A few days later after finishing her shift at the hospital Holly was letting herself into the flat when Dora Brindley appeared from the shop.
‘Ah, Holly, luvvie, I was wonderin’ how I was goin’ to catch you now you don’t work here any more. I’m needin’ a word.’
‘Of course, come up and I’ll make you a cup of tea while we have a chat,’ Holly told her, wondering what might be wrong. Dora looked concerned about something. Perhaps she’d discovered the whereabouts of her elusive father? The woman followed her up the stairs and once Holly had livened the fire up and thrown some coal onto it she went to put the kettle on, asking, ‘What’s wrong then, Dora?’
Dora sighed and looked uncomfortable as she sank into one of the comfy chairs. ‘Well, I don’t quite know how to say this cos yer might say it’s none o’ my business but I’ve been worryin’ about it all day.’
‘So tell me what it is,’ Holly urged softly.
‘Right then, but you ain’t goin’ to like it,’ Dora warned. ‘The thing is, Lady Hamilton came into the shop today to try on her latest weird and wonderful creation an’ as she left I happened to spot her latest young beau in the back of her automobile, an’ it were …’
‘Go on.’ Holly was impatient to hear what was wrong now.
‘It were that young man who young Ivy is supposed to be marryin’. I know cos I’ve seen Ivy out an’ about with him a few times.’
‘You mean it was Jeremy Pilkington-Hughes!’ Holly felt as if the air had been knocked out of her.
‘Jeremy Pilkington-Hughes, my arse!’ Dora snorted. ‘His name’s Jimmy Sullivan. He grew up near me an’ a right little waster he turned out to be. He preys on women, older ones usually. He bleeds ’em of all their money then dumps ’em. Ain’t never done a day’s work in his whole life, he ain’t. I wanted to warn Ivy when I first saw her with him but I thought perhaps he’d turned over a new leaf. But then when I saw him with her ladyship today it gave me a rare old gliff, I don’t mind tellin’ you.’
‘Oh no, poor Ivy,’ Holly gasped. ‘But what do we do now? This is going to break her heart.’
Dora shrugged. ‘That’s entirely up to you, luvvie. I just thought as you should know.’ She accepted a cup of tea then before heading for home, leaving Holly in shock. Her head was in a whirl as she thought of the mess poor Ivy had inadvertently landed herself in, but would she appreciate being told the truth about the man she loved? And she did love him; adored him, in fact, Holly was in no doubt about that.
Sleep evaded her that night as she tossed and turned trying to decide what she should do, and then it came to her. Her mother was coming to visit her shortly, she would ask her advice. Until then she would hold her tongue.
It was the middle of December and as Holly glanced around the flat she smiled with satisfaction. Her mother would be arriving shortly so she had polished every stick of furniture until she could see her face in it and a delicious roast dinner was cooking in the oven, making her stomach rumble with anticipation. At least this Sunday she would not be sitting on her own thinking about Richard, which she tended to do far too often. It felt as if he’d been away forever, and though they were still writing to each other every week, it wasn’t the same as spending time together and she missed him more than she had imagined she would.
For at least the tenth time in as many minutes, she hurried to the window to look down the street for a sign of her mother and sure enough there she was striding along with a smile on her face and laden down with bags. Christmas presents, no doubt, Holly surmised as she dashed down the stairs to open the door. And then they were in each other’s arms and Holly realised once more just how much she missed her, although she had no intention of ever living back at home again. She was enjoying her independence and her career too much now.
‘Why, everywhere looks neat as a new pin, darling,’ Emma said approvingly as she sniffed the air. It was heavy with the delicious smell of cooking and lavender polish.
‘And how is Ivy?’ she asked next. Holly had told her that she had left home to live with her fiancé prior to them getting married but she hadn’t told her about the baby. But she would have to now.
‘Oh, she was all right when I saw her last week,’ Holly answered carefully. In actual fact she hadn’t been all right at all and Holly was growing more and more concerned about her. She had taken a bag of groceries round to her hoping that Jeremy wouldn’t be in and although Ivy had strongly protested Holly had got the impression that she was actually very grateful for them. It was clear now that he was bleeding her of every penny she had, but what could she do about it?
‘Actually, I need to ask your advice about something to do with Ivy,’ she said as she helped her mother off with her coat. ‘But not until after lunch. I want to hear all about what’s going on at home first.’
For the next hour Holly told her about her work at the hospital and her mother told her the news from home.
‘Your grandfather is mellowing in his old age,’ she informed her daughter. ‘Walter has started to bring his children round occasionally for lunch on Sunday and believe it or not your grandfather is wonderful with them. I think he’s started to bitterly regret not spending more time with you while you were growing up. In fact, he asked me to give you this envelope. He didn’t know what to get you for Christmas so I think he’s sent some money for you to spend as you will, although I think he’s still secretly hoping that you’ll be able to come home and spend some of the holiday with us.’
Holly took the envelope and placed it behind the clock on the shelf to open later. ‘Of course I’ll come home for a visit if I’m able to. Thank him for the gift. I have yours all wrapped up for you to take back with you, just in case I can’t get home. It will all depend on how busy we are at the hospital, but I promise I’ll do my best.’
They sat down to dinner and Emma praised Holly for her cooking. ‘You’ve certainly become very self-sufficient,’ she said proudly. ‘Seeing as you wouldn’t have known how to peel a potato not so long ago.’
When they’d finished eating Holly ignored the dirty pots for the time being and made them both another pot of tea. There would be plenty of time for washing up when her mother had gone home and she didn’t want to waste one precious moment of their time together.
‘Now, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?’ Emma enquired as she spooned sugar into her tea. ‘Something about Ivy, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, it was.’ Holly’s smile vanished. ‘The thing is I’ve been given some information about the man she wants to marry and I don’t quite know what to do about it.’
