A Death in Chelsea by H L Marsay

Author:H L Marsay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781961544796
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2023-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

It was almost eight o’clock that evening when Dorothy finally tracked Nina down to her flat in Bayswater. Her friend was such a social creature, she hadn’t thought to look there at first. Now she was worried that Nina was so upset, she was hiding herself away. It took three rings on the doorbell before Nina answered the door with a cigarette in one hand and a bundle of clothes in the other.

“Hello there, Dorothy. Come in, but you must excuse the mess. I’m in the middle of packing.”

To Dorothy’s relief, she looked and sounded remarkably cheerful. She stepped through the door and then over two piles of books. She’d never known the flat to be anything other than a mess. Organised chaos, Nina liked to call it.

“Are you going away somewhere?” she asked as she followed Nina through into her bedroom where a large trunk lay open on the floor.

“Yes. Serbia,” replied Nina.

“Serbia! What on earth for?”

“I’m going to be a nurse. The poor old Balkans have been rather forgotten since war broke out. Everyone has been concentrating on the Western front, but fighting is still going out there and they need nurses.”

Dorothy stared at her in disbelief. If she wasn’t actually watching her friend throw her belongings into a trunk, she would have assumed she was joking.

“Don’t you think you are being a little rash, Nina? I know you must be terribly upset about the meeting, but Serbia?”

“Losing the vote was a blow I admit, but even if it had gone my way, I couldn’t have worked with Margaret and Mary much longer, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. After speaking with you this morning, I considered what I should do if I should lose the vote and then I remembered Mabel Grouitch. Do you recall we heard her speak last year?”

Dorothy nodded. She had been very impressed with the charming and energetic wife of the Serbian Foreign Secretary, who had set up the Serbian Relief Fund. At the beginning of the war, everyone’s focus had been on what was happening in France and Belgium, and their Balkan ally was in danger of being completely forgotten, but thanks to Mabel’s efforts that hadn’t happened.

“Well, I was at one of her fundraising events last month and the two of us chatted afterwards. I told her how I felt quite drawn to her brave country, fighting alone and sandwiched between its enemies Bulgaria and the evil old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Then Mabel explained that in spring this year, the Russians, British, French, Italians and Greeks had all sent reinforcements for a planned offensive, but it had not been a success. There were over twenty-five thousand British casualties alone and such an increase in casualties inevitably led to an increase in the need for nurses. So, I started thinking and with my background of nursing in South Africa, I thought I should answer the call. I went to see Mabel as soon as I left Caxton Hall.”

As Dorothy listened, she could hear the excitement in Nina’s voice and her eyes were gleaming brightly.

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