The Mersey Angels

by Sheila Riley

  ‘You will always have a place here, Lottie.’ Izzy was washing a few pots, her back to Lottie, and still unable to look the poor girl in the eye, feeling the stab of shame at what her son had done. Lottie was a decent girl who had come from a good home, and had a kind heart, which her unruly eldest lad had not hesitated to take advantage of.

  ‘I was thinking of going back to work in the Emporium… I mean the charity shop,’ Lottie answered wrapping the remains of uneaten bread in paper and putting it on the kitchen shelf. She wanted to do something. Anything. To stop her contemplating the horror she had been subjected to in her marriage to Jerry. ‘I need to get back to work.’

  ‘You don’t have to worry about that just now,’ Izzy answered, knowing Lottie’s plight had been the talk of the community and that the girl would become something of a target for some who engaged in morbid curiosity.

  ‘I can’t sit around doing nothing all day,’ Lottie told her mother-in-law, ‘it’s not in my nature to keep still.’

  After a couple of weeks behind the counter of the charity shop, the polite enquiries regarding her ‘health’ petered out and life began to get back to normal for Lottie. She enjoyed her work and mixing with people who had known her all their lives and she realised that even though there were some outright busy bodies, on the whole this was a close, kind-hearted community that strived to help out anybody less fortunate, even if the help was just a kind word and a bit of encouragement because they had little else to give. And as the weeks passed, she found herself thinking less of her own nightmare marriage to a no-good shirker who left her for dead, to deliver her stillborn daughter alone, and began to concentrate on others who were not as fortunate as she had been to have the support of a woman like Izzy.

  ‘Do as you would be done by, that’s my way of thinking,’ said Izzy as she set the table for the evening meal, ‘I think the world would be a better place if we all thought that way.’

  ‘I hear poor Mrs Dingle’s lad died when his ship hit a mine,’ Lottie said, and a shiver ran down her spine. She knew Jerry was an orderly on a Royal Navy ship. The magistrate decided he would be of no use in prison, nor would he be given the chance to abscond, as he was sure to do if he went back to the infantry platoon. He was much less likely to wander off, Lottie though, if he was in the middle of the Atlantic.

  ‘I overheard one of the patients telling his next bed neighbour that he knew someone who deliberately shot himself in the foot, just to get sent home.’ Anna was knitting seaboot socks for Ned.

  ‘A bit extreme, don’t you think? Although talk of Blighty Wounds is a popular topic of conversation among the patients,’ Ellie responded, knowing how worried her friend was about her Ned.

  Anna knew such a wound would be serious enough to bring him home, but not grave enough to kill him. ‘I know,’ she said, ‘and try as I might, I cannot get the niggling hope from my thoughts.’ She looked out to the far distance. ‘I am so wicked to have such thoughts.’

  ‘Not at all,’ said Ellie, who was far more open-minded. ‘It is human nature to want to preserve and care for those you love.’

  ‘I miss him so much. I don’t think my heart can cope.’ Waiting for his letters had her nerves in shreds. Not knowing if there would be another tormented her daily.

  ‘You have the heart of a lioness,’ Ellie said, ‘and to see you keeping up the spirits of the men who have seen enemy action close up is a lesson in courage.’

  ‘What I am going through is nothing,’ Anna said, ‘compared to their suffering.’ Catching a glimpse of her pinched expression in the window, Anna knew she had to put a brave face on things for everybody’s sake. The men in her care had been through a living hell, the proof of which she had seen on the enormous screen at the picture house. Yet, she had to remain strong. Perhaps it had not been a good idea to go and see the film. Sam, her beloved brother who was snatched from her six years ago and sent to the other side of the world by the church, was there in front of her, on the big screen.

  Anna marvelled at how much he had grown. He was now a man. His boyish good looks were replaced with a rugged appeal. She would know him anywhere.

  She wanted to go over to France and see him for herself. She wanted to help the wounded. Brave men like her brother, who were doing their bit. Perhaps she would even meet up with Sam? The idea taunted her, and she could not get it out of her head. She had already told Ruby and, of course Ellie who’d wanted to come too. She had even told Doctor Bea who had encouraged her to go.