She started to tell her mother about what had happened since Ivy met Jeremy, or Jimmy as she now knew he was, but she had barely begun the story when suddenly there was a hammering on the door downstairs.
Emma jumped and slopped some tea into her saucer. ‘Goodness me, someone wants to get your attention,’ she declared.
Holly hurried down the stairs to see who it was and as she opened the door someone fell through it, landing heavily on the floor.
‘Ivy, whatever has happened to you?’ Holly’s heart began to bang against her ribcage as she realised her friend looked in a very bad way. Her poor face was black and blue and when she opened her bleeding mouth to try and talk she spat out a tooth.
‘I-it was Jeremy,’ Ivy gulped, clutching her chest. ‘We … had an argument and h-he beat me.’ She seemed to be having trouble breathing. At that moment Emma came clattering down the stairs and when she saw the state Ivy was in she gasped with dismay.
‘We need to get her upstairs,’ she told Holly and somehow between them they managed it. Holly hurried away to fetch a bowl of hot water to bathe her face, as Emma asked gently, ‘Where does it hurt, darling, apart from your poor face that is?’
‘I … I can’t breathe properly,’ Emma croaked painfully. ‘I think he might have broken one of me ribs. A-and this arm hurts too.’
Emma gently took the arm that was dangling uselessly at the girl’s side but when she tried to carefully raise it, Ivy screamed with pain and tears spurted from her eyes.
‘She’s going to have to go to hospital, I think this arm is broken,’ Emma told Holly solemnly. ‘We need to ring for an ambulance. Where is the nearest telephone?’
‘It’s down in the shop and I’m sure Miss May wouldn’t mind me using it. I’ll go and do it right now.’ Holly left like a shot from a gun leaving her mother to do what little she could for Ivy.
‘The ambulance is on its way,’ Holly panted minutes later and all they could do then was whisper soothing words to Ivy as they waited for it to arrive.
When it came the ambulance men lifted Ivy carefully onto a stretcher making her cry out with pain.
‘I’m coming with her,’ Holly said determinedly.
‘So am I,’ Emma replied but Holly frowned.
‘But I could be gone for hours. You’ll miss your train if you come too,’ Holly pointed out.
‘As if I’d go home and leave you to deal with this all on your own,’ Emma retorted indignantly. She was very fond of Ivy and there was no way she was going to leave until she at least knew the extent of her injuries. ‘I’ll telephone your grandfather from the hospital and explain what’s happened and tell him I might not be back for a couple of days. He’ll quite understand.’
And so they both squashed into the back of the ambulance with Ivy and before they knew it they were racing towards the hospital where they were shown into a waiting room while Ivy was whipped away to be examined.
‘The doctor will be through to see you as soon as he’s examined her,’ a fresh-faced young nurse informed them.
Thankfully Ivy had been taken to University College Hospital so Holly knew the procedure. ‘I’ll give it a few minutes then I’ll go through to see what’s happening,’ she told her mother. ‘Most of the doctors here know me by now so I’m sure they won’t mind.’
The minutes ticked away as Emma and Holly paced the room like caged animals.
‘She’ll be fine,’ Emma told her daughter, who was clearly upset. ‘She’s young and strong.’
‘Yes … but she’s also pregnant,’ Holly exclaimed and promptly burst into tears. ‘That’s what I was about to tell you when she arrived at the flat.’
Emma’s hand flew to her mouth and for a moment she was so shocked that she was speechless but then pulling herself together she placed her arm about her daughter.
‘Well, at least you won’t have to worry now about telling her what you’ve discovered,’ she said. ‘There’s no way she’s going to want to go back to him after this.’
‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that,’ Holly told her between sobs. ‘I don’t think this is the first time he’s hurt her, in fact I know it isn’t. But she’s so besotted with him she always forgives him.’
A nurse appeared in the doorway then. ‘The doctor will see you now, if you’d like to come this way.’
Sniffing back her tears, Holly swiped her eyes and followed the girl to the doctor’s office. As they entered Holly was shocked to see that it was Richard.
‘B-but I thought you were still away,’ she gasped before she could stop herself.
Richard’s face had lit up at the sight of her and he smiled. ‘I was but there are three doctors off here with the flu at the moment so they asked for volunteers to come and help out. I was going to track you down tomorrow to tell you.’ And then seeing that she wasn’t alone he smiled apologetically at Emma. ‘I’m so sorry. Holly and I are … friends. But let me tell you about Miss Massey.’ His professional head was back on now as he steepled his fingers and rested his elbows on the desk before asking cautiously, ‘Were you aware that Miss Massey is pregnant?’
Holly nodded. ‘Is the baby … I mean, has she lost—?’
‘No,’ he assured her quickly. ‘At present the baby seems fine. She does, however, have a broken arm and also two broken ribs so she’s going to be in considerable pain and we’ll have to monitor her closely for a few days. Unfortunately a shock like this could cause her to miscarry but hopefully that won’t happen.’
Holly breathed a huge sigh of relief. It wasn’t the baby’s fault who its father was, after all.
‘So what can we do?’
He shrugged. ‘Apart from visit and bring in anything she might need from home not a lot at present, but she’ll need someone to keep an eye on her when she comes home until the ribs have healed. She’s gone to have her arm set at present and that could take some time so I suggest you go home and get some rest and come back tomorrow. But then, of course you will.’ He grinned. ‘You might even find yourself working on her ward. Do you think she might wish to press charges against whoever did this to her?’
‘I think there’s very little chance of her doing that,’ Holly said in disgust. Then she managed a weak smile. ‘Thank you, Richa—Dr Parkin. Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight, Holly. Sleep well.’