by Daisy Styles
‘I’m not asking for your opinion about my plan, cara,’ Rosa said pointedly. ‘I’m asking for your help.’
In a calmer voice than his girlfriend’s, Reggie asked, ‘Seriously, Rosa, what do you think Gladys and I can do to help you?’
‘It’s not like we know any powerful people in the government or the forces,’ Gladys joked.
Rosa shuffled her chair closer. ‘I was hoping to visit some ports to get information. I need advice on how I can get out of the country and I thought you might have some ideas.’ She quickly added for Reggie’s benefit, ‘I got into this country as a refugee on the run; there must be people who have contacts?’
‘I’m sure there are,’ Reggie agreed. ‘But I honestly wouldn’t know where to start!’
Keeping her voice down, Gladys said urgently, ‘I understand you want to do something, Rosa, but your plan is far too dangerous! You could get caught and end up back in a concentration camp yourself.’ She paused to shake her head in bewilderment. ‘Even if you don’t get caught, how on earth do you think you would find your brother!’
Rosa slumped. ‘I know all that. But you won’t change my mind, cara,’ she said sadly. There was a long pause as the two friends locked eyes. ‘If I don’t try to look for Gabriel, I’ll never forgive myself. If I die searching for him, so be it – better to die trying than live with the guilt of doing nothing.’
Gladys knew Rosa far too well to continue arguing; she could see that her friend was set on a mission. She was going to have to think of another way to put a stop to this mad plan. Reggie, who had been listening quietly, stepped in to help.
‘I was on a warship in the Med for almost a year,’ he said, smiling fondly at Gladys, whose blue eyes sparkled as he spoke. ‘It’s where we met,’ he added, as he leant across to kiss Gladys lightly on the cheek. ‘I’ve kept in touch with some of the senior officers; I could ask them a few discreet questions. See if they have any ideas about how we can trace your brother?’
‘Oh, Reggie!’ Rosa said with suppressed excitement in her voice. ‘I’d be so grateful.’
Reggie held out his hands to calm her down. ‘Please don’t get your hopes up. I’m not agreeing to smuggle you into France,’ he added hurriedly, glancing at his wristwatch. ‘But you never know – it’s worth a try. Look, I’m sorry, I’ve got to get back to work.’ Turning to Gladys, he added, ‘I suggest you find a bed for Rosa in the nurses’ hostel, darling.’
Feeling the pressure of Reggie’s hand on her back, Gladys said to Rosa, ‘I’ll go and pay the bill – won’t be a minute.’
Once they were well away from Rosa, Reggie said in a low, urgent voice, ‘I don’t think for a moment we can help her. I had to say something just to stall her,’ he admitted. ‘Given the state Rosa’s in, I’ve no doubt she’d run off to Dover and smuggle herself on the first ship bound for France if we didn’t!’
‘What can I do to stop her?’ a frantic Gladys asked.
‘Stall her any way you can – tell her you really think my contacts will help. And don’t let her know you’re alarmed!’ Reggie said, as he gave his anxious girlfriend a quick kiss. ‘See you in the morning.’
Reggie returned to St Thomas’, where he operated on a young soldier with massive injuries to his bowel; after working on him for several hours, Reggie swabbed down in readiness for leaving for the night when the senior nurse on duty called out to him, ‘Phone call for you, Dr Lloyd.’
Wiping his hands dry, Reggie picked up the receiver. ‘Lloyd speaking.’
‘Hello, I’m sorry to bother you so late and at work too,’ a clear confident female voice rang out. ‘My name is Julia Thorpe, and I live with Rosa Falco.’ Julia came straight to the point: ‘Rosa has run away. She left without saying a word to anybody this morning. I thought she might have come to see your fiancée, Gladys.’
Not at all sure which way the conversation was going, Reggie cautiously waited. On the other end of the phone Julia took a deep breath. ‘I have to be blunt, Dr Lloyd; I’m very worried for Rosa. I believe she may be planning to try to leave the country to look for her brother.’
Reggie decided it was time to respond. ‘Yes, you’re right. She is with Gladys and that is exactly what she is planning,’ he said heavily.
‘Oh no! I hoped I was wrong, but Rosa is in the gravest of danger. For her own sake she must be stopped,’ Julia urged.
