Across the Mersey Read online

  Jean was right, though, in saying that Sam and Luke were alike and Luke had inherited his father’s pride and his stubbornness. He was ready to forget their quarrel and his father’s harsh words to him, but he was certainly not ready to abandon his belief that his decision to join up had been the right one.

  ‘Mind you, I reckon the old man will bend a few ears and get me out,’ Charlie was saying confidently, his tongue loosened by the amount he had had to drink. ‘He’s taking his time about it, though. He was in the devil of a temper with me when he found out I’d been called up. Not my fault, though, ishh it?’ Charlie was slurring his words now as he knocked back another drink. ‘Bloody stupid, thinking that. If I’d really wanted to volunteer I’d have gone for the RAF, not signed on in the ruddy TA.’

  Charlie looked balefully at his father, who was standing with a group of his fellow councillors in front of the ballroom’s imposing marble fireplace, his chest puffed out and his face red with heat and self-importance.

  Edwin wasn’t enjoying the wedding. For a start it had cost him an arm and a leg, and that was before he had been daft enough to let Vi persuade him into buying the newly married couple a house. Edwin still wasn’t sure just how or why he had come to agree to part with so much money, but at least, as he had just told his fellow councillors in a voice deliberately loud enough to reach the ears of George Parker, Alan’s father, he had had the sense to put the house in his own name.

  Ruddy weddings. Edwin tugged at his collar, which felt too tight, constricting his neck. If he had cherished hopes of being envied and revered by his fellow councillors because of the extra business the war was going to put his way, and his daughter’s marriage to Alan Parker, he had quickly come to realise that just the opposite seemed to have happened and that it was being made clear to him that he was still very much an outsider as far as Wallasey’s long-time residents were concerned, even though they were more than happy to fill their glasses at his expense. And then there was that young idiot Charlie, who didn’t have a brass farthing’s worth of sense and who should have been here at home, working in the business, not playing at ruddy soldiers. Of course he’d have to find a way of getting him out of the TA and back where he belonged, but not yet. It would serve him right to have to wait, and teach him a well-needed lesson.

  Jean looked across at the twins. They looked ever so nice in the matching dresses she had bought them at Lewis’s, white cotton with an all-over pattern of blue and pink flowers, and nipped in a bit at the waist, making them suddenly look rather more grown up than Jean really liked. Even though Grace wasn’t working there any more, she had had a word with the manageress of the Gown Salon and Jean had been given a bit of discount off the price because the dresses were really summer stock and would be going in the next sale.

  Her own suit was new as well. Sam had insisted, and Jean had to admit that she felt proper smart in it. The tweed jacket had slightly padded shoulders and a bit of a military cut to it – a fashion that was now coming in because of the war, Grace had told her when they had gone to Lewis’s together to choose it. It had given Jean a real thrill of pleasure to discover that her waist was still neat enough for her to wear something so tailored, even if she had worried that the suit’s skirt was a little bit on the short side for a married woman with a grown-up family. Its brown heathery flecked tweed went perfectly with her best handbag and shoes, and she had trimmed up her brown hat with some new petersham ribbon and some feathers.

  It had certainly been a posh do, but as she had said to Sam earlier, Bella and her new husband hadn’t looked anywhere near as happy as she had remembered feeling when she and Sam had got wed. Vi was full of herself, though, over Bella’s marriage, but then of course it was typical of Vi that she should be. She hadn’t let Jean say so much as a word in praise of Grace and her nursing training. ‘Come on, everyone, the bride and groom are about to leave.’

  Dutifully everyone gathered in the hallway to watch Bella and Alan walk down the stairs together.

  Her hand tucked through Alan’s arm, Bella gave Trixie a triumphant look as the newly married couple ran the gauntlet of the confetti being thrown at them as they hurried from the hotel to Alan’s waiting car.

  She had done it, Bella congratulated herself smugly. She had got what she wanted, just as she always did.

