The Angels of Lovely Lane by Nadine Dorries Page A

apron and helping Mummy. Mrs Armitage made it for me. She said I was her youngest nurse. And I just loved helping and driving into Bolton to your house. Such a bonus, I remember, when we had petrol and didn’t have to cycle.’
    ‘I couldn’t think of doing anything more worthwhile.’ Roland opened the back door of his car and threw his briefcase on to the seat. ‘There was something in The Times this week about restructuring the state registered nurse syllabus. Nurses are to take on some of the work undertaken by doctors. The NHS has a bit of a crisis on its hands, with the shortage of young men. We lost some of Britain’s best brains during the war.’
    ‘Surely plenty of young women could train as doctors?’ Victoria felt slightly miffed.
    ‘Oh, indeed, and they are, lots of them now. Most become GPs, but even then it’s the old story. They marry and leave to start families of their own. Have you considered becoming a doctor?’
    Victoria looked up at the gathering clouds scudding across the sky. A shadow fell across the drive. ‘No. I want to be like my mother.’
    Roland smiled at her tenacity. ‘Well, for what it’s worth, I think it’s a good idea. My father always spoke very highly of your mother. She left an impression – well, you both did, actually.’ His voice had dropped as he kicked up some loose gravel with the toe of his shoe. He was gazing at Victoria’s hair, and he was overcome by an urge to reach out and remove the pin sticking out from the back of her neatly coiffed roll and watch it tumble.
    Their eyes met and Victoria smiled for the first time since Roland had emerged from the meeting with her father. He smiled back at her and the warmth in his eyes made her feel lighter. Less troubled. ‘I know I want to become a nurse but I’m not sure how to go about it. Where would I go?’
    Roland, as keen as mustard to be useful, seized his opportunity. ‘Well, I think I may be able to help you there. My brother Edward is a doctor at St Angelus in Liverpool. I could make some enquiries, if you like? You’d be close enough to return home sometimes, but far enough away to put some space between you and Baker Hall and all that’s going on here.’
    ‘Would you mind awfully?’ Victoria cherished her mother’s spirit, and held her heart in her own. She knew now that she would not stop until she got what she wanted. Nursing would become her vocation. It would give purpose to her presently empty life.
    Roland wished he hadn’t been so impetuous. If he could have done it without being noticed, he would have kicked himself. In wanting to help her, help this girl he had come to like so much, he now risked losing her. With his own promise of speaking to his brother and making enquiries about a nursing course at St Angelus, he was sending her away. Edward’s way.
    *
    As Roland rang the bell, the dogs barked frantically.
    ‘You do know he’s sweet on you?’ Aunt Minnie peered at Victoria as she fastened the lid on her suitcase.
    ‘I do.’ Victoria picked up the case, testing the weight.
    ‘Well then?’ Aunt Minnie took her niece’s gloves from the bed and held them out to her.
    ‘Well then what?’
    Victoria and Roland had met a dozen times since that first day. He had driven her to Liverpool for her interview, taken her for dinner with his brother Edward, and been there for her every step of the way. She had told no one. Aunt Minnie and her father thought she was visiting a school friend in Manchester.
    ‘You know perfectly well what. Are you sweet on him? Because if you are, please be careful. Your father would never approve, and for that matter nor would I.’
    ‘Why ever not? Because he doesn’t have a title, or land, or money?’ There was a chill to Victoria’s voice that her aunt had never heard before. Victoria reached out and took the gloves and felt immediately guilty. ‘If Father thinks Roland is good enough to handle our financial and legal affairs, why would he not be good