by Cathy Sharp
She was the reason Ron had managed to get away, because she’d been called to another patient and Ron had run while her back was turned. Sometimes, when hunger gnawed at his stomach, he wished he was back there, where it was warm and they’d fed him hot food and cups of creamy cocoa – and yet he knew what would happen. They would put him in an orphanage and he didn’t trust those places, not after what he’d witnessed.
Ron had known he was next in line for that brute’s attention and so he’d left after he’d seen one of his friends sobbing because he’d been hurt and beaten for fighting off the superintendent. There had been a woman he might have confided in but she’d been away on holiday. Ethel, the matron, was kind and she would have believed him but he knew the other care assistants would have called him a liar, preferring to stay in with their boss.
Ron hunched his shoulders under the old Army coat and sniffed, holding back the tears. He wished Danny was with him. It was because of Danny that they’d fought off those devils in the warehouse. Danny was strong and brave and he wished he was his brother. If only they could live somewhere safe together … but that was just a dream Ron knew would never come true. He didn’t even know where Danny had gone.
‘Hello, lad, on your own, then?’
Ron started, his senses alert as he heard the cultured voice. He didn’t trust men who spoke like that – in fact, he didn’t trust many people, except that police officer who had taken Danny away with him. He’d been a good ’un but he’d taken Danny not Ron.
‘Go away,’ Ron muttered. He was on his feet, hugging his coat to him, fear making him shake inside though he tried not to show it. ‘I don’t want yer money or yer food!’
‘I don’t have much of either,’ the man said. ‘I’ve got a fire, though, and I’m making a brew, if you want a mug of tea.’ He hesitated, then, ‘My name is Ted – and I mean you no harm.’
Ron looked at him suspiciously. He wasn’t smartly dressed, clearly down on his luck like the other men who slept under the bridges.
‘What do you want from me?’ he asked harshly.
‘Nothing, lad. I’m just a bloke who lost all he had because of the depression and I live on the streets just like you.’
Eyeing him up and down, Ron decided that he might be all right. ‘It ain’t much of a life is it, mister?’
‘No, it isn’t,’ the man replied. ‘I was very ill for a while and I drank – but the Sally Army helped me out—’
Ron flinched away from him. ‘Go away! I ain’t fallin’ fer that one again!’
‘Been let down, have you?’ The man looked at him sadly. ‘You can trust me, lad – I’m just over there if you want to sit by my fire.’
‘I’m all right.’ Ron sat down and hunched into his coat. He wanted desperately to share this man’s fire and his tea, but he was afraid to trust him after the last time. ‘Thanks, though.’
‘That’s all right. I’m here most nights. If you change your mind you can come over and sit by the fire.’
Ron shook his head. He was cold, hungry and miserable but he couldn’t bring himself to trust just yet. In the morning he would try to find the Sally Army Hall himself. He knew that if he could discover the real one, they would give him hot food, but he’d been tricked once and he couldn’t let that happen again, because next time there might not be another Danny to help him.
‘I wish you were here,’ he whispered to himself. ‘I wish you were my brother, Danny …’
CHAPTER 15
Rose smiled at her landlady, lingering to talk for a moment before she left for work. She was lucky to have found Beattie, who was like an older sister to her. A widow who had no children, Beattie had taken Rose in and treated her like a sister. She’d been so kind to Rose so would she – or could she – show the same kindness to a motherless boy?
‘Is there something on your mind, love?’ Beattie asked.
‘I was wondering …’ Rose took the plunge. ‘We’ve got a young boy on the ward, Beattie. He has been through a terrible time and – well, I’ve got fond of him. I know it’s a lot to ask, but if I offered to foster him, would you have him here? We’d have to get the proper permission but …’
Beattie’s homely face lit up with a smile that came from deep inside. ‘Well bless you, my dove, I’d like that fine. I’ve been wondering if your Lady Rosalie would accept me as a foster mother …’
‘Oh, Beattie, you darling,’ Rose said and hugged her. ‘If you don’t think I’m imposing?’
