by Lynda Page
He replied without any hesitation, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been surer about anything … oh, except about marrying you, of course.’
Beryl chucked. ‘Well, that settles it then. We’re going to become parents. I never thought I’d ever hear myself say that.’
Trevor was frowning. ‘But it’s not just a case of us deciding we’re going to keep the baby, is it? What if Social Services won’t let us keep her, for some reason? I mean, we’re no spring chickens. They might say we’re too old.’
Beryl said matter-of-factly, ‘There’s no reason for them to become involved. The mother and family aside, there’s only you, me and April who actually know of the baby’s existence. April will keep our secret if it means the baby is going to have a good home and future. So, as far as anyone else is concerned, the baby is our natural child.’
‘But I’m a copper, Beryl. If I get caught out in such a whopper of a lie, my time in the force will be over and my reputation as a pillar of the community will be in tatters.’
‘The only way anyone will find out is if you tell them. I know some people would see this as telling lies, but I prefer to think of us as being a little sparing with the truth. Surely we can be forgiven that if it’s for the sake of a baby?’
‘Mmm, when you put it like that, it’s the right thing we’re doing.’ Trevor paused for a moment then asked, ‘Think me a bit thick, love, but won’t people ask questions when you suddenly produce a baby … like, how can you have one without being pregnant?’
‘During my time as a nurse I’ve delivered at least fifty babies, and five of them were to mothers who had no idea they were pregnant. I’ll say I didn’t have any idea whatsoever I was pregnant until the baby suddenly arrived, not long after I’d got home from work on Saturday morning, and you helped to deliver her. The reason we haven’t told our families or anyone yet is because we have both been in too much shock at suddenly having an addition to our family.’
‘Well, it seems you’ve thought of everything, love, apart from one thing. What if the mother changes her mind?’
Beryl looked thoughtful. ‘Well, from what I know of her, I feel that’s a very remote possibility. She’s probably pushed all this to the back of her mind and is getting on with her life. There’s no worry about the father as he was just a lad she met at the fair. I doubt she even knew his name. As I told you, she’s what my mother would’ve termed “tuppence short of a shilling”. And if she does turn up in the future … well, for the sake of the little one, we’d stick to our story. It would be her word against ours and she’d have no proof that the child is hers. Don’t think I won’t feel bad for her because I will and I know you will too but, surely, putting the child’s well-being first justifies our behaviour.’
Trevor said with conviction, ‘Yes, it does. All that remains is for us to think of a nice name for her.’ He thought for a moment and offered, ‘What about Rosie? It’s a very pretty name and she looks like a little rosebud, doesn’t she?’
Beryl smiled. ‘Yes, I like that. Rosie it is then.’
Trevor looked down at the sleeping child and said tenderly, ‘Well, little Rosie, I hope you like your new mum and dad because it seems you’re stuck with us.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Later that morning Jackie was staring at April Stephens in utter astoundment. ‘Sister Pendle has had a baby, a little girl, and she had no idea she was pregnant? My goodness, I’m in shock myself just hearing this, so I can’t imagine how she and Mr Pendle are feeling. She was only telling me on Thursday evening that she wasn’t the motherly type.’
April smiled. ‘Well, she’s going to have to be now, isn’t she? You can appreciate, though, why she can’t serve any notice.’
‘Yes, of course. We’ll have to see about another nurse to work alongside you, Sister, and to start as soon as possible.’ Jackie thought about it. Harold Rose wasn’t going to be able to push this on her like he’d done all the other matters he should have dealt with as temporary boss. Hiring a chalet maid Jackie could handle, but a qualified nurse was an entirely different matter.
‘I appreciate that,’ April was saying. ‘I’ve spoken to Sister Blundell who comes in when we need cover like she did this weekend, and she’s willing to do Sister Pendle’s shifts meantime.’
‘Oh, that’s good of her. I’ll organise a collection around the staff for a leaving present for Sister Pendle. We’d best get her something for the baby as she’ll have nothing for it, will she? I’m sure the staff will give as much as they can afford. Nurse Pendle was well liked.’