  23

  ‘We got no warning that Professor Burns was coming here,’ Ellie hissed as she came on duty, the place suddenly becoming a hive of activity in preparation for his rounds.

  ‘He is replacing Doctor Bea when she goes abroad after Christmas.’ Anna said expertly straightening bedclothes. and plumping pillows. While Ellie cleared side cupboards that suddenly looked as neat as a proverbial new pin. VADS swept floors and windows got another going-over before being opened a little wider and Anna noticed Ellie escape out of the ward like a bullet from a gun, not to be seen again for some time.

  Anna could hear the professor before she saw him. His enormous footsteps storming through the corridors, as usual leaving sisters and junior nurses scurrying up to the second floor. Matron, the only one who could usually put him in his place, was not around either.

  VADs ran for cover to the sluice room and surprisingly were no longer concerned about cleaning dirty bedpans. Anna knew the probationers dreaded accompanying the professor on his rounds, having questions thrown at them with the power of a force nine gale Those who had been unaware once did not make the same mistake again. The only solution was to stay in the sluice room until he had gone. Nearing the end of a relentless shift, Anna hoped she did not attract his attention, as the other nurses had gone on first tea. There was nobody else around.

  ‘Oh, here he is,’ a soldier in the end bed whispered, ‘the great man himself.’

  Looking round quickly, Anna could see there was nowhere for her to disappear to. Professor Burns was heading straight toward her. Ellie, sauntering up the corridor after coming back from her afternoon break and realising the prof was still on the prowl, dove into one of the side-wards. Anna made a silent vow to have words later. This was the second time she had been caught by the huge, barrel-chested man whose plum-coloured nose could sniff out an unenthusiastic nurse at sixty paces.

  As he marched towards her with long determined strides, she saw Matron arrive on the ward, scurrying in his wake along with a young VAD. Anna suddenly felt sorry for them both.

  ‘Follow me nurse,’ The Prof said, his booming voice all but shook the bedsteads and woke the inhabitants, who were having their pre-tea snooze. However, Anna could see the young debutante was completely out of her depth.

  Just in time Doctor Bea who had a soft spot for the professor came to her aid, and she was saved the ordeal of his wrath.

  ‘That will be all, nurse, I will escort Professor Burns from here. Continue your duties,’ she told her.

  ‘Yes, Doctor, thank you, Doctor.’ the nurse scurried back to her patients, relieved, and when they began pleading for a cup of tea, she agreed immediately.

  Anna felt restless. Her fingers curled round the unopened letter that had finally arrived from Ned. She had hoped to read it when she got a break. But there had been no time up to now. His letters were quite sporadic… She missed him so much…

  ‘Can I go down to the garden, Sister?’ Nipper who was in a bed close by interrupted her thoughts. His eyes were wide with excitement. He had lost his fingers and was now in the bed nearest the open window, battling a raging temperature. Anna thought it was highly unlikely that Nipper would be allowed to go down to the garden tomorrow, but she never gave up hope.

  Pushing patients round the grounds, where verdant lawns were now vegetable patches, was a tonic to those who had been seriously ill and were now on the mend. The ones who could take a bit of fresh air. However, Anna knew Nipper was nowhere near ready to go
outside yet, and feeling a tinge of guilt, she said in a low voice, so Matron could not hear. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’ It seemed such a shame to dash his hopes when he had been so poorly. The news seemed to lift his spirits, and he put his thumb in the air as he settled under the covers, a huge grin on his face, no doubt dreaming of getting outside for a short while.

  24

  ‘When are you going?’ Ruby asked, stirring her tea continuously, a sure sign she was agitated.

  ‘Not until spring,’ Anna said it in such a way as to brook no argument.

  ‘Well, at least you will be here for Christmas.’ Ruby was unfamiliar with defeat, Anna knew. ‘The matter appears to be settled, Archie.’ An uncomfortable silence ensued, broken only by Ellie, who seemed deliberately impervious to Ruby’s whims.

