It was as she tried to push her way through the crowded room, that Daisy heard herself scream, just a few seconds before she fell.
CHAPTER 50
AUNT MINNIE’S PRETTY FACE, coiffured blonde hair and red lipstick, was slowly replaced by Aunt Betty’s deep brown eyes and gentle smile.
‘Daisy, darling … ’
‘We’re here, right beside you,’ breathed Aunt Minnie sending over her faint fragrance.
‘Gardenia,’ babbled Daisy, which drew a weepy sob from her aunt.
‘Don’t cry, Aunt Minnie.’
‘Oh, my dear … ‘ Aunt Minnie turned away to hide her tears.
‘Minnie, pull yourself together,’ whispered Aunt Betty from close by.
‘I can’t help my emotions,’ sobbed Aunt Minnie. ‘Not everyone is as brave as you, Betty.’
‘We mustn’t upset her, Minnie. She’s still very fragile.’
‘Where’s Mother?’ Daisy attempted to focus on the two people at her bedside.
‘Please wait outside,’ came a command from Nurse Gwen who replaced the twin visions of her aunts. ‘Now, Daisy, do you feel well enough to sit up and have visitors?’
Daisy nodded, though as she did, her head hurt dreadfully. Holding on to Nurse Gwen, she found herself gently rearranged on the pillows as the cover was tucked firmly across her chest. A cool glass was placed on her parched lips.
‘You know the drill by now,’ said Nurse Gwen with a smile. ‘A few sips at first.’
Daisy drank the reviving water and slipped her tongue around her dry mouth. ‘I thought I saw my aunts,’ she said.
‘They’ve come to visit you, but you won’t go trying to escape again, will you?’
Daisy looked around at the ward she had been returned to. There were no curtains now, but many children sitting or lying in their beds. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly. ‘I remembered the bomb. The one in our kitchen.’
‘We call it a trigger,’ the nurse explained. ‘Your thoughts go back to the time when the bomb exploded. Not unusual after such a shock. Luckily an orderly was there to catch you when you fainted and no harm was done.’
‘I can’t really remember.’
‘Do you feel well enough to speak to your aunts?’
Daisy managed a tiny nod.
‘Afterwards your tea will be ready. We must start to build you up.’
Daisy hoped that corned beef and bread wasn’t on the menu.
T he sight of her aunts was almost more than she could bear. ‘Aunt Betty, Aunt Minnie!’ she mumbled.
‘Oh, darling, what’s hidden under that huge bandage on your head?’ Aunt Minnie’s voice crackled with emotion. ‘Are you in pain?’
‘No,’ Daisy fibbed, trying to smile. She didn’t want Aunt Minnie to be upset.
‘We’ve been so worried about you.’ Aunt Minnie gave another choked sob.
‘Mr Cook told us it was an incendiary,’ said Aunt Betty. ‘The force of it threw you forward.’
‘I had stitches after they got bits out of my head.’ Daisy blinked back her tears. ‘But I’m all right now.’
Aunt Betty hesitated. ‘Your Mother and Bobby are in hospital too. There was no room here, you see.’
‘Do they have bits in them too?’
‘Nothing for you to worry about,’ said Aunt Minnie. ‘But like you, they were very shocked. We’re going to visit them later. Do you remember what happened?’
‘Mother pushed us out of the kitchen.’ Daisy frowned, trying to recall. ‘I think I felt the bomb go off and it pushed me through the air. Now I keep forgetting things.’
‘Quite normal so the doctor says,’ reassured Aunt Betty. ‘Your memory will come back with time.’
‘I hope so.’
‘You were all so lucky to escape,’ consoled Aunt Minnie. ‘But Mr Cook tells us that the house is unstable.’
‘Won’t we be able to live there again?’
‘Well, not for a while.’
‘But where will we go?’ Daisy asked tearfully.
Aunt Minnie squeezed her hand. ‘You’ll come to us, of course.’
‘I’m afraid time is up,’ said Nurse Gwen, firmly pulling the screen around Daisy’s bed.
‘We’ll visit again soon,’ promised Aunt Betty.
Daisy watched as Nurse Gwen whisked her aunts away.
When they were gone, rather than reassured, she felt abandoned. All she wanted was to go home. But did she have a home to go to? It wouldn’t be a home anyway, without Mother and Bobby.
CHAPTER 51
‘LONDON SAW its worst night of bombing yet,’ Nurse Gwen revealed as she brought Daisy’s medicine. ‘Our dear St Paul’s was hit. An unexploded bomb was removed from its roof, but it still stood up to the attack and people will be able to use it again, just like you’ll be able to go home to your house.’
‘I hope so,’ Daisy said, accepting her pills and dutifully swallowing.
‘Cheer up, Daisy dear,’ encouraged the nurse. ‘Most people feel down in the dumps after a stay in hospital. You’ll soon have your happy spirits back.’
Just then, the wail of the siren echoed throughout the hospital and all the nursing staff went into action. Daisy twisted her fingers together anxiously. She didn’t want to hear those planes flying over. Or listen to their deadly drone.
She tried to stay calm and think of her bedroom at home and of the many times she had gazed from her window to the towering cranes and workman-like tugs and proud ships sailing by on the river in a kind of regal procession. And of Greenwich and its glistening dome when the sunlight played on its roof like diamond splinters.
Would she ever see these beloved sights again?
A nd so the blitz, as it became known, continued. When the raiders returned at dusk or sometimes even earlier, they caused a mass evacuation from the upper hospital floors to the safety of the underground levels below.
It was five long days after Daisy had been admitted to the East London Hospital, that during one attack, Nurse Gwen failed to appear.
‘Gwen’s not on duty