April got up to leave and Jackie was about to inform Harold Rose of this new development when the outer door to the office swung open and Pamela Randall, a junior Stripey, charged in and immediately approached Jackie. ‘There’s a problem at one of the shower blocks. Terry Jones wants you to come over urgently.’
April signalled she was taking her leave. Jackie responded jocularly, ‘I can turn my hand to lots of things, Pam, but plumber I’m not. I’ll get someone from maintenance to pop over. Which shower block is it?’
Picking up the switchboard handset, Al piped up, ‘I’ll put a call through to maintenance now.’
Pam said, ‘It’s not that kind of problem. I don’t know the ins and outs but a woman has locked herself in, she won’t talk to none of the Stripeys, so Terry was hoping you could persuade her to come out. There’s going to be a mutiny soon if she doesn’t as there’s a queue building of people wanting to use the toilets and showers, and they’re not too happy about not being able to.’
Jackie sighed. She really hadn’t time to deal with this. She was behind with holiday enquiries for later this season; she’d several urgent orders to place with suppliers; and she must speak to Harold Rose about several matters she needed his approval on, including a replacement nurse for Sister Pendle. It looked like another late night for her tonight. Asking Al to hold the fort, something he was getting used to doing, she told Pam, ‘Lead the way.’
Arriving at the shower block in question, Jackie made her way through a dozen or more disgruntled holidaymakers, apologising to them all for the difficulty they were experiencing and reassuring them that normal service would be resumed imminently. Finally she reached the door to the shower block where Terry Jones was waiting for her.
Terry was the head Stripey. Although he was extremely good at his job and well liked by the holidaymakers, Jackie found his overwhelming self-confidence and belief that he was God’s gift to women insufferable. Always careful how she approached him, so as not to give him the slightest reason to think she was coming on to him, Jackie asked stiltedly, ‘What’s going on, Terry?’
He shrugged. ‘I’m not sure exactly. All I know is that a woman attacked Helen Green, gave her a left hook a boxer would have been proud of, then shot into the shower block and barricaded herself in. Now she’s sobbing her socks off.’
Worriedly, Jackie asked, ‘Is Helen badly hurt?’
‘She’s going to have a right shiner, that’s for certain, but as for anything else we’ll have to wait until Sister Stephens has taken a look at her. Helen did manage to tell me that she has no idea why the attack took place. The woman won’t talk to me so I was hoping you might fare better.’
Jackie felt doubtful. ‘Well, I’ll have a go. Do you know her name?’
He shook his head. ‘I tried to find out so I could fetch her husband or whoever she’s staying here with, but as soon as I told her who I was she screamed at me to bugger off, saying she refused to talk to a Stripey.’
Jackie frowned. ‘She seems to have a beef against Stripeys for some reason, doesn’t she?’
Terry shrugged again. ‘I can’t imagine why. None of us Stripeys would have treated her any differently from the way we treat the other campers. All the Stripeys are well aware that the camper is always right, no matter what.’
Jackie rapped loudly on the door and called out, ‘Hello, my name is Jackie, I’m from the office. You’re obviously upset about something Stri
pey Helen has done. She’s no idea what it is. Will you tell me so I can try and sort it out?’
The harsh response came back, ‘That bitch is lying! She knows exactly what she’s done. Just keep her away from me or it’ll be more than a punch in the eye she gets. Now I don’t want to talk about it so go away and leave me alone.’
Jackie coaxed her, ‘But other holidaymakers need to use the facilities …’
The woman screamed. ‘I said, go away and leave me alone!’
Jackie sighed and spoke to Terry again, over her shoulder. ‘Helen is positive she has no idea why the woman attacked her?’ When she received no response she turned round to look at him and saw his attention was completely centred on a pretty young woman who had come to join the growing crowd of spectators, intrigued to know what was going on along with the rest of the queue of people wanting to use the shower block. Tutting disdainfully, Jackie snapped, ‘Terry?’
