“Oh, Uncle Johnny’ll pop up again, you wait and see, then we can tell him of his baby son or daughter.”
“No, we mustn’t, Eddie,” cried Hannah in alarm. “You’re not supposed to know, she swore me to secrecy! She’s going to write and let me know what the doctor says, then I’ve to tell you how long you’ll be in charge of the company. Remember, it’s very important that no one else knows what is happening. It’ll cause a scandal if any of this gets out.”
“So, what do we do with Michael then? Do yer want me to go and see him and explain his mother’s whereabouts?”
“Oh, would you, Eddie?”
Hannah kissed him gratefully.
“Tell him that you’re in charge and there’s to be no changes while his mother’s not here. Tell him that you’ll arrange somewhere for him to stay in the village, when he comes out of hospital. Tell him there’s no room for him at Selwyn Lodge.”
Katie jumped up from her seat in alarm as she heard raised voices from the side ward. At long last Sub-Lieutenant Haines had received a visitor; not his mother who he had hoped would come, but a young man who she recognised as Eddie Dockerty from the Brown Horse Inn. She had heard through Annie that he had married Maggie Haines’s daughter so had welcomed him with relief when he had said who he was visiting. A week had passed since Sister Gill had called at Selwyn Lodge and, as she had confided in Katie on her return to the ward, Mrs. Haines had gone away and his sister, Mrs. Dockerty, hadn’t seemed too pleased to hear of her brother’s return.
“I couldn’t tell him that, could I?” Sister Gill had said sadly. “News like that could give him a relapse and I was hoping that he could be discharged into his family’s care.”
Katie walked briskly along the corridor. She wasn’t having a patient upset, especially to Michael, who was important to her.
“Is there a problem?” she asked in her sternest voice, as she took in the scene from the doorway. Michael was raised on one elbow, glaring at his visitor, anger written all over his face.
“Not from my point of view, nurse,” retorted Eddie calmly. “But perhaps yon man here could do with some smelling salts after what I’ve just told him.”
“Do you realise that Sub-Lieutenant Haines has suffered severe trauma due to his time spent serving on behalf of his Queen and country in India? If you have come here to be unpleasant, I think you should be asked to leave!”
“It’s all right, Staff Nurse,” Michael said, through what sounded like clenched teeth. “I can fight my own battles; don’t worry about me.”
“That is what I’m paid to do whilst your in my care, Sub-Lieutenant.” Katie turned to go, glowering at Eddie.
“Ten more minutes, Mr. Dockerty if you please, and then you’ll have to go.”
Michael fell back onto his pillow, seething at having to be polite to his one and only visitor. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. What a betrayal. By his own mother! He had only been away, for what, eighteen months? And in that time, his father had gone to live in Wicklow, Hannah had married this pot boy from the Brown Horse and the Sheldon Loan and Property Company had been signed over to a bloody stranger, while the owner, his mother, had gone away! Where was that going to leave him in the scheme of things? If he was medically discharged from the Army he’d have no income. He couldn’t move back to Selwyn Lodge because of these usurpers and unless someone informed his mother of her son’s return, there’d be no place for him at Sheldon either.
Michael felt angry and dismayed at his mother’s treachery, though he supposed grudgingly, that if she had known that he was here in the hospital she wouldn’t have gone away. His mind worked quickly as he thought of the position his sister and her husband could put him in. He could be left to moulder here ‘til the hospital threw him out, go back to the barracks to honour his obligations, be sent overseas to a firing line and fall prey to the diseases that lurked there. None of it appealed and he knew he had to play for time.
He forced a friendly grin on his face and held out his hand to Eddie.
“I must congratulate you on your marriage to my stepsister. Are there any children? Am I an uncle by any chance?”
“Oh yes,” Eddie nodded eagerly, grateful that his brother-in-law seemed to have accepted the situation so quickly. It would have come as a shock to him, poor chap, even more so when you consider the state he must have been in.