  NINE

  Oh heavens, why had the bus stopped yet again, Grace fretted. They had all been later than they had planned leaving Wallasey, thanks to Bella making a fuss about wanting more photographs of herself in her wedding dress, and then the ferry had been full and they had to wait for the next one, and her precious pass out from the nurses’ home expired at ten o’clock.

  It was nearly that now and she had been holding her breath with every stop the bus had made on its way up from the Pier Head to the hospital, trying to make out – through the mesh covering the windows to protect passengers from the danger of flying glass should they be bombed – how far they had come, even though she knew that there would be nothing to see in the dark, thanks to the blackout.

  The bus stopped yet again, passengers exchanging seats and standing space, some them getting off, others replacing them in their vacated seats.

  They couldn’t be far from the hospital now. The bus picked up speed, allowing Grace’s cramped stomach muscles to relax and then recramp even harder as abruptly it lurched to halt with a squeal of brakes and a suddenness that had standing passengers almost losing their balance. Raised voices started protesting.

  ‘What the devil …?’

  ‘Ruddy driver.’

  ‘Ruddy blackout, don’t you mean?’ one passenger joked, all of them silenced when the conductor called out.

  ‘Driver says there’s bin an accident up front and he can’t go further until the road’s been cleared.’

  ‘It’s this blasted blackout,’ the man seated next to Grace grumbled. ‘It ain’t safe out there any more.’

  Grace knew that it was true. There was lot of talk about the number of road accidents in the pitch-dark. It was even being suggested that the kerbs might be painted white as a preventative measure.

  She really was going to be late now, Grace recognised worriedly as she joined the other passengers getting off the bus.

  In the street a small crowd of bystanders had already gathered in front of the bus, which now had its lights full on to illuminate the scene. The driver of a lorry was half hanging out of the side of his cab, looking more like a rag doll than a human being, and to one side of the vehicle Grace could see a pretty high-heeled shoe. Just the one. Nothing else. Grace’s stomach turned over and heaved.

  A man in a smart suit stepped out of the crowd announcing, ‘I’m a doctor. Has anyone sent for the emergency services?’

  ‘Just sent for them now, sir,’ another man responded.

  The doctor had made his way to the cab and was feeling for the driver’s pulse. Grace turned away, wondering how she was going to get past the accident and whether she should make a detour down another street.

  ‘I need help – a nurse …’ the doctor was saying tersely as he went to a car, which Grace now saw was stopped behind the bus, to remove a medical bag. ‘Any nurses here?’

  No one answered. Grace’s stomach tightened again. She wasn’t a nurse, not yet, but somehow her conscience was prodding her into stepping forward and saying uncertainly, ‘I’m not a nurse, only a probationer, but …’

  The doctor looked at her. ‘Had first-aid training have you?’

  ‘Yes,’ she confirmed.

  ‘Come with me.’

  Gingerly Grace followed him, deliberately not looking at that one shoe.

  The driver had gone through the windscreen of the truck before falling back against the side of the cab. Grace’s stomach heaved when she saw his face, and the blood pumping out of his arm, which was hanging as an unnatural angle, but she reminded herself of all the things Sister Harris had taught them as she blocked out the image, concentrating instead on what the doctor was tell
ing her to do, which was really just a matter of not panicking, she told herself stoutly, and ignoring the blood that was now all over her clothes. Determinedly she handed him the things he asked for, and helped him to put a tourniquet on the arm wound. It was, she knew, important that they did not move the driver any more than was necessary because of the injuries to his head.

  She heard someone saying grimly, ‘There’s a couple gone under the ruddy truck but they’re goners.’

  Her hand trembled slightly.

  Not one but two ambulances suddenly arrived, their crews rushing forward. Grace got up and stepped back to allow them to take her place, her face flushing when the doctor said briefly, ‘Good work.’

  She felt stiff and cold and very sick, and yet at the same time numb, as though she wasn’t really able to take in what was happening.

  ‘You all right, love?’

  Grace looked up at the ambulance driver. The kindness in his voice made her eyes burn with tears.

  ‘Yes. Thank you.’

