Sarah Love

by Geraldine O'Neill

  As she walked briskly back to Victoria Street, she mulled the situation over in her mind. By the time she had reached the house, Sarah had come up with a solution. A solution, she hoped, that would keep everyone happy.

  Chapter 22

  The week before Christmas – her cards and presents all sent to Ireland – Sarah’s thoughts turned to organising food for Christmas Day. There was only going to be herself and Jane in the house, but they had decided they would still put in the effort and have the meal with all the traditional trimmings. Sarah was actually going to do the cooking, as Jane would be working on the early shift and would be home around four o’clock.

  As she sat at the table writing out a shopping list, Sarah thought that a chicken would be big enough for the two of them. She wasn’t sure if Jane was working Stephen’s Day – or Boxing Day as it was known in England, she had to remind herself. If the nurse wasn’t working, she thought they might be as well to get a small turkey to last a few days.

  Then, Jane dropped the bombshell when she came in from work, her navy hat and coat covered in snow.

  “Oh, Sarah,” she said, shaking the snowflakes off her hat, “I just discovered this morning that most of our patients will be gone over Christmas, and the sister says they can manage without me.”

  Sarah stared at her blankly.

  “That means I can go home for Christmas dinner. I’m really sorry, Sarah.” She paused, twirling the hat between her hands. “In fact, why don’t you come with me? My family would love to meet you.”

  Although she was hugely disappointed, Sarah’s expression remained deadpan. “I couldn’t,” she said quickly. “Thanks for asking but I wouldn’t feel right. It would be intruding.” She forced a smile on her face. “I’ll be absolutely fine on my own.”

  “Please think about it,” Jane said. “I feel awful telling you at the last minute, but I really want to go home.”

  “Honestly, I understand. I’ll be grand.”

  Then the doorbell rang and Sarah was relieved when Jane rushed out to answer it. She didn’t know if she could pretend much longer. The thought of spending Christmas alone in the house was devastating.

  She moved from the table to put the kettle on, to try to take her mind off the situation. To try and be normal when her house-mate came back in.

  Jane was chatting at the door for a few minutes, then Sarah heard voices coming along the hall. The nurse came into the kitchen followed by Lucy Harrison, who was carrying a tailor’s dummy. She stood it in the middle of the floor.

  “I was looking for the Christmas tree up in the attic when I came across this,” she told Sarah. “I know you were thinking of buying one, so it will save you the money.”

  Sarah felt her heart lift as she looked at the dummy. “That is so good of you! It will make all the difference when I’m working.” Suddenly her dashed Christmas plans didn’t seem quite so bad. She would pass the time away easily making some new outfits.

  “And I’m delighted I called when I did, because Jane has just solved a problem for me.”

  Sarah looked at her. “What was wrong?”

  Jane cut in. “And I’m relieved too. It solves everything.” She looked at her watch, then stuck her damp hat back on and tied her scarf tighter. “I’ve got to run out to the phone box and ring home. See you both in a bit.”

  When the door closed Lucy turned to Sarah. “If you’ve no major objections, you’ll be having Christmas dinner with me. You’ll actually be doing me a big favour.”

  Sarah’s brows shot up. “But you have your own plans!”

  “Two old aunts who have their own families and my father in the nursing home,” She gave a wry smile. “Not exactly uplifting company.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Lucy nodded. “I never thought of asking you because I thought you’d prefer the company of the younger girls in the house. When Jane mentioned that her plans had changed I thought we might as well be company for each other.”

  Sarah suddenly felt lighter – as if a huge weight had been lifted off her. “That sounds lovely, and you needn’t put yourself under any pressure. I’ll help you with the cooking of course.”

  “To be honest, I don’t feel at all pressurised. I feel more relaxed around you than I do with anyone else. And you do much more for me than anyone else I’ve worked with.”

