A Mother's Gift (10 page)

In the afternoon Staff Nurse instructed Katie on the proper procedure for administering morphine to the woman lying on the bed. ‘Just in case, you understand,’ said Staff Nurse. ‘I expect Mr Hobson will increase the dose when he comes in after his theatre list. She is having a quarter of a grain now, every four hours but may need more.’

‘But why me? Staff Nurse?’ asked Katie, in surprise. She had not yet got as far as giving injections.

‘You may be the only Protestant available. The Catholics refuse to give more,’ said Staff Nurse. Katie blinked. She couldn’t imagine refusing to do anything if Sister ordered her to. On the bed the woman, Phoebe Smith, moaned and it was the loneliest sound in the world.

Altogether, Katie was very thankful to go off-duty at six o’clock that evening. All she really wanted to do was go back to her room and to bed but it was her day off tomorrow and she had promised her gran she would go home to Winton.

As Katie alighted from Radley’s bus around twelve o’clock the next day she saw Noah just turning the corner,
evidently
just coming off fore shift. He was in his black, his eyes gleaming through the coal dust, his helmet pushed to the back of his head. He was still wearing the leather knee protectors he needed for his work where the seam he was in was low and the only way he could swing a pick was on his knees.

Katie hadn’t seen her grandfather for a few weeks and she got a cold feeling inside her now; she hadn’t realised he was looking so old. He was bent over against the wind and though his coal-dust encrusted jacket was open he had an old muffler around his throat and he was walking much more slowly than she remembered.

‘Grandda!’ Katie called and waited for him to catch up to her. Noah grinned and straightened up, even quickened his gait.

‘Katie, flower!’ he said. ‘By, you’re a sight for sore eyes!’

She fell into step with him, not kissing him or touching him in greeting; he was too dirty for that. Not that she would have done had he been dressed in his Sunday best. That sort of thing was not done on the streets of Winton Colliery. Yet anyone watching would have known there was a bond between them as they turned into the back street of West Row, the studs of Noah’s pit boots ringing on the cobbles.

Everything looked strange, Katie thought as she gazed around the kitchen half an hour later. She sat at the table spooning up a plateful of Gran’s broth, which was thick with vegetables and bits of ham from the knucklebone she had put in it. It was hot and filling and just the thing for a
cold
winter’s day, she thought as she broke homemade bread into it.

‘Howay, then, tell us all about this fancy hospital where you’re at,’ said Gran. She had a half-pint mug of tea in her hand, laced with a generous dollop of condensed milk. And her hair looked thinner and greyer and her face more lined than Katie remembered. Yet it had only been a few weeks since Katie had gone away to train for a nurse.

‘It’s big,’ said Katie. ‘Very big. And I’m working on the women’s gynae ward.’

‘An’ what’s that when it’s at home?’

‘You know, Gran, women’s troubles,’ said Katie. ‘Where they come with abortions and things wrong with the uterus – womb, that is.’

‘That’s enough of that sort of talk,’ said Gran shortly but keeping her voice down. She nodded to where Noah was dipping bread into his bowl of broth and stuffing it into his mouth. He was pretending not to hear any of this women’s talk.

‘But Gran, you asked,’ Katie protested.

‘Aye well, mebbe I did. But it’s not decent to talk about it in front of the men.’ This last was said in a harsh whisper.

Katie bent her head to her plate. She tried to think of something else to talk about. ‘Hey, Grandda, you know that chap we met years ago down on the wagon way near Eden Hope? The posh one? During the strike it was.’

Noah lifted his head now it was safe to join in the conversation. ‘When we were after the pitch, do you mean?’

‘Yes. Him. Well, I’ve seen him again. He must live near the hospital because he was in there. His wife an’ all. He had a broken ankle and she—’ Katie stopped before she said something indecent again. ‘She had an operation,’ she amended. ‘He was in a private ward. Must have pots of money. Hamilton you call him.’

‘Hamilton? Hamilton? Are you sure?’

‘Yes, of course I am.’

