Victory for the East End Angels

by Rosie Hendry

  Bella nodded. ‘Yes, the first one was when I was out with Stefan last week.’

  ‘And there’s been more since. The government have been blamin’ them on gas leaks but from what the Fire Service fella told me they are rockets.’ Sparky scowled. ‘They’ve started calling ’em flying gas pipes, and these ones don’t come with any warnin’ like the doodlebugs, there ain’t no sound of an engine and then the wait for it to cut out and hope that it don’t land on you – these new ones don’t give a warning, the first thing you know about is when they blow up.’

  Frankie’s stomach clenched. The doodlebugs were bad enough – at least you stood some chance – but a rocket with no warning was a whole new level of danger. ‘Why ain’t the government said anything?’

  ‘They probably don’t want to cause panic until they’re sure about what’s goin’ on,’ Sparky said, drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. ‘Remember they didn’t admit to the doodlebugs straight away either.’

  ‘What can we do?’ Bella asked.

  Sparky shook his head. ‘Not a bleedin’ thing! If one of these lands where we are, we’ll be goners and won’t know anything about it!’

  Frankie looked at Bella, whose face had gone milky white. ‘Well let’s just ’ope our luck holds out then. At least when the bombers came, we knew about it. They were bad enough, but the enemy have upped their game and looks like we’re defenceless to do anything about it.’

  Sparky stood up. ‘That just about sums it up. Never thought I’d prefer the bombers!’ He marched off, no doubt to tell other crew members about what he’d discovered.

  ‘Are you all right, Bella?’ Frankie asked.

  Bella shook her head. ‘Why do humans create such horrible things to kill and maim each other with?’

  Frankie put her arm around her friend’s shoulders. ‘I know, it ain’t right, but it’s war and it’s what they do to try and win. Let’s ’ope our troops get to Berlin soon and this whole horrible mess will be over.’

  Chapter 39

  Winnie loved soaking in the bath after coming home from a twenty-four-hour shift. She might have only been allowed a meagre four inches of hot water, but she made the most of them, staying in until it was almost cold, and her fingers and toes were as wrinkled as prunes.

  ‘Are you nearly done in there?’ Bella knocked on the door. ‘Only I’m going to start cooking our lunch, my mother’s sent some eggs for us, do you want some?’

  ‘Yes please, I’m getting out now.’ Winnie pulled the plug and stood up, grabbing a towel to dry herself.

  ‘I’ll expect you downstairs in ten minutes then.’

  Winnie quickly dried herself and started to get dressed, pulling on some clean underwear – silk knickers and a brassiere – but when she tried to do it up, her brassiere seemed to have shrunk, it didn’t fit properly at the front. She struggled to do it up, hurting her breasts which, for some strange reason, were feeling very tender and sore. Perhaps she was due for her monthly, she thought, doing up the buttons on her blue silk blouse, but her fingers stilled when she realised she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had her monthly. They weren’t always particularly regular but, thinking back, it was before Mac came home, at least two months ago. He was now with a new unit and had been sent back out to help with the Allied advance again. Since then there’d been nothing. Winnie gasped, her heart thumping hard – could she really be pregnant?

  The idea settled like a lead weight in her stomach. She didn’t want a baby, not now, maybe not ever. She wasn’t sure if she was even the right sort of person to be a mother; her own hadn’t exactly been the best example to learn from, had she? And even if she did want a child, now was most definitely not the right time – she had a job that she loved, Mac was away in the army and the world was in the middle of a hideous war. It was completely and utterly not the time or place to be bringing a child into the world.

  Hold on, she reined in her runaway thoughts as she slumped down on the wicker chair beside the bath, she was jumping to conclusions here. She had no proof she was expecting, she was probably just due her monthly, that was all. It was silly letting her imagination run wild on her. In the meantime, she was more concerned with having some lunch as she was suddenly ravenously hungry.

  ‘You’re just in time,’ Bella said, scooping the eggs out of the pan of boiling water and popping them into waiting egg cups. ‘Five-minute eggs, perfect timing so the yolks are still runny for dipping soldiers in.’ She carried the plates with already cut bread and marge soldiers and the boiled eggs over to the table.

