"I've been thinking" Peter suddenly announced as they walked hand in hand along the Dock Road after what had been rather pleasant evening of the cinema and skipping dinner straight to ice cream swimming in strawberry sauce and those wafers that Peter could not bear but Chummy loved.
"Don't wound yourself doing it!" Chummy quipped, squeezing his hand just to make absolutely sure he knew she was teasing him as she could never quite be sure even now. Ever so gently he swung her arm slightly in response, signalling he did and had certainly not taken offence. That was one thing he was intent on working on - her hesitance in speaking for fear of causing offence with most innocuous, but mostly funny, comments.
"You know I have few days off at the end of the month?" he said, counting down the days, hours, minutes to four whole days of getting out of bed without the alarm clock rudely interrupting his peace and not having to suffer Poplar's cold nights as summer slowly turned the corner into autumn.
"Yes", she replied with a sigh, having been utterly and almost beside herself with jealously that he had four whole days to himself and wondering perhaps if she might swop a shift with one of the girls to see if she could have perhaps an afternoon with him.
"Do think Sister Julienne might let you have those days off too?" Peter inquired as the continued to stroll along, thinking the answer would probably be no but the prospect of her company where he was going was worth the question.
"Well we are due to have visitors from Chichester", she began, thinking the possibility through. "More Nuns, but qualified nurses and midwives. Coming up for the experience Sister Evangelina said. I might be able to get something. What for?" She was also wondering, perhaps, that he too was considering afternoons off.
"Mum and Dad are going to the farm and they invited me and Mum wondered whether you would like to come too. Dad's going to borrow next door's car to drive us down".
"Really?" To say she was surprised was an understatement.
"Yes really" he reassured. "For the whole four days. You know Mum and Dad like you and I'd like you to meet my aunt and uncle and see the farm too". He was looking forward to going back to a place where, every Summer without fail, he would be taken on holiday.
"Will they mind?" Chummy asked, always conscious that she might be seen as being in the way. It was already very clear how close a family he had, but to suddenly invite this stranger in? Those in jokes she was never included in, those family stories that she could not contribute to.
"Not in the least. Why wouldn't my family want to meet my wife?" The word 'wife' had slipped out inadvertently. There had been that proposal and that rejection and since then he had not said word about it anymore and she was too frightened to bring up the subject again. Just to stand in the fields and breathe truly fresh air would be phenomenal.
"Peter…" she started slowing her pace to a stop and his hand slipped from hers as he walked on, not realising.
"I know" he replied, stopping himself a few paces later. "Camilla", he continued, turning so he was facing her and took those two steps back, keeping his voice low so the occasional person that passed them would not hear. "What's been said has been said and what's done has been done and I can't change it yet. I'm just glad you stood up for yourself and we are still here today".
She smiled briefly, her mother having not telephoned or visited since that last time when she had come for tea at Nonnatus again and had witnessed her daughter walking arm in arm with 'The Constable' again; troubles temporarily forgotten until she breathed through her explanation to him that she had not yet told her mother that they were back together.
"You know how I feel already Camilla and all of that hasn't changed it underneath" he carried on, almost whispering. "All you have to do is say when" he concluded as she nodded again.
"Now come on!" Peter said brightly, taking hold of her hand again. "If I don't have you back by eight there will be no way Sister Julienne will give you the time off, especially not with me!"
He had left her at the top of the steps with a kiss goodbye that did not step over too many boundaries for an early Summer's evening with every intention of popping into his parents on the way back to Empson Street to tell them that he had asked her about coming with them.
"To travel alone with him?" were the first words Sister Julienne uttered after Chummy had politely asked for a moment with the Sister, determined to ask as quickly as possible and to reiterate her invitation, if only to give the Noakes' a quick answer even though it might well be 'no' after all.
"Oh! No Sister! Certainly not" Chummy replied as she settled into her seat in Sister Julienne's office. Travel alone with a man? No Sister would certainly not allow that. "With his parents. His Pa has borrowed a car and he was going to drive us all down there".
"Well if that is the case, and I have no doubt otherwise Nurse Browne, I do feel we will be almost bursting at the seams at the time. I was told there would be three coming up from Chichester but I am now told," the Sister said gesturing with a handwritten note, "that there will now be five joining us for almost two weeks".
"Five?"
"Yes" the Sister replied, actually quite pleased that they would be abundant in numbers for a change. "I am going to have to draft in assistance - namely yours in exchange Nurse Browne and any other volunteers you can personally round up - to make sure all the spare bedrooms are fit for habitation but after that I feel then I can allow you the time".
Chummy smiled. "I will be happy to help. Thank you Sister".
"In fact" Sister Julienne carried on, "I will probably be authorising more afternoons off than ever!"
Chummy positively bounced up the stairs and along the corridor to her room at the very end. She almost made it when Jenny and Trixie shot out of the latter's room and into her path. It was more by luck that judgment that they did not crash into each other.
"What ho girls!" Chummy exclaimed probably too loudly, disconcerted at their sudden appearance.
"We want a word with you" Trixie said taking her by the arm and pulling her into her bedroom, catapulting Chummy ungraciously onto her bed.
"Has he proposed again yet?" Trixie asked, plonking herself down next her. Jenny sat the other side, wondering whether Trixie had a subtle bone in her body after their painstaking discussion as to how they were going to approach the subject just a few minutes before. Chummy had already tearfully confessed all of her rejection of his proposal in the days after her mother's visit and whilst the girls had been free with tissues, hugs and words of sympathy they were also determined to see a change as well in their friend's arrangements if they could help it. If pinning her down was going to do it, then so be it.
"No" Chummy sighed. "One doesn't think he will for a long while yet if he will at all". Even though he had more than indicated, just an hour or so early that all she had to do was tell him she was ready; Chummy herself was never convinced she would have the courage, knowing what might come of it on more of a wider scale. Once she perhaps understood what 'love' was then maybe she would be feel that the future with him was more accessible.
"Are you serious?!" Trixie exclaimed.
"Trixie!" Jenny scolded, gently resting her hand on Chummy's arm. "You two are perfect for each other and we would all like to be dolled up to go to a wedding sooner rather than later".
Chummy looked at both her friends and nodded. "He has invited me to go the farm with him and his parents in a couple of weeks. To meet his aunt and uncle".
"Well that means something surely?" Jenny questioned as Chummy felt Trixie hold onto her other arm. "Has Sister Julienne said you can go?"
"Yes" she replied, happy that she had but still apprehensive regardless. It was meeting new people again.
"A little bit of strength is all you need" Trixie replied. "And if you don't have it, then we're offering it free of charge! You only have to ask".
Chummy always knew, no matter what else was going on in her world, that she could rely on her friends. These were, after all, the only true, real, friends that she had had all her life.
She might be taking them up on the offer though, really quite shortly.
