Walter and Ivy arrived at the military hospital on the outskirts of Plymouth early in the afternoon the following Saturday. Emma had decided to stay behind with the girls at her father’s house to care for Holly, for although she was now on the mend Emma was still concerned about her. And the girls would love helping to look after little Alice too.
Ivy had been abnormally quiet throughout the train journey and Walter guessed that she was worrying about how they would find Marcus. He had been through a great deal and they were both painfully aware that many of the young men who were lucky enough to come home from the war were never the same again because of the terrible sights they had seen.
The hospital was actually a large private house set in its own grounds which had been taken over for the duration of the war and the reception area was quite luxurious. Walter approached the desk where a young nurse sat while Ivy stood back, nervously chewing on her lip. She had bought a new dress and bonnet especially for the occasion and now her stomach was in knots.
‘I’ve come to see my son, I believe we are expected,’ Walter told the nurse. ‘His name is Marcus Dolby.’
She opened a register and smiled. ‘Ah yes, here he is. The patients have just had lunch. Would you like me to tell him you are here or would you rather surprise him? He’ll probably be in the day room.’
‘I think I’ll just go in to him,’ Walter answered. He and Ivy had already agreed that he should go in first for a few minutes.
The nurse nodded, then beckoned to another nurse who was passing. ‘Would you take this gentleman to see Corporal Dolby please?’
‘Of course.’
Walter turned to Ivy and after giving her a reassuring smile he advised, ‘You wait here, my dear. I promise not to be too long and then you can go in, and perhaps when you’ve had some time with him I could join you?’ He fully intended to spend every minute possible with his son although he appreciated that Walter and Ivy would want a few minutes alone.
He walked away as the nurse at the desk asked Ivy, ‘Would you like to sit down over there and perhaps you’d like a cup of tea? I’m sure you’ve come a long way.’
‘Th-thank you that would be nice.’ Ivy perched on the edge of a little chair with fancy gilt legs and as she looked about she could hardly believe that this was actually a hospital. There was nothing clinical about the place. In fact it looked like a small stately home. The floor was parquet, highly polished and gleaming softly in the weak sun that shone through the stained-glass windows on the impressive double front doors, and there were beautiful mirrors and paintings hanging on the wall. But even they couldn’t hold her attention for long, her thoughts were firmly on Marcus. Would he still want her and be the same young man she had waved off to fight for his king and country? She would know soon enough but the waiting was almost unbearable.
Walter, meanwhile, followed the nurse along the enormous hallway until they came to a door where she paused.
‘I just ought to warn you that many of the patients are traumatised,’ she told him gently. ‘Their physical injuries tend to heal far more quickly than their mental injuries so don’t expect too much too soon.’
He removed his hat and after nodding at her began to turn the brim in his hands. She opened the door and he stepped into what had once clearly been a very stately drawing room. There were large sash windows adorned with thick, velvet curtains that overlooked sweeping lawns and he imagined that the grounds would be quite beautiful in the summer. There were sofas and easy chairs set all about the room and as his eyes swept over the men sitting in them they finally found the one he was looking for.
One side of Marcus’s face was heavily bandaged and he had lost a frightening amount of weight so his clothes hung loosely off him but Walter would have known that shock of dark hair anywhere. Marcus was sitting in a wing chair by the window and Walter approached him before saying quietly, ‘Hello, son.’
Marcus’s head swung round and suddenly he was crying as he held his arms out to his father. There had been times over the last months when he had thought he would never see him again but here he was.
Walter knelt down and embraced him as tears ran down his cheeks then he drew a chair close and they joined hands. It was like holding the hands of a skeleton, he could feel every bone, but that was nothing that couldn’t be cured with some good, home-cooked meals once they got him home. He was alive and that was all that mattered.
‘Did they tell you I’d lost an eye?’
Walter nodded solemnly. ‘Yes, they did, but you can live with that, son. And I ought to tell you, Ivy is waiting outside.’