“We have a six month old son called Johnny, he’s been named after my uncle, and Hannah is expecting another baby at the end of September, or maybe beginning of October, we’re not sure. It was quite a surprise really, her getting caught so quickly, but we’re looking forward to a big family anyway.”
Michael shuddered inwardly at the thought of Selwyn Lodge being full of mewling babies. He’d be rid of the lot of them when what was rightfully his was given back to him.
“And the business? Is it doing well? What is your role in the company?”
“It’s doing extremely well. We’ve a big development underway on what was Farmer Briggs’s old farmland. Luxurious dwellings for the middle class and a few bungalows fer the not so wealthy. We’ve built a terrace row on Town Lane and have a thriving business with loans and mortgages. As fer me, I’m the Site Manager, overseeing the snagging lists and ensuring all goes smoothly. Your mother has not been very well, so I’ve been gradually taking more and more off her. Not her committee meetings though,” Eddie said with a smile. “I haven’t been roped in fer them just yet.”
“Sounds an up and coming company. She’s done very well for herself, has my mother. Is there any room in this great establishment for another family member? Me?”
“Oh, I didn’t realise that you were thinking of coming out of the Army…”
Eddie felt at a bit of a loss. What would Hannah say?
“I did write to my mother to tell her that I wanted to give up my commission. She obviously didn’t receive my letter because I am sure she would have pulled all the strings to get me out. The conditions were quite appalling over there. I realised my mistake as soon as we were taken to our quarters. Some of the officers just got on with it, but I couldn’t take to the place somehow.”
“Well, I’ll let yer know what’s decided. Hannah can’t make any decisions without her mother knowing that you’re back. She’ll write to her…”
Michael nodded, suddenly weary. He could see Staff Nurse Tibbs hovering anxiously at the door; this was a good time to send this uncouth person on his way.
“Whatever… Oh, by the way, Eddie. Something for you to think on while you’re both planning what to do with me. Hannah isn’t my mother’s child, you know. Your wife is illegitimate. One day Sheldon in all its glory will come to me.”
Chapter 19
Maggie hurried up the stairs of the Heaney Hotel, trying to get to her bedroom before Bridget or Frank waylaid her. The shock of having her pregnancy confirmed had knocked the stuffing right out of her. All she wanted to do was hide herself away until she could come to terms with what she’d just heard. It was true then; Hannah had been right all along.
The doctor had looked at her quizzically when Maggie explained in his consulting rooms that she thought she might be expecting. He was the same doctor who had attended Jack and he had been most sympathetic when he heard that Maggie’s husband had recently passed away.
“It could be that his death has brought on bodily changes in you, Mrs. Haines. It is highly likely that your bleeding would cease forthwith due to the grieving you will have done. However, if there is the slightest possibility that you may be bearing his child, I shall investigate. If you wouldn’t mind undressing behind the screen, I will examine you at once.”
It had all seemed a sort of nightmare as Maggie had submitted to the doctor’s examination. She had held her breath, hoping that he would say that there was nothing he could find to confirm her fears. It had felt like she was walking through a shadowy mist when she had come from behind the screen again. Her hands were shaking as she skewered her hat back on with
its diamond-encrusted pin, then fiddled with the ties on her tippet, hoping that the doctor couldn’t hear her heart that was beating like a drum.
“I think I’m right in saying that your baby should arrive at the end of November, or possibly December. You said you couldn’t be sure what the date of your last bleeding was?”
“That’s true,” Maggie admitted shakily. “I caught the ‘flu after my husband died and everything became a bit of a blur.”
“Poor lady. Have you got someone to take care of you? I think you told me you were on your way to England, when I attended your late husband that time at the Heaney Hotel.”
“Yes, I have good friends in Frank and Bridget,” Maggie assured him. “I hope to be staying with them until after the birth.”
She had felt so ashamed as the doctor had murmured his sympathies and told her to call into his rooms in a few months time, to arrange a local midwife to attend her.
