Daughters of Liverpool

by Kate Eastham

  Alice tried to sit up; it felt too strange to be lying there on the floor with Sister Law looming over her. She pulled herself into a sitting position and propped herself against the wall. She still felt light-headed, but Sister seemed satisfied that she was making progress: she nodded, then turned on her heel, sweeping out through the door without another word.

  Then it was just Alice, Miss Houston and Dr McKendrick in theatre.

  ‘We are applying a stump bandage to the patient’s arm,’ said Ada. ‘This can be a bit tricky, as you can see. First you have to tether it and then the bandage goes backwards and forwards like this, then we need to make sure it’s wrapped firm, to help reduce any swelling.’

  It looked like a work of art from where Alice was sitting. She was in awe of the bandaging and knew that she’d need a lot of practice to even start to be able to do anything like that. She was also impressed by the way Dr McKendrick held the arm in position and helped Ada with the bandage. She didn’t even have to direct him, he just seemed to know what to do. She saw, as well, a moment when Ada’s hand brushed his, as she wrapped the bandage around, and caught the look on his face, for just an instant.

  Ada, however, was completely oblivious, and only interested in a good bandage. But Alice was sure that she hadn’t been mistaken, she’d seen a spark of something. No wonder, she thought, just look at her – all dark, curly hair and bright eyes. He must be a bit older than her, but with his black hair and dark eyes, they were very well matched.

  ‘That should do it,’ said Ada energetically, as she wrapped the final loop of bandage and tucked it in. McKendrick was still holding the arm, transfixed by her. She was, of course, still completely oblivious.

  Alice gave a sigh. She felt sorry for the doctor – it was easy to see that he adored Miss Houston and it looked as though she had no idea of his feelings towards her. She almost thought about trying to make Ada aware, but just as quickly realized that wouldn’t be a good idea. These things had to develop of their own accord, or not at all. Not that she’d had any experience to back up that theory, but common sense told her that was probably the best way.

  ‘Are you fully recovered now, Nurse?’ asked McKendrick, coming over to where Alice was sitting.

  ‘Yes, I feel much better, thank you,’ she said, thinking what a lovely person he was.

  She made to stand up but lurched a little, and he grabbed her, keeping hold of her arm until she was completely steady.

  ‘Now, Nurse Sampson,’ he said gently, ‘I did try to sponge some of the patient’s blood from your hands whilst you were passed out, but I think you should go now and wash them again.’

  Alice looked down – yes, he was right.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said quietly, to this man who seemed to think of everything.

  ‘I need to make my way to Female Surgical now, Ada, to catch up with Mr Jones,’ he said, once Alice was steady and balanced at the sink.

  Ada barely glanced up from the patient. ‘Can you send the orderlies in to remove him to a bed on the ward, please, Anil?’

  He nodded and then he was gone.

  Well, at least they’re on first-name terms, thought Alice. Maybe all is not completely lost for poor Dr McKendrick.

  Once Michael and Stephen had been in with the stretcher to remove the patient, it was just Alice and Ada left in theatre clearing up. Just as Alice made her way to assist with wiping the table down, the door swung open and Sister Law was there again. ‘Good to see you on your feet, Nurse Sampson. Here’s your sweet tea,’ she said, leaving it on the window ledge. ‘Drink it up and then get back on the ward as soon as you can.’

  Alice opened her mouth to speak but Sister had already gone.

  ‘It’s always so busy out there,’ said Ada, smiling. ‘I don’t know how she does it day after day.’ She caught the look on Alice’s face. ‘Yes, I know she runs a tight ship, but you know what, if I was a patient, I’d want Prudence Law to be in charge of the ward.’

  Prudence! said the voice in Alice’s head, as she tried to stop herself from giggling. Prudence Law!

  ‘Right, Nurse Sampson,’ said Ada. ‘You seem to have made a good job of the table. Can you help me wipe down these instruments and put them in a bowl full of carbolic acid? We’ve started soaking them now in the solution, to reduce germs. We just need to find the bowls …

  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you on your first day, Alice,’ she went on, ‘but in fact I was just coming on to the ward to find you when you came running at me … How are things going, and how are you coping with leaving Victoria?’

