by Kate Eastham
‘Alice, for goodness’ sake. Just stop it, will you? Haven’t you got enough of your own intrigues to be worrying over? And now we really do need to get going,’ she said, pulling her friend out through the heavy wooden door. ‘Come on. The ward awaits.’
‘You sound just like Miss Merryweather,’ Alice groaned. And then she sighed. ‘No, you’re a cross between Miss Merryweather, Sister Law and Sister Fox.’
‘Oh no, I’m far worse than that,’ growled Maud as she stepped smartly down the stone steps. ‘Now, come on, will you? Speed up! We don’t want to be late. This reminds me of the times I had to wait for Eddy – always running late, always rushing, with her hair a mess and her cap all over the place.’
‘She’s still the same, just the same,’ laughed Alice.
‘Morning, Nurse Linklater, Nurse Sampson,’ called Nurse Devlin as she skipped past them on the steps. ‘I’ll see you on the ward. I just need to go to the laundry – I dropped my cap in the washbowl this morning.’
‘She’s a lovely girl, isn’t she?’ smiled Maud.
‘She is indeed. But I’m not sure of the other one, Nurse Latimer,’ murmured Alice.
Seeing Nurse Latimer up ahead, making her solitary way to the hospital, Maud and Alice exchanged a glance.
Alice frowned and muttered, ‘She reminds me of Nancy.’
‘Well, I must say I’m inclined to agree … but we still need to give her a chance. After all, it’s up to us senior staff to guide and nurture the probationers.’
Alice stifled a laugh. ‘I agree, but with some of them …’
‘Let’s give her a chance,’ said Maud firmly. ‘We have to be fair, otherwise we’ll all end up like Nancy.’
‘True,’ murmured Alice. ‘You’re such a good person, Maud, but you know that I’m right, don’t you?’
‘Well, let’s see, shall we? And, as for me, I’m not always a good person. You should have seen me that day I confronted Nancy in the sluice, I nearly throttled her …’
‘Maud!’ laughed Alice, taking her friend’s arm. ‘You never fail to amaze me – all quiet and ladylike, but underneath that neat starch and tidy appearance … you might just be a dangerous woman!’
‘Grrrr,’ replied Maud, making Alice giggle.
As they were approaching the door of the hospital, Maud heard a shout from behind and two men ran past with a patient on a window shutter. He was lying very still and his face was bright red, with the skin peeling away.
‘He’s badly burnt, isn’t he?’ she murmured to Alice as they both instantly picked up their pace.
As soon as they were in through the ward door, they could see that Sister Pritchard was harassed. ‘I’m having to send both the probationers to Male Surgical,’ she said. ‘There’s been a boiler explosion at a factory. They’ve admitted two men with severe scalds and there might be more on the way. They might need you over there to help in theatre as well, Nurse Linklater. It all depends. Sadly, those with extensive scalds, they seem all right on arrival, but they can sometimes die within hours.’
Sister was glancing up and down the ward, and then she turned to Maud.
‘So, Nurse Linklater,’ she said with a frown, ‘if you are required to go, then we’ll need at least one of our probationers back. And Miss Houston said that she can come and lend a hand, if need be. But Sister Law’s more likely to need her as well.’
‘Where do you want us now?’ offered Maud.
‘Well …’ replied Sister, glancing up and down the ward, making a rapid assessment. ‘You two go down that end,’ she said. ‘And then you can speak to Sue Cassidy when you get the chance. And I’ll be up this end with the nurse assistants. If we get any admissions, though, we are definitely going to be overstretched …’
Maud and Alice worked together, as if the time that Maud had spent in New York had never existed – helping those who needed a wash, re-dressing wounds, applying poultices, getting patients out of bed, straightening sheets, making beds, taking and recording temperatures with the ward thermometer, checking pulses. They both kept a careful eye on Sue as she slept propped up in bed, leaving her till last, till the other duties were done, so that they could spend more time with her.
At last, they were able to attend her, one at each side of the bed, and Maud saw Alice glance nervously across. She knew that she would have to take the lead.
‘Sue,’ she murmured gently, ‘Sue.’
But there was no response from the girl.
‘We can’t leave her in one position and risk a bed sore,’ said Maud, matter-of-factly. ‘So I suggest we give her a gentle wash, hands and face, and then we move her position and change her sheets, if need be. Then I’ll remove the bandage, check her eye, and the dressing.’
‘Good plan,’ said Alice. ‘I’ll go and get a bowl of water.’
As they worked together, talking to Sue and explaining everything that they were doing as if she were wide awake, the girl never flinched. It was satisfying to remove even more grime from her hands. Maud could see that Alice was still itching to wash the girl’s hair but that would have to wait until the wound was healed properly. Before they moved her on to her side to change the sheet, Maud unravelled the bandage that she’d applied yesterday in theatre. She held her breath, hoping that all was well with the dressing. And it looked to be. There was still a good deal of swelling, especially around the eye, and the purple bloom of a bruise all down the side of her face, but no exudate on the dressing. Maud removed the pad that she had placed over Sue’s eye. It was closed shut with the swelling but appeared clean.
‘Please could you get me the carbolic spray from theatre and a fresh bandage?’ she murmured to Alice.
