Rosie Goes to War (16 page)

‘Right. Mum's the word. To be honest, I don't reckon anyone would believe me if I told them, so I'll keep schtum.' He looks at me with narrowed eyes. ‘You really need to meet my nan while you're here.' He gives his head a little shake. ‘Now, let's get you back to the girls at least. They'll be heading off to work soon.'

‘Oh God! I'll have to go to work too. I'll never make it in time.'

‘Well, after the night you've had, I reckon you should be staying at home anyway. You never know with head injuries. If the girls are working, I'll get me nan to pop over and see you're all right.'

‘OK. It'll be nice to meet her. After all, she is my, what – my great-grandmother? No, it must be great-great. Wow.'

‘Oh Christ, don't go telling her nothing about this, girl. She's as mad as a hatter anyway, without you making things worse.'

‘Fair enough. Now, let's get a move on. My feet are killing me.'

‘Well why didn't you say so?' He swoops and hooks an arm under my knees and swings me up into his arms. ‘I said I'd carry you, didn't I?'

We're both laughing as we turn into the street and come face to face with Nelly and May on their way to work.

‘Where the hell have you been?' Nelly shouts, hands on hips.

‘Oh my God, look at the state of you!' May runs forward and touches my face. ‘Are you all right?'

‘I'm fine, May.'

‘Then why is he carrying you?' asks Nelly. ‘You were supposed to keep her safe, Jock. What were you thinking?'

‘It's not his fault,' I say, as Bill lowers me to my feet. ‘There was a bomb and a woman called Shirley was trapped in her basement –'

‘And Rosie here's a heroine,' he interrupts. ‘She went down there and dug with her bare hands. She got to the woman and stayed with her till we could dig them both out.'

‘Bloody hell! Well done, Queenie!' May hugs me, but backs off a bit quick when she realises just how filthy I am. ‘Is that my dress?'

‘Yeah, what's left of it. Sorry.'

I wait for her to shout at me for ruining her lovely dress, but she shrugs. ‘It wasn't my favourite, thank God. I might be able to salvage something from it – make a new blouse maybe. What's more important is sorting you out before we're late for work.'

‘You go ahead. No point in us all having our wages docked. To be honest, I've been up all night and I'm aching in places I didn't know existed, so I'm going to bed. Can you tell them for me?'

‘We can't leave you like this.'

‘Honestly, May. I'm fine. I just need to clean up and have a lie down.'

‘I'll look after her,' says Bill.

‘Oh no you won't,' says Nelly, so fiercely that he takes a step back. ‘It's bad enough you've been out all night, I'm not leaving her alone with you in our house. What will people say?'

‘She'll be safe with me, Nell, I promise.'

Nelly looks torn. She looks at her watch and then at me. ‘You ain't in no fit state for work, that's for sure. We'd better take you home and sort you out.'

‘No, it's all right, really,' I say. ‘You can't miss work. I don't want you to get into trouble because of me. I'll be OK. It looks a lot worse than it is,' I grin.

‘How you going to get the bath out and fill it when you're all cut and bruised?'

‘I'll do that, then go and get me nan to help her,' says Bill. ‘I swear I won't hang about like some peeping Tom. What d'you take me for?'

‘He ain't wrong, Nell,' says May. ‘Old Lil will make sure she's all right.'

‘Well, see you knock on her door and get her over to ours straight away,' says Nelly, digging in her handbag. She hands me a key. ‘Here, you look after that. I don't want to be locked out of me own house when I get back.'

‘Don't worry, I'll be fine. Bill and his nan will look after me.'

‘Bill? Oh, you mean Jock. No one calls him Bill.'

‘Well I do,' I smile at their confused faces. ‘I'll see you later.'

‘Are you sure?' says Nelly. May's looking at Bill like she's never seen him before.

‘Absolutely. Go on, and see if you can make sure I keep my job.' I might need it for longer than I thought.

‘Right,' says Nell. ‘Come on, May. See you later.' They clatter off down the road.

‘OK,' I say turning back to Bill. ‘I'll go and put the kettle on, and you'd better see if your nan's up. I'm looking forward to meeting my great-great-grandmother.'

