The Nightingale Nurses by Donna Douglas Read Free Book Online Page B

you off to the neighbours!’
    ‘Don’t be silly!’ Helen blushed.
    ‘I mean it. She’s always bragging about how her son’s courting a nurse.’ He stood up and offered Helen his free arm. ‘Shall we go?’
    Helen hesitated. ‘Are you sure you don’t mind about Southend?’
    ‘We’ll go another day. Now I’ve got a whole day with my best girl and my mum’s roast beef to look forward to. What more could any bloke want?’

Chapter Four
    NICK BRACED HIS muscles and hefted a chest of drawers on to the back of the horse-drawn wagon.
    ‘Careful!’ Ruby dived forward and snatched a box out of the way. ‘You nearly smashed our new china.’
    Nick watched her nursing the box to her bosom. They didn’t have much new for their home, just a few wedding presents people had given them. There was a canteen of cutlery, a tablecloth, bed linen, and some cups, saucers and plates with a fancy flower pattern around the edge. Ruby had picked those and every night she took each piece out of its wrapping just so she could admire it. It made him smile to watch her running her fingers so lovingly around the delicate gold-painted rim of each cup.
    ‘You do realise we’re going to have to use that?’ he’d said. ‘Or are you planning to keep it locked up in a glass case?’
    ‘As long as we’re careful.’ She held it up to the light. ‘Look, it’s so thin you can almost see through it. That’s proper bone china, that is.’
    ‘Dunno how I’m going to manage with it.’ Nick looked down at his hands. They were made for knocking down opponents in the boxing ring, not for handling delicate china. ‘Maybe we should keep it for when the new King comes round?’
    ‘You can laugh,’ Ruby said. ‘But I want everything in our new flat to be perfect.’
    He saw her expression turn sour as she stood beside her mother, watching the removals men start to load the wagon. Ruby hadn’t been happy about accepting some of her mother’s cast-off furniture, but as Nick had told her, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
    ‘I wish you didn’t have to go,’ his mother June said.
    Nick turned to look at her as she stood in the doorway, arms folded across her skinny bosom, squinting at him through the smoke drifting up from her cigarette. He had never known his mother show any concern for him before. She only noticed he was there when she needed money.
    Her next words destroyed any illusions he might have had. ‘How am I supposed to pay the rent?’ she demanded, her voice querulous.
    Nick’s mouth twitched. ‘You had me going there for a second. I thought you might actually be bothered about me. But why change the habit of a lifetime, eh?’
    ‘Why should I be bothered about you? You’ve been nothing but trouble to me since you were a kid.’
    ‘Except when I’m paying the tallyman for you.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you keep a roof over your head. But you’ll have to find some other mug to pay for your gin.’
    ‘And who’s going to look after our Danny?’
    Nick shot a glance over at his brother, perched on top of the coal bunker. He liked to sit up there, out of everyone’s way, and watch the world go by. But today his head drooped like a wilting flower on his slender neck. Nick had to look away to stop the tears welling up in his eyes.
    He hadn’t been able to sleep for the past week, and not just because he and Ruby were sharing a lumpy single mattress in her parents’ front parlour. He’d lain awake, staring at the ceiling until the pale dawn light crept under the curtains and he heard the sound of the milkman’s horse clopping slowly up Griffin Street. Sometimes he thought he heard Danny sobbing in his sleep downstairs, and Nick’s heart ached for him.
    ‘You’re his mother, you should look after him,’ Lettie Pike said.
    June turned on her. ‘My son needs a lot of looking after. You don’t know what it’s like. A boy like that is a burden to a poor woman on her own.’ She took