The Bomb Girls (31 page)

Emily didn't remember falling asleep but she woke up with a jump when Malc shook her by the arm.

‘There's nowt we can do here,' he said wearily. ‘You'd best go home.'

Thinking Malc was talking about her going back to the Phoenix digs, bleary-eyed Emily nodded as she got to her feet.

‘I mean home, Emily,' Malc said. ‘Not the digs.'

‘Why?' she asked blankly.

‘The Phoenix won't be open for some time,' Malc replied as he bundled her into the car and drove her home to Pendle.

The next morning the papers were full of the tragedy.

FIFTEEN DEAD SO FAR

The papers reported that nobody knew how the explosion had happened, but as Emily woke up from a very disturbed sleep she had a vivid memory of Elsie turning wild-eyed towards her then holding out her hand as a white flash went off and the thunder of exploding bombs filled her ears.

‘How did I survive that?' Emily asked herself as she struggled out of bed.

The overalls she'd come home in lay on the floor, burnt and filthy. Emily quickly washed and changed into clean clothes, then, after grabbing a cup of tea, she caught the bus into Manchester where she returned to her hospital vigil.

‘This time I'm
not
moving until I find my friends,' Emily muttered as she walked the length of a long, tiled corridor where the echo of her hurrying feet bounced off the walls.

After several hours she learned that Lillian had a bad head injury and Agnes was half-blinded in one eye, but it was sweet little Elsie who had sustained the most serious injury: she had lost her right hand. But they were alive.

There was no way Emily could see her friends so she just sat in the cold corridor because that was the nearest place to the ones she loved. Sitting alone, Emily went over
and over the explosion in her mind. As she replayed it, almost literally blow by blow, she realized with blinding clarity what Elsie had done: she had put her right hand over the cordite and sacrificed a part of her body in order to put herself between the explosion and her friends.

‘She would have died for us,' sobbed Emily as tears flowed uncontrolled down her cheeks.

A passing ward sister took pity on the weeping girl in the corridor.

‘Can I help?' she asked.

‘I've got to see my friend – she saved my life,' Emily replied as she dabbed her wet cheeks with a hankie. ‘I can't leave here till I've seen her.'

‘What's your friend's name?'

‘Elsie Hogan.' Emily quickly corrected herself: ‘Elsie Carter's her married name.'

‘Come with me,' the sister said kindly.

She led her to a women's ward where Emily found Elsie lying in a bed with her right hand heavily bandaged.

‘Only a few minutes,' the sister instructed ‘She's lost a lot of blood.'

Emily knelt beside the bed so she could kiss Elsie's sleeping face.

‘Thank you for saving my life.'

Suddenly Elsie's eyes opened; weak though she was, she smiled her own sweet smile.

‘You would've done the same for me,' she whispered.

Unable to find words that could express her love and gratitude, Emily smiled back but in her heart she wondered if she would have been quite so heroically selfless as dear, faithful Elsie.

Emily visited her friends every day, sometimes with Tommy's mum or Malc, and once with Mr Featherstone, who was overseeing the extensive repair work at the Phoenix, which remained closed indefinitely.

‘Maybe we won't be needing so many bombs now that the Germans are running scared,' Lillian joked from her sick bed. Repeating the often-used wartime expression, she added with a gleeful smile, ‘Yeah! We've got the Hun on the run!'

‘Don't count your chickens,' said Agnes wisely. ‘We need to keep churning out bombs until Hitler's dead and all the heads of Europe have signed a peace treaty.'

Lillian snorted.

‘I could be claiming my bloody pension if we have to wait for the heads of Europe to agree on anything!'

‘What'll happen to the Phoenix if peace is declared?' Elsie asked as she lay propped up on her pillows.

‘It'll be converted into a knocking shop!' Lillian joked.

‘Stop making me laugh, Lil,' pleaded Agnes, giggling as she pressed a hand to her wounded brow. ‘It pulls my stitches apart.'

‘Will the Phoenix
really
close?' Elsie persisted.

‘It was closed for years,' Emily said. ‘Then it was reopened in 1941 for war work.'

‘Three years ago …' sighed Agnes. ‘I feel more northern than southern these days.'

‘That'll be our influence,' Lillian quipped.

‘And all them chip butties,' Elsie added.

‘One thing's for sure – the Phoenix won't be churning out any bombs for a while,' Emily told her friends, who, lying in their hospital beds, had no idea of the extent of the bomb damage done to the factory. ‘There's a lot of rebuilding to be done before it opens its doors again.'

As the days rolled by, the deep gash on Lillian's temple, caused by flying shrapnel, healed well, and the sight in Agnes's damaged eye started to come back. But poor Elsie, who'd suffered the biggest loss, had the most pain.

‘It's not so bad, like,' she said with a weak smile.

Elsie had had an emergency operation to remove metal debris and clean the wound before it was stitched and then wrapped in layers of bandages that made her hand look like a big white club.