  ‘Not bin hurt, have you?’ he pressed her. ‘Only you’re in a bit of a state.’

  ‘I was helping the doctor. I’m a probationer nurse up at the hospital,’ she explained haltingly.

  ‘We’ve got to go past Mill Road on our way back to the depot. Jump in, love, and we’ll give you a lift,’ he offered.

  ‘Oh. No. I don’t think …’ Grace began to protest, but his crew were already making their way back to the ambulance, saying that their assistance wasn’t needed because the crew of the other ambulance were dealing with the emergency.

  Suddenly Grace felt very weak and dizzy. She could hear concerned voices, and then two firm male arms were supporting her and that same kind male voice was telling her calmly, ‘That’s the spirit, just take a few deep breaths and you’ll be fine …’

  ‘I’m the one who’s the nurse,’ she managed to find the spirit to remind him as the ambulance driver helped her along the road and then up into the cab of the ambulance, refusing to listen to her shaky protests.

  She wasn’t too shaky, though, to notice in the lights of the bus that he was as tall as Luke and as broad-shouldered, with a cheeky grin and teasing blue eyes.

  After he had helped her into the passenger seat, he closed the door and then went round to get in the driver’s side of the vehicle.

  ‘I reckon we’d better introduce ourselves,’ he told Grace, once he had started the ambulance’s engine, ‘seeing as how we’re going to be seeing a lot more of one another. I’m Teddy Williams.’

  ‘Grace Campion,’ Grace introduced herself. She was beginning to feel better now, and she looked round the interior of the cab with curious interest. The probationers had been shown around an ambulance station and one of its vehicles as part of their training. ‘Are you stationed at Mill Road then?’ she asked him innocently, then blushed when he laughed.

  ‘As it happens, yes, but that wasn’t what I meant. Mind you, I suppose a pretty girl like you has already got a chap in tow?’

  ‘No. I mean …’ Grace laughed and blushed even harder when she realised what he was getting at.

  ‘Well, you could have now, if you play your cards right. I might even let you take me to see a film,’ Teddy joked, giving her a wink.

  She liked him, Grace acknowledged. She could sense that there was something kind and appealing about him that went deeper than his outward joking and teasing.

  ‘Home Sister is very strict,’ she told him. ‘I’ve only been allowed out today because it was my cousin’s wedding and I was her bridesmaid.’

  ‘Well, in that case I’ll just have to make sure that I’m on the duty roster for Mill Road,’ he told her, ‘if that’s the only way I’m going to get to see you.’

  They had reached the hospital now and he had pulled up discreetly out of sight of the night porter’s small lodge.

  ‘Thanks for … for everything,’ Grace told him, suddenly feeling shy.

  He had nice hands, she decided, big and clean and safe-looking, a bit like her dad’s.

  ‘I suppose you’re wondering why I haven’t joined up to fight.’

  His comment surprised her. ‘No, of course not,’ Grace assured him.

  ‘I had rheumatic fever when I was a kiddie – I’m OK now but the medics wouldn’t pass me fit to fight. I’m only telling you ’cos I don’t want you thinking that I’m avoiding doing me bit.’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking that at all,’ Grace told him truthfully.

  ‘Me dad has a small greengrocer’s shop, and rightly speaking this is his van, but he’s lent it out for the war effort.’

  Grace nodded. She knew that the emergency ambulance service was based around transport offered by those who owned it, and that both the volunteers and the transport were then equipped as best they could be for medical emergencies.

  ‘I’d better go in,’ she told him, and then offered shyly, ‘I’ll look out for you being on duty.’

  ‘Good,’ he responded, ‘because I shall certainly be looking out for you.’

  He came round and helped her out of the van, then stood and watched her as she hurried past the porter’s lodge and headed for the door to the probationary nurses’ home.

  She could hear him driving away as she knocked on the locked door.

  It was Home Sister herself who unlocked it and stood confronting her with a very displeased look on her face.

  ‘Campion. And what time do you call this? You were supposed to be back for ten o’clock.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Sister,’ Grace apologised. ‘We were late leaving the reception and then the ferry was full, and then when I got on the bus there was an accident.’

