that led back to the street. She had to run to catch up with his long strides. ‘Why are you walking away from me?’

Dora put out her hand to stop him but he shrugged her off.

‘Don’t touch me!’ he hissed. ‘I’ve got nothing to say to you.’

She recoiled, bewildered. ‘What have I done?’

He stopped abruptly and turned to face her. His eyes blazed with anger. ‘You’re good at playing the innocent, aren’t you?’ he sneered. ‘Did you learn it off your mate Ruby?’

A stirring of unease began to uncurl inside her. ‘Nick—’

‘Just answer me one question. Did you know Ruby was lying about the baby?’

‘I—’ Dora opened her mouth to defend herself, but the words wouldn’t come.

Nick’s broad shoulders slumped. ‘I knew it,’ he said. He sounded more weary than angry. ‘I can see it in your face. And there was me, trying to tell myself it was just another one of Ruby’s lies.’ His mouth twisted. ‘You’re not as good a liar as your friend,’ he mocked. ‘Your eyes give you away every time.’

‘I – I was going to tell you,’ she said. ‘That’s why I came round to see you. I couldn’t live with myself . . .’

‘So you say,’ he sneered. ‘But I didn’t see you rushing round to set me straight when you first found out.’

Dora stared down at the weeds pushing their way through the cracked paving slabs. ‘I couldn’t,’ she said. ‘I promised Ruby.’

‘And what about me?’ His voice was raw with emotion. ‘Or don’t I matter to you?’

She lifted her gaze to meet his. ‘You know you do.’

‘I don’t know anything any more.’

‘Nick, listen—’

‘You know, the funny thing is I could almost forgive Ruby for what she did. I know what she’s like, I shouldn’t expect anything better of her. But you . . .’ He shook his head. ‘You were the only one I ever trusted. The only one in this whole stinking, ugly world I felt I could depend on. And you let me down.’

‘No! Nick, that’s not fair. I wanted to tell you, so many times. You’re the last person on earth I’d ever want to betray. Nick, please! You’ve got to believe me.’

The bleak contempt in his eyes shocked her. ‘Believe you? I don’t think I’ll ever believe another word you say.’

He turned and walked away from her. Dora wanted to follow him but her feet were rooted to the spot.

‘
I WANT TO
thank you, Nurse.’

It was Sunday afternoon and visiting time was over for the week. Staff Nurse O’Hara was very punctual about ushering patients out on the dot of three o’clock. She hovered at the doors to the ward, looking at her watch and sighing with frustration when Sister Blake waylaid them for a chat about their loved ones.

But this time it was Helen who was waylaid, by Marcus Forster’s mother.

‘My son has been telling me how well you’ve been looking after him,’ she said. There was no mistaking the family resemblance; she was as tall and skinny as her son, with an identical shock of tight light brown curls, although hers were concealed under a stylish hat.

‘Your son is a remarkable young man, Mrs Forster.’

‘Oh, I know. His father and I were always quite at a loss as to how we produced such a child prodigy!’ she smiled. ‘But I know Marcus can be rather – temperamental,’ she went on, ‘so I do appreciate your making so much of an effort. Not everyone is prepared to take the time to understand him.’