The Angels of Lovely Lane (12 page)

Recovering herself, she spluttered, ‘Oh, thank you. I’m just looking for the Lovely Lane nurses’ home. I’m not really sure if this is it?’ There hadn’t been a man in Dana’s life till now that she hadn’t known since she was a child. Being spoken to by a stranger was a new experience and she felt herself blush. His accent was crisp, with no hint of Irish, and his eyes, which were now crinkled up at the corners and smiling at her, were honest and kind. Dana knew in an instant that she had nothing to fear from this man. She marvelled at the sight of him, and realized that she was still staring. He grinned as he took a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket and offered her one.

‘No thank you, I don’t smoke,’ she said rather primly. She was trying hard.

‘Ha!’ The man laughed. ‘That will last for less than a week. I would bet there isn’t a single nurse in St Angelus who doesn’t smoke.’

Dana bristled. ‘Well, there will be now. I made a promise to Mammy.’ By now she was blushing furiously. She had made many promises to Mammy over the past few days. Mrs Brogan knew an emotional advantage when she saw one and had pushed it to the hilt, saving the best until last. Dana could still hear the whispered words in her ears.

‘Never let a drink pass your lips, never smoke, and no sex outside marriage. I have only agreed to your moving to Liverpool because I know ye will swear to me, by all that is holy, to stick to those three promises, Dana.’

Dana had laughed in response. It was the first she had heard of it. ‘Well, they are easy promises to stick to, Mammy,’ she had replied. After Patrick, she had truly meant it. She had vowed never to speak to another man ever again.

‘What else did you promise your mammy, then?’ The young man exhaled a long plume of smoke and studied Dana carefully as he flicked his ash on to the pavement.

Dana prayed for the ground to open up and swallow her. How could she have been so naïve? Here was a man, a proper man, not one of the ignorant boys from the country. A man who smelt of cigarette smoke and something else she could not quite make out. A man who had the good manners to offer to help a girl who was obviously lost and not poke fun at her. This man, with his dark swept-back hair and deep brown eyes, with his polished brown leather suitcase, was a man of the world and Dana had been caught out. Her tongue was already in knots. Her mind was spinning and her mouth was dry with embarrassment. She knew if she spoke now, she would make even more of a fool of herself.

‘Go on then, what other promises did you make?’ She could sense he was on the verge of laughing again. ‘Was one of them not to speak to strange men, by any chance? Because if it was, you have already broken it. But, I might add, you are perfectly safe with me. I work at the hospital. That’s how I knew you must be a new nurse, looking so lost on Lovely Lane. So go on, I’m intrigued. What advice does an Irish mammy give to a daughter travelling to big bad Liverpool? Was it beware of strange men, and don’t drink alcohol along with the smoking? I think that’s what I would tell a daughter of mine if I ever had one.’

Dana found her voice. ‘Well, as it happens, no, it wasn’t. Not really. I am quite capable of holding a conversation with anyone, strange man or not, and ye don’t look very strange at all. Mammy didn’t need to warn me about that. I can look after myself very well.’

She was feeling more confident now. How dare this man try to tie her up in knots? Gorgeous or not, she would hold her own. She felt her bashed and beaten confidence return with a surge.

‘Well, I’m not going to give up until you tell me. I will regard it as my personal duty to find out, just in case it
was
don’t speak to strange men. Then I’ll know what my chances are of getting you to come out for a drink with me.’ He held the cigarette packet out to her again. Dana felt her stomach somersault at the audacity of a man who was telling her that he wondered if he had any chance of being alone with her. That had certainly never happened before and her head was spinning.

‘My name is Edward, by the way, and everyone calls me Teddy, but you will probably get to know me by a different name altogether.’ He took two cigarettes out of the packet, lit one and held it towards Dana. ‘What’s your name then, Miss Lost in Liverpool? If you tell me, then neither of us will be guilty of talking to strangers.’

‘I’m Dana. Dana Brogan. I’ve just got here off the boat,’ she said and then fell silent, not knowing what else to say. This man was confusing her. She was determined not to sound like the country girl she was.

‘Go on then, Dana, be a daredevil. We are practically best friends now by Scouse standards. Here, have a “welcome to Liverpool” ciggie.’

‘Really, no thank you.’ She smiled politely. She would have liked to try a cigarette but her mother’s breath was still warm on her ear.