‘Bloody hell, please don't tell her that, whatever you do, or we'll all end up in the loony bin!' With a groan and a shake of his head, Bill crosses the road to knock on his nan's door while I let myself into the house and kick off my shoes.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Meeting Lil McAllister was amazing. She didn't come over to the house, but instead sent Bill over to get me.

‘She's got the boiler on for washing, so she says you can have a bath over there without having to wait for the water to heat up. I've already got the bath out and she's filling it up.'

As I walked into her kitchen, Bill's nan was tipping a bucketful of hot water into the tin bath. She wasn't what I expected. Lil McAllister was a little round woman with laughing brown eyes and red cheeks – but that might have been caused by the steam in the air. Her silver-streaked dark hair was tied up in a bun, but little wispy curls were escaping, and softening the edges of her face. ‘Hallo, love. My, don't you look a sight! Not to worry. A nice hot bath'll see you right. Here Billy, you get another bucketful while I pour the girl a nice cup of tea.'

He took the bucket and ducked into a little room off the kitchen. Through the doorway I saw a huge steaming copper vat and an old mangle.

‘Sit down, dear. You look done in. What a night you've had! I hope our Billy looked after you.'

‘Oh he did, Mrs McAllister. He's been great.'

She tutted and fussed just like gran as I sat at the kitchen table. ‘He's a good boy,' she said putting a cup of strong tea in front of me. ‘And the name's Lil, love. Mrs McAllister sounds like me mother-in-law, God rest her.'

Bill brought through two buckets and topped up the bath water.

‘Thanks so much for this, M – er, Lil. I'm sorry to interrupt your washing.'

‘I'm not,' she laughed. ‘I bleeding hate wash days. You've done me a favour.'

‘Any danger of a cuppa, Nan?' asked Billy.

‘It's on the side, darling. Nice and strong, just how you like it.'

‘Ooh, ta.'

He stood by the sink sipping his tea while Lil tested the water and pulled a screen round the bath.

‘Right, that's ready. Come on, dear, and we'll soon get you sorted. Billy, you pop over the road and bring her back some clean clothes. Then you can light the fire in the front parlour. When we're done, your friend can go in there and you can have a soak as well. I love you dearly, boy, but you don't half need a bath this morning!'

Bill burst out laughing and put his tea down. ‘Thanks, Nan. I love you too. I'll nip round and be back in a minute. Chuck us the key, Rose.'

I told him where he could find my stuff. A couple of seconds later he slammed the front door behind him and I turned to Lil with a smile. That's when I realised something was wrong. She was staring at me, white as a sheet, her damp hands clutched at her chest.

‘Are you all right? Shall I get Bill?'

She shook her head. ‘No, love. What did he call you?'

‘Rose.'

‘I thought you were called Queenie.'

‘May and Nelly call me that. But my real name is Rosie.'

‘Come here,' she beckoned me over urgently. I walked over to her and she took my face in her damp, shaking hands. ‘I never recognised you with all that dirt on your face. Is it really you? Oh my God, oh my God, I never thought I'd see the day. After all these years.'

‘I'm sorry?'

‘Don't you remember?'

‘Remember what?'

‘You and me have met before. Years ago. By rights, you should be as old as me now, but you ain't.' She shakes her head. ‘You told me this would happen again, but I didn't believe you.'

‘I'm sorry, Mrs McAllister – er, Lil, I don't know what you're talking about.'

‘That's right. Let me think. You said you wouldn't know about it because everything was out of order. How old are you, Rosie?'

‘I'm fifteen.'

‘Well I never … You came here first, didn't you? First time I saw you, you was about sixteen, and I was a nipper.''

‘That's not possible.'

‘Nor is you being here, eh? But you are,' she said, patting my cheeks and letting me go. ‘It's all right. I won't tell no one. It'll be our secret, just like it was back then. Now our Billy will be back in a minute, so you get yourself in that bath and soak off that mud and dust. I'll help you with your hair. And I've got some nice lavender soap you can use. You don't want to use the usual stuff on that lovely skin. You ain't used to roughing it, are you?'

So here I am, sitting in a tin bath in Lil's kitchen, in total shock. It's not possible. Is it? But it shouldn't be possible for me to be here now. I mean, what if she
did
meet me years ago? Does that mean I'm not going to get home, but will be stumbling around in time for the rest of my life? Oh God, I can't cope with this!

