The Angels of Lovely Lane (13 page)

‘That’s really kind of you, so it is,’ she said, and she felt her hand being squeezed by Lorraine, who smiled up at her with large brown eyes. It occurred to Dana that those eyes were all knowing, and that they were telling her it was no use arguing.
You just do what Mam says.

‘Kind? Not really, love. It’s what we do here in Liverpool, isn’t it, gang?’ said Maisie. ‘You’re gonna love Liverpool, you are, I can tell. Can’t you, Pammy?’ Pammy opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say a word Maisie shouted, ‘Go on then, everyone, up the steps you go. Shurrup, you lot. Act all dignified now, not like the scallies from Arthur Street people will think we are.’ Pamela and Dana strode up the steps together, with Lorraine still clinging to Dana’s hand, and pressed the large doorbell. Everyone heard it echo out throughout the vast building.

A chain slipped on the other side of the door and a handle rattled and turned as the door was swung open to reveal a diminutive lady wearing a mid-calf dark grey woollen skirt and jumper. Grey hair of an almost identical shade was piled on top of her head in a tight bun, but the drab effect was broken by a large cameo brooch pinned to her thick pullover. Peering through her thick wire-framed spectacles the woman smiled in such a warm and friendly way at the girls that they both felt weak with relief, and the nervous giggles which had threatened to erupt just a moment ago disappeared entirely.

‘Come away in out of the damp, all of you,’ the woman trilled, ushering them into the carpeted hallway. Pammy’s siblings, raucous outdoors, had fallen as silent as church mice.

‘I’m Mrs Duffy and I will help you settle in this evening,’ she continued, once the introductions were over. ‘You will see a lot of me. I come in each morning to prepare your breakfast and then an evening meal for when you get in from day duty, or before you leave for nights. I go back to my own house in the middle of the day and return in the evening to tidy the night nurses’ rooms and to make a trolley of milky drinks with a plate of biscuits before the rest of you go to bed. I leave a good pot on the range every day for you to help yourselves when you get home from the wards. No one has ever complained about my dinners yet.’ Mrs Duffy gave Maisie a knowing look over the top of her spectacles. It said, very clearly,
and no one is about to start now
.

‘Well, that sounds lovely, doesn’t it, girls?’ said Maisie to Dana and Pammy.

‘Mam, everyone talks funny around here,’ chirped little Stan, pulling at Maisie’s coat, and ignored by everyone as Mrs Duffy went on.

‘At night, I sit in the lounge with the nurses for an hour while they have their drinks and chat about their day. Then I clear it all away at ten o’clock and I send the girls away to their beds before I leave for home.’

‘Ooh, that’s a long day, love,’ said Maisie, concerned.

‘Well, it is, but I enjoy looking after my nurses. I have no children of my own, after all. The morning maids come in from Monday to Friday to clean the nurses’ rooms and make their beds, and for those who can’t settle after nights, although that is a rare thing indeed, we serve coffee from ten o’clock in the morning. They are well looked after.’

Dana and Pamela looked at each other, amazed. This sounded like luxury.

‘They make our beds and clean our rooms?’ Dana said to Mrs Duffy, aghast.

‘Yes, they do, but don’t worry, love, you won’t notice the benefit. You will be making thirty a day yourself once you have finished your preliminary training. That will all be explained to you in the morning by Sister Tutor when she arrives. But first, what would you all like? A cup of tea or hot chocolate, Horlicks maybe? We have twenty-five nurses living in Lovely Lane. All the new girls have already settled into their rooms, so you, young man’ – Mrs Duffy took a plate of biscuits from the trolley behind her and handed it down to little Stan – ‘can have your pick and be in charge of this plate. I spent the afternoon making them, just for you.’

Little Stan grinned from ear to ear. Mrs Duffy had just acquired an adoring fan.

Dana decided there and then that Mrs Duffy was lovely and not just because she made the most delicious hot chocolate she had ever tasted. The idea of arriving at the nurses’ home had worried her sick every day since she had received her acceptance letter, and now she realized she needn’t have worried. If her own mammy could have picked someone to look after her, Dana was quite sure Mrs Brogan would have chosen Mrs Duffy.

‘You are the first girl to have been taken from Ireland for the registered nurse course,’ Mrs Duffy said now. ‘It’s unusual, that is. We have had a few from Dublin in the past, for the enrolled nurse course, but not since the new exams began. It must have been difficult for you to study for the entrance exam. You should be very proud of that. They say that it is more difficult to train at St Angelus than it is at St Bart’s in London.

