The Nightingale Girls - By Donna Douglas Page 0,159

too much to hope Florence hadn’t noticed. She regarded her keenly.

‘You were about to say something else, Veronica?’

She yanked out another stitch, breaking the thread in her agitation. ‘I just thought, as a vicar’s wife, she might have shown a little more forgiveness,’ she muttered.

‘She does seem to be judging her poor daughter rather harshly,’ Florence remarked.

Doesn’t she just? Veronica thought. Her feelings were as tangled as the threads of her patchwork. And try as she might, she couldn’t seem to sort them out.

‘I suppose you’re right,’ Agatha agreed with a sigh. ‘The wretched girl did almost give me a heart attack, but I suppose no one is perfect, are they?’

‘Apart from Constance Tremayne, of course,’ Florence reminded her.

Is she? Veronica pursed her mouth over her stitching.

She might seem harsh, but she believed in fairness. And Constance Tremayne really wasn’t being fair. Especially given everything Veronica knew about her.

‘Are you sure you’re quite all right, Veronica? You’re being quite merciless with that patchwork. It’s practically in shreds,’ Florence Parker observed.

‘Yes, I know. Forgive me.’ Veronica let her sewing fall into her lap. ‘I’m not in the mood this evening, I’m afraid. I have a great deal on my mind.’

The two sisters regarded her expectantly, but Veronica said nothing more. There was only one person she could talk to now, and that was Constance Tremayne.

Chapter Fifty-Two

IN AUGUST, IT was time to change wards again. Dora was sorry to say goodbye to Sister Holmes and Male Surgical, especially when she found out she would be going to Gynae.

Sister Wren wasn’t nearly so interested in training as she was in putting her feet up in her sitting room and flirting with the doctors. As long as Dora did as she was told and kept herself busy, Sister Wren left her to her own devices.

Which might have been a blessing, had it not been for Lettie Pike the ward maid.

She was Sister Wren’s eyes and ears on the ward. While Sister Wren relaxed in her sitting room, Lettie would spy on the nurses. Nothing seemed to get past her beady eye, and she took great delight in making sure the students got into trouble as often as possible.

Poor Dora was the special focus of her attention. As she found out when she had to miss her dinner break one day. Light-headed with hunger, she’d risked eating some of the patients’ leftovers in the kitchen. It was only a piece of cold cod, but Lettie Pike made sure Sister Wren found out all about it.

‘No eating on the wards!’ Sister had screamed at her in front of everyone. ‘Good heavens, Doyle, no wonder you’re so fat!’

Even when Lettie couldn’t land Dora into trouble, she singled her out for yet more spite.

‘Did you know my Ruby’s courting Nick Riley?’ she would say almost every day. ‘Very keen on her, he is. Ruby thought he might have been sweet on you once, but he says he was never interested.’

Dora did her best to ignore her as she went on counting the dirty towels and sheets for the laundry. It was none of her business who Nick Riley was courting, she told herself firmly. If she’d had any chance with him at all, it was definitely in the past.

But one day Lettie Pike had a new nugget of gossip with which to torment Dora.

‘I thought your Josie was going to be a teacher?’ she said casually, as she barged Dora out of the way to fill her cleaning bucket in the sluice.

‘That’s right.’

‘Then how come my Ruby saw her sniffing around in Gold’s yesterday?’

Dora frowned. ‘She’s sure it was our Josie?’

‘Blimey, girl, we’ve lived next door long enough to know if it was her or not!’ Lettie rolled her eyes. ‘I’m telling you, my Ruby saw her. Having a fine old chat with Esther Gold, she was, asking if there were any jobs going.’ She raised her voice over the roar of the tap. ‘Very surprising, I must say, seeing as how your mum’s always boasting about her taking all these exams.’

She turned off the tap and hauled the bucket out of the sink. ‘I asked your mum about it, but she just said she didn’t know nothing. Made out like I was making trouble, she did. I told her, my Ruby saw her with her own eyes. And my Ruby doesn’t tell lies.’

Not much, she doesn’t! Dora nearly laughed out loud. Ruby Pike could be a proper little storyteller when she wanted to be. But there was