‘Have you visited any of the wards in St Angelus yet?’ Teddy asked. Dana felt on safer ground with this question and responded with enthusiasm.

‘Oh, no. Not at all. I am dreading the wards. I’m near terrified.’

Teddy exhaled smoke before he replied. ‘Well, I should think so. Some of the doctors are terribly fearsome.’

He grinned at her and the cold damp Liverpool air was banished by a warm feeling glowing inside. For a moment she allowed herself to compare this man with Patrick and shuddered.

‘I’ve heard the ward sisters can be terrors,’ she said. She felt a conspiratorial thrill at discussing hospital staff she had never set eyes on with a man she had met less than ten minutes ago.

‘Yes, that is true, some can be. The best fun to be had is on nights. Not so many eyes around and lots of high jinks. Look, I have to go.’ Teddy held out his hand, and, not really knowing what was expected of her, Dana tentatively placed her own leather-gloved one in his. ‘I have to get to my own room,’ he explained, looking down the street as though he were expecting to see someone. ‘I look forward to meeting you again. Maybe next time I can work on getting you to break another of those promises you made to Mammy.’

Dana’s eyes bulged as she remembered. No sex outside of marriage.

Teddy dropped her hand, grinned, and said, ‘Go on, be brave. Go and knock on the door.’ Then, with a wave, he was gone. Swallowed up by the smog. Dana watched him vanish, wondering if all of a sudden he might reappear. Return to say something he had forgotten. Rush up the road and say, ‘Oh, by the way, Dana, if you ever need anything...’ and she would make sure she would.

She felt as though she knew him already. His teasing words and laughing eyes were intoxicating. She had definitely wanted to talk to him for longer. She hadn’t asked him what he did. Maybe he was a male nurse. She had heard that there had been quite a few working at St Angelus since the war. There was something about him that was both playful and worldly. She felt he was a man who had depths, and knew things that she couldn’t possibly imagine. Gosh, what kind of man would just stop a woman in the street and tease her like that
?
Dana wondered what he had meant when he said she would get to know him by another name. She had been so flustered; she had had no time to organize her thoughts and ask him. At least that meant he was sure she would be seeing him again. He appeared to have been confident of that.

With a sigh, she looked up at the tall, dove-grey building. She had never before had to walk up a flight of stone stairs to knock on a door twice her height and felt nervous about doing so now. What if one of the fearsome sisters was on the other side? She straightened her hat, picked up her suitcase, and taking a deep breath, prepared herself to approach the door that would open on to her new life. She half hoped that someone nice inside would peep round the net curtains, see her loitering and open the door before she knocked to shout a welcome down the steps and say yes, this is your home for the next three years and it’s lovely here, really it is.

Before she could move, she heard footsteps approaching, and a voice with a strong Liverpool accent called out to her.

‘Are you all right, love? Are you a new nurse, like me?’

Dana turned and saw a girl with dark hair and a fringe, parted on the side and swept across. It was a look that Dana was sure absolutely no one in Ireland had seen on another human being – unless you counted Audrey Hepburn in the magazines which sometimes came to the post office. Dana’s mouth almost fell open. Her shoulder-length red curly hair must look atrocious to someone so fashionable. She had heard her friends say that the women in Liverpool were the most elegant in the world, and had thought it must be an exaggeration, but now she wondered whether it could be true. Dana smiled. She felt as though she had smiled more in the last ten minutes than she had in the past week. She wondered, if she stood in the same spot on Lovely Lane for long enough, would everyone in Liverpool have stopped to speak to her?

‘I thought I was lost,’ she said, delighted to have connected with another new girl just like herself, ‘but a man who works at the hospital just stopped and told me I was in the right place.’

‘Let’s see that piece of paper in your hand.’ The girl glanced at it briefly, then turned to the older woman next to her and said, ‘Yeah, Mam, she’s new too. We’ve got the same letter, her an’ me.’ She smiled at Dana. ‘What a lovely name you have. I’m Pamela, but everyone, even the priest who christened me, calls me Pammy. Where are you from, love?’

‘I’m from a village near Belmullet, in the west of Ireland,’ said Dana.

Next to Pamela and her mother stood a man in a cap, lighting up a cigarette, and around them children of varying ages were excitedly jumping up and down. There appeared to be quite an age gap between Pammy and her siblings, a common consequence of the war, Dana had heard, with men fighting overseas for years at a time. Pammy seemed to have one younger sister and three much younger brothers.

