midwife » michael gray. [completed]

CHAPTER TWENTY.

→ CHAPTER TWENTY; OVERHEARING CONVERSATIONS.

Father Hughes was waiting on the steps for Hannah at bang on eight in the morning. For the whole morning since waking up, Hannah had not been looking forward to spending the day with Father Hughes. She knew that there was something suspicious about him: the way he grinned, acted, walked. The Sister's seemed perfectly content with Father Hughes and could not see any faults with him - that was only because he was a well-respected member of the church who always did his bit, including helping orphaned children. The Sister's would contain to remain unconscious to his obvious strangeness, simply because they need the money to continue with the mother and baby homes. The maternity home was already struggling, and the council weren't doing their bit when it came to helping the mothers of Small Heath, leaving it all down to the convent and whoever else would help raise money.

"It's lovely to see you Nurse Anderson," Father Hughes said, holding his hand out for Hannah to shake. "You look beautiful today, may I add."

"It's Hannah," she told him, not returning the comment that he had made. "Where are we going first?" Her words were blunt and monotone, showing Father Hughes that Hannah obviously didn't want to be there. She would have rather spent the day at the hospital scrubbing blood from the hospital bed sheets - it was more entertaining than Father Hughes.

Father Hughes pointed towards his car and Hannah become rigid, she didn't want to be in his company let alone a small, restricted area. "We are having a meeting with the couple who own the community centre to see if we can arrange some sort of fundraising event. I've heard that baby competitions are getting popular."

Hannah nodded her head as she got herself comfortable in the car and far away from Father Hughes.

A one-sided discussion was the only conversation that was made during the journey to the community centre. Father Hughes asked Hannah questions about midwifery, her personal life, London and other themes that didn't concern him. Hannah merely replied with a hum or a one-worded answer. Her thoughts were engrossed on Michael and how she felt awful for letting him down today. A trip down to London seemed perfect but of course, she had been given the chore of being with Father Hughes all day. The only thing that was going to get her through the excruciating hours would be the fact that she was going to see Michael later in the evening and the two of them were going to spend some well-deserved personal time together, along with a date at the cinema if either one of then felt up to it attending. Dates had become less common due to the increase in business over at the Shelby place but occasionally, Michael found the time to take Hannah out for some dinner or lunch – the two of them even attending the tea shop that they first visited during their second encounter when she had been blissfully unaware of Michael's dodgy dealings. There were even a couple of times where Michael attempted to cook dinner, but Hannah secretly knew that he recruited Esme and Polly to help him out seen as he hadn't cooked in years. Still, she remained silent and thanked him.

During the meeting, Hannah barely got a chance to talk, Father Hughes doing all of the deals for her. There was no point Hannah being there, but she didn't dare say anything to Sister Maria. The older woman had threatened Hannah with a strike if she turned up late for work again and demanded an explanation. Hannah would have been kicked out on the streets if she had told Sister Maria that she had been sleeping with Michael the morning she was supposed to be getting her rota and arranging clinic.

"So, we can have the building for the day for free?" Hannah finally raised her voice and quietened Father Hughes as she spoke to the nice ageing couple. Hannah had become friends with the two of them due to them letting the convent use the place for clinic.

"Yes, that's fine by us. We would expect everything to be exactly how it was before the event started but I'm sure you lovely nurses can do that," Mr. Barnes said, smiling kindly at Hannah. "Do you know what you are planning to do yet?"