‘I’ve been racking my brains trying to think how best to stop her,’ Reggie agreed.
‘There’s only one sure way,’ Julia told him.
‘What are you proposing?’ he asked.
‘Tell her that I’ve issued her description to all the ports,’ Julia answered without a moment’s hesitation.
‘That won’t go down well,’ Reggie warned.
‘It doesn’t matter, Dr Lloyd, I’ve got nothing to lose,’ Julia retorted. ‘You and Gladys must insist that she returns to the Phoenix before the police are called in and she gets arrested.’
Reggie was impressed by Julia’s cool, calculated planning. ‘You’ve really thought this through,’ he said. ‘But she’s not going to like it.’
‘I know, but I have no choice.’
22. A Change of Plan
The following morning Reggie met up with Gladys and Rosa at the entrance to St Thomas’. Gladys immediately noticed her boyfriend’s sickly pallor; assuming he’d been working most of the night, she kissed him tenderly on the lips.
‘You look exhausted,’ she murmured.
But when she saw the stony look in his eyes, Gladys felt alarmed. ‘What’s the matter, Reggie?’ she asked fearfully.
‘Let’s find somewhere quiet to talk,’ he suggested.
When they were settled on one of the long wooden benches in the echoing entrance hall, Reggie didn’t beat about the bush. ‘Something’s come up, Rosa,’ he began.
‘What?’ she cried.
Reggie took a deep breath before he said, ‘Your description has been issued to all the major ports. I’m afraid there’s very little chance of your leaving the country now.’
Rosa turned so white that Reggie thought she might faint. ‘That’s impossible!’ she protested. ‘Nobody knew anything about my plans – apart from you and Gladys.’
Reggie, who was dreading imparting the next piece of information, briefly hesitated before he added, ‘Your housemate, Julia, phoned me. She’s the one who contacted the authorities.’
‘She did what?’ Rosa gasped.
Wishing he wasn’t the bearer of such acrimonious news, Reggie continued, ‘She guessed what you were up to.’
Rosa was so angry she could barely speak. ‘How could she possibly know?’ she spluttered.
Reggie shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me,’ he remonstrated.
With her fists clenched into tight balls, Rosa leapt to her feet. ‘I could kill her!’
Gladys laid a restraining hand on her friend’s shaking shoulders. ‘Maybe she was thinking of your safety,’ she murmured.
‘What I choose to do is nothing to do with bloody Julia! How dare she interfere?’
Knowing he was urgently needed in the operating theatre, Reggie said, ‘Whatever your feelings about Julia, you must understand, Rosa, that you cannot try to leave the country now this has happened.’
As she opened her mouth to protest, Reggie quickly said, ‘The best thing you can do is go back to Pendleton right away.’
On hearing his advice, Rosa burst into floods of tears. ‘Julia’s ruined everything!’ she wailed.
‘She might just have saved your life,’ Reggie patiently pointed out.
As Rosa wept into her hands, Reggie whispered urgently to Gladys, ‘You must take her back; she can’t be trusted on her own.’
‘How am I going to get time off at such short notice?’ Gladys asked in an anxious whisper.
‘I’m sure I can fix it as long as you travel back here as soon as you can,’ Reggie assured her.
Quickly nodding in agreement with him, Gladys soothingly said to Rosa, ‘
Sweetheart, you’re in no state to be travelling alone. I’ll come back to Pendleton with you.’
Rosa glared defiantly through her tears. ‘I am not going back!’
Gladys softly stroked Rosa’s rich mahogany hair. ‘You have no choice – you have to go back or you’ll be in big trouble.’
Heart-broken Rosa laid her head on Gladys’s shoulder, where she abandoned herself to grief.
‘God help me! I’ll never find Gabriel now.’
Rosa hardly spoke a word on the journey back to Pendleton. Gladys knew her too well to trouble her with small talk, so she just sat beside her as the train laboured its way to the North.
When they arrived at the cowshed, it was getting dark. Rosa, who’d been depressed and lethargic all day, suddenly switched gears. Throwing open the cowshed door, she marched in, followed by Gladys, who could see Nora and Maggie standing rooted to the spot as they stared at Rosa in disbelief.
‘ROSA!’ gasped Maggie. ‘Thank God, you’re back!’
‘We’ve been worried sick!’ Nora cried. ‘Where have you been?’
