Nightingale Read Online Free PDF Page B

shift at eleven and I didn’t want to go home to change.”
    â€œHorsefeathers. You don’t want the judge and the Mrs. to know you’re here.”
    Esther pressed her lips together.
    Caroline turned her to the dance floor, hooked her arm around Esther’s. “You have to tell them, you know. You can’t keep Linus’s letter a secret. It’s been two weeks.”
    â€œI’m waiting for a telegram.”
    â€œWhat if he’s lost—what if they never find his body?”
    It seemed a betrayal to speak of him without so much as a spark of warmth. She lowered her voice. “Then they’ll eventually declare him dead.”
    Caroline rounded on her. “Are you kidding me? That could take years. They’re still trying to locate missing soldiers from the Great War. You’ll wait for decades in limbo, locked in their attic, waiting for Linus to be declared dead!”
    â€œKeep your voice down. I don’t think the entire town heard you.”
    Caroline narrowed her eyes. “You don’t want to tell them.”
    Esther met her narrowed eyes with her own. Then looked away.
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause as soon as they find out that Linus is gone, they’ll throw me out. I need time.”
    â€œCome and live with me. There’s room in the boardinghouse.”
    â€œI need to go farther than that. If they find me, they’ll come after Sadie.” She said it softly, but the words still made Caroline clamp her mouth shut, as good as a slap.
    â€œThey wouldn’t.”
    â€œThey would. How many times have you told me you wished you and Wayne hadn’t waited, that you’d gotten pregnant with Wayne’s child so you’d have something of him? Sadie is all they have of Linus. Of course they’d keep her. And why not, I hardly blame them.”
    â€œShe’s your daughter.”
    â€œYes. And she’s Linus’s daughter. And their granddaughter.”
    â€œWhich means you’re going to spend the rest of your life locked up in their attic?”
    Esther closed her eyes. “I didn’t come here to fight with you. I wanted to show you this.”
    She reached into her jacket, pulled out the aerogram then handed it over to Caroline.
    She took it, read the address. “It’s from him.”
    â€œI just got it.” Esther ran her slick hands down her hips, drying them. “Today. I got it today.”
    Caroline had already opened it and was scanning it. “I can’t believe you wrote to this GI.”
    â€œI just thought that maybe if I knew what Linus was thinking… Maybe he didn’t love me either. Maybe…”
    Caroline held up her hand, cutting off Esther’s words, her eyes glued to the page.
    Over Caroline’s shoulder, Esther noticed two wide-shouldered servicemen eyeballing them from their café table. “Uh, I think I’ll have some punch.”
    She shuffled Caroline—still caught up in the letter—to the punch table. Rosemary poured her punch, handed her the cup, her smile stiffening, not even bothering to hide her resentment. And why not? Rosemary had more hours, more seniority, and yet, more often than not the doctors chose Esther as their surgical nurse.
    Still, something about her—perhaps her too-bright smile—moved a place inside Esther. She would have liked to have made friends with the redheaded nurse.
    Now, Esther ignored Rosemary and guided Caroline to a table.
    The men had turned away, perhaps watching them in their periphery. The band started in on “Don’t Sit under the Apple Tree.”
    â€œHe doesn’t even mention Sadie. What kind of man doesn’t mention his daughter on his—” Thankfully she cut off the rest of her words, although Esther could guess “deathbed.” Caroline put the letter down, shook her head, those brown eyes so wide that Esther wanted to hug her. “And who are