by Katie King
Dr Legard had crept into the room behind them, not that anybody noticed until he gave a giant guffaw behind them that made everybody jump. ‘Quack up! Hello, Angela, it’s Dr Legard; you and I are old friends now. I’ve got one – how do you ask a tyrannosaurus out to lunch?’ Silence. ‘Tea, Rex?’
Barbara thought the doctor’s joke very funny, although as she said to him as they all trooped back to Tall Trees – the doctor having been persuaded to join them for hijinks as it was his day off and he had just popped into the hospital to see what the children were talking about with Angela – it could well have been merely the cumulative factor of the previous jokes that had tickled her funny bone so much by the time of his T-Rex joke.
‘I doubt it, Mrs Ross,’ he said, ‘as I am naturally hilarious. Or at least I think I am as the last lady I was walking out with would say to me with regularity, although perhaps in a crosser way than ideally one would want, “Don’t make me laugh…”’
Barbara gave a small exhalation of humour, and then looked at Dr Legard.
Out in the open air, he was revealed as a little older than he looked in artificial light, as she could see the odd grey in the short hair above his ears, and his twinkly eyes had the beginnings of laughter lines around them.
They arrived at Tall Trees to find Roger just about to light the bonfire, and Peggy sorting a mountain of sandwiches onto plates. Gracie was trying to unstick the toffee apples from the roasting pan in which Connie had left them to cool and harden after she had put wooden sticks into the apples and then dipped them into the hot toffee mixture.
‘These’ll take yer teeth oot so watch it!’ Gracie said grimly, as she released the final one from the pan and placed it on a large plate with the others. ‘Especially you, Larry, as you can’t afford to lose another.’
Larry looked a bit shocked, but then laughed, and everyone laughed along with him.
Dr Legard – who asked everyone to call him James, if they would – said he’d give thruppence to the first person who could run twice round the perimeter of the garden, after which he would be the judge of the conker competition, and by that time the bonfire would be roaring away, he bet.
Peggy raised an eyebrow in Barbara’s direction, and Barbara raised a corresponding eyebrow in reply.
The doctor’s startlingly good looks hadn’t gone unnoticed, clearly, and nor had his natural way with the children. And the sisters were pleased that they could still do their lifted-eyebrow trick they had perfected as teenagers to show they’d noted both of these attributes.
Meanwhile Roger looked at the bonfire. ‘One can only hope,’ he said, ‘but I do like a challenge,’ as he gave one of the lower pieces of wood a nudge with his foot to push it deeper into the pile of kindling.
Chapter Thirty-three
It was one of those rare afternoons where everything goes exactly to plan, and a very good time is had by all.
The bonfire burned without too much coaxing – well, Roger only had to light it three times – and then it gave off that lovely autumnal smell.
It even got hot enough to toast the marshmallows, which the children enjoyed. The sandwiches were soon all eaten, Larry proving to be especially hungry (which was no surprise to Barbara or Peggy).
Tommy won the running race fair and square, and the doctor’s threepenny bit, and although Jessie was last, it wasn’t by such a long way that he looked in any way silly or feeble.
Larry relaxed to the point that he could chat away to Aiden and Jessie, Jessie only being the slightest bit wary. Barbara thought as she kept an eye on proceedings from a discreet distance that of course her son would still remember vividly Larry’s uncalled-for rough-housing of him over the summer, but that Larry no longer looked like the type of person who was going to revert easily back to that sort of behaviour. He looked older and more experienced, and as if the hard knocks life had dealt him the previous few weeks had made him think differently about things.
Larry and Tommy didn’t speak to each other, but they didn’t seem to be giving each other antagonistic glances, and so Barbara and Mabel agreed quietly that was a good thing, and probably about the best that could be hoped for at this stage.
Tommy disappeared for a while, and when he returned he was clutching a paper bag of gobstoppers – he told everyone that he had run down to the shop at the bottom of the road, and although it had been closed he had told the shopkeeper who lived above by shouting through the letter box that he had ‘a gobstopper emergency’, and so he had come back with five of the largest he could find, one for each of the children, even Larry.
Larry clearly hadn’t expected this, but everyone took pains to ignore his elated grin.
Gracie was on her best behaviour too, and she unbent enough to have a word or two with Aiden, who seemed quite happy to talk with her.
As dusk started to fall, the sparklers were lit in the darkened stables, and then James said that he would walk Aiden and Larry home as they each lived roughly in the direction of the hospital.
‘But before I do,’ Barbara heard him say to Peggy, ‘may I have a look at you in the light inside? I think you seem a bit flushed and peaky-looking.’
The next day Barbara was due to catch the early train back to King’s Cross in London, after which she would jump on the number 63 bus as this would take her pretty much all the way home.
Connie and Jessie walked to the station on either side of their mother to see her off.
At breakfast they had both tried again to persuade Barbara that it was time for them to come home to number five Jubilee Street, but Barbara was steadfast in her refusal.
Connie had added, ‘Mummy, I get so homesick I can’t sleep or eat.’