Stony-faced Rosa ignored their welcoming smiles. ‘Where is she?’ she stormed. ‘Where’s Julia?’
A bedroom door opened and Julia, tight-lipped, stepped into the sitting room.
‘Here.’
All the fury and disappointment of the last twenty-four hours poured out of Rosa in a rush of vicious hatred. Taking a step towards Julia, she shouted, ‘How dare you interfere!’
Undaunted, Julia held Rosa’s blazing gaze. ‘I couldn’t stand by and watch once I realized what you were up to.’
‘How exactly did you find out?’ Rosa demanded. ‘Were you snooping through my things like the interfering bitch you really are?’
‘I didn’t have to snoop,’ Julia answered levelly. ‘It was perfectly obvious you were desperate to help your brother, and when you disappeared I realized you’d probably run away. I suspected you’d go to Gladys in London, so I phoned Dr Lloyd, who confirmed my suspicions.’
Unable to believe what they were hearing, Nora and Maggie gaped in shock at Rosa. When Nora finally found her voice, she was stung that Rosa hadn’t told them anything of her plans.
‘Didn’t you trust us to keep our mouths shut?’ she demanded.
Turning to her emotional friend, Rosa dropped her voice to a normal level as she tried to explain. ‘I didn’t want to involve anybody, I had to keep it a secret.’ She turned back to Julia. ‘That is until Miss Big-Mouth here stepped in and played the part of God.’
Bewildered Maggie looked over to Gladys, who was standing by the wood-burning stove.
‘What happened, Glad?’ she asked in genuine confusion.
‘Rosa came to me and Reggie for help.’
‘I was trying to get to France,’ Rosa blurted out. ‘I have contacts there who I hoped would help me to find my brother but’ – her blazing eyes swivelled across to Julia, who was standing resolutely still – ‘she threatened to tell the authorities, who would have immediately alerted all the major ports; she effectively destroyed all my hopes of finding Gabriel!’
Rosa’s anger burned out as she said her brother’s name, and she slumped on to the sofa, sobbing. Her friends hovered anxiously over her.
‘I’ll put the kettle on and make some tea,’ mumbled Nora.
‘Here, have a cigarette,’ Maggie said, holding a packet of Woodbines before Rosa.
Julia waited whilst Rosa smoked down half the cigarette, then said quietly, ‘There are safer ways of finding your brother than randomly running off to France.’
Rosa couldn’t believe the brass of the woman; did she ever know when to stop? ‘And how would you know?’ she sneered.
Before Julia could reply, and fearing Rosa really would explode, Gladys intervened. ‘It’s been a long day, and we’re both exhausted. I think we should leave it there,’ she said firmly, as she eyed Julia, who briefly nodded, then retired to her room.
‘Judas!’ Rosa hissed after her.
Maggie pulled down the sides of her pretty mouth. ‘She’s always been a bit of a bloody know-all.’
Gladys sipped her hot tea as she stared thoughtfully into the fire. ‘I’m sorry to say this, girls,’ she said quietly, ‘you might not like Julia Thorpe, but I believe she is a very brave woman.’
After Gladys had left for London early the next morning, Rosa returned to work, telling Malc that her short absence had been due to a chronic stomach bug.
Julia and Rosa saw little of each other in the workplace, where a fair distance separated Julia in the filling shed from Rosa on the cordite line, plus Julia made herself scarce at break times, taking her tea alone whilst she read the papers.
‘You really don’t need to sit on your own,’ a worried Kit said when they were working alone together.
‘It’s the sensible thing to do,’ Julia reasoned. ‘I’ve never been one of the crowd, so nobody will miss me,’ she said with a wry smile. ‘And Rosa shooting daggers at me wouldn’t be relaxing for anyone. I don’t mind,’ she assured kind-hearted Kit.
Kit rubbed her burgeoning tummy and sighed heavily. ‘Rosa will never forgive you for telling on her,’ she said. ‘In her eyes she thinks she might have got away with it and, more importantly, she might have found Gabriel.’
Julia shook her head. ‘There wasn’t a hope of that, and you know it!’ Fixing her gaze firmly on the gunpowder she was sifting through her stained black fingers, Julia added, ‘I have no regrets, Kit; what Rosa was planning was outright madness.’
