The Women of Mulberry Lane (The Mulberry Lane Series) by Rosie Clarke

Author:Rosie Clarke [Clarke, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781789542233
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2019-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

*

Rose looked weakly up at the doctor standing by her bed. He was an older man with grey hair and kind eyes, his white coat slightly crumpled and hanging open.

‘Decided to come back to us, have you, Rose?’ Doctor Sheldon said and smiled at her.

‘Where am I?’

‘You’re in the London – and you’re lucky to be alive, my girl. Had your friends not looked out for you, you would have died of the cold.’

‘They should have left me…’

‘Now that is selfish rubbish,’ the doctor said and frowned at her. ‘What about all the folk that care for you?’

‘I’ve got no one left – my fiancé has been killed – and there’s no one else.’

‘You have friends who care, because we’ve had people wanting to visit – and you’re young. Thousands of young women have lost their men, Rose. I’ve lost two sons – but if we all lay down and died what good would that do?’

Rose shook her head weakly. She felt too tired and miserable to argue. She wished she had died and no one had found her, but she should have known that wouldn’t happen, living in the lanes. She was vaguely aware that Maureen had found her and that had been inevitable when she hadn’t turned up for work.

‘You should think of all those with terminal illnesses and men who have been wounded and are fighting to live,’ Doctor Sheldon said. ‘Don’t make me wish I hadn’t wasted time and money on saving your life, Rose.’

Rose felt the tears trickling down her cheeks as he walked away. She knew she wasn’t the only one to suffer, but that didn’t stop her grief and regret. Her life was over and she didn’t want to carry on – but other people wouldn’t leave her alone.

Over the next few days, Rose was prodded, given injections, visited by doctors, psychiatrists and a vicar, and subjected to lectures by Sister and a succession of nurses.

‘We’ve got more to do than look after a self-pitying girl who doesn’t know how lucky she is to have caring friends,’ Sister told her when she’d been in the hospital for a week. ‘I’ve had three calls this morning and goodness knows how many since you’ve been here. You are a very lucky girl.’

Rose didn’t answer. She didn’t feel lucky, but she did feel ashamed, because she could see so many patients who were really ill and she felt a fraud for taking the nurses’ time, and so she started to eat her meals.

After a couple of days or so the doctor came back and looked at her. ‘Are you going to be sensible if we send you home?’

‘Yes, doctor,’ Rose said meekly. ‘I’m sorry to have caused so much trouble.’

‘You were ill when you came in but lucky not to have pneumonia. If your friend hadn’t acted promptly you would be dead…’

‘Yes, I know, and I’m grateful.’

‘Mrs Hart is coming to fetch you home at two this afternoon,’ he told her. ‘She sounds a sensible young

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.