Whispers of Love (10 page)

Although Christabel told her mother that she had no idea where they were, she always brought the matter up whenever she went home and seemed to think that she ought to be able to find out where Dennis was stationed. Christabel found it difficult to convince her mother that there was nothing she could do to help.

All through the summer months, Hilbury, like all the other military hospitals, was stretched to its utmost capacity as the war escalated, and Christabel found herself working exceptionally hard. At night she often felt so exhausted when she came off duty that she was too tired to eat. All she wanted to do was sleep and put the latest news about the Battle of the
Somme, which had now gone on for several months and had resulted in heavy casualties, out of her mind.

It was late August when she next made a visit home. She'd intended to do so ever since the Battle of Jutland a couple of months earlier; she knew her parents and Violet would be terribly worried about Lewis because the naval forces had been involved.

When she arrived home, she was shocked by her father's appearance. He looked as though he had aged ten years since she'd last seen him. His hair was grey, his face drawn; he'd lost weight and seemed to be a shadow of his former self.

‘He's been looking like that for months now,' her mother sighed when Christabel commented on how ill he looked.

‘Have you called in the doctor?' she asked worriedly.

‘I don't think there is any point in doing so; I put it down to business worries and the fact that we are still not sure where Lilian is living.'

Christabel was not convinced and, when shortly before Christmas, Basil collapsed from a fatal heart attack, although she was deeply saddened by the news, she was not really surprised.

Her mother was distraught and the fact that they were unable to locate Lilian only added to her distress. Violet did what she could but she was so busy looking after Kay that she was
not a great deal of help and it was left to Christabel to arrange the funeral and Christabel had no alternative but to ask for leave from Hilbury, promising that she would return the moment she could locate her sister and arrange for her to come home and take care of their mother.

Sister Speakley was most understanding. ‘You have plenty of leave due to you, so don't worry if it is a matter of a couple of weeks,' she told Christabel. ‘Having said that,' she went on quickly, ‘you are one of my most reliable nurses, so I look forward to you being back as soon as possible.'

It was mid-January before Christabel managed to locate Lilian's whereabouts and even longer before Lilian agreed to move back home to take care of their mother.

Christabel delayed her return to Hilbury for a few more days because Violet asked her to stay for Kay's second birthday. Lewis was still at sea and because she had no immediate family of her own, Violet felt desperately lonely.

Back at Hilbury, Christabel wondered if the war was ever going to end. There were times when she treated men who had been so horribly injured in one or other of the ongoing battles that she felt she was in a living nightmare. Occasionally, she wondered how it would feel like to live once again without being surrounded by barbed wire and people in khaki uniform
and all the rules and roll-calls that were part of each day.

Days became weeks, then months, and still the massacre went on; the wounded arrived, were operated on, patched up and moved on. The nursing staff automatically knew how to deal with most injuries; they were no longer sickened by the sight of blood, the stench of putrefying flesh or the agonised cries of the wounded.

Christabel managed to get home for two days over Christmas 1917 but her mother and Lilian, who was now pregnant, complained so bitterly about everything, including the shortage of food, that every time she sat down for a meal with them she felt guilty about eating any of what they had.

Dennis had been sent to France and for several weeks there had been no letter from him, which worried Lilian a great deal. She was afraid he might come to some harm and wanted him home before the baby was born.

It was August the following year before the war news took a turn for the better. By October the Allies had recovered France and Belgium and spirits began to soar. When they learned that the allies had pushed the Germans back beyond the Hindenburg Line and that the Kaiser had abdicated everyone was optimistic that the war would end soon. When Armistice was declared in the second week of November, they were overjoyed.

As the weeks passed, rumours about the hospital being closed down were rife. Christmas 1918 was a strange mixture of elation and uncertainty about the future. As the bitter winter reluctantly gave way to spring, Christabel felt restless. Her job was no longer rewarding, or satisfying. The men in their care were, for the most part, well enough to leave hospital. In ordinary circumstances they would have done so in order to free beds for the newly wounded, only now that the fighting had stopped the flow of wounded men had ceased.

The end at Hilbury came quite suddenly. A fleet of army vehicles arrived at dawn one morning in late March. Those well enough to be sent home were dispatched, those who were prisoners of war were marched into waiting vehicles and taken away to secure camps. The army personnel attached to the hospital were driven off in separate trucks.

The nursing staff were left marooned and without any information about their future. Two days later a Ministry official arrived and handed out dismissal notices. Staff were told that they could apply to be transferred to a civilian hospital if they wished.

Christabel decided she needed time to think before taking such action. At the moment, she welcomed the thought of a rest from it all. It was almost spring and she toyed with the idea of spending the summer months free from routine and pressures of all kinds but, because
Lilian was still living at home, she wasn't sure if she wanted to live there too.

When she received a letter from her mother to say that Lewis was on his way back, and his boat was due to dock within the week, she made up her mind to go home. She longed to see him again. It would be like old times, all of them gathered together.

 

Christabel's unexpected arrival brought exclamations of surprise from her mother. After she had hugged and kissed her, she stared in surprise at the number of cases Christabel had brought with her.

‘Does this mean you have come home for good?' she asked.

‘That's right, Mother. They've closed Hilbury down, everyone and everything gone.'

‘Why didn't you let us know?'

