Instead, she said again that Mrs Halliday would look out for them.
Seeming satisfied, Dr Fenwick said, ‘Then I’ll arrange for him to be taken in. It’ll most likely be the Drill Hall, child. They’ve opened up several places to take patients and the Drill Hall’s one of them. The Infectious Diseases Hospital, where your mother went, is full, as I believe is the ward at the County Hospital.’ He fastened his bag. ‘So get a few things ready for him and I’ll arrange for the ambulance to fetch him. Meanwhile, like I said before, if any of the youngsters – or you – feel ill, let me know. At once, mind.’
As the doctor had said, things were a little easier for Polly once her father had been taken to the temporary hospital accommodation. Now she had only the young ones to look after. But it didn’t stop her worrying about her father too.
The baby and Stevie were easy. Though Miriam cried when she was hungry or needed changing, she was a placid little thing and the little boy played quietly on the hearthrug with his bricks. It was Violet and even more so, Eddie, who caused Polly her biggest headaches. Violet was obstinate and difficult, refusing to do anything about the house to help. There were little jobs that the ten-year-old could have managed, but no, Violet took the absence of both parents as an opportunity to do just what she liked. She even refused to go to school until Polly threatened to seek out the attendance officer herself.
‘You wouldn’t?’ Violet blinked in the face of her sister’s anger.
‘Try me,’ Polly flashed back. ‘What’ll Dad say when he comes home? And – and what would Mam have said?’
For a while those words subdued the rebellious girl, but they didn’t work on the tougher Eddie.
‘You’ll be in at eight o’clock and no later,’ Polly ordered.
‘Fat chance,’ the boy sneered. ‘Gonner make me, are ya?’
‘No, I can’t make you, I know that.’ Polly’s eyes narrowed. ‘But there’s those that can.’
Eddie laughed. ‘Oh aye. Who?’
Polly pursed her lips. ‘You’ll see, if you try it, Edward Longden. You’ll see.’
And, of course, Eddie did try it.
By half-past nine on the very same evening that Polly had issued her warning, there was still no sign of her brother.
‘Right, he’s asked for it,’ she muttered reaching for her coat from behind the door.
Violet’s eyes were wide. ‘What are you going to do, Poll?’
‘Never you mind. The less you know, the better.’ As she pulled on her coat and wrapped a scarf around her neck, she glared at her sister. ‘I wouldn’t put it past you to take his side.’
Violet grinned and her dark eyes were full of mischief. ‘Oh, I would.’ The younger girl stood up, stretched and yawned. ‘I’m off to bed, if little squealer doesn’t keep me awake.’
‘And about time. You should have been in bed hours ago. And don’t call Baby that. She’s a good little thing.’
Polly pulled her coat closely around her as she closed the door quietly and set off down the street towards the Hallidays’ house.
‘’Ello, love. What brings you out this late?’ Seth asked as he peered at her through the darkness.
‘Is Leo at home, Mr Halliday?’
‘He is, lass. Come away in.’ He ushered the shivering girl into the kitchen. ‘Bertha – Leo, mek room by the fire. This little lass is freezing.’
‘Aw, Polly, love. Whatever’s the matter? Is it your dad?’
Polly shook her head. ‘No. He’s all right, as far as I know.’ She glanced at Leo, who’d risen from his chair and was gesturing for her to sit down in it.
She gave him a wan smile and sat down. ‘I – I’ve come to ask for some advice. From – from Leo really, I suppose.’
Polly glanced around the three kindly, concerned faces, her gaze coming to rest on Leo’s. She drank in the sight of him; his curly fair hair, his bright blue eyes and his generous mouth that was nearly always smiling. For a brief moment, she allowed herself to dream, but then she pulled herself back to the reason for her visit.
‘It’s our Eddie. He’s playing me up summat rotten. It started a bit when Mam was first ill.’ At the thought of her mother, her voice broke a little but she carried on bravely. ‘You know, staying out late if he thought Dad was out and wouldn’t notice. But since Mam died and – and Dad got ill, Eddie’s got worse. He’s stopping out until all hours. I don’t even know where he is – or who he’s with.’ Polly’s head dropped as she strove to hold back the tears.
