Chapter Seven
As Monty and Annie were making their way home, a dog suddenly darted into the road and straight into the path of an oncoming coal wagon.
There was no chance for the driver to stop the horse in time to miss him, and the poor creature was flung to the side of the road where he lay whimpering pitifully.
‘Oh no! The poor little thing.’ Deeply distressed Annie ran across and dropped to her knees beside him. ‘Oh Monty, he’s hurt,’ she cried. It looked like he had got under the horse’s hooves and a gash on his side was leaking blood.
Monty scratched his head. Even without his injuries the dog looked to be in a bad way. He was so thin that every rib was showing and his coat was so matted and filthy that it was hard to tell what colour it was.
‘What shall we do?’ Annie asked, looking up at him with tears in her eyes.
Monty sighed. She clearly had no intention of leaving him there. ‘I suppose we could get him to the vet,’ he answered. ‘But I don’t think there’s much chance for him, love, not looking at the state of him. He’s obviously a stray.’
Annie took off her shawl and wrapped it around the little creature. ‘Even if he is he doesn’t deserve to be left here at the side of the road to die,’ she said angrily.
Knowing when he was beaten, Monty lifted the animal, whose head lolled to one side. He doubted he would live long enough to get to the vet, but he also knew Annie would never sleep again if they didn’t try to help him. With the dog in his arms, they set off for the vet in Edward Street.
Soon after arriving they were shown into the surgery. Monty explained what had happened and the vet, an elderly gentleman with gold-framed glasses perched on the end of his nose, frowned as he examined the dog.
‘Hmm, it looks to me like his injuries are mainly superficial. Nothing that a few stitches won’t sort out – that’s if there’s no internal bleeding. I think his main problem is he’s terribly undernourished and weak. Possibly the kindest thing we could do for him would be to put him to sleep.’
Annie looked horrified. ‘But surely we should give him a chance before we resort to such drastic measures,’ she said heatedly.
‘And who will be responsible for any bills incurred?’ The vet peered at her over the top of his glasses. ‘I would imagine he’s a stray.’
‘I’ll pay the bills,’ Annie told him, angry colour flaring in her cheeks.
‘And who is going to nurse him and take responsibility for him if he should recover?’
‘I shall make sure he has a good home!’
Monty swallowed. It looked like Annie had made up her mind.
‘Now would you kindly stitch him up and do whatever needs doing and then we’ll take him home with us. I can nurse him just as well there as you can here.’
Realising that this was a young woman not to be argued with, the vet shrugged and ushered them out into the waiting room while he turned back to do what he could for the little stray.
Almost an hour later Monty and Annie left with their new companion. He had stitches in the gash in his side, and the vet had warned them that the dog’s chances of survival were slim. Monty carried him gently back to the rooms above the shop.
‘Whatever have you got there?’ Susan asked as they entered the shop. She was tidying up so luckily there were no customers. She pinched her nose shut as she frowned. ‘Phew, that animal stinks!’
‘Well, he can’t help it, can he?’ Annie said defensively. She went on to tell Susan what had happened and when she was finished Susan was even more horrified.
‘You don’t mean to tell me that you’re thinking of keeping him here? What will our customers say?’
‘They don’t need to see him, he’ll be upstairs,’ Annie said stubbornly.
‘And saying you do get him better what are you going to do with him then? I know you told the vet you’d find him a home, but I doubt there’s many people who would want to take on a sickly mongrel.’
Annie hadn’t really thought that far ahead, but the words tumbled from her before she could stop them. ‘Then I shall keep him, of course!’ Seeing the stunned look on Monty’s face she grinned sheepishly. ‘Well, you did say we ought to get a guard dog, didn’t you?’
‘Guard dog!’ Monty laughed. ‘In his state what kind of guard dog would he make?’
‘As you once pointed out, as long as he can bark and warn us if there are any intruders, he’d be perfectly all right! But anyway, I don’t want to stand here arguing about it. Let’s get him upstairs and see if we can get him to eat anything.’
