Across the Mersey (33 page)

She didn’t look at him as she handed him the urine bottle, and Seb was surprised at how self-conscious he suddenly felt in view of the way he’d been prodded and checked over by so many nurses these last few days. War, after all, had a way of causing a man to lose his embarrassment about any bodily functions – or at least some of them, he corrected himself, remembering his discomfort over his ‘short arm’ reaction to the thought of kissing Grace.

Seb’s temperature was higher than it had been
last night. Grace frowned. His colour was high as well.

‘I’d better just check your pulse.’

‘Give over, Nurse,’ the man in the next bed joked. ‘We all know you only do that ’cos you want to hold our hands.’

Grace laughed and managed to fight back her unwanted blush. Seb’s pulse was faster than it should be and his skin felt hot and dry. He was manifesting all the classic signs that his wound could be infected. There wasn’t anything on his chart about changing his dressings but Mr Leonard would be doing his round later, she knew, and would naturally check up on those patients on whom he had recently operated. Even so, it wouldn’t do any harm just to mention her suspicions to Staff, would it?

She waited until the staff nurse was on her own and then hurried over to her, quickly explaining what concerned her. Staff Nurse Reid gave her a searching look before going over to Seb’s bed, where she checked both his chart and redid his temperature.

As discreetly as she could Grace watched her whilst she collected the bottles to take to the sluice for urine tests. Staff was now speaking with Sister. They both went over to Seb’s bed, and then Sister demanded, ‘Screens, please, Nurse.’

Leaving the bottles, Grace hurried over to help the ward’s second-year nurse wheel the heavy screens into place around Seb’s bed.

As soon as they were in place Sister told her, ‘Dressings trolley, Campion.’

It was Staff Nurse Reid herself who removed the dressing on Seb’s shoulder wound. Grace had plenty of experience of unpleasant sights now but for some reason the hole left in Seb’s flesh where Mr Leonard had removed the shrapnel so shocked her that she thought for a moment she might actually faint. Or was it the smell of the infected wound that was affecting her? It shouldn’t be. She had seen and smelled far worse on gangrenous wounds and amputations.

Grace tried to focus professionally on Seb’s shoulder. The skin had been torn by the shrapnel, one piece having been removed originally and the wound stitched without the surgeon realising there was a smaller piece left inside. Mr Leonard had had to dig deeper to remove it, and the area around the wound was very inflamed and infected, probably because of the shrapnel left inside, Grace recognised.

‘Mitchell, go down and ask Dr Greenlow if he can spare a minute, will you?’ Sister was saying to the second-year nurse.

‘This looks a bit sore,’ she said to Seb. ‘I’m going to ask the houseman to let you have some morphine to ease the pain a bit.’

Within ten minutes Mitchell was injecting the morphine into Seb’s arm whilst the houseman frowned over his wound and instructed Sister to place a temporary dressing on it until Mr Leonard did his round.

‘Well spotted, Campion,’ Staff Nurse Reid complimented Grace as she followed her into the sluice.
Grace desperately wanted to ask her if Seb would be all right but she knew that she couldn’t. Septicaemia from an infected wound was something they all dreaded. All they could do was keep the wound as clean as possible and give the patient M and B tablets. If with a wound like Seb’s the infection did spread, then that meant that the infected limb had to be amputated to save the patient’s life. Grace’s hands shook.

‘Aw, come on, old girl, you can spare a tenner for your hero brother, surely?’ Charlie wheedled.

‘Charlie, please stop asking me. I’ve already told you that I can’t. Besides, you’re making my head ache,’ Bella complained.

It was hot, and she felt so uncomfortable, what with being sick in the mornings.

She had been pleased at first when Charlie had come back from London to spend the remainder of his leave at home and had then taken to calling round to see her. She had persuaded him to take her to the Tennis Club, where they had sat in the bar and she had basked in the glory of having a hero brother, whilst the men who were not themselves in uniform clustered round Charlie, wanting to hear the story of how he had saved the life of a fellow soldier when he would have drowned and had dragged him on board the ship that had brought them home.

‘Well, I just hope they give you a medal for it, risking your own life like that,’ had been their mother’s reaction.

Bella was bored now, though, with hearing the tale of Charlie’s heroism, and cross about his constant requests for money.

‘I should have thought you’d have wanted to help me out, seeing how I helped you out when you wanted to marry Alan,’ Charlie told her pointedly.

‘Well, I have helped you out. I gave you ten pounds on Saturday and another five yesterday.’ Her head really was aching and her ankles were dreadfully puffy and swollen, although her tummy was still flat, probably because she was being sick so much.

She looked fretfully towards the back door, half wishing that Charlie would leave so that she could go upstairs and lie down.

‘Speaking of Alan, he doesn’t seem to be around much,’ said Charlie.

‘He’s very busy at work.’

‘Good-looking piece, that girl that’s billeted on you. In Alan’s shoes I reckon I’d have taken to coming home for my lunch just to get an eyeful of her,’ Charlie grinned.

