The G.I. Bride

by Eileen Ramsay

  Chapter 33

  April got back to the house at lunchtime. Mrs Teague was out, so she ate the sandwiches that had been left for her, changed out of her wet clothes, then got straight on her bike. It was time to track down Crawford. She couldn’t wait around hoping he’d come to her. If she wanted this to be resolved in any way, then it looked like it was up to her to sort it out. She remembered he was stationed at Pencalenick House, so she looked it up in one of Mrs Teague’s map books. Satisfied she had some idea where she was headed, she packed a thermos of tea, put her waterproofs on and set out.

  It wasn’t far, only about thirty minutes or so on the bike, although she was hampered by the wind and the rain blowing into her face. She’d look a fright by the time she got there, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to see Crawford.

  When she got to the gate, the soldier listened to her request to find Major Dunbar, then politely but firmly turned her away.

  ‘I’m sorry, ma’am, Major Dunbar has left a message that if a woman came to see him, he was not to be disturbed.’

  ‘Did he say that if April Harvey came, he didn’t want to be disturbed?’

  ‘No, ma’am, he didn’t leave a name. He just asked us not to let any female visitors through, nor to contact him about them.’

  ‘But I’m soaking, and I have to see him. Please, could you just see if you could contact him?’

  ‘Those are our orders, ma’am, and this site is high-security, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave now.’

  Seeing the man’s determination, April turned around, dejected, and cycled down the muddy lane. What did that mean? Was Crawford trying to ensure that she never saw him again? Or was he trying to keep someone else out? Bess, perhaps? Suddenly, the gates opened behind her and a car swished past, drenching her further as it drove through a puddle. She stood, dripping from head to foot and cursing. She looked after the car angrily and saw a face peering out of the back window. It was hard to tell in this weather, but she could have sworn it looked like Crawford. Did he not care that the car had drenched her?

  Angry with him and herself for being so foolish, she got back on the bike and started pedalling furiously towards home. She’d thought about cycling over to St Agnes, but she was exhausted and freezing. There was no way she could manage that now. All she wanted was to get home and go to bed. She was back at work tomorrow, so she’d write to Eunice this evening instead.

  As for Crawford, well, it was time she put her love for him behind her. She’d only known him for three months; surely it shouldn’t take her that long to get over him?

  Chapter 34

  When she got back to Mrs Teague’s, April was shivering uncontrollably, so she made a cup of tea and went to get warm in the sitting room. But the fire was out and she didn’t like to start it as they had very little coal or wood, so she wrapped a blanket around herself and switched on the wireless. Suddenly, she noticed an envelope with her name on it sitting on the mantelpiece. Crawford. Leaping up, she snatched the envelope and ripped it open.

  Dear April,

  Thank you for your letter, and I’m sorry there seems to have been a misunderstanding. I’ve thought a lot about us, and I understand perfectly that you had to see Theo. What I don’t understand is why you felt you couldn’t tell me. And A.J.? Do you trust me so little that you couldn’t tell me the full truth so I could help him?

  I want to see you, April, so that perhaps we can put this behind us, but I don’t want you to have any doubts. When you and I get together, honey, I want there to be nothing but love between us. I don’t want there to be any anger, and at the moment, I’m still angry and hurt about what Bess told me. I’m trying not to believe her, but Theo was only one name she mentioned. Was that a lie too? In my heart, I know that my April is not like that. But my head? Well, that’s where I’m having trouble. But know this, my feelings haven’t changed.

  Until we meet again,

  Crawford xx

  The throbbing in April’s head increased. So he probably had told the guards not to let her in. How could he be so cruel? Did he want to punish her? She read the letter again; she noticed some of the ink had smudged. Her heart leapt a little at that. Had he been crying when he wrote it? But then a tear dropped on to the page and smudged it a little more. Of course he hadn’t. Those were her tears. Oh, she was so sick of crying today. Enough was enough. She needed to lie down and sleep. Maybe then she’d be able to think more clearly.

