The Children of Lovely Lane by Nadine Dorries

Author:Nadine Dorries [Dorries, Nadine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784975043
Publisher: Head of Zeus

19

Sister Antrobus stormed out of Emily Haycock’s office as Biddy walked in.

‘What’s got her goat?’ asked Biddy. ‘She’s flying down those stairs and as God is my judge, I have never seen her walk as fast as that before.’

‘She’s not happy about Miss Van Gilder.’ In despair, Emily dropped her head on to her forearm on the desk. Then, lifting it again, she said, ‘Apparently, Miss Van Gilder is not happy with the way ward sisters take the nursing assessments and then tick off the tasks in the workbooks. She thinks it’s a job for herself. That trainee nurses should be answerable to her, even on casualty, with all that goes on there.’

‘And has she spoken to you?’

‘No, she hasn’t mentioned a thing to me. I’ve heard her moving around in her room next to mine on the accommodation corridor and that’s about the sum of it. We haven’t spoken a word since the day of her interview.’

‘Well, it seems to me you need to change that pretty fast because that woman is trouble. Tell me, what is an industrial and domestic cleaning agency? I’ve never heard of such a thing, but it doesn’t sound good to me and we know it’s something she is talking to Matron about and Matron doesn’t seem to be putting up much resistance.’

Emily groaned. ‘Do you think the board knew what they were doing when they said she was the one they wanted? She was the one I liked the least. I reckon they don’t like me. They think I am too young for the responsibility I hold. They appointed her to spite me.’

‘Well, if they did or didn’t, there’s nothing you can do to change anything, so there’s no point in complaining. I’m going to go and get us some tea and a slice of brack from the kitchen. You and me, we need to make a plan.’

While Biddy made her way to the kitchen, Emily walked over to the window, pulled up the sash and placed half a slice of seed cake she had popped into her pocket on the sill for the gull. She looked sideways to where it had taken to resting, in the guttering behind a large pipe, and watched as it craned its neck upwards at the sound of the sash rising.

She had told her stepfather, Alf, about the seagull and had been amazed at the lucidity of his response. ‘He’s a young one, queen. They often fall out of the nest and can’t get back and so he will have made his own way to the guttering. Keep feeding him and once he has his strength up he will fly down to the docks with the rest of them. Have you told your mam? Show the boys, they’ll love that. Our Richard, he’ll look after it for you.’ It had all been going so well until that point. In Alf’s mind, his wife and sons were all still alive. The bomb had never fallen and all was good in the world.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.