A Nurse's Duty Read Free Page B

hand and slapped him with the other. He was at least a head taller than Joe and the younger boy was no match for him.
    ‘Hey, there, stop that!’
    Robert Richardson came out and strode up to the two boys, pulling Dave away from Joe and putting the younger boy behind him. Karen felt a surge of gratitude to him for sticking up for her and Joe.
    ‘Aw, go on, what’re you going to do about it?’ asked Dave. ‘You’re a proper pansy. You won’t fight on a Sunday, your da wouldn’t like it.’
    He planted his feet apart and grinned. ‘Go on then, hit me, go on,’ he jeered, and behind him his friends snickered. Karen’s temper rose and spilled over. She rushed forward and kicked Dave hard on the shins, the steel toe protectors on her boots drawing blood so that he stepped back and shouted in surprise at the pain. Before he could recover himself, Kezia rushed up and grabbed Karen and Joe and darted into the yard of their house with them.
    ‘It’s lucky for you we live so close to the Chapel,’ she said grimly to them. ‘An’ don’t you let Da know you’ve been fighting on a Sunday or you’ll get a belting. It would serve you both right, I reckon, but I won’t have Mam upset, do you hear?’
    Karen was still shaking with rage at the way Dave had held Joe and hit him and the way he had spoken to Robert, but she saw the sense of what Kezia was saying. She closed her eyes tight and tried to force herself to calm down.
    ‘Mind, hey, your sister has some spunk, hasn’t she?’ said Dave. His tone was admiring and Karen opened her eyes to see he was watching her and Joe over the yard gate.
    ‘Go away!’ she shouted at the top of her voice and marched into the house closely followed by Joe, who banged the door shut behind him. Only later, after they had eaten the dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and vegetables which Da had grown in the allotment down the road, did she remember Robert. Had he got away without having to fight? She felt a momentary pang of guilt at not checking he got home all right. Oh, well, she would thank him properly when she went to the evening service, she thought. But for some reason he wasn’t at the service and eventually she forgot about the incident.
    ‘Karen is a very bright girl,’ said Miss Nelson, and Karen squirmed in her seat on the sofa. The horsehair cover was prickling through the thin cotton of her dress and petticoat but she daren’t scratch the place, not when they had the headmistress visiting. It was the last week of the summer term and Miss Nelson was there to persuade her parents to allow her to stay on as a pupil teacher. The headmistress put her cup, a delicate, china cup with roses painted round the bowl which was one of the precious set Mam kept for important visitors, on its matching saucer and placed them on the table. She looked earnestly at Thomas and Rachel Knight. ‘It would be a shame if she had to leave school and go into domestic service. It would be an absolute waste of a good brain.’
    Karen waited, holding her breath. Until now she hadn’t let herself even consider the possibility of being allowed to stay on at school, though she had dreamed of being a teacher. She saw her father glance at Mam but she couldn’t tell what they were thinking.
    Oh, yes, please God, put it in Da’s mind, let me be a teacher, she prayed, desperately trying to will him into agreeing. But her father still didn’t say anything.
    ‘Well,’ Miss Nelson pulled on her gloves and rose to her feet, ‘I’ll leave you to discuss it. I’m sure you will do what is best for Karen.’
    Karen jumped up and accompanied her to the door leading directly out to the front of the row. Miss Nelson paused in the doorway and looked round. ‘Goodbye, then.’
    ‘Goodbye, Miss Nelson,’ echoed the family in unison, almost as Karen’s class would do in school.
    After she had gone, Karen looked anxiously round. Da was pursing his lips thoughtfully and Joe was grinning at her in