Authors: Ellie Dean
The kindly doctor eased her back into the chair. ‘I’m sure it’s a little uncomfortable,’ he said, ‘but that will pass. As for not being able to do it,’ he shook his head and gave her a wry smile. ‘I believe you can do anything you set your mind to, Kitty Pargeter. But this is only the first step on your road to recovery. Surely you’re not going to give in quite so easily?’
‘I never said anything about giving in,’ she replied gruffly. ‘But it
does
hurt, and I’m frightened of doing any more damage to myself.’
The doctor took off the leg and the padded sock, then stripped away the dressings over her stump. ‘Look, Kitty,’ he ordered firmly. ‘There’s no reddening, no puffiness – nothing at all that could be giving you any pain.’ He placed his hand on her arm. ‘I think that once you really believe you can do this, then the pain will go. It’s all in your mind, Kitty – really it is.’
She looked back at him in wide-eyed disbelief, for the pain had felt real enough, and she wasn’t the sort of girl who had hysterics at the slightest little thing.
He replaced the dressing, the sock and the prosthesis. ‘It’s up to you, Kitty,’ he said quietly as he held his hands out to her again. ‘Do you want to walk out of here on two feet? Do you want to climb back into a Spitfire or a Typhoon? Or do you want to be hampered by crutches for the rest of your life?’
Kitty glanced across at the silent nurse who’d been watching, and saw the same questions in her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she gritted her teeth and grasped his hands. ‘I’ve never backed away from anything before,’ she panted as she stood and placed her weight evenly on both legs. ‘And I’m damned if I’m about to do it now.’
‘I thought as much,’ he murmured, his mouth twitching with a smile. ‘So how about trying a little step for me?’
Kitty could feel her stump nestled into the cup, but strangely it didn’t seem to be hurting at all – it just felt odd and a bit uncomfortable. She concentrated hard, remembering how Doreen swung from the hip, then put her weight on her good leg and forced her thigh muscles to lift the false leg and place it firmly an inch in front of her.
‘There,’ she panted. ‘Satisfied?’
He nodded. ‘Well done, Kitty. But if you really want to impress me, you need to bring the other leg forward to join it.’
Kitty gripped his hand, put all her weight on the false leg, ignored the discomfort, and took a step. ‘I did it,’ she breathed in awe. ‘And it didn’t hurt much at all.’
‘I think that’s enough for now,’ he replied.
‘But I need to get some practice in,’ she protested.
‘You’ll be back here every few hours to get the practice in,’ he said as he eased her back into the chair. ‘The training will be intensive over the next few weeks, so you’ll need lots of rest in between the sessions.’
He took the crutches from the nurse and handed them to Kitty. ‘Now, go and sit in the sun, and I’ll see you back here at eleven.’
Kitty had been back to the treatment room twice more during the day, and she was due to return for a shorter session just before supper. That tiny step she’d taken earlier this morning had been just the first, now she was able to grip the parallel bars and proceed, rather like a drunken sailor, some way along them.
But the effort was exhausting, and although she was elated by her progress, she just wanted to sleep away the rest of the day. She was happily dozing in the comfortably cushioned chair beneath the umbrella on the terrace when she was startled awake by Doreen.
‘’Ere, Kitty. Guess what?’ she said as she sat down next to her and clattered her walking stick onto the metal table.
Kitty reluctantly opened one eye. ‘I was asleep,’ she protested.
Doreen waved away her complaint. ‘There’s time enough for that when yer old and past it,’ she said dismissively. ‘You know what I was telling yer about yesterday?’
Kitty gave up on her sleep and reached for her sunglasses. ‘What about it? Have you heard something more?’
Doreen shook her head impatiently before leaning forward so she couldn’t be overheard. ‘There’s been things ’appening today,’ she said quietly, ‘and I reckon it only confirms wot I overheard.’
‘What things?’ asked Kitty with some alarm.
‘There’s been over twenty new admissions,’ said Doreen, ‘and apart from a couple of commandos and a Yank, the rest are all Canadians.’
She glanced towards the two women who were sitting at a nearby table, and lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘I ’ad a word with my mate who’s in charge of cleaning the operating theatres, and she said the surgeons have been going full tilt all day. She hears enough to know that they’ve been dealing with bullet wounds, shrapnel, crush injuries, oil burns, salt water damage, and fire burns.’
‘Then it’s true,’ sighed Kitty with deep sadness.
‘It looks like it.’ Doreen lit a cigarette. ‘And from what I heard, there are more to come before the day’s out. The blokes in admin are rushing about trying to get enough beds, and I wouldn’t mind betting that people like me will be discharged early to make room.’
