Edith was as good as her word. She rose the next morning, ate a very hurried breakfast and then set off on her bike, hardly speaking to anyone but with a face etched with determination. She had managed a few hours’ sleep thanks to the mixture of cocoa and sherry, and had no desire to hang around the home.
Alice was fastening her cloak before leaving herself when the telephone rang. Knowing this would most likely be a request for an urgent appointment, she picked up the Bakelite receiver. ‘Victory Walk nurses’ home, how may I help you?’ She reached for the pencil and notepad that were always kept alongside the telephone so that no messages ever went astray, fully expecting it to be a member of the public or one of the regular local doctors.
Instead, a distant voice said over a crackly line: ‘Alice? Is that you?’
Alice gasped. ‘Joe! Where are you?’
There was a cough from the other end of the line. ‘Look, I know your line isn’t for social calls but I won’t be long – in fact I can’t be. I have just a few minutes spare while in port, and I wanted to see how you were, and that you’d heard the news.’
Alice glanced around, but there was nobody else in the hallway for once. All the nurses knew they were not to take or make personal calls except in an extreme emergency – and yet, wasn’t this close to being one? Especially after what Gwen had said last night, she couldn’t bring herself to tell Joe to ring off. She found she didn’t want to either.
‘Yes, we’ve heard,’ she said quietly. ‘Your father came round yesterday evening.’
A brief silence fell on the other end of the line. ‘How was he?’ Joe asked, his voice thick with emotion.
‘Bearing up,’ Alice assured him. ‘He wanted Edith to hear it from him, not from a rumour. Then he was off to do his ARP shift. He wouldn’t miss it.’
Joe exhaled loudly. ‘No. No, he wouldn’t. And Edith – how is she?’
Alice felt a sob rising in her throat and choked it down again. ‘She’s heartbroken, of course. I think they’d been planning a future together and hadn’t announced anything yet. But she’s gone off this morning to her first patient, same as usual – she won’t take time off.’
‘That’s good.’ Joe sighed. ‘That’s what Harry would have wanted. He thought the world of her, you know. God knows he was no stranger to women but, once he met her, he changed. You’re right, he wanted to marry her. They just didn’t get around to telling us all, they thought it was too soon.’
‘They thought they’d have all the time in the world,’ Alice breathed, her heart constricting again at the unfairness of it. It occurred to her that not only had Joe lost his brother – he’d also lost his best friend. The two of them had understood each other so well, despite their many differences. He would have to face the future without him now.
‘And how about you, Alice?’ Joe asked, his voice full of obvious concern despite the bad line. ‘How are you coping in the middle of all this?’
Alice tried to laugh. ‘Don’t worry about me, Joe. I’m all right.’ She could imagine his face, anxious about his family and clouded with sorrow, but still with that strong resolve to do his duty.
‘I wish I could be there with you,’ he said suddenly, and she was reminded of that moment at Christmas when the air had seemed to change between them. ‘With all of you,’ he amended hastily. ‘But I can’t.’ Joe paused and Alice sensed again that he was about to say something, so she waited.
Joe’s next words came out quickly before she could speak. ‘Billy told me he saw you out with your boyfriend, the doctor. It’s nice you’ve got someone special, but can we still be friends, Alice, look out for each other?’
Alice now realised what Joe must have thought. ‘Dr McGillicuddy is an old friend of mine, from Liverpool. It’s not like that at all,’ she said, strangely happy to be able to reassure him.
‘But I thought … Billy said he looked like a matinee idol.’ He laughed.
Alice laughed, ‘He might well do, but some things are more important than that.’
‘And what’s important to you, Alice?’ Joe asked, and Alice knew instinctively what he meant, without him needing to spell it out. She knew she had to choose her words carefully; Joe meant a lot to her and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings or give him the wrong impression.
‘Friendship. I need a friend, Joe, a good one like you.’
She could on hear the crackle of the line and in the silence she worried that Joe had gone. ‘Are you still there, Joe?’ she asked anxiously.
‘I’m still here, Alice, because I need a friend too. We can be that for each other, in these uncertain times, can’t we?’
Alice smiled into the phone. ‘We can. I’d like that. More than anything.’
‘It’s a deal, Alice. Look, I can’t tell you where I’m going but I’d better get back to the ship now. You’ll write, won’t you? Let me know how Edith gets on – and how you are.’
At that moment, Alice wanted to be there for Joe more than anything else in the world. She couldn’t make up for Harry’s death but she could be the one he came to when he wanted comfort, or to share a story, or just to say hello. She was suddenly desperate that he should know this, that he wouldn’t feel so alone out on the seas, or wherever his duty took him. ‘I’ll go to see your family soon too,’ she promised. ‘Look after yourself, Joe. I’ll be thinking of you all the time. I’ll keep the lucky clover safe, and maybe that’ll help you to sail safely and come home in one piece.’
‘I will,’ he said staunchly. ‘And I’ve got your lucky clover too. Look after Edith, won’t you? Well, of course you will. And then as soon as I can I’ll come home to you. Until then, we’ll carry on. I’d better go. Goodbye for now, Alice.’
‘Goodbye, Joe.’ The line went dead at the other end and she replaced the receiver in its cradle.
She knew her first patient would be expecting her soon but she needed a second to gather her thoughts. What a year it had been. Moving to Dalston, meeting the Banhams, war breaking out, and now Joe, and maybe something more – but was she ready for what was coming next? Yet she knew she had come on in leaps and bounds as a district nurse, confident that she could now cope with most situations, maintaining a calm and efficient composure no matter what she encountered on her rounds. She realised she might have to draw on that in the months to come, not knowing what they would all have to face. Then again, if Edith had the willpower to do so, even when in the depths of sorrow, she herself must face the challenges ahead.
They would manage; that was what they did. Her head went up and she touched the Queen’s Nursing Institute badge that she wore so proudly at her throat. The sun was shining, the air was warm, and she picked up her Gladstone bag, took it to her bike and tucked it into the basket, ready to pedal off on her day’s round.