‘Not again.’ Sarah sighed wearily as the air-raid siren sounded out its wailing cry, and Georgie instantly joined in. She had just come off shift from her post down near the docks and wanted nothing more than a quiet night in. She hadn’t even had time for a cup of tea, although the kettle was always warm in Dolly’s kitchen.
It had been so long since they’d had a raid over Bootle that Sarah had come to believe they’d be spared from now on. She struggled to remember what to do, what to bring to the shelter. There should be a bag somewhere with all the essentials in it, but had they topped it up since last time?
Dolly swept in from the back yard, all purpose and organisation. ‘Don’t just stand there, our Sarah, but fetch me down that tin from the top shelf. I’ve got some emergency biscuits put by. Then make a flask of tea, quick. Georgie, don’t worry, we’ve done this before, haven’t we? Go to Auntie Violet, she’s in the parlour, she’ll sort you out.’
Georgie looked up at his grandmother, his big eyes uncertain; but once reassured by her comforting tone, he ran into the front room as he was told.
‘Oh Mam, I can’t face the thought of that shelter,’ said Sarah, exhausted from running around all day. She took down the tin and passed it to Dolly, before pulling on her worn-out coat over the cardigan she’d knitted from old wool that had been unravelled from one of Pop’s ancient jumpers. It wasn’t a colour she’d have picked out herself, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. ‘I thought all of that was over.’
Dolly looked steadily at her youngest child, registering how tired she seemed, but now wasn’t the time for defeatist attitudes. ‘Come on, love,’ she said briskly. ‘That’s not like you. We need you to help get everyone sorted out and to safety. Here’s the flask, look – you get that filled while I pack the blankets. Where’s the big torch? Let me just check the batteries are all right. Violet will get Georgie into his siren suit. Thank goodness I’m not on fire-watching duty tonight, I can help out with him.’
Sarah poured the hot water for the tea, carefully closing the stopper on the enamel flask. The last thing they wanted was anyone getting burnt from it. ‘Where’s Rita, Mam? Has she stopped by today?’
Dolly shook her head. ‘She’s on lates, she’ll be at the hospital now. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed they are all right over there.’ She sent up a quick prayer for her eldest daughter, who she knew full well would put the safety of her patients above her own. ‘Well, that means one of us should go and check that Ruby knows what to do. I can’t see Winnie doing anything to help her.’
Sarah groaned. She avoided going to the shop if she could, partly because Violet always brought back whatever they needed, but also because she couldn’t stand Winnie. But now Violet was busy and she knew that Rita would want somebody to do it. She didn’t have a choice.
‘All right, I’ll go.’ She put the flask of tea into Dolly’s capacious bag. ‘I’ll see you down at the shelter.’
Swiftly she crossed the alley over to the corner shop, and went round to the back door. She tapped on it. ‘Ruby! Are you there?’
The door swung open and Winnie glared at her. ‘What do you want? Come round to get more fuel for your gossiping lies, have you?’
Sarah noticed how the old woman had lost weight since she’d last seen her, her skin sagging from prominent cheekbones, her jaw slack but her eyes bright with spite. ‘No, I’ve come to see Ruby to the shelter,’ Sarah replied firmly, drawing on her nurse’s training to remain calm under threat. She’d faced far worse than a vindictive neighbour over the last few months and couldn’t let this encounter rattle her. ‘Will you come too, Mrs Kennedy?’ She thought it best to ask, even though she could guess the answer.
‘Down to that fleapit? They let anybody in there,’ snarled Winnie. ‘You wouldn’t catch me dead in there.’ Sarah didn’t say that she might well wind up dead if she didn’t go. She could tell it would be pointless. ‘I’ll be perfectly safe in my own cellar, thank you very much.’
Sarah didn’t try to persuade her otherwise – she could see the old woman’s mind was made up. But she still had to find the younger woman. ‘Is Ruby in there? She needs to come with me.’
