To Have and To Hold. Anne Bennett

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      ‘Why?’ Carmel demanded. ‘You don’t even know me.’

      ‘Maybe I was trying to get to know you.’

      ‘I don’t see the purpose of it.’

      ‘It’s just…it’s what people do, that’s all.’

      ‘It’s not what this person does,’ Carmel snapped. She looked around frantically for the others, but found herself somehow positioned at the edge of the group with other people in front of her, separating her from her friends. Everyone was singing with gusto about it being a long way to Tipperary.

      Paul, though taken aback by Carmel’s response to his innocent questions, was not one for giving up easily, especially with a girl as lovely-looking as Carmel. He thought maybe she was shy and so he drew her away from the group slightly and said, ‘Please don’t be offended. I really meant no harm. It’s just that I am interested in people. It’s partly why I want to be a doctor, I suppose, and with you in the same line of work, as it were, and a room-mate of Lois’s, I just thought it would be nice to get to know you a little better.’

      ‘So now you know I’m not worth the effort.’

      Paul gave a slightly hesitant laugh as he said, ‘Surely, Carmel, I should be the judge of that?’

      ‘No,’ Carmel said. ‘I should. I really have no wish to talk to you further and I want to rejoin my friends.’

      That wasn’t so easy, however, because there was a body of people in front of her that she couldn’t push past and so she stood awkwardly on the edge of the group with Paul beside her. He was wondering how in heaven’s name he could break down this delicious-looking girl’s reserve, but Carmel had many secrets in her past she had no intention of sharing with a virtual stranger.

      The musicians finished and began tidying away. Carmel sighed. Now perhaps she could meet up with the others and they could all go home, away from this irritating man and his constant questions, but as she thought this, the strains of a brass band could be heard in the distance and she lifted her head to listen.

      ‘That’s the Sally Army playing “Jerusalem”,’ Paul told Carmel, seeing her interest.

      ‘Sally Army?’

      ‘Salvation Army I mean really,’ Paul said. ‘But you would hardly knew about those either, coming from Ireland. They come here every Saturday evening and collect up all the hungry and destitute, the sort of person you or I would cross the street to avoid, for they are usually none too clean and alive with vermin. The Salvation Army don’t seem to care about that, and they will take these people back to the Citadel, which is what they call their headquarters, and give them hot broth and bread, and try and find the especially vulnerable a bed for the night.’

      It happened just as Paul said. From the minute the Salvation Army swung into view, singing with all their might, tramps began emerging from every corner.

      However, some of the crowd had begun to melt away and Carmel was able to push past the rest and rejoin her friends again. Unseen by Carmel, Lois raised her eyebrows quizzically at her cousin and he shook his head slightly.

      Jane was saying to Carmel, ‘D’you want to stay and sing some more?’

      ‘I don’t know any of these,’ Carmel said truthfully as the band announced they would be singing ‘The Old Rugged Cross’. ‘I’m ready to call it a day if you are.’

      ‘But the night is young yet,’ Paul said. ‘How about a drink to round it off?’

      Alone, Carmel would have refused. She had a horror of drink and drunks and pubs, but she wasn’t alone and it wasn’t totally her decision to make.

      Paul turned pleading eyes on Lois and she knew what he wanted. So, despite the early start Carmel would have in the morning, Lois said a drink would be just the job. Both Sylvia and Jane too had seen where Paul’s interest lay, and so they backed Lois up and Carmel knew the decision had been made. Without being churlish and risk alienating her friends, she would have to go along with it. However, she thought firmly, there was no way that she would drink anything even mildly alcoholic and she would be adamant about that.

      Paul had one arm linked with Lois and when he extended his other for Carmel, she pretended not to see it, and Sylvia, feeling sorry for the rebuff, took hold of it instead. Jane and Carmel walked behind, Jane shaking her head at Carmel’s foolishness.

      ‘Our Paul is really keen on you,’ Lois said as she and Carmel made their way to work a couple of days after her initial visit to the Bull Ring.

      ‘I hope you told him that I’m a hopeless case.’

      ‘No,’ Lois said. ‘But then he wouldn’t listen if I did.’

      Carmel shrugged. ‘He’s going to be one disappointed man then, isn’t he?’

      ‘Carmel…’

      ‘No, Lois, I’ve told you, but you don’t seem to understand it,’ Carmel said hotly. ‘I’m not interested in Paul, or any other man—not now, not ever. Anyway, isn’t there some rule about not fraternising with the doctors?’

      ‘Yeah, for all the notice anyone takes of it,’ Lois said. ‘Some girls come into nursing and their prime objective is to hook a nice eligible and potentially rich doctor.’

      ‘Surely not?’

      ‘No, straight up,’ Lois said. ‘I really wanted to nurse, but I bet Jane would jack the whole thing in if the right man came along, doctor or otherwise. You heard what she said the other day and it wasn’t totally in jest.’

      ‘I was a bit shocked,’ Carmel said.

      ‘Why?’ Lois said. ‘She is eighteen. Lots of girls our age are at least going steady, or else engaged, if not married. She might as well do something useful while she waits for Mr Right to sweep her off her feet.’

      ‘I suppose.’

      ‘I am more committed than that and I know you are, but I want to have some fun as well.’

      ‘I don’t mind fun,’ Carmel protested. ‘I really enjoyed Saturday.’

      ‘Till Paul came,’ Lois said. ‘You changed totally then.’

      ‘Well, yes, if you like,’ Carmel said. ‘I enjoyed it till Paul came. He sort of muscled in and took over, like men always do.’

      ‘I didn’t see Paul doing that,’ Lois said. ‘You seem to have a real downer of the whole male race.’

      ‘You have it at last,’ Carmel said. ‘And you would be doing your cousin a service if you were to tell him that.’

      In the end, Lois decided to tell Paul, because she knew that it would be more unkind to allow him to harbour false hopes. She knew, but hadn’t told Carmel yet, that soon she would see more of Paul than she might like, because he had been assigned to work at the General Hospital from the autumn.

      However, Paul was more upset than Lois had bargained for when she stressed how Carmel felt.

      ‘Look, СКАЧАТЬ