  ‘Thank you.’ Winnie sat down at the table where Trixie settled by her side, on the lookout for any food that might come her way. ‘How many eggs did your mother send this time?’

  ‘A dozen, and all of them arrived in perfect condition.’ Bella hit the top of her egg with a spoon to crack the shell.

  Winnie had been amazed the first time Bella’s mother had sent them a parcel of fresh eggs, each one carefully wrapped in cloth and packed into an old toffee tin which had been shipped overnight by train, arriving perfectly safely the next morning. It was such a treat to have precious eggs sent to them from the countryside, they were so much nicer than the ghastly powdered egg they got on the ration.

  She began to break into her egg to reach the golden yolk that she loved to dip bread soldiers in, but a sudden wave of nausea hit her, and she dropped her spoon with a clatter. Putting her hand over her mouth she leapt up, and rushed to the bathroom where she was sick.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Bella tapped on the door. ‘Are you ill?’

  Winnie stood up from where she’d been sitting on the bathroom floor, and opened the door.

  ‘I suddenly came over sick, that’s all.’ Winnie frowned. ‘I’m all right now.’

  Bella felt Winnie’s forehead. ‘You haven’t got a temperature. Were you feeling ill before? You seemed fine earlier.’

  ‘I was, it was just the smell of the egg, I think, it set me off.’ Winnie did her best to smile. ‘To be honest I feel hungry again now. I fancy some toast and some of Connie’s honey on top, that would settle my stomach again. Do you think she’d mind if I had some?’

  ‘Of course not. Listen, let me go and make it for you and bring it into the sitting room so you don’t smell the eggs if they’re going to make you feel bad.’

  A short while later Bella carried in a tray and put it down on the low table in front of the sofa where Winnie sat cuddling Trixie. ‘Here we are, toast and honey and a cup of weak tea with no milk.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Winnie took a bite, enjoying the sweetness on top of the grainy National loaf toast. ‘Mmm, delicious.’

  Bella had sat down at the other end of the sofa and was watching her closely. ‘Winnie, can I ask you something?’

  She nodded, taking another bite.

  ‘Is there any possibility that you might be expecting? Only you don’t usually react like that to a boiled egg and you look like you’ve gone up a size or two.’ Bella nodded towards Winnie’s chest where the front buttons of her blouse were straining more than they usually did from her slim, willowy figure.

  Winnie’s cheeks grew warm. ‘I hope not! It is possible, I suppose . . . but I don’t want a baby now.’

  ‘Have you missed your monthly?’

  She shrugged. ‘I haven’t had a monthly for a while but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything with me. My brassiere feels too small now, but it’s probably just shrunk in the wash.’

  ‘Or you’ve suddenly grown bigger,’ Bella said.

  ‘I don’t want to be a mother yet! Or maybe even ever . . . ’ Her voice wobbled. ‘I’ve got a job to do and I don’t want to give it up.’

  ‘Whether you want it or not, if you and Mac are going to be parents then you’ve got to go along with it,’ Bella said. ‘The first thing to do is to find out for sure – you need to make an appointment with your doctor.’

  ‘All right, but will you come with me?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll do a
nything I can to help you.’ Bella reached out and took hold of Winnie’s hand. ‘Try not to worry.’

  Winnie was scared. What would she do if it turned out that she was expecting? Babies weren’t something you could ignore and carry on with your life as you had before. They even changed things before they were born. Her heart sank at the thought of what a baby would do to her life – worst of all, she would lose her job because of it.

  Chapter 40

  ‘Frankie! You’ve got a visitor.’

  Frankie looked up from where she was checking the equipment inside the back of her ambulance to where Sparky stood by the open back doors. ‘Who?’

  ‘A friend of yer sister’s, so she says.’ Sparky indicated with his head to where a young woman dressed in WAAF overalls stood a few steps behind him.

  ‘What – Lizzie?’ Frankie jumped out of the ambulance. ‘Do you work with her?’

  The WAAF nodded and hurried over to Frankie. ‘I need to talk to you urgently,’ she looked at Sparky, ‘and in private.’