‘When it's mended good and proper the doctor said they could fit me with a false hand,' Elsie said bravely.

‘They'd better make it big enough to hold two chip butties!' Lillian teased.

Though Elsie smiled and tried to remain upbeat, it was obvious she was in great pain, and when Jonty was brought to see her for the first time she completely broke down.

‘I can't even cuddle mi little lad,' she wailed.

Emily, who had taken Jonty to the hospital, popped the solemn little boy at the bottom of Elsie's bed where he sat sucking his thumb.

‘You will be able to hold him soon when your hand doesn't hurt so much,' she said soothingly.

But now that Elsie had started crying the tears wouldn't stop.

‘What will Tommy say when he sees me deformed like this?' she sobbed.

‘Tommy would love you if you had webbed feet and no teeth!' Emily said with a smile. ‘He adores you, Elsie; you know that better than anybody.'

Elsie smiled at that.

‘C'mon, help me cuddle Jonty before you take him home,' she said determinedly.

By propping pillows around Elsie, they settled Jonty comfortably in the crook of her good arm, where he sat chewing toffees and burbling happily until the bell rang to announce the end of visiting time.

‘See, you managed that all right,' Emily said.

Elsie was restored to her usual chirpiness after cuddling her little boy.

‘It'll get better before it gets worse,' she quipped, with a wink.

During the second week of her stay in hospital Lillian turned twenty-five. On the eve of her birthday she sighed with frustration.

‘It should be a laugh a minute having a birthday on Ward D2 with a granite-faced sister and a gash on my head that's ruined my good looks for ever.'

Emily, who was visiting, laughed along with Elsie and Agnes.

‘Nothing will ever spoil your looks, Lillian!' Agnes said fondly.

‘Seeing as I can't go back to my former flawless beauty I've decided to build on my wounds,' Lillian announced.

As her friends gazed at her blankly, she continued.

‘As soon as I'm on my feet I'm going to restyle my hair and cut myself a fringe, just like Lauren Bacall.'

‘Why?' asked Elsie.

‘To cover my scar, of course!' Lillian replied.

‘Oh, Lillian,' giggled Emily. ‘Only you could turn a war wound into a fashion statement.'

Before Emily left she bent over her friends' beds and gave them all a kiss.

‘Please get well soon,' she said.

When she bent to kiss Lillian she saw a tell-tale tear in her eye.

‘What's up, sweetheart,' she whispered softly.

Lillian, who liked to come over as tough and savvy rather than wet and soppy, wiped the tear from her eye.

‘I'm bloody missing Gary, that's what's up,' she growled like a grumpy bear. ‘It's bad enough lying here in pain day after sodding day,' she said as she swiped away another tear. ‘I'm finding it hard to hold it together, Em!' she blurted out as the tears flowed fast and furious. ‘When will I ever see him again?'

Avoiding her head wound, Emily rocked the weeping Lillian in her arms.

‘You've been a brave kid for so long,' she commiserated. ‘It's because you're in pain that your resolve has crumbled. You just want loving – and why not?' Emily said, on the point of tears too. ‘Isn't that what we all want?'

Elsie and Agnes hurried from their beds and joined Emily and Lillian.

‘We're going to get such a bollocking from the sister,' Lillian giggled.

‘I could get into bed with you and pretend to be a patient too!' Emily joked.

‘I only welcome handsome Yanks into my bed!' Lillian retorted.

‘Seriously, Lil, you have written and told Gary about the accident, haven't you?' Agnes asked.

Lillian nodded.

‘I couldn't write but Emily sent a note to say I'd been in an explosion and was in hospital,' Lillian replied. ‘Whether he'll ever get it, God only knows!'

Elsie gently stroked Lillian's arm with her good hand.

‘It's this bugger of a war that keeps us from our loved ones!' she said with a sad sigh.

The next day Emily picked up the cards and a parcel that had been left at Pendle post office for Lillian.

‘They can't be delivered to the Phoenix as it's closed,' she told Lillian as she dropped the cards on the bed. ‘Happy Birthday, beautiful!' she added as she handed over the parcel.

Lillian looked at the writing on the label and sat bolt upright.

‘It's from Gary!' she gasped.

With trembling fingers she unwrapped the parcel, which contained a small black-leather jewellery box. Lillian flipped the lid then gazed in wonder at the twinkling diamond ring.

‘It's so beautiful!' she cried, overwhelmed.

Gathered around Lillian's bed, her friends urged her to read the card that came with the jewellery box.

‘What does it say?' Elsie asked impatiently.

Smiling radiantly, Lillian read Gary's words on the card.

Marry me, Bomb Girl!

Your loving Yank,

Gary xxx

It wasn't just Lillian who burst into tears of joy – her friends all joined her.

‘Oh, for this – it's been worth the wait!' cried an ecstatic Lillian as she popped the diamond ring on her wedding finger.