  ‘Anna is a treasure, Aunt Ruby, you should be proud.’ She gave Anna’s arm a determined hug, ‘it is a wonderful thing we are doing. Do you not think it wonderful, Aunt?’

  ‘I think it is madness.’ Ruby gave Archie and her sister May a beseeching, questioning glare. They both said nothing, enraging her even more, ‘Is there nothing we can do to stop this foolishness?’

  ‘Aunt Ruby it is not imprudent to want to serve your country, when the brave young men are out there offering their own lives.’ Ellie did not want to be dissuaded by common sense.

  ‘I am as patriotic as the next person,’ Ruby said, ‘I send regular parcels of food and clothing to the front and raise funds. Nevertheless, I cannot say that this latest turn of events has brought out the enthusiast in me.’

  ‘If anything were to happen to you, I would die. Do you hear me, I would die.’ May’s theatrical tone of voice rose accordingly, and Ruby’s brow pleated in pragmatic censure. Her sister was not helping matters by coming over all hysterical.

  ‘Oh Aunt Ruby,’ Anna’s vague smile wobbled, ‘you will soon get used to us not being here, and it won’t be for long. We’ll be home soon.’

  ‘We most certainly will,’ said Ellie, ‘we will be amongst the finest of nurses in England. It’s not as if we will be sent to the trenches alone, Doctor Bea will be with us as well as some VADs.’

  ‘You could both be sent to the trenches?’ Ruby’s eyes widened in horror, silently pleading with Archie to intervene, but he shrugged helplessly.

  ‘It appears there is little we can do now, Ruby, my love.’ He looked to Anna and Ellie who mouthed a silent, ‘thank you.’

  ‘I could, maybe, pull a few strings,’ Ruby offered tentatively.

  ‘No, you mustn’t,’ the two girls chorused, determined, ‘we must all do our bit, and if that means being sent to the Front, then so be it.’

  ‘I know you feel you must go,’ May told both girls, ‘and that is a credit to you, but Ashland Hall needs you too.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Ellie answered as Anna sighed quietly. They really did not want to discuss the matter in any more detail.

  ‘We’ve done all we can here.’ Anna did not reveal her burning need to find her brother. But what if Ned should come back on leave and find her gone? The thought was fleeting. If Ned had spent less than forty-eight hours on leave in over two years, she doubted he would be given leave just when she went overseas.

  ‘I know I don’t have the right to try and stop you both,’ Ruby had that pained expression she adopted when she was not getting her own way. But she could not contain her martyred air any longer and resorted to pleading. ‘You must both see sense. I could not bear it if anything happened to you.’

  ‘I would die of a broken heart,’ May joined in.

  Anna smiled. She knew if Aunt Ruby could not get her own way by barking orders, she would try the other tack and play on their sympathy. But it would not work this time.

  ‘Right. That is enough.’ Ellie held up her hand. ‘The war waits for no man or woman. Everything is under control here and our country need us.’

  ‘I should have known,’ Ruby replied. ‘If Ellie wants to do something, she will find a way to do it, and it will take the wrath of the Good Lord himself to change her mind.’

  ‘Who does that remind me of?’ Archie asked and everybody laughed, except Ruby who did not have a clue who he could be talking about.

  ‘That’s the spirit,’ Anna said briskly, defusing a possible sombre table of breakfast eaters. Ruby was pushing scrambled egg round her plate, eating nothing, while May, slight as she was, ate everything put before her. Since her husband’s demise, she had become a new woman which included having a bigger appetite.

  Anna felt she should be doing more. Also, since seeing the film her need to find her brother burned within her. And if that meant going to the Western Front, then so be it.

  ‘I’m sorry you’ve taken the news so badly, Aunt Ruby, but it is something we have to do. They need good nurses to collect casualties and bring them back to England.’

  ‘I agree with Anna,’ said Ellie, ‘we are a force to be reckoned with during these trying times, among the very finest nurses in the whole world.’

  ‘What does this trip entail?’ Ruby’s dark eyes were worried.

  ‘Travel, courage, grit and determination,’ Ellie laughed, her stomach churning with excitement.

  ‘To name but a few,’ Anna interrupted warily, as if stepping into a bear pit without a gun.