‘Are you all on your own, queen?’ Pamela’s mother asked. ‘I’m Pammy’s mam, Maisie, and this is our Stan here,’ she said, pointing to the empty space next to her. Stan had disappeared. ‘And this lot are our kids. Drive me mad they do. Lorraine, stop annoying little Stan.’

‘I’m Dana – Dana Brogan. I’m new as well and I was looking for the nurses’ home, but it seems I’ve found it.’

‘Where’s your family, love?’ asked Maisie with a frown, looking beyond Dana, as though she expected to find a family of six crouching behind her.

‘Oh, they aren’t here. I came on my own. I know it says on the letter that your family can drop you off and see your room, just the once, but it’s a bit far for everyone to travel from Belmullet. We’re a long way from Dublin, and besides, there’s the milking and everything. We live on a farm.’

‘Oh yes, I know that, love,’ said Maisie, nodding enthusiastically. Dana was taken aback for a moment, but then Maisie said, ‘Everyone in Ireland lives on a farm. Anyway, love, my name is Mrs Tanner. We live just three roads away on Arthur Street, but our Pamela is moving into the nurses’ home because in our house she’d get no peace to study or anything, would you, Pammy?’

Pammy, who hadn’t been able to get a word in edgeways, smiled knowingly at Dana, who smiled back.

‘Anyway. Stan, come here,’ Maisie shouted to her husband, who was peacefully smoking his cigarette, leaning against a lamp-post and staring through the damp smog down the road towards the docks. Extinguishing his stub on the wet ground with the toe of his shoe, he headed back to the group, his steel heel- and toe-caps playing a tattoo on the pavement as he walked. He straightened his cap, sensing he was about to be given instructions, and he was right.

‘This is Dana, Stan,’ said Maisie.

‘Hello, Mr Tanner. It’s very nice to meet you. In fact, I’m relieved to meet you all, sure I am. I didn’t know was I in the right place at all.’

Pamela’s mother looked at Dana as though she were speaking in tongues.

‘You know what, Pammy, I love that Irish accent, don’t you?’ Then, ‘You see what it says on this letter, Stan? Your family’s allowed to accompany you to your room on your first night for twenty minutes so that they can be...’ she began to slow down as she reached the bigger words, ‘“reassured of the suitability of their daughter’s accommodation”. So here’s what I’m thinkin’, kids. Why don’t we split up? Dana here hasn’t got any family with her, because it’s too far, so half of us will go in with her and half with our Pammy. And then if there’s time, we’ll swap over. There you go, love: you have a family now. A noisy one, but we’re all yours.’

Dana felt the tears spring to her eyes in gratitude. She didn’t say any more about her meeting with Teddy. She had no idea why not, but she knew it would be hard to explain. A handsome well-spoken man arrived from nowhere. He teased me, lit a torch in my heart, tried to give me my first cigarette, asked me out and then disappeared into the smog.

She decided not to mention Teddy to anyone else. Maybe after all he was just a ghost.

Pamela’s siblings began to jump up and down in excitement again, all of them shouting, ‘I want to go with Dana. I want to be Dana’s sister, not Pammy’s.’

‘Behave, you lot. Quieten down, or none of us will be allowed in. Stan, you and the boys go with Pammy. I’ll go with our Dana here and help her hang her things up before I come to check that our Pammy’s all right.’

A wave of relief and gratitude washed over Dana. She wiped the tears from her eyes with the new handkerchief one of her friends had given her as a leaving present, and sniffled loudly.

‘I can’t get over it, I can’t,’ Stan said suddenly. ‘Our Pammy becoming a nurse and living in Lovely Lane and now she’s already met a nice friend like you. Smashin’ that, isn’t it?’

Dana sniffed again, more loudly this time.

‘Ah, c’mon, queen, don’t worry. We’re here now, love,’ said Maisie. ‘You’ve gorra Liverpool family now, hasn’t she, Stan? Lorraine, ’ere, take Dana’s hand.’

Dana was aware that the strain of the past twenty-four hours, the dance at the hall, the near rape by Patrick, the emotional goodbyes, the unexpected gift of a lifetime from the mysterious Mr Joyce and the meeting with Teddy had made her all of a fluster. If yesterday morning someone had told her this was how her arrival in Liverpool would be, she wouldn’t have believed them. Her new experiences and the tiredness she felt after the long journey were beginning to have an effect.