Connie’s Courage (7 page)

As she spoke, instead of feeling guilty, Connie felt as though a weight had fallen off her shoulders; as though suddenly she was the young woman she was describing; and as though Kieron, and all the horror she now associated with him, had never been. Her active imagination was already making her the girl she was claiming to be: Connie Pride, whose unkind stepmother had forced her to leave her home and fend for herself. And, after all, it wasn't completely untrue!

Connie felt her spirits lift, laughing and giggling along with the others.

‘What is going on? Stop this noise this instant!'

The stern voice of the woman approaching them, shocked them all into silence.

‘I am Sister Jenkins,' she told them. ‘Come with me, please.'

She led them down into a tunnel, which connected the hospital to the nurses' home on the other side of the road. Once there, they were all handed a bundle which included their uniform, the cost of which, they learned, would be deducted from their wages. Clutching these bundles, they were then taken to the dormitory-like rooms where they would be sleeping.

‘I am in charge of the nurses' home,' Sister Jenkins told them, ‘and if I have any complaints about you, they will be referred to Matron. Let me warn you now, that Matron does not like receiving complaints about the probationers.'

The small dormitories contained eight beds each, and Connie was delighted to discover that she and Vera were sharing, but not quite so pleased to learn that Mavis was also in their dormitory. There was something about Mavis that reminded her, unwontedly, of her sister Ellie.

When Vera whispered conspiratorially to her, ‘Pity we've got Miss Goody Two Shoes in here with us.' Connie couldn't help giggling in response.

Josie was also in the same dormitory, and Mavis, for all her apparent primness, turned out to have
a good sense of humour so that, by the end of the day, Connie felt as at home with her new friends as though she had known them all her life.

It took less than a month for Connie to realise that her rosy dreams of being Florence Nightingale, were just that. The reality was that the probationers' duties were onerous and exhausting.

‘Connie, you've forgotten your cap,' Josie announced, as the four of them got up from the dinner table.'

Oh grief, throw it over will you, Josie,' Connie begged her.

Obligingly Josie did so, but before Connie could catch it, Vera made a grab for it, and threw it to Mavis, calling out, ‘Catch it, Mavis.'

Within seconds, the fun of the jape Vera had started had the four of them giggling as they threw Connie's cap to one another like a ball.

‘Ouch!' As the cap sailed over her head and she made a leap to catch it, Connie bumped into something or rather, someone.

‘What on earth is going on in here?' Sister Jenkins' ice-cold glance took in Connie's dishevelled curls and missing cap, and then travelled to where the cap was now lying on the floor. ‘This is disgraceful behaviour,' she told Connie coldly. ‘You are a probationer nurse, not a schoolgirl, and this hospital has certain standards of behaviour that it expects from its nurses.'

‘But it wasn't just Connie …' Josie began, only to go bright red as the Sister turned a gimlet glare on her.

‘I am well aware that all four of you have behaved disgracefully but … ‘ she continued, turning to confront Connie, ‘your behaviour is by far the worst. Laughing out loud, your hair half coming down, your cap …' Her mouth folded in a forbidding line. ‘If you do not wish to train to be a nurse, then I can assure you that there are a hundred girls or more, who would be only too happy to take your place!'

As she listened to the lecture she was being given, Connie suddenly realised to her own shock that, despite the hardship their training involved, she did not want to be dismissed.

‘Any more of this kind of behaviour and I shall report you to Matron.' Sister Jenkins warned Connie curtly.

‘'Ere, Josie, that's my bed you're sitting on,' Vera protested without heat, as she came bustling into their dormitory room. ‘I can't wait until we all get rooms of our own,' she added, as Josie reluctantly got up from her comfortable seat.

‘I heard one of the Sisters saying that, with all the new nurses who have been taken on in case there's a war, some of the junior nurses may have to double up and share a room.' Mavis warned her, adding, ‘Anyway, I like sharing. It reminds me of being at home and sharing with my little sister.'

