‘She isn’t,’ said Bryan. ‘She’s down the bingo.’ He had sat down in Paddy’s chair and was staring into the fire, his chin on his hand, barely noticing the girls.
Mary had commented to Lorraine earlier how miserable Bryan had been for the past few days, but there’d been no explanation why. ‘Me mam said a smile hasn’t cracked his face for ages,’ she’d told Lorraine, ‘and he wouldn’t eat his dinner on Sunday. He’s not laughed once since he helped Dessie and Emily with the house shopping at the Sunday market. He hasn’t fallen out with them though because he’s down there helping Dessie paint every moment he has.’
Lorraine had immediately grasped the situation. She wasn’t Maisie Tanner’s daughter for nothing. It had to be because he was having to do so much in the house, on account of Mary’s laziness, even if he would never admit to it. Having worked this out, she was gobsmacked by what she heard Mary say next.
‘Do you want to go down to the pool hall with the rest of the lads, Bryan?’ Mary asked, looking directly at her brother. ‘I’ll stay here and look after the boys if you want.’
Bryan’s head shot up. Someone was standing in their kitchen who looked like Mary and smelt like Mary but sounded like someone else entirely. ‘Mary, is that you?’ He was genuinely amazed that an offer of help had come from her lips.
Mary glanced at Lorraine, who was equally surprised. ‘Bryan, you soft lad, of course it’s me, who do you think it is? You are such a stupid eejit sometimes.’
Bryan looked suspicious. ‘But I promised our mam…’ He was half expecting Mary to laugh and reply, ‘I was only kidding,’ but instead she seemed put out.
‘Bryan, I am here. You go out and do what all the other porter’s lads are doing and I’ll put the boys to bed. I’ll lay the table up for breakfast in the morning.’
Even Finn looked up from his book. ‘But you’re our Mary,’ he said. ‘You don’t do nothing, ever.’
Mary began clearing up the used cups from the table into the enamel wash bowl. ‘Yes, well, you aren’t as clever as you like to make out, Finn, because I can and I am. Bryan, go now because I want to do it and you’re just after being in my way.’
Bryan met Lorraine’s eyes, as if looking for confirmation. ‘Is this your doing?’ he asked.
Lorraine smiled back shyly. Her heart began racing so fast and loud, she could hardly hear her own reply. ‘Er, well, I don’t think so, no. I help me mam at ours, it’s what all us girls do, isn’t it? Mary and I had a bit of, er, a chat about it the other day. So I guess she’s just come to it a bit later than the rest of us.’ She forced herself to calm down and as she did so, her normal confidence resurfaced. The way Bryan assisted his mother without complaining pulled at her heart and she decided she would help. ‘I tell you what, Bryan, if you go out, I’ll stay and keep Mary company and while I’m here I’ll dry-iron the boys’ shirts and trousers for school tomorrow, then when your mam gets back, that’s another job she won’t have to do.’
‘I’ve just done the ashes,’ said Bryan, his voice filled with a mixture of hope and anxiety. ‘I’ve filled the bucket, so that won’t need doing again until tomorrow.’ His voice trailed off as he realized there was nothing else standing in his way. He could join his friends.
It seemed that Lorraine had worked a miracle on their Mary. He imagined the look of pleasure on his mam’s face when she came home to find that she didn’t have a list of jobs waiting for her, that her Bryan hadn’t missed out on his night out and that the house was clean and orderly. He smiled. Lorraine’s instinctive understanding of the things that needed to be done and her desire to do something, anything she could, to relieve his mam’s heavy load had made him see her through new eyes. It was as if the scales had fallen away. He thought his heart had been broken and his crush on Nurse Harper could never be replicated. But here he was, peering into the soul of a girl he had known since the day she was born, and what he saw made him want to know her more.
*
The first coal lorry had finished its delivery and Lorcan was hosing down the dust when Paddy called him into the hut. ‘Right, according to Dessie’s notes, the next one arrives with the coke from the gasworks at midnight, so that gives us time for a break now. I’ve put the kettle on the hob.’
Lorcan looked back towards the door.
‘What’s up, lad, have you not finished?’
‘I have, Paddy, but the staff nurse on Mammy’s ward, I saw her pass through and she told me I could pop in to say goodnight to Mammy at half ten.’