  For a moment, Alice was unable to reply. She felt her breath catch and she was surprised by the tightness in her throat when she tried to speak. The way that she missed her baby was like an empty space inside her; she had no idea how to describe it.

  ‘I am coping, but it is so hard to leave her,’ she said eventually, feeling ridiculous as she felt herself turning a deep pink, even down to the roots of her hair, simply because she was speaking about her secret child, here at the hospital.

  ‘It must be hard, I know that. But you have to trust that it will be worth it in the end.’

  Alice nodded. ‘This morning was bad, she was screaming when I left.’

  ‘Oh dear, I’m sorry to hear that. It’s bound to happen, I suppose. That must be a lot to deal with first thing in the morning. But if it’s any consolation, Alice, from what I’ve seen of you today, the way you’re applying yourself and getting on with the work, I can say, in all honesty, that you seem to have the makings of a nurse who can finish her training.’

  ‘Really?’ said Alice. ‘Even though I just fainted clean away, during a routine operation?’

  ‘Yes, really. Even though I manage all kinds of emergencies and can witness any amount of blood in theatre, I fainted too the first time I saw an amputation.’

  ‘Did you?’ said Alice, her eyebrows raised. ‘Was that here, at the Infirmary?’

  ‘Oh no, it was years ago. I saw my first one during the Crimean War.’

  ‘Oh my goodness,’ said Alice. ‘Of course, I’d heard that you were out there. That must have been quite something.’

  ‘It was,’ said Ada. ‘I didn’t realize at the time. I was very young, I was swept along with everything but, now, when I think about it, I have no idea how I got through it.’

  ‘Did you work with Florence Nightingale?’ Alice asked.

  ‘Not as such, but I worked with some nurses who’d trained under her. And I did get to meet her. Twice, in fact.’

  Alice’s eyes widened. She’d grown up hearing stories of Miss Nightingale, and she’d had a portrait of the heroine of the Crimea hanging above her bed at home. ‘Did you see her tending the patients, with her lamp? She must have been like an angel.’

  ‘I didn’t see her working on the wards, but, you know, most of that stuff about her with the lamp, it was just stories. I don’t think even Miss Nightingale would want people to think of her as just some kind of ministering angel. Yes, the patients were her priority, but that didn’t mean she would sit by a bedside for hours on end. She is a very intelligent woman, good at knowing exactly what’s required, and at that time, during the war, there were other people to sit with the patients, and other priorities for Miss Nightingale. She was in charge of everything at the hospital in Scutari, completely dedicated to her work and very, very determined. Without her, we wouldn’t have nursing as it is today. There wouldn’t be any proper training for women like you. We’d still be stuck back in the dark ages with filthy hospitals and incompetent nurses.’

  ‘I see,’ said Alice, musing over what Ada had just said. ‘So most people don’t really have much idea about what Miss Nightingale really did out there.’

  ‘Yes, I think that’s probably the case.’

  Alice felt sorry, in a way, to lose the image of Miss Nightingale that she’d always had in her head. But then, surely, the real Florence Nightingale was even more impressive. What an incredible woman.

  �
�So did you see your first amputation in Scutari hospital – is that where you fainted?’ she asked, starting to wipe down the operating table.

  ‘No … I didn’t actually work in Scutari. I ended up near the front line. It was, in fact, on the harbourside at Balaklava. I was straight off the ship and dragged over to help an army surgeon. Someone mistook me for a nurse but I’d had no experience whatsoever. I passed out completely. But I didn’t have a kind doctor looking after me like you just had. Oh no, the doctor I ended up with was a bad-tempered young man who had no patience with a nurse who couldn’t stay on her feet.’

  ‘What a brute,’ said Alice. ‘From what Dr McKendrick said, many people faint first time, and you’d only just disembarked from a ship.’

  ‘That’s as may be, but Dr John Lampeter didn’t have time for any of that, not back then – there was a war on.’

