‘Will we go?’
‘We’ll have to double-check our shifts – you know how things can change – but it could be fun.’
Nelly clutched my arm dramatically. ‘I can’t even remember what fun is.’
‘Then we will definitely go.’
I tied my apron round my waist and checked my own reflection in the spotted mirror on the wall. My cap was wonky so I straightened it. I loved that Nelly brought out the fun in me. I’d always been rather quiet when I was young. And losing mymother when I had barely left school made me grow up fast. Billy and I learned to look after ourselves when she was poorly, and there wasn’t a lot of time left for nights out when you had to do the cooking and cleaning and the laundry. I’d met Nelly when we lived in the nurses’ accommodation when we were training. Billy had stayed in our house, fixing cars in a garage nearby. He had loved engines, my Billy.
When Nelly and I qualified and the war began, there were so many new nurses jostling for spaces in the hospital digs, it made sense for us to move back to our old family home. And heaven knows I’d been glad of her company when I got the news that Billy had been killed. Living with Nelly had shown me that there was more to life than housework and worrying about money. She always said I’d rediscovered my youth, even though I was only twenty-one.
‘I saw Jackson again on the way to work,’ I told her.
She made a face. ‘I don’t like him, Elsie.’
‘I don’t like him much either,’ I admitted. I pinned my watch – a present from Billy – on to my apron and checked the time. Then, making the most of the couple of minutes before the shift began, I sat down on one of the battered armchairs in the staffroom, and sighed. ‘He said he saw Billy as he was leaving, and he asked him to look after me.’
‘Well that’s not true,’ Nelly said immediately. ‘Billy knew you could look after yourself.’
I smiled, but it was a bit of a sad smile. ‘He did.’
‘And if he’d wanted someone to look after you, he’d have asked me.’
This time my smile was bigger. ‘That is very true.’ Billy had adored Nelly. He always said she was a “right card”. ‘If there’s anyone you want in your corner,’ he’d said to me more than once, ‘it’s Nelly Malone.’
‘Well, there you are.’
I nodded. ‘It just made me feel a bit prickly, you know? Him having spoken to Billy when he left.’
‘Because he spoke to Billy more recently than you did?’
‘That’s it.’
Nelly came over to where I sat and gave me a hug. I had never been much of a hugger before I met her either. But she was so affectionate and open, that I’d soon had to learn to love her impromptu expressions of friendship. ‘Your Billy knew how much you loved him,’ she said. ‘And you know that he thought the world of you too. Nothing Jackson can say can change that.’
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘I just wish I’d had the chance to tell him, that’s all.’
‘I know.’ Nelly looked thoughtful. ‘I was thinking that last night. There was this man brought in, and he was bleeding so badly, and he knew he was going to die – you know how some people just know? And he was saying “tell Susie I love her” over and over.’
I found myself blinking away tears, even though we dealt with death every day. ‘Did you?’ I asked. ‘Did you tell Susie?’
‘Ach, no. How could I? I didn’t even know his name, let alone who Susie was,’ Nelly said. ‘He was brought in wearing his pyjamas.’
I felt desperately sad for the man who’d died without telling Susie what he wanted her to know. Was she his wife? I wondered. His daughter? Maybe even a secret lover. But she’d never know that this man had been thinking of her in his final moments.
‘This war,’ I said, my voice slightly croaky. ‘This awful war.’
‘Ladies,’ a voice said. ‘Should you be sitting in here, or should you be on the wards?’
We both looked round to see the matron from Nelly’s ward at the door. She sounded cross but she was smiling.
‘Just going,’ I said.
‘Nurse, there are tin hats on every ward now,’ Matron said. ‘Make sure everyone puts them on when the siren goes.’
I groaned. ‘Really?’
‘Really. We’ve got more sandbags being delivered and theoperating theatre downstairs is up and running now, but we can’t be too careful.’
