The Dangerous Years Read Online Free Page B

sigh.
    ‘Never mind Kelly,’ he replied. ‘What about Charley?’
    ‘I’m still nursing.’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘St George’s.’
    ‘Do they give you time off?’
    ‘Not much.’
    ‘The war’s over,’ he pointed out. ‘And I’m on leave, ain’t I?’
    She gestured. ‘There are still a lot of men in there, recovering from wounds.’
    He grinned. ‘It always seemed to me during the war, that when you were free, I wasn’t. Now I’m free, you’re not. Gives rise to a great deal of ill-will on both sides, that sort of thing.’
    She grinned back and hugged him again. ‘I expect they’ll give me an evening off.’
    ‘An evening? Is that all?’
    ‘There’s so much to do and so many girls have already given up nursing now that the war’s ended.’
    ‘But not you?’
    ‘I couldn’t Kelly. I couldn’t.’
    He couldn’t help but admire her attitude. but he could see that it might lead to a few difficulties while he was on leave. He stood back and looked at her. Her blue eyes were spiky with long lashes, huge underneath the severe fringe of her modern hairstyle, and slightly moist as she stared back at him. All the youthful plumpness he remembered had dropped away from her; her face now had fine lines and her figure was slender and graceful.
    ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.
    ‘Nothing. I think you’re a corker.’
    ‘How long are you home for?’
    ‘I’ve got a week. I have to go to Thakeham tomorrow to see my mother but after that the time’s my own. How is my mother, by the way?’
    ‘She’s had flu and so has your grandfather, but they’ve recovered. Rumbelo’s Biddy looked after them. Did you know Biddy was expecting a baby?’
    ‘Rumbelo told me. He tells me a lot my mother forgets. How’s your mother?’
    She gave him a delighted grin. ‘Out. At the theatre. So’s the cook, who’s all the staff the war’s left us.’
    ‘That’s handy. How about Big Sister Mabel?’
    ‘Also out. With Mother and James Verschoyle.’
    Kelly frowned and she looked at him, troubled. ‘Isn’t that over yet, Kelly?’
    Kelly shrugged. He had disliked ‘Cruiser’ Verschoyle from the day they’d first met as cadets. Verschoyle’s bullying had made his life miserable at Dartmouth and there had been nothing since to make him change his mind. Verschoyle was clever and too good-looking by half, and his chief delight for years had lain in tormenting Kelly.
    ‘He did rather well in the end,’ Charley said, trying to heal the old enmity. ‘He was wounded and got a medal at Zeebrugge.’ She touched his breast. ‘Though not as big as yours.’
    He pushed Verschoyle to the back of his mind and gave her another kiss. ‘How about him and Mabel? Think they’ll get married? He’s wealthy enough.’
    She smiled and shook her head. ‘He’s too wary and Mabel’s having too good a time with everybody being demobilised.’
    ‘If she leaves it much longer,’ Kelly pointed out, ‘she’ll be too late. She’s getting on.’
    ‘So am I.’
    ‘Barely twenty.’
    ‘It’s old enough to be married.’
    There was an awkward pause, because this question of marriage was the one difficult problem that lay between them. Though Charley had been waiting all her life for him, the Admiralty disapproved of officers marrying too soon – if at all, Kelly sometimes thought bitterly – and, since they conspicuously failed to give to officers the marriage allowances they gave to ratings, it was difficult to set up home on any pay below a commander’s.
    ‘You know what we decided about that, Charley,’ he said gruffly. ‘We’ve got to wait.’
    Her face wore a stubborn look for a moment, then she thrust the mood aside and pulled him into the kitchen. ‘We’d better eat,’ she said.
    ‘Out,’ Kelly said, thankful that the matter had been dropped so easily.
    Her eyes sparkled. ‘Can you afford it?’
    ‘No. But we’ll go just the same.’
     
    They ate at a little restaurant near Victoria Station that Charley