  “That’s very nice of you but –”

  “It’s true,” Lucy told her. “I thought you might like to come and stay Christmas Eve? We could have supper together watching television or listening to the radio. The only thing is that I have to pay a visit to Durham to my friends early on Christmas Day.” She lowered her gaze. “It’s really just a morning visit and I should be back around lunch-time.”

  “I’ll be at ten o’clock Mass in the morning, anyway,” Sarah told her, “and I can help by getting things ready for you.”

  “That sounds great. I can drop you down at the cathedral when I’m going off. I thought I’d cook the turkey overnight and reheat it – so we don’t have that to worry about – and we can have the vegetables all prepared and ready to go on.” She held her head to the side, calculating. “We will probably be ready to eat about three o’clock – or maybe just after the Queen’s Speech.”

  Sarah thought for a moment. “Are you sure you don’t want to spend the day with your friends in Durham?”

  “Not at all,” Lucy said, putting her gloves back on. “It’s not that kind of place and they’re not that sort of people.” Then, before Sarah could quiz her any further, she went over and patted the dummy on the head. “I’m glad to see old Edna getting a new lease of life.” She smiled. “That’s what my father used to call her. He used to have quite a sense of humour at one time. It’s sadly gone now.”

  Sarah wondered at her changing the subject away from Durham again. It was obviously a private area of her life. “Will you be visiting your father on Christmas Day?”

  “I doubt it.” There was a hint of a sigh in the shopkeeper’s voice. “The nurses have said there will be enough activity going on there to keep him occupied, so he won’t miss me.” She moved towards the door. “I’m glad we’ve sorted that all out.” She looked at Sarah, lightness in her eyes. “We’ll make it as good a time as possible. We’ll spoil ourselves. I have Christmas pudding and a Christmas cake and chocolates and wine – everything we need.”

  Sarah told herself to get over the disappointment of Jane letting her down. To get over the feeling that she was already following her employer down the lonely road of spinsterhood. “It sounds lovely!”

  Lucy looked her as though she had read her thoughts. “It will be lovely,” she said, “if we both make the effort.”

  * * *

  Sarah got the chance to use Lucy’s dummy the following evening when Lisha and her mother came across to the house with grim faces.

  “I can’t get the neck of the dress right,” Fiona Williams told her. “No matter what I do the material is bunching together and I’ve ripped it out so many times it’s beginning to fray and pucker.”

  Sarah examined it closely. “I think it looks as though you might have used the wrong stitch size. When it’s too tight it makes it bunch up.”

  “I’m sorry to be a nuisance, especially being so close to Christmas,” she said in a low voice, “but I’m at my wit’s end with it and Lisha needs it for tomorrow night.”

  “Don’t worry – I’m sure it will be easily fixed.” Sarah brought them into the hallway and was just showing them up to her bedroom when Vivienne came out of the kitchen.

  She looked startled. “Oh, sorry,” she said. “I didn’t realise you had visitors.” Then she took a deep breath. “Would you like me to bring some tea up?”

  Sarah felt a little glow. Vivienne usually got the others to make it for her. “That’s good of you,” she said, smiling warmly at her. She looked at Lisha’s mother. “Have you time for tea?”

  “Thanks, but we’re not going to be here long,” Fiona said quickly. “Lish
a has a friend calling to the house at seven o’clock.”

  Sarah noticed the wary look the young girl gave Vivienne as she thanked her, and wondered if they had sensed her earlier hostility towards them.

  When they got up to the room, Sarah asked Lisha to slip the dress on to let her see how it looked. She turned away as Lisha stripped off to her petticoat and then pulled the dress on. When she turned towards her again she was amazed at the transformation.

  “Lisha! You look beautiful!” The girl’s figure was slim, her bust high and firm and her skin flawless. “You look like a model. The colour and cut of the dress is absolutely perfect on you. Turn around and let me have a look at the back.” The back was equally flattering on her. Sarah went back to look at the neckline and thought for a few moments. “What do you think if I make some small roses in the green material to put around the neckline? It would hide the stitch marks and would bring the neck up a little.”

