Nightingales Under the Mistletoe (25 page)

It was a cold, cheerless day, and the scene was bleached of colour. The iron-coloured sea blended into the grey sky, and the wind whipped at Jess's skirt and tried to tear the hat from her head.

‘I guess no one's going to be getting a suntan today!' Harry quipped beside her, as they walked along the damp sand. In the distance, the clusters of sea forts looked like strange monsters wading in from the sea, the waves crashing around their long spindly legs.

‘Doesn't look like it,' Jess agreed. ‘But I'm just glad to be out in the fresh air, after all those nights on the Fever Wards.'

‘Sooner you than me. I don't know how you can stand working in that place.'

Jess sent him a quizzical look. ‘How can you say that? Your job's far more dangerous than mine.'

‘All the same, I'd rather take my chances in the open skies than have to be cooped up with a bunch of sick folks night after night! How do you know you're not going to catch something?'

‘Sometimes you can,' Jess admitted. ‘But it's not a big risk if you're careful about keeping clean. And nurses are tested for immunity to certain diseases before they're allowed to work in the ward. I'm immune to diphtheria, for instance, so I can't catch it.' She picked up a pebble and aimed it into the sea. It fell short of the water's edge. ‘Anyway, nights aren't too bad. At least it means I have my days free. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to come here, would I?'

Not like poor Daisy Maynard. As she and Effie were on the same ward, they couldn't both take time off. Effie had begged and pleaded with Daisy, and had ended up bribing her with her precious tin of scented talcum powder because she was so desperate to join the party.

Not that it was turning out to be much of a party. Daisy wasn't missing anything, Jess thought as she aimed another stone at the water. It landed with a plop.

‘Here. This is how you do it.' Harry selected a flat stone from the sand and sent it skimming across the flat, grey surface of the sea.

Jess looked at him admiringly. ‘You're an expert!'

‘I've had a lot of practice as a kid. Here, let me show you …'

As he rooted around in the sand for a suitable pebble, Jess looked down the beach at Max. He stood a few yards away from them, also aiming pebbles into the sea.

‘Is your friend disappointed that Daisy couldn't come?' she said.

Harry laughed. ‘Are you kidding?'

Jess frowned at him. ‘What's that supposed to mean?'

‘Nothing. I just get the impression she's keener on him than he is on her. Ah, this looks like a good one.' He picked up a stone and showed it to her, but Jess wasn't paying attention.

‘What do you mean?' she said. ‘I hope he isn't stringing Daisy along?'

‘Believe me, that girl doesn't need stringing along!' Harry grinned.

Jess's mouth firmed. ‘He'd better not be messing her about. She's my friend, you know.'

‘And Max is mine.' Harry aimed the stone. It skittered across the surface of the water. ‘Look, don't worry about Daisy. Max is a good guy. He'd never set out to hurt her. Unlike some people …' His gaze slid sideways to the distant sand dunes where Effie and Kit were sitting wrapped in each other's arms, oblivious to everything around them. ‘That's the girl who should be careful. Kit has a bit of a reputation.'

Jess sighed. ‘I've tried to talk to her, but there's no telling Effie anything.' She was glad in a way that Harry had confirmed her worst suspicions about Kit, although she worried for Effie. ‘She's convinced he's in love with her.'

‘Kit's good at convincing people.'

Harry took a bottle of ginger beer from his pocket and handed it to her.

Jess unstoppered the bottle, took a mouthful of ginger beer and gazed up and down the beach. They were the only three people on the lifeless promenade. ‘Do they have nice beaches in Canada?' she asked.

‘Sure, they have beautiful beaches right near where I live. We were always there when I was a kid.' He looked at her. ‘How about you?'

She shook her head. ‘If I ever did, I can't remember it.' She paused. ‘I went to Southend with Sam, though. We went on a charabanc trip two years ago … before he got called up,' she said.

It had been such a happy day. The weather was fine. They'd strolled on the pier, visited the amusement park, had fish and chips on the front and then caught a lift to the top of the cliff, trying to fit in as many happy memories as they could to carry them through the long separation that was to come.

