‘Rosie said not to worry about tonight, as it’s always quiet on a Monday and she can cope on her own.’ She offered Ron a sandwich which he took and ate hungrily. ‘I’ve also left a note at home, asking Charlie to pick up Daisy from the crèche after her tea and put her to bed.’

The door opened and they all looked up expectantly. ‘I heard about what happened,’ said Danuta. ‘I am very sorry, Mrs White. Is there anything I can do for you?’

‘Thank you,’ she replied weakly, ‘but there’s nothing really anyone can do but wait.’ She looked at Danuta as she sat down beside her. ‘The nurse said he was hit by a car in the High Street. Have you any idea of how it happened?’

‘I saw only the ambulance drive away and a car on its roof, all smashed up inside Plummer’s shop window. I went to see if I could help and someone told me what had happened.’ She bit her lip, clearly wondering how much to tell her.

‘Please, Danuta. I need to hear it all,’ said Doris.

‘The driver of the car is an elderly lady and she put her foot on the accelerator instead of the brake. She would have killed a woman and her baby if the car had not hit a hole in the road, turned over and changed direction.’

Danuta paused and took Doris’s hand. ‘The lady I spoke to said John would have been safe if he had stayed where he was, but he went towards the woman with the pram to get her out of the way, and the car hit him.’

Doris covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes bright with unshed tears.

‘What about the driver?’ Ron rumbled.

‘She has only scratches and bruises, but is very shaken.’

‘I hope they arrested her for dangerous driving,’ snapped Doris.

‘I expect it will be so,’ murmured Danuta. ‘Someone said she’d been taken to the police station once the ambulance men said she was well enough to be questioned.’

She looked at the watch pinned to her uniform. ‘I am sorry, but I have other patients to see. I will come back later.’

‘She’s a nice girl, isn’t she?’ said Doris into the silence once Danuta had left. ‘I didn’t realise. I always thought she was a bit aloof. But then she is foreign.’

Nobody dared reprimand Doris, but the already tense atmosphere became almost unbearable. Ron left shortly afterwards to have his tea and make sure Rosie was managing all right in the bar, and as the time slowly passed, Peggy was relieved to see him back, accompanied by Frank and Anne, who’d left the girls with Martin.

It was almost eight in the evening when the doctor appeared in the waiting room to tell them that John was now in the recovery ward. ‘You may see him for just a minute, Mrs White, but you will find he’s very sleepy and probably won’t really know you’re there.’