A Wedding at Mulberry Lane

by Rosie Clarke

  ‘No one claims them,’ Sam said. ‘They’re either dead or gone away. It takes a lot of searchin’ ter find this stuff and I reckon it belongs ter me.’

  ‘You’ve got ter ’and it in down the nick,’ Tom said. ‘I’m tellin’ yer, Sam. Yer can’t keep this stuff – not weddin’ rings and jewellery, personal stuff. It’s not right. If yer don’t ’and it in I’ll tell Ma – and she’ll go to the coppers. Yer know what she’s like over pinchin’…’

  ‘It ain’t nothin’ ter do wiv yer,’ Sam yelled and dived on the gold, swooping it into his trouser pocket. ‘It ain’t just me. Others are in it and I ’ave ter share…’

  Tom shook his head at him. ‘You’ll end up in prison like Dad did,’ he said. ‘I’ve warned yer, Sam. Take that stuff down the nick and tell ’em where yer found it. That belongs to someone…’

  ‘Yeah, me,’ Sam said. ‘You think yer so high and mighty, but I’m earning more than yer ever will wiv yer little jobs. I’m in with some people now and I’ll be goin’ somewhere; they told me to stick by ’em and they’d look after me. I ain’t goin’ ter be like you or Dad. I’ll ’ave money and be someone – so just keep yer mouth shut or somebody might shut it fer yer. There’s a lot of people keepin’ an eye on me, so just yer be careful…’

  Sam turned and shot out of the room, leaving Tom staring after him in frustration. It was impossible to deal with his brother. Their father might have been able to keep him in order but he was in prison and Sam ignored him and Ma. Apart from the danger of unexploded bombs, Sam was digging a hole for himself that could only lead to trouble in the future. Tom could just imagine what sort of people his brother had got in with and there was nothing he could do except hope that Sam came to his senses before the police discovered what he was doing.

  Chapter 18

  Maureen was filled with trepidation when she approached the noticeboard. Most of the young nurses were clustered around it, trying to see where their name was on the list and giving squeaks of excitement or walking away with a look of disappointment in their eyes, their heads down. Unable to get to the front of the crowd without shoving, Maureen saw some of her friends’ names mid-list and looked further down. She couldn’t see her name anywhere.

  ‘You clever thing, you!’ A girl called Rita tapped her on the shoulder. ‘Look where you came – talk about a dark horse!’

  ‘I haven’t seen…’ Maureen craned. ‘I hoped I might come halfway…’

  Rita gave a crack of laughter. ‘You’re only second from top… Bettina, the swot, is top of course, but you’re second. Well done, you…’

  ‘Second…’ Maureen felt as if all her breath had been squashed out of her. ‘I can’t believe it…’

  ‘You can truly call yourself a nurse now,’ Rita said. ‘Just a few more exams and you’ll have half a chance of knowing what you’re doing…’

  Maureen giggled, feeling a rush of excitement. ‘I think that’s going to take years,’ she said. ‘But at least I’m getting the hang of what they actually let us do… and I never thought I’d get past scrubbing pans.’

  ‘You’ll be Sister’s pet now,’ Rita said. ‘Several of us are going out for a celebration this evening – are you coming?’

  ‘Are you sure they want me along?’ Maureen asked, because she knew that some of the nurses thought of her as a Jonah and sometimes tried to shut her out of group conversations. A few girls like Rita were friendly, but many of them looked at her and whispered about the two hut mates who had been killed. ‘I know some of the girls think I’m cursed or somethin’.’

  ‘That’s just nonsense,’ Rita said. ‘I’ve been living with you for weeks and I’m still around…’

  ‘Don’t challenge fate!’ Maureen said and squeezed Rita’s arm. She was the only nurse who would move into the fated hut and they had a beginner in with them too. Carol was terribly shy and hardly spoke to any of them, but so far she hadn’t actually shunned Maureen, and both she and Rita were trying to help the girl through the dark days of her initiation as a probationer.

  Maureen still felt the pain of Sally’s loss. In a few short months they’d become so close and there was an aching void when she looked at Rita in Sally’s bed and knew she would never see the girl she’d loved like a sister again.

