Maggie's Girl Read Free Page B

stared fretfully along the dimly-lit street, willing it to arrive.
    Sister Aspen never listened to excuses about transport; her nurses were either on time or not on time. Woe betide one of them if she was late!
    Women’s Surgical was a busy ward; Sister Aspen quite rightly had no interest in her nurses’ private life, only the standard of care to which they aspired. Normally Maggie got on well with her, but she’d still be in for a ticking-off if she was late.
    She was a competent nurse, whatever mess she made of the rest of her life. Nursing was her one salvation.
    A car drew into the kerb.
    â€˜Do you want a lift in?’
    Tony Blount stuck his head out of the window, grinning amiably. He was a good-looking man, a year or two older than Maggie. He’d been around, knew what was what, someone had told her when she’d asked about him.
    Tony had chatted her up at a party which she’d left early, before things became too involved. Partly she regretted leaving, not returning his too obvious interest, but complications were the last thing she needed in her life.
    Since Hughie, she’d tried going out with other men, nice men, men she liked. Things just fizzled out somehow. Who could compare to Hughie?
    Her mother, in her forthright way, said Hughie hadn’t been a plaster saint and Maggie was still young; she should and ought to start living her life again.
    She couldn’t help the way she felt.
    All this went through her mind in an instant, but it was raining and she might have missed her bus.
    â€˜Won’t it be out of your way?’ She stooped to the window.
    â€˜I’ve business in Nottingham. Hop in.’
    â€˜Thanks, then!’
    She wasn’t really sure she should have accepted. There was something about this man, even though she’d only met him the once….
    The party had been for one of the nurses, at a local hotel. Maggie had merely been dragged along protesting, though no-one took the slightest notice. The nurse in question complained Maggie never went anywhere, so she had to come to this party.
    Maggie couldn’t argue with that. Normally her life was the hospital and home, caring for her grandfather and the children. She’d made some kind of life for herself, and did her best to shut her mind to anything else.
    â€˜Why haven’t we bumped into each other before?’ Tony had said that evening, looking at her in a way Maggie recognised. He wanted more than a casual acquaintance, she could see.
    He’d stayed with her for the rest of the evening, and despite her reservations, she found herself responding. There was something very attractive about him. She enjoyed his company, which shocked her once she realised it. She was normally so wary of other men.
    She couldn’t let herself go, that was the problem. He was a nice man and she had liked him….
    Yet here she was, in his car. She pulled her cloak more closely round herself.
    â€˜Don’t look so worried.’ He smiled. ‘I really have got business in Nottingham, and I pass the hospital on the way in. It’s too cold for hanging round bus stops.’
    The car was warm, the wipers brushing the rain into smudges on the windscreen curiously restful. She wasn’t even going to be late for work.
    Maggie began to relax at last, for the first time that day. She settled back against the seat, her mind wandering to Harry, and then the trouble Mam seemed to be having with Mary. There was so much going on in their lives.
    Surprisingly, as the car sped towards Nottingham, Tony began to talk about himself, as if he was trying to put her at her ease.
    She listened with half an ear to how he’d grown up in London, how he’d become a salesman, tired of the life and then, finding himself on business in this neck of the woods and deciding he liked it, made up his mind to stay.
    He did this and that, he said, turning towards her and grinning . He made his living in any way he