10. Butter and Chores

After her first examination with Dr Reid, Diana was relieved to discover that she was in good health and so was her baby.

‘Your baby is a good size with a strong regular heartbeat,’ the doctor announced.

Shortly after her arrival Diana had seen Father Ben. In the privacy of his book-lined study in the convent she had admitted with a shame-faced blush that she was worried about her ability to bring up a child on her own.

Father Ben had smiled sympathetically. ‘No rush, my child,’ he urged. ‘Take your time, and God will guide you.’

After leaving Father Ben’s office Diana did indeed pray to God to help her to make the right decision, not just for herself but also for her unborn child. Deep in thought, Diana walked into the dining room reflecting on the life she might have had if Harry had not gone away. Maybe they would have moved into the Shelford cottage as a young married couple? She saw herself as a young, happy mother, pushing her baby in a big old pram around the orchard that backed on to the farm, looking forward to her husband coming home in the evening, tired but eager to kiss his wife and cuddle his new-born baby.

Finding Diana looking miserably preoccupied at the dinner table, Zelda made a bee-line to sit beside her new friend and cheer her up.

‘We have a treat today this dinner-time,’ she brightly announced as she flourished a dish before Diana’s eyes. ‘Butter!’

Accustomed to the margarine regularly served up at meal-times, she gazed incredulously at the dish of mouthwatering golden-yellow butter.

‘Where did it come from?’ she gasped.

Zelda laughed. ‘From Mary Vale’s cow,’ she replied. ‘Good Farmer Arkwright he share some with us ladies. Is good, try,’ Zelda enthused. ‘Before all get eaten,’ she giggled conspiratorially.

Unable to believe her luck, Diana thickly spread the butter on to her toast, then, sighing in anticipation, she raised the slice to her lips and sank her teeth into the salty butter, which melted in her mouth, making her groan with pleasure.

‘Mmm …’

Zelda smiled at her ecstatic expression. ‘Is good, yah?’

With her mouth full and her taste buds exploding, Diana slowly nodded. ‘Is absolutely bloody brilliant!’

Gracie and Diana had been paired to work together on the chores rota, which was pinned up in the dining room.

‘Look, here’s the list of jobs,’ Gracie pointed out as they gazed at the chart. ‘We rotate laundry, kitchen work, cleaning and fires – this week the pair of us are on fires, a bloody mucky job!’ she grumbled.

Not only was it a ‘mucky job’; it was also (so Diana thought) a seemingly endless job too. Mary Vale, formerly a huge grand house that luckily for the residents could shelter numerous young women, had endless fireplaces. First, they had to sweep the ash from all the fireplaces in the Home, then, after laying fresh newspaper and kindling in the grates, they had to polish the fenders and the fire irons, and then (last of all) they had to fill all the coal buckets in readiness for the next time the fires would be lit. When their task was finally completed, Gracie slumped into the nearest chair.

‘I suppose it beats working all day with a welding iron!’ she joked, before soot got up her nose and brought on a sneezing attack.

After a morning’s work and a heavy lunch of sausage and mash, Diana was inclined to have a lie-down, but there was no rest to be had; before Ada’s exercise and breathing classes, Gracie insisted that they visit Zelda’s garden.

‘We mustn’t let the poor kid overdo it,’ she whispered conspiratorially to Diana. ‘And you never know,’ she added with a wink, ‘we might get lucky and find some strawberries!’

Standing on the edge of the garden now teeming with potato plants, tomatoes, carrots, onions and a raised bed for lettuce, spinach, radishes and a vast array of herbs, Gracie marvelled at what was before her. Not only was the produce a sight for sore eyes, but the radical change in her room-mate was a joy to see. No longer a bag of bones, Zelda’s body had rounded, and where before she had barely looked pregnant now her tummy was large and swollen under her smock. Her skin was freckled and tanned golden-brown by the sun, and her mass of long red curls was caught up in a colourful cotton turban.

‘Zelda!’ Gracie called out. ‘We’ve come to help.’

Shirley’s head popped over a row of potato plants. ‘You two ladies should be resting,’ she chided.

Ignoring her advice, Gracie led Diana along the narrow path that wound its way around the vegetable patch.

‘What are you doing, Sister?’ Gracie asked.