‘Never!’ Beattie said warmly. ‘I wanted children but my Matt was killed in the trenches during the German gas attack in 1915, as you know, and I never married again. We’d only been married a few weeks before he was called up and I lost my hope of a family when he died.’
‘I know, I’m so sorry, Beattie,’ Rose replied looking at her with love and sympathy. ‘It has been hard for you all these years.’
‘It isn’t now I’ve got you,’ Beattie replied serenely. ‘And a young boy we loved and cared for together would be a gift from God, my dove.’
‘He’s a lovely boy, Beattie. He was treated badly by his father, a drunk who beat him savagely – and then he was captured by some rogues bent on evil. I want to give him a secure home but I can’t do it alone …’
‘You tell your Matron and that Lady Rosalie that we’ll have him here,’ Beattie said. ‘If she wants me to answer questions I will – gladly. I’ve never done wrong by anyone and I could love any child that you love, Rose.’
‘Oh, I love you, Beattie!’ Rose told her sincerely. ‘I’m going to see Matron today and ask her if we can be put on Lady Rosalie’s list, then we can look after Danny together, give him a secure home where he can be happy! And he wants to be a cook so you could teach him.’
Beattie’s smile lit up the room as she nodded. Everyone said she was the best cook ever. It was why she could have taken as many lodgers as she wished, but she would only take young women she trusted and for the moment Rose was the only one. A small advert in Mr Forrest’s corner shop would bring her more lodgers immediately, but she managed well enough and was content because she thought of Rose as family.
Rose gave her a kiss on the cheek and left for work with a new spring in her step. She’d been puzzling over what to do for the best about Danny. He was recovering and Lady Rosalie would soon be searching for a family for him, but Rose didn’t want to say goodbye to him. Had she been married or had her own home, she would have asked before this but now, with Beattie’s agreement, she could ask if it could be arranged.
‘Well, that sounds ideal to me,’ Matron said when Rose told her the idea that she’d had for fostering Danny Bryant. ‘Your landlady sounds delightful, Sister Rose – I should like to meet her – and I’m sure Lady Rosalie will be happy to interview her. If she passes the checks that we have to make you will be given custody of Danny and Beattie will be given a small allowance, since she will be providing the home and food.’
‘Yes,’ Rose said, ‘and I will pay more towards our food and heat, and the allowance will help with his clothes and anything else he needs.’ She hesitated, then, ‘Do you think I shall pass the tests, Matron?’
‘I have no doubt of it,’ Matron told her with a smile. ‘I am so pleased you have come up with an arrangement that allows you to foster without giving up your job.’
‘I couldn’t have afforded to do it if Beattie hadn’t agreed,’ Rose told her. ‘Had I been married I would have spoken sooner – but Beattie is like an older sister to me.’
‘Yes. You are very lucky to have found such a landlady, Sister Rose – and she, you. Some of my nurses do not have such pleasant lodgings, I fear, and most will never have a home of their own, I fear.’
‘No …’ Rose’s smile dimmed for a moment. She’d thought for a short time that she might have found a man she might come to love and make a home with, but Peter Clark had not asked her out and she’d decided the friendly looks he sometimes gave her meant nothing more than respect for a fellow medical worker.
After she left Matron’s office, Rose went to the children’s ward. She saw Danny’s eager look and went straight to him as he sat up in bed, smiling down at him.
‘How are you feeling this morning?’ she asked and his smile warmed her heart.
‘I’m much better, Sister Rose. I’m glad to see you …’
‘Yes, and I you,’ she said and sat on the edge of his bed. ‘If it could be arranged, would you like to come and live with me, Danny?’
His eyes glowed and she felt the tears burn but refused to shed them. ‘Could I really do that, Sister Rose?’
‘I’ve asked Beattie, the lovely lady I live with, and she says yes. Now, we have to get Lady Rosalie’s permission, but if she says yes – and I think she will – you can leave hospital and come home with me, then we’ll get you into the local school and you will live with us all the time.’
Danny grinned at her. ‘Do yer reckon I can learn to cook too?’