  She climbed the stairs wearily and got under the covers fully clothed. She should really take her wet things off, but she just didn’t seem to have the energy, so instead she lay shivering, with the thoughts running around her mind, until eventually she drifted into a restless sleep, during which dreams of Crawford pointing an accusing finger at her and Theo crying for her jumbled up in her mind.

  Her eyelids were heavy and her head was thumping when she woke, but she ignored them both and got out of bed, then had to grip the headboard as the room whirled around her and she sat back down abruptly. Goodness, she felt dreadful. Perhaps she’d caught a chill. She washed and dressed, then stumbled downstairs.

  Mrs Teague was at her usual spot by the stove, but when she saw April, she gasped. ‘Oh, April, are you all right? You don’t look well at all. I came in to see you when I got home, but you were dead to the world, so I left you, but I should have checked on you.’

  ‘I’m fine, really. I just need a cup of tea and then I’ll be on my way. I’m not too hungry this morning.’

  Mrs Teague went over and felt her forehead. ‘Hmm. You feel a little feverish to me. Perhaps you should stay home today. I can go to the phone box and call the hospital.’

  ‘I’m fine, honestly. Just a slight chill from getting wet yesterday.’

  ‘Well, all right. You’re the nurse. But you must come home if you feel worse, do you hear me?’

  April smiled and gave Mrs Teague a hug. ‘Course I will. Thank you for caring, but I’ll be fine.’

  *

  For the rest of the day, April felt terrible, but she tried to focus on her work. Sitting down at the nurses’ station after a busy morning, she was reflecting on what to do, when Sister Mulholland’s voice broke into her thoughts.

  ‘Nurse Harvey, Mr Steward requires clean sheets and Mr Murphy is calling for water. What on earth is the matter with you, girl? We’re short-staffed enough as it is, what with everyone deciding to go off and join the military. So we need all of you to be on top of the work. I cannot run this ward single-handed. Now hop to it, girl. If you’re not careful, I might retract my request to have you on my ward permanently.’

  April jumped up. ‘I’m so sorry. I’ll see to it right away, sister. And I’m happy to work extra hours tonight if it helps.’

  ‘Just work properly while you are here, nurse. But I appreciate the offer. It might come to that.’

  When she finally went to the cafeteria for a much-needed break, she was alarmed to see Bess sitting with Nancy. She had hoped very much never to see her again and the thought of the trouble she’d caused made her feel sick with anger. With Crawford’s letter fresh in her mind, she was on the verge of walking out again, when Bess called to her.

  ‘April, come over here a moment.’

  April turned and gave her a scathing look, before carrying on out of the cafeteria. Hearing footsteps behind her, she quickened her pace.

  ‘April, hang on! I just want to apologise.’

  April whirled around. ‘You’re too late, Bess. He never wants to see me again, and frankly, that’s exactly how I feel about you. So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go into town to get a cup of tea. The smell around here is making me nauseous.’

  Bess caught her arm. ‘Wait. I’m sorry, OK? Nancy says I should apologise, and she’s right.’

  ‘Nancy should mind her own business.’

  ‘Look, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since you came to see me. Believe it or not, what you said did have an impact on me. Anyway, the fact is, I appli
ed to join the Queen Alexandra nurses, and they’ve accepted me. I’ll be leaving in the next few days.’

  ‘Congratulations. I hope you’ll be happy.’ April couldn’t help feeling relieved that she’d be gone. Crawford or no Crawford, she realised that she’d never been able to fully relax around Bess and had always felt gauche and naïve in her company.

  ‘I decided I needed to put a few things right. I failed, I’m afraid. I went up to where Crawford is stationed and tried to talk to him. I went up several times, as it happens. But I never did manage to see him. So I wrote him a note.’

  ‘It’s too late, Bess. I’m not interested. Anyway, I don’t believe you for a moment. You’ve lied far too many times for me to believe anything you say ever again. I wish you well, and hope you stay safe, but I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done.’

  Bess nodded. ‘Fair enough. Seems you do have a backbone after all. See you around.’

