by Kate Eastham
‘I am not a liar and I am not a prostitute,’ spat Alice, straightening up even further on the chair, and glaring at the nurse.
She could see the woman shaking her head.
‘I have worked as a nurse. Send someone to the hospital, ask for Miss Houston, the assistant superintendent. She can vouch for me,’ said Alice, desperately trying to stop her voice rising whilst her heart pounded against her ribs.
Still the nurse shook her head. And now she was smiling.
‘I am a housemaid and the mother of a sick baby,’ Alice called out, infuriated by the woman, wanting to get up and punch her.
‘The women who end up here say all sorts of stuff,’ said the nurse, ‘but I’ve never met one who claims to be a housemaid, a nurse, and the mother of a sick baby.’
‘Look … I have milk leaking from my breasts … Look,’ cried Alice, feeling the sheer injustice of her situation welling up inside her now.
‘Well, you could have done that with water, couldn’t you?’
‘You have to believe me,’ said Alice, angry now, not able to control herself. ‘I need to get home to my baby!’ she shouted, standing up from her chair, face-to-face with the nurse.
‘Sit down,’ ordered the nurse.
Alice stood eye to eye with the nurse, desperately needing to make the right decision. She felt like flying at the woman, pushing her to the ground and then forcing her way out through all the people in the hospital until she was free and she could run back to the house. But she could see that the nurse wasn’t for backing down, and she knew that all she could do, for now, was to sit back down on the chair.
‘That’s better,’ said the nurse with a hint of satisfaction in her voice. ‘We need to examine you. All of the women that are brought here have to be examined … the doctor will be here in a moment. Now, I want you to lie down on this couch.’
‘No, I will not,’ shouted Alice, her anger breaking through. ‘I have done nothing, except have a baby.’
‘If you lie down and let the doctor have a look, and what you say is right, then we will let you go.’
‘Do you promise?’
‘Yes, providing that there are no signs of disease. There may well be something there that needs treating. After all, from what you say, you have a baby and from what I can see, you are not married. How can a decent single woman end up with a baby?’
‘Believe me … it is possible. I gave birth, that’s all. I have only lain with one man for one night, and that is when I got pregnant.’
‘We hear all kinds of stories. You will stay here and be examined.’
‘No, I will not!’ screamed Alice, leaping up from the chair and standing with her teeth bared and her hands balled into fists.
The door opened just as the nurse made a grab for her. Knowing that this was her only chance, Alice dived past and then somehow in the confusion managed to dodge around the doctor who was standing in the doorway. He lunged at her but she was too quick for him. She ran down the corridor and then paused for a second, trying to get her bearings, when she heard a voice behind her.
‘Alice?’
Alice spun around, her heart pounding. It was Ada Houston, her eyes wide and her mouth open, standing there with some papers in her hand and Lizzie by her side.
‘Ada,’ she croaked, suddenly overwhelmed and needing to lean against the wall of the corridor.
Ada was straight there by her side.
All Alice could do was nod; she was unable to speak. Lizzie came and put an arm around her, murmuring words of comfort.
Ada motioned for them both to stay where they were and then she turned to confront the doctor who had marched down the corridor with the nurse in tow.
‘Excuse me, Dr Anderson,’ she said, her voice full of authority. ‘I believe there has been a mistake. This woman is someone that I know very well. She has worked as a nurse at the Royal Infirmary; she is of good character.’
Alice saw with some satisfaction the glimmer of surprise in the eyes of the nurse who was now standing next to the doctor. ‘Well, Miss Houston, what is she doing here?’ said the doctor impatiently. ‘These women have been picked up from the street by the police.’
‘I don’t know, but I do know it’s a mistake,’ said Ada firmly, standing her ground and holding the doctor’s gaze. Alice could hardly bear to watch the transaction; all of her hopes rested with Ada in that moment. She could see the doctor stiffen and pull himself up to his full height and then he was glancing down to a piece of paper in his hand, mumbling something about rules and regulations. An orderly pushed by him with another woman, and he shouted out in frustration.