‘I know,’ Kit responded sadly. ‘But that doesn’t stop me feeling sorry for the poor girl. I’ve never seen her looking quite so lost and forlorn.’
The atmosphere in the cowshed was so tense when Julia and Rosa were in the same space that Julia took to her room, where she typed letters or lay on her bed and read her few books over and over again.
‘I hate it!’ Nora complained as she, Maggie and Rosa ate their frugal tea in the kitchen. ‘The cowshed’s always been such a happy place – friends living together, enjoying each other’s company – now you can cut the atmosphere with a knife.’
‘I have thought of moving out,’ Rosa admitted. ‘Just to get away from Julia.’
Tears welled up in Nora’s big blue eyes. ‘NO!’ she cried. ‘You mustn’t do that, Rosa!’
‘If anybody should go, it should be blasted Julia,’ Maggie fumed. ‘She’s the one that caused a row in the first place!’
The only place where Nora felt happy in the days that followed the vitriolic row between Julia and Rosa was at Wrigg Hall. The highlight of each visit was seeing Peter, who had responded well to plastic surgery. The left-hand side of his face was still bandaged, but the surgeon, pleased with the young man’s quick recovery, was keen to do more restorative work on his damaged face. Lately, though, poor Nora dreaded the journey over the moors to the Hall. Usually she and Edna sat on the top deck of the bus, smoking and chattering, but nobody had seen much of Edna recently. Nora would be on her own with Julia, whom she’d never liked much but whom she now didn’t like at all.
Rosa’s spirits sank day by day. She couldn’t see the point of anything, and being in close proximity to Julia nearly drove her mad. Fortunately she overheard Julia asking Malc’s permission to take the few days’ leave that were owed to her.
‘I hope she never comes back!’ said Nora, when word got round of Julia’s travel plans.
‘It’ll be such a relief when she’s gone,’ Maggie said with a grin.
‘Hopefully it’ll cheer Rosa up,’ Nora added.
‘Maybe,’ Maggie said with a shrug. ‘Nothing much does these days.’
Pleased at the thought of Julia’s imminent departure, Rosa’s spirits were mildly lifted, but the sight of Roger’s letters in her pigeon-hole sent them plummeting again. She’d never told her fiancé about her foiled plan to find Gabriel; if the truth were told, she’d barely given him a thought in weeks.
‘I should write,’ Rosa thought guiltily, as she put R
oger’s letter in her pocket; and she would … but just not right now.
23. Edna and Flora
Edna phoned Penrith Hospital every morning to inquire into her daughter’s health. Though she begged to speak to Flora, the Ward Sister refused; until her patient was strong enough to get out of bed, she wouldn’t be allowed to use the phone. Then one wonderful day Flora phoned Edna.
‘Mum! Oh, Mum!’ she sobbed when she heard her mother’s voice.
Edna burst into tears and sobbed too.
‘Sweetheart!’ she exclaimed. ‘How are you?’
After several emotional minutes they both calmed down and Flora was able to tell Edna that she was feeling much better and was ready to be discharged.
‘We’ll come and fetch you,’ Edna instantly promised.
When their animated phone call was brought to a close, Edna, breathless with excitement, threw her arms around Malc. ‘My little girl’s coming home!’ she cried.
‘I’ll go and get Featherstone’s permission to pick up Flora, whilst you,’ he said excitedly, ‘you’d best sort out the little lasses.’
Edna popped the girls into her old blue van and roared over the moors, now loud with the call of skylarks in their springtime glory, rising high above the heather trilling their song. Screeching to a halt outside the cowshed, Edna was relieved to find Nora, who was struggling into her muddy wellies.
‘Thank God you’re home!’ Edna called out.
Marilyn and Katherine threw themselves on Nora, who gave them both a hug.
‘Can you do me a favour, lovie?’ Edna asked. ‘Could you have the girls whilst me and Malc do an errand?’ Not wanting to alert her granddaughters, she gave Nora a meaningful wink.
‘Of course!’ kind-hearted Nora retorted. ‘I don’t start work till later, and Maggie’s around too – we’d love to look after these two little monkeys!’
After waving goodbye to Edna, smiling Nora turned to Marilyn and Katherine. ‘I know somebody who’s waiting for their breakfast,’ she said, as she picked up a bucket of pigswill.