  Sparky raised his eyebrows. ‘It’s all right, I’m off.’

  ‘Thanks, Sparky,’ Frankie said. ‘We’d better go and talk over there if you don’t want anyone to overhear us.’ She nodded towards the far side of the courtyard, well away from the garages where several of the crew members were watching them while they went about their own work, obviously curious about why a WAAF had turned up at Station 75. Frankie’s mind was running through what this could be about. Why would a friend of Lizzie’s want to come and talk to her? She’d had no contact from her sister for over a year, not since she’d last seen her at the barrage balloon site where she worked and where Lizzie had made it crystal clear that she wanted nothing to do with Frankie.

  ‘Lizzie’s in trouble,’ the WAAF said as soon as they were out of earshot.

  ‘What sort of trouble? And who are you?’

  ‘I’m Vera, Lizzie’s friend. I work on the site with her and share a room with her at our lodgings. She’s . . . She’s been seeing some GI and gone and got herself in trouble, in the family way.’

  Frankie opened her mouth to say something but was silenced when Vera grabbed her arm, her eyes bright with tears. ‘She wouldn’t listen to me and went to see someone about getting rid of it and now she’s in a bad way.’

  Frankie stared at her, taking in what she’d just been told. ‘You mean she went to a knitting needle Nora? Bleedin’ ‘eck! The fool.’

  ‘I told her not to, but she wouldn’t listen. She didn’t want to get thrown out of the WAAF.’ Vera sighed. ‘And now she’s in a lot of pain and not looking good.’

  ‘It might be a whole lot worse than that, people die after doin’ what she’s done. Where is she now?’

  ‘Back at our lodgings. She said she was sick today and couldn’t go to work. I went back to check on her at break time and found her looking bad and didn’t know what to do. I remembered she said you worked here. I’m scared she might die if she doesn’t get help. Can you help her, please?’ Vera pleaded.

  Frankie didn’t particularly like Lizzie, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that her half-sister was in serious trouble. ‘All right, I’ll see what I can do but I need to talk to my boss first, I can’t just go off. Wait ’ere, I’ll be as quick as I can.’

  Hurrying to Station Officer Steele’s office, Frankie decided the best thing to do was to tell her the truth – this was too big a thing to make some excuse to ask for time off. What Lizzie had done was illegal and, even worse than that, it could kill her. As the boss listened to what Frankie said, her face blanched white. ‘That’s all I know so far. Can I have time off to go and help her? She probably needs to get to ’ospital.’

  ‘The foolish, foolish girl. Abortions are illegal and if it doesn’t kill her, she could end up in prison for it. At least her friend’s got some common sense to come for help.’ Station Officer Steele drummed her fingers on her desk for a few moments and then stood up. ‘I’m coming with you, we’ll take an ambulance.’

  Frankie hadn’t expected this. ‘What are we goin’ to do?’

  ‘Come on, there’s no time to stand around, your sister’s life may well be hanging in the balance, we can talk on the way.’ Station Officer Steele strode out of the door and Frankie hurried after her.

  ‘Right, Vera,’ the boss said as Frankie drove them out of Station 75, with the WAAF sitting between them in the front of the ambulance. ‘Tell us everything you know: how many months pregnant Lizzie was, when and where she went for the abortion.’

  ‘She’d missed a couple of monthlies before she realised, or at least admitted it to herself what had happened. I know she asked around some of the other girls and heard about a woman who could help . . . for a price. She went to see her yesterday while we were off shift and was in pain last night and this morning she looked bad, pale and sweaty.’

  ‘Is she bleeding?’ the boss asked.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Vera said.

  ‘The danger, apart from developing an infection, is that your friend will haemorrhage and bleed to death. We’ve got to take her to hospital,’ Station Officer Steele said.

  ‘But she’ll get in trouble!’ Vera said.

  Frankie glanced at her sister’s friend. ‘She already is and, if she’s unlucky, she might end up payin’ for this with ‘er life.’

  They drove along in silence for a few minutes before Station Officer Steele spoke. ‘Lizzie isn’t the first young woman to do such a foolish thing and she won’t be the last. I suggest she tells them she had a fall or something, and it started a miscarriage.’

