A Daughter's Duty (36 page)

‘Go and put something on, Aunt,’ Rose commanded and Elsie glanced down at herself.

‘Oh, yes, but tell me –’

‘When you’re dressed, Aunt.’ Elsie didn’t argue. She ran back up the stairs and they could hear her pulling open drawers and cupboards.

‘Are you all right?’ Anxiously Jeff gazed at Rose. Her calm seemed unnatural somehow.

‘I am.’ Her chin was set, her teeth clenched together.

Elsie came clattering down the stairs and into the kitchen. Wringing her hands, she bent over Rose where she sat in a fireside chair. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you. You know that, Rose, don’t you? Afterwards I would have sought you out but Alf said you were dead. I was so frightened, so scared, I didn’t know what to do. I –’

‘Never mind that now,’ said Rose. ‘Haven’t you heard the news? It was on the wireless.’

‘The news? No, I haven’t had the wireless on, I’m not interested in the news.’ Elsie shook her head impatiently, she could think only of what she wanted to say to her niece. ‘Rose, I wasn’t going to let Alf have the bairns, I wasn’t, I swear it. I said I would lay him in to the police. I did my best, Rose. You know I would lay down my own life for them, you know it –’

‘And mine too, I know that.’ Rose couldn’t help the comment.

‘No, I told you …’ Elsie dried up at last, unable to think of any more excuses. She gazed in mute appeal at Jeff.

‘Rose,’ he said, ‘tell her.’

‘Tell me what?’ demanded Elsie.

Rose glanced at Jeff and he smiled encouragingly. She looked so strained, he thought, was keeping such a tight rein on her emotions.

‘There was an accident yesterday, it was on the news,’ said Rose. ‘In fact I’m surprised Mrs Todd didn’t tell you about it if you didn’t hear it yourself.’

‘She came to the door but … an accident? Rose, what’s happened? For God’s sake, tell me!’ Her voice was rising in panic.

‘It was Dad. Dad and Michael and Mary. The driver of the car was unhurt.’

‘WHAT? Don’t tell me they’re dead? Don’t tell me – don’t!’ And Elsie began to moan, her mouth slack.

Her cry was so anguished that remorse struck Rose. She had intended to make her aunt suffer, drag it out, had thought she would enjoy her revenge, but seeing Elsie’s distress she couldn’t do it. No, she couldn’t do it to any human being.

‘The twins are in hospital, Aunt Elsie,’ she said, her voice softening, and Jeff breathed a great sigh of relief. ‘They’re recovering, the doctor said.’

‘Oh, thank God for all his goodness,’ breathed Elsie, sitting down abruptly opposite Rose. Then she lifted her head and looked squarely at her. ‘And your dad?’

‘He was killed.’

Elsie bowed her head. ‘My poor brother,’ she whispered. ‘My poor tortured brother.’

Rose stared at her in blank disbelief. Elsie felt it rather than saw it. ‘You don’t know, Rose, you don’t know … When he was a bairn –’ She broke off, and so low they barely caught it went on, ‘No, you don’t want to hear it, not now, not ever.’ The room became quiet, a cinder settling in the fire the only thing to break the silence.

‘We’re going to the hospital now,’ said Jeff, his words dropping into the quiet.

Elsie shook her head. ‘Rose won’t want me to come,’ she said sadly. ‘But you’ll let me know how they are? Please?’

Rose stood up. Suddenly she was desperate to get out into the fresh air, out of this house. She looked at her aunt’s ravaged countenance. ‘Go and wash your face, Aunt Elsie,’ she said gently. ‘You don’t want Mary to see you like that, do you?’

A look of hope blazed on Elsie’s face. Tremulously she stared at her niece. ‘I can come?’ she whispered.

‘Go on, wash your face, we’ll be waiting in the car,’ said Rose. Elsie ran to do as she was bidden, pausing only at the bottom of the stairs to turn, suddenly doubtful.

‘You won’t go without me?’

‘We won’t go without you, Aunt Elsie. We’ll be waiting in the car, I promise you.’

As Elsie ran upstairs Jeff put his arms around Rose and kissed her tenderly. ‘I’m proud of you, you did the right thing,’ he said. ‘Oh, Rose, everything’s going to be all right, you’ll see.’

‘Well, the children love their aunt,’ said Rose, accepting it. They went out to the car to wait. There was no sign of Mrs Todd, thank goodness, thought Jeff. Just at the moment they could do without having to handle a nosy neighbour.

‘Morning, Dr Morris. You look as though you could do with your bed,’ Sister said briskly. ‘I gather it was a busy night?’

