When the Lights Come on Again (41 page)

Liz rounded on him. ‘Well of course Eddie,’ she snapped. ‘Who else would it be?’

‘Don’t shout at Adam! It’s not his fault! It’s all my fault!’

Adam sat down beside Helen and took one of her hands in his. His lips twitched. ‘Well, I think Eddie might have to accept some of the blame.’

‘Would you stop being so bloody calm and reasonable?’ said Liz. Adam glanced across at her. His expression was mild enough, but there was reproof in his hazel eyes. ‘Her hand’s a bit cold,’ he murmured.

The reminder was enough. Helen was in a state of some distress. She was an expectant mother. At this precise moment, that made her their patient. Liz took hold of her other hand.

‘How did they find out, Helen? Did you tell them?’

Helen gulped and shook her head. Her mother had noticed that - she darted an embarrassed glance at Adam – a certain thing which should happen every month hadn’t happened. She had confronted her daughter about it and had then told her husband. Shocked and dismayed, Brendan Gallagher had turned to his.Church for help. The parish priest had called in after tea this evening.

‘Or, as some of us know him, Torquemada the Grand Inquisitor,’ murmured Liz. ‘Don’t tell me - he is planning to burn you at the stake.’

Adam looked faintly surprised at Liz’s robust approach, but it seemed to be working. Helen had a bit more colour in her cheeks and she was talking more coherently.

‘He thinks I should go into this home for unmarried mothers at some convent on the south side of Glasgow.’ Her sense of humour bobbed briefly to the surface. ‘Probably run by the Sisters of Absolutely No Mercy.’

Adam gave a short bark of laughter.

‘He kept praying at me,’ said Helen. ‘Telling me I had to confess my sin. I told him I hadn’t committed any sin.’

‘You did?’

She started crying again. ‘He told me my baby was a bastard, conceived in sin and degradation, and that I... that I was a... was a...’ It took her a few attempts to get it out. ‘That I was a whore and a harlot.’

On Helen’s other side, Liz was aware of Adam wincing at the words. Damn the bloody Church, she thought. Damn all bloody churches, with their certainties about right and wrong, their refusal to allow people to make mistakes. She gazed at Helen, whose fair head was now bowed in absolute dejection.

‘Listen to me, Helen,’ she said urgently. ‘You made a mistake, that’s all. A mistake made for the best reasons. Because you love Eddie. What the two of you did wasn’t a sin. You’re dead right about that.’

Helen lifted her head. ‘It wasn’t?’

Liz squeezed the hand she held. ‘The two of you have created another life, Helen. Out of your love for each other. How can it be a sin to do that?’

‘I didn’t think it was, Liz,’ Helen said pathetically. ‘I thought it was something beautiful.’ She let out a sob. ‘But the priest thinks I’m a whore and a harlot.’ Her voice dropped to a tortured whisper. ‘And now my daddy thinks that, too. And the boys. I cannae bear that.’

Damn them again, thought Liz fiercely, all these men who pontificate about how warm and passionate men and women should act, and who judge them when they fall short of their ludicrous standards.

‘Helen, your brothers adore you. They could never think badly of you. Your father loves you too. At the moment he thinks what the priest tells him to think. Because he doesn’t know what else to do.’

Helen looked at her, her expression mournful, clearly racked by doubts. Liz took a deep breath. ‘Helen, you know that Mario and I went to bed together. I don’t think that makes me a whore. I was lucky. We made love, but we didn’t make a baby.’ Her urgent grip on Helen’s hand loosened, and her voice cracked. ‘Sometimes I wish we had. At least then I would have something - someone - to remember him by.’

‘Och, Liz!’ cried Helen, animated at last, starting up in her seat in a movement so quick it had all three of them up on their feet. She flung her arms around Liz’s neck. Despite her pregnancy, she was very thin. They’d have to make sure she ate well from now on, thought Liz, got the proper nutrition she needed, for her own sake and the baby’s. Eddie’s baby. Liz’s flesh and blood too.

She lifted her head, wanting to share the moment of relief with Adam. He looked pale, and very serious.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘We’d better get to the station.’