Wiping mud off her face, Shirley replied, ‘Planting some seed potatoes for Sister Mary Paul.’

Gracie smiled. ‘I see you’ve taken to wearing a pinafore,’ she giggled as Shirley rose to stretch her aching back.

‘I was washing my robes every other day until Sister Mary Paul made me wear one of her kitchen pinafores,’ Shirley chuckled. ‘It goes round me twice!’ she added, as she flapped the spare material wrapped around her small, skinny frame.

Checking her little fob watch, Shirley quickly added, ‘I’d better get back to the ward before Dora comes looking for me. See you out here at three for Ada’s exercise class,’ she called over her shoulder as she hurried away.

Diana shook her head in disbelief. ‘I thought I might spend a lot of time resting here,’ she joked. ‘I can see now that clearly isn’t the case!’

Grinning Zelda appeared from behind a row of young strawberry plants. ‘You like my garden?’ she asked proudly.

Gazing at the fertile plot Zelda had created, Diana exclaimed, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’

Zelda simply said, ‘It makes me happy, for this I am glad.’

When the time came for Sister Ada’s breathing and exercise classes, Diana joined the other residents (most vastly more pregnant than she was) out on the lawn. Lying with her eyes closed and the sun on her face, she soon relaxed as Sister Ada instructed her class on how to strengthen their muscles and control their breathing in readiness for the physical ordeal they would all have to endure very soon.

‘Come on, ladies,’ she called, clapping her hands to get the girls’ attention. ‘No drifting off!’

Some of the cheekier girls groaned good-naturedly. ‘You’re a task-master, Sister,’ one teased.

Ada smiled as she continued patiently, ‘When your body is fully relaxed, slowly inhale, and, as you do, feel the air expanding your ribcage, allowing your lungs to fill completely.’

Marie giggled. ‘Heck!’ she cried. ‘I can feel my tummy button sticking out.’

‘Concentrate on letting your navel area sink down and empty your lungs completely while preparing for the next breath,’ Ada instructed. ‘Inhale and exhale slowly and rhythmically; keep your breathing calm and steady. Well done,’ she said, as her class relaxed on the warm grass. ‘Take a breather before we repeat the exercise.’

A saucy young girl called out, ‘Is it time for a fag-break, Sister?’

‘Certainly not!’ Ada laughed. ‘It’ll ruin your breathing. When you’re ready, let’s repeat the sequence all over again. Ready? Okay, inhale, and expand your ribcage.’

At the end of the session the girls dispersed, some to the house to wait for tea; others, like Diana and Gracie, went for a stroll. As they walked back into the Home, Gracie’s bright-green eyes lingered on a Bedford van, propped up on bricks, that she had seen several times on her way back from Ada’s classes. Smiling to herself, she gave the van an affectionate pat.

‘What are you doing?’ Diana asked, as Gracie stooped to peer through the dusty windows.

‘I wonder who it belongs to?’ Gracie murmured.

‘Why? Are you thinking of borrowing it?’ Diana joked.

Gracie smiled. ‘I’d love to work on it, fix it up and get it running.’

Diana burst out laughing. ‘It’s a total wreck!’

Gracie gave a swagger. ‘I’m a bit of a grease monkey, always have been. Me and my dad used to fix up old engines. If I could get permission, I’d work on it,’ she said with a rush of excitement in her voice. ‘It’d be something to pass the time.’

Diana grimaced. ‘I’d rather you than me,’ she chuckled.

Gracie discovered through Sister Mary Paul that the van belonged to the convent, and that it had been left standing in the yard for years.

‘Waiting for a miracle,’ the old nun had laughed.

A big smile lit up Gracie’s pretty face. ‘Will you ask the Reverend Mother if I can tinker with it?’ she begged.

‘For the love of God!’ Sister Mary Paul hooted. ‘What will you do with an owd heap of a thing like that?’

Gracie gave her a wink. ‘Get it going and take you for a spin round Morecambe Bay, Sister!’

A few days later Ada, taking a brief walk in the garden, spotted Gracie’s legs poking out from underneath the Bedford van. Alarmed, she called out, ‘Gracie! Are you all right?’