  ‘I hope you never had to work with him again.’

  Alice saw a slight stiffening of Ada’s body, as if something had tightened inside her.

  ‘Well, I had no choice. He was at the hospital where I was working … but, do you know what, he turned out to be a very different sort of man after all,’ said Ada, plunging her cloth into water and wringing it out with vigour.

  By the tone of Ada’s voice and the way that she’d stiffened when she’d been talking about this Dr Lampeter, Alice was fairly sure that poor Dr McKendrick didn’t stand a chance with Miss Houston. What a shame.

  Ada cleared her throat, seeming desperate now to change the subject. ‘Have you heard anything at all from that young man of yours?’

  Alice shook her head. ‘Jamie, nah, that’s all over anyway,’ she said, turning to check that the door was still closed and they couldn’t be overheard. ‘All that matters to me now is Victoria,’ she whispered. ‘And doing this work, here at the Infirmary, so that I can complete my training.’

  ‘Good way of thinking,’ said Miss Houston. ‘A wise woman, an experienced nurse called Mary Seacole who I also worked with in the Crimea, once told me that there is no better work than nursing. And for me, that has always been the case. There is nothing in this world that I would rather be doing. And for someone like me, growing up near the docks in Liverpool, with my background, I would never have thought that I could have a job like this.’

  ‘Did you never want to marry?’

  ‘Well, no, it just wasn’t … it was complicated. I may tell you one day, Alice. I think you and I have a great deal in common. But suffice to say, for now, that this is the best life for me, here at the hospital. And I am looking forward to working with many more nurses like you and Maud. And I believe your other friend, Eddy, Nurse Pacey, is doing very good work out on the district: I hear she’s something of a marvel.’

  ‘She is that, all right,’ said Alice, smiling.

  ‘All finished in here?’ called Sister Law, opening the door with some vigour and scowling into the room.

  ‘Yes, Sister,’ replied Alice and Ada together, both of them starting to giggle as soon as the door swung to.

  7

  ‘A woman with a healthy, active tone of mind, plenty of work in her, and some enthusiasm, who makes the best of everything, and, above all, does not think herself better than other people because she is a “Nightingale Nurse”, that is the woman we want.’

  Florence Nightingale

  As Alice walked to work the next morning, she felt different. It did help that Victoria had slept through the night and that she’d been happier left with Marie that morning. But there was something else – she felt a little less heavy somehow. The pangs that she’d had to endure whilst she walked down the alley the two previous mornings seemed to have started to lessen. If she hadn’t got Marie in the house to look after her baby, she had no idea how she would be managing. She felt sorry for the working women of the world who were forced to leave their children, packed in with many others, at the home of a baby minder. She was so lucky to have Marie, it was like leaving Victoria with family. Better than family, she thought grimly, thinking about what reception she would have got if she’d taken her baby home.

  So, this morning she felt calmer, her step was lighter, and as she turned to glance back down the alley, there was Hugo, trotting along behind her. She stopped briefly to give him a stroke then tried to shoo him back to the house, but today, he seemed to have plans of his own as he skipped past her, heading for Lime Street.

  Alice stepped out on to the street, into the bustle of early risers going to work. Today, for the first time, she didn’t just need to go to work, she felt like she wanted to go to work. She knew that even Sister Law’s scowl couldn’t unsettle her: she was Alice and she was happy to be back at work.

  The morning’s work was busy, as usual, but Alice was increasingly familiar with the routine and more adept with many of the tasks than she’d ever been first time round. She was content with her work. That was until she was given instruction to team up with Nurse Langtry. Alice had started to get used to Millicent’s style of work, and now that she had got back into the work herself, she could take the lead. So it was all manageable, until Millicent turned to her with the semblance of a smile and said, ‘I saw Nancy last evening, she told me to tell you that she sends her best wishes to you and the baby. She hopes you don’t run into any difficulties at work this time round.’

  Alice couldn’t speak. She stared at Millicent, feeling her face starting to burn, not with shame, but with rage. Pure rage. She couldn’t believe that Nancy Sellers had found a way of getting to her, even though she had left the hospital as soon as she’d completed her training.