‘Why ye bugger!’ Noah ejaculated. ‘I thought there was something about that toff, I did.’

‘Do you know who he is, like?’ Kitty asked, curiosity lighting her face.

‘Why aye, of course I do! Mind I never expected to see him round here and not walking along the wagon way neither.’

‘Go on then, tell us,’ said Kitty.

‘Do you not know who the big boss is? The one who owns the pits and the ironworks and God knows what else?’

‘Noah!’ Kitty was becoming impatient with him.

‘Hamilton! Hamilton Ironworks! You must have heard it woman, lest you go about with your eyes and ears shut.’

‘Aye, yes, I have but I never thought it was a man,’ said his wife.

Katie said nothing. Why hadn’t she associated the name with the big boss?

KATIE WALKED UP
the street to the Co-op store, Gran’s shopping basket over her arm. ‘I’ll go for you, Gran,’ she had said, glad of the excuse to get out into the fresh air andhave a look round Winton at the same time. She smiled to herself, it felt as though she had been gone for ages but it was, after all, only a few weeks.

‘Well, look who’s back,’ the girl standing by the counter with a clipboard in her hand said as Katie opened the door to the grocery department. There were only a few people in besides the two assistants but they all turned to look.

‘Hallo June,’ Katie said quietly as she took her place in the queue. It was Billy’s sister who worked in the office at the store. When they had been at the Junior Elementary Katie and June had been great friends but June going off to grammar school had put a distance between them.

June smiled rather stiffly. ‘What’s it like in the big city then?’ she asked. ‘We didn’t expect you to come back. Slumming, are you?’ She smirked at the line of customers.

‘Fine thank you,’ Katie answered civilly though she had gone pink. ‘I’m on my day off today.’

‘Mind, you’ve done well, lass,’ Dottie Dowson butted in and Katie smiled at her. ‘You’ve worked hard to get there, I was just saying to our Jim. I hope you do well, pet.’ There was a murmur of assent from the queue and it was June’s turn to flush.

‘Well, if you’ve come to see our Billy you’ve wasted your time. He’s not coming home till the weekend.’

‘No, I know, he told me,’ said Katie and June’s lips tightened. She turned on the counter assistant and snapped at her before flouncing up the stairs to the office.

‘Get a move on, can’t you? The line will be out of the door soon.’

The assistant pulled a face at June’s disappearing back. ‘She’s not the boss, not by a long way,’ she said, careful not to let her voice carry however.

‘That one must be disappointed in love,’ Dottie observed. ‘It’s a good job I can’t afford to buy cream or her face would have soured it.’ The women grinned.

When Katie came out of the shop she carried her basket of shopping along the top of the rows. It wasn’t heavy; she swung it a little as she walked. Perhaps she would drop it in at home and walk on up the lane. It was a cold crispy day but the sun shone and up the lane she would get away from the all-pervasive smell of sulphur coming from the coke ovens. In the end she walked on, past the end of West Row, forgetting to drop off the basket. And there, just coming down from the bus stand, was Billy. Katie’s heart lifted.

‘Billy! I thought you weren’t going to get here today. Your June said—’

‘What does she know,’ said Billy as he reached her and, after a quick glance round, kissed her on the lips. The touch of his lips was soft and gentle, his mouth closed. He smiled down at her, pleased because the pleasure of seeing him showed in her eyes.

‘I was just going to walk up the lane to catch a bit of fresh air,’ she said.

‘Right. I’ll come with you,’ said Billy. He took her basket from her and they walked on up the rise, not touching, just side by side. Billy swung the basket a little and Katie grinned, imagining what some of his mates might say if they saw him. Dave Canvey for instance, Dave wouldn’t be seen dead carrying a shopping basket.