Bob glanced up from her desk, where he was sitting writing up notes on the three patients who had come in during the night, all emergencies. ‘Morning, Sister,’ he said and looked at his watch. Dear me, it was eight o’clock already and here were the day staff.

Sister Stewart picked up the book with the reports written by the night staff. ‘Goodness,’ she said, scanning it. ‘You really have been busy. Three, eh?’

‘Yes. One still under observation and the other two back from theatre and doing nicely, thank you. Mrs Gray, a ruptured ectopic. Ethel Burns, abortion. And the one under observation. But you’ll have it all down there. I won’t be a minute longer then you can have your desk back.’

A long night indeed, he thought bleakly. Being on call, he had slept in the doctors’ quarters at the hospital, or at least had lain down on the bed between cases. The longest period had been for about fifty-five minutes. Even then he had not been able to sleep at all, no matter how he had tried to empty his mind of anguished thoughts of Rose, so that he had almost been glad of the diversion when the telephone summoned him back to duty. What a fool he had been! Why hadn’t he realised a girl such as Rose would have a boyfriend already?

He sighed, closed the folder and added it to the pile, deciding he would go home, have a bath and shave, try to rest for a while. His chin felt scratchy, his head ached dully. Maybe then he would feel able to join the rest of humanity.

‘I’ll be back for the rounds, Sister,’ he said and left the ward. As he went outside the hospital buildings the fresh air hit him. He felt almost drunk with weariness and depression. The weather matched his mood. Clouds were gathering overhead, it looked like being a wet day.

Jeff and Rose, with Aunt Elsie accompanying them, entered the children’s ward a couple of hours later.

‘It’s not visiting hours, you know,’ said Sister, looking severely at them over her spectacles. ‘And it’s not as though either of the children is on the critical list.’

‘Well, thank God for that,’ breathed Jeff. ‘Anyone would think it would be better if they –’

‘What?’ Sister glanced at him suspiciously and he smiled beguilingly.

‘I mean, it’s great news, Sister.’

‘Oh, please,’ begged Elsie. ‘Please, I haven’t seen them since the accident.’

This is the aunt Mary was fretting for,’ Rose put in swiftly. Sister pursed her lips. ‘Oh, well, just for a few minutes then. Only two of you, mind. No more than two visitors at once. But it’s almost time for Matron’s round. If she comes you’ll have to go.’

‘I’ll wait outside,’ said Jeff.

It had been worth it, thought Rose as she saw Mary’s face when Auntie Elsie walked into the ward. Worth putting her own resentment behind her, putting the children first yet again.

‘Auntie Elsie!’ cried Mary, sitting up in the bed and holding out her arms to her aunt. And Elsie had clasped the child to her, hugging and kissing her until Sister spoke disapprovingly from the doorway.

‘Mary Sharpe! You must lie down, how many times have I told you?’ And reluctantly Mary did as she was told.

‘See, Auntie Elsie, my arm’s in a sling. I can’t move it, I hurt it, but the doctor says –’

Auntie Elsie was ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ and nodding her head as Mary’s words tumbled over each other in her haste to tell her tale. Rose smiled and turned to Michael’s bed. He was awake, pale and fragile-looking but awake and smiling even.

‘Did you see the cows, Rose?’ he asked quietly, his smile widening. ‘I wasn’t frightened of them at all. I wasn’t, honest, Rose.’ His brows knitted for an instant. ‘How did we get there?’ he asked. ‘I can’t remember.’

‘Oh, never mind, pet,’ she replied and kissed him gently on the cheek, taking his thin wrist in her hand. He was growing up, she thought suddenly. His face wasn’t a duplicate of his sister’s any more but a proper boy’s face.

‘When I’m big I’m going to be a farmer,’ he told her. ‘We’ve been reading all about farms in school and I wrote a composition. I got a star an’ all, did Auntie Elsie tell you?’

Rose looked across at the other bed. Elsie was perched on the side of it now, one hand on Mary’s dark hair. Elsie was unable to contain her happiness, couldn’t stop herself from smiling, almost laughing when she spoke.

‘I haven’t had time yet, son,’ she said. ‘But I was going to, I’m so proud of you.’

‘And me too,’ put in Mary.

‘And you too,’ agreed Auntie Elsie, laughing outright, and Rose laughed too, their eyes meeting over the beds in perfect understanding.

‘I’m afraid you’ll have to go now,’ said Sister and Mary began to whimper. Elsie bent over the bed and brushed her lips across the little girl’s cheek.

‘I’m coming back this afternoon at two o’clock,’ she whispered. ‘Will I bring Rosalie?’