She felt Leo’s hand on her shoulder as his mother said, ‘Aw, Polly love, don’t cry. We’ll see what we can do.’ She looked up at Leo ‘Have you heard owt?’
Polly looked up to see Leo shaking his head. ‘No, but I’ll go down the station this minute and make enquiries.’
‘Oh – I don’t want to get him into trouble. I mean, not with the coppers.’
‘He already is,’ Leo said, but he was laughing.
Polly gasped and clutched her throat. ‘What d’you mean?’
‘He’s in trouble with me for upsetting you. And I’m a copper, aren’t I?’
Polly relaxed and smiled too. ‘Oh yes. Just for a moment, I thought you meant . . .’
He patted her shoulder. ‘You go back to the little ones, Poll, and I’ll go out and see if I can track that rascal down.’
As she stood up to leave, Bertha asked bluntly, ‘And what about young Violet? Is she behaving herself?’
Polly pulled a wry face. ‘Yes – and no. I have a job to get her to go to school, but she’s going at the moment ever since I threatened to tell the attendance officer mesen if she didn’t.’
‘I know she’s only ten, but she’s a little madam, that one. You’ll have to watch her, Polly.’
‘I assume Eddie’s not been going to school either?’ Leo asked quietly.
Polly shook her head. ‘Not since Mam died.’
The three Hallidays exchanged a worried glance.
‘You know, this could all be to do with losing your mam, love. Kids deal with trouble in different ways and maybe this is Eddie’s way. He’s trying to block it all out of his mind and mebbe, by staying out with his mates, he can forget it for a while. Though it’s not fair on you, lass.’
‘I just – I just don’t want the authorities to put us in the workhouse.’ Polly covered her face with her hands.
Bertha reached out towards her and Leo put his arm round her shoulders. Even Seth said at once, ‘Don’t you worry about that. We’ll see that doesn’t happen. Now let me see you home and Leo’ll see what he can find out.’
‘I’ll come in with you. Just to make sure he’s not come home since you left,’ Leo added, pulling on his overcoat.
The three of them walked up the icy street and entered the Longdens’ home. There was no one in the kitchen or the scullery.
‘Just nip upstairs, Polly, and see that he’s not sneaked straight up to bed,’ Leo suggested.
When she came downstairs a few moments later, Polly shook her head. ‘No, he’s not there. He must still be out. Oh, where can he be? It’s nearly ten o’clock now.’
At that moment, the thin wailing of a hungry baby sounded upstairs.
‘You stay here, Polly,’ Seth said at once. ‘See to the little ones. I’ll go with Leo.’
‘I don’t know how to thank you,’ she began as she moved towards the stairs, but both men waved aside her thanks as they left by the front door.
Outside, Leo muttered to his father. ‘That little bugger. I’ll knock his head off if I catch him. Worrying young Polly like this. Teking advantage, that’s what he’s doing.’
‘Aye well, don’t be too tough on the lad. He’s just lost his mam and his dad’s in the hospital. He’s frightened. They all are.’
‘But he’s not being fair to Polly. She’s a star the way she’s trying to cope and he’s just a little . . .’ His tirade tailed off into an expletive.
‘Let’s get him found first and then we’ll see what we can do.’
It was almost midnight when Polly, sitting huddled in front of a dying fire, heard a soft knock on the front door. Her heart in her mouth, she rushed to open it hoping that it was Eddie. But Leo stood there alone.
In the shadows, she couldn’t read his expression, but there was sorrow in his voice as he said softly, ‘Can I come in a minute, Polly?’
Wordlessly, she pulled the door wider. ‘You haven’t found him?’
‘Actually,’ Leo said, stepping across the threshold and following her through the front room into the kitchen, ‘I have, but it’s not good news, I’m afraid.’
Polly’s hand flew to cover her mouth. ‘He’s not hurt, is he? What’s happened?’
