Read Where the Heart Lies Online
Authors: Ellie Dean
Where the Heart Lies (46 page)
He reddened and couldn’t meet her gaze. ‘That’s true,’ he admitted, ‘but there’s no guarantee she’ll be suitable.’
Julie grinned for the first time in days. ‘Oh, I think you’ll find she is,’ she replied. ‘Alison Chenoweth is an extremely good nurse and midwife, and although you may find her difficult to understand with that Cornish accent of hers, she’ll be an asset to the practice, I promise.’
His eyes widened in astonishment. ‘How on earth do you know so much?’
‘Alison worked with me in London and we’ve stayed in touch. I told her about the post here and she jumped at the chance. She’s a country girl at heart, and this place will suit her just fine.’ She didn’t add that Alison was an imp, and would probably sum up Eunice in a trice and see to it that she was kept on her toes.
‘When I said we needed you here,’ he began hesitantly, ‘it wasn’t the practice I was talking about.’
She regarded him warily as he leaned forward, his arms resting on his desk.
‘You see, I realise now that I shouldn’t have let others influence how I felt about things,’ he continued awkwardly. ‘I know I’ve been somewhat distant and rather formal of late, but I wasn’t at all
sure about . . .’ He gave a helpless smile and shrugged his shoulders. ‘Well, you know.’
Julie took pity on him and gave him a warm smile. ‘I understand completely, Michael. You were led to believe that I was a young, single woman with a baby in tow who was looking for some poor sap of a man to give her a bit of respectability.’
‘That’s not quite how it was put,’ he protested.
‘I bet it’s close enough,’ she replied mildly. ‘But I was never looking for anything more than friendship from you, Michael – and if only you’d come to me and talked it over, I could have set things right between us.’
‘I see,’ he murmured.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, leaning towards him. ‘You’re a lovely man, with a deep sense of responsibility and care for your patients. But you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, Michael.’
‘I never presumed—’ he protested.
‘I’m sure you didn’t,’ she said dryly, ‘but if you look at things from where I see them, you might find it easier to understand my feelings on the matter.’ She stood up and smoothed down her apron. ‘I like you, Michael, but I’m not the one who’s in love with you. You need to look closer to home than that.’
She let herself out of the consulting room and bumped straight into Eunice. ‘Dr Michael would probably appreciate a cup of tea,’ she said brightly. ‘And while you’re at it, why don’t you ask him to
that fund-raising garden party? I know you happen to have a spare ticket.’
She left the surgery feeling lighter somehow, and as she set off on her rounds, she could feel the tug of London calling her home, and the first stirring of hope that she would come through this time of trauma a stronger, better person.
Julie took up her position on the platform at Cliffehaven Station. It was strange to think how much had happened since she’d arrived there all those months ago. Now the first of September had arrived, and Bill would be taking William to Yorkshire the following morning. She tamped down on the feeling of dread as she waited for the London train to arrive.
Alison Chenoweth emerged from the cloud of steam with a bright smile, dropped her cases and threw herself into Julie’s arms, her words of delight at seeing her again tripping over one another in her excitement.
Julie tried to translate what she was saying, and gave up. It was just lovely to see her again, and to catch up on all the news. She took one of her cases and they set out for Kath Carter’s house, where Alison would be lodging in the spare room.
Kath’s mother was out at work, but the three girls soon settled down in deckchairs to make the most of the end of summer in the pretty garden and to catch up on the gossip. Julie elicited a promise from
Alison that she’d take very great care of Peggy, and then put her wise to the ways of the surgery and the budding romance between Eunice and Michael, warning her that Eunice could be tricky.
Kath promised to introduce her to her friends and show her round Cliffehaven, and they both listened as Alison talked about life at the hostel, Lily’s latest young man, Sister Preston’s engagement to a Canadian soldier, and the surprising news that Matron seemed to be getting rather close to one of the senior doctors at the hospital.
‘I be ’earin’ that Stanley you were engaged to got ’is call-up papers and ’e be gorn to be a soldier,’ said Alison some time later. ‘I ’ope ye be none too upset, Julie.’
Julie shook her head, surprised at her lack of caring one way or another. She’d hardly thought about Stan these past months. ‘I thought his job was considered a reserve occupation.’