‘Beattie is a really great cook, Danny. She can teach you all she knows – and then one day I’ll pay for you to learn properly at college.’
‘I reckon you’re a smasher, Sister Rose!’
Rose laughed, feeling happier than she had been in a long, long time. ‘Thank you, Danny. I like you too.’
Danny was silent for a moment. ‘If they let me live wiv you and Beattie, will you help me find out how Marjorie is – and Ron too?’
‘I will ask Constable Jones to take a letter from you to Marjorie,’ Rose promised. ‘Her mother may let her write back to you then – and I’ll also ask if they’ve found Ron. I feel sure Constable Jones will know if he has been taken to hospital or an orphanage.’
‘If they’d brought him ’ere, he wouldn’t have run away,’ Danny said wisely. ‘I’d ’ave told him you were all right, Sister Rose.’
‘Thank you.’ She smiled at him lovingly, wondering why his father had ever treated him so badly. All Danny needed was someone to love and he responded with eagerness. ‘Perhaps we can help Ron once they find him – and I’m sure Marjorie will come and see you if we tell her mother where you’re living.’
Danny nodded and she bent to kiss his cheek. As far as Rose was concerned, he was her son now and she would give him all the love she had inside her. Danny needed love and she and Beattie had so much to give …
Danny watched as Sister Rose walked away to speak to other patients. He felt a warm glow of happiness inside, because of what she’d told him. For the first time in a long while he felt safe and cared for and he couldn’t stop smiling. She was lovely, was Sister Rose, and he looked forward to calling her Mum and to living with her. He even wanted to go to school and to learn how to cook with Beattie and then one day to become a proper chef – Sister Rose had told him that was the proper word for men who cooked.
Suddenly he saw a new life ahead of him. It would have been even better if he could spend it with Ron and Marjorie as well, but he didn’t think that was likely to happen. He wouldn’t dare push his luck by asking if Ron could come and live with them and Marjorie had her own home and parents to love her. Danny wondered if she was all right, but the one he worried about was Ron. If his friend was on the streets still, he could die of cold or hunger or … His mind shied away from the other terrible things that could happen to a boy alone, so he would like to know that Ron was safe too, but perhaps Sister Rose’s friend could find out what had happened to him. Settling back with the comics one of the nurses had given him to read, Danny wondered how long it would be before he was told that he could go to live with Sister Rose.
CHAPTER 16
‘Good morning, Nurse Jenny.’ Peter Clark smiled at the friendly young woman who met him as he entered the critical ward. ‘I’ve come to see one of your patients – a Mrs Hilda Jenkins I believe?’
‘Yes, doctor,’ Nurse Jenny replied, a faint blush on her cheeks. ‘She was very poorly during the night – her breathing was difficult and she had pain in her chest, also a slight fever I’m told.’
‘Lead on,’ he said and followed her to the end of the ward where an elderly woman lay back against the pillows with her eyes closed. She opened them as he approached her bed and gave him a brave smile. ‘Good morning, Hilda – how are you feeling now?’
‘A little under the weather, doctor,’ she whispered and he heard the rasping noise in her chest. Consulting the night nurse’s notes, he nodded. It was probably acute bronchitis made worse by the poor conditions she lived in like so many of the East End of London’s poor. She might recover enough to live through the summer, but he doubted she would see another winter out. The best thing he could do for her was keep her here for a week or two with plenty of bed rest and good nourishing food.
‘Nothing much to worry about then,’ he told her cheerfully. ‘We’ll keep you in hospital for a week or two, let you have a rest and feed you up a bit.’
She smiled and nodded, clearly happy to be looked after for a while. ‘I’ve had a big family to care for, doctor – ten there were, six boys and four girls. Me and my Alf managed to get them all up to school-leaving age and then they went their own ways. I’ve got two out in New Zealand and another in America – he’s doing well. He sends me some pretty things now and Jack went to Australia, works on a sheep station. My daughters are all married with families of their own and Terry lives up the road. He’s got seven of his own and we don’t know what happened to Noah. He went off one night and we ain’t seen him since …’ She sighed and a tear slipped down her cheek. ‘My Alf died two years back and I’ve been alone since. They come to visit, those that live close, but they’ve got their own lives, doctor.’