‘For goodness’ sake,’ he snapped. ‘We’re overrun with these women anyway. If you can vouch for her, Miss Houston, you can take her with the other one.’
‘Thank you,’ said Ada, pressing her lips together and turning immediately towards Alice.
‘Come on then, Lizzie, and Nurse Sampson,’ she said. ‘Let’s get you both home.’
Alice felt her legs go weak at the knees but she made sure to follow Miss Houston with her back straight as they walked towards the door and the world outside.
Only when they were out into the light, did she start to weaken and almost fell into Lizzie’s arms.
‘I told you we’d get you out of there,’ said Lizzie, grinning. ‘I mean, I didn’t expect to get out myself, but it wasn’t right for you to be in there.’
‘It wasn’t right for you to be in there either,’ Ada said firmly.
Alice felt her breath catching in her throat. ‘I’m so worried about Victoria,’ she said, ‘I must get straight back to her.’
‘Victoria is going to be fine, Alice,’ said Ada, smiling. ‘Marie came out to find me when you didn’t return; she brought the baby with her and I was able to check her over. We cooled her down and gave her some medicine, and her fever has started to settle. Who knows what it was that she was ailing from, but she has the medicine now and is going to be fine in a day or two. That little girl of yours is a tough little beggar.’
‘Thank you, thank you,’ murmured Alice, feeling as though she could collapse with joy and fall down on to the street there and then. But she knew that they needed to get going right away. ‘I need to get back to Stella’s,’ she said.
‘Of course you do,’ said Ada, rooting in her pocket. ‘Let me give you both this letter in case either of you get stopped again. It states that you are known to be of good character and can be vouched for by members of senior staff at the hospital. It’s signed by our superintendent, Miss Merryweather – she’s with us on this issue and will do all that she can to support the rights of women.
‘What happened today was appalling, and we must see that it never happens again. I’ll put some thought into it and be along to see you very soon, Alice. We need to think about your future. Now go, both of you, and don’t linger …’
Alice didn’t remember much of the walk back through the city. She clung to Lizzie’s arm, her whole body tuned to one thing – getting safely back to her baby.
‘Come on,’ said Lizzie, sensing the yearning in Alice as they turned into the alley, and they both ran the final distance, arriving breathless on the doorstep as they waited to be admitted by Marie.
‘There you are,’ Marie almost shouted, her arms around both girls at once. ‘And Victoria is so much better …’
Alice had already broken free from Marie’s embrace and she was in the kitchen by the crib, pulling the cover from the sleeping baby to check her over. Her whole body started to relax when she saw that, apart from two circles of rosy red on her cheeks, her daughter did seem much better.
‘She’s been taking boiled milk off a teaspoon,’ said Marie, following along behind with Lizzie. ‘I think she’s through the worst of it now.’
Alice collapsed on to a kitchen chair and Lizzie flopped down on the seat right next to her.
‘Where’s Stella?’ they both asked, almost simultaneously.
‘Oh, Stell’s fin
e,’ Marie reassured them. ‘Don’t worry, she came back just after me, then she went straight out again to meet some other women in our line of business. We’re all struggling at present, we need to stick together.’
‘We certainly do,’ said Lizzie, slumping forward across the table to rest her head on her arms.
‘You two both look done in,’ Marie said. ‘I’ll get you a cup of tea and a bite to eat, and while you’re having that, I’ll fill the bath.’
‘That’s sounds like heaven,’ said Lizzie, raising her head and trying to smile. ‘Alice, you go in first. I’ll be lying in that water all day …’
Marie brought the tin bath in from where it hung in the back yard and, whilst the two women were eating, she placed it in front of the stove and filled it bit by bit with steaming water from the copper. Even hearing the sound of the water pouring into the bath made Alice start to relax. And then, as Marie brought jug after jug of cold to cool it to the perfect temperature and swished her hand through the water, the rhythm of it made Alice think of home, and bath night. She loved to be in the water.