‘Oh, you would, Goody Two Shoes, Connie teased her. ‘Personally, I can't wait for my own room – perhaps then my bed won't be covered in other people's things!' she announced, giving Josie a meaningful look.

‘Well, it isn't my fault I've had to put my clean uniform on your bed,' Josie defended herself indignantly, recognising immediately that Connie's dig was intended for her, ‘Vera has put all her things on my bed.'

By the time the good-natured squabble had been resolved, it was time for them to go down to the dining hall for their evening meal.

When the hospital had been rebuilt, thanks to the influence of Miss Florence Nightingale and her converts, a great deal of thought had been given to the needs of the nursing staff. Thus, the hospital was linked to the nurses' home by a tunnel, which saved the nurses having to go out in inclement weather. As well as their rooms, the nurses had been provided with a proper dining room, plus a recreation room, which they could use in their off-duty hours.

‘At least they feed us properly here,' Josie commented, as they filed out into the corridor.

‘Properly! Is that what you call it? I'm sick to me stomach of stew and steamed pudding!' Vera announced in disgust. ‘I'd give half a week's wages for a decent pork pie and a glass of porter.'

‘Well, we've all got an evening off on Saturday,' Mavis reminded them, adding with a sigh, ‘I was hoping we might get the whole afternoon, then I could have taken the tram down to the pier, and got baggage ferry across to New Brighton, to see my mother and my sister.'

‘Ooh, New Brighton!' Josie exclaimed excitedly. ‘They've got ever such a good pier there. Me auntie took us once.'

‘Well, since we're all off together, why don't the four of us tek ourselves out for a bit of jollity,' Vera announced.

‘We could go to a music hall! Connie joined in excitedly.

She had never forgotten the magical occasion on which Kieron had taken her to a music hall in the early days of their romance. She had been entranced by everything about the evening; the singing; the comedian, but most of all the excitement and fun of being amongst people who were determined to have a good time.

‘Oh, yes,' Josie agreed eagerly. ‘We could go to the Majestic, Marie Lloyd might be there.

The mention of the famous singer made them all sigh a little enviously.

‘We always go to the Christmas panto at the Royal Court, but I've never been to a music hall,' Mavis joined in wistfully.

‘You ll love it, Connie assured her.

‘I can't wait, Josie wriggled with anticipation. ‘Which one do you think will be best, Vera, the Majestic or the Empire?

‘The Majestic!' Vera pronounced firmly. ‘That's where me mam and dad allus go. They took me with them a few months back, and there was this singer. He was that handsome he made me come over all of a quiver!

The saucy smile Vera gave as she extolled the virtues of the male singer made the other three laugh, and, within minutes, they were excitedly making plans for their evening out.

Looking forward to the fun which lay ahead of them helped to ease the hard work of scrubbing
ward floors, cleaning the sinks and washrooms, and all the other drudgery that seemed to constitute their daily lives.

Not that they didn't have some contact with the patients. When she heard Josie complaining about the women on her ward, Connie felt pleased that she was working on one of the male wards.

‘Not that some of them aren't hard work, if you know what I mean,' she confided darkly to the three, over breakfast one morning. ‘I overheard Sister telling one of them off for trying to show her his you know what!

Mavis went slightly pink, but a certain earthy heartiness was part and parcel of what they were learning, and even she laughed and admitted that she had heard that some of the male patients liked upsetting the probationers by behaving in an ungentlemanly fashion.

The Saturday of their outing to the music hall, Connie arrived back in their room a few minutes after the others, complaining, ‘I've spent all afternoon winding bandages. My fingers feel as though they've gone numb!

‘You'd better get a move on, else we're going to be late, Josie warned her. ‘We're all ready!

Grumbling, Connie hurried through her own toilette, trying not to feel too envious of the smart new dress that Vera was wearing.

‘Can I have a spray of your gardenia scent, Vera?'

she begged. ‘Otherwise I'll be going out stinking of carbolic.'

‘You can have some of my lavender water, Connie,' Josie offered, and Connie had to accept it with good grace, whilst wishing that she could go out scented with the more exotic gardenia fragrance.

