Charlotte grabbed his hand before he heard a reply and he saw she was weeping and mouthing, but there was no sound.
“What is it, my dear?” he said as he sat down again. He tried to lip-read but she ceased her efforts before he had time to make out a single word.
“Can you write it down?” asked the doctor, taking his pen and a notebook out of his pocket.
“She can’t write,” said the nanny. “She’s had no governess yet.”
“Try to slow down, pet,” he said, “and I’ll see if I can understand.”
Charlotte looked over his shoulder at the nanny, then shook her head, sighed, closed her eyes and lay still.
The doctor stayed and talked of Manus, Mandrake, Lady Blackshaw in London visiting Lord Waldron and surely planning to bring her back a wonderful gift, the cook’s sponge cakes, his new grandchild, until he thought he was annoying rather than comforting her and that it might be time to leave.
“Now try not to fret,” he said. “I’ll report to Miss East on the way out and I’ll be back to see you first thing tomorrow. You are not to upset yourself. We’ll have you back on your feet in no time.” He bent over her. “You do trust your old doctor friend, don’t you?”
Charlotte kept her eyes closed and turned her face to the wall. Her expression was so desolate the doctor wished he could say the one thing that would bring life back into her face – that Victoria had been found safe and well and would soon be reunited with her family – but he couldn’t say it, and wondered if it would ever be said.
“You and your father saved my life all those years ago, Dr John. Now I’m asking you to help me save Charlotte’s.”
If Dr Finn didn’t hold her in the high regard that he did, and if he hadn’t been so disturbed by what he’d just seen in the nursery, he would have had to accuse Miss East of being overly dramatic.
“What’s going on, Lily?” he asked simply, handing over his hat, coat and Gladstone bag and accepting a measure of whiskey before sitting in the chair to the left of the turf fire. “You tell me. That little girl up there looks as if she’s dying of a broken heart.”
“It might be a broken heart and it might be something else, something to do with Nurse Dixon.”
We are all put on this earth to do one great thing, Miss East’s mother used often say, and Miss East, believing it, felt the enormity of her responsibility as she prepared to do the ‘one great thing’ that would justify her existence.
Dr Finn’s grim expression continued to darken as Miss East argued for the dismissal of Nurse Dixon and the handing over of Charlotte’s care to herself.
It wasn’t what she and the servants had seen and heard, though they had seen and heard troubling things, but Charlotte’s demeanour that had convinced her that Nurse Dixon wasn’t a fit person to be in charge of children.
“I’m sure you can see in your professional capacity that she’s no more a nurse than the cat. She gave herself that title, you know.”
“That I couldn’t comment on,” said the doctor. “I’ve never seen her do anything except stand still with her hands clasped in front of her. I think I make her nervous as she keeps blinking all the time.”
“She has a lot to be nervous about,” Miss East continued, and then proceeded to tell him everything she’d seen, and everything she suspected.
Dr Finn already knew of Miss East’s antipathy to Nurse Dixon, but not the strength and depth of it.
“She has Lady Blackshaw completely hoodwinked, which wouldn’t be difficult seeing Her Ladyship takes no interest in the child, but she doesn’t fool me.”
Charlotte always looked dispirited and morose in the company of Nurse Dixon, signs of a child in despair. Miss East recognised the signs because she had once been like that, and all Nurse Dixon’s smiles, concern and ministration while in public, especially for the benefit of Manus and Lady Blackshaw, not only didn’t fool her, but filled her with even more misgiving.
Miss East needed the doctor’s co-operation, not only for his physical presence to intimidate the tall, strong, young Dixon, but also for his gravitas and reputation, to give authority to what she was about to do.
Dr Finn felt sorry for Nurse Dixon who at her age should be out dancing and courting rather than leading a dreary, isolated life, and he didn’t like to interfere in the workings of the estate, but when Miss East said, “We can’t chance a second tragedy on our hands, especially while the mistress is away,” he felt the truth of it and agreed to support her.
