The Buried Circle - Jenni Mills [151]
He was more surprised than I, but recovered himself quickly.
‘Visiting the sick, Heartbreaker?’
I’d have liked to pretend, but I was carrying a folder full of bumph. ‘I work here,’ I said curtly. ‘Hadn’t you figured that out?’
Mr Cromley’s eyes slid to the buff folder, and my varnished nails digging into its flank. ‘Not a nurse, then,’ he said slowly. ‘But hospital clerk seems a bit tame for you. Had you down for a factory girl, stuffing high explosive into bomb casings and sending them on their way to Mr Hitler with your very best wishes.’
‘What are you doing here?’ I transferred the folder to the other arm, eyeing my escape route through the doors leading to the ward at the end of the corridor.
‘Hasn’t your boyfriend told you? Half the squadron transferred to Colerne last weekend. The rest will be following shortly, including Davey’
Davey’s letter must have been delayed, or he hadn’t got round to writing yet, though I doubted that. Worried me more that he’d been boasting to Mr Cromley I was his girl.
‘I meant, what are you doing in the hospital?’
‘Dispensing cheer. One of our Polish pilots broke his leg making his escape through a window after a visit to the WAAF quarters at Wroughton. He doesn’t speak much English, so I drove over to bring him cigarettes and condolences in case he was lonely.’ Mr Cromley smiled, his old charming self, like Hallowe’en night had never happened. ‘Entirely unnecessary, it turned out. He seems to have made friends with all the nurses. So I felt a bit of a spare part. Can I buy you a drink? The Goddard Arms is comfortable. I can give you a lift home after.’
‘I’m on fire watch tonight,’ I said. Did he still carry that little dagger of his? And I’m meeting a friend first.’
‘Bring her along,’ he said. ‘Two’s company, three’s even more fun–’
The double doors banged again, and Nell came through them, hauling her cape over her shoulders.
‘We’ve other plans.’ I caught Nell by the arm. ‘Have to deliver these,’ I said to her, brandishing the folder. ‘I know the boys are waiting for us, but I promised Sister…’
Nell’s eyebrows lifted a fraction. She allowed herself to be wheeled round and marched back through the double doors.
‘Goodbye,’ I called over my shoulder to Mr Cromley. ‘I should get your skates on back to Colerne, if I were you. Likely be a raid tonight.’
‘I don’t know what you’re playing at,’ said Nell. ‘Boys, my foot. But if I wasn’t a respectable engaged woman, I’d gladly take him off your hands. He’s a bobby dazzler.’
‘Don’t be dazzled,’ I said. ‘He’s a sorcerer.’
By the time we came back through the double doors Mr Cromley had gone. We left the hospital, making for Drove Road through the blacked-out Old Town. The moonlight silvered the metal hoops of the unlit lampposts; there was hardly anyone about.
‘We’ve time for a quick one at the Victoria,’ said Nell. More our sort of pub than the ivy-clad Goddard Arms.
‘Not tonight,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to be late for fire watch. Mervyn’s on.’ He was one of the older ARP wardens, a retired porter with a pitted nose like the burr on an oak tree, and a stickler about timekeeping–though also such a gent he usually tried to persuade me to kip down for the duration. He thought fire watch was no place for a woman, but was always glad, he said, when it was my turn because he reckoned I brought good luck: never a raid when you’m on duty, he used to say.
‘You’ll stop and have something to eat, though?’ asked Nell. ‘Probably bloody Woolton pie again, but better than dripping toast in the hospital’
‘I like dripping toast.’
‘Reminds me of engine oil.’
We grumbled