The four of them were in high spirits as they left the nurses' home and set off for the bus stop, linking up together at Connie's instigation, and laughing in the summer sunshine.

The conductor on the bus gave them a wink and said, ‘Off to have some fun, is you, girls! By, I wish I was coming with youse!' as he took their fares.

‘I'm hungry,' Josie complained. ‘I was that excited I never ate me dinner.'

‘Well they won't let us in with food any more,' Vera complained. ‘So we'll get a glass of porter and summat to eat before we go in.'

The bus took them right up to the music hall. Vera had suggested that they got off a few stops short of it and had a look at the shops, ‘whilst we've got the chance', but Mavis and Josie had both vetoed this suggestion.

‘Ooh, look, they've got George Robey as the comedian,' Josie gasped in thrilled excitement, as they got off the bus and hurried over to look at the programmes posted outside the building.

Clinging together to avoid being jostled by the growing crowd, the four of them peered excitedly at the billboard.

‘Look there, right at the top, there's Marie Lloyd, and he's there, too!' Vera burst out excitedly. ‘It's him as I was telling you all about, George Lashwood. He's that handsome …' She gave a deep sigh.

‘It says here that there's an Ella Shields on as a male impersonator, Josie began, and then stopped to demand, ‘does that means she's a woman pretending to be a man?

‘ Ere come on you girls, let someone else get a look at the billing.'

The jocular request, made by a young man with a ready smile and twinkling blue eyes, had them falling back, blushing.

‘Going in, are yer?' he asked. ‘Only I'm with a few of me pals and we could sit together, if you fancied it.'

Immediately Connie tensed. Kieron's desertion of her and its frightening aftermath had left her feeling very wary of the male sex. And aware, too, of her own shameful secret. She felt a fierce need to protect herself, not just from having her past discovered, but also from giving any other man the idea that he could treat her as Kieron had. This might go against the grain of her normally fun-loving, light-hearted personality, but men, in Connie's eyes, had become a species who were not to be trusted – and certainly not allowed to take any kind of liberties!

‘What, let you sit with us? Not likely!' she answered him sharply, exclaiming to the others,
as he stuck his hands in his pockets and laughed before walking off, ‘Cheek!'

‘You're turning into a right spoilsport, Connie!' Vera complained. ‘It would have been a bit of fun sitting with ‘em!'

The crowd outside the building was growing by the minute, and when Mavis suggested that they get themselves something to eat and then go inside, the other three willingly agreed. By the time the curtain went up on the first act, they were sitting cosily in their seats, waiting expectantly.

The loud roar of approval with which the crowd greeted the first act set the tone for the whole night, and, well before the curtain had been rung down on the first half of the evening, all four girls had thrown themselves into the spirit of things.

‘I'm hoarse already from singing,' Mavis complained, as the curtain swung down.

‘Ooh, that comedian had me laughing that much me ribs ache,' Josie marvelled. ‘No wonder they calls him the Prime Minister of Mirth.'

The interval gave everyone the opportunity to get up from their seats and stretch their legs, and when the four girls were entertained by an enterprising young man who came and stood in front of them, and provided an impromptu show of his own devising – complete with a song extolling their beauty – everyone around them started to clap and cheer.

The good-natured atmosphere couldn't help but lift your spirits, Josie announced.

‘It's a pity it's so full, otherwise we could have done a bit of dancing ourselves, up at the back,' Vera complained.

All four of them exchanged slightly wistful looks, but their disappointment at not being able to dance was soon forgotten, when the curtain went up on the second half of the show.

Ella Shields came on first, dressed in her male clothes, and sang, ‘Burlington Bertie from Bow', to catcalls and yells of encouragement and approval from the audience.

When everyone else got to their feet to join in the final chorus, so did the four girls, singing the familiar words at the top of their voices.

Red in the face and happy, they waited expectantly for Vera's handsome singer to appear.

When he did, his appearance was enough to cause an impressed silence to fall over the theatre, followed by a soft, muted sound, which was a sigh of pleasure from the whole of the female audience.