9
“I thought you wasn’t coming back till tomorrow,” said Nurse Dixon, standing at the half-opened nursery door. Her eyes flicked from one to the other and the cocksure look that she adopted in the presence of Miss East wavered for a second when she saw the intent on their faces. “What’s she doing here?” she asked the doctor, while glaring at the housekeeper. “She’s not supposed to come here.”
“I thought she could look after Charlotte while we have a chat. May we come in?”
“I’m not prepared,” she said, indicating with a movement of her hand her stockinged feet.
“That’s not important. I’d just like a few words about Charlotte.”
The doctor took a step forward, Dixon gave way, and Miss East followed the doctor into the room. “Could we go somewhere else to talk while Miss East stays here?”
Dixon snorted with bitterness. “No. I’ll stay right here where I’m supposed to be, thank you very much.”
The doctor and housekeeper exchanged a glance that wasn’t lost on Nurse Dixon.
“Would you at least step out onto the landing?” said the doctor.
“I’m not moving. Can’t see why I should.”
“Very well, in that case I’ll say what I’ve come to say. It is my medical opinion that your charge should be moved from this room straight away because of its associations,” he said, nodding towards the cot and presuming Charlotte didn’t know what “associations” meant.
“Is that all? I don’t need no doctor to tell me that. I can see that for myself. We could have moved next door any time if only Her Ladyship had said.”
“I wasn’t thinking of next door. I was thinking of downstairs in the main part of the house and putting her in the care of Miss East.”
Lily felt as if she was about to faint with fright.
There was a movement in the bed.
Dixon’s mouth fell open and she let out a yelp. “You snake!” she shouted at Lily East. “You can’t get any lower than this. Showing your true colours at last.” Outrage showed on her face as she turned to Dr Finn. “She’s been plotting this for years. Everyone knows she suffers from child hunger! She begged Lord Waldron for my job but he told her she was too old and she never got over it. Trust me. All she’s ever wanted is to get her hands on the girls.” Spittle was frothing at the corners of her mouth. “Dried-up old cow – that’s all she is!”
“You should mind your tongue, young lady,” said Dr Finn.
There was a shudder under the bedclothes.
“Why should I? Why should I take any notice of what you say? You don’t even belong here. Lady Blackshaw wouldn’t have sent for you – that’s my job. Funny you should call on the very day she leaves, isn’t it? I wonder whose idea that were?”
“I don’t think we should discuss this further in front of Charlotte. I’ll take her down to my room now and we can finish talking later.” Miss East made a move towards the bed.
“No, you don’t,” said Dixon, shoving her aside and sitting down heavily on the bed, leaning back against Charlotte.
Miss East stayed where she had ended up after the shove, a few yards from the bed.
“I’ve looked after Charlotte for eight years and there’s been no complaints,” Dixon said with fervour to the doctor. “It’s not my fault she’s sick now. It’s the shock of Victoria’s disappearance that’s done her in. Nothing to do with me. I’ll move rooms all right but she stays with me. Do you think you’re the only ones worried about the state she’
s in?”
Charlotte tried to shift her position as Dixon was leaning too heavily on her. Dixon leaned harder until the child kept still.
“I can’t say any more at the moment, Nurse Dixon,” said the doctor, “but I must insist that Charlotte is removed today. Immediately, in fact.”
Dixon turned turkey red and seemed to expand in size. The air around her crackled.
“What’s this got to do with you?” she asked, emphasising every syllable. “You can’t say who goes here and who goes there. Why should I take any notice of you?”
“Because I’m a doctor. I’m not giving you my personal opinion, but my medical one, and you can’t argue with that.”
Dixon opened her mouth, shut it, and opened it again after a few seconds’ thought. “She did put you up to it, didn’t she?” She narrowed her eyes. “She’s fooled you just as she’s fooled everyone with her posh accent and her books and her grand ways.” She turned to face Miss East. “You’ve come a long way, haven’t you, you jumped-up skivvy? All high and mighty. Your old neighbours might mistake you for a lady if they weren’t all dead from old age, you old crone!” She concluded with a forced laugh and a look of satisfaction on her face.