‘But you’ve only been using your new leg for a couple of weeks,’ Kitty protested. ‘You can’t possibly leave.’
Doreen smiled and reached for her hand. ‘I’m ready enough, gel,’ she said. ‘It’s time I shook off the dust of this place and went ’ome to face the real world. But when I comes back down south I’ll visit yer. I promise.’
Kitty felt a deep pang of loss, for Doreen was the only person she’d got to know well here. ‘I’m going to really miss you, Doreen. This place won’t be the same without you, that’s for sure.’
Doreen laughed. ‘Gawd ’elp us all,’ she spluttered. ‘Some might say it’ll be an improvement without me flashing me garters and making so much flamin’ noise.’ She cocked her head and shot a meaningful look at the two women on the next table who were looking at her with withering contempt. ‘At least I ain’t got me nose stuck up me arse like some I could mention,’ she said loudly.
Kitty giggled. ‘You are impossible, Doreen.’
Doreen grinned as she stubbed out her cigarette. ‘Yeah, but I bet I cheer up more of this lot than those two sour-faced pusses.’
The two women in question moved from their chairs and rather pointedly went to another table at the far end of the terrace, where they put their heads together in an earnest and clearly self-righteous discussion. Both were high-ranking officers in the WRNS, and neither was popular, for it was well known amongst the other patients that they thought themselves far too superior to mix with anyone below their rank and social class.
‘Good riddance to bad rubbish,’ muttered Doreen. ‘They deserve one another.’ She looked away from the women and sat up abruptly. ‘I don’t Adam and Eve it,’ she breathed.
‘What?’ Kitty turned to see what Doreen was on about, but apart from the usual gathering of patients, nurses and visitors, there didn’t seem to be anything untoward.
‘Ruby!’ shouted Doreen as she grabbed her walking stick and waved it about frantically. ‘Ruby Clark, over ’ere! It’s me! Doreen Larkin.’
Kitty saw a slender, pretty girl with hair the colour of cobnuts turn from the doorway in surprise. She was accompanied by an older woman who could only have been her mother, for they were both short and delicately boned, with the same dark hair and eyes and determined chin.
‘Doreen?’ asked the girl as she approached. Then her face broke into a beaming smile and she hurried forward to embrace her. ‘As I live and breathe. Doreen Larkin. Wot the bloody hell are you doing ’ere?’
‘It’s a bit of a bugger, but they cut me leg orff, so now I’m stuck with this.’ She waggled her false leg about so they could admire it, then grinned at the older woman who was looking a bit unsure of herself. ‘Wotcha, Ethel. Long time no see. How come you’re ’ere, then? You weren’t looking fer me, were ya?’
Ethel gave her a swift hug. ‘Na, sorry love, we didn’t know you was down this way, or we’d have been round to see yer and no mistake.’
‘Sit down then and tell me what’s been going on up in the smoke, and why yer here,’ ordered Doreen.
‘Mum will tell you everything, Doreen,’ said Ruby breathlessly. ‘There’s someone I’ve got to see, and he’ll think I ain’t coming if I’m much longer.’ Before Doreen could question her further, Ruby was hurrying across the terrace and through the French windows.
‘What’s going on, Ethel?’ Doreen asked. ‘Who’s she visiting in such an ’urry? It can’t be that rotten pig of a husband of hers, ’cos I ’eard he got killed in some accident.’
‘I’m Kitty, by the way,’ said Kitty, who was feeling distinctly left out of things.
‘Sorry, gel,’ said Doreen hurriedly. ‘This is my mate Kitty, and she’s an ATA pilot. Her and me ’ave both had a leg orff as you can see.’
‘Nice to meet yer.’ Ethel smiled at Kitty and settled into a chair. Digging in her handbag, she took a roll-up from a tobacco tin and lit it. Having expelled a cloud of smoke, she began to relax.
‘The flaming bus from Cliffehaven were late,’ she grumbled. ‘Then it broke down coming up the flaming hill and we ’ad to walk the rest of the way. That’s why we’re late.’
‘But what on earth are you doing down here at all?’ asked Doreen.
‘It’s a long story,’ said Ethel, who now had the roll-up firmly wedged in the corner of her lips. ‘Ruby come down ’ere after that pig almost killed her,’ she said grimly. ‘She didn’t have it too good for a bit but found a lovely place in the end, with Peggy Reilly.’
‘But I know Peggy,’ interrupted Kitty, who was utterly fascinated by the ever-lengthening ash on the end of Ethel’s cigarette, which wobbled when she talked, but didn’t fall. ‘She comes to visit me twice a week.’