‘You won’t forget, will you?’ Mary asked anxiously and lay back on her pillow, satisfied when Aunt Elsie assured her she wouldn’t. ‘You too, Rose? You’ll come, won’t you?’

‘I will.’

As the two women walked down the corridor, Rose asked, ‘Who’s Rosalie?’

‘A doll. I bought it for her when she was crying for you last year,’ Elsie added, looking sideways at her niece.

I’ve missed a huge slice from the children’s lives, Rose thought sadly. But the sadness slipped away quickly enough. There was no place for it today.

Jeff had gone outside to wait. It was marvellous, he thought, how kind and understanding nurses could be with relatives when the patient was seriously ill yet how distant and forbidding when there was no danger. He’d noticed it before. He leaned against the wall and whistled softly, an old tune from the war, ‘We’ll Meet Again’. The rain which had threatened in the early morning had moved on. The air was fresh and cold but dry and full of promise.

He felt supremely happy, remembering Rose in the hotel during the night, how loving and generous she had been, his lovely lass. And now the twins, the children she had sacrificed so much to protect, were out of danger, and things were at last going their way. Even the clouds were dispersing, it would be a sunny afternoon. It would be great in the front room this afternoon, just him and Rose. The room faced south-west and would be filled with sunshine and they would sit close together on the couch and talk about the future which stretched ahead of them, the lovely future.

They would get married as soon as possible. Why wait? Rose needn’t come back to Hartlepool at all, he was earning enough for them both. And the twins too if need be.

Jeff was distracted by a figure in a white coat coming out of the door opposite. Of course, it was that same doctor who always seemed to be about, he didn’t know why. But it didn’t matter, he could hear footsteps behind him, Rose was coming, Rose and her aunt. They could go home now, start their future.

‘Bob!’

They stood for a moment, a tableau of four, looking at each other. It was Rose who spoke first. ‘Bob, I’m sorry I missed you yesterday evening.’

‘That’s all right, think nothing of it,’ he replied, unsmiling, his whole body stiff. ‘I’m glad you found your friends.’ He made to move on but she put one hand on his arm.

‘No, wait a minute. Please, Bob.’ And he looked down into her great dark eyes, seeing the concern in them. ‘I want to tell you, explain …’

‘No need.’

‘Yes, there is,’ she insisted. ‘We’ve been visiting the twins. I couldn’t meet you yesterday because of the accident.’ Beside her, Aunt Elsie looked puzzled. She had seen this doctor before, she was sure of it. Jeff too was puzzled but the male in him recognised a rival. He was aware without being told that this man loved his Rose. He stepped closer to her, put an arm around her shoulders, showing in the age-old way that she was his. But Rose seemed to want to speak to him.

‘Oh, you mean the car accident?’ Bob was startled into asking. ‘That was your father? Oh!’

‘Yes. He was killed,’ she said, and glanced up at Jeff who was waiting, very still now, wanting to know what this was all about. ‘Bob, this is my fiancé. I just met him again yesterday.’

‘But I thought – Oh, well, never mind what I thought.’ He gazed at Rose with Jeff’s arm still around her shoulders. So obviously in love they were and his hope died. He began to walk away from them, backwards. ‘I … er … I have to go now. I … I’m sure you’ll both be very happy,’ he said and disappeared into a ward.

‘Who
is
that, Rose?’ asked Jeff. ‘He came to the house yesterday, spoke to Marina. I was in a hurry to get to Shotton so I didn’t wait to see what he wanted.’

‘He was a good friend when I needed one,’ she answered softly. ‘One day I’ll tell you all about it. But not now, Jeff, not today.’ They walked on in the sunshine, holding hands, Aunt Elsie walking quietly behind them. She spoke once in the car.

‘We have the funeral to think of, Rose.’

‘I can’t think of it, Aunt Elsie,’ Rose replied sadly. ‘I just can’t.’

‘Well, I was his sister. I’ll see to it.’

So Alf Sharpe was laid to rest in the cemetery at Jordan after a brief service in an almost empty chapel and only Elsie, his sister, wept for him. Rose was reluctant to go.

‘You must,’ insisted her aunt. ‘He was your father.’

‘Well, maybe you should have reminded him of that fact,’ Rose replied. So hard and bitter she sounded, Jeff thought, not at all like his Rose. He had done all the running about in preparation for the funeral, collecting the coroner’s report and the death certificate, arranging the ceremony with the minister, the memory of his grandmother’s funeral returning to haunt him. Not that he could speak of his grandmother in the same breath as that man …

‘You must go, Rose,’ he’d said when they were alone. ‘The children too. They must be allowed to think of him as … as …’