Winnie tutted loudly, but Sarah could see Ruby’s shock of white-blonde hair in the dimness of the kitchen doorway. She was loitering shyly, not wanting to provoke Winnie when she was in a temper. Sarah coaxed her forward. ‘Come on, Ruby, you have to get to the shelter. Have you got some warm things to wear? We’ve got tea and biscuits so you won’t go hungry.’ Sarah thought it was ironic – here was Ruby living above the goldmine of Winnie’s hoard, which probably contained enough biscuits to feed the whole of Bootle, and here she was offering the girl her own.
Ruby edged closer. She reached to take what looked like a shapeless jersey off a hook, and emerged into the dim light of the yard. ‘Thank you,’ she said quietly. ‘Did Rita send you?’
‘Rita’s at the hospital, I’ll look after you,’ Sarah said hurriedly. She didn’t want to be caught in Winnie’s back yard if the bombs started falling. ‘She’ll be safe there, but she would want you to come with me.’
Ruby shot a look at Winnie, but the old woman turned away. ‘All right, if Rita says so,’ Ruby said uncertainly.
‘And Violet will be at the shelter with Georgie,’ Sarah went on. ‘Are you ready? Right then, let’s go.’ She didn’t want to wait any longer. She took the young woman’s arm and led her away, with Winnie still glaring at them from the back door. ‘Quick, Ruby, let’s not hang about.’
The pair of them hurried down Empire Street, as neighbours emerged from their doorways from both sides. Sarah spotted Danny ahead of them and called out. ‘Danny! Wait for us!’
He turned and waved, and if he was surprised to see Ruby hanging on to Sarah’s arm, he didn’t say so.
Sarah could feel that Ruby was nervous but she couldn’t do much about it. ‘You know Danny,’ she said as they drew level with him. ‘He’ll look after us both, you’ll see.’ She flashed Danny a grateful smile. She felt safer when he was around, knowing he wouldn’t let her come to any harm if he could possibly avert it.
‘Hurry up, ladies,’ he said now, seemingly relaxed. ‘It’s probably nothing, but we’d better get to that shelter as fast as we can.’ He offered to take Sarah’s satchel, which she’d hurriedly slung around her shoulder. ‘What’s in there, Sarah? All your precious bits and pieces?’ he joked.
‘Yes, exactly,’ said Sarah smartly, to let Ruby know he was teasing. ‘My most precious possession ever – my first-aid kit. I’m never seen out without it, I’ll have you know.’
‘Glad to hear it.’ Danny was about to gently tease her some more when one of the neighbours, Mrs Pinkerton, stopped by the gutter and pointed.
‘Well, look who it is.’ Her face was a mixture of delight and malice. ‘Winnie Kennedy’s illegitimate daughter! Where do you think you’re going? This is a shelter for respectable folk and space is limited, I’ll have you know.’
Ruby froze to the spot in shock, gazing at the woman in horror.
‘Cat got your tongue, has it?’ the woman went on, seizing on her target’s weakness. ‘I should think so; you can’t have anything good to say for yourself. I wonder you have the nerve to walk down our street, bastard that you are.’
Sarah gasped at the woman’s crass rudeness. Rita had warned her that the news had got out, but she hadn’t thought anything about it in the urgency to help the girl to the shelter. Now the angry woman was blocking their way, her shoulders drawn back in self-righteousness. What Sarah didn’t know, because Rita hadn’t known either, was if any of the gossip had reached Ruby’s ears. Had she realised the old woman with whom she shared a house, who treated her with such contempt, was actually her mother? From Ruby’s reaction now, Sarah would have guessed not.
‘What?’ she breathed, her face white in the remaining light. ‘What is she saying, Sarah?’
‘Don’t you listen to her, we need to get to the shelter,’ Sarah said firmly, linking her arm more tightly around Ruby’s. ‘She’s just making trouble because she’s got nothing better to do.’ She stared straight at Mrs Pinkerton, as if daring her to interfere any further.
Danny stepped in, using all his charm. ‘Now then, Mrs Pinkerton, we all need to get to the end of the street, so how’s about you turn around and come with us. Let’s not be having any more of these silly rumours.’ He could see the woman had the potential to cause a whole lot of trouble, which was the last thing they needed at the moment.
‘Don’t you soft-soap me, Danny Callaghan.’ Mrs Pinkerton was having none of it. ‘You might use that voice on all them silly young girls to get them to drop their knickers, but I can tell you it won’t wash with me.’