  She sighed as she walked away from the noticeboard and the thinning crowd of excited girls. Rory’s latest letter was still in her drawer. Maureen hadn’t been able to bring herself to open it, because she knew that once again he would demand she gave up her job to marry him. Sometimes as she tossed and turned on her lumpy mattress and felt every bone in her body ache she thought she must be mad. How many times had she wished that Rory was free to marry her? Now he was begging her to get married and she wanted to wait.

  ‘It makes no sense you being down there,’ he’d told her before she left London to return to her job. ‘I’ll be out of here once I have my last little op and then I’ll find a job and we’ll get married…’

  ‘No, Rory, not yet,’ Maureen had told him. ‘I’m doing well in my nursin’ now and I want to stay and pass my exams and be a proper nurse. Nurses can go on workin’ forever if they want and I’ll always have a job.’

  ‘What you’re sayin’ is that you don’t trust me to look after you,’ Rory had said, looking sulky. ‘The Army won’t send me back out there after this lot… I can ask for a job here in London and…’

  ‘But you could come down to Portsmouth if they discharge you and find work there. I’m sure there are plenty of jobs where I am…’

  ‘I’ll still be in the Army, but probably workin’ as a mechanic, which is what I’m trained for after all. I still have to go where they send me…’

  ‘You could try, couldn’t you? Ask for somethin’ down that way…’

  ‘You’ve changed,’ Rory accused and scowled at her. ‘You were always such a gentle, obligin’ girl…’

  ‘I had years at Dad’s beck and call and I want a chance to please myself for a while…’ Maureen said.

  ‘What you’re really sayin’ is you don’t want to marry me.’ He’d glared at her, but she’d seen the hurt in his eyes. ‘I don’t think you ever did. If you had, you would have told your father we were gettin’ married.’

  ‘That isn’t true,’ Maureen had said. ‘Please don’t be angry, Rory. I do love you and I want to marry you one day – but not just yet…’

  Rory had hunched his shoulder and turned away from her. She’d landed a kiss on the side of his face even though he pulled his head away, but in the end she’d had to leave him with their quarrel unresolved. It had lingered with her since she’d returned to duty, though she didn’t have time to worry about it when she was on the wards.

  There was a constant flow of wounded men in the hospital as the casualties mounted. They were primarily from the Armed forces, but when there were casualties in the town or factories they had civilian patients, which meant that the wards were always filled to capacity.

  Maureen worked the equivalent of one and a half normal shifts before Sister Martin told her that she looked dead on her feet and should go to bed before she did something stupid. Even when she was being considerate, she sounded grumpy, but Maureen knew her better now and they actually got on very well.

  As she was leaving, Sister congratulated her on her exam results, which left Maureen with a little glow inside as she made her weary way back to the hut she shared with Rita and Carol. Both girls were sitting on their beds talking excitedly as she entered, and Rita burst out laughing, winking at Carol as though they shared a secret.

  ‘What?’ Maureen asked, bewildered.

  ‘Who is the dark horse then?’ Rita demanded. ‘You didn’t tell us you’d got a hero for a boyfriend…’

  ‘What do you mean?’ She looked at them in bewilderment.

  ‘He’s been here looking for you. The guards let him through because he was in uniform –he’s obviously been wounded serving his country. He told us he’d been posted down here…’

  �
�Rory…?’ Maureen looked round the hut as though he might jump out at her. ‘When – where is he?’

  ‘He was here hours ago, when you should have been off shift – at least three hours ago. He said to tell you he’s staying at the inn just down the road and he’ll be here at nine in the morning outside the gates.’

  ‘Rory’s here?’ Maureen felt bemused, because he’d been so adamant that he wasn’t going to give in and that she had to come to him – and now he was here and it sounded as though he was impatient to see her. Her heart gave a little kick of joy, because it meant she would be able to see him more often. ‘I didn’t expect…’

  ‘He’s very good-looking, isn’t he?’ Rita said and winked. ‘I know he’s got that scar on his face where he was burned, but we thought it just made him more romantic – didn’t we, Carol?’