  ‘You mean lie?’ Vera said.

  ‘Yes,’ the boss said.

  Frankie took her eyes off the road for a few seconds and looked at her boss who stared directly back at her, her face perfectly composed as if she hadn’t just suggested what she had. ‘All right, that’s what she should do if you think it’s best.’

  ‘I do. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with this situation, and I hope this one comes off better than the last time.’ The older woman sighed. ‘It’s a sad fact that young women are left to deal with such things while the men get away scot-free. It’s no wonder they turn to knitting needle Noras in desperation.’

  Frankie knew that Lizzie must be in a bad way because when they went into the room she shared with Vera, her sister didn’t complain about her arrival, she just glanced at them, her eyes screwed up with pain as she huddled in a foetal position in the bed.

  ‘Your sister and her boss have come to help you,’ Vera said, putting her hand on Lizzie’s shoulder. ‘I didn’t know what else to do, you can’t go on like this, you need help.’

  Lizzie nodded and started to cry, retching sobs shaking her body. ‘I never knew it would be like this.’

  ‘You need to go to hospital, Lizzie.’ Frankie gently laid a hand on her sister’s shoulder.

  ‘I can’t, they’ll arrest me,’ Lizzie wailed. ‘Put me in prison.’

  Station Officer Steele went over to her and pulled the covers down to reveal a bright red bloodstain on the bottom sheet that stood out starkly against the white. The boss looked at Frankie and raised her eyebrows – the message on her face quite clear.

  ‘I’ll go and get a stretcher,’ Frankie said.

  Lizzie didn’t complain as they gently lifted her on to the stretcher a few minutes later and carried her out to the ambulance.

  ‘I’ll ride in the back with her,’ the boss said as they loaded her in. ‘And on this occasion ignore the usual speed limit, Frankie, get us there as quick as you can.’

  The journey to Guy’s Hospital passed in a blur as Frankie’s mind played out different scenarios of what might happen, the worst being that Lizzie would pay with her life for her desperate visit to the knitting needle Nora. Frankie hadn’t developed a good relationship with her in the same way as she had done with her younger sister, Eve, who had been warm and friendly towards Frankie right from when they had first met, unlike Lizzie, who’d been openly hostile. D
espite that, she desperately hoped that her sister wouldn’t pay the ultimate price for her foolish behaviour, as the ripples from it would extend far out into her family and Frankie didn’t want to see them hurt.

  Carrying Lizzie into the casualty department, Frankie was grateful that Station Officer Steele was with them as she swept into action.

  ‘This woman needs immediate attention,’ the boss said in a voice that brooked no argument, as they approached the nurse in charge of the reception area. ‘Suspected miscarriage and haemorrhaging.’

  ‘This way,’ the nurse said, hurrying ahead and opening doors for them.

  As Frankie helped to transfer Lizzie onto the examination bed, her sister grabbed hold of her arm and their eyes met, her sister’s full of fear. ‘Will you stay, please?’

  ‘Patients and staff only allowed in here,’ the nurse said. ‘But your . . . ’

  ‘Sister,’ Lizzie said.

  ‘Your sister can stay in the waiting room,’ the nurse said kindly.

  A surge of pity swelled up in Frankie. ‘I’ll just be out in the waitin’ room.’

  Lizzie managed a smile before pain focused her attention again and her face screwed up in agony.

  ‘Right, you need to go now so that we can help her,’ the nurse said, ushering them out quickly.

  Station Officer Steele put her hand on Frankie’s shoulder as they walked back to the waiting area to where Vera stood looking worried. ‘She’s in their hands now and all we can do is hope. You stay here, and I’ll get back to Station 75. Don’t worry about work, stay here as long as you need to.’

  Frankie nodded. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I’ll stay as well,’ Vera said. ‘The rest of the crew can manage without me.’

  ‘Five minutes and no more,’ the staff nurse said quietly as she ushered Frankie and Vera into the women’s ward where Lizzie had been taken after having surgery. ‘She’s lucky to have survived, though she’ll never have children of her own now.’