“Not that I want to alarm you, but you did say that your last confinement was over twenty three years ago. Isn’t it strange how the God above works in His mysterious ways?”
He certainly did, thought Maggie, as she lay on top of the bed worrying her miserable heart out. This disobedience to all she had been brought up to believe could bring her the ultimate punishment in the end. How dare she commit adultery? It was the seventh of the Ten Commandments. She knew them all, didn’t she? The Bible was the first book that she had ever read.
Katie left Michael to himself after she had heard his parting shot to his visitor. Goodness, she felt all of a tremble. Fancy that nice young officer having such a bitter tongue.
It was none of her business, she knew, but what he had said would be such a scandal if it ever got around. How he must be hurting though, to be denied his home because his mother wasn’t there. What a homecoming. All the other men had received flocks of visitors during their time on Thornton Ward, so much so that she’d restricted them to two persons by each bed.
“So that’s what he thinks, Eddie,” said Hannah, when her husband had reported back to her. “He thinks that if anything happens to Mother then he’ll get the blooming lot. Well, not if I have anything to do with it. I’m just as much Maggie’s daughter as he is her son. She took me in when I was little and brought me up as one of her family. He’ll have to prize me out with a toothpick before any of it falls into his hands.”
“Hannah, there’s not a thing you can do if Maggie has willed the lot to him. Not a court in the land will come down in your favour. You must see that, sweetheart. Anyway, I said you’d write to her and let her know of his return. Then it’s up to Maggie to say who can live here and who runs the businesses.”
“Well, she won’t know anything if I don’t write to her, will she? Did he say when he was coming out and what his plans will be?”
“He didn’t say, but I should imagine he would be discharged into the care of the Army. He’s still an officer and it will be up to them if they think he’s still fit enough to carry on or be let go on medical grounds. Hannah, don’t yer think we should be looking around somewhere, to maybe set up on our own? I have the knowledge to start a small business now in the building trade and I’m young enough to begin again.”
“But I don’t want to leave here, Eddie,” Hannah cried. “This is my home as well as yours and the babies’. It would take us years to have the same standards as we’re enjoying now.”
“We’re probably getting ahead of ourselves anyway, Hannah,” he said reassuringly. “Maggie’ll be back by Christmas and we can sort things out together then.”
The next morning, as Katie was inspecting her patients in readiness for Matron’s visit, Sister Gill came in with an official-looking paper.
“Staff Nurse Tibbs,” she called. “ Could you come over for a moment?”
She allowed Katie to read the letter that had come from the Chester Barracks. It said that a medical officer was to visit the very next day.
“We did have one that poked his head round the door way in Isolation, but he didn’t stay more than two minutes. Probably this chap will have Sub-Lieutenant Haines moved now he’s not infectious. Shall I break the news to him or do you want to do it? Poor chap, I feel so sorry that that sister of his didn’t visit him, and her husband’s visit didn’t do him much good, from what you told me.”
“I’ll let him know when I go in to check that his room’s all shipshape,” replied Katie. “He’ll probably be gone by the time I get back from my holiday. I’m going to catch up with our Annie and see what she’s been up to. Or what the children have been up to! My little house was as clean as a new pin when I left it, but it’ll be just like her old place by now. All scuffed and worn-looking, I’ll be bound.”
Michael perked up when Katie walked into the side ward. He had been looking despondently out of the window at the honeysuckle that was climbing up the side of the next building. He seemed to remember honeysuckle at Selwyn Lodge, entwining itself with a climbing rose around a bower in the garden. Not that he was interested in gardening, but it was a pleasant sight that he remembered from two years ago. So many things about his old home had become precious now that he was denied living there. The glorious view of the Welsh hills from his bedroom window; the conservatory where Miss Rosemary’s father had brought tropical plants from his sojourns abroad; Joan, the cook, who could be relied upon to fill a growing boy’s belly. He wondered if there had been a change of maid; he didn’t remember the last one’s name.
