She had checked the visiting times earlier and now she made her way through the hospital corridors as the nice lady on the end of the telephone had directed her. When she reached the ward she took a deep breath before entering. There were a few visitors dotted about the ward but many of the beds had no one sitting by them. Several beds had curtains drawn round them and although perhaps half of the men were sitting up, quite a few were lying still. The highly polished floor, clinical cleanliness and strong smell of antiseptic emphasised the fact she had stepped into another world as she walked over to the nurses’ station.
‘I’m looking for Caleb Travis,’ she said a little nervously to the somewhat severe looking sister who had raised her head at her approach. ‘I understand he’s in this ward.’
The sister smiled a tight, prim smile. ‘That’s right. And you are?’
‘His housekeeper.’ She had decided on the journey that housekeeper sounded better than trying to explain she managed Caleb’s inn for him.‘His mother is an invalid so she asked me to come in her place.’ Another necessary embellishment.
‘I see.’ Piercing eyes looked her up and down. ‘I understand Mr Travis’s home is a good distance away.’
‘In the north-east, yes.’
‘You know Mr Travis is still very poorly?’
Eve’s heart missed a beat. She nodded. ‘What exactly are the nature of his injuries?’ she asked quietly.
‘His legs took most of the damage but there was an injury to his chest too which affected his breathing for a time. I’m happy to say that has now settled down.’
Eve stared at the emotionless face. What did ‘most of the damage’ mean? ‘He will get better? I mean he will be able to walk normally in time?’
‘Dr Reynold is very pleased with how the last operation went.’
The last operation? ‘How many operations has he had?’
‘Mr Travis was operated on immediately he arrived here to remove shrapnel from his chest. Once it was considered safe to do so, Dr Reynold operated again, this time on his legs. Unfortunately there was a slight complication with the right leg which necessitated a further operation yesterday.’
‘I see.’ No, no she didn’t.Telling herself she couldn’t be palmed off, Eve said again, ‘He will be able to walk, won’t he? In time, I mean. Once his legs heal?’
The sister hesitated. ‘The right leg was a cause for some concern but like I said, Dr Reynold was pleased with how the operation went yesterday.You can rest assured he has done all he can to save the leg.’
The colour drained from Eve’s face and now the sister lost some of her stiffness. She rose swiftly and came round the desk, taking Eve’s arm as she murmured, ‘There, child, don’t worry. I’m sure it will be all right. The next few days will tell. But he is young and fit and that is in his favour.’
Caleb. Oh, Caleb, Caleb. ‘Can I see him?’
‘Of course, but you do understand he mustn’t be upset? We need to keep him positive. Dr Reynold is of the opinion that the patient’s state of mind has a bearing on his recovery.’
Eve’s shoulders straightened. ‘I won’t upset him.’
‘Good, good. Come this way.’ The sister led her to the first of the beds with the curtains round it. Popping her head through the slit, she said,‘Mr Travis has a visitor, nurse. Have you finished?’
‘Just finished, sister.’
As the sister drew the curtains, a small plump nurse bustled out carrying a bowl and towel, smiling at Eve as she passed. Eve couldn’t smile back, her eyes going to the inert figure in the bed. Caleb had a huge cage over his legs and he was lying flat with his eyes shut. His face was as white as lint. As she moved forward, he opened his eyes and to Eve’s huge relief his voice sounded the same as ever as he said, ‘Eve. I didn’t know it was you. I thought it was the hospital padre again. He keeps checking to see if I’m still alive.’
‘Go on with you, Mr Travis.’ The sister’s voice was disapproving. ‘The Reverend Briggs is concerned for all our patients, as you well know. He likes to have a cheery word now and again.’
Eve sat down on the chair by the bed as the sister returned to the nurse’s station, glad of the moment or two to collect herself. She wanted to take his hand but fearing he might think she was too forward, she contented herself with smiling and then saying softly, ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Not too bad.’ He smiled faintly. They both knew it was a lie. ‘How did you get here?’
‘On the train. It was quite an adventure.’
‘Who came with you?’