‘Did she now? Nice, is she?’
Lorcan blushed and Paddy laughed. ‘Go on then, I’ll make the tea while you’re gone, but hurry, the kitchen porter is bringing us a plate of jam toast. Oh look, here’s that young Mr Gaskell, best wait until he’s gone past.’
Oliver Gaskell was walking back to the doctors’ residence from the Lovely Lane entrance.
‘Looks like he’s lost a pound and found a shillin’,’ said Lorcan.
‘He does that. Although if I had to guess, I’d say there is a young lady somewhere giving that man the runaround. The kitchen porter was telling me that he was getting a hundred letters or more from Ireland from some young nurse and then they all stopped.’
Lorcan laughed. ‘I don’t think it was a hundred, Paddy, but he’s not very happy, is he?’ He slipped off the long overalls he wore for the hosing down. ‘God, my hands are so frozen,’ he said, ‘I can’t do the buttons up.’
‘They will be, lad, with the cold water. Come here.’
Lorcan walked over to Paddy, who leant forward and fastened the buttons on his brown coat as he would have for one of his own children. ‘There you go. You are respectable now.’
‘Thanks, Mr Delaney.’ Lorcan sprinted out of the light and warmth of the wooden hut and across the dark courtyard to the glorified Nissen-hut ward where his mother slept.
Staff Nurse was sitting at the wooden table at the bottom of the ward. ‘Well, hello. What a busy evening your mammy has had. First her nephew and now you.’
Lorcan’s mouth almost fell open. He instantly knew what this meant. There was no nephew. His worst fears had been realized: the figure he’d seen the other day must have been J.T. and he’d obviously come back again today. He had visited their mam, but why?
Through the glass window, Lorcan could see that his mother was dozing. He approached her cubicle and as soon as he came through the door she woke and turned her head towards him. She was propped up in bed and although she was still on bed rest and bedpans and not allowed to even put her feet on the floor, it was clear that she was getting better. The ward lights were off and the red overhead night light flickered above her head.
She smiled when she saw him. ‘Ah, Lorcan, ’tis you. I thought ’twas the man back again.’
‘What man, Mam?’ Lorcan stood directly at the side of her bed so that she could see him better. ‘Mam, was it J.T. who was here? The man you saw?’
Mrs Ryan smiled vacantly at him and whispered, ‘Sure, was that him? No, ’twasnt. It definitely was not J.T. He has never had a beard and this man, he had on him a very smart suit and hat and he wore glasses. He did look familiar now, though.’
A chill ran through Lorcan’s body. Something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. Maybe it hadn’t been J.T. after all. But if not J.T., then who had been in pretending to be his mam’s nephew and what did he want? He felt a flash of irritation. Why was his mother always so hopeless?
Staff Nurse popped her head around the door. ‘Everything OK, Lorcan? Isn’t she doing well? I’ve seen an improvement even since last night.’ She walked over to the bed. ‘We’re coming along nicely, aren’t we, Mrs Ryan? Is that because your nephew came today?’
‘That was Lorcan,’ said Mrs Ryan and she placed her hand on top of Lorcan’s.
He almost froze with fear. What if she had said J.T.’s name? Someone might think that he was associated with J.T. and his break-out from Walton.
Staff Nurse smiled at Lo
rcan. ‘Well, I’m not saying everything’s perfect just yet,’ she said and laughed. ‘Especially with the short-term memory. Right, I’m off to do the medicine round. Will you be staying long? Night Sister will be here fairly soon.’
‘No, I can’t. I have to get back to the hut. There’s another delivery due.’
‘I’ll see you tomorrow then.’ She turned to go. ‘I’ll be back soon, Mrs Ryan, with your medication.’
‘Do you want some water before I go, Mam?’ asked Lorcan.
Mrs Ryan lifted her head and as Lorcan turned to get the glass off the top of her locker, he noticed that the cupboard door was open. He placed his hand inside to check that his mother’s bag was still there. She went nowhere without it. It sat by her feet at home and hung from her arm when she was out. Suddenly panicked, he inched his fingers inside the bag to make sure the house keys were still there. What if the mystery visitor had stolen them, as he’d feared?