Their cries of laughter soon brought the sister hurrying into the ward; her starched white apron seemed to bristle with her disapproval of noisy, laughing visitors.

‘Ladies, what on earth are you up to?' she snapped.

Lillian waved her new engagement ring in the air.

‘Look, Sister!' she exclaimed. ‘I'm engaged to be married.'

The sister scowled.

‘Don't let it go to your head. If your temperature rises there'll be no visitors for the rest of the week,' she retorted.

Lillian's temperature did go up later in the day when smiling, elegant Daphne swanned into the ward in a pink silk summer dress and a wide-brimmed straw hat.

‘Darlings! I just had to come when I heard the ghaaastly news!' she exclaimed as she bore down on her afflicted friends with her usual flamboyance.

They all cringed in pain as Daphne, with her arms full, kissed them passionately one by one.

‘Aargh, watch my head!'

‘Ouch! My eye!'

‘Ooh! Don't touch mi arm!'

Daphne dropped her gifts of fruit, chocolates and cigarettes onto Agnes's bed then, after popping open a bottle, she poured fizzing champagne into plastic tooth mugs.

‘
Ugh!
Not that stuff,' Elsie laughed as she wrinkled her nose at the fizzing wine.

‘Don't let the hatchet-faced sister see us drinking!' Lillian giggled as she took a brimming mug from Daphne.

‘I'll just tell her it's Eno's Liver Salts,' laughed Elsie.

Daphne raised her mug.

‘Here's to you all, my brave and wonderful Bomb Sisters!'

As the girls thumped their mugs together, Emily solemnly added a second toast.

‘And here's to our little Elsie, the girl who saved all our lives!'

Elsie blushed.

‘Don't be daft!'

She grimaced as she forced herself to swallow a drop of Daphne's champagne, then gave a little burp.

It was lovely to go back to the digs with Daphne.

‘I've been so lonely here,' Emily admitted as they settled down in front of the crackling wood-burning stove that Emily had lit on their return. ‘Tell me,' she urged, ‘how's married life suiting you?'

Daphne took her time placing a cigarette in her long silver holder then lighting it with a silver-filigreed cigarette lighter.

‘Not at all,' she said as she exhaled a cloud of smoke.

Emily's big blue eyes widened in disbelief.

‘You're not serious?'

Daphne nodded.

‘It's rather a bore,' she said without a hint of emotion.

Emily was so stunned she couldn't think of a word to say.

‘Rodders is all right but he's either on a bombing raid, or holed up in a Nissen hut waiting for a bombing raid, or he's home talking about the bally bombing raid!'

Emily burst out laughing.

‘There's got to be more to it than that!' she exclaimed.

‘Well, there're the cocktail parties in the officers' mess and the dinner parties, but to be honest I've had more fun sitting in this room with my hair in rollers and drinking beer whilst laughing with my dearest girl friends.'

‘We've had some happy times together,' Emily agreed. After a thoughtful pause she said, ‘So what will you do?'

‘Oh, put up with it, of course,' Daphne replied cheerfully. ‘See if things improve when the war's over. Hope for the best!' she finished with a shrug. ‘Anyway, what about you? Still the vestal virgin of the Pennine Way?' she teased.

‘I haven't been chasing around after Freddie,' Emily replied. ‘Not that I've seen him,' she added with a cheeky giggle. ‘If he sees me he runs a mile.'

‘Wouldn't you in the circs?' Daphne tittered. ‘Knowing you've got a photo of him stark bollock naked on a moonlit moor might curb his randy ways till peace is declared.' Daphne paused as she gave Emily a long critical stare. ‘Believe me, darling, there are plenty of fish in the sea for a gorgeous young woman like you.'

Emily shrugged.

‘I've lost interest in men, apart from one, and he's definitely lost interest in me,' she replied.

‘Time to move on, darling.'

A few days after Daphne had left for London, little Esther suddenly appeared at the open window beside Agnes's bed.

‘Hello, Mummy,' she said as she thrust a bunch of spring flowers through the window. ‘Daddy and I have come to visit you!'

Agnes stared at her daughter in joy and disbelief.

‘How did you get here?' she gasped.

‘Daddy brought me,' Esther replied. ‘But children aren't allowed inside so I've got to stay out here!'

Emily rushed outside to see Esther whilst Stan hurried into the hospital to kiss his wounded wife.

‘You never told me you were coming!' Agnes cried.

‘I wanted to come as soon as I heard about the explosion,' Stan said as he sat with his arm around his wife's shoulders. ‘But Esther fell ill with a hospital tummy bug – constant sickness and diarrhoea – and I couldn't risk passing that on to you, sweetheart, not in your fragile condition.' He gently stroked her bandaged brow. ‘I tried phoning … Did nobody pass on my messages?'

Agnes shook her head.

‘It's been chaos in here since the accident,' she said. ‘Never mind, you're both here now,' she said as she smiled tenderly. ‘Seeing the two people I love most in the world is the best medicine I could possibly have.'