Marcus’s breath caught in his throat as he looked away before saying falteringly, ‘B-but I don’t want her to see me like this. I’m not the same any more. She won’t want a man who is half blind!’
‘Actually you’re very wrong there,’ Walter told him firmly. ‘It almost killed that girl when you were missing and I happen to know she would still want you if you had no eyesight at all, or arms or legs for that matter, so we’ll have no more of that silly talk, if you please. She’s come all this way to see you. Doesn’t that tell you something?’
‘Really?’ Marcus had dreaded this moment and had convinced himself that Ivy wouldn’t love him any more but if what his father was saying was true then there was hope for him yet.
‘Look, I’m going to go outside now and send her in and perhaps when you’ve had a little time to yourselves I can come back in again, all right?’
Marcus took a deep breath and nodded. This was the moment he had been dreading. The fear that Ivy couldn’t deal with the fact that he had lost an eye. But now at least he would know where he stood with her one way or another.
Minutes later he heard the door to the day room open again and he held his breath. But he needn’t have worried.
‘Marcus!’ She spotted him instantly and was across the room like a shot, eager to hold him and kiss him. ‘I never thought I was going to see you again,’ she sobbed, oblivious to the other patients who would certainly be able to hear her. ‘I lost the will to live back there for a time when I thought you were dead and it was only knowing that Alice needed me that kept me going.’
‘Oh, sweetheart, I love you so much,’ Marcus croaked. ‘It was only the thought of coming home to you that kept me going! … But you do know that I’ve lost the sight in one eye …’
‘Huh! So what, you have another one, don’t you?’ she replied in her usual forthright way and then they were in each other’s arms again and it felt wonderful. ‘Right, young man,’ she said bossily when they finally drew apart. ‘Here’s what’s going to happen and I don’t want any arguing about it! As soon as you come home we’re going to be married. You won’t be going back to fight again so when you’re better you can help your father wi’ the business. There’s no point in waitin’, so what do yer say?’
He grinned. ‘Sounds to me like you’ve got it all planned,’ he answered and when his father joined them again a short time later Walter saw a totally different young man to the one he had first seen when he entered the room. It was as if young Ivy had breathed new life into him as they excitedly told him about their wedding plans and he couldn’t have been happier for them both.
‘Well, you certainly have my approval,’ he assured them. ‘And I’ve no doubt Emma and Holly will love helping with the arrangements for the wedding. Katie and Florence will be excited too. In fact, I dare say they’ll demand to be bridesmaids.’
‘That’s all right.’ Ivy was hanging on to Marcus’s hand as if she would never let it go. ‘I reckon we’ll make it an early summer wedding. Oh, did I mention that I’d like to be married at Chilvers Coton Church? I’ll go and see the Reverend Lockett and set a date as soon as I get home. That will give us a bit of time to get some meat back on your bones,’ she told Marcus with a twinkle in her eye. ‘I don’t want to be marryin’ someone’s who’s lighter than me. There ain’t an ounce of fat on yer at the minute but we’ll soon remedy that.’
‘You make me sound like a pig that needs fattening up,’ Marcus laughed.
She smiled lovingly at him. ‘Not a pig, but my own dear man. I think I’ll have white roses in my bouquet,’ she continued with her plans thoughtfully, her head already organising everything. ‘Oh, an’ of course I’ll want a satin dress wi’ a train an’ a veil. An’ I’ll have Holly as me matron of honour, she’ll like that.’
The next couple of hours passed in the same light-hearted manner and by the time Walter and Ivy left to go to the hotel he had booked them into for the night they were all relaxed and happy.
‘Just to think a short time ago I thought I’d never see him again,’ Ivy said dreamily. ‘An’ they say miracles can’t happen! Well, one has for me.’
Walter smiled at her indulgently. He had a feeling that his beloved only son and this lovely down-to-earth girl were going to be very happy indeed.