  Carol blushed bright pink. ‘I thought he was lovely,’ she said, ‘and so brave. I asked him if he still felt the pain and he laughed and made out it was nothing. He said his injuries were light compared to some of the men – well, we know that, of course, because we see worse all the time… but I thought…’ Carol collapsed in embarrassment, and Maureen guessed that Rory had worked his charm on her friends.

  ‘Yes, he was brave,’ Maureen confirmed, seeing that her friends wanted to know more. ‘I was with the WRVS when the train came in full of badly injured men. Rory was with a friend and he wouldn’t leave him, even though I tried to give him a drink and food: his friend died in hospital that night but Rory was luckier. He needed treatment for the burn to his face and injuries to his hands, but otherwise he’s OK – he wants us to get married, but I want to do my nursin’ trainin’ first…’

  ‘Surely you won’t make him wait,’ Carol said and the look of shock in her eyes made Maureen feel strange. ‘You should marry him, before he has to go back to his unit…’ She blushed and looked suddenly aware of what she’d said. ‘If you want to, of course…’

  Rita burst out laughing again. ‘If you didn’t have prior claim, I’d fight you for him,’ she said and Carol shot her an agonised look that made Maureen stare at the younger girl. Carol wasn’t much more than eighteen and Maureen suspected that she had fallen for Rory’s charm. Rita was just teasing; she had a string of young men dancing after her, including three she wrote letters to…

  Remembering Rory’s letter, Maureen took it from her drawer and opened it, annoyed with herself for not doing so before.

  He said he would be arriving today and would call in at the hospital and hope to see her when she’d finished for the evening.

  She saw Carol watching her as she scanned Rory’s letter. He told her that he’d been thinking hard and he didn’t want to lose her. He’d arranged a transfer on his release from the hospital, and fortunately, managed to wangle a posting as a mechanic at the naval base. She smiled because Rory had done what she asked and made arrangements to be near her. It must show that he cared for her despite all the arguments and the way he’d behaved in the past. She folded the letter and slipped it into her letter case in her bedside drawer, aware that Carol was watching her every move.

  ‘Something wrong?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh…no…’ Carol stammered and blushed when she saw Maureen looking at her, but Maureen smiled at her to reassure her. The trainee was young and shy, and very impressionable. It wouldn’t take much effort on Rory’s part to capture her imagination. Maureen just hoped her heart wasn’t involved, because she’d been down that road herself and knew just how much it could hurt.

  ‘You’re on early shift, Rita,’ she said. ‘Give me a shake will you please? I don’t want to miss him…’

  Rita promised she would tip her out of bed if she didn’t wake up, and Maureen threw her used uniform on the floor before crawling into bed in her underwear. She was too damned weary to do anything more…

  *

  ‘Maureen, I wasn’t sure if you would come…’ Rory looked at her uncertainly as she ran to him outside the gates. ‘I was a bit of a pig to you last time, but I was sick of being stuck in that hospital for months…’

  She looked up at him, noticing that the burn marks on his face had faded now to a brownish smear and didn’t look anywhere near as bad as Velma had implied they would be when she’d spoken to Maureen in the shop the previous year. If Velma had realised what a wonderful recovery Rory would make, she would probably not have confessed that their marriage was a sham and gone off with someone else.

  ‘I know, darling,’ Maureen said and kissed him. ‘I know I’m not bein’ fair to you, Rory. It’s just that I feel I’m doing somethin’ worthwhile for the first time in my life and…’

  Rory stopped the flow with a kiss that went on and on and drew a whistle from one of the naval guards at the compound gates. He grinned as he let her go.

  ‘It’s all right, love. Your pals told me how well you did with your exams. I’m proud of you, Maureen – and we’ll just get engaged for now. I reckon you’ve had to wait for me all this time and now I can wait for you until you’re ready…’

  ‘Oh, Rory!’ Maureen threw her arms about him in delight, because the way he was looking at her made her feel as if she would burst with happiness. ‘Yes, darling, we’ll be together as much as we can – and then we’ll get married. Once I’ve passed all my exams I can probably get permission to marry. It will take me a couple of years…’

  Rory’s kiss burned against her lips. ‘I don’t want to lose you,’ he whispered into her hair. ‘It’s goin’ to be murder wantin’ you and not havin’ you, but I’ll manage…’

