Dreams Can Come True (33 page)

“And where did you send it to? Perhaps he never received it… Oh, the offices of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. Well, he certainly should have received it by now. You’ll just have to go to the House for Fallen Women, Mother.”

This joke was quickly retracted when Hannah saw Maggie’s face.

“I’m sorry, this is no time for me to be joking, but I can hardly take in what you’ve just told me. It’s like I’m in some sort of play, where I’m acting out a role, I can’t believe that you and Uncle Johnny… Wait ‘til Eddie hears.”

“Oh, you can’t tell Eddie!”

Maggie clutched at Hannah’s arm, her voice rising in alarm.

“I couldn’t face him ever again; he’d be horrified. No, we’ll have to think of something else to tell him, another reason if I was to go.”

“Look, you’re worn out, Mother. Lie back now and I’ll fetch you a cup of tea. It’s time I woke the baby up from his afternoon nap anyway; he’s not going to sleep tonight if I don’t wake him now. Oh Glory! Did you hear that? There’s someone in the hallway. I’ll have to go downstairs.”

“Whoever it is, tell them I’m not up to visitors. Leave me to try and make some sense of the mess I may be in. And Hannah, put some brandy in me tea.”

“Mrs. Featherstone and Mrs. Gee, for Madam, Hannah,” shouted Olive. “I’ve put them in the drawing room and Cook wants to know if she’ll be wanting me to serve them tea.”

“Not so loud, Olive,” whispered Hannah, leaning over the banister. “I’m going to get little Johnny up and yes, take them in a tray of tea.”

She hurried to the nursery, where the dear little chap had awoken. Her body began to tremble as she hugged him to her breast. Her mind felt seized with doubt as she pondered Maggie’s dilemma. Wasn’t she the one who had put thoughts of a pregnancy into her stepmother’s head?

What if there was no baby? There had been no sickness had there, or nausea on Maggie’s part. Just an admission that she and Uncle Johnny had spent a week together; perhaps they’d had separate beds? What if it was true that she was suffering menopausal symptoms? All this panic would be for nothing and she’d be the one to blame.

Maggie was also trembling under the covers in her bedroom. So the women from the committee had come a-calling had they? Was it possible that they could smell a scandal? They always seemed to be good at that. The dress that she’d been wearing this morning had indeed been fuller, but at Maggie’s age, lots of women were stout. Oh, why had she listened to Johnny’s silver tongue, gone along with staying at the Adelphi Hotel, then shared his bed? It had been foolish and stupid to be looking for affection, when she had it from her family here at home. She had acted like a simpleton and was about to pay. What was that saying of Father O’Brien’s? Disobedience brings punishment, obedience brings rewards. Then she would be getting a bucketful of punishment, for adultery was a sin!

“Nosey old biddies,” Maggie said, when Hannah returned to her bedroom. “I suppose they were having a look at me stuff and putting a value on it.”

“Oh come, Mother. I think that they had called because of genuine interest in how you are faring. They were concerned about your disappearance from all the festivities. You know you’ve always tried to be there on Neston’s Ladies Day.”

“Hmm, well I’ve been thinking whilst you’ve been entertaining them, that yer could be wrong, Hannah, and you’ve been talking me into something that might just go away.”

“And what if I’m right? If I’m aghast at the situation and I’m one of your family, how do you think the locals will act? There’ll be whispering, pointed looks, and fifty years ago they’d have you burnt at the stake! Here, drink your tea, then perhaps you’ll feel up to coming downstairs for an hour or so. You know how Olive likes to gossip. Don’t give her any reason to, except for her knowing that you’re not very well.”

Katie sat at the Sister’s desk thinking of how well she had done. It had been ten days since the admission of the soldiers from Bengal. Matron had been quick to tell her staff nurse that she had coped extremely well.

“You have the makings of a first class Sister and I will submit a letter to the Hospital Board, saying just that. And I hear that you give attention to your studies also. Well done, Staff Nurse Tibbs; I have a great faith in you.”