Barbara said she was sorry about that. But actually she had been thinking that both Connie and Jessie had grown taller since they had been in Yorkshire. And she’d seen the size of the generous meals at Tall Trees they were eating, remember, and knew precisely how much Connie was eating, while furthermore she had had to be quite firm with getting each of them out of bed on more than one occasion, and so Connie was pushing it to claim sleeplessness and hunger.
Connie gave in gracefully.
‘Well, it was worth a try, Connie. Wasn’t it, Mummy?’ said Jessie.
Barbara nodded at her children that certainly it had been.
As they waited for the train on the platform Barbara said to her children, ‘I’ll try to come back as soon as I can to see you, and with a bit of luck Daddy will be able to make it too. Now, remember you are both to work hard at school, and to be good. Be friendly to Tommy, but if he oversteps the mark in any way, you must tell a grown-up, ideally Peggy. Be nice to Larry too, and run as many errands as you can for Peggy. And if you can do all of that, then I shall be very proud of you both. Remember, both of you, that me and your father love you very much.’
She hugged and kissed each of her twins for a final time.
Barbara climbed up onto the train and closed the door to the carriage, and then lowered the window and said once more, ‘Be good, you two!’
Jessie and Connie stood close together as they watched the train chug away, with tears obviously threatening and Barbara calling back, ‘No fighting between you both, remember. And you, Connie, not too much kissing of that handsome Aiden Kell either!’
‘You’ve kissed him!’ screeched Jessie, his tears forgotten, and he punched his sister none too softly on the arm.
‘No, I have not!’ Connie shouted emphatically.
‘Have.’
‘Have not.’
‘Have.’
‘Have not.’
‘HAVE!’
‘HAVE BLOODY NOT!!’
Barbara hadn’t yet got fully out of the station, and the view she had of her children was them starting to shove at each other with furious looks on their faces.
This wasn’t at all what she had had in mind when she had been trying to leave them with a humorous comment for them to remember her by, when she had been anxious to divert th
em from being tearful or demanding they get on the train with her.
The fact that they had each shown until that moment that they were trying to be brave and grown up had been unbearably touching, Barbara felt, and she had been very proud of them.
Until she had seen them pushing each other, that was.
The children realised this too when a toot from the train’s whistle reminded them why they were in the station, and so they looked over at the train to see their mother shaking a gloved fist in their direction as a silent rebuke.
In a trice they were waving cheerily at her, butter-wouldn’t-melt expressions instantly plastered across their faces.
The last thing they glimpsed of Barbara was her shaking her head in disbelief, although whether at their abrupt naughtiness or their quick transition back into good children was open to debate.
To make amends for their poor behaviour which, even by their standards, had degenerated very quickly into a skirmish, as Connie and Jessie walked home they discussed a plan to go and see Angela every day if James would allow it.
They could go either in the mornings or the afternoons, depending on whether it was an early or a late week for them at Cold Bath Road Elementary, and Larry could come with them too if he didn’t have anything better to do, and maybe Aiden and/or Tommy would also come at weekends.
They thought Dr Legard might agree to their visits now that Angela was in a little room on her own.
It was agreed that they should have a word with Peggy, as she was going to be seeing the doctor over at the hospital so she could broker their request to him on their behalf.
Chapter Thirty-four
Later that day, Peggy found herself having to go through quite a thorough examination at the hands of James.
When the previous afternoon he had had a word with her inside the warmth of the kitchen at Tall Trees, and then gently manipulated her growing pregnancy bump before talking through dates with her, he said he thought Peggy should have a more thorough examination, and it should be sooner rather than later.
He could do it at the hospital, if she wanted, and as she was now, hopefully, a friend, he would do it ‘off the books’ so she wouldn’t have to pay.
Peggy agreed, asking too whether he could also give Gracie a once-over as she was just starting to talk about finding a midwife for the birth of her baby, which she was planning would be at home at Tall Trees.
Peggy and Gracie went to the hospital the next afternoon, with Gracie knocking off work a little early in order to give themselves enough time that they didn’t have to hurry. Gracie was dealt with pretty quickly, and came out beaming, saying that all was well and her baby looked like it would arrive early in January.
Peggy didn’t like hospitals or going to the doctor much and, left on her own to wait in the corridor while Gracie spoke about her pregnancy to James, she felt herself getting more and more het up, and so she wished Barbara had been able to stay in Harrogate for a little longer as she really would have appreciated her sister being with her. She had an inkling there was something for her to be concerned about, although she understood that Ted and Mrs Truelove needed Barbara, too, just as much as she did.
Peggy had been fortunate enough to have had very good health as a child, but when she and Bill hadn’t been able to conceive a baby very easily she had had to endure some very unpleasant examinations, that had also eaten greedily into her and Bill’s ‘rainy day’ funds, and so she knew that to a large extent this was why she felt so anxious right at the minute.
She tried to breathe slowly and to think nice thoughts about Bill, but it didn’t really work.