As if he could read her thoughts, Harry nudged her and said, ‘You'll be able to go again, when he comes home. Things will go back to normal soon, you'll see.'

Jess didn't reply. She turned her gaze to the ugly stretch of barbed wire. She couldn't imagine anything being normal again. The war had changed everything.

She forced herself to cheer up. The boys had been good enough to bring them all down here, the least she could do was enjoy herself.

‘Are you looking forward to going back to Canada, once the war's over?' she asked Harry.

‘You bet! I can't wait.' A broad smile lit up his lively face, making him look almost handsome. ‘I'm going to have a huge party. And I'm going to hug that kid of mine so hard, I don't think I'll ever let him go.' He paused, then said, ‘You know, it's his birthday today?'

‘No! You didn't say. How old is he?'

‘Three.'

He stared into the distance, and Jess could see his Adam's apple working as he fought down his emotions at the thought of his son. Poor Harry. She couldn't imagine what it must be like for a father to be separated from his son for so long.

‘I know,' said Jess. ‘Let's send him a message in a bottle.'

‘What?'

‘You can write a message, we'll stick in it that bottle and send it out to sea. You never know,' she grinned, ‘it might make it all the way to Canada?'

Harry's mouth twisted. ‘From the English Channel?'

‘Oh, just try it!'

He shrugged. ‘Hell, why not? I'm game.'

They finished off the bottle of ginger beer, then Jess found an old bus ticket and a stub of pencil in the bottom of her bag and Harry scribbled a message to his son. It seemed to distract him from his sadness for a while at least.

‘We'll probably get arrested as spies,' Jess giggled as Harry took aim and tossed the bottle over the barbed-wire fence. It landed with a thud on the wet sand. Jess and Harry watched it, both willing the tide on as it inched towards it, then cheered when the bottle was finally claimed by a wave and began its journey.

‘Happy birthday, son,' Harry murmured, a faraway expression in his eyes. Then he turned back to Jess, all smiles again. ‘Now, how about we find a café? I don't know about you, but I'm freezing. I'll treat you to fish and chips and a nice hot cup of tea.'

‘Tea?' Jess mocked. ‘You're starting to sound proper English!'

‘Well, we've got to drink something since the pubs keep running out of beer.' He called over to Max. ‘What do you say, pal?'

‘I guess so, if you're buying?' Max called back.

Jess nodded towards Kit and Effie, still snuggled together in the distant dunes. ‘Should we ask them, do you think?'

‘Hey, you two,' Harry called out to them. ‘Do you want to come to the café with us?'

‘You go on without us, old chap,' Kit called back, his voice carried off by the wind. ‘We'll catch up with you shortly.'

‘No prizes for guessing what they'll be getting up to, the minute our backs are turned!' Harry laughed as they trudged away.

Jess glanced back at Effie. She could just see the top of her dark head peeping out from behind the dune.

Poor Effie. She gave her heart far too easily, and nearly always to the wrong man.

‘I just hope she's careful,' muttered Jess.

Effie watched the others sauntering off, Harry's laughter drifting on the wind towards her.

‘We should go with them,' she said.

‘I'd rather stay here with you.' Kit reached up and twisted a curl of her hair between his fingers.

‘It doesn't seem right to leave them on their own.'

‘They'll be fine.' His fingers trailed along the arch of her neck. ‘What's wrong, darling? Don't you like being here with me?'

‘Yes, of course, but …' If she'd been honest, Effie had thought the seaside trip would be more of a laugh. She'd imagined them all eating chips on the beach, pushing each other into the sea and generally having fun.

But instead Harry, Jess and Max were having all the fun while she was stuck here in the sand dunes with Kit.

Not stuck, she reminded herself. This was what she'd been dreaming about, wasn't it? Just the two of them together, lying in each other's arms. Except in her dreams, Kit didn't kiss her so roughly, or keep trying to maul her through her clothes. She was exhausted from keeping him at bay.

‘Anyway, it's not often we have any time alone these days, what with that ignorant oaf continually following you around,' Kit said.

‘Connor's not an ignorant oaf!' Effie jumped to his defence, then wondered why.

‘Darling, he's a potato farmer's son!'

‘And I'm a potato farmer's daughter,' Effie reminded him quietly.