Danny closed his eyes in momentary horror at the image. He’d never used his looks or voice to seduce girls, although he could have if he’d wanted to. He certainly didn’t want to use them on Mrs Pinkerton. ‘Now then, let’s not say anything we might regret,’ he began, trying to pour oil on troubled waters. ‘If you’d just step aside …’
‘I’ll do no such thing.’ The woman was getting more and more enraged, oblivious to the danger they were all now in. ‘She’s not coming into the shelter and that’s all there is to it. I’m amazed she has the gall to walk down the street. We don’t want your sort here,’ she turned her rage from Danny to Ruby, ‘so you can bloody well find somewhere else to hide. You’re a disgrace, and your mother is no better, putting on all those airs and graces for years, pretending she was better than everyone, looking down her nose at her customers. Well, it’s not going to work any more.’
Sarah was just beginning to realise that half the problem was that Mrs Pinkerton hadn’t been one of Winnie’s cronies; she would have missed out on all the black-market luxury goods available only to the select few, so was using this as an excuse to blacken Winnie’s name. But there wasn’t time to dwell on this, because she felt Ruby’s hand break free, and to her horror the girl began to run in the opposite direction to the shelter, down the dock road. Frantically Sarah turned and ran after her, shouting, but Ruby was fast and they could hear her terrified cries of ‘no, no, no …’
‘And good riddance!’ Mrs Pinkerton shouted in triumph, before heading into the shelter and slamming the big door shut.
Danny sped after the two young women, regardless of what such a pace would do to his damaged heart, and caught up with them just as the all-too-familiar drone of enemy aircraft began. ‘Come on,’ he said urgently. ‘Don’t mind her, Ruby, she’s just a poisonous old bag with nothing better to do. We’ve got to get to safety, we can’t stand around out here – we’re sitting targets if we do that.’
Sarah looked into the evening sky and could see the lights from the ground defences sweeping the edges of the clouds. The ack-ack guns would start any minute. Danny was right, they couldn’t stay out here. She shivered in apprehension.
‘Ruby, come on, don’t be daft. She’s talking nonsense. We have to get inside.’
Ruby trembled uncontrollably. ‘She hates me and I don’t know why. What does she mean about Winnie? What’s going on?’
‘She doesn’t hate you, she doesn’t even know you,’ Sarah said insistently, taking the girl’s arm once more and beginning to lead her back along the dock road. ‘You have to ignore what she said, or she’ll have won; she’ll have got her way and stopped you getting to safety. That’s right. Come with us. Danny, you take her other arm, look, we’re nearly there.’
Suddenly there was an enormous explosion and everywhere lit up, the docks illuminated in the orange glow as sparks flew and fires took hold.
Oh no, thought Sarah, we’re too late. She struggled to stand, shifting her treasured satchel so she could support Ruby. Danny glanced anxiously at her.
‘You all right, Sar?’
‘Right as rain,’ Sarah said staunchly, though she felt anything but. ‘Come on, let’s get to the shelter door.’
Ruby was moaning now – not in the way she had before, full of terror and incomprehension, but in what Sarah recognised as pain.
‘Ruby, what … oh no.’ Sarah looked down and saw blood, a bright stream of it along the pavement, shiny in the orange light. ‘Ruby, what is it, can you walk?’ There was glass all around, jagged edges reflecting the sparks and the fire from the ack-ack guns. The smell of burning drifted towards them.
Ruby didn’t reply but just gasped.
‘Come on, we’ll carry her to the shelter.’ Danny didn’t hesitate, but picked up the girl as if she weighed no more than a bag of sugar, and half ran with her the short remaining distance to the shelter door. He banged on it and shouted, ‘Let us in! It’s Sarah Feeny and Danny Callaghan! We’ve got a wounded woman with us!’
For a moment they couldn’t hear a reply as the noise all around was so loud, of glass shattering and buildings collapsing. Then came a firm voice. ‘We’re full. You’ll have to go elsewhere.’
