‘Enough,’ I cried holding my hands out. ‘Enough. She’s alive.’
‘She’s alive for now,’ the doctor said carefully.
‘Is she to stay here?’
‘She isn’t stable enough to move.’
‘Is she conscious?’
He gave a vehement shake of his head. ‘She is sedated. The pain …’
His voice trailed off and I breathed in deeply ‘Can I see her?’
‘You can. She’s in the side room off ward 2.’
Ward 2. Of course she was in ward 2 – the ward where the sickest patients were cared for. It was a frightening place full of artificial lungs and still figures with masks and bandages covering their faces. I had known that Nelly would be there, but it was still a shock to hear the doctor say it.
‘Nurse Watson,’ the doctor said. ‘Don’t …’ He screwed his face up. ‘Don’t get your hopes up. Nurse Malone is very poorly.’
‘I know.’
I thanked him, and hurried off along the corridor towards ward 2.
‘Elsie?’ A voice made me turn and there was Mrs Gold, her pretty face streaked with soot and a large dressing on her forehead.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever been quite so pleased to see anyone in my whole life. I rushed to her and she rushed to me and we threw our arms around one another and clung on for dear life.
‘Where’s Nelly?’ she said. ‘Is she here? Is she alive? I’ve been so scared, Elsie.’
I untangled my arms from Mrs Gold’s, smelling the smoke from her clothes as she moved. ‘She’s not good,’ I said in a small voice. ‘She’s very badly burned.’
‘Oh Lord.’ Mrs Gold hung on to my hand. ‘Have you seen her?’
‘I’m on my way now, but she’s sedated. She won’t know I’m there.’
‘She might,’ Mrs Gold said with conviction. ‘You girls are so close, she might sense you.’
I wasn’t sure about that, but it was a nice idea, so I nodded.
Mrs Gold brushed her hair away from her face. ‘Is she going to make it?’ she asked.
I wanted to reassure her, and tell her Nelly would be fine. But I didn’t have the words. I opened my mouth to speak and instead found myself sobbing.
Mrs Gold gathered me into her arms again, and soothed me, stroking my back like I was a little girl who’d fallen over in the playground.
‘I know,’ she said. ‘I know. You’ve lost so much.’
‘My brother,’ I gasped through sobs. ‘My brother died. And now Nelly …’
Mrs Gold let me cry, guiding me to a bench in the corridor and pulling me to sit down next to her. Then she simply sat with her arm around me while I wailed. And when, finally, I was exhausted, she handed me her handkerchief, which was embroidered with little white flowers and was surprisingly clean considering what she’d been through.
I wiped my eyes and blew my nose.
‘What can I do?’ Mrs Gold asked. She sat up a bit straighter, wiping the soot from her forehead and adjusting the collar of her coat. Suddenly she looked like someone who was in charge and I liked it. ‘I know people, Elsie,’ she said. ‘What do you need? Should we get Nelly moved to another hospital? Guy’s, perhaps? Down in Kent?’
I shook my head. ‘She can’t move; she’s not strong enough.’
‘Are there any doctors she should see?’
