Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [89]
The train was filling up fast, and already the carriage Luke was in was nearly full; mothers clustering by its windows, all, like Jean, anxious to spend as much time as they could with their sons, fathers shaking their sons’ hands, their faces set.
Luke hadn’t said one single word against his dad, but he must be feeling, as she was, that Sam should have been here, Jean acknowledged.
Three young men hurried down the platform and jumped into Luke’s carriage, one of them exclaiming, ‘Ruddy well thought we weren’t going to make it and that would have put the fat in the fire!’
‘Fat in the fire? Got you on a charge, more like,’ one of his companions told him, as he took out his cigarettes.
The smell of khaki, cigarettes and young male virility was filling the air. Young women, – girls still, really – shiny new wedding rings very much in evidence, were clinging to equally young men. Older women with young families clung tightly to their children’s hands or the handles of perambulators whilst husbands bent to kiss each child in turn, and still older women, like Jean herself, watched, remembering when the sons they were saying goodbye to had been small enough to keep safe in such prams.
The train was getting up steam. Jean could see the guard making his way down the platform, slamming the carriage doors as he did so. Jean’s stomach muscles tightened. She must not cry and disgrace Luke, upsetting him when he had to be strong, but she couldn’t stop the anxious maternal love flooding her, and with it her fear for him.
The guard blew his whistle. Luke leaned down out of the window to kiss her cheek. The train was starting to move. Jean’s eyes blurred with tears, and she had to turn her head away so that Luke wouldn’t see them. And then unbelievably as she did so, she saw Sam, pushing his way through the crowd.
‘Sam! Over here.’ She jumped up and waved her hand, telling Luke, ‘Look, Luke, it’s your dad. Sam, quick, over here …’
The train was moving now, families moving with it, desperate for every precious last second of time with those they loved. Jean had lost sight of Sam.
The train was gathering speed.
‘Dad.’
She could hear the joy in Luke’s voice as Sam broke through the crowd and reached up to take Luke’s hand in his own.
‘You see you take care of yourself, you ruddy young fool.’
Sam’s voice might be gruff but it was filled with love, and Jean could see from Luke’s expression that he could hear it too.
Sam released Luke’s hand and reached for hers. Together and in silence they watched the train until they couldn’t see it any more.
Only then did Jean turn to Sam and say emotionally, ‘Oh, Sam.’
There was no need for any other words. And for the first time in the whole of their married lives, to Jean’s astonishment, Sam took hold of her in a public place in front of other people and held her so tightly she could hardly breathe. She could feel the betraying dampness of his tears against her own skin as they stood locked together, sharing their love and their fear for their son.
FOURTEEN
‘I’m so tired, I nearly fell asleep when I was feeding a patient this morning. I would have done, I reckon, if she hadn’t given me a nudge in the ribs to warn me that Staff Nurse Rodgers was watching me,’ Jennifer moaned.
Those members of Grace’s set who were on ‘days’ rather than ‘nights’ were sitting huddled over the fire in the junior nurses’ sitting room, snatching a much-needed few minutes of relaxation after their evening meal.
‘That’s nothing. Three patients on my ward were sick after breakfast this morning, and Sister had me scrubbing their sheets and nightgowns. I thought I was going to throw up myself, I did,’ said Doreen.
‘I’ve heard that at least four girls from other sets have left, saying that they thought they were supposed to be training as nurses, not working as skivvies,’ Iris told them.
Grace was so exhausted that she would quite happily have let the complaints of the others wash over her unregarded if Hannah hadn’t nudged her and demanded, ‘What about you, Grace? How are you doing