Kiss Me Good Night, Major Darcy by Georgina Young-Ellis

Author:Georgina Young-Ellis [Young-Ellis, Georgina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Meryton Press
Published: 2022-06-27T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

By the end of November, Allied forces had pushed the Germans back far enough that V2 launch sites had to be moved; the rockets could no longer reach the British heartland. Londoners celebrated in the streets as first days and then weeks went by without attack. And yet, the fighting was still fierce in France and Belgium as the Allies continued to make headway.

All hopes Lizzy had of a Christmas at home with their father evaporated when, on December 17, the Germans launched an all-out offensive along the quietest—and least defended—part of the front: Belgium’s Ardennes Forest. The Battle of the Bulge, as it came to be known, was like a dagger pointed at the great Allied supply dumps surrounding Antwerp. The Allied forces fell back in a disorganized rout. Now the London nurses, even those who were not a part of the Military Nursing Service, were being called to hospitals around Paris and Rouen to treat the wounded who were transported there, safely away from the front.

As word filtered back to London, Lizzy and Jane knew their turn was coming. On the nineteenth, the matron called them to her office. Lizzy assumed this was the news that would send them to France. Instead, they found a crying Lydia huddled in a chair.

“What’s the matter?” Lizzy asked, alarmed.

The matron’s voice was stern. “We have a problem.” She looked in Lydia’s direction and pointed toward the heavy, black apparatus on her desk. “I just caught your younger sister using my telephone without permission.”

“What? Lydia, how could you?” Jane demanded.

Lizzy had never heard her older sister sound so angry.

Jane continued her inquisition. “Who were you calling?”

“No one,” Lydia replied. Her lower lip pushed out in an indignant pout.

“She won’t tell me,” Matron said. “Apparently, this has been going on for weeks.”

“How did you find out?” Lizzy asked.

“The janitor has been noticing her going in and out of the office at four o’clock every day. That’s when I take my break. She knew that and was taking advantage of my absence for the fifteen minutes when I’m making use of the toilet.” The matron was thoroughly unembarrassed to discuss intimate matters. These were the facts of life, after all.

Jane wanted to know. “Why didn’t he say anything before?”

If it had been possible, the matron’s face hardened even more than usual. “He stopped her the first time he saw her, but she produced a note saying she had my permission to call her ‘infirm mother,’ every day. She even forged my signature. I relieved her of this today.” The matron produced the missive which appeared to be in her handwriting. “It was yesterday when he heard her laughing raucously on the phone that he began to doubt her story. That’s when he spoke to me.”

“Oh, Lydia!” Jane choked out. There were tears in her eyes. “Your ‘infirm mother?’ With Mama gone not even three years? This is shocking!”

“You need to tell us who you were calling,” Lizzy said.

“I won’t!” Lydia stubbornly replied.

Jane delivered the sentence dictated by the matron’s conviction.

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.