She couldn’t wait to get out of her clothes; they clung to her like a horrible reminder of what had just happened. As soon as she’d finished her tea, she walked through to her small room and peeled off each layer, dropping them one by one on to the floor. Her chemise was stuck to her skin with dried milk. Once she’d peeled the whole lot away, shedding it like a skin on to the floor, she started to feel better.
Then she sat on the bed, enjoying the feel of cool air on her body and rejoicing in the knowledge that she hadn’t been forced to submit to some cruel invasion with metal instruments. She shuddered again as she thought about it, knowing that some women would be held down for that to be done to them. Having had a brush with the experience herself, Alice now felt fully resolved to resist the moral enforcement of working women. She would march with the rest in the street if need be.
But, right now, all she needed was to get in that bath and soak away the cares of the day. She took the pins out of her hair and shook it loose, running her hands through it, and then she pulled a blanket off the bed and draped it around her shoulders. As she walked through to the kitchen she could smell the soap and hear the swish of the water in the tub as Marie added more hot.
‘Come on then,’ said Lizzie, sliding the blanket from Alice’s shoulders.
‘Ooh, ooh, it’s hot,’ laughed Alice, stepping in, ‘but not too hot …’ she murmured as her body slipped beneath the water.
As she lay back, Alice closed her eyes and felt the heat of the water seep right through her body, into her bones. She felt suspended in time, held in a warm embrace. Arching her neck, she made sure her hair was soaking in the water and then she felt the murmur of Lizzie’s voice as she told Alice that she was going to wash her. Feeling the rhythmic sensation of the smooth sponge on her skin, Alice knew that she was cherished.
‘Sit up and I’ll wash your hair,’ said Marie softly.
As Alice sat, Marie poured jug after jug of warm water over her head, and then she massaged the soft soap which had been warmed by the fire into her hair. Alice felt waves of sensation coursing through her body.
‘Mmmm,’ she sighed, ‘that is so good …’
As the warm water for rinsing was poured over, Alice felt clean, renewed. And then after Marie had wrapped her hair in a towel, Alice lay back once more, with Lizzie at the side trailing her hand in the water and gently chatting of this and that. The murmur of conversation mingling with the ripple and the drip of the water, until it began to cool.
4
‘I do not anticipate that it would be possible ever to have married women in the Service. And it is hardly necessary to add that no woman but of unblemished character can be admitted.’
Florence Nightingale
‘What the blazes has been going on?’ cried Eddy as she bustled through the kitchen door carrying her nurse’s bag. ‘I saw Marie out in town when I was between cases, and she said that you’d gone missing yesterday. I was just on my way to treat a bad case of—’
‘Shh …’ said Alice, pressing a finger to her lips as Eddy stood there in the middle of the kitchen in her district nurse’s cape and hat, her eyes wide. ‘Victoria’s only just gone down. She’s a bit restless at the moment, she’s been poorly. Come out the back with me,’ she said quietly. ‘I need to hang some washing out.’
Eddy threw herself down on a wooden bench set against the wall of the back yard, and removed the small round hat that sat skew-whiff on her head. Then, taking the clip out of her hair, she ran both hands through till it stuck out at all angles. As Alice pegged out the washing, big sheets that flapped around her legs in the Liverpool breeze, she told Eddy the full story of what had happened.
For once Eddy was quiet and listened intently to what Alice had to say, not interrupting. Just listening.
‘Crikey, Alice,’ Eddy breathed, when her friend had finished. ‘You had a near miss there. You don’t want to end up in that Lock Hospital, I’ve heard all sorts of stories. And Mr Fawcett, that surgeon who gave us those lectures, he’s always in there – you know what he’s like. He’s the one that you saw here at Stella’s that time, isn’t he?’
Alice nodded. She still felt hollowed out inside after what had happened yesterday, but once she’d got back home and held Victoria in her arms, nothing else mattered and she had been determined to get on with her work as usual and put the whole thing behind her. But now, picking up on Eddy’s concern, she started to feel forlorn. And being with Eddy, sometimes, made her think about Maud and start to miss her – and they still hadn’t had any news.
