A Mother's Gift (42 page)
‘My brother’s in the army,’ said Theda defensively and turned away. But for her the war was something that was happening in the background; apart from the normal stab of fear for her country, which she imagined everyone felt, she wasn’t worried for her family. Though Joss was a
soldier
he was far away, out of harm’s way, in the Far East and the war could be over before he came home. The hospital had been an enclosed world to her this last year or so; the patients came from the outside, it was true, but it was the world on the wards and in the nurses’ quarters that had been Theda’s reality.
Then she went home one day to find that Frank had been called up.
‘But, Da,’ she protested, ‘Why? He was working again, wasn’t he?’
‘Aye. But if you’d been taking more notice of what was going on you’d have known he was in the territorials, had been for a few months. So he got his papers straight away.’
‘He’s just a bairn!’ her mother had burst out and Theda had felt exactly the same way. It didn’t seem right.
Then there was Joss. There were no letters coming through from India but she discovered that some of his friends had landed from a troopship somewhere in the south of England. It was all very hush-hush and there was no information of more of his unit coming.
‘It’ll be because of the U-boats. They don’t want to let them buggers know where our troopships are,’ Matt had said, nodding his head sagely, and fear gripped her heart once again at the thought of a torpedo hitting a ship with Joss on board and him floating in the water trying to swim to safety. It reminded her of the day he’d got stuck in the pothole in the bed of the Gaunless, and she went off on her own down the garden to the strawberry beds and had a good cry. Then she wiped her eyes and went back to Newcastle as she was on duty that night.
Sometimes she went out with the other nurses to the Brighton ballroom or the Majestic cinema; it occupied her mind and the town was full of soldiers and sailors who liked to dance. Sometimes she even met a boy and had a date but nothing ever came of it. No one ever quite measured up to Joss. She was gaining a reputation for being quiet and studious and not much interested in boys. She was studying when Nurse Lewis knocked on her door one evening.
‘Come in,’ called Theda, looking up from her work. Nurse Lewis popped her head round the door.
‘Mind, you’re a dark horse,’ she said. ‘Here, I thought you didn’t have a boyfriend, weren’t even interested?’
‘I haven’t,’ said Theda.
‘Then who’s this smashing fella waiting downstairs in the lobby? Tall, dark and handsome, with a gorgeous tan. A corporal, an’ all.’
Theda hadn’t time to answer, she was pushing past Nurse Lewis and flying down the stairs, and there was Joss, home safe, and a great weight lifted from her shoulders. She flung her arms around him and he swung her off her feet and laughed exuberantly. It was the same old Joss, only older and with his skin tanned to mahogany and his body filled out to that of a man.
‘Steady on there, our Theda,’ he said. ‘I didn’t come all this way just to be knocked over by a slip of a lass like you.’
They had a lovely time, dancing at the Oxford Galleries in the town, and she discovered that Joss was a great dancer, swooping around the floor with dash and verve. But, of course, he had to go back to his unit.
‘I have to catch the 11.10 train to King’s Cross,’ he said, and showed her his docket. ‘I only had forty-eight hours’ leave. But when Mam said she thought it was your afternoon off, I had to pop up and see you, hadn’t I?’
‘I’m so glad you did,’ said Theda, and behind her eyes the tears threatened. ‘I can’t come to the station with you, I have to be back at the hospital.’
‘Aye, well, I’ll be back. I can’t tell you where we’re going but if I see our Frank, I’ll tell him you were asking after him.’
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First published as ‘The Ironmaster’s Girl’ in 2002 by Piatkus Books
This edition published in 2011 by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing
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Copyright © 2002 Una Horne writing as Maggie Hope
Maggie Hope has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
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