The Nightingale Girls - By Donna Douglas Page 0,53

to eat.’ Rose beamed at them. ‘Have you got those plates, Josie? Set a couple of places over there, next to you. Nick, you sit next to Dora.’

Rose piled their plates full of food. Danny fell on his immediately but Nick was more cautious.

‘Look at that poor little bugger,’ Nanna Winnie said in a loud whisper. ‘Anyone would think he hadn’t eaten for a week.’

Dora shot her grandmother a silencing look, but she and Bea were too busy staring at Danny in fascination, as if they were watching a wild animal in the zoo.

Dora and Nick didn’t speak or make eye contact all the way through dinner but she was aware of him crammed in beside her, so close she could feel his broad shoulder brushing against hers. She was also conscious of Nanna watching them both with interest.

After the meal was over, Nick helped clear the table. He and Dora carried the plates through to the scullery while Danny sat on the rug in front of the fire with Little Alfie, helping him construct a tower with his new bricks.

‘I’ll help wash up,’ Josie offered, but Nanna stopped her.

‘Leave them be,’ she said, in another loud whisper. ‘You never know, they might want to be alone together.’

Dora felt a cold trickle of horror run down the back of her neck. Please, Nanna, don’t, she prayed.

‘Why?’ Bea asked.

‘Because it’s about time our Dora started courting. And I reckon Nick Riley’s as good a bet as any of ’em around here.’

Dora didn’t dare turn around. She was aware that Nick had suddenly gone very still beside her.

‘But you said Nick Riley was a dirty little sod who wasn’t safe to be left alone with any girl!’ Bea reminded her loudly.

‘That’s as may be, but I reckon our Dora should be all right. She’s a sensible girl. And anyway, she can’t afford to be too fussy!’

Dora flushed crimson as they stood at the sink in silence, her washing the dishes, Nick drying. She was so mortified she couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. She was so flummoxed that she didn’t think about what she was doing. As she went to put a plate on the draining board, it slipped out of her hands and smashed to pieces on the stone-tiled floor.

‘Bugger!’

She crouched to pick them up but Nick was there before her. ‘Let me,’ he said. ‘You might cut yourself. You fetch some newspaper.’

Dora found some old newspaper in the kindling basket, and spread it out on the tiled floor. Nick carefully picked up the pieces.

‘Sorry,’ she said.

He shrugged. ‘One less to dry up.’

They both knew she wasn’t talking about the smashed plate.

She glanced sideways at him. The curve at the corner of his mouth might not have counted in most people, but it was the closest she had ever seen Nick Riley come to a smile.

Chapter Sixteen

CHRISTMAS DAY ON Holmes had started with the laying out of a corpse.

When Sister Holmes arrived on the ward that morning, her main concern was what kind of mess the night staff had left in the ward kitchen. They were careless enough at the best of times, but on Christmas Eve night there was bound to be some extra merriment. Some of the nurses had been particularly giddy as they’d done their traditional Christmas Eve carol singing around the wards, their cloaks turned inside out to show the red lining, each carrying a candle glowing inside a jam jar. She only hoped none of them had found their way into the locked cupboard where she kept the emergency brandy supply.

But there was no giddiness, just sombre faces all round as the Night Sister told her Mr Oliver had died just after dawn.

It was the last thing Sister Holmes was expecting. After recovering so well for weeks he had taken a sudden turn for the worse during the night. Everyone said after his accident he was lucky to escape death; now it seemed death had come to claim him after all.

Sister Holmes looked around the nurses who’d come on duty an hour earlier. Young Tremayne and Hollins were white-faced and shaken. Even Staff Nurse Mary Lund, who had been her right-hand woman for five years, was downcast. Although as an experienced nurse, she did a better job than the students of not showing it.

‘I know this is a sad time for all of us but remember we have a duty to our other patients,’ Sister Holmes reminded them all when she handed out the