Holly, who was on her other side, made a noise in her throat. ‘Probably safer here than anywhere else we’re headed to.’
Ellie had only caught a glimpse of Spencer since they’d arrived, and she wished he would seek her out. When she was with him she felt safe, so safe, and she needed that right now. There was something about having a man close. For so long now she felt like she’d been surrounded by women; as nurses, and at home when the men had all been sent away, when it had only been women on their own in the fields and tending the houses and everything else. And she liked how easy she found it to talk to him, how they fell into such an easy rhythm.
‘What do you think this village will be like?’ Ellie asked, pushing her thoughts away and not wanting to think of how close they’d be to actual fighting, how less safe it might feel compared to sitting on the beach like little ducks in a row. ‘What was it? Rice something,’ she attempted.
‘Rys,’ Holly corrected. ‘They called it Rys.’
‘It’ll be good and safe, I’m certain,’ Scarlet said. ‘They wouldn’t be stationing us there if it wasn’t.’
The girls all finished cooking and started to eat, something hot for once instead of stone-cold slop. Then there was a commotion further down the beach, and Ellie strained to look, her eyes adjusting to the dark.
‘They’re Red Cross,’ Scarlet said, more loudly than she’d been speaking earlier. ‘They must be sending the wounded back.’
She knew Scarlet was keeping an eye out for James, but the soldiers had departed quickly and no one knew if they were already heading for the front or resting elsewhere.
‘I want to get going, find out where we’re staying,’ she muttered to Ellie.
‘Tell me about it,’ Ellie said back, voice low as they kept staring at the goings-on.
The activity continued, more men moving towards the harbour and plenty of shouting, but it was too far away for them to figure out what was being said. At least it gave them all something to focus on, other than thinking about where they were going, although she guessed bundling men up to be sent home was exactly what they’d be doing, anyway.
She saw Scarlet look at her wristwatch, holding it close to her eyes as she inspected the time.
‘I think we’ve been waiting almost three hours now,’ Scarlet said.
The women seated with them groaned collectively, and Ellie felt much the same way. During their few days at sea, she hadn’t expected to be parked on a beach with no information about when they were going or what they could expect. The unknown, with gunfire so close, was scaring her. Ellie was the first to admit that her nerves weren’t built for suspense; she wanted to know where they were going, when they’d be working, and how close they would be to danger. She needed to know these basic things to figure out how to cope with them.
It was going to be a long night; of that she was sure. Ellie slowly started to gather up her things, systematically folding them away. She wished she’d saved an oat snack, something else to eat, but she’d been so hungry on board and nibbling it as they approached had at least made her feel better at the time.
‘Get your things together, it’s time to depart,’ Matron announced from behind them.
Ellie looked at Scarlet, but neither of them said anything. It was time to see where they were going to be living for the next part of for ever.
‘The 75th will be temporarily joining the 81st tent hospital until our site has been taken. Prepare yourselves to work alongside them, as well as to be sent to other duties.’
Ellie had no idea why they were joining another unit, and if the others had questions, they kept them quiet, too. No one said a word as they packed up. It was the most sombre mood Ellie had ever experienced.
‘Do you think they mean that our soldiers haven’t won the place where our hospital is to go?’ Scarlet whispered in her ear as they stood, bags in hand. ‘That they’re fighting to secure it now?’
Ellie hadn’t even put two and two together, but now that Scarlet said it, she realised that her friend was probably right. Around them, smashed amphibious vehicles littered the beach, with concrete remains that were impossible to decipher and broken tin hats and rifles. She had the daunting feeling that they’d just arrived in the depths of hell and they weren’t escaping from it any time soon.
Days had started to blur into nights. Ellie couldn’t remember when she’d last slept, what time she’d last eaten, or when she was supposed to finish her shift. If there wasn’t so much to do, so many doctors waving at her or patients crying out to her, she would have collapsed to the ground, but something about the desperation around her kept her going. Made her keep putting one foot in front of the other.
‘Please, make it stop,’ she whispered to herself. ‘Why can’t it stop?’
Tears burnt her eyes, but she fiercely blinked them away as she rushed to the side of a soldier calling for her. Just looking at him made Ellie want to retch, but there was nothing in her stomach, and she was determined not to. There was enough blood and bile on the floor without her adding to it.
The man was missing so much of his face; one side was near perfect, the other . . . She gulped, trying to look only at his hands. The other side was horrifying, and he was in so much pain that he kept drifting in and out of consciousness, his hand wildly flapping for hers, wanting her to hold it in the brief lucid moments that he had. He couldn’t say a word, only grunt, his tongue with a stitch through it so it could be sewn to his top button to ensure he didn’t swallow it.
She gave him more morphine and held his hand, letting him clutch her tightly as he slowly drifted back out again. There were more men to tend to, more coming in, but he was the worst she’d seen so far and he was still alive, so giving him an extra few minutes was not something she was going to feel bad about.
The casualty clearance station she was working in was supposed to be a temporary stop, a place to patch up the wounded and give them basic first aid before they were sent to the field hospitals for further care, recovery or evacuation, but those they’d marked for evacuation were still waiting. She had no idea what the hold-up was, and there was nothing she could do anyway.
‘Nurse!’
She was used to simply being called ‘Nurse’. There hadn’t exactly been time to get to know everyone’s names.
‘Coming!’
She dropped the soldier’s hand and ran. The doctors never looked at her, just barked orders, and she did her best to assist. But the blood, the mess, the skin that looked like it had been shredded . . . Her stomach lurched, just like it had constantly for the past few days.
Ellie dry-retched, bending over before forcing herself to stand.