Connie’s Courage. Annie Groves

often spending their rare time off together.

      ‘Look out, Sister’s watching us,’ Vera muttered warningly out of the corner of her mouth.

      Diligently Connie bent over her task, grimacing as the hot, soapy water stung her raw hands.

      We might as well be skivvies in service,’ she complained to Mavis and Josie, later that evening.

      ‘I spent hours polishing the brass this morning, and then Sister came and told me to do it all again.’

      ‘You’ll never guess what!’ Vera interrupted her excitedly, as she burst into their room. ‘Remember that singer we saw at the music hall, George Lashwood, well, he’s going to be singing at the Palais dance hall, a week Saturday just for the one night!’

      ‘Saturday! My next day off isn’t until a week Wednesday,’ Connie told her in disappointment. ‘And neither is yours.’

      ‘Who needs a day? We all finish our shifts at three that day, I’ve checked, and we aren’t on again until six the next morning, so that means we could easily go into town without being missed!’

      ‘You mean the four of us should sneak out without telling anyone?’ Connie questioned frowningly.

      Mavis was already shaking her head, looking shocked, ‘Oh, Vera, how can you even suggest such a thing! We aren’t allowed to leave the hospital unless we have been given permission, you know that!’

      ‘So, who’s to know!’ Vera demanded, shrugging impatiently. ‘And anyway, what’s the harm? After skivvying away here like they make us do, I reckon we deserve a bit o’ fun? Connie’ll come, won’t you, Connie?’

      ‘Connie, don’t listen to her,’ Mavis begged.

      ‘You’ve already been in trouble twice – and if you were to get caught …’

      ‘Come on, Connie. I dare you!’ Vera challenged her.

      Connie’s heart sank. Vera was putting her in a very difficult position. Part of her wanted to refuse, but the stubborn, rebellious streak which had caused her so much trouble in the past, was whispering in her ear, and goading her not to lose face by refusing Vera’s dare!

      ‘Stop nagging me, Mavis, I’m going!’

      As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Connie regretted them, but it was too late to call them back. Vera was looking triumphant whilst Mavis looked worried and upset.

      ‘Oh, Connie!’ she protested unhappily. ‘You really shouldn’t, you know!’

      Mavis had that look on her face again that reminded Connie far too much of the kind of look Ellie used to give her. In fact, she decided crossly, Mavis was getting altogether far too like Ellie. Telling her what to do! Claiming to know what was best for her! Always being the ‘good’ one who never did anything wrong! She had even developed the same irritating inclination to act as Connie’s conscience!

      Although she loved and missed her sister, deep down inside Connie still felt the pain of Ellie’s refusal to make it possible for them all to go home and live with their father, instead of being farmed out with their aunts and uncles. Of course, it had suited Ellie not to do anything because she had been quite happy living with their rich Aunt and Uncle Parkes who had spoiled her. It was Connie’s resentment about Ellie’s behaviour that sparked dangerously inside her now, making her reject Mavis’s well-intentioned warning.

      ‘Vera’s right,’ she claimed stubbornly. ‘It’s time we had some fun!’

      The anxiety in Mavis’s eyes deepened, but Connie was in the grip of a mood of defiance and recklessness.

      ‘So I take it you two aren’t coming with us then?’ Vera challenged Josie and Mavis.

      ‘I daren’t.’ Josie shook her head. ‘Me auntie would never forgive me if I was to get thrown out of here, and me stepma would never let us go back.’

      ‘And of course there’s no need to ask whether you’re coming, Miss Goody Two Shoes,’ Vera taunted Mavis.

      ‘It’s against the rules,’ Mavis answered her firmly.

      ‘Well, it’s you who will miss a good night out,’ Vera told her, giving an exaggerated shrug of her shoulders.

      ‘You’ll be in very serious trouble if you get found out,’ Mavis warned, as Vera got up from the table and Connie followed her.

      ‘No one’s going to find out!’ Vera told her dismissively. ‘And even if they do, we don’t care, do we, Connie. Sick of this place I am.’ As they left the room, she added to Connie, ‘It isn’t as though Sister guards the door or anything. And they can’t lock it, can they, because of the night staff?’

      Giggling together they hurried down the corridor, whilst Connie ignored the small inner voice trying to warn her that she was asking for trouble.

      ‘I’m on one of the Nightingale Wards this afternoon, what about you?’ Josie asked, as she and Mavis caught up with them, a few moments later.

      ‘We’re on the same,’ Connie told her, trying not to laugh as Vera pulled a mocking face behind Mavis’s back, when she answered that she was working in the operating theatre.

      As they came up from the tunnel that connected the nurses’ home to the hospital, Mavis almost bumped into a young policeman who was standing close to the tunnel entrance, holding his helmet beneath his arm.

      ‘Steady, miss! I mean, Nurse,’ he apologised, dipping his head politely, his face red with self-conscious embarrassment. His reaction caused first Vera, and then Connie, to burst out into fresh giggles.

      ‘Ouch, Mavis, I think he took a bit of a shine to you,’ Connie teased her good-naturedly.

      ‘Yes, a big red shine by the looks of his face!’ Vera added, as they both went into gales of laughter.

      There was a faint tinge of colour on Mavis’s own face, but she maintained her dignity, and kept her head held high as she stepped past the unfortunate young man, leaving Vera and Connie to giggle in her wake.

      Cursing himself under his breath, Frank Lewis watched the girls walk away from him. He had only been working in the area for a few days, and his sergeant had told him that the hospital would be part of his regular beat.

      He was waiting for his sergeant now, the older man having told him that he had a bit o’ business to attend to. Frank suspected that the bit of business was probably a cup of tea and a gossip, but he knew better than to suggest as much.

      If all the nurses were as pretty as the serious-eyed brunette he had just bumped into, his hospital beat was going to be a very pleasant one indeed!

      ‘Oh, that Sister Miller, she knew my shift was finished, but she made me go and clean the sinks before she’d let me go,’ Connie puffed, as she hurried into the bedroom and immediately began to pull off her cap and gown and start to tidy herself up.

      ‘I told my ward sister that I’d got me monthlies,’ Vera giggled. ‘I told her I were too sick to finish me shift and that I might be sick. Mind you, I’d have loved to see the face of those miserable besoms I’ve had to run round after this week, if I had been!’ Vera continued. ‘Women’s wards, I hate em’. You don’t know how lucky you are working on men s, Connie.’

      ‘Vera, Connie, please don’t do this,’ Mavis begged them worriedly. ‘If anyone should find out …’

      ‘No one’s going to find out!’ Vera told her, confidently tossing her head. ‘Connie’s finished her shift, and I’m in me bed poorly.’

      Behind Mavis’s back, Vera pulled a face at Connie.

      ‘Oh, I do hope you don’t get into trouble,’ Josie told them. ‘Mavis told me this morning that she was really worried about what you’re doing and that she thinks it is wrong!’

      Connie could see a pink