The Long Corridor by Catherine Cookson

Author:Catherine Cookson [Cookson, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780360249
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Calm like. She was very far from being calm like. When Ivy turned towards the door she followed her, and she paused in front of her on the step and said, ‘I’ll do my best, Ivy. Goodbye.’

‘Goodbye, Jenny.’ Ivy now omitted the ‘Miss.’

Jenny was aware that the door closed immediately behind her, and as she went towards the waiting car she had the impression that Ivy was standing with her face pressed tight against it.

In a few minutes they were on the main road again. ‘Where to now?’ asked the driver laconically.

‘Romfield House,’ she said. Bett had told her in plain words that she wouldn’t be expected there again, but she was going.

It was a quarter to five when she reached the house, and even as she stood on the pavement paying off the driver the sound of the raised voices penetrated the thick walls. She did not ring the front doorbell but went into the courtyard, and there, immediately, Bett’s high screaming tone met her, answered by Maggie’s thick, loud, coarse twang. When she passed the kitchen window she saw Paul’s back blotting out the room and its occupants. She let herself in through the waiting room door. There was no-one about—Elsie had two hours off in the afternoon and wouldn’t be in until five when the patients started to arrive. Quickly crossing the waiting room, she went into the private hall, and here the voices filled the house, seeming to make it vibrate with their anger.

‘Quiet, woman! Quiet! Do you hear me?’

‘Don’t tell me to be quiet. I’ve told you, she’s going, and now, this very minute.’

‘And how many more times have I to tell you she’ll go when I say, and not before. And that won’t be as long as I’m in this house.’

‘Ha! Ha! Ha! God Almighty man makes big joke…As long as you’re in this house! Well, let me tell you, big fellow, your time’s running out, and fast.’

‘You’re crazy, woman. There’s been times in the past when I’ve doubted your sanity, but now…’

‘Crazy, am I? Well, we’ll see who’s the craziest before the next twenty-four hours is over. But the point in question at the moment, doc-tor, is that I’m dismissing my cook. I’M DISMISSING HER HERE AND NOW. Get that into your thick skull. And you, or no-one else, is going to stop me. Her time, like yours, is short anyway, but I’m going to have the pleasure of seeing her going through that door, her bust flat. And it’ll be the first and last time, won’t it, Maggie, for you’ve got the most fluctuating bust in the human race, haven’t you?’

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