  She was on the verge of spitting out her rage, straight into Millicent’s face, when she remembered Maud’s words, something she’d said many times: don’t react, don’t let Nancy see that she’s getting to you.

  Thank you, Maud, thought Alice, taking a deep breath, before forcing herself to smile. ‘Oh, that’s nice. Please tell Nancy that I send my thoughts to her as well …’

  Fortunately, because Millicent was so slow with everything, she didn’t even seem to notice Alice’s red face and gritted teeth. She just smiled and said, ‘I will tell her.’

  ‘What is dear Nancy doing now?’ asked Alice, using the exchange to glean as much information as she could.

  ‘Oh, she’s a private nurse, in a very good part of town. Quite exclusive. She’s caring for a gentlewoman who, poor thing, has a painful and chronic condition.’

  ‘Good for her,’ said Alice through her gritted teeth, thinking straight away, poor woman indeed, having a nurse who’s also painful and chronic.

  She made herself smile; she was getting better at this. ‘Well now, Millicent, we can’t be gossiping all day. Do you want to get on and see to that man in bed five, the one who needs a mustard poultice, and I’ll go down the other end and make sure they’re all sorted. We need to make sure that everything is in order for Sister, don’t we?’

  ‘Yes, we do,’ said Millicent, duly trotting off towards the sluice. Alice had no idea why: the poultices weren’t in there. What was she doing?

  Thankfully, Alice managed to find enough work at the opposite end of the ward and Sister Law was happy to direct Millicent at the other. It made Alice think of last year, when she and Maud were trying to keep out of the way of Nancy. She was back in the same situation, although of course Millicent was just an empty vessel that Nancy saw fit to use. There was no malice in her at all; she had just repeated what Nancy had told her.

  And even if Millicent repeated it to others, what could Nancy actually achieve, given that Miss Houston and Miss Merryweather both knew that she had a child? In that moment, Alice knew, it was just meant for her, to unsettle her, to let her know that, even though she was no longer working at the Infirmary, Nancy could twitch upon a thread and make Alice feel uncomfortable.

  Later that day, Alice was called to attend the man they’d taken to theatre as an emergency the day before, the amputated arm. He still wasn’t improving and he’d been a bit restless in be
d, moving his head from side to side and muttering.

  ‘Let’s give him a small dose of laudanum,’ said Sister Law. ‘The pain will be acute. Sadly, things don’t look good for the poor man, but the last thing we want is for him to suffer even more. And we don’t even know his name …’

  In that moment, Alice could clearly see the care that Sister had for her patients; it shone through the stern face that she showed to the world. This wouldn’t do: she was starting to warm to Sister Law. Who’d have thought that would ever happen?

  ‘It’s quiet enough on the ward now, Nurse Sampson,’ said Sister after she’d administered the laudanum. ‘You sit by him, make sure he stays calm, and it’s visiting soon. Maybe he’ll get someone to see him and we can find something out about him.’

  So Alice found a stool and sat by the bed. It made her feel sad to see the man’s one arm resting on the sheet. She made sure to sit at the left side of his bed, so that she could hold his hand. The man was restless for a few more minutes after the drops and he was muttering some jumbled words, but nothing that Alice could make out. She held on to his hand and spoke softly to him until he settled. Then she sat steadfastly by the bed, thinking her own thoughts and making up stories about who the mystery patient – a very ordinary-looking middle-aged man – might actually be.

  ‘How is our patient today, Nurse Sampson?’ said Dr McKendrick, appearing at the other side of the bed.

  ‘Much the same,’ replied Alice. ‘But he was restless earlier; Sister thought he might need a dose of laudanum. He seems settled now.’

  ‘Sister was probably right,’ said McKendrick, leaning over the bed to look at the man’s face more closely.

  ‘We haven’t even got a name for him,’ said Alice. ‘That’s another reason Sister wanted me to sit here. It’s visiting soon, she wanted to make sure that no one came in without us seeing.’