Nightingale Girls 12.The Nightingale Daughters by Donna Douglas

Author:Donna Douglas [Donna Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornerstone
Published: 2023-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

It was nearly midnight when Viv crept up the drive towards the nurses’ home, cursing the soft crunch of gravel under her feet. As well as making too much noise, it played hell with her stilettos.

She was in a foul mood. She had been so excited to spend the day with Roy, but it had all gone wrong.

First of all, he’d stood her up. Viv had waited ages for him to meet her at the Savoy Café as they’d arranged, but he didn’t come. Finally, she had tracked him down to the back-street garage where he worked as a mechanic. He was in the workshop with his mates, laughing and joking together as they tinkered with his motorbike.

‘Oh, hello. I forgot you were coming,’ he had greeted her coolly, much to the amusement of his sniggering friends.

Viv had been mortified, but she forced herself to hide her feelings behind a bright smile.

‘Well, I’m here now,’ she had announced. ‘So where are you taking me?’

‘Nowhere. I’m working on my bike.’

‘Can’t you do it some other time?’

‘I want to do it now.’ Roy had glared at her, his teeth gritted.

‘You can hang about with us if you want?’ his best friend Pete had offered quickly. ‘We wouldn’t mind, would we, boys? Give us something nice to look at anyway, instead of your boyfriend’s ugly mug!’

The others had all leered appreciatively. All except Roy, who had glowered at Viv and then gone back to his work without speaking.

She’d had nothing better to do, so she spent the afternoon hanging around the workshop, making cups of tea for the boys and listening to their juvenile jokes.

Once upon a time she would have laughed along with them, but she suddenly seemed to find their talk cruel and pathetic.

She even started to wish she’d gone to the pictures with the others. They might have had a laugh. And even if they didn’t, an afternoon in a warm cinema, eating chocolate and ogling Paul Newman, would have been better than hanging around a cold and dirty workshop.

It was gone seven o’clock before the bike was repaired and Roy’s friends finally left and she had him to herself.

‘Now can we go dancing?’ she pleaded.

‘’Course we can, sweetheart. Anything you like.’ Roy smiled lazily as he pulled her into his arms. ‘But we’ve got plenty of time, ain’t we?’

Viv recognised the gleam in his eyes and her heart sank. ‘Do we have to?’ she sighed. ‘You’ll mess my hair up.’

‘Never mind your hair …’

Roy had guided her backwards, pushing her until she felt the edge of the heavy wooden workbench pressing into her back.

‘Careful,’ Viv had said. ‘You’ll get my skirt all filthy.’

‘Better take it off, then.’

‘Roy, no.’

His eyes grew cold and narrow. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

‘Nothing, I just don’t feel like it, that’s all. Can’t we do something else?’

‘Like what?’ There was a nasty edge to his voice.

‘I dunno. Talk, or something?’

‘Talk?’ his lip curled. ‘What do I want to waste time talking to you for? Especially when we could be having a bit of fun …’

Viv had not protested any more.

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