The Nightingale Nurses Read Online Free PDF

providing for you and that kid—’
    ‘There is no kid,’ Ruby blurted out.
    Lettie frowned in confusion. ‘No what, love?’
    ‘I’m not pregnant, Mum.’ Ruby lifted her gaze to meet her mother’s. ‘There is no baby. There never was.’
    Lettie’s mouth opened and then closed again. ‘But I don’t understand . . .’
    ‘I lied,’ Ruby said simply.
    ‘You mean, you—’ Lettie’s gaze dropped to Ruby’s belly, then back up to her face. ‘But why?’
    ‘So he wouldn’t leave me.’
    It was Nick’s fault. He’d pushed her into it. Ruby knew he was going to finish it with her, cast her aside for Dora, and she also knew that she loved him so much that if he told her he didn’t want her any more, it would be the end of her world.
    And so she’d panicked and told him she was pregnant. And those words had changed everything.
    The drunken flush drained out of her mother’s face. She stared at Ruby, as if she couldn’t make up her mind whether to laugh or cry.
    ‘You silly cow!’ she said finally. ‘You mean, you’ve let all the neighbours gossip about us for nothing?’
    Ruby’s mouth twisted. Trust her mother to worry about something like that!
    ‘You’ve got some neck, I’ll give you that much.’ Her mother shook her head slowly. ‘So what are you going to do now?’
    ‘I don’t know.’ Ruby shrugged. ‘I hadn’t thought about it.’
    ‘Typical!’ Lettie snapped. ‘That’s your trouble, you’re always opening your trap before you’ve had a chance to think about what you’re doing.’
    ‘I’ll tell him it was a false alarm, that I got my dates wrong.’
    Her mother regarded her shrewdly. ‘And how do you think he’ll take that?’
    ‘I’ll find out, won’t I?’
    ‘You do realise he might leave you?’
    Ruby shook her head. ‘He won’t. Anyway, he couldn’t divorce me. He wouldn’t have the grounds, would he?’ Men could only divorce their wives for adultery, not for lying.
    Besides, people like them didn’t get divorced. No matter how unhappy they were, they just put up with each other until death parted them. Her own mum and dad had been living under the same roof for more than twenty years, even though they hated the sight of each other.
    ‘There are worse things in life than divorce, my girl. You don’t want to be married to a man who regrets it.’ Looking at her mother’s face, so full of sadness, Ruby wondered if she was thinking about her own loveless match. ‘It ain’t no life, believe me.’
    ‘Who says he’ll regret it?’ Now they were married, Ruby intended to make sure Nick didn’t have a single moment of doubt. ‘Anyway, I’ll probably get pregnant soon enough,’ she added.
    ‘You’d best make sure you do, my girl, just in case he gets any ideas,’ Lettie warned. ‘And when are you going to tell him the truth?’
    The door opened and Nick appeared. Ruby felt herself smiling as he threaded his way through the crowd towards her.
    ‘Not tonight,’ she said. This was the happiest day of her life, and nothing was going to spoil it.

Chapter Three
    ‘ YOU THERE. WHAT do you think you’re doing?’
    Dora looked round at the sound of the sharp reprimand. A small dark woman in the grey uniform of a ward sister was heading purposefully towards her. It was barely seven o’clock on a Sunday morning, and Dora had just walked in through the doors of the Casualty department for her first day on duty. Surely she couldn’t have done something wrong already?
    She relaxed when the Sister barrelled past her towards an elderly man, huddled under his coat at the back of the room on the last of the rows of empty wooden benches.
    ‘Were you asleep?’ The nurse stood over him, hands planted on her hips.
    ‘N-No, Nurse.’ Dora saw the old man tremble, and felt for him. His white hair was straggly under his shapeless hat, and he looked as if he hadn’t had a decent meal in days.
    The Sister eyed him beadily. ‘I’ve seen you in here before, haven’t