‘That’s as maybe,’ muttered Alison. ‘But I heard tell he blotted his copybook, and were about to be kicked out of the force. Reckon he jumped afore he were pushed,’ she said with an impish grin.
Julie made no comment, even though she did wonder what Stan had done to get himself the sack. Then all thoughts of Stan were dismissed as she heard the grandfather clock in the hall chime half past seven. ‘I’ve got to go,’ she said reluctantly.
Kath and Alison went with her to the door, and as she stepped onto the path, they gathered her into
a tight embrace. ‘I’m going to miss you, Kath,’ Julie managed through her tears. ‘You’ve been such a good friend.’
Kath returned her hug. ‘I’ll write often, and don’t forget us down here.’
‘I won’t.’ She grinned through her tears at Alison. ‘And try not to wind Eunice up too much – she’s not really that bad.’
Alison pulled a face. ‘I’ll make me own mind up on that.’ She hugged Julie and then gave her a nudge towards the gate. ‘Get you gone, Jules, or I’ll be blabbering.’
Julie closed the gate behind her, gave them one last smile and wave, then hurried down the road. Reaching the entrance to the park, she turned, saw they were still watching, and waved again before she turned away and almost ran through the leafy gardens. It was a day of goodbyes – a day when she had to close the door on this chapter of her life, and steel herself for the next. But it wasn’t quite over – for the hardest goodbye was yet to come.
The ward was quiet, for visiting hour was long over, but Sister Black understood her need to be with William tonight, and kindly agreed to her having some time alone with him.
Julie stood by the cot and watched him play with his fingers. He’d filled out again, she noticed, and seemed to have grown in the long weeks since she’d seen him last. He was changing, she realised, his
features becoming more defined, his hair darkening to his father’s brown. But his smile was still Franny’s.
She lifted him from the cot and he grabbed her hair, gurgling with delight as she held him. He filled her arms so perfectly, and his baby skin was soft and sweet-smelling. He had more teeth now, and his eyes were a much darker brown. Soon she wouldn’t recognise him at all.
She kissed his little face, breathed him in for the last time, then put him back in the cot. ‘Goodbye, my darling boy,’ she whispered. ‘You were never really mine, but you’ll be in my heart always.’
Julie did not go to the station the following morning to see Bill and his mother take William away from Cliffehaven, but spent most of the day with Eileen. Then she returned to Beach View Boarding House to pack her cases and prepare for her last night with the Reilly family.
The next morning found her standing on the platform at Cliffehaven Station yet again, her cases beside her as she waited for the train. Peggy had offered to come with her, as had Eileen, but she had no wish to prolong the agony of parting, for it felt as if she’d spent the past few days severing all ties to Cliffehaven and the people who’d come to mean so much to her.
She and Eileen had parted tearfully, but she knew they wouldn’t lose touch again, and that once the war was over, Eileen would probably return to London. The knowledge that William and Bill were probably
already in the Yorkshire Dales, and therefore out of reach, made her heart ache. But one day she would see William again, she vowed, and in the meantime she would keep in touch with Bill.
As the train chugged into the station and a great cloud of steam rolled along the platform, Julie took her last look down the High Street to the glint of blue sea and then climbed aboard. The last few weeks had been filled with sadness, but now she felt a surge of excitement. The tug of London was ever stronger, drawing her home – home to where her heart lay, and where she could begin again.
Peggy’s baby was born just in time for tea at a quarter to six in the evening of 7th December 1941. Jim was cock-a-hoop, and although Peggy was exhausted after a long labour, she too was euphoric over the safe delivery of her beautiful new daughter. They called her Daisy.
The Reilly family didn’t realise, until they heard the news on the wireless the following day, that Daisy had been born at the very moment Japan had launched a deadly dawn attack on the American Naval Fleet in Pearl Harbour.
The Americans were now very much involved in the war, and soon they would be arriving in their thousands to help defend this small island and its embattled people.
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Epub ISBN: 9781448134885
Version 1.0
Published by Arrow Books 2013
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Copyright © Ellie Dean 2013
Ellie Dean has asserted her right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This novel is a work of fiction. Apart from references to actual historical figures and places, all other names and characters are a product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by
Arrow Books
Random House,
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road,
London SW1V 2SA
Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at:
www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm
The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780099574637