‘Yes, I expect so.’ Peter frowned. He would try to discover if any of Hilda’s children knew how ill she was. She ought to be living with one of her daughters – or at least they should visit often, even if they did have lives of their own. ‘We’ll soon have you up and fighting fit, Hilda.’
The elderly woman laughed and he moved on, washing his hands before examining the next patient who complained of a tummy ache. He thought that was probably wind and recommended something to calm it before making a quick tour of the ward. The patients all knew him and wanted a word and he lingered with each, finally making his way back to Nurse Jenny who had returned to her desk.
‘I think it is the bronchitis again for Hilda, nurse,’ he said. ‘It is something she’s had a long time – but if she gets worse send for me.’
‘She hasn’t got long, has she?’
‘The summer, perhaps – but the winter’s fogs and cold will probably be the finish, unless we could get her somewhere warmer …’
‘What about her sons in New Zealand or Australia?’
‘Do you know how to contact them?’
‘I think she might tell me – though she doesn’t want to be any trouble.’
‘Find out and I’ll send a telegram.’
‘Yes, doctor. I’ll do my best.’ Her smile lit up her pretty face. ‘You’re so kind to them – all of them.’
Peter turned away and then something made him stop. ‘I have two tickets for a musical this Saturday evening – would you care to accompany me?’
‘Yes,’ she agreed instantly. ‘Thank you, I should like that.’ She smiled with pleasure.
‘It’s a date, then. I’ll pick you up from here at six forty-five,’ he said and walked off.
It was only as he left the hospital that he wondered what had made him ask the young nurse to accompany him to the theatre. His intention had been to pluck up his courage and ask Sister Rose, but something had stopped him. Nurse Jenny, outgoing and cheerful, was much less intimidating, and his request had been an impulse, which he half regretted. He had no doubt he would enjoy Nurse Jenny’s company, but it was Rose he was truly interested in – if only she would let him show her.
Lily was ironing a blouse when Jenny came home that evening. She noticed at once that her sister was excited and smiled, raising her eyebrows. Jenny laughed.
‘I’ve been asked to the t
heatre on Saturday evening,’ she said looking extraordinarily pleased. ‘You’ll never guess who asked me?’
‘I haven’t a clue,’ Lily told her, smiling. ‘Go on, tell me then.’
‘Dr Peter Clark,’ Jenny said and let out her breath in a rush. ‘What do you think of that?’
Lily looked at her, astonished and not quite sure what to think. ‘Well, he is good-looking – and everyone likes him but …’ She shook her head, because it wasn’t her place to say what she didn’t really know. But Lily suspected that Sister Rose rather liked Dr Clark and she’d thought he might like her, because she’d seen them talking once or twice and it seemed as if there was something right about it – but if he’d asked her sister out, Lily must have got it wrong. Besides, it wasn’t her business. ‘Are you looking forward to it?’
‘Yes, I am, very much. It’s ages since I went anywhere nice,’ Jenny said and sighed, because sometimes life seemed all work.
‘Yes, I know,’ Lily said and felt vaguely guilty because of the wonderful two days she’d spent with Chris that she’d had to keep secret. Their marriage ceremony had been brief, and it had hurt Lily that she couldn’t tell her sister, but the time they’d spent together had been wonderful. After he’d gone, she’d felt that awful cloud of loneliness descend on her again, but work and her friendship with other nurses and patients had lifted it within a day or so. Now, she was living day to day, as she knew she would until Chris was able to be with her again. He’d kissed her passionately before he left, telling her that he would write when he could and gone, tearing himself from her arms – and the worst bit was that she couldn’t share her secret with her much-loved sister.
‘Well, I’m glad you’re going out for an evening,’ Lily said looking at Jenny affectionately. ‘It will do you good.’
‘Yes.’ Jenny’s eyes softened with love. ‘I do know how you miss Chris. It’s a shame you can’t be with him more, Lily. Have you heard from him lately?’