An Orphan's Dream Read online

  AN ORPHAN’S DREAM

  Cathy Sharp

  Copyright

  HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

  1 London Bridge Street

  London SE1 9GF

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2021

  Copyright © Cathy Sharp 2021

  Cover photographs © Viacheslav Lakobchuk/Alamy Stock Photo (girl), Mark Owen/Trevillion Images (boy and background)

  Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2021

  Cathy Sharp asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

  Source ISBN: 9780008387679

  Ebook Edition © February 2021 ISBN: 9780008387686

  Version: 2020-11-06

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Keep Reading …

  About the Author

  Also by Cathy Sharp

  About the Publisher

  CHAPTER 1

  March, 1938

  Sister Rose Harwell stopped and smiled as she saw Nurse Lily Brown walking towards her. They were often on different wards at the Rosie Infirmary of Button Street and sometimes alternate shifts, too, so didn’t always meet at work. However, they were friends and she waited for Lily to reach her.

  ‘How are you? It’s lovely to see you,’ she said, touching her arm with a warm gesture. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen you since just before last Christmas. I bump into Jenny most days, but for some reason we never seem to meet.’ Lily’s younger sister Jenny worked at the infirmary too and was often on the same shift as Rose.

  A shaft of pale sun touched on the dark flame of Rose’s hair, where it was visible beneath her nursing cap. Her eyes were soft green and lit just now with a look of friendship and affection, but sometimes they could become as cool and icy as the deep water of a mountain pool.

  ‘I stopped on for an extra couple of hours today because we were busy and one of our nurses didn’t turn up,’ Lily admitted, beaming at Rose. She was clearly pleased they’d met and eager for a chat. Her hair was as dark as her eyes and swept back in a tight knot that was less than becoming but sensible for work. ‘Jenny tells me she has seen you sometimes but, to be honest, I hardly see my sister these days – she usually comes home when I’m about to leave for work.’

  Rose smiled sympathetically. ‘Yes, I know; it must be awful when you work different shifts to her, because then you only get a chance to talk at the weekends.’

  Lily nodded, stifling a yawn. ‘Sorry, it’s just that it has been a long night. I’m on the chronic sickness ward at the moment and we’ve been non-stop – three of our elderly patients were very ill and we had to call the doctors in during the night.’

  ‘Oh, I know how disrupting that can be,’ Rose agreed. ‘I’m on the children’s ward now for a few months – and that is one of my favourite duties.’ She gave a little laugh that was infectious and attractive, making Lily smile and nod in response. ‘It doesn’t seem to matter how unwell they are, children always do or say something funny. They just want a little love and attention – don’t you find?’

  ‘Yes, I’ve noticed it before,’ Lily agreed wholeheartedly. ‘I like that duty too – but someone has to care for the elderly.’

  ‘Yes, of course, absolutely,’ Rose said. ‘And we came into nursing in the full knowledge that we would care for the sick whatever their age or illness, but the chronic ward is the most tiring – so much bed changing.’ Incontinence was the bane of old age and something that upset the patient far more than the carer in Rose’s experience.

  ‘Yes …’ Lily smothered another yawn. ‘Look, I have Sunday off this weekend so would you like to come to tea at ours? I know Jenny would love to have you, too, and we’re both off this weekend.’

  ‘Well, as a matter of fact I’m off duty too,’ Rose replied, pleased. ‘I’m helping out with a charity event at lunchtime – we’re giving the old folk of the area a nice lunch in the Methodist Hall. Some of us are cooking and taking food in, others just serving, but it will all be over by three thirty and I could go home and change and be at yours by four thirty, if that would suit you?’

  ‘Yes, sounds perfect,’ Lily said. ‘I would like to help out at an event like that – if ever you need more helpers?’

  ‘How kind,’ Rose said, responding with a smile. ‘We can always find room for an extra pair of hands when we put on something of the sort – it’s only every three months or so but the old folk do appreciate it.’ She met her friend’s inquiring gaze. ‘We give them information about anything they can get help with or any free food that is being handed out by another charity, anything that may be of help to them.’

  Lily frowned. ‘Many of the old folk are too proud to ask for charity,’ she said. ‘There’s a woman we know in the next street to us – Flo, her name is – and she just refuses to accept charity. Jenny takes her a cake or something as a gift sometimes, but Flo always gives her some flowers or a lettuce from her garden in exchange.’

  ‘That’s the problem with a lot of the older folk round here,’ Rose replied, looking serious. ‘Some of them are even afraid to come to the infirmary because they can’t afford to pay and, although they know we treat them for nothing here, they still hesitate and will never call the doctor out if they can help it.’

  ‘I know.’ Lily shook her head regretfully. ‘Matron does all she can, handing out leaflets at the church and all the clubs in the area but these East End women can be a prickly lot.’

