Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [154]
There was a sharp rap on her bedroom door and then it opened and Bettina warned her, ‘The air-raid siren’s gone.’
‘I’m not going.’
She could almost feel Bettina’s angry frustration as she wondered what to do and then, after hesitating, she closed the door and Bella heard her hurrying down the stairs to join her mother.
The front door opened and closed. The wail of the sirens stopped. Bella counted the seconds that ticked by. She had reached forty-five when she heard the first undulating hum of approaching desynchronised aircraft engines, the noise swiftly growing louder. Soon the scream of falling bombs and explosions would fill the air, along with the thump of the anti-aircraft guns. Familiar noises now, that had fallen into a familiwell-organisedar pattern. In the morning, newspapers would carry reports of where the bombs had fallen and how much damage they had done.
Bella tensed as she heard the first whining whistle of descending bombs, followed by the dull crump of explosions.
It had started. Well, she didn’t care. She didn’t really care about anything any more.
A bomb screamed earthwards so close at hand the noise hurt her eardrums. Silence. Then an almighty explosion that shook the whole house to its foundations and brought the toiletries on her dressing table crashing to the floor, filling the air with the scent of her Ma Griffe perfume.
At the hospital, as soon as they had heard the air-raid siren, the nurses and porters had rushed to get the patients to safety, following a now well-organised procedure after a month of constant alerts. Seb, who had been told he would be discharged in the morning, made sure he kept a protective eye on Grace, as he and the other mobile patients helped the nurses with those who were bedridden.
‘I dare say it will be the docks that will be getting the worse of it,’ Seb shouted to Grace above the noise of the sirens.
Grace nodded, feeling more anxious about her father and her brother, who were both bound to be more closely involved in the raid, than she was about herself.
The night was filled with the sound of exploding bombs and destruction, whilst the ack-ack guns of the batteries spat out rounds of gunfire that lit up the sky. Shattered glass covered the ground, crunching underfoot.
‘They’ve got the Customs House,’ one of the porters yelled, ‘and a couple of warehouses.’
Just as they reached the shelter a dozen or more incendiary bombs hit the ground, bursting into flames. One of them came so close that Grace felt the heat of it singeing her uniform before Seb dragged her out of the way.
Another landed on the entrance to a corporation bus that had just stopped outside the hospital. Whilst Grace watched, the conductress kicked it off so that it exploded harmlessly in the street.
Dodging the broken glass from windows blown out by the bombs, and the incendiary bombs themselves, Grace finally got her patients into the shelter.
In answer to Seb’s, ‘You OK?’ she gave a brief nod and acknowledged, ‘Yes, thanks to you.’
There was no time to say any more. She had her patients to attend to, and Sister was doing a roll call to make sure that no one had been left behind by accident.
By the time that had been done the German bombers had turned for home and the all clear was already sounding.
Luckily the hospital itself hadn’t been hit, but there’d been a lot of damage down by the docks and Wallasey Town Hall had been hit, as well as several houses, Seb reported to Grace before she went off duty.
‘You won’t be here when I come back on duty tonight. The ward won’t be the same without you.’ Despite her best intentions Grace knew that her voice was betraying how she felt.
Seb squeezed her hand. ‘I’ll be waiting for you here at the hospital when you come off duty on your day off, just like we’ve arranged.’
Grace looked at him. ‘Do you think it’s too