To Charm a Bluestocking

by Renée Dahlia

  ‘Miss de Groot informed me that the Board recently put out applications for new members. Anyone with the requisite skills and who could fund the hospital’s expansion plans via a donation of at least 2,500 guilders would be welcome to apply.’

  ‘So much!’ said Koekje. Nicholas crossed his arms and leant forward in his seat. He should have realised that it was all about money and power. His whole career had been built on those principles.

  ‘I say he gets nothing,’ he said. Koekje nodded. The superintendent’s eyes narrowed as if he’d just connected a few dots.

  ‘We don’t need to give Van Percy a cent,’ she said. She paused and tilted her head to the side. God, he loved that little motion. ‘I have no problems donating to the university hospital. I suggest we give Van Percy a bank draft written out to the Board. To give the funds directly to them. He gets his place on the Board, we get the marriage certificate destroyed, and the university who gave me this rather unique opportunity gets some funding.’ She smiled, a self-satisfied little half-grin. Nicholas could only imagine how star-struck he looked right now. He’d been a fool to think he could solve this for her.

  ‘And you can do what you like with his brother.’ She sat back in her chair, as if happy to let them take over from here. To flex their muscles to gain the conclusion she required. He laughed and reached over to run his hand down her arm.

  Precisely at ten am, a knock banged on the door and everyone leant forward in anticipation. Nicholas rose to answer the door and Van Percy strutted in. The sight of him, fastidiously neat and tidy after causing so much damage to Josephine the day before, made Nicholas clench his jaw. This sly surgeon, who played God with people’s lives, arrived looking smugly assured of victory. The whole drama of the day before appeared wiped from his conscience. He looked about the room at each of the players before him and his eyes narrowed as he calculated his chances of winning this game.

  Nicholas broadened his stance and held his hands behind his back. Van Percy bowed automatically. Nicholas returned the bow with a slight nod. This became the moment when Nicholas learnt to wield the power he had only played with previously. The game had evolved into an important reality and gave him the impetus he required to complete himself.

  ‘Lord St. George, I believe you have two items for me,’ he said. His voice cracked a little bit as he spoke and his eyes ranged between all the players. He appeared a little unhinged.

  ‘As to that, I can easily supply one,’ said Koekje. He rose to ring the bell that would summon a pair of constables. Nicholas moved slightly in the room to stand next to Josephine. It was a non-subtle signal to Van Percy that he was protecting her. Josephine raised her eyebrows at the overt manoeuvre. The door to Koekje’s office opened and Van Percy scrambled out of the way as two constables marched in with the other Van Percy between them. The older brother shuffled in his shackles with his head held defiantly high. The two brothers exchanged a glance and the older brother sneered at the company around.

  ‘Tear up the licence, Van Percy, and you can have your brother,’ said Nicholas.

  ‘I believe we negotiated for two things and I would like the money first,’ he responded tightly. He pulled the offending certificate out of his pocket and waved it tauntingly in the air. Nicholas swayed closer towards the paper and saw Josephine do the same. She picked up her purse and made a show of hunting through it.

  ‘Ahh, here it is,’ she said, with her hand deep inside her reticule. Van Percy leapt towards her to grab the bank draft he assumed she held. Nicholas stepped between them, smashing his fist into Van Percy’s face. Van Percy reeled back. Blood poured out. Josephine calmly handed Van Percy a handkerchief. She deftly tore the marriage certificate from him. She scrunched it up in her fist. Nicholas winked as she flashed a quick look of satisfaction at him.

  ‘You can’t do that,’ Van Percy said. ‘You there.’ He pointed at the two constables. ‘Do your job and arrest this man for assault.’ The two constables, handpicked by Koekje for this task, didn’t move.

  ‘This is an outrage. I want my money.’

  Josephine unfurled her fingers and stretched out the paper she had taken from Van Percy. He mopped at his face, mumbling abuse. Josephine smoothed out the paper on her lap. Van Percy’s muted curses echoed around the room as she read.

