Through the Storm by Maureen Lee Page A

in later to make you a cup of tea.’
    ‘Tell her not to bother,’ Jimmy shouted, but the back door had already closed. He groaned. Dominic almost certainly hadn’t heard.
    It was almost six o’clock by the time Kitty arrived home, all dolled up in a green and white striped frock and her own clothes rolled up underneath her arm. ‘Where on earth have you been?’ he demanded indignantly. ‘You’ve been gone more than twelve hours!’
    ‘We don’t finish till four, do we, Dad? Before I left, I had a little chat with one of the patients, then I decided to walk home. I was really in need of some fresh air to clear me head.’ She could still smell the hospital even now, a mixture of disinfectant and urine.
    ‘You had a little chat, then you walked home? But what about me?’ Jimmy regarded his tired, flushed daughter with mounting irritation.
    ‘What about you?’ she frowned.
    ‘As far as you were concerned, I could have still been in bed, waiting for you to help me downstairs. It seems to me you forgot your ould dad’s existence. What’s he like, this Jack Tar you were chatting to? Handsome, is he?’ He was terrified he would lose her, that she’d fall in love with someone else and Jimmy would no longer be the centre of her universe.
    She made a funny little movement with her mouth that he’d never seen before. It could almost have been contempt. ‘I don’t know what he looks like, Dad. He hasn’t got a face.’
    With a pang, Jimmy knew that she was already partially lost. It was nothing to do with love. She’d discovered there were other people in the world who needed her more than he did.
    ‘How did you get on in the job?’ he asked grudgingly.
    ‘Oh, Dad!’ Jimmy jealously noticed the way her face lit up and her eyes shone. ‘I made a right ould mess of things at first.’ She explained about the uniform and the floors. ‘But once I got the hang of it, well sort of, I really enjoyed it. Guess what me and Harriet did just before we left?
We took the temperatures of one entire ward!
Harriet read the thermometer, and I wrote it on the chart. Oh, I love it there, Dad, I really do. I can’t wait to get back tomorrow.’
    ‘Well, I’m glad you like it, luv.’ He told himself he was glad, even though her happiness was at his expense.
    ‘Here’s me,’ she said suddenly, ‘been home nearly ten minutes and I haven’t even started on your tea.’
    ‘It’s all right, luv, I’m not hungry.’ She’d left a vegetable casserole in the oven for his dinner, and on top of that, people had been bringing him food all day long. In the end, he’d begun to feel a bit like a stray dog.
    ‘How did you manage the stairs, anyroad?’ she asked. If the truth be known, she’d scarcely thought about her dad all day. Strangely enough, she didn’t feel all that guilty.
    ‘Vera Dodds helped me down.’ Never, in a million years, would he reveal she’d carried him.
    Later on, when he announced he was going to the King’s Arms for a pint, Kitty said, ‘Y’won’t be back late, will you, Dad? I want to get to bed dead early tonight. I feel fair whacked.’
    Jimmy took a deep breath. ‘You go to bed whenever you like, luv. I’ll see to meself, even if I have to crawl upstairs.’ In response to her startled expression, he added, ‘Well, I’ll have to start learning to manage on me own, won’t I? You’re doing a good job in that hospital.’ Now he thought about it, he felt quite proud. Fancy her taking temperatures, just like a proper nurse! He couldn’t wait to tell his mates in the pub. He thought about the sailor without a face and felt more than a little ashamed of the way he’d behaved when she first came home.
    Unfortunately, Jessica’s plans for earning a living with the van came to naught. Offering a small delivery service had seemed a perfect way to make a living. As Penny loved going for rides, she could have taken her daughter with her. Jessica knew the haulage business inside out and had