  Rose nodded, looking sad. ‘I’ll see you on Sunday, then – and now I’d better get to the ward or I’ll be late and that does not set a good example to my nur
ses!’

  ‘Yes, I’d better let you get on, but I’m glad we met, Rose,’ Lily said. ‘Oh, I understand you have a new nurse starting in your ward today?’

  ‘Yes, we do – Nurse Margaret James,’ Rose said. ‘She’s fully qualified but she’s been working in a country hospital so I daresay it will be a bit strange here for her at the beginning because some of our patients are victims of poverty in a way she may not have seen before.’

  ‘Yes, perhaps,’ Lily agreed. ‘Anyway, we’ll look forward to seeing you on Sunday.’

  They parted then and Rose hurried into the infirmary. The strong smell of carbolic met her as she made her way to the children’s ward, where she was the Sister in charge for the next few weeks. When she arrived, Kathy, who worked in the kitchens and had married Bert, the Rosie’s handyman, the previous year, was taking round hot drinks for the children. Rose noticed she looked a bit glum but had no time to ask if something was wrong.

  Nurse Sarah Cartwright – now clearly pregnant with her first child – was already making a tour of the ward with a young nurse following her. Rose knew it must be the new girl. The younger woman was slim and of medium height with shiny dark hair tucked neatly under her cap and a pair of wide dark eyes. She had been assigned to the children’s ward to make it easy for her to find her feet in the first few weeks of her duty at the Lady Rosalie Infirmary rather than being flung into the deep waters of the critical ward.

  ‘Good morning, nurses,’ Rose said going up to the young women. ‘Did we have any new patients in overnight?’

  Nurse Sarah turned, her pretty face lighting up in a warm smile. ‘Sister Norton told me they had a quiet night last night. Oh,’ she blushed and shook her head, ‘sorry, I meant Sister Matthews. I should be able to remember that by now.’ Sister Norton had been married some months.

  ‘Yes, I doubt she would be too happy to hear staff using her maiden name, Nurse Sarah. However, we’re not going to tell tales, are we, Nurse Margaret?’

  ‘Oh no, Sister,’ the new recruit said and blushed a delicate rose. ‘I wouldn’t tell on Sarah.’ Rose noticed there was a faint sing-song quality to her voice and thought she sounded a little Welsh although the accent was not pronounced.

  ‘Do you come from Wales, Nurse Margaret?’ she inquired and the girl blushed again.

  ‘I was born there, Sister,’ she replied. ‘My father was killed in a mining accident when I was ten so my mother moved to Hampshire, where she had an aunt living. I thought I’d lost my accent after twelve years in England!’

  ‘You don’t have a strong one,’ Rose assured her. ‘It’s just a little lilt, that’s all – it’s really pretty and it won’t make it difficult for the patients to understand you.’

  ‘I’m glad.’ Margaret was clearly very conscious that she was in a new job. ‘I shouldn’t want to do that.’

  ‘What made you want to nurse in London?’ Rose asked. ‘This area isn’t nearly as pleasant as the countryside in Hampshire.’

  ‘I-I had an unhappy experience,’ Margaret said and looked away as if the words were painful to say.

  ‘Well, I’m sure you will be happy with us,’ Rose told her. ‘We are all friendly here at the Rosie – but I’m sure Sarah has already told you that.’

  ‘Yes.’ Margaret shot a grateful glance at Nurse Sarah. ‘And she’s asked me to tea at her mother’s on Sunday.’

  ‘Well, that is lovely. Mrs Cartwright is a really good cook and we all enjoy being invited to her home for tea.’

  ‘We’re having a little party,’ Sarah said and now she blushed and placed her hands on her rounded stomach. ‘Next week is my last week at the Rosie.’

  Rose nodded. ‘We shall all miss you, Sarah, but we’ll all be visiting, and I hope that one day they’ll change the rules about mothers working as nurses and perhaps you could come back part-time.’

  ‘Yes, that would be lovely,’ Sarah agreed. ‘However, I certainly want to give my child and husband as much of my time as possible for a few years at least – but I’ll be visiting you all and keeping in touch with my friends here.’

  ‘Yes, you must,’ Rose agreed and nodded. ‘Good, well, I’ll leave it to you to show Margaret the ropes. I want to read last night’s reports and see if anything needs my attention.’

  At her desk, Rose opened the night nurse’s report and started to read. She was feeling a little pang of envy over Sarah’s happy event. She was in her mid-thirties and there was no sign of either a husband or a family for her. Nearly eight years had passed since her last serious relationship and sometimes she thought she would never find love again.