Overhead the trees were bare and black against the pale, wintry blue of the sky, and when they reached the top of the bank and turned they could see the rows, wreathed in grey smoke and the older village of Winton, standing apart from the pit and all that belonged to it. The tower of the old parish church was not quite as tall as the chimney and winding gear at the pit or the slag heap by them. A wagon full of colliery waste went up the incline and tipped at the top. It looked like a child’s toy from this distance. The pit hooter blew and Katie could just distinguish the winding wheel turning as the cage was brought to the surface. Behind the wheel and tall pit chimney the other side of the valley rose, brown and grey now and without the patches of green which showed in the summer.

They paused at a break in the hedge where a track led into a rabbit warren, the bunny banks as they had always called it. Up here there was a brick-built one-storey building which had once housed the engine which worked the overhead aerial flight; dragging corves of coal along a thick wire rope to the top of the bank where they could be dropped into wagons and run down the other side to the main railway to the coast. That had been years ago, nowadays the railway engines were of sufficient strength to carry the coal all the way themselves.

Katie shivered. The wind up here was so much stronger than down by the rows and the quality of her coat was poor. She’d bought it from the tally man before she had gone nursing.

‘You should have got a club out at the store,’ Gran had counselled but Katie didn’t want any debt hanging over her when she started her new life.

Billy looked at her with concern. ‘You’re cold,’ he said and drew her in the doorway of the building out of the wind. The door was ajar and Katie looked around curiously for she remembered it as always being locked up. Billy put his arm around her waist and drew her further in. It was strangely warm in there; leaves rustled on the floor, brown and sere. In the corner there was a coal sack – perhaps a tramp had taken shelter one night.

‘Keep away from the middle,’ advised Billy though how she could have gone anywhere without him she couldn’t imagine, feeling his arm around her. It too was warm; he was wearing a good thick overcoat, dark blue and belted.

There was a square hole in the middle of the floor where the engine had been. There was nothing left now but a wire rope hanging from the overhead beam. The hole was about eight foot deep.

‘Come here,’ said Billy softly and leaned against the wall, drawing her to him. He opened his coat and enfolded her in it and it was warm and cosy and she leaned her head against his chest. She could feel his heart beating, strong and sure. Oh, Billy, she thought. I could just stay with you; forget about a career. When he kissed her his kisses became more demanding, her mouth opened to his and his tongue probed, sending hot shivers down her spine. His hand was inside her coat, feeling her breast through her jumper, then beneath it and touching her bare skin gently then more insistently and she felt her nipple harden in response.

Billy groaned, his knee was between hers and he was forcing hers apart. And with a last glimmer of rational thought she caught hold of his wrist; pressed back against the hard brick wall.

‘Don’t, Billy,’ she said but softly.

‘Why not? Oh, Katie—’

‘No!’ said Katie, louder now.

‘But Katie, we’re engaged, it’ll be all right, really—’

‘No!’ Katie pushed him away.

Billy stood, breathing heavily now, his face flushed. He said nothing for a moment simply looked at her in anguish before seeming to take hold of himself and turning away. He stared into the corner where the brown leaves were rustling in the draught from the door; looked down the
hole
in the middle of the floor for a moment, blankly. Then he turned back to her.

‘Sorry Katie,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have tried to rush you.’

Katie felt awful. It was she who should be sorry she well knew. Either she wanted him or she didn’t, wasn’t that how it should go? And she did want him, her body cried out for him but it was the consequences she couldn’t bear to think about. Supposing she had a child? Then all her plans, all she had worked for would be finished. She would be just another housewife, dependent on her man. She gazed at him and bit her lip. He looked strained, unhappy.

‘I’m sorry, Billy,’ she said. ‘Oh, why can’t I be like other girls?’

Billy smiled and took a step towards her. ‘I don’t want you to be like other girls, Katie. I love you as you are. Anyway, you’re the one I want and I will wait if I have to. Don’t worry about today, it was my fault.’ He bent and kissed her lips again, chastely this time with his lips closed, a space between their bodies.

‘Come on,’ he bent and picked up the basket of groceries, ‘we’d best get these back to your gran. She’ll be fed up with waiting for them.’ He paused and looked at her. ‘You’re still wearing my ring, aren’t you? Even if it is on a chain round your neck.’