We Did What We Could (eBook)

Nancy Wynen (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
306 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-4175-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Three girls who are best friends in an English school love to pull pranks, including setting the headmistress' car on top of a footbridge. Maggie becomes a journalist, a personal assistant to an Air Marshall during the Battle of Britain, and then a military journalist. Agnes is trained as a nurse, serving in London during the early months of the Blitz. Ellie, whose father is a Dutch diplomat, studies language and theater, living in Nazi-occupied Netherlands. From helping a midwife's daughter become presented to the King as a titled lady to a dramatic rescue as the climax of the book, the three girls become women, suffer loves and deaths, using their wits and talents as best they can.

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Maggie's first love is an RAF Spitfire pilot. They are in a car crash that kills her boyfriend. She later marries a man she has seen as a best friend. Because she crew up on a large estate, her father, a Peer of the Realm, insisted that she and her brothers be self-sufficient. She excels at most things, especially driving any vehicle, without thinking any of it is special. She learns a lot about war-time censorship and violence along the way. Agnes is the heiress of a tea company. She had a major fight with her parents, reconciled with them, just before they die in the London Blitz. She goes to nursing school, succeeding by copying the bullying behavior of her mother. She falls in love with an RAF pilot from Poland who dies in an air battle. As a nurse in the RAF, she becomes a front line combat nurse. Ellie gives birth to a boy one year before the War begins. She, along with her university tutor, her grandmother, a housekeeper, and a couple who used to work for her husband's family survive as one household. In an accident with her brother who is a Nazi collaborator, she is blinded. Meanwhile, Agnes has fallen in love with her Polish boyfriend's brother. As a team, Agnes, Maggie and 2 others rescue Ellie by secretly going into occupied territory and using their driving and nursing skills to make the trip successful.

Textauszug

Chapter 2
Summer, 1936, Agnes

Agnes sat at the window feeling empty, sad, and extremely lonely. Ellie was in The Netherlands, and Maggie was in Oxfordshire, while she sat in London.

She stood up when she heard the bell for tea. She checked her dress for wrinkles (such a scandal, wrinkles) before going downstairs for afternoon tea with her parents.

She entered the sitting room and looked at them. They were like wax figures, lacking any movement. She could never sit still for more than a few minutes. Her mother sat in her overstuffed ancient armchair, erect and solemn; her father sat at his desk, looking at the afternoon’s post. The housekeeper, Mrs. Millie, came in with tea and sandwiches.

“Well,” said Father, waving a piece of paper. “As much as we were proud of your Ribbon of Excellence in Mathematics and Science, we are quite distressed by Lady Lattery’s letter about your behavior.” He continued waving the letter. “I can hardly wait to hear how you defend yourself this time. What will people be saying about you?” He sat back, waiting. Her mother said nothing.

Agnes was tired of her father being obsessed with status and personal reputation. When she was a child, he had been fun to play with; now all he wanted to do was impress his colleagues. She was tired of her mother’s imperial attitude towards everyone simply because she was the head of the family’s business. She was tired of being “the poor excuse of a daughter,” not being the perfect little angel.

Agnes replied, “Headmistress was horrid. She deserved what we did. No harm done.”

“No harm done? How shall we ever make a proper lady out of you, Agnes,” her mother asked. “Next year you will be presented to King Edward. There will be outrageous gossip, you know. Lady Lattery will make sure of it.”

“It seems you are more concerned with the gossip than with me. Well, you will be rid of me this week,” Agnes announced. Taking a sandwich offered by Mrs. Millie, she continued, “I can’t go along with all this ‘what would people think’ society fluff any longer. You want me to behave like a dog – like Juno. Behave when commanded, sit in a cage until someone choses to marry me so I can breed little society pups. For all of your perfect public behavior, your private lives seem to me like total misery. That is not the way I want to live. It is not what I want to do.”

“What then?” her parents asked in a chorus of surprise and shock. Their daughter had never spoken to them like that.

“Nursing,” Agnes replied. For the first time in her life she wasn’t as confident as she sounded. But on she went, “maybe even a doctor.”

“Dreadful. We forbid it,” said her father. “We already have our work, our responsibilities, and your duty is to take over the family business in due time.”

“Sorry, but I have already been accepted into St. Bartholomew’s nursing program beginning in September. I’ll stay in the nursing quarters, and Maggie’s aunt, Lady Charlotte Donne, has agreed to my staying with her at Shellings in London until then. I can pack and leave at any time.” Agnes stood, preparing to leave the room.

“Why didn’t Miss Archer tell us this?”

“Because I asked her not to. Because I knew what you would say,” Agnes replied. With that, she went to her room, looked around, and began rearranging things in her trunk. She half expected her mother to come into the room, but no one came, not even a maid with dinner. She went to bed and woke up without feeling any emotion at all. She knew a line had been crossed, but she couldn’t stop now.