  Maureen smiled up at him lovingly, because this was the old Rory and she adored him. She hadn’t been sure of her feelings for the surly man who had tried to dominate her from his hospital bed, but this was the man she’d fallen in love with. ‘If we were careful…’ she said shyly and Rory caught her to him once more, his breath rasping hoarsely against her hair. ‘I do love you so very much…’

  ‘I adore you, my angel,’ Rory said, smiling in the way that made her heart catch. ‘I’ll take care of you, love. There are ways…’

  Maureen nodded and looked up at him trustingly. ‘Yes, I know. We learn a bit about that sort of thing. You can find a room or somethin’ for us and we can spend time together…’

  ‘My sweet girl…’ Rory said and looked at her as she stood back. ‘You have to go already?’

  ‘I’m on duty in fifteen minutes,’ she said, ‘but I can get away at seven tonight. I worked extra hours last night, so I’ll tell Sister I have to leave on time this evenin’.’

  ‘I’ll pick you up at half past,’ Rory said. ‘I start work this lunchtime and finish at seven… so I’ll be here by half past. Does that give you time to get ready? We’ll go for a drink and somethin’ to eat in town…’

  ‘Yes, fine, lovely,’ Maureen said and kissed him again before breaking from his arms and running back to the compound. She turned and waved to him but Rory was getting on to a motorbike and didn’t look back.

  *

  ‘That was a lovely meal,’ Maureen said when they’d finished eating and Rory had paid their bill. It was a warm evening and they went outside together, lingering in the shadows to look up at the moon, which was lighting up the sky.

  ‘It’s a Bomber’s moon,’ Rory said. ‘We’ll catch it somewhere tonight; if it isn’t here, it will be somewhere else – Liverpool or Coventry probably…’

  ‘Yes, I expect so,’ Maureen said and drew closer to him. He held her pressed against his side and she could smell the faint perfume of his hair oil. ‘Why do men have to fight? I wish this war had never happened…’

  ‘A lot of poor devils aren’t around to wish anything,’ Rory said and she sensed the tension in him. ‘I feel guilty that I’m not out there with them.’

  ‘You’ve done your share,’ Maureen said quickly and put her arms about him, hugging him to her. ‘I’m glad you’re here, Rory. I want you to be safe now.’

  ‘Don’t worry, they won’t let me fight again,’ Ror
y said. ‘I’m in reasonable shape, love, and I can work as a mechanic – but one of my eyes isn’t as good as they need if I’m going to be part of a fightin’ force, and my hands – I can still do my job, but I’d find it difficult to feel the sensitivity of a trigger. I was a bloody good shot too…’

  ‘You’re not regrettin’ that you can’t fight?’ She gazed up at him, trying to read his thoughts.

  ‘When I see things are goin’ badly for us, I itch to kill Germans. A part of me still wants to be out there with my mates, but I wouldn’t be much use to them in a fight,’ he admitted and then grinned and kissed her. ‘When can you get a weekend off? I thought I’d borrow a car and we’ll go somewhere – book into a hotel as man and wife…’

  Maureen drew a sharp breath, because he’d dropped it into the conversation so casually. She knew he’d expected them to be lovers if he came down, and accepted it was time. Rory needed proof of her love and this was him testing her. She turned to look at him, smiling up into his eyes.

  ‘I’m due for a break next week. It’s two days in the middle of the week though – Wednesday and Thursday, back on duty Friday lunchtime…’

  ‘I’ll change shifts with someone,’ Rory said and looked down at her hotly. ‘I want our first time to be proper, Maureen love. I’d like to give you a special treat, be together for longer. Really have a chance to talk and just go off wherever we please.’

  ‘We’ve never done that,’ Maureen said. ‘Let me know, because I can get permission to leave on Tuesday evenin’ if you can get away…’

  ‘We don’t normally work such long hours as you nurses,’ Rory said ruefully. ‘Once I start on full shifts I’ll be back by six in the evening…’

  ‘I never get away before seven and then it’s a struggle sometimes,’ Maureen sighed. ‘If ever I’m late meeting you, you’ll know we’ve had a rush of patients and Sister has asked me to stay late.’