Once the little stray had been placed on a blanket in the corner of the lounge, Annie hurried away to make him a dish of food.
There was some cold chicken left from the meal they’d had the night before and the little mongrel took one sniff at it and wolfed the lot down in seconds before vomiting it all up again.
‘You gave him too much,’ Monty warned her.
‘If he’s starved his stomach will have shrunk and he won’t be able to eat big meals.
I reckon he’ll need to be fed little and often.
I’m out at work all day and you’re down in the shop, so how will you manage that?
’ He was still very unsure about whether they’d done the right thing in bringing him home.
‘Quite easily, I shall pop up every time the shop is quiet and see to him,’ she told Monty with her chin in the air.
Monty shrugged. He knew when he was beaten. Annie could be very determined when she set her mind to something.
Over the next week the little mongrel began to recover to the point that Annie would find him sitting waiting for her by the door with his tail wagging furiously every time she slipped upstairs to feed him or let him out into the yard.
Even Monty seemed to be getting used to him and the little dog had taken to sleeping by the side of his chair each evening.
When they took him back to the vet the following week to have his stitches removed the man was shocked at the change in him.
‘Goodness me, I didn’t even think he’d survive,’ he admitted when Annie led the dog into the surgery in his new collar and lead. ‘What did you do? Wave a magic wand?’
‘Actually, all he needed was some decent food inside him and a bit of tender loving care,’ she told the vet haughtily. She still hadn’t forgiven him for suggesting that the poor soul should be put to sleep.
‘Well, whatever you’ve done I take my hat off to you,’ he said with a smile as he gently took out the stitches. ‘Perhaps the next step might be to give him a good bath so that we can see what colour he is under all this matted fur and dirt.’
‘That’s exactly what I intend to do,’ she answered. She had tried to sponge him down gently over the last few days but now she could bath him properly.
And so that evening Monty helped her fill the tin bath in the kitchen, and the little mongrel had his very first bath.
He wasn’t keen on it, but he allowed Annie to do it all the same as Monty looked on with an amused smile.
Next, she started to brush his coat and cut away all the matted fur before rubbing him dry with a towel, and when she was finished, he was almost unrecognisable.
‘So, what do you think of him now?’ she asked Monty.
He chuckled. ‘Truthfully, I don’t think he’ll ever win any beauty awards but I must admit he’s looking much better, though goodness knows what breed he is.’
Beneath the years of dirt, the dog was a lovely honey colour, with stubby little legs and a long body. His ears were long and floppy and he had a fluffy tail that reminded Annie of a fox’s. Monty could see that he had captured Annie’s heart and guessed what was coming next.
‘I was thinking I’d quite like to keep him,’ she told him in a small voice as the dog licked her hands.
‘In that case I suppose we should think of a name,’ Monty said.
‘You don’t mind?’ she cried, flinging her arms around his neck.
He shook his head. ‘Not at all; I did suggest you should have a dog some time ago, if you recall.’
‘Then I’d like to call him Alfred.’
Monty burst out laughing. ‘Alfred! What sort of name is that for a dog?’
‘I like it and I think it suits him,’ she said primly. So Alfred it was from that moment on.
The next bit of excitement came two days later when late in the evening, there was a furious pounding on the door.
Monty started awake, and after pulling on his dressing gown he rushed downstairs to see who it was.
He found Davey on the step twisting his cap in his hands and looking as pale as a ghost.
‘Would yer ask Annie if she’d go round an’ sit wi’ Eve while I run fer the midwife?’ he asked in a shaky voice. ‘I reckon the baby’s comin’.’
‘Better still, I’ll fetch the midwife and you go back with Annie. I’ll have her round there in two shakes of a lamb’s tail,’ Monty told him as he raced back upstairs.
Soon Davey and Annie set off, and when they arrived at Eve’s, they found her pacing the living room floor, rubbing her back.
‘Come on,’ Annie said, bossily taking control. ‘Let’s get you into bed, and Davey could you start boiling some water? I’ll time how far apart her pains are.’
