A Sister's War by Molly Green (the reading strategies book txt) 📕

‘How long do you think it will be before I can use it properly?’ Ronnie managed.

‘It could be several months.’

Ronnie gave a nervous laugh. ‘Months? I can’t be away that long because there’s only two of them. We’re a team of three. We all work together for both boats. They can’t manage on their own all that time.’

‘I’m afraid they’ll have to – or get someone in your place. I know too well what heavy work is involved from the boaters who come in here having had nasty accidents. Big heavy chaps, too.’ He looked down at her, his eyes twinkling. ‘And you, Miss Linfoot, are no match, trying to do men’s work. So dry your tears and I’ll look in tomorrow.’ He straightened up and left.

Trying to do men’s work. A flare of temper rose inside her. She felt as though she was coming alive again after having no recollection at all of how she’d been brought here. Her head cleared. She hadn’t been trying all these months – she’d been doing it. Even Dora said she was doing a good job. No. There was no doubt in her mind she’d be going back to the boats. Be with Jess and Sally. Continue to do her bit in the war that she was secretly proud of and wanting Maman and her sisters to understand and be proud of her too. And Michael. She hadn’t even had a chance to answer his letter.

She swallowed. She didn’t even have his letter. She had no address – no way of contacting him. She’d never be able to tell him how sorry she was she’d been so hateful. She’d let him slip through her fingers because of her own stupidity. Only now did she realise something momentous.

She loved him.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Downe, near Bromley

The taxi driver pulled up outside Ronnie’s home. He sprang out to take her rucksack and left it on the doorstep while she paid him.

‘Thank you, miss.’ He glanced at her arm. ‘You take care of yourself, now.’

Coming home after a long spell working ten, sometimes twelve or more hours a day with no leave, and then the hospital, felt very strange. Maman would want to know every detail of how she came to have the accident. Ronnie sighed, then rang the bell. Almost immediately the door flew open and Rusty hurled himself on her, barking joyfully.

‘Rusty! Down, boy!’

‘Véronique! My little girl! I have been waiting for this moment. Entre, chérie.’ Simone glanced at her arm. ‘But you are in the sling.’

‘That’s good,’ Ronnie said. ‘It reminds me to be careful with it.’ She gave her mother an awkward peck on the cheek.

‘You have worried me half to death,’ her mother said as she took Ronnie’s bag. ‘Come into the front room. You must tell me all about it when I have made the tea. Did they tell you I came to the hospital?’

‘Yes, I wish they’d woken me. I’d love to have seen you. It was a shame you had a wasted journey.’

Her mother smiled. ‘Non, it was no waste. I could see for myself my daughter and speak to the doctor. And I telephoned every day. Did they tell you?’

‘Yes,’ Ronnie said. ‘I always sent my love to you.’

‘That bit they did not say.’

‘I expect they’re very busy.’

Ronnie allowed herself to be guided to her father’s chair, Simone chattering non-stop. She was grateful when her mother disappeared to the kitchen. She needed a few minutes to compose herself before Maman began her round of questions.

‘When the hospital rang and told me what happened, my first thought was that I should never have let you go to those canals in the first place,’ Simone said as she brought in a tray of tea. ‘If your father is looking down on me, he will blame me.’

‘That’s nonsense, Maman. I love the work. It’s hard but it’s so satisfying. And the rest of the girls are nice. They’re from all walks of life but that’s what makes them so interesting.’ She wouldn’t mention Angela, nor would she say at this point that she fully intended to go back as soon as her hand healed. Maman wasn’t in the right sort of mood, and Ronnie was too tired to argue.

Simone poured the tea and handed her a cup. Ronnie couldn’t remember the last time her mother had made her a cup or fussed over her. She began to think her mother really had been worried.

‘The very nice doctor said you need rest and that’s what your maman is here for.’ Simone gave Ronnie a sharp look after she’d finished describing the explosion. ‘What is wrong with your eyes, chérie? They are as red as tomatoes.’

‘It’s irritation from all the dust and smoke that filled the cabin from the explosion. It’ll go in a few days, but I have to put drops in them.’

‘Do they hurt?’

‘They sting. But I can see, if that’s what you mean.’ Ronnie gave a short laugh.

‘And your hand?’

‘It’s really sore now the numbing injections have worn off. But Mr Ferris said any pain is good because it means the nerves are coming back.’

‘You could have lost your hand … or the use of it.’

‘No, Maman. Mr Ferris is one of the top surgeons for this sort of thing, but the district nurse will be coming every day to clean the wound and check for any signs of infection.’

‘I am relieved to hear that,’ Simone said. ‘And now, chérie, I am sending you straight to bed. It is all made clean for you.’

Ronnie began to protest, but Simone held up her hand.

‘You will not argue with your maman,’ she said. ‘These are my instructions from your Mr Ferris, and I will follow them.’

Ronnie slept for several hours and when she finally awoke at six o’clock she heard her mother’s tread up the staircase.

‘I have made you a soft-boiled egg and soldiers like I did when you were a little girl,’