‘I came by myself.’ She smiled again.
‘By yourself ?’ He stared at her. Then reached out his hand which she gripped, her heart thudding, as he said, ‘Bless you, Eve. That was kind of you. But you shouldn’t have come all this way by yourself.’
‘I wanted to.’ His hand felt cool although the ward was warm.‘Everyone wanted to know how you were.’
He closed his eyes for a moment but his voice was strong when he said, ‘A lot better than some of these poor devils, I can tell you. There’s one man who’s lost an arm and both his legs.’ He paused, his voice low when he added, ‘And some of them are ill in their minds, you know? They wake up screaming, they think they’re still out there.’
‘Oh, Caleb.’ She stared at him, aghast.
‘But I’m all right. Just tired.’
Just tired. Remembering her promise to the sister, who was watching her with eagle eyes from behind her desk, she swallowed hard. ‘I’ve brought you a couple of things. Some fruit and those toffees you like. And Ada’s sent one of her fruit cakes.’
‘Any brandy?’ he asked, straight-faced.
He was still holding her hand. She wondered if he realised. ‘You’re not allowed brandy.’
‘I know.’ He grinned at her.‘I was hoping you didn’t.’ She smiled. Did he know there was a possibility he might lose his leg? He couldn’t, could he? He was too cheerful.And then she swallowed again when he said very quietly, ‘What have they told you?’
‘That you’ve had three operations, one to remove shrapnel from your chest and two on your legs.’ As she looked into the deep brown eyes she suddenly realised she was mistaken, he knew all right. Quickly, she said, ‘I got your letter this morning, the one in which you drew a picture of the little bird.’
He stared at her for a moment. ‘That seems a lifetime ago.’
‘You said you were longing for the time you could walk the lanes around Washington again. That time will come, Caleb.’
‘You think so?’ His eyes were holding hers, watching her.
‘I know so.’ She nodded. ‘Without a doubt.’
He squeezed her hand, shutting his eyes again. His voice was barely audible when he murmured, ‘I was feeling very low today, Eve. Like . . . like giving up.’
She didn’t know what to say. She would have given the world to be able to put her arms round him and kiss him, to comfort him. But all she could do was sit and hold his hand.
And then his eyes opened. ‘But you came and now . . . now I don’t feel like that.’
Her voice thick, she said, ‘I’m glad.’
‘When do you have to go back?’
Making her mind up on the spur of the moment, she said, ‘Not for a few days.’ They could manage at the inn.They would have to. She would get a message to them explaining how things were here. She couldn’t leave until she knew. Until he knew. Ada and Winnie would understand.
She stayed until the end of visiting time although they didn’t talk much after that but he didn’t let go of her hand. When the bell rang he still didn’t let go, not even when she stood up and said, ‘I have to go, Caleb.’
‘You’ll come tomorrow? Please, Eve?’
She didn’t think visiting was allowed on Thursdays but she didn’t intend to let that stop her. ‘I’ll try.’
‘Good.’ He smiled at her, squeezing her hand again.
Warning herself that this meant nothing, that any familiar face from
home would have worked on his vulnerable state of mind in the same way, she gently extracted her fingers from his. ‘I’ll have to go. The sister is looking daggers at me. I’m the last visitor left.’
‘That’s Sister Shelton. Her bark’s worse than her bite.’
‘I’d rather not suffer either.’
She was rewarded by a grin. ‘I’m glad you came, Eve.’
She nodded, her voice soft. ‘So am I. Goodbye, Caleb.’
She stopped at the sister’s desk on her way out. ‘When is the next visiting time?’ she asked quietly.
‘Normally Saturday between three and four thirty but we make allowances in certain circumstances. You are the first visitor Mr Travis has had. I presume he has no friends or relations in these parts? No one who can easily pop in?’
‘No, sister. There’s no one.’
‘When do you have to return home?’
Eve hesitated. ‘I want to stay until the doctor is sure he’s going to be all right. I’ll get lodgings somewhere. ’
The sister nodded, her starched cap rigid. ‘Then we’ll see you at the same time tomorrow afternoon.’