The bag felt different, fuller. Pulling it free, he moved it under the night light and recoiled in horror at what he saw inside. Wrapped up in rubber bands were bundles of bank notes. Fat wads of fifty-pound notes. Lorcan had never seen so much money in one place. His fingers trembled as his eyes widened in alarm. What if Staff Nurse had found it? What was all that loot doing in his mam’s bag?
He had only seconds to decide what to do before his mam turned her head and made things a hundred times worse. The blood pounded in his ears and his breath came faster as he put his hand inside. He grabbed the bundles one by one and hurriedly stuffed them into the large brown pockets of his porter’s coat. He was trembling so violently, his teeth began to chatter. He hurriedly pushed the bag back inside the locker and slammed the door shut and quickly looked through the window to check that no one had seen him. Staff Nurse was unlocking a large wooden trolley under the glow of another night lamp and whispering something to the probationer nurse who was with her. The other patients were all either dozing or chatting to each other. He was safe; no one had seen him. He quickly kissed his mother on her brow, bade her goodnight and, with his mouth dry with fear and his head bent low, he walked speedily out of the ward.
*
Paddy was sitting in the hut when Lorcan returned, stirring the leaves in the big brown pot with a screwdriver. Before him sat an enamel plate piled high with toast. ‘Eh, what took you so long? The toast is nearly cold. I waited for you, see. I never knew your mam to be able to string, er, to be so big into the conversation before she was sick, let alone now. She getting on OK?’ He’d been about to say ‘string two words together’, but he’d checked himself. He knew that Lorcan had taken his fair share of name calling from the other kids when he’d been at school. ‘Anyway, you’re back now. We have ten minutes. Take the weight off your feet and get this toast down you. You have to do the night round at eleven on the dot.’
On the hour every hour, the hospital had to be checked inside and out to ensure that all was well. A full circuit of the wards was made, along with the outbuildings and units. Paddy insisted on doing his share; he covered the outbuildings and stores nearest to the porter’s hut and the night boy did the main ward blocks, the pre-fabs and the car parks.
Lorcan hadn’t moved since he’d got back to the hut. He was almost literally frozen to the spot and his skin had turned a deathly grey. Paddy shoved the tin mug towards him and began to pile the sugar into his own. ‘Come on, Lorcan, what’s up with you?’ He could see Lorcan’s hands were shaking. ‘What’s up, lad? What’s wrong? I’ve seen a marble statue with more colour in its cheeks than you.’ He was worried now and he began to rise to his feet. ‘Lorcan, come on, you’re scaring the shit out of me. What is it?’
Lorcan’s eyes were wide and unblinking, his bottom lip trembled. He attempted to speak, to move his mouth, but no words emerged. He looked down at his pockets and stared at them as though they had a life of their own. As far as he was concerned, in each pocket sat the Devil himself. They burnt into his leg and were weighing him down so much that his limbs refused to move.
‘Lorcan!’ There was alarm in Paddy’s raised voice. ‘What is it? For the sake of Jesus, tell me. Did you see a ghost? Did you go to the mortuary?’ And then it dawned on him. ‘Oh, Lorcan, is your mam… you know… has she…? Jesus, Lorcan, is she dead?’
Lorcan didn’t reply. Couldn’t reply. Instead, lifting his violently shaking hands, he took the rolls of cash out of his coat pockets and laid them on the table.
Paddy collapsed back down on to the seat. ‘Feckin’ hell. All the time you were gone, I thought you were visiting your mam, and Jesus, you went and robbed a bank? Did you?’
16
Roland arrived at the Lovely Lane home at seven thirty on the dot. He hadn’t eaten since lunch time and had been dreaming about the chip shop at the end of the lane. It served the best cod and chips that he had ever tasted. He mentioned this to Victoria as soon as she slipped into the car. ‘Right, I am famished. It’s the chip shop for me. Fish and chips. Lots of chips.’
‘Do we have to?’ asked Victoria, even though she had used Roland’s visit as an excuse to Mrs Duffy when she couldn’t face the gammon and eggs she had been presented with.
‘We do. No ifs or buts. I love you dearly, Victoria, but I warn you, it is very dangerous to stand between me and my stomach.’
