All I Have to Give by Mary Wood

soft
brown ones. ‘Eeh, Ada lass, come on – let me help you up.’
    His strong arms grasped her and propelled her body upright. Vomit rose to her throat with the motion, but she swallowed it down. Her throat stung with the aftermath, but she wasn’t going
to disgrace herself by being sick in front of them all.
    ‘Come on, I’ll take thee to the nurse. I told you, you need to eat more and drink your quota of milk.’
    She couldn’t answer Joe, but was glad of his help as he kept his arm around her. A few sniggers went round the room, but the implication of them passed her by until they were standing
alone in the corridor. Then Joe shocked her by saying, ‘Ada, oh Ada. I’m sorry, but I have to say what’s in me heart. I love thee, Ada . . .’
    ‘What – what are you saying, Joe? You can’t. I – I . . .’ Confusion deepened inside her. Still fuzzy from the faint, her brain couldn’t process Joe’s
words and they didn’t seem real. Had he really said he loved her? Trying to find some clarity, she looked up at him. His smile jolted her heart.
This cannot be happening!
‘Don’t be daft, Joe. This is no time to take the rise out of me. Just help me to the nurse, and get back to your job – or we’ll both get the sack!’
    ‘But I mean it, Ada. I can’t sleep for thinking about you. And it breaks me heart to see what is happening to you. It’s like the light has gone out inside you, since Jimmy
went, and I know as you’re not being treated reet by Paddy.’
    She had no words to answer him. Her emotions were all in tatters and she had lost control of them. A sob racked her. The concern in Joe’s eyes deepened. Ada felt herself swaying towards
him. ‘Help me, Joe . . . Help me.’
    ‘I will, me lass. Lean on me and I’ll get thee to the nurse. But know this, Ada: I am here for you, and you can lean on me anytime you like, lass.’
    Once more his arms encircled her. She used his strength to make her way along the corridor. Her own feelings were tangled and confusing. Something had stirred inside her when Joe had declared
himself – something she hadn’t felt for a long time. It was as if the young girl trapped in this weary, sad body had popped out just for a second and had responded to the love offered
to her.
    But she mustn’t go down that road. She must stop Joe from making the mistake of his life. A man in his early thirties, he had never married. He’d been engaged once, as she
remembered, but the lass had gone off with his friend and they had married within weeks. That must have scarred Joe. Some said he had a breakdown, but although he did go into hospital for a spell,
it was found that he had a murmur in his heart, and his collapse had been due to that weakness. This kept him from going to war.
    Joe had little that was immediately eye-catching about him, but he was one of life’s nice people, who became more attractive once you got to know him. His grey-blue eyes framed with long
lashes – too long for a man – always held kindness, although just now she’d seen desire smouldering in them and that had shocked her. But she still couldn’t work out exactly
why she was suddenly affected by him. Joe was miles away from being the type that Paddy represented. Dark and handsome, charming and strong, Paddy had melted her the moment she’d met him; but
Joe, though as tall as Paddy, was on the fair side and shy, and . . . well, ordinary.
    His lack of confidence often had him bending over, as if to make himself unnoticeable, and that is what had happened in her case. She hadn’t noticed him – not in the way a woman
notices a man. Not at all. At least, not until just now. Until that moment he’d just been Joe, someone she knew and liked.
    By the time they reached the nurse’s office Ada had begun to feel better and tried to argue that she could carry on, but Nurse Penny insisted that she was examined
properly, before she would let her return to her bench. As soon as Joe had left,