  ‘It’s too dangerous,’ said May, rolling her napkin, obviously worried.

  ‘Of course, it is dangerous,’ argued Ellie, who had been a staunch suffragist before the war. ‘But it all sounds thrilling, Aunt Ruby,’ she exclaimed, nodding to Anna for back up, her heart racing with excitement. Then she caught sight of Ruby’s downcast expression and she gently patted her arm. ‘We’ll be there and back before you know it.’ Ellie had that gleam in her eyes that reminded Anna so much of Ruby when she was determined to do something.

  ‘Is this what you really want to do, my darlings?’ asked Ruby and both girls nodded. Anna was determined to go to the battlefield. She would find Sam, and she would bring him home to Liverpool. Where he belonged.

  ‘I feel we are shirking our duty by not going, so much needs to be done, we must assist.’ Ellie, too, had heard valiant tales of nurses at the front, whilst plucky women travelled Europe in their quest to bring back injured men.

  ‘I feel we have done nothing for the war effort,’ Anna said, ‘except patch men up and send them back. I feel so guilty that they are going back when we could be of greater service over there.’

  ‘What are we sending them back to though?’ Ruby asked, throwing down her napkin.

  ‘We won’t be anywhere near the front line, Doctor Bea said so,’ Anna assured Ruby and she could see that May was considering the news she had been given.

  ‘You won’t be anywhere near the actual fighting?’ May asked and the girls assured her they would not. ‘We will be a few miles back in the beautiful French countryside nursing men who need our immediate attention,’ Ellie assured her mother and her aunt.

  All Anna knew was what she saw at the cinema and what Doctor Bea had told her. She felt such a fraud when she told a brave Tommy he was doing a grand job, and then hearing later that he had not made it. How could she tell brave men, that their country was proud of them and then send them back for more of the same from the comfort of a grand country house?

  ‘This is our chance to see for ourselves,’ Anna told Ruby, touching the ring that Ned had given her, and the pendant Sam had purchased for her mother all those years ago, which were on a gold chain round her neck. They gave her courage and determination.

  ‘I don’t like this one little bit, Archie,’ Ruby said, looking to her husband, a font of all wisdom, standing with his back to the fire, dressed in his police uniform, hands clasped behind his back and rolling on the balls of his feet.

  ‘This may be our only chance to do what is right for our brave soldiers and for our country.’ Ellie could see Ruby stiffen and she knew instinctively, if Ruby and May had been younger and they had been given the opportunity, they would be in France lik
e a bullet from a Vickers machine gun.

  ‘My mind is made up.’ Anna was resolute. She was not going to let anyone persuade her that she was doing a foolish thing, then a thought struck her. ‘Will we need a letter of recommendation?’

  ‘No,’ replied Ellie. ‘Doctor Bea is taking the new batch of nurses after Christmas; we will join them later and that will not pose a problem.’

  ‘Of course,’ Anna said, ‘given our excellent qualifications, we will be an asset.’

  ‘Such modesty is so becoming,’ Ruby smiled, relieved they would be here for Christmas at least.

  ‘I received your recommendation of good character from the Chief Constable,’ Archie said, knowing that if they were hellbent on going, the situation must be prepared thoroughly. He avoided Ruby’s murderous glare.

  ‘We are meeting on the hospital ship, Gigantic, when it comes back to Princes Dock, so you have us for a good while yet.’ Anna was a lot more confident now they had Archie’s backing, and hopefully, in time, they would have Ruby’s and May’s approval too. She looked to Ellie who raised a conspiratorial eyebrow.

  Part II

  25

  Spring 1917

  ‘Hold that ship, my good man.’ Ruby’s vociferous vocals echoed round the dockyard. ‘Yoo-hoo! Don’t sail just yet.’ Her voice grew louder as she climbed the gangplank quickly followed by May.

  Anna and Ellie exchanged curious glances as they looked over the ship’s rail.

  ‘They’re boarding the ship,’ Anna said, craning her neck, and Ellie hooted with laughter as they saw the two women speeding towards them, waving an umbrella.