I said no such thing.’ Connie objected, adding determinedly, ‘We’d better go and find some-where to sit.’ She turned and started to walk away leaving Vera with no option other than to follow her.
She didn’t want to encourage the young men’s overtures. In fact, she didn’t want anything to do with them. After all, she had already learned the hard way what happened to girls who gave their love too easily. It would be a long time, if ever, before she ever trusted a man again.
As soon as she had caught up with Connie, Vera demanded crossly, ‘Why did you have to go and do that? I was enjoying m’self.’
Connie made no response, knowing there was no way she could explain how she felt to Vera, or why!
‘Connie, I thought we was coming out for a good time and now that’s the third time you’ve refused to stand up with someone!’ Vera objected, when Connie shook her head obstinately at the young man who had just asked her to dance.
‘My feet are killing me,’ Connie fibbed. ‘But don’t let me stop you, Vera.’
Vera pouted and protested, ‘It’s not the same if you’re going to sit here being miserable all night.’
The truth was, Connie admitted inwardly, that she had agreed to come, more out of a stubborn determination not to let Mavis tell her what to do, than anything else.
‘It’s a good job that Josie and Miss Goody Two Shoes didn’t come with us, mind. Josie would have gone as red as fire every time a lad came anywhere near us, and Mavis would have stuck her nose up in the air.’
‘Mavis enjoyed the comedian the last time we went out,’ Connie felt obliged to point out. ‘It would have been more fun, too, if all of us were here!’
‘It u’d be more fun if you’d give some of these lads a chance and have a dance wi’ one or two of them,’ Vera told her forthrightly.
‘If you want to dance, then don’t let me stop you.’ Connie told her again, but she herself wasn’t prepared to give in to the blandishments of the young men who tried to coax her onto the floor. Logically, she knew that all men weren’t tarred with the same brush as Kieron, but somehow she just couldn’t stop herself from being suspicious and wary. The miscarriage she had suffered might, in some ways, have been a blessing, but, in others, it had left her shocked and afraid, and she knew it would cast a shadow over her life that would last for ever. No woman could go through the pain and humiliation she had suffered and not be marked by it.
The evening was over and the dance hall was starting to empty. Tiredly, Connie linked up with Vera whilst they made their way outside, and then fought their way through the crush to their bus stop. Connie rubbed her stomach as it gave a hungry rumble.
‘I’m starving,’ she complained as they climbed on the waiting bus.
‘Well, whose fault’s that?’ Vera challenged her. ‘If we’d stayed with them lads as first showed an interest in us, like as not they would have treated us to a bit of sommat to eat.’
‘Yes, and what would they have been expecting to get from us for it?’ Connie demanded pithily.
‘Well, expectin’s one thing. Getting it’s another,’ Vera giggled.
The bus dropped them outside the Infirmary, and quickly they made their way inside.
There was a bit of a to-do in the reception area: an elderly man whose face was covered in blood, and an elderly woman with him who was obviously his wife. Connie noticed that one of the two burly policemen with them, was the same one who had taken such a shine to Mavis.
Skirting past the commotion they hurried into the tunnel.
‘We’re later than I thought we were going to be,’ Connie commented a little bit apprehensively, as they came out of the tunnel. ‘I … Oh!’
They both came to an abrupt halt as, suddenly, Sister Jenkins was standing in front of them.
‘And where, may I ask, have you two been?’ she demanded.
Connie could feel all the pleasure of the evening draining out of her body as though it had been her blood. In its place was a cold, icy feeling of deathly despair.
‘We … we’ve just been out for some air, Sister,’ Vera fibbed.
‘I see. I take it then, Nurse, that you are recovered from the indisposition which took you off Sister Hughes’ ward this afternoon?’
Vera went red, and said nothing.
‘And you, Nurse Pride?’
There was nothing that Connie could say. She suspected that Sister Jenkins knew exactly where they had been!
‘This is not the first occasion on which I have had to speak to you on a matter of discipline, Pride.’
Connie quailed beneath her disapproving look, her apprehension growing.
‘I have no option but to report your behaviour to Matron.’
Connie sucked in a shocked breath, her apprehension turning to a cold, hard ball of fear. Suddenly, and too late, Connie realised how much trouble she was in. It was obvious both from Sister’s expression, and her reaction, that she was taking their breaking of the rules very seriously.
The warning she had received the last time she had been in trouble flashed through Connie’s mind. She had been afraid, then, of what would happen to her if she was dismissed from the hospital but, foolishly, she had chosen not to think of that fear earlier. Now though, she was forcibly reminded of it by the cramping dread seizing her stomach.
Why on earth had she been so stupid? Unlike Vera, Connie loved working at the Infirmary. And besides, if she were to be sent away, where would she go?
‘You will both go straight to your room, and you will remain there until Matron sends for you. The Guardians of this hospital expect its nurses to behave with obedience and decorum. You have been extremely fortunate to be taken on as probationers. And yet, you in particular, Nurse Pride, have repaid the generosity of the Guardians toward you with disobedience and the most shameful kind of behaviour,’ Sister announced coldly, further reinforcing Connie’s fearful awareness of how much trouble she was in.
Her stomach was a mass of nauseously churning nerves, whilst her head was a mass of equally churning fears. Now, when it was too late, she bitterly regretted her own foolish stubbornness. She had put her precious hard-won security at risk, she realised. And for what? A dance?
‘The nurses of this Infirmary have a reputation to maintain, and an example to set to those less fortunate than themselves. You will not go on duty in the morning, and you will not leave your room without permission. Is that understood?’
‘Yes, Sister.’ Connie said numbly, bowing her head in despair.
With a further quelling look, Sister Jenkins turned on her heel and sailed away, leaving Vera whispering wrathfully to Connie. ‘Someone must have told her, and I can bet I know who it was!’
Connie said nothing. She was barely aware of what Vera was saying. She felt too sick with worry to listen to her. All she could think of was the morning and Matron. Matron would tell her to leave, she was sure of it. And all because she had given in to Vera. Tears burned the backs of her eyes. She could feel herself trembling inwardly with shock. It had never occurred to her that they might get caught. Oh, how she wished she had not been so foolish!
When they reached their room, Josie was waiting anxiously for them.
‘Eeh, but you are late!’ she told them. ‘Sister has been round and your beds were empty!’
‘And I suppose you told her where we were, did you, Goody Two Shoes,’ Vera accused Mavis who was sitting up quietly