  ‘And it seems that you only apologised to make yourself look good. Have a nice life, Bess.’

  April left and went for a bracing walk on the moors before coming back to get her food.

  Maybe Crawford hadn’t expected her to call at the base. Maybe it was Bess he was trying to stay away from. A small spark of hope started to burn inside her. She tried to douse it, knowing it was stupid, but it was there nonetheless, warming her for the first time that day and enabling her to concentrate more fully on her patients that afternoon.

  Despite sister’s assertion that she just needed her to concentrate while she was there, April stayed late. The surgical ward had been busy, and many patients needed watching. Finally, two hours after she’d been due to leave, the night sister told her to go. April changed and emerged into a clear, cold night. The stars shone brightly above her and the moon was full. She looked at it in trepidation. She wasn’t sure she’d ever look at the moon in the same way again.

  As she was cycling down the hill, she heard the ominous roar of plane engines. April looked up to the sky in horror.

  ‘Oh God, not again!’ She started pedalling furiously, desperate to reach Mrs Teague and ensure she got into the shelter. But she was too late. In the sky in front of her, she saw two planes release their deadly cargo on the town she’d come to love. She watched, heart in her mouth, as hundreds of bombs dropped and braced herself for the explosions that never came. Instead, as she watched, a huge wall of flames went up and she gasped. It was an incendiary bomb. She’d heard about these on news reports on the wireless; their aim was to cause fire and damage to property. From her vantage point she watched as fires broke out all over Truro. She had to get down there and help.

  Tiredness forgotten, April rushed down the hill on her bike towards the nearest fire, which was in a street behind the high street. A scene of chaos greeted her. Shouts, screams and the familiar wail of the air raid siren brought her to an abrupt halt as she closed her eyes and forced the bad memories away. Not here. Not now. When her breathing had calmed, she opened her eyes again. As far as she could make out, the ambulance hadn’t arrived yet. Quickly, she rushed to one of the firemen who was holding a hose from which a plume of water sparkled briefly in the flames, before disappearing into the burning houses with a hiss.

  ‘Are there any injuries? I’m a nurse,’ she shouted.

  ‘Over there. One of the men just carried out that woman. They’ve gone back in for the husband. Ambulance is on its way. You think you can look after her till they get here?’

  She ran to the woman, noticing that her hair had been completely burned off, and her scalp and face were horribly raw and burned. She’d seen injuries like these many times during the air raids in London, so the sight didn’t shock her. A girl of about eighteen was kneeling beside her, crying uncontrollably, and she spoke quickly.

  ‘I need you to go into that pub over there and get some clean towels and a bucket of cool water. Do you hear me?’ April pointed at the pub on the opposite side of the street, briefly noting that this was the pub she’d been in that awful night Norm had tried to get A.J. arrested. Pushing the thoughts aside, she started tending to the woman, ripping away her smouldering clothes and talking to her in a calm voice.

  ‘Hello, love, can you hear me? Just you relax, we’ll have you safe and sound at the hospital in a jiffy.’ She prayed silently that the ambulance would arrive soon. The poor woman had woken up and was groaning and crying in agony.

  The girl returned with soaked towels and a bowl of water and April proceeded to wrap them around the poor woman’s head. ‘Go back. I need more. They’re bringing someone else out in a minute,’ she ordered. The girl scurried off to do her bidding.

  Just then, there was a shout as the firemen emerged carrying another, larger figure. His clothes were smouldering and, like his wife, his hair had been completely burned away. Staggering behind him, April gasped as she noticed a familiar figure. Was that . . . ? Surely not. What was she doing here?

  She ran over and put her arm around the figure. She was choking and spluttering, and though her face was smudged with dirt, she didn’t appear to be burned.

  ‘Bess! Can you hear me? What are you doing here?’

  ‘Was in pub . . .’ Bess coughed some more. ‘Came to help.’ She dropped to her knees, coughing so much she was sick.

  ‘Bess, you’ve inhaled too much smoke. Soon as the ambulance gets here, you need to get to hospital. All right?’