‘It all happened so suddenly. You know what the army is like. Orders came from the top and they acted immediately, so there wasn't time to send you a letter.'

‘You could have phoned.' There was a hint of displeasure in her mother's voice.

‘Yes, I'm sorry. Anyway, it doesn't matter now, does it?'

‘Lewis is home. He's here at the moment with Violet and Kay.'

‘Tremendous! Where are they?' Without waiting for her mother to answer she burst into the dining room and was immediately
enveloped in a bear hug by Lewis, who had recognised her voice and was waiting to greet her.

For a moment she was taken aback because she hadn't seen him in his navy-blue sailor's uniform before.

‘Are you so proud of your uniform that you don't want to change into civvies?' she teased, laughing up at him.

‘It's not a case of being proud of it; I can't find anything in my wardrobe that still fits me,' he laughed, straightening his shoulders and pulling himself up to his full height.

‘Yes, you
have
broadened out a little!' She stepped back, holding him at arm's length and studying him critically, her head tilted to one side. ‘Agreat improvement, I'd say.' She grinned.

He grabbed her to him, kissing her heartily on both cheeks. ‘And you look fine yourself,' he told her. ‘A lot older, of course. In fact, I would say quite grown-up,' he teased.

‘Come along, Christabel, slip your coat off, you're just in time for lunch. I'll tell Mary to lay another place,' her mother told her.

‘I'll take my things upstairs, first,' Christabel murmured. ‘I won't be a moment. I must freshen up.'

She turned and went out of the room and picked up one of her suitcases. Her foot was already on the bottom stair when her mother came hurrying after her.

‘Wait, Christabel. Hold on a minute. We . . . we
didn't know you were coming home . . . your room isn't ready.'

‘That's all right. I can put clean sheets on the bed, or whatever needs doing, later on. I'm only going to take these upstairs out of the way.'

‘Christabel, you don't understand. Dennis is using your room.'

‘Dennis!' Christabel turned sharply, a look of annoyance on her face.

‘Well, yes, dear. We didn't know you were coming home; you didn't write and let us know and now that Lilian is back, living here with her new baby, he had to have somewhere to put all their stuff.'

Christabel felt she wanted to hide in a corner and cry. She knew she was being childish but she'd so looked forward to coming home, to her own room and possessions, and now it was like living in a hotel, she thought sadly.

‘Leave it until after lunch, dear, and we'll see what arrangements we can make. Perhaps Dennis could move their things into Lewis's old room.'

‘Don't bother, I'll use that room,' Christabel said resignedly.

Later, she stayed upstairs for a long time until the light began to fade, staring out of the window, watching the diamante patterns emerging on the darkening sky as, one by one, the stars emerged, trying to work out why she was feeling so resentful about Dennis's invasion of her home.

Next morning, her mother was the only one up when she went down to breakfast.

‘Since it seems to matter to you so much, Christabel, you can move back into your own room any time you wish,' Mabel told her coldly.

She looked up, ready to apologise, to explain why it was so important to her, but her mother had turned away and Christabel was uncomfortably aware that she had upset her and that it was too late to make amends.

Christabel found the tension in the Montgomery household was palpable. She wondered if the edginess they were all feeling was because, in different ways, they were all missing her father. The house certainly seemed to be a different place without his authoritative presence.

From the moment she'd come home she'd noticed that everyone seemed to be arguing about something or snapping at each other over trivial matters, when they should have been one of the happiest families in the land.

She had returned from nursing far more worldly-wise but none the worse for all the grim sights and experiences she had encountered. Lewis had been at the Battle of Jutland, and had been torpedoed at the Dardanelles, yet he'd come through both of these harrowing engagements completely unscathed, at least physically. He was now home again and had resumed work in the family shipping business where he'd taken over his father's partnership in the firm, which meant he had a lot of extra responsibility.

Christabel was aware that both her mother and Lilian seemed to be uneasy about her being there. Most of the time there was friction
between the three of them and frequently it was almost unbearable.

Partly, Christabel reflected, it was due to all the fuss they both made about Lilian's little girl. Marlene expected to be the centre of everything that was going on. Compared to the way Kay was being brought up, Marlene was thoroughly spoilt by both her mother and grandmother. As a result, she was constantly throwing tantrums and screamed if she couldn't have her own way.

Since Lilian had been at home looking after her mother they'd developed a close bond and Christabel sensed that Lilian resented her being there or offering an opinion about anything. She wasn't sure why, but she suspected that Lilian was afraid that she might want to take over the reins and run things herself. In fact, nothing was further from her mind.

She didn't intend to stay at home a moment longer than she had to because she found it far too claustrophobic. She had plans for her future and spent a great deal of time and energy working on them.

The one thing she did enjoy, and which she knew she would miss very much if she went away again, was visiting Violet and taking little Kay out and about.

Kay was a pretty little girl with dark hair and big expressive blue eyes. Violet was a good mother and, as a result, Kay was bright and well mannered; she asked so many questions that Christabel found it stimulating to be with
her. She enjoyed taking her down to the Pier Head to see all the ships or on one of the ferry boats across the Mersey to New Brighton.

When the weather was unsuitable for those sorts of outings, they often spent happy hours looking at family photographs. Kay especially loved the ones of when her father, and her aunts, Lilian and Christabel, were small.