  ‘You can release his brother. This is the correct licence,’ she said quietly. Seeing the words confirm her marriage to Van Percy brought all of yesterday’s events rushing back. She stood up and ripped the paper to shreds in front of him. In silence, Van Percy watched the tiny pieces of paper flutter down to the ground. The two loyal constables waited for Koekje’s confirmation of their instructions and only then did they unshackle the older Van Percy brother. He shook off his bonds and took a considered look around the room.

  ‘Given that I was wrongly arrested, this is quite the charade. We will take the money now, without the useless wife, and make our farewells,’ he said. His voice mirrored his brother’s tones.

  ‘As to that end, Miss Tobinbury has had an interesting idea,’ said Nicholas. The smug look on both the Van Percy brothers was immediately replaced with a keener, more vicious emotion. Nicholas kept his face blank. A vein pulsed in his temple. He clasped his hands behind his back so as not to rub it.

  ‘You both understand that I have no incentive to keep my part of the bargain now,’ he said.

  The professor interrupted in a shrill voice. ‘That paper meant nothing, the official record is held at the City Offices. I am still married to her until you pay me.’

  Josephine gasped. Nicholas kept his eyes firmly on the pair of villains.

  ‘A clerk who can be bribed to conduct a fake wedding can also be bribed to remove the evidence of that wedding. Even the certificate is worthless on its own. Having you here with that certificate willing to negotiate for its destruction in front of witnesses is much more important,’ he said.

  Professor Van Percy and his brother frowned, obviously trying to figure out their next move.

  ‘Regardless of the detail, this is a matter of honour. We negotiated terms and now you must pay,’ said the surgeon. He double tapped his heels.

  ‘Honour, you say. Do you consider it honourable to kidnap and beat a woman? Or perhaps you consider it honourable to fake a marriage to fund your lifestyle? I’ll tell you what is honourable, Professor. Miss Tobinbury is honourable. If it were my decision, you would not get a cent. However, Miss Tobinbury has decided to meet the terms of your agreement.’

  Van Percy smiled. A self-satisfied grimace. An indication that he thought it was typical of a woman to be weak even under a weak threat.

  ‘You might find it interesting to know just how Miss Tobinbury intends to meet your terms, however,’ Nicholas said. The smugness on Van Percy’s face wiped clear, replaced by an emotional blankness. Nicholas imagined his brain whirring away inside that head.

  ‘Perhaps Miss Tobinbury would like to do the honours,’ he said with a flourish of his hands. Josephine stood up and cleared her throat.

  ‘Unfortunately for you, my dowry is held in trust and can only be signed over to my legal husband with the approval of my father. Without him, you have no claim on the funds. Fortunately for you, I am grateful that the University of Amsterdam allowed my enrolment. A brave choice on their part. For the university to actively allow and encourage the participation of women students in their medical program is a groundbreaking decision that highlights their forethought. Therefore, I have decided, in lieu of the payment we discussed, to instead sponsor a position on the Board of the University Hospital. You may get your position on the Board, but it will be paid for by a woman. Your tenue on the Board will be defined by your support of female physicians.’

  Professor Van Percy’s face went white and his mouth hung open.

  ‘I accept,’ he said. She put out her hand and he responded like an automaton, shaking on the deal.

  ‘I will have a bank draft to Mr de Groot by the end of the day,’ she said politely
.

  ‘We will be going now,’ said Van Percy’s brother. He turned on his heel and started to march. The professor meekly followed behind. As soon as their backs were turned, Koekje nodded to his loyal constables. They tackled the brothers to the ground.

  ‘Sir, you are being arrested for the kidnapping and assault of Miss Tobinbury. And you, sir, are being arrested for the conspiracy to incite a riot.’

  ‘But, but …’

  ‘We had a deal,’ Van Percy yelled.

  ‘You, sir, are one of the few people I’ve met that I despise. If I saw you on fire, I wouldn’t piss on you to put you out,’ said Nicholas. ‘The deal you mention didn’t discuss the illegality of your behaviour yesterday. Miss Tobinbury will, indeed, present the money to the university. No self-respecting Board would accept a member with a history of bribing town officials,’ said Nicholas. Koekje nodded his agreement.