‘And, you know, Mrs Tanner, there has never been anyone here from the streets around the dock road before, either. This must all be down to the new director of nursing. They say she is making waves.’ Mrs Duffy took Pammy’s youngest brother by the hand. ‘Come along, young man. We need to show them the way, don’t we?’

‘You’ve done me a favour, you know, Dana,’ said Pamela, as they walked up the long wooden staircase to their rooms. Stan and the eldest boy carried the suitcases and Stan raised his eyebrows when he felt the weight of Dana’s. ‘Jesus, love, what have you got in here, a sack of spuds?’ he said, and everyone laughed as Dana blushed furiously.

‘How?’ she whispered.

‘By taking our Lorraine off me. She would have tried to nick back half of me stuff. She has no idea I’ve got one of her best blouses in me bag. Me mam bought it for her on St John’s market last week. It’s lovely. She’d have gone mad.’

‘Don’t be soft, Pammy,’ said Lorraine. She had heard every word. ‘I took it back hours ago, before we left. I’m way cleverer than you.’

*

Dana looked at the name displayed on her door. It was typed on a small white card, within a polished brass frame.
Probationary Nurse Brogan
. ‘Go on, queen, that’s you,’ said Maisie softly.

‘Shall I turn the knob for you?’ asked Lorraine, wanting to be helpful.

‘Yes please, Lorraine,’ said Dana, feeling as though she had known Pammy’s family as long as her own. ‘Go on then.’

Lorraine swung the heavy white-painted door open. Before them was a very large room with two sets of tall Georgian sash windows. The floor was covered in a rust-coloured carpet and the walls were painted deep cream. They stepped inside tentatively, Maisie pushing past Dana to take a closer inspection of the curtains.

Picking up the hem to feel the fabric, she said, ‘Well, this is lovely, isn’t it? You won’t find anyone on Arthur Street with curtains of that quality. They never came from the market and that’s for sure. Look, that’s called interlining, that is. Our Pammy’s going up in the world, Lorraine.’ The room contained a small dark oak dressing table with a mirror and a stool, a large and shabby-looking velvet wing-backed chair next to an oak desk with a lamp, a wardrobe, and a small single bed. Mrs Duffy had shown them where the communal toilets and bathrooms were on the way along the corridor.

‘This is better than what our Pammy has at home,’ said Lorraine. ‘Lovely pink curtains,’ she added wistfully.

Dana agreed readily. ‘Me too. I can’t believe I have my own room. I have to share with my grandma at home.’

Maisie looked out of the window into the night. The street lights cast a marmalade glow beneath them. ‘This house used to belong to one of the big shipping merchants,’ she said. ‘They say he employed twelve staff in here round the clock. Amazing when you think how some people live in Arthur Street, where we come from, just a few minutes away. Or even down on the dock road, where lots of the Irish live. That one man had all this to himself. They say he was a very good man to work for, mind. No one had any complaints and he was very generous at Christmas, or so the waitresses at the Grand say, anyway. He used to throw a Christmas party there every year apparently and one year he gave all the waitresses a present. A small blue box each, and when they opened it, they found a pair of real pearl earrings inside. Isn’t that lovely?’

‘It is, if they didn’t all sell them the next day,’ chirped up Lorraine.

Maisie carried on looking out of the window. ‘Well, d’you know what, our Lorraine, I reckon he knew that might happen, or they’d pawn them more likely, but I reckon he also knew they would all have a bit of cash in their hand as a result and could have a nice Christmas.’ Stepping back from the window, she pulled the curtains across. ‘Come on, Dana love, let’s get that bag unpacked. That Mrs Duffy is a nice woman, but she did say we were only allowed twenty minutes. I don’t want to worry you, but she said you all need a good night’s sleep because from tomorrow it all changes.’

‘Have you seen the sign on your door? Look here.’ Lorraine, who had been opening and closing drawers and generally examining the furniture, swung the door into the room wide open. ‘Look at this. See your name here?’ She pointed to the brass frame. ‘Watch this.’ She slid the name card upwards and out of the frame and showed Dana and Maisie the other side. It read
Probationary Nurse Brogan. NIGHT DUTY
.

‘That’s for when you’re doing your night shifts. I bet it’s so the others know to be quiet on your corridor during the day and the maids don’t come into your room. That’s why Mrs Duffy said she comes in and tidies up for you when you’re at work at night. Isn’t that incredible? Someone makes your bed for you, even when you’ve been lying in it all day.’

Dana was beginning to think that a probationary nurse could feel like royalty and very important indeed when she heard a unfamiliar voice from the corridor ask, ‘Can I come in and say hello?’

Lorraine ran and opened the door to reveal a very nervous-looking young girl in the doorway.