  Perhaps that was just as well, though. Rose was dedicated to her patients and often lingered on the ward after her duty was finished. She had friends and a married brother, who lived with his wife and children in the country, her ageing mother, now unfortunately the victim of old age and a fading memory, was being looked after by a distant cousin who welcomed the small income that Rose paid for her care, and then there was Rose’s own lovely landlady – surely that was enough for anyone? Rose really shouldn’t envy a colleague just because she was having her first child.

  Staff Nurse Lily Brown decided to take the bus home. She really was too tired to walk and the wind was cool. To be expected in March, of course, but they’d had a few days when it had been quite warm in the sunshine and it was always disappointing when it went back to being bitterly cold. She wore a silk head square over her hair, hiding the thick tresses that had somehow escaped from the tight knot she’d worn at the start of her duty. She’d removed her cap after leaving the Rosie and the wind had got in and played havoc with her luxuriantly long locks, strands of which now waved wildly about her face in the stiff breeze. Her hair was her best feature, or so Lily believed and she’d grown it longer lately, because Chris liked to tangle his face in it when they made love.

  The thought made her smile and feel happy despite the fact that she was tired after a long shift on a busy ward and the biting wind. Whatever else was wrong in her world, the knowledge that she loved and was loved made her glow inside.

  ‘Good night at work, nurse?’ the conductor asked. He was a regular on her route and knew both her and Jenny well, so she nodded. Let him think what he would, she preferred to keep her secret tight inside her. Chris, and their love, was a wonderful secret she could not share with anyone just yet, because his work was a security risk and he was somewhere in Hitler’s Germany working for the British Government as a double agent. Even Lily wasn’t supposed to know that, but Chris had shared what he could with her without compromising himself or his mission. He was concerned, in this year of 1938, that war was looming and he was helping prepare for that eventuality.

  Getting off the bus, Lily walked swiftly to the home she shared with her sister. Jenny had her uniform on ready to leave but the kitchen smelled enticingly of bacon frying.

  ‘Oh, Jenny, that smells delicious.’

  ‘I made myself a bacon sandwich and I’ll do one for you before I go,’ Jenny said with a look of affection. ‘I’ve got tomorrow off as well as Sunday so I thought we might be able to have some time together.’

  ‘Yes, lovely.’ Lily smiled warmly at her sister. ‘I’ve invited Rose for tea on Sunday – you don’t mind?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ Jenny replied. She placed the hot bacon sandwich in front of her sister. ‘I’ll get off then – oh, there’s a letter for you on the dresser.’ She indicated the envelope, smiled at Lily and shrugged on her coat. ‘Bye, then!’

  Lily glanced at the dresser and her heart caught. She didn’t often get a letter – could it be from Chris? She took a bite of her delicious sandwich as her sister waved goodbye and disappeared out of the kitchen door. Wiping grease from her chin with a napkin, Lily snatched up the letter and her heart did a little dance of pleasure. Chris’s work meant he wasn’t able to contact her often, his letters rare events, but here one was at long last and she hugged her treasure to her for a moment, savouring the pleasure to come of re
ading whatever he had to say.

  Unable to wait any longer, she ripped the envelope open and devoured the short message:

  In the mountains of a lovely ski resort. We should come here one day.

  Hope to fly home for a visit shortly. Haven’t time to write more but I wanted you to know I’m thinking of you, my darling Lily …

  The letter was signed only with a kiss but she knew his writing and there was no one else it could possibly have come from. The postmark was Switzerland and Lily breathed a sigh of relief. If he was in Switzerland, he was safe and she would see him soon. When they’d parted some months ago, Lily hadn’t expected that she would see her lover again for a long time, perhaps years.

  It still seemed strange to think of Chris, who had once been Jenny’s boyfriend, as her lover. When Jenny had first started seeing him, Lily had believed he was one of Mosley’s Blackshirts and, as such, a bad influence on her younger sister. Once she’d understood that he’d infiltrated the dangerous political group to help bring it down, however, Lily had begun to like him more and more and, gradually, she’d fallen in love – but she would never have let him know if Jenny hadn’t told him she no longer wanted to see him. He was her sister’s boyfriend and for Lily that meant he was out of bounds. She’d fought her feelings, never letting anyone see that she was unhappy. Only after Jenny had told Chris she didn’t want to go on dating him and they’d parted, did Lily find the courage to tell Chris that she wanted to be his friend. Chris had asked to meet and talk – and then they’d just fallen in love, in a way that took her breath. The flare of desire was something she’d never known or understood before and it was wonderful. Their passion had been consummated in a hotel bedroom just before Chris left England when he’d thought he might not return for years – but now it seemed he was coming home and Lily’s heart sang for joy.

  She didn’t know how long his visit would be for, but she would take every precious moment and enjoy it. She smiled as she finished her sandwich and went upstairs to bed. Jenny must have known who the letter was from, but she’d left her to discover it for herself.