  ‘You can take them away now, boys,’ said Koekje. The constables hauled the two villains to their feet and dragged them away.

  As they disappeared out the door, Koekje burst into laughter.

  ‘I haven’t been so entertained in years! Did you see their faces? They sincerely believed they had the upper hand. As if I’d let them go once I had them here.’ He sucked in several breaths as he bent over with hilarity. ‘Thank you both for providing such an interesting tale. One for my memoirs!’

  ‘Our pleasure,’ said Nicholas. He held out his hand and the superintendent gave it a pumping shake.

  ‘Oh, and by the way. My secretary should have the town records destroyed by now.’

  ‘We are most grateful, sir,’ said Josephine. His soon-to-be wife showed grace under pressure. Again. He saw her shoulders droop a fraction and raced over to wrap his arm around her waist. She took a few unsteady breaths. Her head sagged, dropping it onto his shoulder. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

  ‘One last piece of advice, since your fiancé saved my life. Young lady, I heard what you said to Lord St. George about team work. Remember that he, and many of us, were brought up with the concepts of honour and chivalry. It’s in our nature to solve problems,’ said Koekje. A surprised laugh filled the room, and Nicholas realised that it was his.

  ‘The world is changing, and we must change with it,’ Nicholas said.

  ‘Yes. My advice to your young lady is that change takes time.’

  ‘I fully expect our marriage to stand the test of time. As a true partnership,’ he said. Koekje grinned and Nicholas shook his hand once more.

  ‘Come now, let’s go home. We have a proper wedding to plan. After this week’s farce, I want to show the world how to do it properly.’

  Josephine lifted her head and smiled up at him.

  ‘I don’t need a proper wedding. A simple celebration of our love will do.’

  Epilogue

  Two hours later, Lord and Lady St. George stood outside the Amsterdam Court House with their own piece of paper.

  ‘I think we should have a party,’ she said.

  ‘But you hate parties.’

  ‘I know that.’ She paused and smiled up at her husband. ‘But you love them. So we should have one.’ He leant down and kissed her. Thoroughly.

  ‘How about a Christmas party at Castle Tulloch? There is a great library there for you,’ he said. She smiled.

  ‘Are you seducing me with books? Again?’

  ‘Even better than that. We can send Betsy to organise the party. No stress for you.’

  ‘More time for reading?’ She grinned up at him.

  ‘Whatever you want, my love.’

  Author’s Notes

  My great grandmother, Caroline Josephine d’Ancona, graduated from the University of Breda in 1910 as a doctor. On her degree, masculine titles were crossed out and replaced by handwritten female versions (Miss for Mr, hers for his, etc). She married Nicholas Heijbroek, and they set up a practice as paediatricians. In the 1940s, they published a book together on childhood development. The first woman doctor in Holland was Aletta Jacobs who graduated from University of Groningen in 1879. Her quote ‘you should pay extra for such a unique service’ is real. Dr Hilary Marland’s paper ‘‘Pioneer Work on all Sides’: The First Generations of Women Physicians in the Netherlands, 1879-1930', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 50 (1995), 437-73.’ provided useful context around the likelihood of women at university in this era. There were only a handful of female doctors who graduated in Holland prior to 1910, perhaps twenty in total in those years between 1879 and 1910. This small number was not due to the universities reluctance, but more because most women were only given a basic primary education. In England, women had both the issue of lack of initial education, and gender inequality to deal with.