‘Of course you can, me lovely,’ said Maisie. ‘It’s Dana’s room; here she is. Give me that bag, Dana. I’ll unpack for you while you girls become acquainted. I’m Maisie, love, Pammy’s mam. She’s just moved in too, down the corridor she is, on the bend at the top of the stairs.’

‘I’m Beth,’ said the girl. ‘I’m in the room next door and I could hear you talking. I thought there was no point sitting on my bed looking at the walls and feeling scared.’ Beth pushed her dark brown hair back behind her ears. She wore glasses that swept sharply up at the corners and she squinted slightly as she looked around the room. Dana thought she saw her nose crinkle as her scrutiny took in the clothes Lorraine was hanging up in the wardrobe.

Suddenly the door on the other side of Dana’s opened and a timid but very cultured voice said, ‘Oh, hello there, everyone. Would you mind terribly if I came in too? My name’s Victoria. How do you do?’

Victoria could only be described as beautiful, Dana thought appreciatively. Her naturally ash-blonde hair, worn in a swept-up style, gave definition to her high cheekbones and large blue eyes.

She did not wait for anyone to respond, but went on, ‘I don’t know anyone either.’ At which point her bottom lip trembled, and seconds later, she promptly burst into tears.

‘Oh my giddy aunt. Come here, love,’ Maisie said, putting an arm round Victoria’s shoulder. ‘Have you unpacked?’

Mrs Duffy appeared at the door with a tray of tea. ‘I could see you were going to have your hands full,’ she said to Maisie. ‘First night is always the same, all woe and tears. I’m delighted you’re here. Stay a little longer, would you, and have another cup of tea. You will be wanting to see Nurse Tanner settled in before you leave.’

*

It was nearly midnight and Dana was lying on her bed, talking to Pammy, Victoria and Beth. Pammy was sitting on the end of the bed, leaning against the wall; Beth was in the shabby wing-backed chair with her legs crossed and a list of instructions she had found in her own room on her knee. Beth left nothing to chance. She had already made a note of everything she needed for the following morning. Victoria sat on the desk chair, her legs primly crossed, while she removed her Cutex Shimmer Pink nail polish. They had discussed their backgrounds and shared their terror of what the next day might hold. Maisie had stayed with them as long as she could, mothering them all, and Mrs Duffy had chatted for a while when she slipped yet another tray of tea into the room, with her instructions for bed and a wink before she left.

Dana had produced a tin of seed cake and put it on the desk, something that made the others gasp in astonishment. ‘You carried that all the way here from Ireland!’ Maisie had exclaimed, as she helped her unpack. That was before she unloaded the three brack breads, a boxty loaf, a bag of scones, the sack of potatoes, two onions, a deep yellow pat of butter wrapped in greaseproof paper, and a lump of cheese. All of which she handed over to Mrs Duffy.

Dana felt as though she was instant friends with Pammy. She liked Victoria too, but there was something about Beth she could not warm to, much as she tried.

‘How did youse lot get on in your interviews?’ asked Pammy, munching on the seed cake. ‘I had a terrible time. It was the worst day of me life. When the big doctor on the panel, Mr Scriven, looked at the form and saw I lived in Arthur Street, I could tell he wasn’t going to let me in. He asked me had I considered becoming an enrolled nurse instead. He said we’ve had them since the war, for girls like you. I said what do you mean, girls like me, but I knew very well what he meant. He thought I just wasn’t good enough. But that nice sister sat next to him – Sister Haycock? The one with the lovely smile. She’s in charge of the nursing school, I think. Did youse lot have her as well?’ They all nodded. ‘Well, when she took me to the door after the interview was over, she whispered to me, “Here’s a little secret, Pammy. I was born in George Street.” Well, I couldn’t believe it. That’s only just down from Arthur Street.’ Pammy paused for effect. ‘She said, “Don’t you worry about Mr Scriven.” George Street is really just bomb rubble now, though, so I don’t know exactly where she lived. It’s never been cleared yet – it’s just where all the kids play, not really a street. Anyway, as soon as I got the letter, me mam, when she had stopped crying, read it and she recognized the name Emily Haycock and she said well I never, I knew a girl who was an Emily Haycock, she lived on George Street and I said Mam, it’s the same one, she told me she was from George Street, and then me mam started crying again. I said to her what’s the matter, Mam, and she said there wasn’t anything the matter, but she gave me da one of her looks and he winked at her and said what comes around goes around, eh, love? Well that was all a complete mystery to me. I have no idea what they were on about, but they definitely knew who she was. I said to me mam, shall I say hello if I see her and she nearly bit me head off. “Don’t be daft,” she said. “No one’s seen her round these parts for years. Don’t mention anything, do you hear?”’