He spun back to face her, grinning, explaining away his distraction with: ‘Just doing my job, keeping the campers happy, Jackie.’
She hissed back, ‘Pity you don’t pay as much attention to all the other campers as you do to the young pretty ones. There’s a camper behind this door who is definitely not happy and we need to find out why. That’s what you should be giving all your attention.’ Jackie was about to repeat her question to him when she realised she was only wasting her time as Helen would have said when first asked if she knew why the woman had attacked her. What Jackie really needed to do was get in and talk to the woman herself. The door was barricaded from the inside, she suspected by the wooden wedge that was used to keep it propped open in hot weather to help keep the building cool, so the only way in was via one of the frosted windows at the back of the building. She had to hope that one of them was on the latch. ‘Come with me,’ she ordered Terry.
Around the back of the building Jackie was relieved to see that one of the windows was open. The narrow space, several feet above them, was just about wide enough for her to squeeze through. Standing underneath it, she said to Terry, ‘Give me a leg up, please.’
He looked at the window then at her. ‘You’re going to climb through?’
Jackie shot him a withering look. ‘You have any other suggestion as to how I can get inside? The door is jammed and I’m not a bird so I can’t fly in.’
Terry had always had a strong fancy for Jackie and never missed an opportunity to let her know how willing he was to act on it. The fact she had been courting for the past eighteen months hadn’t deterred him one bit. Now that relationship had broken up, he felt it was only a matter of time before she succumbed to his charms. The only reason she hadn’t yet was because she was playing hard to get. He eyed her seductively. ‘Just bothered you could end up hurting yourself, doll, that’s all. That’s the kind of man I am, see, naturally considerate.’
She eyed him darkly. ‘If you were that considerate you’d have offered to climb through the window yourself. And how many times have I told you not to call me “doll”? Now give me a leg up, and just hope I don’t happen to kick you in the face by accident.’
He moved closer to the wall then cupped his hands together and bent over, hiding a smirk, as usual misinterpreting her behaviour towards him as tacit encouragement.
As she put her hands on his shoulders and her right foot into his cupped hands, something struck Jackie. She looked Terry in the eye and spoke warningly. ‘If I catch you looking up my skirt, Helen won’t be the only Stripey needing Sister Stephens’ medical assistance.’
With a strenuous heave from Terry, Jackie was able to grab the metal frame of the window. He kept pushing her up and she managed to slide the top half of her body through the open window. She was glad to see a sink below her, one of a row of twelve fixed to the wall. Hopefully it would stand her weight when she manoeuvred her legs down and stood on it before lowering herself to the ground.
Jackie then scanned her eyes around the interior of the shower block. She could hear the woman crying but couldn’t at first see her. Finally she spotted her by the door, sitting hunched on the floor with her back to it, forehead resting on her knees, so consumed by her own misery she didn’t know she was being watched.
Easing one leg through the window, Jackie twisted herself around to bring the other through with it, then slowly began to lower herself down. The first she knew that her skirt had caught on the window catch was when she heard a loud tearing noise as her feet reached the sink. She fumed inwardly, annoyed with herself for not having the foresight to check that her clothing wasn’t caught on the protruding metal catch. The blue, green and yellow plaid mini-skirt she was wearing was one of her favourites and hadn’t been cheap. Hopefully the rip was on a seam and could be repaired. She was relieved, though, that the sink showed no sign of giving way beneath her. Climbing down on to the white-tiled floor, she made her way over to the crying woman and squatted down before her. In a soft voice Jackie said, ‘Hello …’
She got no further as the woman gave out a terrified yelp, screaming, ‘Who the hell are you? Where did you come from?’
In her own shock at this unexpected outburst Jackie toppled backwards, landing on her back, legs flying into the air. She lay dazed for a moment before gathering her wits and scrambling back up on her knees, thankful no men were present and getting an eyeful of her knickers.