‘No, nothing like that. He’s at the police station.’
‘The police— Oh no! Is he in trouble?’
‘’Fraid so. He was caught stealing in the market this afternoon. He was arrested and taken to the police station, but he was refusing to say anything. He wouldn’t even give his name and address. It wasn’t until I turned up tonight that they found out who he was. I’m sorry, Polly, but I had to tell them.’
‘Of course you did. You couldn’t do anything else.’ Polly was forced to agree, but a tiny part of her wished Leo hadn’t told them.
‘I’ve told them about your mam and how your dad’s ill too and they’re going to let him go with a caution. This time. The stallholder, Albert Thorpe – I don’t know if you know him?’
‘I might,’ Polly murmured. ‘I go to the market a lot, but I don’t know names.’
‘When Mr Thorpe heard about what’s happened to your family, he decided, in the circumstances, that he wouldn’t press charges.’
‘Then where is Eddie? Why hasn’t he come home?’
Leo gave a wry laugh. ‘The custody sergeant thought it would be a good idea to keep him in a cell just for the night. Give him a sharpener, he called it. A taste of what he could expect if he breaks the law again.’
Polly pursed her lips and nodded. ‘And when he does come home, he’ll have me to face, an’ all.’
Leo watched her little face harden and her green eyes glitter.
He wouldn’t want to be in Eddie Longden’s shoes when he got home the following morning.
Eddie had hardly stepped through the door before he felt the flat of Polly’s hand smack his cheek.
‘Oi, what’s that for?’
‘What d’you think it’s for? Ending up in a police cell. That’s what it’s for. Wait till our dad hears about this.’
Eddie gripped her arms so firmly that his fingers dug into her flesh. ‘Don’t you dare say a word to Dad. Or else . . .’
Though he was stronger than she was, Polly was not going to let him beat her. She thrust her face close to his, her spittle raining on his face. ‘Or what, Eddie Longden? You don’t frighten me and – if I have to – I will tell Dad. When he’s better.’
Eddie’s face twisted in a sneer. ‘If he gets better.’
‘Oh, don’t you worry, Dad’ll get better. He’s not weak from childbirth like poor Mam was. I’m going to see him today.’
His grip tightened and Polly pressed her lips together to stop herself crying out in pain. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he was hurting her.
‘And you’re planning on telling him? About me?’
Polly put her head on one side, considering. ‘That depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On if you get yourself to school every day until he comes home and you’re in by – let’s say half-past eight.’
Eddie grimaced. ‘I’m leaving school in the summer when I’m twelve. What difference does a few days or weeks make now?’
‘All the difference. You need that certificate, don’t you? Look, Eddie, you might not think it, but you’re bright. If only you’d work a bit harder – be more reliable – you might get a decent job when you leave school.’
‘D’you know summat, our Poll, you’re beginning to sound more like me mam every day. Quite the mother hen, aren’t you?’
‘Someone’s got to look after the bairns,’ she countered. ‘Don’t you think I’d rather be out working than looking after you lot and doing housework?’
‘At the glue factory? Some job that is.’
‘I don’t – ’ she hesitated and then changed it to – ‘didn’t intend to be there all me life. I’d got plans, see. But now . . .’ She sighed, lost for a moment in her own broken dreams. Then, more briskly, she added, ‘But you could do anything you liked, Eddie. You could really make something of yourself, if only you’d try.’
‘Huh! You really think the likes of us can “make something of ourselves”? Fat chance, Poll.’ He loosened his grip and stepped away. ‘But if you promise not to tell Dad about last night, then I will go to school. At least until he’s back home.’
Surreptitiously, Polly rubbed the place where his strong fingers had bruised her arms.
‘All right, but just mind you keep your side of the bargain then.’
Polly did not go to see her father the following afternoon, nor the next.
‘I wouldn’t go yet, me love,’ Bertha advised. ‘He’s in good hands but he’ll be in the worst stages of it now. Best leave it another week or so, at least, eh? I’ll ask our Leo to call and ask after him? All right?’
