Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [63]
It had certainly been a posh do, but as she had said to Sam earlier, Bella and her new husband hadn’t looked anywhere near as happy as she had remembered feeling when she and Sam had got wed. Vi was full of herself, though, over Bella’s marriage, but then of course it was typical of Vi that she should be. She hadn’t let Jean say so much as a word in praise of Grace and her nursing training. ‘Come on, everyone, the bride and groom are about to leave.’
Dutifully everyone gathered in the hallway to watch Bella and Alan walk down the stairs together.
Her hand tucked through Alan’s arm, Bella gave Trixie a triumphant look as the newly married couple ran the gauntlet of the confetti being thrown at them as they hurried from the hotel to Alan’s waiting car.
She had done it, Bella congratulated herself smugly. She had got what she wanted, just as she always did.
NINE
Oh heavens, why had the bus stopped yet again, Grace fretted. They had all been later than they had planned leaving Wallasey, thanks to Bella making a fuss about wanting more photographs of herself in her wedding dress, and then the ferry had been full and they had to wait for the next one, and her precious pass out from the nurses’ home expired at ten o’clock.
It was nearly that now and she had been holding her breath with every stop the bus had made on its way up from the Pier Head to the hospital, trying to make out – through the mesh covering the windows to protect passengers from the danger of flying glass should they be bombed – how far they had come, even though she knew that there would be nothing to see in the dark, thanks to the blackout.
The bus stopped yet again, passengers exchanging seats and standing space, some them getting off, others replacing them in their vacated seats.
They couldn’t be far from the hospital now. The bus picked up speed, allowing Grace’s cramped stomach muscles to relax and then recramp even harder as abruptly it lurched to halt with a squeal of brakes and a suddenness that had standing passengers almost losing their balance. Raised voices started protesting.
‘What the devil …?’
‘Ruddy driver.’
‘Ruddy blackout, don’t you mean?’ one passenger joked, all of them silenced when the conductor called out.
‘Driver says there’s bin an accident up front and he can’t go further until the road’s been cleared.’
‘It’s this blasted blackout,’ the man seated next to Grace grumbled. ‘It ain’t safe out there any more.’
Grace knew that it was true. There was lot of talk about the number of road accidents in the pitch-dark. It was even being suggested that the kerbs might be painted white as a preventative measure.
She really was going to be late now, Grace recognised worriedly as she joined the other passengers getting off the bus.
In the street a small crowd of bystanders had already gathered in front of the bus, which now had its lights full on to illuminate the scene. The driver of a lorry was half hanging out of the side of his cab, looking more like a rag doll than a human being, and to one side of the vehicle Grace could see a pretty high-heeled shoe. Just the one. Nothing else. Grace’s stomach turned over and heaved.
A man in a smart suit stepped out of the crowd announcing, ‘I’m a doctor. Has anyone sent for the emergency services?’
‘Just sent for them now, sir,’ another man responded.
The doctor had made his way to the cab and was feeling for the driver’s pulse. Grace turned away, wondering how she was going to get past the accident and whether she should make a detour down another street.
‘I need help – a nurse …’ the doctor was saying tersely as he went to a car, which Grace now saw was stopped behind the bus, to remove a medical bag. ‘Any nurses here?’
No one answered. Grace’s stomach tightened again. She wasn’t a nurse, not yet, but somehow her conscience was prodding her into stepping forward and saying uncertainly, ‘I’m not a nurse, only a probationer, but …’
The