‘I’m sorry I surprised you like this, but as you won’t let anyone through the door, I had to climb through the window. My name is Jackie, I work for management in the office. You’re obviously upset, think one of our Stripeys has done something …’
The other woman hysterically interjected, ‘I don’t think – I know. She stole my husband. I know I shouldn’t put all the blame on her. It takes two to tango, doesn’t it? They’re planning to run off together, I know they are.’
‘But why would you think that?’
‘I saw them together, and the way they were acting it was obvious they were plotting something. We women know when our husbands are up to something, and soon after we got here last Saturday mine kept disappearing: telling me he was popping to the shop for cigarettes when he’d a full packet in his pocket; going to the toilet again when he’d not long been; off to check the entertainment board to see what’s on when we’ve a pamphlet in the chalet. Each time I offered to go with him he’d make an excuse for me not to. What woman wouldn’t get suspicious when her husband was acting like that?
‘When he made an excuse to go out without me this morning, I decided to follow him. He met up with that woman behind the shops. She was waiting for him when he arrived. I watched them talk for a bit and she was showing Clive something, I couldn’t see what it was but he studied it for a moment then pointed at something and she nodded. It must have been a bus timetable – they were probably agreeing what time to meet at the stop to go off together. As he left her Clive looked really happy with himself. She looked pleased too. I shot back to the chalet. When he came in he was empty-handed so I asked him where he’d been as he hadn’t got his cigarettes, and he made some lame excuse about there being a queue at the shop. Said he didn’t want to wait so would go again later.’
She heaved a miserable sigh and wiped the back of her hand under her running nose. ‘I’m not usually the violent sort, but you see Clive and me haven’t been getting on that well for some time now. We’re both desperate for a family. Been trying for a baby for the past five years. Nothing has happened and it’s caused a strain between us. It doesn’t help that both our families are constantly nagging at us to give them grandchildren. I’ve been really down just lately because the doctor told me that the reason I wasn’t conceiving could be due to the fact I’m overweight and I should try losing some. I have tried really hard but the weight won’t come off.
‘It was Clive’s idea for us to come here on holiday. He said away from it all, having ourselves some fun, it just might happen. It’s happened for him all right, hasn’t it? He’s met someone else who’s more than likely able to give him the f
amily he wants when I obviously can’t. So that’s why this morning, when he came back from having supposedly gone to the shop and lied about it when questioned, I just saw red. What made it worse is that it’s my birthday today and Clive hasn’t even mentioned it. No card, nothing.
‘I’ve never punched anyone before but I gave him a smacker in the face then went off in search of his floozy and did the same to her. Trouble is, I feel so ashamed of myself now for lashing out like a fishwife … I know people saw me, and they must be thinking all sorts about me and now I daren’t show myself. That’s why I locked myself in here, because I’m too embarrassed to go out and face them all. I just want to get away from here … as far away from Clive as I can. I wish I could hate him for what he’s done to me. He’s not just broken my heart, he’s smashed my life to smithereens. He’s the only man I’ve ever loved, or could ever see myself loving.’
She wrung her hands in distress. ‘I can’t blame him for falling for that other woman. She’s pretty and slim whereas I’m plain and plump.’ Through red-rimmed, swollen eyes, she looked pleadingly at Jackie. ‘I can’t bear to hear Clive tell me he doesn’t love me any more so I can’t go back to the chalet in case he’s there. Could you arrange for someone to pack my stuff up for me, and for me to get to the station so I can catch a train home? Tell Clive that I’ll have all his stuff packed up and he can collect it from his mother’s so he can start his new life with …’
A fresh flood of tears stopped her from saying any more.
Jackie’s heart went out to her. She knew at first hand just how wretched and betrayed this woman was feeling, having suffered the very same fate herself. The difference was, though, that her mother and Keith had fallen for each other over time but fought their feelings, conscious of the pain it was going to cause Jackie when it came out. Whereas this woman’s husband appeared willing to devastate his wife and throw away his marriage for a woman he’d known barely more than five minutes. He should be ashamed of himself.