“I’ve only one answer to that.” Miss East handed her an envelope.
“What’s this?” Dixon took it before she realised what she was doing.
“Your notice. I’m dismissing you.”
“You’re what?” A look of panic crossed Dixon’s face and she turned back to the doctor. “I’m telling you that shrivelled-up old maid would do anything to get her hands on the girls! That’s what this is all about. It’s so obvious I don’t know how you can’t see it. What more proof do you need? Ever since I got here she’s been jealous of my looks and me having the girls. You’ve got to believe me!”
Dixon concentrated on the doctor’s face.
He stood unmoved.
She threw the envelope at Miss East, hitting her forehead, then jumped from the bed and towered over her, showering spittle as she cursed her.
Dr Finn was at the bedside in a second. He threw back the blankets and picked up Charlotte who clung to him with her legs wrapped around his waist and her head buried in his shoulder. He then made to move between the two women. Dixon turned and saw Charlotte in the doctor’s arms. She tried to pull her out of them, but the doctor turned his back and, even though Dixon prised off the legs, Charlotte clung on with her arms, and when she lifted the arms, the legs were back, pressed more tightly.
Dixon was aware she was being made to look foolish. She ran to the door, locked it, and put the large brass key in her skirt pocket. “Now we’ll see who’s in charge. I’m not finished yet! And I’ve a lot more to say, and it will do Charlotte good to hear it. The sooner she finds out what’s going on in the big, bad world the better. As if she didn’t know too much already.” Her narrowed eyes and twisted mouth were horrible to see.
Charlotte’s head burrowed deeper into the hollow of the doctor’s neck and shoulder.
“For the love of God, Nurse Dixon,” said Dr Finn, “let’s get Charlotte out of here – leave her with Cook – and then you can take as long as you like to say whatever you like.”
“You told, you little bitch, didn’t you? I’m talking to you, Charlotte. Didn’t you?” Charlotte shook her head violently, still keeping her face hidden.
“And you know what’s going to happen now that you’ve told, don’t you?” She positioned herself at the doctor’s back and twisted Charlotte’s ear. “I’ll put a curse on Mandrake and he’ll die –”
“No!” cried Miss East.
“And I’m putting a curse on you and you’ll soon know what it is when it happens to you.”
“No, Charlotte! Don’t listen to her!” said Miss East.
“Oh, go away, you wasp! Go on, go away!” Dixon needed little effort to knock over Miss East and didn’t even turn her face towards her as she did it.
The doctor whispered to Charlotte, who quivered and shook her head. He continued to whisper. She slackened her hold on him. He walked over to Miss East to help her up and when she was upright transferred Charlotte into her arms.
Dixon gave a howl when she saw what had happened and tried to snatch the child back from Miss East. The only part of Charlotte she could grasp was her hair and she pulled so hard it looked as if the slender neck might snap. The child’s face contorted in agony and her mouth opened in a soundless scream. When Miss East turned, Dixon held on and turned with her. The doctor grabbed Dixon’s left arm and squeezed it so hard for so long that she was forced to let go of the hair. He then twisted the arm behind her back and kicked her legs out from under her. She landed on her front with the doctor’s knee on her back, her arm twisted behind her and her legs flapping to no purpose.
“Charlotte might like to know how Miss East’s stepfather protected young girls, I reckon!” spat Dixon. “You didn’t think I knew about all that, did you?”
Dr Finn, who had been searching with his free hand for the key, now put that hand across her mouth and received such a strong bite he couldn’t get it back. He moved his position so that he straddled the nurse, keeping her left arm pinioned by his weight, and freed himself by pushing down hard on her lower jaw with his other hand. “If you don’t shut up I’ll be forced to do something drastic, so help me God, I will!” He turned her head and pushed it into the floorboards so she couldn’t speak, and searched quickly and roughly for the key until he found it and handed it to the trembling Miss East, who lost no time in opening the door and fleeing.