‘Helen and I are going for the tram,’ she said, glancing up at the clock on the wall. They’d need to get a move on if they were going to make it on time.

Adam’s voice was sharp. ‘Don’t be so bloody stupid. I’ll drive you, of course.’

‘You can stay at my grandfather’s,’ said Liz as they drove between the Kelvin Hall and the Art Galleries on their way into town. She twisted round to look at Helen, sitting in the back seat of Morag. She’d got a bit more of the story on the way to the car.

Helen’s parents had tried to stop her from going to meet Eddie off the train, but she had defied them. Brendan Gallagher had thundered at her that if she went out of that door tonight, she shouldn’t bother coming back. Ever.

‘He’ll think better of it tomorrow,’ insisted Liz. ‘I’m sure he will. Give him some time to cool off. For tonight, Grandad and Eddie can have the back room and you’ll fit into the kitchen.’ Since he was still estranged from his father, Eddie planned to spend his leave at Peter MacMillan’s house. ‘As long as you don’t mind being roasted, of course.’

Helen did her best to return Liz’s grin.

‘Helen can stay at Milngavie if she wants to. My mother would gladly take her in.’

Liz looked across at Adam. It was a very generous offer. She put a hand on his wrist. He shook it off. ‘I’m trying to drive.’

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry.’

The railway station was like all railway stations these days, full of men and women in uniform saying hello and goodbye to each other. There were soldiers and sailors and airmen - British, Polish and French - wives and mothers and girlfriends and children too.

The three of them pushed their way through the crowd to the ticket barriers. They were late. Eddie’s train was already in.

‘I hope we havenae missed him.’ Helen’s eyes were flickering nervously over the dismounting passengers. An army officer was walking towards them. Liz glanced at him without much interest. He was very smart, tall and straight with a neat haircut. She looked again. It was Eddie.

He saw Helen about the same time as she saw him. He stopped dead, dropped his kit on the platform and opened his arms wide, his face suffused with joy. With a little cry, Helen ran towards him and was enveloped in his embrace.

Liz frowned. This was all very well, but her brother had some explaining to do. So close together that they looked as if they were taking part in a three-legged race, he and Helen came towards her. Eddie had a rather shamefaced grin on his face.

‘They made me an officer,’ he mumbled. ‘Because of my degree. How am I ever going to live it down?’ He dropped his bag again and held out both hands to his sister. Helen, smiling all over her face, took a step or two away to allow brother and sister to great each other properly.

Liz ignored Eddie’s outstretched hands. Her voice was full of reproach. There was little doubt what she was talking about. ‘Och, Eddie! How could you?’

His smile grew even more rueful.

‘How could I? Well, you’re the nurse, Liz. You know how human reproduction works.’

Liz slapped his face. Then she burst into tears, fending Eddie off when he took a step towards her.

‘What are you going to do about it, Eddie? Eh? You’ll marry her, that’s what!’

‘Liz,’ said Adam, ‘stop it.’

Eddie was more than capable of answering his sister himself. He took a step forward and planted a swift kiss on her forehead.

‘I thought I’d get that in before you hit me again,’ he murmured. ‘Now, shut up for a minute, would you?’

He turned to Helen, who’d been watching this interchange with a look of growing distress on her face. Ignoring Liz and Adam, Eddie went down on one knee on the dusty platform. He reached for Helen’s hand.

A few feet away a pigeon fluttered up in a great flapping of wings. Nobody noticed it. Eddie spoke very clearly.

‘Miss Gallagher, would you do me the honour - the very great honour - of becoming my wife?’

Helen stood like a statue. The hand Eddie wasn’t holding rested protectively on her stomach. A solitary tear rolled down one smooth cheek.

‘But Eddie,’ she whispered, her voice breaking, ‘you don’t believe in marriage.’

‘No,’ he agreed. His emotions written on his face for all to read, he looked up at the girl he loved. ‘But I believe in you.’

Liz suddenly couldn’t see very well. She felt hands on her shoulders, swivelling her round and marching her down the platform.

‘This is private,’ Adam said. ‘We’ll wait for them by the car.’