Breakfast was served to her in her room as if nothing had happened. Her mother’s lady’s maid helped her get dressed, saying very little. As she left to go downstairs, the maid murmured, “Good luck.”

When she entered the sitting room, she saw Lady Charlotte sitting with her mother.

“I phoned Lady Charlotte to confirm what you had said,” her mother said. “This is what will happen. You are barely seventeen years old, and cannot be officially on your own. You must be eighteen before you can inherit anything, as it is written in your trust accounts. Training expenses will come from that trust, along with your allowance. You may live with Lady Charlotte until you are of age, which we will remind you is next June.

“You will be presented next year, with us sponsoring you.” Agnes wanted to protest, but her mother held up her hand. “You will be presented, not because you want to be, but you shall receive every and all advantages you are entitled to. Even if you do not value it now, every privilege you have will be worth something in the future. That is all we shall say about this. I am leaving the house for the rest of the day, and I expect you will be gone before my return.”

Agnes watched her mother rise slowly, pick up her handbag that doubled as a business case, and go to the front door. Without pausing or looking back, she left.

“Well,” said Charlotte, “Shall we go?”

Speechless, Agnes nodded.

Agnes and Charlotte became good companions for each other. They both felt a bit of reluctance when September brought the first day of the new term at St. Bartholomew’s School of Medicine and Nursing.

Agnes walked slowly through the high arch in the outer walls and into the courtyard of the building complex. She felt the impulsive urge to flee. Agnes thought, of course, that’s how I am usually described – impulsive. Maggie and Ellie weren’t there to talk her out it. She climbed the large multi-level staircase. On each wall was an enormous museum-quality (and sized) painting. All who entered knew this was an institution with history and significance. She made her way to the Nursing School Office.

“Good morning,” smiled the woman at the desk. “Are you a new student?”

Agnes nodded.

“Come this way. You can leave your valise here.”

Agnes followed the woman down a brightly lit white corridor and into an equally brightly lit white room. It was a classroom, like those at St. Martins. She sat in the first empty place that she saw. The girls already in the room sat silently with their own thoughts. A few more girls came in, found seats, and the waiting continued.

With a suddenness that only happens when you wake from a dream, an older woman dressed in a white nurse’s uniform entered the room. She was the woman who interviewed her for admission to the program.

“Welcome, ladies. I am Matron Drenton, the Director of the Nursing School, and your most beloved and most hated vision for the next few years. Behind my back, I know I am called Matron Dreaded or Dreadful. But, because of me, you will become the best nurses in the British Empire.”

My mother all over again, Agnes feared. Matron Drenton continued, “You will be part of an experimental program here. Mornings will be in this classroom. Afternoons and scheduled night duty will be in one of the hospital wards. You and a third-year student will pair up to share ward duty and a bedroom. Two years here gives you a diploma as a general nurse, three years for the full nursing specialty certificate. School starts officially tomorrow. Settle in today and meet your student partner. Until tomorrow then.”

With that, Matron left the room. Another nurse, leading a group of girls in light blue dresses with starched white aprons and caps, quietly entered the room. As the nurse called each name, a girl rose from her seat. A girl in blue walked up to meet her and the two left the room together.

When Agnes’ name was called, a tall, confidant, strong-looking girl with red hair approached her, with a big smile on her face, and they left the room together.

“I’m Emmy, short for Emerald,” she said, leading Agnes down the corridor. “Are you from around here?”

Agnes replied. “I’m Agnes. Not short for anything, just Agnes. And yes, I’m from London.”

“Here we are. You sound posh. What’s your story?”

“Not very interesting. My parents and I didn’t have the same future in mind for me.”

“Well, here we are. Since I am your senior, I have already chosen my bed next to the heater. You’re next to the window. Your uniform is on the bed. Everyone gets small, medium, or large. Matron figures out your size during the admissions interview. This is a medium. Hope she got it right.” Emmy laughed. “Sometimes she doesn’t, and the girl is in a bother about whether to report it or not. Well, we sort that all out quickly.”

“No, it looks like it will fit.” The pale blue dress and white apron looked both welcoming and intimidating. The real sign of a new life. Her curly brown hair needed to be tightly pinned to fit into the white cap. With Emmy willing to help her get it done, Agnes was feeling less nervous. Emmy’s warm greetings made her feel almost relaxed.

The girls began making friends that night over dinner. The next morning was like any class at school. The afternoon round was in the general women’s ward. The new students learned how to bathe and feed patients, and...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.12.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Historische Romane
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-4175-9 / 1098341759
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-4175-6 / 9781098341756