by Maggie Craig
‘We could court controversy there, you know. Especially when we start giving advice about birth control.’
Liz lifted her chin. ‘I’ve never been afraid of a fight. Especially in support of a just cause.’
‘I know,’ he said admiringly. ‘That’s one of the many reasons why I love you.’
He got another kiss for that. Then Liz continued to enumerate her list of requirements.
‘If we have children I’m going back to work once they’re old enough.’
‘Fine by me,’ he said equably.
‘Are you going to agree with everything I say?’ she demanded.
‘Och, no!’ His eyes crinkled at the corners. ‘I’m looking forward to some really good arguments.’ He raised his eyebrows at her. ‘Especially the making up afterwards.’
Liz dropped the belligerent attitude. ‘Oh, Adam Buchanan. I love you!’
‘You will keep telling me that, won’t you?’ He glanced across at the streetlight on the edge of the pavement. ‘Do you remember the night of the Athenia?
‘I’ll never forget it. We walked up the road arm in arm in the blackout and you told me that one day the lights would come on again. And they have,’ she finished happily, smiling up at him.
‘For both of us,’ he agreed. He held out his hand. ‘Come on, Liz. Let’s go home.’
oOo
Author’s Note
The characters in this story spring from the imagination of the author. Their activities during the Clydebank Blitz are also fictional, but they were inspired by the real-life gallantry of a nurse and a group of medical students who risked their own lives to go to the aid of the injured. Their true story is recounted in I M M McPhail’s definitive The Clydebank Blitz.
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank Grace Howie, Joen McFarlane and Jean Morrison for telling me of their experiences as wartime nurses. Among many other things, they spoke of being on duty at Rottenrow Maternity Hospital in Glasgow during the Clydebank Blitz, training and working as VADs and living and working in the Western Infirmary as student nurses. Thanks for the yellow liver, Jean!
Andrew Hamilton told me what it was like to be walking up Kilbowie Road as the bombs were dropping. Maisie Nicoll, née Swan, was also in the thick of things. She gave me many lovely anecdotes, several of which have found their way into this book. All gave me a great deal of information and not a little inspiration.
I should also like to express my thanks to all my writing friends for much help, support and encouragement, particularly my adverbial, medical and spiritual advisers. They know who they are.
When the Lights Come On Again by Maggie Craig
Copyright (c) Maggie Craig 2012
This book was first published in print form
by Headline Publishing.
Original version and this new revised digital edition
(c) 1999 & 2012 by Maggie Craig.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
This book is a work of fiction. All characters and events within it,
other than those clearly in the public domain,
are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.
The cover of this eBook is from a contemporary photo of the Clydebank Blitz,
‘Leaving Radnor Street’, and is used courtesy of Clydebank Library.
Lyrics from ‘Joe Hill’ written by Earl Robinson and Alfred Hayes (c) 1938
are used by kind permission of MCA Music Limited.
Lyrics from ‘My Wee Gas Mask’ are reprinted by kind permission
of copyright holder James S. Kerr.
Books by Maggie Craig
Fiction
The River Flows On
When the Lights Come on Again
The Stationmaster’s Daughter
The Bird Flies High
A Star to Steer By
The Dancing Days
One Sweet Moment
Non-fiction
Damn’ Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ‘45
Bare-Arsed Banditti: The Men of the ‘45
When the Clyde Ran Red
Footsteps on the Stairs: Tales from Duff House
Contributor to:
Twisted Sisters: Women, Crime and Deviance in Scotland Since 1400
&
The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women
Maggie Craig is the bestselling Scottish author of the ground-breaking and acclaimed Damn’ Rebel Bitches: The Women of the 45 and several page-turning romantic and historical novels set in Glasgow and Edinburgh. She comes from a family where writing is considered an entirely normal thing to do and numbers among her forbears Robert Tannahill, the weaver-poet of Paisley.
Visit her website at www.maggiecraig.co.uk
oOo