  Lisha’s eyes lit up. “It sounds lovely, but wouldn’t it be a lot of work?”

  “Let me worry about that,” Sarah told her.

  As she showed them out, Lisha ran on ahead to be home for her friend while her mother lingered to have a few words. “I’m really grateful, and relieved you can sort the neck. The idea of putting the flowers is brilliant. She’s too young to have it so low. She looks too old for her age as it is, and I don’t want her looking . . . I don’t want her giving people the wrong impression.”

  * * *

  At ten o’clock that same night Sarah took the finished dress across to the Williams’ house. She knocked on the door and a tall, frail-looking man answered.

  Sarah caught her breath. His pallor, his prematurely hunched shoulders and his dark eyes told she was looking at a man who was probably dying.

  He looked unsure as to who she was for a moment, and then he recognised the bag she was holding. “Come in,” he said, his pale, thin face lighting up. “I’m Tony Williams; I take it you’re the talented lady who has been sorting out the problem with the dress?” He held his hand out to her.

  Sarah took his hand, and was surprised at the firmness of his handshake which gave the impression of a strength his body obviously did not possess. “Fingers crossed I have it sorted,” she said laughing.

  “They’re in the sitting-room deciding on handbags, I think.” He gave her a wry smile, his eyes seeming large compared to his drawn, pale face.

  Sarah followed him down the carpeted hallway into a warm room that smelled of pine and oranges. A coloured Christmas tree full of baubles and tinsel with a pile of parcels underneath stood to one side of the fireplace, and a television and radiogram stood at the other side. Festive decorations stretched from the corners of the ceiling and a bright picture of Santa Clause and his reindeers filled the top half of one wall.

  It struck Sarah that this was the first time she had been in a real family home since leaving Ireland.

  There were screeches of delight when Sarah showed them the work she had done on the dress, and when Lisha put it on it looked exactly as Sarah had envisaged.

  “I love it!” Lisha said. She turned to preen at herself in the mirror. “I can’t believe it’s me. I look so grown up!”

  “You do,” her mother said. “So you will have to start acting it now – no more sulks if things don’t suit you.”

  “Aw, Mum!” Lisha came over to put her arms around her mother’s neck. “Thanks, I really love it.”

  “Well, that’s what matters.”

  Sarah thought how close they looked and wondered if it would have been like that for her, had her mother still been alive.

  Fiona Williams playfully patted her daughter on the bottom and then went to get her purse. “We must pay you for all that work.”

  Sarah held her hand up. “No, honestly.”

  “But you hardly know us!”

  “I’m happy to do it for you.”

  “Well, if there’s something in the future that Lisha and I could help you with . . .” She spread her hands out. “Anything – anything at all.”

  * * *

  The weekend before Christmas was the only time all the girls at the house in Victoria Street would be together, so they went out for a meal in the city centre and exchanged the gifts they had bought each other.

  Sarah had toyed with the idea of knitting the girls scarves and gloves, but was afraid that it might look mean – that they might assume she had got the wool for nothing. Then Sarah had admired a lovely brooch of Anna’s, and the medical student told her that Vivienne had bought it for her the previous Christmas. That had made her mind up about the sort of gifts she should buy.

  Money wasn’t an issue as she had saved quite a bit since starting work. After looking around for ideas, she settled on earrings. They all had pierced ears so she picked the same style – three graduated gemstones in a nine-carat gold setting – so it wouldn’t look as though she was favouring one over the others. She chose different-coloured stones in blue, pink, green and purple which she matched to their eyes or birthstones. The assistant put them in velvet boxes and wrapped them up in Christmas paper, then put them in individual tiny bags with the shop’s name on them.