Such was her heightened fear, Miss East was able, despite her small physique and her forty-eight-year old legs, to carry Charlotte saying, “You’re safe. You’ll never see Nurse Dixon ever again,” and then, “I’m not a witch, I’m your fairy godmother,” over and over, down the three flights of stairs and along lengths of corridors before arriving at the kitchen and thrusting the child into the arms of the startled cook.
“Look after her for a minute,” said the breathless Miss East. “Something to do.”
She hurried into the back kitchen and told the young kitchen porter to run up to the nursery as fast as his legs could carry him to check that Dr Finn, who might be in a bit of trouble, was all right. She had to give him directions as he had never been to that wing before.
“Lordy, isn’t it lovely to see little Charlotte again?” Cook said to Miss East on her return to the kitchen. “It’s lovely to see you at last, Charlotte. We were all wondering when you were going to come down to visit us again.”
Charlotte loosened her hold on Cook and ran to put her arms around Miss East’s waist. Her eyes fixed on a loaf of soda bread upended on the cooling rack and she pointed at it.
“She’s hungry, poor thing,” said Cook, following the pointing finger. She went over to cut a wedge from the loaf, covered it with butter and blackberry jam and halved it.
Charlotte grabbed it and stuffed so much into her mouth she found it hard to chew.
The two women exchanged glances and Cook mouthed ‘Starving’ over the child’s head.
Charlotte pointed again at the bread to show that she wanted more but Miss East said, “We’ll wait a little longer until your tummy settles down after that piece.”
“Will you come back to me, Charlotte?” said Cook. “I’ve been missing our cuddles for such a long time.”
Charlotte moved over to the heavily padded sanctuary of Cook’s lap and both women were surprised to see her fall asleep within a few minutes.
Miss East couldn’t help sharing her good news. “I’ll be looking after Charlotte until Lady Blackshaw returns. Now, I’m just going to see Dr Finn to see what he has to say and then I’ll explain everything.”
She decided to wait at the bottom of the nursery stairs for Dr Finn, standing well back in case Dixon or the kitchen porter came down first.
It’s done! she exulted, speaking to her mother in her mind. Rejoice with me. The one great thing is done. Eight years too late, but d
one at last. Dixon is dismissed. Thank God I lived to see the day.
10
One person would be awake, Nurse Dixon knew, and that would be Manus, and he was the only person she wanted to see. At first light she left her bed and made her way to the stables where he was saddling Mandrake, impatient to be off for the eighteenth day in a row on his daily dawn search for Victoria. As soon as he saw Dixon’s tearful face, he guided her into the tack room on the southern side where they could talk without fear of disturbing the lads asleep in the room above the stable on the northern side.
She told him that Miss East, full of jealousy, was getting rid of her while Her Ladyship’s back was turned. Dixon would have to wait around for a month until Lady Blackshaw returned to give her back her position, which she would do, as she thought so highly of her. Meanwhile Miss East had removed Charlotte from the nursery the night before, and was no doubt making up nasty, untrue stories which she would later spread to justify her action and everyone would believe them because she was the housekeeper.
“I can’t stay at the Park to be pointed at and whispered about.”
“No one will be pointing at you and whispering.” Manus showed relief that the news wasn’t worse. He took Dixon’s hand, saying that she must have misunderstood Lily East, who was kindness itself, and if Dixon liked he would speak to Lily and sort out the mistake.
“No, don’t talk to her. That’s the last thing I want you to do. Believe me, there were no mistake. You don’t know her like I do. She suffers from child hunger and would do anything to get her hands on the girls. Girl. And this were her chance. She said Her Ladyship gave her the authority.”
“I can’t credit this sudden turn of events. And you so good with the girls. Lily must have got the wrong end of the stick. I wonder what got into her.” He shook his head in disbelief. “You must let me talk to her.”
Tyringham Park Page 5