Ethel nodded. ‘That sounds like ’er. A diamond, is Peggy. None better.’ She took the cigarette out of her mouth and delicately tapped off the ash.
‘Never mind all that,’ said Doreen impatiently. ‘Why’re you here – and who is Ruby all dolled up for?’
Ethel had clearly decided to tell her tale in her own good time. ‘After Ray were killed, Ruby come up to Bow and told me I gotta move down ’ere.’ She sniffed. ‘I were a bit reluctant, like, ’cos I ain’t never left London before. But I could see it had done the gel good, so I said I’d give it a go.’
She shot the two girls a grin. ‘And I’m glad I did, an’ all. We got a lovely bungalow, and good jobs at the machine factory – and I’ve even made a few friends. There’s quite a lot of gels from the East End down ’ere, so I feels quite at ’ome.’
Kitty was finding her accent quite difficult to follow, but she got the gist of it all as the fag ash grew longer and still trembled without falling down Ethel’s front.
‘So, who’s she visiting, Ethel?’ asked Doreen rather briskly.
Ethel stubbed out the cigarette. ‘It’s a young Canadian soldier called Mike Taylor,’ she said. ‘Seems she met ’im on the train when she were coming down ’ere that first time. He’s ever so keen, ’cos he’s been writing nearly every day since he left for some training camp.’
She seemed to drift off for a moment as she gazed across the lawn, then pulled her thoughts together. ‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘he sent Ruby a telegram to say he’d been injured and was about to be transferred ’ere, and he’d really like to see ’er if she ’ad a mind to.’ She chuckled. ‘She certainly did, ’cos before I knows it, we’re in our best togs and on the bus.’
‘Was he involved in that raid in the Channel?’ asked Kitty.
Ethel shrugged. ‘I don’t know about no raid. But I expect he’ll tell Ruby what happened to ’im.’ She looked towards the French windows and smiled. ‘Here she is now. You can ask ’er yerself.’
Kitty watched as Ruby set a tray of tea things on the table. She looked much more relaxed, so her young man couldn’t have been too badly injured, thank goodness. Kitty introduced herself as Doreen bombarded Ruby with questions.
Like her mother Ethel, Ruby took her time to answer. ‘Mike wasn’t making much sense,’ she said after she’d stirred the tea in the pot and left it to stew. ‘They filled him full of drugs, so he were ’alf asleep. But he were ever so pleased to see me,’ she added with a sweet blush.
‘Did he say anything about how he got his injuries?’ asked Kitty before Doreen could butt in.
‘Not much. He just said he were on a raid to France, and it all went belly up when they sailed straight into a Jerry convoy.’ Her pretty face was shadowed with sadness. ‘It were total carnage, ’e said, and although the RAF did their best to fight off the Jerry planes, and the battleships laid down a thick smokescreen, it’s reckoned that over sixty percent of the total raiding party were lost.’
Everyone stayed silent as she blinked away her tears and determinedly began to pour the tea into the cups. ‘He were one of the lucky ones,’ she continued, ‘’cos he were still waiting to land when the Jerry convoy attacked and the big guns started firing from the beaches, but ’e could still see what was happening to all his mates.’ Her voice broke despite her clear determination not to cry. ‘He said he’d never forget what he saw, and that it would haunt him for the rest of ’is life.’
‘Poor bloke,’ murmured Doreen sadly. ‘You can’t even begin to imagine what ’e’s been through, can you?’
‘How bad orff is he?’ asked Ethel as she softly put her hand on Ruby’s knee.
Ruby lifted a determined chin as she passed the teacups round. ‘He were shot in the shoulder, back and hip, Mum. Then, when his boat were blown up, he was thrown into the sea and got stuff in ’is eyes. The doctor reckons it were burning oil from the sunk ships and planes.’
Kitty winced at the stark images her words had evoked, but she could also see the concern for her daughter in Ethel’s expression.
‘He ain’t gunna be blind, is he?’ asked Ethel sharply.
Ruby shook her head. ‘The doctor said the sight in his right eye is fine, and that ’e’s hopeful the left one will heal with time.’ She gave her mother a wan smile. ‘He’ll come through, Mum, and I’ll be up here every day to visit, so ’e won’t be on ’is own.’
‘That’s a big responsibility,’ said Ethel, ‘and you gotta think where all this might lead. After all, Rubes, you hardly know the bloke, and ’e might get ideas.’
Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘I know ’im well enough, Mum. Blimey, we’ve been writing to each other fer weeks. Anyway, I want to look after ’im. He’s a lovely bloke.’