‘Well, you aren’t in Alan’s shoes,’ Bella snapped, not wanting to be reminded of the fact that Alan had already had far more than an eyeful of another woman.

‘Where did you say she worked?’

‘I didn’t,’ Bella told him, wondering suspiciously if her brother really thought she was going to lend him money that he might spend on taking out a refugee.

No matter how much she had initially resented their presence in her home, the truth that she hardly dared to admit to herself was that she still felt safer having them there, especially with the temper Alan always seemed to be in. Not that she would ever admit as much to anyone, much less to them. Instead she had told herself that everything would be all right once she had had the baby and Alan had calmed down. He just needed a bit of time to get used to the fact that she was his wife, and that he was a husband and a father, that was all. With Trixie now out of reach with those relatives of hers up north, he would soon forget all about her and realise where his best interests lay.

‘You want to watch that temper of yours, Bella,’ Charlie warned her. He got up, putting his hands in his pockets and jingling his change. ‘I’m off to the Tennis Club. I won’t ask you to come with me, seeing as you’re in such a sour mood.’

Bella went into the kitchen half-heartedly splashing cold water on her face and wrists in an attempt to cool herself down. The post had brought yet another letter for Bettina and her mother from Jan. Bella recognised his handwriting. How could she not do when he seemed to write to them virtually every other day?

Grace knew the minute she walked into the kitchen at home on her day off and saw Luke, that whilst Lillian had obviously ‘let him down’ it had not been lightly.

‘Where is everyone?’ she asked him.

‘Mum’s gone down to the allotment to see Dad, Aunt Francine’s at a rehearsal and the twins are at school. I suppose you know about me and Lillian, do you?’

Grace nodded. ‘Don’t look like that,’ she begged him. ‘She isn’t worth it, Luke, honestly she isn’t.’

‘She looked at me like I was the last person in the world she wanted to see,’ Luke told her miserably. ‘Said she was seeing someone else and that it was serious.
Serious
. When she’d been writing to me like she was my sweetheart! She said she wanted to tell me that but that you’d begged her not to.’

‘That’s not true,’ Grace gasped. ‘It was me that wanted her to tell you.’

Now wasn’t the time to tell him that she had tried to warn him, not when he was so very upset.

‘So who is he, then, this someone else she’s so serious about?’

Grace shook her head.

‘Come on, tell me. I suppose it’s someone in a reserved occupation, is it?’

Grace recoiled from his bitterness even whilst she could understand it. Lillian’s rejection of him was bound to be so much worse for coming so closely on top of Dunkirk and what he’d been through.

‘He’s a doctor,’ she told him quietly. ‘She told us right from the start that that was why she was going into nursing; because she wanted to marry a doctor.’

‘A doctor. No wonder she was turning her nose up at me then.’

‘Luke, don’t.’

‘Don’t what? Make the same mistake again? You can bet your boots I won’t. From now on I’m going to make sure that no woman gets the chance to make a fool of me a second time.’

Their parents’ return from the allotment brought an end to their conversation, Luke giving Grace a warning look that told her that he didn’t want her saying anything about what had happened.

‘Do you think that Hitler really will invade us like everyone’s saying he will?’ Sasha asked her parents anxiously later when they were all having tea.

‘I don’t know, love,’ Jean admitted, whilst Luke and Grace exchanged silent looks.

Grace knew that Luke was pretty sure that the Germans would invade now that they had broken through to the Channel.

‘We’ve all got to be prepared for the worst,’ said Sam sombrely. ‘France has surrendered and the Germans have got the Channel Islands now.’

‘They’ll never take Liverpool, though, Dad,’ said Lou stoutly, tucking into her fish pie, her words making them all smile.

‘Aye, well, we’ll certainly put up a good fight, love,’ Sam agreed, nodding his head when Jean offered him a second helping of pie.

‘Have you had any news about where you’ll be posted to yet, Luke?’

‘I met up this morning with one of the other
lads who came back on the same troop train. He reckons that since we’ve both been told to report for duty to Seacombe barracks, we’ll be based there on Home Duties, because Churchill won’t want to risk not having the men to defend the country if Hitler does try to invade. You know, Mum, you might want to think again about you and the twins evacuating. They reckon that Liverpool is bound to be one of the Luftwaffe’s targets, on account of the docks,’ Luke warned.

Jean shook her head. She’d eaten her own pie and was about to get up to fetch the Eve’s pudding, which she knew was Sam and Luke’s favourite. ‘Me and the girls are staying here. My place is here with your dad, and we’re a family. If Hitler’s going to go for us then we’re better off sticking together.’

‘Well, I certainly don’t want to be evacuated, like poor Jack,’ Sasha told them. ‘We were talking about him when we came home from school, weren’t we, Auntie Francine, and me and Lou think it would be really nice if we could all go and see him. It’s very mean of Auntie Vi not to tell us where he is.’

Jean put down the pudding she had been about to serve up and looked at Francine. She knew how her younger sister felt and she sympathised with her, but she didn’t want her involving the twins in matters that were far more complicated than they could realise.