When Peggy went into the examination room, James was writing in a file, but he looked up from under his floppy fringe and welcomed her with a pleasant smile and offered her a glass of water. His white coat was crisply ironed and he had hung a stethoscope around his neck. He was just as friendly as he had been the day before at Tall Trees when he had been helping all the children make the most of the impromptu Guy Fawkes party, and he made it clear immediately that this was just a friendly chat for which there would be no payment required. Peggy had been feeling rather anxious on that front in case she had misunderstood him the previous afternoon, and so managed a small but tense smile of thank you back.
She was relieved to see that he had a female nurse in the room as a chaperone, as on some of her infertility examinations she had felt very awkward if she were alone with a strange man performing an intimate examination. Bill was the only man who had ever seen her naked or who had touched her, and so Peggy was wary of male doctors.
Her blood pressure was taken by the nurse – it was much too high, although Peggy already expected this as she had a low-level feeling of dizziness most of the time now – and then after she was asked by the nurse for her pre-pregnancy weight and vital statistics, she was weighed and measured, and then told she would have to give a urine sample before she left the hospital, and so she might like to have another glass of water.
When Peggy said how trim she was ordinarily the nurse said she was envious, and that Peggy would find that breastfeeding would help her regain her old figure in no time. Peggy snorted – she felt like an elephant these days, and it was hard to imagine just how lithe she had been only a year earlier.
In a matter-of-fact voice, James asked Peggy to remove her cardigan and blouse and tweed skirt, and also her stockings, indicating a screen which she could stand behind to do this. Then he made her lie on the bed in just her petty, immediately covering her up with a cotton sheet, after which the glands in her neck and under her arms were gently manipulated, and bright lights shone into her eyes and mouth. He examined Peggy’s hands and her feet and ankles, here and there pushing his fingers quite hard into her bloated skin, and he asked her a lot of questions about her previous examinations when she had been trying to get pregnant, her age and usual health, what she was eating and drinking, and if her hands and feet were always swollen and when she noticed they were at their worst. He asked about her headaches and any feelings of nausea. Lastly he felt her tummy for what seemed like a long time. His touch managed to be firm but gentle at the same time, and his confident manner gradually helped Peggy to relax a little.
He asked if Peggy would mind if he got several of his junior doctors in too to have a look as he was always keen to widen their experience, but he would be with them all the time, and of course he would call a stop to proceedings immediately if Peggy got too tired or was in any way distressed. James was being very kind and so she nodded even though now she had once again a growing feeling of real unease, even though she realised that he was very important at the hospital and she was therefore lucky he was taking such an interest in her. She knew the attention he was expending on her was really because until the hospital filled up with injured servicemen he wasn’t yet as busy as he surely would be, and for the moment, he had the time to think about her. It was a reassuring feeling, and Peggy almost wished he would stand still beside her for an instant and place a comforting hand on her brow.
James asked the nurse to get her a cup of tea (and one too for Gracie who was still on a seat in the hall outside as she waited for Peggy), and he added that he thought there might be some biscuits in the cupboard above the little gas ring that heated the kettle.
Left alone for a few minutes, Peggy felt unbearably exhausted despite her anxiety, and she suddenly dropped deeply asleep. She was awoken a little while later with the rattle of the nurse putting the cup and saucer containing the tea on a trolley beside her bed, and a plate with three digestive biscuits beside it.
James came back with two colleagues, who did more or less the same examination, and also quizzed Peggy closely about her dates and headaches.
At last Peggy was told she could get dressed, and when she emerged from behind the screen it was to find that everyone had now gone, other than James, who was once more writing notes at a desk that had been positioned against the wall.
‘How are you feeling now? You did ver
y well and were exceptionally brave,’ he said with another smile. ‘But you are bigger than you should be for this stage of your pregnancy, Mrs Delbert, and this is not a good sign as it can sometimes make the baby feel unhappy, and the mother too. I’d like you to spend the rest of your pregnancy in hospital on full bed rest so we can keep an eye on—’
‘Peggy, please, Doc… er, James. I can’t possibly do that, no, not at all. I just can’t do that! I’m needed at Tall Trees to keep an eye on the children, and June Blenkinsop needs—’
‘Peggy. Peggy! Listen to me.’ The doctor’s voice was kindly but firm, and there was something about it that stopped in its tracks the rising hysteria that Peggy was allowing herself to give in to. ‘Peggy, that baby needs you too. I understand your concerns, but you cannot go on as you are. This is a baby you and your husband have longed for for many years, and so let’s all do our best to bring it into the world happy and healthy, with you being kept in the best of health you can so that you can go on to have other babies.’
Where was Bill when she needed him?
Peggy felt very alone and frightened, and she realised in a depressing moment of clarity that Bill had never quite been the rock that she had hoped he would be.
He had good qualities, yes, and they knew each other so well.
But if she thought of Ted, or Roger, she knew that they would both have made sure a pregnant absent wife didn’t feel quite so alone. While she didn’t expect Bill to write every day, she did want his short missives to offer more support and comfort than they had done so far.
Peggy looked unhappily across at Dr Legard, who was now looking up something in a fat, wide-spined reference book. He had offered her more reassurance than Bill had done since they had been parted.
She glanced down at her distended midriff and her swollen insteps that she had only just been able to cram into her good shoes. The sight of what she could see of herself was nothing less than pitiful.