‘Thank you.’ Eve relaxed. ‘Thank you very much.’
The tight face softened just the slightest.‘We always put the patient’s best interests first.’
‘Yes, I can see that.’ Eve smiled and walked away, her heart singing. He would be all right. She’d make him all right.
Eve stayed in Oxford for a full week. At the end of that time Dr Reynold pronounced himself satisfied that both legs were healing nicely. The patient would never win the Olympics, he remarked jocularly to a prim-faced Sister Shelton, but there was no reason why by the end of the year he shouldn’t be walking without his sticks. Not if he was sensible. And they would see about moving him closer to home now he was out of danger. Would the patient like that?
So it was that when Eve took her leave of Caleb on the day she was returning to the north-east, he was a vastly different individual to the dangerously ill man of a week before and looking forward to his transfer to the north. ‘They reckon a week or so if it can be arranged and then I should be moved to Newcastle or Sunderland.’ He smiled at her, his eyes bright. ‘And then I shall be home in no time.’
No time, according to what Sister Shelton had told her, would be a good month or two but Eve didn’t dampen his enthusiasm.
‘I’ll come and see you as soon as I know where you are,’ she promised, ‘but in the meantime do as you’re told and don’t try to do too much.’ The sister had told her only that morning that they had caught Caleb attempting to get out of bed because he had a fierce distaste for the bedpan he was forced to use at present.
‘Yes, ma’am.’ He grinned at her and she smiled back. And then he caught her hand, his voice soft as he said, ‘Thanks for staying, Eve. I don’t know how I’d have got through the last week without your visits to look forward to. In the middle of the night . . . Well, you know. Things always seem at their blackest then.’
She was trembling deep inside. She always trembled when he touched her. Even before he had gone to war it had been the same. She wetted her lips. ‘That’s all right.’
‘It must have cost you a fortune in that boarding house. I’ll make it right when I come home.’
‘Don’t be silly. I’m not exactly destitute.’
‘It will seem strange tomorrow when you don’t come.’
She didn’t think she could stand much more of this without flinging herself on him and that would never do. ‘Look, that’s the bell. I must go.’ Even to her own ears her voice sounded throaty. She saw his eyes narrow. ‘I’ll give your love to your mam, shall I? Say you sent her a big kiss?’
Her attempt to lighten what had become a tense few moments worked. ‘Not if you want us to remain friends,’ Caleb grunted. ‘But give Nell a hug from me, OK? And tell her I’m looking forward to seeing that bairn of theirs.’
‘It’ll be two bairns soon.’ He had let go of her hand and she stood up. ‘She looks ready to pop, bless her.’ Friends, he had said. Did he see her as a woman at all? ‘Goodbye, Caleb.’
‘Goodbye, Eve. And thanks again for everything.’
Outside in the summer sunshine she stood still for a moment or two, composing herself. Two women came out of the doors of the hospital, one crying bitterly and the other trying to comfort her. As they passed her she heard the first one say, ‘This war! What’s glorious about a man with no legs, you tell me that,’ and then they moved out of earshot. Eve stood and watched them until they disappeared from view, the blazing sunshine mocking the tragedy. How many more women were facing the same sort of thing, their loved ones crippled or blinded or maimed beyond recognition. Thank God, oh thank God that Caleb was out of the war now. Lloyd George might give his rousing speeches but the reality of the conflict was in the building behind her and they were the ones who had survived, if you could call it survival for some of the broken bodies she had seen in the last week. The war that had been supposed to end that first Christmas was going on and on, what would be left at the end of it?
She began to walk, knowing she had to hurry if she wasn’t going to miss the train.
She wished she didn’t have to go back to Washington and leave Caleb here, but although he saw her only as a friend they had grown closer over the last days. And love could blossom out of friendship, given the right circumstances. She would be able to visit him often when he was moved north and once he was home again anything could happen. She wasn’t going to give up, somehow she would make him love her. She didn’t mind how long it took and now he was safe, time was on her side.