Polly nodded and despite the awful reason for it, she couldn’t quell the little thrill of pleasure she felt at the thought of an excuse to see Leo again.
‘He’s going on nicely,’ Leo told her when, removing his policeman’s helmet, he stepped into the Longdens’ home two days later. ‘One of the nurses said it should be all right for you to visit him, if you want to, early next week. And me ma says she’ll mind the bairns for you while you go. She says to tell you not to think of taking the little ’uns there.’
Polly shook her head vigorously. ‘No, I wouldn’t.’
And so it wasn’t until the first Monday in March that Polly knocked on the door of the house at the end of the street.
‘Mrs Halliday, could you look after Baby and Stevie for me for an hour or so this afternoon? I want to go to the Drill Hall to see how me dad’s going on.’
‘Course I can, lovey. You bring them down here, though, ’cos then I can get on with me own work while I keep an eye on them.’
It was quite a walk from where the Longdens lived to the Drill Hall, which had been turned into a temporary hospital for typhoid victims. Polly put on her warm winter coat and hat and walked up the street. At the end, she turned left into the long High Street, passing St Peter at Gowts Church on her right, then the two railway level crossings. Soon she was passing shops and the market. At the Stonebow she paused a moment and glanced up at the huge archway across the road. It was a Tudor building she’d learnt about at school and stood where once the southern gate had guarded the Roman city of Lincoln. Its frontage was decorated with stone carvings and above it was the Guildhall, where only a few weeks ago her father had attended a Council meeting. And now he was in hospital. With a little sigh she turned right into the newly widened Saltergate and came at last to Broadgate and the Drill Hall. As Polly stepped into the building, a nurse came forward. Wearing a pale pink dress with a long, starched white apron and bib, and a white cap holding her hair in place, the nurse smiled at the nervous young girl.
‘Is it all right to see me dad?’
The nurse was friendly, but Polly could see the dark shadows of weariness under the young woman’s eyes. ‘And who might that be?’
‘Mr Longden. Mr William Longden.’
‘Ah yes. Follow me. We can only allow you a few minutes, Miss Longden. As you will see – ’ she opened a door and gestured Polly inside – ‘we are very cramped for space and if everyone had several visitors, well, you can imagine it would be rather chaotic. Mind you – ’ she pulled a face – ‘our poor patients aren’t actually getting many visitors. I think people are afraid they might catch it by just being near them. You can’t get it like that
, by the way.’
Polly nodded. ‘I know. I nursed me mam. If I’d been going to catch it from someone, I’d’ve got it by now.’
The nurse’s face was suddenly full of sympathy. ‘Your father told us, my dear. About your mother. We’re very sorry. And now he has it too; it must be difficult for you. Are the rest of the family still well?’
‘So far.’ Polly held up crossed fingers. ‘The doctor’s been very good to us. He says if any of the bairns get it, I’m to get him at once. And he hasn’t even sent us a bill yet.’
The nurse smiled. ‘A lot of the doctors around the city aren’t sending their bills out yet. If they ever do.’
‘We couldn’t pay it if he did,’ Polly said dryly. ‘With me dad not working now and me off work to look after the little ’uns, there’s no money coming in.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that. How are you managing?’
Polly shrugged. ‘As long as I’ve enough money to get food for us. Me mam always had a bit put by, but when that’s gone . . .’ She pulled a face.
As the nurse opened the door into the main hall, Polly gasped in surprise. The large room was filled with beds set in rows down its full length and along the end wall. They were close together and though screens stood about, ready to be put around a bed when needed, there was no privacy whatsoever. The patients could reach out and touch the bed next to them.
‘Not ideal.’ The nurse sighed. ‘But what can we do? By the way, we’re very short of blankets. Could you spare one or two from home?’
‘I could bring the ones off me – me mam and dad’s bed.’ Her voice broke a little.
‘That’d be wonderful. Wash them first, won’t you, and we’ll make sure they stay on your father’s bed and he can take them home with him when he—’
Polly looked at her sharply. ‘Is he ever going to come home? Is he going to get better?’
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