Nightingales at War Read Free Page B

ain’t it?’
    Dora stared at her sister’s smiling face. She was the only one of the family to inherit their mother’s slender dark beauty and not their father’s red hair and sturdy limbs. She was the quietest of the rowdy Doyle clan, as well as the cleverest. She and Dora were very close, and now Josie was up in Lancashire learning how to repair aircraft, Dora missed her almost as much as she missed her Nick.
    There was another letter from her sister-in-law Lily. After Dora’s brother Peter was called up, Lily and their little daughter Mabel had been evacuated down to Kent. Dora was supposed to go with them, but she couldn’t face being away from the rest of her family.
    Her other younger sister Bea came home from work in time for tea, and soon they were all gathered round the table, talking and arguing as usual.
    ‘The girls at work reckon we’ll be invaded now,’ Bea announced, helping herself to potatoes.
    Dora caught Danny’s look of dismay across the table. ‘It won’t come to that,’ she said.
    ‘How do you know?’ Bea pouted. ‘It makes sense, don’t it? Now they’re in Holland, we’ll be next.’
    ‘Not now Churchill’s in charge,’ Nanna predicted confidently. ‘That old beast will stand up to Hitler, don’t you worry.’
    ‘It’s our soldiers I feel sorry for,’ Bea went on, through a mouthful of food. ‘How do you think our Pete’s going to get on, stuck out there? And your Nick,’ she added, looking at Dora.
    ‘He’ll be all right, don’t you worry about that.’ Dora glared at her sister across the table and willed her to be quiet. Seventeen-year-old Bea had always been the troublemaker of the family, keen to stir it up whenever she could.
    ‘Yes, but—’
    ‘Can we talk about something else?’ Dora cut across her sister’s objection. ‘What was Mickey Malone doing hanging around our back alley first thing this morning?’
    A dull flush rose in Bea’s face. ‘I dunno, do I?’
    ‘Really? He looked as if he was waiting for you.’
    Rose put down her knife and fork. ‘Mickey Malone? Round here? I hope you ain’t having anything to do with him, young lady!’ she warned.
    ‘That family’s nothing but trouble,’ Nanna chimed in.
    ‘I dunno what you’re talking about,’ Bea mumbled, shooting Dora a filthy look across the table. Dora hadn’t meant to get her sister into trouble, but at least it had stopped Bea from talking about Nick and the war. Dora was finding it hard enough to keep her spirits up without her sister making it worse.
    After tea, Dora went upstairs to put the twins to bed. Danny insisted on helping her.
    ‘Don’t you want to listen to the wireless?’ she asked him. ‘
Sandy’s Half-Hour
should be on soon. You know how much you like listening to the music.’
    Nick had bought the wireless for them just before he left, and it was Danny’s pride and joy. He would sit for hours, twiddling the knobs, his ear pressed to the polished wooden set, grinning with delight at each crackle and whine. He listened to everything. He would cackle with delight at
It’s That Man Again
, hum along to the band music, and listen earnestly to the news broadcasts and the advice from
The Kitchen Front
, even though he didn’t understand them. It made Dora smile to see him so happy.
    ‘I’d r-rather help you.’ He slanted a shy smile at her. ‘B-besides, you always say I can g-get them off to sleep b-better than you.’
    Dora smiled. ‘That you can, Danny,’ she agreed. ‘Come on, then, let’s get this pair washed and changed.’
    She was amazed at how deft Danny was at changing the babies’ nappies. The young man who was so clumsy he couldn’t tie his own shoelaces, was gentle and careful when it came to folding and pinning the towelling squares into place. He was an expert compared to the ham-fisted attempts of the student nurses Dora used to see on the children’s ward.
    Once they’d got the twins washed and powdered and in their nightclothes, Dora