‘I hope Maud’s all right in New York,’ she said, walking over to sit on the bench and resting her head on Eddy’s shoulder. ‘It will be so strange for her out there. She’s never been outside of Liverpool in her whole life – she’s never even been to Southport.’
‘She’ll be all right,’ said Eddy. ‘And at least she’s got Harry and Alfred.’
‘Mmm,’ said Alice, straightening up.
‘Maud will be fine,’ Eddy insisted. ‘She can look after herself, and me, and you, and Alfred … you know what she’s like.’
‘You’re right, of course you are,’ said Alice, starting to smile and then laughing as she reached a hand out to try and straighten Eddy’s mass of hair. ‘Even though you look like you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards, Edwina Pacey, you’re usually right about these things.’
‘I always look like I’ve been dragged through a hedge,’ said Eddy, laughing. ‘And then when I’m in and out of people’s houses, I’m wrestling with bandages and stray dogs and children putting sticky hands all over me. Well, it makes it worse than ever. It’s a good job I’ve got this big cape to cover everything up.’
Alice couldn’t stop laughing as Eddy continued to show her all the marks and stains on her skirt and tell the story of each one. ‘And then, the other day, I was applying a big dressing to a man’s leg, just starting to wind the bandage round – you know what that’s like. I could have done with someone else to hold the dressing pad in place. Well, I put the roll of bandage down, so I could straighten up the pad, and a dog ran in from the back yard and tried to run off with it. So, there’s me, in a tug of war with a dog. And this fella, my patient, shouting and screaming at his dog, and saying ooh, ooh, nurse, it’s me leg, it’s hurting me leg. In the end I had to unwind the bandage and let the dog have it.’
Alice and Eddy were both doubled over and crying with laughter now. ‘I’m so sorry, Eddy,’ she said. ‘It can’t be easy …’ and she had to wait to calm down before she could continue. ‘It can’t be easy, going into people’s houses. I mean, it’s difficult enough, seeing patients when you’ve got them all on a ward, but at least you’ve got some help, you don’t have to do absolutely everything by yourself.’
‘Mmm, yes, there is that,’ said Eddy, wiping the tears from her eyes, but still holding her ribs. ‘There is that, but you know what, Alice, I like the cha
llenge, and what I love most of all is being able to be the one to help those patients out there. Some of them have nothing, not even enough food to eat. They are desperate. And once you can get in through the door and they start to trust you, that’s when it starts to feel that you’re doing something really worthwhile. I mean, I do miss the others on the wards, but you get used to working on your own, and I like it, actually. And you get to know loads of people as well: the people on the street and in the shops; even the men who deliver the coal and the women who sell flowers – you get to know them all.’
‘I don’t think I could do it,’ said Alice. ‘I like to be with others and not work on my own. I mean, obviously, I didn’t finish the training so I couldn’t do it anyway. The only thing I could do now would be to go back on to the wards as an untrained hospital nurse. But they get paid so little and the work is so heavy … I might as well stay here as a housemaid.’
‘Maybe so. But it doesn’t seem right that you have to let all that experience go to waste,’ said Eddy straight out. ‘We have to find out if you can finish your training – there has to be a way.’
‘I’m not sure. I mean, I do remember Miss Houston saying before Victoria was born that if I wanted to go back then I could. And she did say it again yesterday, when she got me out of the Lock Hospital. She said she was going to have a think about things, about what we should do now, and she said she’d be coming to see me. But I’m not sure what she has in mind and, most of all, now I’ve got the baby, I can’t imagine how it would feel to go back to the hospital. I’d have to leave her, Eddy, I’d have to leave her for hours and hours every day.’
‘But Alice, with what happened yesterday, you nearly ended up leaving her anyway, leaving her for much longer than hours. Do you really think that it’s safe to continue here now? You can’t lock yourself up for ever, and what if you get picked up again? Maybe running into Ada yesterday is just what needed to happen if she can help you somehow to go back and complete your training.’
