The Mersey Daughter (Empire Street #3)(75)
Now she pulled a wry face. ‘He’s due leave later this month. He’s told me the dates but we all know these things can change; it’ll all depend on what’s happening to the convoys in the Atlantic.’ She knew Jack would always put his duty as an experienced member of the Fleet Air Arm before anything else, and she would have it no other way. Then the sound of footsteps silenced her, as she had no intention of letting anyone else overhear their conversation. Jack’s precious letters were too sacred a secret to share any further.
‘Hello, hello, what’s all this?’ A warm voice came from the figure who had rounded the corner into the nurses’ welfare area.
‘Dr Fitzgerald!’ Maeve said. ‘I didn’t realise you were on duty or I’d have let you know in advance what I’ve brought in with me. Come and join us.’ Many nurses wouldn’t have dared to be so informal with any of the doctors, but Maeve wasn’t going to stand on ceremony. Besides, everyone knew that he was sweet on Rita’s friend Kitty. ‘Pull up a chair.’
‘Don’t mind if I do,’ said Elliott, happily accepting a slice of seed cake. ‘I’m due on shift in half an hour, but this will set me up properly. Much appreciated, I’m sure.’
Rita put down her own plate with a sigh of satisfaction. ‘Good to see you, Doctor. It seems like ages since we were on the same shift. What have you been up to?’
Elliott beamed. ‘Well, I’ve been covering lots of nights and putting in some extra hours so that I can have a long weekend and go away to London. I’ll be staying with my parents and, as I’m sure you know already, Nurse Kennedy, I intend to introduce them to Kitty. I’m certain they will love her.’
‘Of course they will!’ Rita couldn’t imagine anybody not loving her friend. ‘She sounds as if she’s doing so well, from her letters. To think that this time last year she was running the canteen, and now she’s living the high life … well, when she’s not on yet another training course.’
‘They work them hard all right,’ Elliott agreed. ‘But that’s typical Kitty, throwing herself into everything, making the most of every opportunity. I’m so proud of her.’ His warm eyes shone, and for a moment Rita wished she had somebody like Elliott to be proud of her like that. He was clearly very serious about Kitty. To begin with, she had wondered if he would last the course, or if he was just toying with her friend until someone of his own social class came along, but obviously she’d got that all wrong. He was genuinely thrilled to be introducing her to his parents. Also, he didn’t begrudge that she was living her own life far away from Liverpool, and approved of it thoroughly. Lucky Kitty.
‘Well, must be getting on,’ he said now. ‘There are some scheduled operations to attend to, so I’d better get scrubbed up. Thank you for the delicious cake. Tell you what, I’ll return the favour once I’m back from London, and then I can give you all Kitty’s news at the same time. How about that?’
‘It’s a deal,’ Rita assured him, thinking again that Kitty was a very fortunate girl. Elliott was not only kind and fun to have around, she had to admit he was good looking too, and plenty of nurses’ noses had been put out of joint when he’d chosen Kitty above any of them. But there was no doubt about it – Kitty was the only girl for him. That look in his eyes when he spoke of her couldn’t be faked. Even if her own life was lacking in love, Rita thought, things were going right for her friend at last.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
It had been a week since they’d talked their way into the hospital, and it felt like the longest seven days of Laura’s life. She didn’t count waiting for news of Freddy – that was a constant background ache that she could do nothing about. With Peter it was knowing that he was only a few miles away and, no matter what anyone said, he was in that hospital partly because of her. She couldn’t shake the guilt, the weight of it pressing her down with every step she took. People still came up to her and congratulated her for saving the baby, and it was agony to answer politely, thanking them and giving them a short version of what had happened. Even her usually brusque commanding officer had praised her, suggesting that Laura might be able to have half a day of extra leave in recognition of what she had done.
Laura had refused as civilly as she could, but she had wanted to shout back at the very idea. The only thing that was keeping her going was being on duty. When she was driving she had to concentrate so hard to avoid potholes or roads closed for no reason, or cope with the lack of street signs and the poor-to-nonexistent lighting that she had no time to think of anything else. Plenty of other officers demanded that she be their driver, keen to boast that they’d been ferried about by the heroine of the hour. Some had wanted to make conversation, some wanted to flirt, but Laura didn’t react. Not that she would have done so anyway – flirting was strictly for when she was off duty. Now, though, she just didn’t have it in her to respond to any such overtures. The light-hearted banter and joking that she used to enjoy so much now seemed stupid and shallow.
She had come to dread her free time. Whereas before she’d always been the one to organise trips to the cinema or Lyons Corner House, now she didn’t want to stray far from base in case she missed a phone call, or the admiral trying to get word to her by some other means. On the other hand, she couldn’t sit still, and would pace around the dormitory, canteen or common room with restless energy. It was making her a nervous wreck. It was making her bad-tempered with everyone, biting the head off anyone who tried to make light conversation, but everybody assumed it was a delayed reaction to the night of the fire and didn’t take offence. Laura wished someone would – a good old blazing row might help vent her mounting frustration. Yet all the people around her – from the canteen staff to her superior officers – just smiled and said they understood.