Katie had blushed self-consciously. She had thoroughly enjoyed herself, being mistress of all she surveyed, but did Matron’s visit signal an end to it all? Was it back to making beds and carrying bed pans for the patients yet again?

“How are the men in Hinderton Ward, Matron? We’ve not been allowed any contact with the staff there, as you know.”

“Better than we’d hoped, though of course I’ve only spoken to Sister from the doorway. It is an Isolation Ward after all. She tells me that after the initial assessment made by the ship’s doctor, most have reacted favourably to his recommended treatment. Of the seven admissions, only one is causing her concern.”

“So when do you think Sister will return to take over this ward again, Matron? I’m only asking, because I put in for some holidays at the end of June.”

“I think that will be in order, Staff Nurse Tibbs, though I warn you that Sister Gill will be looking for time off too. She and her staff have not been able to leave the building, taking it in turns to sleep in one of the side rooms. But I’ll mention it to Sister tomorrow when I visit, if I think on. She thinks that now the tide has turned, I can include the ward on my rounds.”

Katie looked around her, checking that every patient looked clean and tidy and in carefully made up beds. The cleaner had been in earlier and everywhere looked polished. Win was tending to old Mr. Biggins and, behind her in the sluice room, Mrs. Mottram was washing out the bedpans. It couldn’t have been easier, Katie thought. The miner had gone home to his family to be replaced by a labourer who had dropped heavy bricks on his toes. The man whose face was scalded had gone as well; there had not been a lot that could be done for him. The chesty man was waiting to be seen by a doctor who was travelling over from Liverpool. His problem was being dealt with by inhaling the steam from kettles. And Mr. Biggins was really no trouble, except he had a bad habit of wetting the bed.

“Psst, Auntie Katie, over here – I’ve a message from me mam.”

Katie turned to look down the corridor. Inside the open doorway was her eldest nephew, Luke.

She hurried to him as fast as her legs would carry her. If Matron caught him on the premises there would be Hell to pay!

“What are you doing here, Lukey? You know children are not allowed. Shouldn’t you be in school today?”

“Naw, it’s nearly time for the holidays. They’re teaching us nothing, so I’m pretendin’ I’ve got a toothache. Mam sent me to ask when you’re coming down to see us, ‘cos you’ve only bin once since we moved in.”

“She knows I’m busy. I’m in charge of this ward now and will be for the foreseeable future. Anyway, why is she sending you? Her legs are stronger than yours are and she could have come up on the visiting ‘bus.”

“Oh, Auntie, I’m nine now yer know and it’s easy coming across the fields. I keep to the footpaths, so the farmer can’t shout fer spoiling his crops, and if I’m thirsty I stop at the little streams. I’m terribly hungry now, yer know.”

He looked at Katie hopefully.

“Well, I can only spare you a copper, ‘cos I’ve eaten my lunch already. If you walk back down through the village, there’s a small bakery where you should get something to eat for a penny. Tell your mother that I’ll be over at the end of June; that’s when I’ll be getting some time off. By the way, how’s your Uncle Ernie settling in?”

“I think that’s why she wants yer to go and see her. They had a terrible barney when he walked with his dirty boots over the living room floor that she’d just bin cleanin’. She shouted at him and he took himself off and hasn’t called at our house since. She’s supposed to give him his dinner and wash his clothes, well Granny does that really, but she’s worrying if he’s eating properly, though she’ll not go down to Lilac Cottage to see if he’s all right.”

“Have you not been down to see him, Lukey? You used to get on well with him, didn’t you? Didn’t Uncle Ernie take you out in his punt?”

The boy hung his head and took a while to answer. There was a strange look on his face and he avoided Katie’s eyes.

“I don’t like him anymore; he says things to me that I don’t understand. He started crying once, just sat there like a baby. Mam’ll go mad when she sees his place. Me and Freddie Jones looked through the back window last Saturday and it looks like a rubbish tip. Right, I’ll tell her that you’ll be over soon. Thanks fer the money. Bye.”