By the time the horse-drawn cab she’d caught outside the station dropped Eve at the inn she felt like a wet rag. The moon was riding high in the sky but it was still quite warm and muggy, not so much as a breath of wind moving the sluggish air.
She entered the inn by way of the back yard and as she stepped into the scullery she was immediately greeted by a whine. ‘Jack, is that you, boy?’ The next moment she was almost knocked off her feet by a rapturous shaggy shape. ‘What are you doing out here by yourself ?’ she murmured as she fussed the ecstatic animal. ‘Why aren’t you keeping Ada and Winnie company?’
She left her travelling bag where it had fallen and opened the door into the kitchen, only to freeze as she took in the scene in front of her. Nell was sitting at the kitchen table and Ada was stirring something on the range, but it was the golden-haired girl opposite Nell who claimed Eve’s attention.
Mary had come home.
Chapter 15
‘I tell you, Toby, there’s something funny about all this.’ It was the next morning and Nell and her husband were sitting having their breakfast before he had to leave for the pit. ‘When Winnie came to fetch me yesterday and said Mary had turned up at the inn, I didn’t know what to expect, but not what greeted me, I can tell you. She’s . . . different.’
‘Well, she would be, she’s been gone a couple of years.’
‘Aye, I know, but it’s more than that. She says her husband’s an officer away fighting and she’s dressed nice, beautiful, but why would she choose to come and pay a visit now, her expecting an’ all? Don’t that seem strange to you?’
‘When did she say the bairn was due?’
‘October. But like I said, there’s something funny going on.’
Toby sat back in his chair.‘What is it you’re saying, lass?’
‘I don’t know.’ Nell gave a weak smile. ‘I don’t know what I’m saying. Oh, perhaps I’m being silly. Put it down to my condition.’ She patted her huge stomach, the baby was due in four weeks at the end of August.
Toby didn’t smile.‘You’re never silly,’ he said slowly. ‘If you think there’s something wrong then there probably is.What does Eve say? Does she agree with you?’
‘We didn’t have a chance to speak privately. She didn’t get home until I was ready to leave. I’ll try and have a word on the quiet with her today.’
Toby nodded,
standing up and picking up his bait tin from the table. ‘I don’t want you worrying,’ he said quietly,‘not with the babbie an’ all.You’ve enough on your plate looking after Matthew and it being so hot. Whatever is wrong, if something is wrong, we’ll sort it.All right? She’s back in one piece and according to you doing very nicely thank you. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad, pet.’
Nell nodded, and then as they heard Matthew call out, she said, ‘Let me get him quick and then you can see him for a minute before you go. He likes that.’
The next five minutes were filled with the child but once Toby had left for the pit and Matthew was settled in his wooden high chair eating his porridge, Nell found herself going over what had happened the evening before. Toby was of the mind nothing much was wrong but she wasn’t so sure. May God forgive her if she was wrong, but she didn’t believe Mary’s story of a husband and a big house down south and all the rest of it. Something didn’t sit right. And her clothes. They were bonny, fancy, and must have cost a packet, but . . . Nell couldn’t find the words to describe the way Mary had been dressed. If she had been more wordly she would have known the colours were just a little too garish, the cut of the bodice of the dress a smidgen too low. As it was, the unease in the pit of her stomach wouldn’t go away.
Eve was experiencing the same thing. Owing to the fact the three spare rooms at the inn were occupied by paying guests, Mary was sharing her room which was more than big enough for two with a large double bed and small writing bureau and chair as well as a small sofa under the bay window. Mary seemed to have filled the room with her bags and clothes, but what had really shocked Eve was her sister’s nightwear. She couldn’t bring herself to use the word indecent but the transparent black negligées and nightdresses, along with Mary’s underwear, had caused her mouth to fall open. She had spent all night telling herself she was probably being stuffy and old-fashioned, that she had no idea what the middle-class and upper-class fashions were or how high society behaved, but nevertheless she felt perturbed and uncomfortable. And Mary herself, she was so brittle, so gay. It didn’t seem natural, not with the uncertainty of a husband at the front and a baby on the way.
Eve and Her Sisters Page 17