  The first woman to graduate in England was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson who passed her examinations in 1865, but wasn’t allowed to call herself a doctor until the new Medical Act in 1876 removed the gender restriction. There were only two women graduates in this time, the other being Sophia Jex-Blake and both had been refused entry to many different universities. The Hope Scholarship debacle occurred at Edinburgh University in the mid-1870s when Miss Pechey was awarded the university prize, but the Board declined to give it to her as she was female. She left, and finished her degree in Germany in 1877. Their long battle with the establishments is the reasoning behind Josephine deciding to study in Amsterdam, where they were more open to female students and to female doctors once they graduated. Garrett Anderson and Jex-Blake opened the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874, and female students could do their practical training at the Royal Free Hospital by 1877. In 1886, Sophia Jex-Blake opened the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women. Graduates of these schools found it difficult to get proper work as doctors in England, while in Holland, female graduates only suffered the usual gender inequity (being paid less than male doctors, harassment, etc) but still found work as doctors. Many graduates of the English schools ended up doing only nursing work, or missionary work in the far reaches of the British Empire.

  I could have based Josephine at the London School of Medicine for Women. I didn’t because I wanted to have the trio of women graduates among the male students, so they had to band together as friends. It also brought in the conflict of Professor Van Percy; and it is unlikely that this situation would have been allowed to happen at a School for Women.

  Another useful text was ‘The Distinctive Character of the Free University in Amsterdam, 1880-2005’ by Arie van Deursen and Herbert Morton. The cost of buying a Board position comes from this text.

  Travel: The Holland Steamship Company was formed in 1885 and ran a passenger service from Amsterdam to London, docking at the Brewer’s Quay. They ran two boats, the ‘Amselstroom’ built 1885 and the ‘Fijenoord’ built 1879. The journey took about eight hours and cost between £3 and £5 depending on class. If you need to waste time, this site has some wonderful old images of shipping timetables dating from WWI: http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/index.htm

  I selected 1887 as it was prior to the advent of x-rays (1895), yet after the use of the burns treatment in the book. The use of antibiotics to cure infection didn’t exist until WWII, so the effectiveness of the cocaine/carbolic acid treatment was necessary to ensure the hero survived his injury.

  The stethoscope was invented in 1816 and was a hollow wooden tube and was monaural (used with one ear). In 1851, Irish physician Arthur Leared invented a binaural stethoscope with a flexible tube, and in 1852 George Philip Cammann perfected the design of the stethoscope instrument (that used both ears) for commercial production. The design has remained almost unchanged since then.

  Germ theory was made famous by Louis Pasteur in the 1870s, but it was a Viennese doctor called Ignaz Semmelweis who made the initial connection between childbed fever and doctors not washing their hands. Unfortunately, doctors didn’t like being told that midwives did a better job, and he was dismissed by one hospital. He got another job and made the same observation, only to
lose his job again. He died in 1865 in a mental institution, never to see that Pasteur proved him right only a decade later.

  The Eel Riots (1886) and the Orange Riots (1887) did occur in Amsterdam, caused by socialist movements, although the influence of the New Unions is my own invention. The New Unions did exist in England, where they did have an anarchistic view and led protests and riots, such as the London matchgirls strike of 1888. Influential socialist writers around this time were Marx and Bakunin who led each side of a debate at the 1872 Hague Congress.

  In the 1800s, the ‘girl on top’ position was apparently nicknamed the ‘St. George’ after the dragon. Naturally, I couldn’t resist including it. In Holland, and much of Europe, a wedding is purely a civil ceremony. A church ceremony and reception are only held for vanity or to illustrate social status.

  Thanks for reading To Charm a Bluestocking. I hope you enjoyed it.

  If you’d like to know more about me, my books, or to connect with me online, you can visit my webpage www.reneedahlia.com, follow me on twitter @dekabat, or like my Facebook page www.facebook.com/reneedahliawriter.

  You can also follow me through my publisher’s page here www.escapepublishing.com.au

  Reviews can help readers find books, and I am grateful for all honest reviews. Thank you for taking the time to let others know what you’ve read, and what you thought.

  You’ve just read the first book in my Remarkable Tulips series. The next book, A Captured Duke’s Freedom, is due out in 2017.

  This book was published by Escape Publishing. If you’d like to sample some more great books from my fellow Escape Artists, please turn the page.

  BESTSELLING TITLES BY ESCAPE PUBLISHING…

  Bride From The Sea

  Frances Housden

  From bestselling author Frances Housden comes a brand new historical romance about a Spanish señorita and a strapping Scottish hero…