Gracie wriggled and jiggled her body until she emerged with a smile on her face. ‘Never happier, Sister,’ she announced, as she sat upright and wiped her cheek with a hand smeared in thick black grease.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ Ada gasped.

‘I’ve got the Reverend Mother’s permission to play about with this old heap,’ Gracie explained.

Ada gazed at the van balanced up on piles of bricks and, like Diana before her, shook her head in disbelief. ‘Won’t it topple over and hurt you?’

‘It’s more secure than it was – I propped up the back end with a couple of boulders,’ Gracie assured her.

In professional mode Ada said firmly, ‘You’re in a delicate condition – you mustn’t go straining yourself.’ Unable to hide the smile that played about at the corners of her mouth, she added, ‘Really, Gracie! You came to Mary Vale to prepare for the birth of your baby, not to fix old cars.’

‘It’s very therapeutic,’ Gracie explained. ‘Takes my mind off things and stops me wanting to throttle the man who got me in the state I am now.’

Even under the black grease daubed all over her face, Ada could see the flush of anger that spread across Gracie’s cheeks.

‘Did he treat you badly, dear?’ she enquired gently.

Gracie tossed her long, dark-brown curls, which had come loose under the turban she’d wrapped around her head.

‘Not to start with – if anything he treated me like royalty, wined and dined me, took me out in his swanky car – it was him that taught me to drive, in fact. Unfortunately his so-called “driving lessons” led to other things.’

Ada nodded. ‘I can imagine the rest,’ she said quietly.

‘It takes two to tango,’ Gracie continued bitterly. ‘I fell for him hook, line and sinker, so I’ve only myself to blame.’

‘Is he still in the area?’ Ada asked.

Gracie gave a hard, mocking laugh. ‘No chance! As soon as he knew I was expecting, he scarpered back to London, to his wife and family, who, funnily enough, he’d never mentioned during our drives out.’ She gave a heavy sigh. ‘I suppose you’ve heard it all before?’

Ada nodded. ‘Too many times, unfortunately. Men getting what they want, then leaving the girl high and dry. It still makes me very angry, but there’s not much I can do about it, other than care for Mary Vale’s mothers and their babies.’

‘Thank God you do, Sister,’ Gracie said gratefully.

Ada gave a modest shrug. ‘Believe me, Gracie, it’s not just me: the staff are wonderful. The Reverend Mother and her entire staff are one hundred per cent supportive, and now we have a new and very good doctor. What more could we ask for?’ she finished cheerily.

A deep male voice behind her made Ada jump. ‘Did I hear my name being taken in vain?’ Dr Reid asked.

‘Heavens!’ Ada cried. ‘I didn’t see you, Doctor.’

Dr Reid chuckled as he replied, ‘You were so deep in discussion I didn’t want to disturb you – well, not until I heard my name mentioned, then I thought I should make my presence known before you said something you might regret.’

Gracie beamed. ‘I wouldn’t worry about that; Sister here was just singing your praises.’

Going as red as a beetroot, Ada said, ‘I was just saying how lucky we are to have such good and supportive staff.’

Looking her directly in the eye, Jamie responded with a warm smile. ‘That sentiment goes both ways.’

Dragging his eyes away from Ada, he turned to the old van. ‘Are you seriously working on this heap?’ he enquired.

‘I’ve just been tinkering with the crank shaft,’ Gracie told him knowledgeably. ‘I had to take the sump off to get to it. Once I’ve sorted out the main bearings, I’ll refit the sump and then hopefully lift it off the blocks.’

Jamie’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Don’t you go injuring yourself,’ he warned. ‘I can give you a hand with the heavy lifting.’

Gracie threw him her most dazzling smile. ‘Thanks, that would be great.’

Jamie gave a sheepish grin. ‘To be honest, I love old engines too. I’d be happy to work on the van when I have the time to spare,’ he volunteered.

‘The more the merrier,’ Gracie giggled. ‘I promised Sister Mary Paul that once I get it on the road, I’ll take her for a ride round Morecambe Bay.’

‘You know what they say?’ Jamie joked. ‘Never break a promise to a nun!’

Ada, who had barely said a word, listened in amazement to Jamie’s lively exchange with Gracie.

‘Really,’ she wondered, ‘is there no end to Dr Reid’s talents?’