  The girls’ delight with the earrings was obvious, and Sarah didn’t mind when Elizabeth and Jane swapped with each other, as the green matched Elizabeth’s new dress. Anna and Vivienne had clubbed together to get Sarah, Jane and Elizabeth a silver charm bracelet each and Sarah was touched when she saw the thimble charm they had bought her to start her collection of charms off.

  Elizabeth bought them all a bubble bath set each and a purse. Jane gave the others bottles of Avon perfume and Sarah was surprised when she gave her a long slim box, wrapped in gold paper with a green bow on top.

  All the girls watched Sarah’s face as she carefully unwrapped the box to reveal a gold envelope. She opened it and slid out a card embossed with silver bells and ribbons – a ticket to the hospital New Year’s Ball in the Station Hotel. Sarah gasped when she saw the price on it.

  “Oh, that’s too much!” she said, looking at Jane with wide, shocked eyes. Her stomach flipped at the thought of the dance.

  “No, it’s not,” Jane told her. “It’s to make up for leaving you in the lurch over Christmas. I know your boss is a bit on the quiet side and older, so I thought it would give you something exciting to look forward to.” She looked at the others now. “And we’re not taking any excuses from you, because you’ve been here for months now and you’ve never been to a dance. Besides, we’re all going! It must be a miracle – somehow we’ve all managed to get the night off from work. The older staff with families said if we worked some of the shifts over the Christmas period so they could be with their children, then they’d work New Year’s Night.”

  “You’ll have to dig out an evening dress,” Anna told her. “It’s a really fancy do.”

  “I didn’t bring one with me,” Sarah said, half-hoping that it might get her out of going. For some reason she felt almost fearful of the dance now.

  “The shops are full of dresses,” Vivienne said, “and with the size you are, you won’t have any trouble finding one to fit.”

  “With the speed you work at,” Jane said, “you could even make a dress for it.”

  Vivienne pulled a face. “I think that’s asking just a little too much. The Christmas holidays are for rest and play – even for someone who lives for work like Sarah Love.”

  Sarah laughed along with the others. She had no choice. It would look ungrateful and miserable to refuse to go. Like Cinderella, she would go to the ball.

  Chapter 23

  Since Christmas was on a Friday, Lucy decided that they would work the full day on the Wednesday and then lock up for the holidays.

  “We’ve often worked a half-day on Christmas Eve,” she told Sarah, “but I really don’t think it’s worth it. Thanks to all your hard work, our takings have been higher this year than any other Christmas, so I think we can have a full day off.”

  “I think
we’ve both worked very hard,” Sarah said, smiling.

  She was pleased with the extra day off as it would give her time to pick up a few things to take out to Lucy’s house before she went to stay.

  “One of the girls gave me a ticket for a New Year’s Eve dance at the hospital,” Sarah told Lucy when they were having their mid-morning cup of tea. “So I think I might go.”

  “Wasn’t that a lovely gift?” Lucy said. “It will do you good to get out.”

  Sarah found herself nodding. There was no point in saying she didn’t want to go.

  At lunch-time on the Wednesday she took a walk around the dress shops to see if anything caught her eye. She tried on a few dresses but there was always something about the fit or the detail that she didn’t like. She wondered if she had time to make a dress before it. She had the whole week off between Christmas and New Year. Surely that would be time enough? She thought about the patterns back in the shop, and reckoned that there wasn’t anything special enough amongst them. Then she checked her watch. If she hurried, she could make it to Fenwick’s sewing department to look at their more expensive range.

  A short while later she came out of Fenwick’s smiling to herself. She had found a pattern for the most amazing dress and stole. In fact, she would have been grinning with delight if the dress hadn’t been for the dance. She told herself to stop being such a misery and go and enjoy the dance like any normal young woman. What was the worst that could happen? Some fellow she didn’t like might ask to her to dance. It wasn’t something to get worked up about and she had survived it many times before. The dance would mark the start of a new year for her and she had to find a way of mixing better without being suspicious of men all the time.