‘How you getting on, dear?' asks Lil from the other side of the screen. ‘You ain't fallen asleep?'

I nearly jump out of my skin, and some water slops over the side of the bath. ‘Er, no. I'm all right.' I splash water over my face, wishing I could relax and enjoy the hot water after days of cold washes. But I'm so wound up I feel like I'm going to have a complete breakdown or something.
Why is this happening to me?

‘Ready to do your hair?'

‘I can probably do it.'

‘Don't be daft.' She appears round the edge of the screen. ‘I've got a couple of jugs of clean water ready for rinsing. Now,' she puffs as she kneels down next to the bath. I hope she hasn't knelt on the wet patch. I should be dead embarrassed, but I'm too tired and confused to care. ‘You haven't even taken out your hairpins. Here, let me.' She does it quickly and I feel the relief as my hair floats around my face and shoulders. ‘That's better, now dunk yourself in and get it wet, dear.' I do as I'm told and she starts to massage soap into my hair with strong, sure fingers. Oooh, it feels lovely, until some soap gets into the cut on my forehead and I hiss with pain. ‘Sorry, dear. Here, let's rinse that with the fresh water.' It feels better straight away, and I sigh with pleasure again. ‘Right, now lean your head back, that's it.'

Lil finishes cleaning my hair, taking care not to go near my forehead again. She works in silence and I begin to relax. The front door slams again. Bill's back. I hear him come into the kitchen.

‘You stay right there, Billy,' calls Lil.

‘I ain't coming in,' he says. ‘I'm just putting her clothes on the chair. I'll get that fire going and wait in the front room.'

‘Good boy. There should be some tea left in the pot.'

‘Righto.' He pours himself a cup. I can hear the teaspoon tinkle against the china as he stirs the milk in. ‘I'm off into the front room then.'

He closes the door behind him as Lil starts to rinse my hair. ‘There you go. I'll bet that feels better, don't it? Now, what about the rest of you?' She picks up my hand. There's loads of little cuts and dirt, and my nails are wrecked. What I wouldn't give for a proper manicure right now. Jess does them for me sometimes; she wants to be a beautician when we leave school. Lil tuts and gently washes my hands and arms, then my feet and lower legs, which are beyond filthy from crawling through the rubble in that basement. ‘Blimey, you have been in the wars, haven't you?'

‘I was the only one small enough to get through.' I say, feeling a bit tearful.

‘Well, you're a brave one, that's for sure. I suppose it comes from being a time traveller.'

I stare at her, and she looks back at me, calm as anything. ‘What makes you say that?' I ask, hoping I'm so zoned out that I've misunderstood what she's saying.

‘Because you told me. It was a long time ago, and I never believed you back then. But you are, ain't you, seeing as how you're here, and now you're cleaned up I can see you look just the same.' She frowns and picks up my right hand and traces along the back of my thumb. ‘Only you ain't got a scar here. Not yet.'

‘What?' I pull my hand back.

She frowns. ‘Oh cripes, I shouldn't have said nothing. I'd better not say any more.'

‘Why not?'

‘Well, you can't go round telling people what's going to happen, can you? Spoilers, you called it. Said it wasn't a good idea.'

Oh. My. God. That's something I
would
say. But if I did, that means …

‘When did we meet, Lil?'

‘Let's see, I'm sixty-three now, and I was just a girl when I first met you.'

‘First?' I ask, not sure if I heard her right.

‘That's right. You was the teacher at the Board School while old Miss Pritchard was ill.''

I sit up, sploshing water everywhere. ‘You're kidding me, right? Tell me this is a joke.'

‘No. Us kiddies loved you.' You was a lot more fun than that old battle-axe. A really good teacher.'

‘At sixteen?'

‘Well, you told everyone you was older. We didn't know no different, what with you having such a good education.'

This is crazy. I just want to get back to my own time, where I'm just an ordinary schoolgirl. Why is this happening to me?

I cover my face, trying not to cry. Will I ever get home? I don't want to be Lil's teacher. I just want to get back to Gran and Great-aunt Eleanor!