‘Yes, but you're different.'

‘Am I? How?'

‘Because I love you.'

He started to kiss her again but Effie shifted out of his embrace and sat up. She picked up a stick lying nearby and sketched out a heart in the sand. Inside, she wrote her initials – EOH – and was just about to write Kit's underneath when he said sharply, ‘No, don't do that.'

The coldness in his voice startled her. ‘Why not?'

‘It's what the Canadians do when one of their crew is killed. They carve their initials on the fountain.'

Effie rubbed out the heart with her hand. ‘I'm sorry,' she said. Then, seeing Kit's stony expression, added, ‘But nothing's going to happen to you, is it?'

‘Isn't it? I reckon I'll probably be dead long before the war ends.'

The matter-of-fact way he spoke shocked her. ‘Don't say that!' she said.

‘Why not? It's true.' He sat up, his gaze fixed on the horizon. ‘Do you know how many bomber pilots don't make it back from each mission? Twenty per cent. That means every time I get into the cockpit of that plane, there's a one in five chance I won't come back.'

‘I – I didn't know,' Effie murmured.

‘I've lost count of the number of friends who've been killed over the past three years. One minute you're laughing and joking together, and the next—' He noticed her horrified expression and smiled. ‘Don't look so shocked. I've been lucky so far. But I never know when my luck's going to run out, which is why I try to have some fun while I still can.'

He kissed her again, and there was something possessive about the way his mouth claimed hers, as if he was taking what belonged to him, what was due to him. Effie edged away.

‘Don't,' she said. ‘Someone might see.'

‘There's no one around for miles. Just you and me.' His wolfish grin scared her.

‘All the same, I don't want to.' She tweaked her skirt demurely over her knees.

‘It's all right, darling, I'm not going to force you,' he said. ‘After all, what's a few more hours when I've waited this long?'

Effie stared at him, genuinely puzzled. ‘What do you mean?' she said, and then it dawned on her. ‘You think we're spending the night together?'

Kit laughed harshly. ‘Well, I didn't bring you all this way for the sea air, did I?'

Effie gazed out to sea, too embarrassed to look at him. ‘I told you, I'm not ready.'

‘So when will you be ready?' The impatient edge in his voice made her nervous.

‘I don't know – soon,' she promised.

‘You've been saying that for the past six weeks. I'm starting to get a bit tired of hearing it.' He looked at her. ‘Don't you want me to make love to you, darling?'

Of course she did, Effie thought wretchedly. She wished she could be like the other nurses, merrily sneaking off for weekends with a borrowed wedding ring. But she was a good Catholic girl at heart, whether she liked it or not.

‘I'm scared,' she said.

‘I know, sweetheart, but I'll be gentle with you, I promise.'

‘It's not just that. What if it goes wrong? What if I get pregnant?'

‘You won't, I'll be careful.'

He pushed back the collar of her coat to nuzzle the tender skin of her neck. Effie felt a warm sensation uncurl itself in the pit of her belly as his lips moved up to nibble gently on her earlobe.

‘You see, you like it, don't you?' he coaxed her, his voice husky with desire. ‘I could make it really special for you, if you'll let me …'

She pushed him off so abruptly he almost fell backwards.

Kit's eyes narrowed. ‘I hope you're not going to be a tease?' he accused her.

‘I'm not a tease!'

‘That's what it looks like to me. Giving me the signals, leading me on—'

‘I'm not!'

‘You're here, aren't you?' His eyes were cold. ‘You're not that naïve, sweetheart. You must have known what was going on?'

Effie looked at the sand, her initials rubbed out.

‘I wanted to wait,' she whispered.

‘Save yourself for marriage, you mean?' Kit's mouth curled. ‘God, now you really do sound like a potato farmer's daughter.'

Effie turned on him. ‘That's not fair!'

‘Neither is making me promises and then changing your mind.' Kit shifted towards her. ‘I told you, I don't know how much time I have left. I want to have some fun while I can.'

He kissed her again, so hard she could barely breathe. She tried to push him off but he was too strong for her, pinning her to the ground. She heard the fabric of her skirt tear as his hand fumbled to get underneath it.