Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [65]
They had reached the hospital now and he had pulled up discreetly out of sight of the night porter’s small lodge.
‘Thanks for … for everything,’ Grace told him, suddenly feeling shy.
He had nice hands, she decided, big and clean and safe-looking, a bit like her dad’s.
‘I suppose you’re wondering why I haven’t joined up to fight.’
His comment surprised her. ‘No, of course not,’ Grace assured him.
‘I had rheumatic fever when I was a kiddie – I’m OK now but the medics wouldn’t pass me fit to fight. I’m only telling you ’cos I don’t want you thinking that I’m avoiding doing me bit.’
‘I wasn’t thinking that at all,’ Grace told him truthfully.
‘Me dad has a small greengrocer’s shop, and rightly speaking this is his van, but he’s lent it out for the war effort.’
Grace nodded. She knew that the emergency ambulance service was based around transport offered by those who owned it, and that both the volunteers and the transport were then equipped as best they could be for medical emergencies.
‘I’d better go in,’ she told him, and then offered shyly, ‘I’ll look out for you being on duty.’
‘Good,’ he responded, ‘because I shall certainly be looking out for you.’
He came round and helped her out of the van, then stood and watched her as she hurried past the porter’s lodge and headed for the door to the probationary nurses’ home.
She could hear him driving away as she knocked on the locked door.
It was Home Sister herself who unlocked it and stood confronting her with a very displeased look on her face.
‘Campion. And what time do you call this? You were supposed to be back for ten o’clock.’
‘I’m sorry, Sister,’ Grace apologised. ‘We were late leaving the reception and then the ferry was full, and then when I got on the bus there was an accident.’
Brought up as she had been, it never occurred to Grace to omit the fact that she had been late getting the bus and simply to use the accident as an excuse, so she didn’t see Home Sister’s mouth twitch into a small smile as she stepped back into the hall and beckoned her inside.
‘An accident, you say—’ Home Sister repeated, and then broke off, staring at Grace and frowning. ‘Where are all these bloodstains from? Were you involved in this accident?’
For the first time Grace realised that the sleeve of her jacket was stained with blood and that there were more bloodstains on the skirt of the Viyella dress she had changed into, not wanting to wear her bridesmaid’s frock any longer than necessary. The jacket and the dress had been new the previous winter, bought with her Lewis’s discount in the New Year sale and her heart sank a little. This wasn’t the time, though, to worry about how quickly she could remove them, not with Home Sister waiting for an answer to her questions.
‘No, that is … not really … A transport lorry had crashed and the driver was hurt. There was a doctor there and he asked for nursing help. I wasn’t going to say anything. I mean, I’m only a probationer,’ she said hastily, seeing that Home Sister’s frown was deepening. ‘But then there was no one and the doctor said that as long as I knew some first aid I would do. It wasn’t anything really, only holding things. The doctor had to apply a tourniquet and …’
‘I see. Very well. Have you had any supper?’
Grace stared at her. ‘No.’
‘I’ll arrange for the kitchen to make you a cup of cocoa. In the meantime you’d better go and have a bath.’
‘Yes, Home Sister.’
Alan had hardly spoken to Bella since they had left their wedding reception and now that they were here in their hotel bedroom, he was still ignoring her, and drinking from the hip flask he had removed from his pocket.
His parents and that wretched Trixie and her mother and father had quite spoiled her day, sitting there with their long faces instead of making a fuss of her like they ought to have done, Bella thought crossly. It wasn’t even as though Alan’s father had had to put his hand in his pocket either, so he had had nothing to scowl about. Her father had paid for