  Bess nodded and sat on the ground. But there was no time to treat her. The man needed her attention much more so she turned back to him, repeating the treatment she’d given his wife, wrapping as much of him as she could in the cool, wet towels.

  She went back to check on the woman, who had passed out again, but she wasn’t as badly injured as her husband. Ordering the girl to watch her and call her should there be a problem, she returned to the man, who was starting to cough. It must be agony for him, she reflected, with his burned lips. She tried to bathe them in water again, to relieve some of the pain, whispering soothingly all the while.

  ‘All right, sir, you just hang on. You’ll be safe in a moment. Help is on its way.’

  Suddenly she heard a shout. ‘April! Get away from there, the building is going to collapse!’

  Looking up in surprise, she saw that whoever had shouted was correct. The fire crews were falling back, and the walls of the terrace were slowly starting to crumble.

  ‘Someone, help me lift this man,’ she shouted in panic. She could not leave her patient. A strong pair of arms reached down and lifted the man, carrying him away from the building and placing him gently on the pavement, away from harm. April followed, while another fireman carried his wife over, the sobbing girl following behind them.

  ‘Thank you!’ She looked up and saw the last person on earth she expected to see at that very moment. The man she loved more than he would ever know. Crawford. But he was already rushing back and she saw him reach Bess’s crumpled figure. He bent down and gently lifted her in his arms. She was clearly unconscious, and April felt a stab of guilt at not paying more attention to her. Crawford laid Bess down beside the man, then looked at her anxiously.

  ‘Are you all right? Are you injured at all?’

  ‘I’m fine. But what are you doing here?’ She glanced at Bess, lying pale and motionless, then back at Crawford. ‘Oh. You were together?’

  Crawford nodded and April felt her heart shatter, but she pushed the feelings away. This was no time to fall apart. She was a nurse, and as such she had to keep her cool, no matter what the situation. She bent down to check Bess’s vitals.

  ‘April, it’s not what you think.’ He put a hand on her arm gently.

  ‘It’s none of my business. You made that perfectly clear. If you’ll excuse me, I need to tend to these people while we wait for the ambulance.’

  In the distance she heard the ringing of the ambulance as it made its way towards them. Thank God. She didn’t think she could bear to be here much longer.

  Once the patients, including Bess, had
been loaded into the van, April looked around for her bike. The fire looked like it was under control at long last and with the all-clear sounding, people were emerging from the various shelters and milling around the site of the fire. There was nothing more she could do. She needed to get home before she broke down completely. The fact that Crawford hadn’t wanted to see her because of Theo was one thing, but the thought that he had been seeing Bess . . .

  ‘April! Wait up!’ Crawford ran up to her and caught her arm, turning her towards him. ‘Hey. Are you OK? You sure you’re not hurt?’

  She shook him off. ‘I’m fine, Crawford. Just tired. I need to get back. Mrs Teague will be worried about me.’

  ‘Let me take you. My jeep’s just round the corner. Assuming it’s not been damaged.’

  ‘No. I can manage, major. I just need to find my bike.’

  ‘April, I—’

  ‘Like I said, there’s nothing to explain. Sorry, but I’m very tired. I worked some extra hours, and now I can’t think straight.’

  ‘You can’t cycle home in this state. Come on, I won’t hear any more arguments.’

  Feeling too tired to protest any more, April allowed him to lead her back along the ruined street and on to the high street, which was, surprisingly, untouched. Around them, the endless bells of the ambulances and fire engines still rang out, and people were running to and fro, searching for loved ones and examining the damage. Considering the suddenness of the attack, April thought they were remarkably calm. But then they’d all learned to live with this sort of thing over the years. It was amazing what people could get used to.

  Crawford opened the door and helped her inside the jeep. She sat down and leaned her head against the window. Relieved, despite the uncomfortable silence, not to be cycling back up the hill in the frosty darkness.

  They soon stopped outside Mrs Teague’s. The black-out curtains were drawn and the street was in darkness. She couldn’t tell whether her landlady was there or not. Fishing out her key, she opened the door.