Annie helped Eve into the bedroom and somehow managed to get her undressed and into her nightgown. Her pains were coming quite close together now, and when there was a sudden gush of water Eve started to panic.
‘That’s me water broke. What if Nurse Borne can’t get ’ere in time? An’ what if I lose the baby again!’
‘She will get here in time,’ Annie answered with more confidence than she was feeling. ‘Monty’s gone to fetch her. And the baby is going to be fine! Just like Jack was. Now get into bed. I don’t want you having the baby standing here.’
Monty arrived only a few minutes later. ‘She’s on another delivery in Duke Street but she reckons that baby is about ready to be born so she’ll be here as soon as she can.’
Poor Davey looked absolutely terrified. When Jack had been born, he had been locked away in a prisoner-of-war camp and hadn’t even known he had a son until he returned home after the war, so this was all very new to him.
‘You two go down and wait in the kitchen,’ Annie told the men kindly. ‘And, Davey, just keep the hot water coming, there’s a good chap. And don’t look so worried. Eve is doing just fine.’
Eve was being very brave and trying not to cry out for fear of waking Jack, who was fast asleep in the next bedroom.
It was almost one o’clock in the morning and there was still no sign of the midwife when Eve began to pant. ‘I’m gettin’ the urge to push,’ she gasped in a small voice, gripping Annie’s hand so tightly that Annie feared she would break it.
Panic surged through her. It was awful seeing her friend in so much pain, especially as she knew she herself would be going through this in the not-so-distant future.
Worse still was the fact that she had no idea how to deliver a baby!
All she’d had to do up to now was mop Eve’s sweating brow and whisper words of encouragement, but to actually deliver the child was something else.
Thankfully at that moment the door flew open and the midwife appeared.
Annie wasn’t sure who was more relieved to see her – herself or Eve.
‘Looks like I’m just in time,’ Nurse Borne said with a smile as she slipped off her coat and rolled up her sleeves. Then after washing her hands in the bowl of water Annie had ready, she bent to examine Eve. ‘Right, let’s have a look where we’re at then, luvvie.’
‘It’s as I thought,’ she commented. ‘The baby’s head is crowning. You’ll be holding them in your arms soon if you just do as I tell you.’
Annie kept her eyes fixed on Eve, her heart pounding, while Eve grasped her hands. After what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, she gave one more enormous push and the sound of a newborn’s wails echoed around the room.
‘Well done.’ The midwife held the baby aloft. ‘Congratulations, luvvie. You’ve got yerself a beautiful daughter an’ she a little cracker.’
Miraculously all the pain and the fear of losing another baby was suddenly forgotten as the nurse cut the cord, wrapped the infant in a towel and laid her on her mother’s chest. Both Annie and Eve stared at the baby in awe.
Just as the midwife had said, she was a little beauty, with a shock of downy dark hair the exact same colour as her dad’s.
‘Oh, she looks just like Jack when he was born,’ Eve said tearfully as she rained kisses down on her new daughter. ‘What do you think o’ her, Annie?’
‘I think she’s absolutely gorgeous,’ Annie answered in a choked voice. This had been an experience she would never forget. ‘Would you like me to go and tell Davey he has a daughter?’
‘Yes, please.’ Eve’s eyes were still fastened on the new arrival.
‘But tell ’im I don’t want ’im up here fer a while,’ Nurse Borne ordered sternly. ‘I’ve the afterbirth to deliver yet, then I want to make mother and baby respectable before Dad comes to meet ’er. The birthin’ room is no place fer a man!’
Annie nodded and slipped away.
Davey and Monty were staring anxiously at the door when she burst into the kitchen.
‘It’s a little girl, a sister for Jack, and she’s just lovely,’ she told them joyously and promptly burst into tears. It had been a very emotional night one way and another.
On the way home, Annie leant heavily on Monty. She was exhausted and could hardly wait to get into her own bed.
‘It’ll be our turn soon,’ Monty told her with a loving smile, and she nodded as again a little trickle of guilt flowed through her.