He wished he’d never left the place now. It was hard to remember why he had. Probably because Jeremy had filled his head with the daring do’s of becoming a cavalry officer and Montague urging him to see the world and get a life. They had mocked his position as the “go for” in his mother’s company and ridiculed his provincial ways.
Michael smiled at Katie as she asked him to get back into bed before Matron did her rounds. This staff nurse was a pleasant young woman indeed. Not attractive like some of the young ladies he had met on the social circuit, but passable. He liked the way her eyes twinkled as she spoke to him, her capable manner and her aura of peace and gentleness. She was tall like his mother, though that was where the likeness ended. This young lady was a little plump, where Maggie had always been slender, but there was something about her; perhaps the colour of her hair? He didn’t know, but what he did know was perhaps Staff Nurse Tibbs could come in very useful one day.
Katie felt the colour rush to her face as Michael smiled as if he was pleased to see her. She and Win had given him a bed bath the day before and though she had performed this duty for many male patients since her training days, something had been different this time. She couldn’t say what, but her dreams last night had been filled by a man who had whispered endearments. To her, Katie Tibbs, who was making nursing her career.
“I have some news for you, Sub-Lieutenant. A medical officer from your regiment is coming to see you tomorrow. That will be something to look forward to, won’t it?”
“Not really, Staff Nurse,” Michael answered glumly. “With your tender care I’m nearly back to full recovery, so I’ll be sent back to that God-forsaken country to finish my commission off.”
“Oh, I didn’t think of that. Never mind, perhaps they’ll think of something else for you to do. Are there no wars being fought nearer home, or perhaps you could do some peace keeping over in Ireland?”
Michael grinned at Katie’s attempt at light heartedness.
“I’d rather shoot myself in the foot.”
They both knew that he was also attempting brevity, but the thought of Michael wounded brought a lump into Katie’s throat. She took his hand, making sure her body shielded the action from any passer-by.
“Please don’t do that. If I can be of any help, do ask me. I knew your mother and I have cause to be very grateful to her. I’ll be pleased to help you in anyway I can.”
Katie sat in the kitchen later eating her lunch, chewing on a sandwich thoughtfully. She hoped she hadn’t made a fool of herself by
holding the Sub-Lieutenant’s hand, but her heart had just gone out to him. He had looked so vulnerable when she had given him the news of the medical officer visiting. A bit like her brother, Ernie, used to look before their dad was about to clout him around his ear.
Sister Gill had advised her long ago not to get too close to the patients. A nurse was there to relieve their discomfort. Not to take on their problems; be only a listening ear. But could she do that when this man had no one else to turn to? Or abandon him in his hour of need when she knew that she was in love? Her last thought made up her mind for her. She would give him an address where she could be contacted. He could write. They would get to know each other by being pen friends for a while. Then maybe, one day in the future, she could tell Michael of her love.
Dear Hannah,
It is with regret or joy, I’m not sure which, that I write to let you know that you were right in your suspicions. The doctor here has confirmed that I am to give birth around the end of November. I made him aware that the last time I had a child was twenty three years ago, so he is arranging for a midwife to be present in case there are complications.
This has brought to mind the fact that I didn’t reply to Michael’s letter, but I’m sure whatever was troubling him will have been resolved by now, so I have decided to let him continue with his commission.
I have been toying with the idea of buying that little cottage that belonged to Mrs. Dockerty. What a surprise Johnny would get if he turned up one day to find me and his baby living there! My bank has sent funds, as I requested, to the Ballina bank where I have opened an account, so purchasing it wouldn’t be a problem.
Bridget and Frank send their best wishes. I have told them the story that you and I concocted, although I feel rather ashamed to be playing the grieving widow yet again.
Hope Eddie is coping with all the demands that Sheldon can bring to a body. I have to admit it is pleasant not to even think about the pressures of business at all.
Dreams Can Come True Page 27