Snow Angels: An emotional Christmas read from the Sunday Times bestseller (The Lovely Lane Series Book 5)

by Nadine Dorries

  Emily shook her head and pulled her son into her chest.

  ‘Emily…’ Dessie stood in front of her and, reaching down, lifted Louis from her arms. He knew that if he didn’t make this happen, she would regret it. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go back to the hospital. The poor woman has no one but Louis – and us. I don’t know about you but I feel I owe her a thank you at the very least.’

  Emily didn’t speak, but she stood up from the chair and took the coat Jake was holding out to her.

  ‘I’ve got the van,’ he said. ‘It’s already getting dark and the roads are bad. Doreen and Madge have gone to fetch Malcolm from the Seaman’s Rest, because that’s where the girl, Eva, has been staying.’

  *

  Teddy wasn’t surprised to discover that his brother was pacing up and down like a caged lion.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Roland demanded to know.

  ‘Roland, I don’t know where to begin,’ said Teddy. ‘Who is in with her?’

  ‘Dana and a midwife. Dana was, rather, she went to fetch a hot drink for me about five minutes ago.’

  Teddy smiled. ‘Let me go and chase that for you,’ he said and disappeared as quickly as he had arrived.

  Dana was in the maternity unit kitchen with her back to him when he stepped in. She was laying up a tray and, thinking it was one of the midwives, didn’t turn around.

  ‘I hope you don’t mind,’ she said. ‘I’ve taken a few biscuits; our mother needs some energy. We thought she was going to be quick for a primigravida, but she’s run true to form and is going to take forever!’

  Dana turned around with a smile on her face which slipped as soon as she saw it was Teddy. ‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said.

  He moved to the other side of the table. ‘Yes, it’s me. Did you get my letter?’

  Dana avoided his eyes and stared at the tray. She absentmindedly picked up a teaspoon. ‘I did, but I’m afraid it doesn’t make any difference to my position. Things are still as they are.’

  He reached out and grabbed her hand and the teaspoon fell and clattered on the saucer. ‘Dana, please don’t make it forever. Please, it’s Christmas, will you at least talk to me? Just talk, hear me out. If you want to walk away and never speak to me again, I will understand, but at least let me have one night. Tomorrow, can we meet, just to talk? I may have a niece or nephew by then and you may have a godchild. It’s a new beginning, isn’t it?’

  Dana smiled and his heart leapt. ‘Tomorrow? At the rate she’s going, I doubt it.’

  A midwife called through the kitchen door, ‘Oi, you two, you’re missing all the action. Delivery under way in room three!’

  ‘What?’ exclaimed Dana and almost ran out of the kitchen.

  *

  Pammy had offered to special-nurse Eva and stay with her until the end, or when the night staff came on, whichever came first.

  ‘Do you know, there isn’t a day when my nurses don’t fill me with pride?’ said Matron to Dr Gaskell, Dr William, Doris and Miss Devonshire as Elsie made teas and coffees in her rooms.

  ‘So much for a quiet Saturday, Elsie,’ Matron had said when the others left to return to Mavis’s house and save the pan of scouse that was still sitting on a flame on the stove.

  ‘Oh, indeed, we have the best working here, Matron.’

  Elsie slopped back into the kitchen to Biddy who was sitting on the stool, red-eyed and fretful.

  ‘I feel so bad, Elsie,’ she said.

  ‘Well don’t,’ said Elsie. ‘Save your tears. From what I’ve heard, that poor girl isn’t going to make it. I’m done here. I think you and I should go and see your friend Malcolm. I saw the look on his face. I think we all need a drink tonight, don’t you?’

  ‘I’ll fetch Madge and Doreen too – they are in the switchboard room. Let’s go and drown our sorrows, eh? This is one night the Sylvestrian isn’t out of bounds. And Doreen’s been asking me a lot about Malcolm these past few days,’ said Elsie.

  *

  Eva was in a side room on ward two. Dusk had fallen and the snow had continued to fall and now covered soot, fog and smoke-stained Liverpool in a blanket of sparkling white. Emily and Dessie sat on each side of Eva’s bed and Louis, fast asleep, lay next to her in the crook of her arm. He was exhausted by his day’s activities, which was just as well as Eva continued to drift in and out of consciousness. Emily, always the nurse, kept one eye on the drip and the other on her pulse and breathing.

  It was Dessie who began to speak first; Emily watched as he picked up Eva’s hand.

  ‘I don’t know if you can hear me, love,’ he said, ‘but your little lad, he is the bonniest in all of Liverpool. He’s going to be a clever boy too, always alert he is, takes everything in. I just wanted to say thank you, because the past months while we’ve been looking after him, they have been the best of my life.’

  Dessie was only whispering, but his voice broke and Emily could see that her husband was struggling with the emotion of it all. She slipped her warm hand into Eva’s cold one and squeezed it.

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered, ‘I promise you that if you need me to look after your Elijah, he will be the most loved and most cared for child to have lived. He will want for nothing.’ She felt an imperceptible squeeze on her hand and once again, struggled with the tears in her eyes.

  Pammy came into the room and picked up Eva’s chart, checked the observations, and settled down into a chair next to the window. Emily laid Eva’s hand on Louis’ back, Dessie stroked the top of her other hand that lay in his own.

  As Pammy looked out of the window she saw a procession of capes and candlelit lanterns meandering across the car park as the nuns appeared at the ward doors and filed in. Pammy turned and looked out of the cubicle glass and saw that with the nuns were Matron, Dr Gaskell, Doris his wife and the head of children’s services, Miss Devonshire.