‘I heard today that the BBC do want me to go to Bangor to try out for that show with Vera Lynn.
They’ve evacuated the Variety Entertainment Department out there, and Tommy Handley and that lot are there, according to one of the girls in the show with me.’

‘It’s a long way to go on the off chance, when you’re already rehearsing for a show here, isn’t it?’ Jean asked her doubtfully. ‘I mean, even if they want you it’s not as though you can rely on the trains.’

‘They’ve said that they’ll send a car for me, and if they think I’m suitable then they’ll put me up at an hotel in Bangor whilst I’m doing the shows.’

‘They must think that you’ll be good, otherwise they wouldn’t ask you to go all that way,’ said Grace.

‘She is good, and we think she’s better than Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields, don’t we, Sasha?’ Lou demanded of her twin.

Sasha nodded, and Jean’s heart sank. The twins were rapidly growing to hero-worship Francine, and to her dismay they were constantly talking about wanting to go on the stage themselves, something she knew that Sam would never allow and something she wouldn’t really want for them herself, not after what had happened to Francine.

Francine laughed and shook her head. ‘I’m nowhere near as good as either of them. If I was I’d be the one who is a big star, wouldn’t I?’ said Francine.

‘Me and Sasha think you should be. I bet the BBC will think so as well.’

‘I doubt it, and even if they want me they don’t pay very much.’

Francine was uncomfortably aware that Jean wasn’t happy about the twins’ admiration of her. She hadn’t deliberately attempted to get them on her side, but they were evermore enthusiastic about their singing and dancing, and it was only natural that they should turn to her as someone who would understand how they felt.

They were excellent little dancers, and with them being identical twins Francine didn’t think they would have much difficulty in polishing up a nice little act for a theatre show. She didn’t want to do anything to alienate Jean, though. Not only was she genuinely fond of her elder sister, she also felt very grateful to her for letting her stay with them and for her attempts to persuade Vi to tell them where Jack was.

‘I’d better go and get ready. We’ve got a show tonight,’ she told them all.

After tea Grace helped her mother to do the washing up and told her about Seb.

‘You say he’s a bit poorly, then?’ Jean asked her.

‘Yes,’ Grace confirmed. ‘I went in to see how he was this morning before I came off duty. His temperature hasn’t risen any higher, but it hasn’t gone down either.’

Jean tried not to feel worried. She knew that Grace had a tender heart, but she had suspected all along with a mother’s instinct that her daughter had been far more taken with Alan Parker’s cousin
than she had wanted to let on, and now she felt that her suspicions were being confirmed.

‘So what’s he doing in hospital up here, then? I thought you said he was from down south somewhere.’

‘His parents live near London, but Seb said that he’d been posted up here after coming back from France. He didn’t realise that he’d still got some shrapnel in his shoulder until he told the MO at Derby House when he reported for duty that he was having a lot of pain in his arm, and he sent him to us.’

‘Have Bella and Alan been told that he’s in hospital here?’ Jean asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Grace admitted.

‘Well, dare say they will want to visit him, and Alan’s parents as well, seeing as he’s their nephew.’

‘I don’t think he cares very much for the Parkers,’ Grace felt obliged to reveal. ‘At least that’s what he told me. He’s only related to them by marriage really.’

There was no sign of Teddy or his ambulance when Grace arrived back at the hospital that evening, not that she expected to see him. He had told her that he planned to go to see his family, who Grace hadn’t met but who she felt as though she knew from listening to Teddy talk about them.

They had agreed that it would only complicate things if they were to meet one another’s families, mothers being the way they were. Her own mother had asked after Teddy as Grace was leaving, and
she had told her truthfully that they were still just very good friends and that was the way they intended to stay.

When she walked into the hospital the only thought in her head had been to go to her room to catch up on some studying and then go to bed, but somehow or other she found herself making her way to the ward.

Staff Nurse Reid raised her eyebrows at the sight of her out of uniform and on her day off.

‘I just thought I’d look in and see how Seb is,’ Grace told her self-consciously, feeling obliged to explain when Staff started to frown, ‘I know him, you see. Well, that is to say, his cousin is married to mine.’

Staff Nurse Reid studied her thoughtfully but her frown had gone.

‘Sister normally expects nurses to tell us of any connection they have with patients on her ward when they’re first admitted.’

‘Yes, I’m sorry,’ said Grace penitently, ‘only with us only being related through marriage, and me having met him only the once, I wasn’t sure.’

‘Well, try to remember another time, Campion.’ Staff was already turning away and Grace still hadn’t found out how Seb actually was.

‘Is he any better?’ she asked.

‘His temperature hasn’t risen any higher, but when Mr Leonard came to look at his wound this afternoon he felt that it was looking a little bit worse.’

Her frown was back and Grace guessed that Staff
Nurse Reid shared the surgeon’s concern. Grace had already noticed how the best kind of nurses seemed to develop with experience a sixth sense about their patients that went beyond the material evidence of temperature charts and the like.