Almost an hour later, Victoria watched with mild amusement as Roland wiped the last of the sauce off his plate with a slice of bread and butter. ‘Honestly, I have never seen you eat fish and chips in Bolton.’
‘No? Really? They have great pie shops, but not as good as here. Anyway, what’s the urgency? Has Teddy been behaving himself?’
‘Well, actually, as you ask, no, I don’t think so. He is a little sod, isn’t he? Why do you think he is so horrible to Dana? Everyone is beginning to notice – except, it would seem, Dana herself.’
Roland picked up his tea mug and began to drink. As he did so, he made his decision. ‘Victoria, I have something to tell you.’
‘Do you? I have something to tell you too.’
‘Can I go first?’ said Roland. ‘I am quite sure what I am about to tell you is far bigger and, frankly, I am glad you are sitting down.’
‘Go on then.’ Victoria began to sip gingerly on her black tea. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s Teddy. He has, er, confessed something to me.’ He paused, took a deep breath and launched straight in. ‘Before his car accident, Teddy had been on a two-week holiday with Nurse Makebee. In one room, sharing the same bed.’
Victoria spluttered into her tea and sent it scudding into the air.
Roland grinned. ‘There, I knew you would be shocked.’
‘Roland, there’s nothing funny about it.’ Victoria was truly horrified.
‘Oh, I know. You don’t have to tell me that, my dearest. It is an appalling way to behave. It was just your reaction, it mirrored my own. I swear, the shock of it made me ill and confined me to my bed.’
‘Nurse Makebee! Oh my goodness… Poor Dana.’
Roland nodded sympathetically. ‘I at least have had a little time to get used to it. So, what to do? How do we deal with this? I can’t even begin to know where to start.’
Victoria pursed her lips. ‘You are asking a question to which there is only one answer.’
Roland wiped his plate clean with the last crust. ‘And that is…?’ he said as he stuffed the bread into his mouth.
‘We tell Dana, of course. She has to know.’
‘Really? Should we not weigh this up first, go over the arguments for and against?’
‘Roland, you are not a lawyer here, you are Teddy’s brother and I am Dana’s friend. This is quite different.’
Roland stared out of the window. ‘Hmm, nonetheless, there are considerations. Not least the fact that I promised him I would tell no one. If he finds out I have, my credibility as a brotherly confidant will be shot to pieces, and my relationship with Teddy could be permanently damaged.’
Victoria snorted her derision, b
ut Roland carried on.
‘My initial reaction was exactly the same as yours, Vic, but we need to think seriously hard and do the right thing, not just what our emotions compel us to do. There is also the fact that when we do tell Dana, as witnesses to her humiliation, we will leave her with only one option and it is an option she will take. She will leave Teddy then and there. We know what a proud individual she is and I cannot see her even staying at St Angelus. If I were as proud as she is, I would probably waste my training and head back to Ireland. Her reaction will be a hundred times greater than ours. We will be destroying her life too. So I will have lost a brother and Teddy will have lost the woman he loves.’
Victoria sighed, imagining how utterly distraught Dana would be. ‘What a horrible mess,’ she said.
‘I could murder a drink,’ Roland said. ‘Let’s go to the pub and you can tell me your news.’
*
Beth tapped on Victoria’s bedroom door. She wanted to borrow her jade-green scarf. Victoria had the most extensive wardrobe of all the girls and was the most generous in lending things out. The agreement was that if anyone borrowed something, they left a note on her dresser saying what had been taken and by whom.
Victoria had the tidiest room. Even the maids enjoyed putting away her things, admiring her new clothes, smelling her perfume. But tonight, when Beth popped her head around the door, she was met with mild disarray and an unpleasant, stale smell that lingered despite the window having been left open. Beth was surprised, both by the state of the room and also because it was so unusual for Victoria not to have knocked and said where she was going.
The girls were like family to one another. They let each other know their evening plans and when they would be back and that was before they checked out with Mrs Duffy. Pammy was out with Anthony tonight, and Dana was still at work. In truth, Victoria’s slipping of their self-imposed rule came as a relief to Beth. It meant she could go out too and would only have to tell one little white lie, to Mrs Duffy. After so many evenings spent staying in with just Mrs Duffy for company, it was nice to finally have somewhere to go.
The Mother's Of Lovely Lane Page 32