Katie stood for a moment in the doorway, watching her nephew run along the walkway that separated each building. His words had made her feel uneasy. There was something strange about her brother, but she had got used to him after all these years. It was just his craving for solitude that made him different from other people; he had only ever wanted a simple life. Not like her, who wanted to make something of the chances she’d been given. Go places, see places before she stepped off this mortal coil. With a bit of luck she could rise to the position of Matron, be given her own hospital in a different part of the world. But she’d look in on Ernie next time she visited Neston. Perhaps something was grieving him; perhaps her brother was missing his Mam.

“Good Morning, Staff Nurse Tibbs. Oh, you look surprised to see me. Didn’t Matron tell you that I’m out of Isolation and I was coming back today?”

Katie had just wandered in at the start of another morning. She was looking forward to a nice cup of tea before she began her shift.

“Oh, hello, Sister Gill. No, she didn’t tell me, but I’m happy to see you anyway.”

The two women went into the little kitchen where the kettle was boiling merrily.

“I’ve done the changeover for you, Staff Nurse. Nothing to report other than Mr. Biggins has wet the bed.”

“Nothing changes on the Thornton Ward, Sister, but tell me about your time on the Hinderton Ward. Was it gruesome having to look after those poor unfortunate men? How are they now? They must be better if you’re allowed out again.”

“I felt desperately sorry for them, Staff Nurse, as you can imagine. When the wagon brought them in, I just felt full of despair. And the stench from their vomit and other orifices was overpowering. We had to wear masks, all covering aprons and everything had to be thrown away. We got through more sheets and blankets than the store room could cope with and I had to shout a message through the window to be left some more. Mrs. Kane was constantly mopping with Lysol; Janey was forever changing the beds; I was boiling kettles, trying to get some liquids into them, the bedpans were constantly in use and I lost count of the bed baths. I’m fair worn out I can tell you. But this is what I’ve really come to tell you, I’m going to stay at my sister’s for a few days, she lives in Birkenhead. You’ll be in charge of the men that are left and your existing patients. We’ve checked their stools and we think there’s no infection; they’re eating well and some will be discharged in a day or two. There’s only one who must be put in a side ward. They say that he’s an officer and must be treated in a special way.”

“A special way, Sister?” Katie frowned. She disliked being told that patients were to be given better treatment than others. As far as she was concerned, everyone should be treated the same. “If he is to have special treatment, why hasn’t he been sent to somewhere like the Officer Wards at Chester?”

“Because we didn’t know he was an officer when he first came to us. All the men were in a terrible state, none of them were in uniform and the underwear they had on was burnt at the receiving hospital in Liverpool. It was one of the charitable institutions that provided them with clean under clothes and blankets. He was the one we were treating for delirium, so we couldn’t make any sense of what he was saying for days on end. However, we now know that he has family living in Neston, so I’m to take a note to his mother when I go for the Birkenhead train. Put him in a side ward will you, so that he and his mother can have a little privacy.”

“And the others? Are you visiting
their
families with little notes, Sister?”

“If I didn’t know you better, Staff Nurse, I would think you were being sarcastic. No, Matron has already written to their relatives telling them of their son’s admission, but warning there was to be no visitors for a couple of weeks or so.”

“But now the men are being transferred to this ward, I can expect hordes of their relatives at around three?”

“Just two people at their bedside as usual, Staff Nurse. Visiting hours between three and four and no exceptions. The doctor will make his assessments tomorrow morning, so expect him with Matron then. I can’t see there being any problems, most of the men just need bed rest, so when I get back they’ll probably have gone.”

Let’s hope so, thought Katie, ‘cos I can’t see when it’s my turn for a holiday that I’ll be getting much of a rest!

“Good Morning. May I speak to the lady of the house? A Mrs. Haines, I believe.”

Sister Gill stood at the front door of Selwyn Lodge speaking to Olive, who had been in the hallway, brushing down the stairs.