  ‘Oh they are going to sing carols,’ said Pammy. ‘This always makes me cry.’ She turned in her chair to watch the choir and felt her heart swell as it always did as they began on the strains of ‘Silent Night’.

  I am such a lucky girl, thought Pammy. She thought of her mam, Mavis, taking everyone home to feed them and making a detour to collect Mrs Duffy and take her home to explain everything that had happened to them. She thought about Anthony, who she was seeing that evening, and as she turned to Emily and Dessie and Eva, she thought how lucky she was to know such selfless and kind people. The strains of ‘Silent Night’ filled the room as Malcolm walked in with Doreen and Madge. Dessie rose to offer him his chair.

  ‘No, you sit,’ said Malcolm who had tears in his eyes.

  Pammy watched as Doreen slipped her handkerchief into Malcolm’s hand and, placing her hand on his back, comforted him. Aye, aye, thought Pammy, who became more like her mother, Mavis, every day. Pammy guessed she had just witnessed the start of something special at the end of something they were all still grappling with.

  Eva opened her eyes. She didn’t speak, but she did look down at her son, and bent her head, resting her lips on his hair as he soundly slept. They all lifted their heads to watch the choir so none of them noticed Eva’s tears fall onto Louis’ scalp or her lip pucker onto his skin or heard the words as they left her mouth, ‘Kocham Cię, I love you.’

  Matron held up the lantern that she always carried around the wards each Christmas and caught Pammy’s eye and saw her tears. That girl always cries at the carols, she thought. She must have a very good heart.

  As the carol singers finished and moved away, Emily turned back to Eva and she could tell straight away, by the beautiful and peaceful smile on Eva’s face that belied her anguish, it was over. She took her hand, lifted it, felt for her pulse and whispered, ‘Dessie, she has gone.’

  *

  Dana left the labour room in search of Roland, who she found with Teddy, smoking cigars in the day room.

  ‘Well,’ she said, feeling almost giddy. ‘Do you two want to know the news?’

  Roland didn’t answer, he
couldn’t. Beth came running around the corner. ‘Sorry, I only had to clean the theatre down – I mean as in wash all the flamin’ walls and it took forever,’ she said. ‘Any news?’

  ‘There is indeed,’ said Dana. ‘Victoria has had a baby girl.’

  There was an eruption of shouts as Roland headed straight to the labour room, leaving Beth with Dana and Teddy. Beth immediately took her leave. ‘I’m half-starved,’ she said. ‘I’m off to find out what’s going on down on ward two. What a night!’

  ‘A girl,’ said Teddy. ‘Did she manage without the forceps, is everything…?’

  ‘Yes, all good. She’s had the great contraction, third stage is complete and the midwife is just checking the placenta. Everything is there.’

  ‘Good, you know about the girl, Louis’ mother?’

  ‘Yes, I heard upstairs,’ said Dana. ‘That is very sad.’

  Silence fell and Teddy, scared she was about to walk away, spoke again. ‘Did she say what she wanted to call her?’

  Dana walked over to the window and looked out at the snow. ‘No, she did say one thing, though, this is my snow angel.’

  Teddy laughed. ‘She is too.’ He slipped his hand into hers. ‘Dana, will you forgive me? Let me try and prove to you that I am not that man?’

  Dana had forgotten what his skin felt like, the familiar firmness of his hand. He was so close, she could smell him. It was all still there, the frisson, the excitement, the love.

  ‘Teddy…’

  ‘I know. I know I have so much to prove, I could take forever, but please, if you feel half as much as I do, you will want to try and find a way. Do you?’

  She turned to face him, forced too to face the truth.

  ‘I do want to.’ It was almost a whisper and he was so overcome with emotion he couldn’t answer and, instead, as he felt her move towards him, placed his lips on hers.

  *

  Doris deposited Miss Devonshire at her front door as her husband kept the engine running.

  ‘What are you doing for Christmas, Dukie?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh, I will go to mass, and then have a quiet day in front of the TV.’

  ‘Nonsense, I won’t hear of it. You will come to us. Don’t think you are the only one, Matron is coming too.’

  And a few minutes later, as she sat back in the car, she turned to her husband and smiled as he lifted the handbrake. ‘Home, James,’ she said. ‘Will this old car make it?’

  ‘It will,’ he replied. ‘Unlike that poor girl. Did you just invite Dukie for Christmas?’

  ‘I did.’

  ‘And Matron, too.’ Her husband shook his head in amazement. ‘I don’t know what has happened to you, my dear, but I fully approve.’

  ‘Good, because I’ve invited Dr William and his family too.’

  Dr Gaskell threw his head back, roaring with laughter, and she felt a warmth flow through her at the sound of him. It had been years since he had laughed with her like that.

  ‘I’m going to get the sherry out when we get home,’ he said. ‘No cooking for you. Let’s have one of those cheese and toast type suppers we used to have years go.’

  Doris turned and looked out of the window. I just have one little thing to do first, she thought to herself, and imagined the pleasure she would feel when she lifted the lid and threw her little blue pills to the bottom of the bin.

  About the author

  Nadine Dorries grew up in a working-class family in Liverpool. She spent part of her childhood living on a farm with her grandmother, and attended school in a small remote village in the west of Ireland. She trained as a nurse, then followed with a successful career in which she established and then sold her own business. She is an MP, presently serving as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department of Health and Social Care, and has three daughters.

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