‘Mam!’ cried Sarah, panicking now. ‘Mam, make them let us in!’ But if Dolly had heard them, they couldn’t tell, as more and more thunderous noises joined the cacophony, explosion following explosion. Bootle yet again was taking a pounding from the Luftwaffe, and there could be little hope for anyone directly caught out.
‘Sar, it’s no good.’ Danny knew he had to keep his head and improvise now if they weren’t going to get into the shelter. ‘Look, we have to get Ruby somewhere where she can keep still. How about over there?’ He pointed to the large porch of the Sailor’s Rest. Its solid pillars had withstood all the bombings of the May blitz and, although there was some broken glass by the steps, the basic structure still seemed undamaged. ‘It’ll do for now. Come on.’
Knowing that hesitation could kill them, Sarah agreed, and they half carried Ruby, now moaning and semi-conscious, to the porch. Danny hurriedly swept debris aside with his foot and they all collapsed on to the cold stone, huddling as close as they could to the wooden bar-room doors.
‘That’s it, that’s it,’ Sarah said as calmly as she could, pushing aside her remaining panic. She tried to breathe deeply, pretending she was on duty and knowing that people’s lives depended on her. ‘Danny, take my torch from my satchel and I’ll have a look.’ Gently she examined Ruby’s injured leg. ‘That’s it, that’s where you’ve been hurt.’ She gave a small prayer of thanks that it wasn’t an internal injury, which she could have done little about. Then she set about cleaning the deep cut as best she could, deftly removing shards of glass with her nurse’s tweezers, sluicing out the wound with her precious disinfectant, and finally, when she was as satisfied as she could be that she’d got it all out, she covered the wound with gauze and bandaged it into place. She tried to remember her training. If she was right, the glass had missed a major artery by a fraction. It was a nasty wound and would have to be seen tomorrow by a doctor as there would be a risk of infection, but it could have been so very much worse.
‘Settle down, Ruby, we’ll look after you,’ she said softly. It was getting cold, and she was hungry – Dolly had all the food and drink with her, shut inside the shelter. There was nothing for it but to make the best of things. Gratefully she sank against Danny, who drew his big coat around her, but she barely noticed as, finally exhausted beyond measure, she fell asleep.
Elliott put away his white coat in his locker and drew out his warm jacket. Another shift ended, and hours after he’d intended to leave the hospital. Glancing out of the window he saw it had gone dark. The October nights were drawing in, no doubt about it. Pulling his old college scarf from his pocket, he tied it tightly around his neck, knowing it would be chilly outside. A couple of nurses coming on shift nodded to him as he pushed open the door to the outside world, but he didn’t want to stop to make small talk. He had to sort out his thoughts. Turning on to the pavement, he decided to walk for a while rather than wait for a bus to his billet. Walking was always a good way to think things through.
Only a few more days and he would be on his way to see Kitty. He didn’t resent working late if it meant he could leave on time on Thursday and get that train. He was delighted that she’d finally agreed to meet his parents. It had been stupid of him to have suggested it so soon in their relationship – no wonder she’d felt overwhelmed at the idea. He kept forgetting that she would have reservations, as all he saw was a beautiful, talented young woman who had no reason to feel inferior to anybody. Now they were all to meet on Saturday. He couldn’t help feeling this marked a major development and he wondered where it might lead.
He wouldn’t rush her. He realised now that to do so always produced the opposite result to the one he’d intended. He’d see how they all got on, how at home she felt. He was certain his parents would adore her. They knew she made him truly happy, and how could anyone fail to love Kitty? He broke into a small smile at the thought of her face, with those magnetising dark-blue eyes, and that dark, wavy hair he loved to run his hands through. She was truly special, and he hoped he wasn’t fooling himself when he admitted that he wanted them to have a future together. He’d take it slowly, but he knew this was no casual wartime romance.
He was so lost in thought that for a moment he didn’t register the sound of the air-raid warning. Damn, there hadn’t been much in the way of raids for ages – well, one last week, but that wasn’t over the Bootle docks, more towards the other side of the city. He looked around but wasn’t sure where the nearest shelter was. Never mind. He felt lucky. He’d chance it and carry on walking. He would see Kitty soon and nothing, not even the Luftwaffe, could dampen his spirits.