  Brought up as she had been, it never occurred to Grace to omit the fact that she had been late getting the bus and simply to use the accident as an excuse, so she didn’t see Home Sister’s mouth twitch into a small smile as she stepped back into the hall and beckoned her inside.

  ‘An accident, you say—’ Home Sister repeated, and then broke off, staring at Grace and frowning. ‘Where are all these bloodstains from? Were you involved in this accident?’

  For the first time Grace realised that the sleeve of her jacket was stained with blood and that there were more bloodstains on the skirt of the Viyella dress she had changed into, not wanting to wear her bridesmaid’s frock any longer than necessary. The jacket and the dress had been new the previous winter, bought with her Lewis’s discount in the New Year sale and her heart sank a little. This wasn’t the time, though, to worry about how quickly she could remove them, not with Home Sister waiting for an answer to her questions.

  ‘No, that is … not really … A transport lorry had crashed and the driver was hurt. There was a doctor there and he asked for nursing help. I wasn’t going to say anything. I mean, I’m only a probationer,’ she said hastily, seeing that Home Sister’s frown was deepening. ‘But then there was no one and the doctor said that as long as I knew some first aid I would do. It wasn’t anything really, only holding things. The doctor had to apply a tourniquet and …’

  ‘I see. Very well. Have you had any supper?’

  Grace stared at her. ‘No.’

  ‘I’ll arrange for the kitchen to make you a cup of cocoa. In the meantime you’d better go and have a bath.’

  ‘Yes, Home Sister.’

  Alan had hardly spoken to Bella since they had left their wedding reception and now that they were here in their hotel bedroom, he was still ignoring her, and drinking from the hip flask he had removed from his pocket.

  His parents and that wretched Trixie and her mother and father had quite spoiled her day, sitting there with their long faces instead of making a fuss of her like they ought to have done, Bella thought crossly. It wasn’t even as though Alan’s father had had to put his hand in his pocket either, so he had had nothing to scowl about. Her father had paid for the wedding and bought them the house she’d wanted. Well, not bought them exactly, because he owned it, but he was letting them live in it rent free so it was as good a
s theirs.

  They had been later arriving at the hotel than planned and the porter who had let them in had been scowling and unwelcoming. The room itself was nowhere near as elegant as it had appeared in the brochure, and smelled slightly stale and damp.

  Bella eyed the double bed, with its slightly grubby-looking dark green sateen eiderdown, with distaste.

  Their bedroom at their new home had been freshly wallpapered in a pretty pink and white floral paper and she had insisted of having the most expensive bed linen Lewis’s could supply, and a lovely pale pink eiderdown and matching coverlet. Her trousseau contained a silk lace-trimmed nightdress with a matching peignoir in the same soft shade of pink, just like she had seen Vivien Leigh wearing in a photograph in Picture Post; only, of course, it would look better on her because she was blonde.

  She didn’t want to waste her new finery on a setting that so obviously did not deserve it, but since she had nothing else with her she would have to do so. She looked at her reflection in the room’s single slightly tarnished mirror. Her tweed going-away suit, with its fur collar, was the new season’s latest design, the last shipment they were likely to get from Paris, Lewis’s À La Mode Gown Salon had told her. Her hat matched the blue flecks in the tweed exactly and highlighted the colour of her eyes. She was wearing the single row of pearls her mother had removed from her own neck to fasten round Bella’s before she had left the reception whilst looking pointedly at Alan. Bella’s mouth compressed. She had not just hinted, but dragged him to the jeweller’s to show him the double row of pearls she had expected him to give her as a wedding gift, and when he hadn’t produced them she had been furious.

  Angrily she removed the pin from her hat.

  Alan was sprawling in the room’s single armchair, watching her.

  ‘You might at least have thanked Mummy and Daddy for everything they’ve done for us,’ she told him as she took off her hat and shook her hair free.

  ‘Thank them? For what? Forcing me into marrying you?’