As soon as Alice was gone from the bed, Sue began to stir herself, opening her good eye, creasing her brow, and licking her dry lips.
‘Hello,’ said Maud.
The girl moved her head and emitted a groan. And then she tried to speak. Maud offered her some water from the spouted cup that sat at the side of the bed. She took it readily and then wanted more.
‘What is this place?’ croaked the girl at last, her voice tiny against the background noise of the ward.
‘You are in hospital.’
The girl tried to move her head again, and she put a hand up to her face.
‘I can’t see, I can’t see,’ she said, starting to move her head from side to side.
‘Sue,’ said Maud calmly, ‘you have been in an accident. You have one eye that is very swollen so it won’t open at the moment. If you open your right eye properly, then you will be able to see.’
Maud breathed a sigh of relief when the girl opened her eye. But then the poor child started to cry and tried to move herself in the bed, struggling to get out.
‘You must lie still, Sue,’ said Maud calmly, holding her firmly. ‘Look at me, look. Do you remember me? I’m Alice’s friend, you saw me in the backyard, at the house, the other day.’
Still Sue tried to struggle against her.
‘Sue,’ said Alice gently, appearing at the side of the bed.
‘Alice?’ said the girl, starting to cry again. ‘Alice!’
The girl clung to Alice as if she were the only person in the world. Alice held on to her with both arms, gently rocking her from side to side, murmuring words of comfort.
‘Now, Sue,’ said Alice gently, ‘my friend, Nurse Linklater, needs to put another bandage around your head, so you need to keep still. Is that all right?’
Sue nodded, and then she gasped. ‘Why, what is it for? What have I done?’
‘You ran out into the road yesterday and you were hit by a horse and carriage. You have a long cut down the side of your face,’ Maud said gently.
Sue reached up a hand and felt the dressing.
‘The dressing needs to stay in place, Sue. It’s important for healing.’
The girl nodded. ‘Will it get better?’
‘Yes, the doctor has put stitches in and the wound will heal.’
Sue nodded, seeming satisfied with
that. ‘But what about Mam, does she know?’
‘Yes, she came to see you yesterday, after the accident.’
‘That’s good, then, as long as she’s all right. And she needs to keep her job on the market, so she won’t be able to keep coming in.’
Then Sue sat forward in the bed and put a hand to her head, murmuring something, shaking her head. And then she drew in a sharp breath. Maud glanced at Alice.
‘I remember now, I saw a little boy without shoes grab a loaf of bread from the stall at the side of the road,’ she said quietly. ‘I saw him start to run and I shouted to him to stop, but he couldn’t hear me. I ran after him …’ more agitated now, ‘I tried to pull him back. I felt my hand brush his back but then a horse reared up over me and there was screaming … and I fell?’
‘That’s exactly what happened,’ murmured Maud.
‘Where is the boy? I want to see him. Is he injured?’
Alice opened her mouth to speak but no words would come.
‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Sue,’ said Maud, standing resolute by the bed. ‘But the boy also fell in the road and he was very badly injured. We brought him here, to the hospital, but his injuries were so severe that he died very peacefully shortly after he was admitted.’
Sue’s chin wobbled and then she started to cry, silent tears from her good eye flowing steadily down one cheek.
‘He was only a tiny boy,’ she sobbed. ‘He was just hungry.’
‘I know. I’m so sorry,’ said Alice, putting her arms around Sue and holding her tight.
As soon as Alice started to release her hold, Maud said quietly, ‘What you did for that little boy was very brave. You risked your own life to save him. You couldn’t have done any more.’
‘But what if I’d run faster, got to him before he ran into the road?’
‘It just wasn’t meant to be,’ soothed Maud. ‘You couldn’t have done any more.’
Sue was still crying, but she took the handkerchief that Maud proffered and wiped her one good eye.
‘You can ask as many questions as you like about the accident. We will always answer what we can,’ continued Maud, ‘but right now I need to put some special spray over this dressing on your face and secure it with a fresh bandage.’
Sue nodded.
As Alice supported Sue, Maud applied the bandage. Then, after the pair had helped her stand out at the side of the bed for a few minutes so that they could change the bottom sheet, they got her settled back against the pillows.
‘We’ll come back and see you soon,’ murmured Alice as they moved to their next duty.
‘That was so hard,’ said Maud once they were out of earshot. ‘And as we know, this is only the beginning for her. In another three or four days’ time we’ll be removing the dressing and then, when she’s ready, she’ll have to see the face that she’ll have for the rest of her life.’
Alice nodded grimly but there was no time for further discussion as Michael and Stephen came running through the door with a new admission.
‘This is Dolores Williams,’ called Michael as Maud directed him to the empty bed next to Sue Cassidy. ‘Her husband brought ’er in, she’s been doubled over with pain in ’er belly since the middle of the night.’
Maud could see the terror on the young woman’s face as she lay curled up on the stretcher, her hair plastered to her head with sweat. ‘Let’s get you into bed,’ she said firmly, ‘and then we can see what we can do to help.’
The woman started to cry.
‘It’s all right, Mrs Williams,’ she soothed, ‘please try not to distress yourself.’
But the woman was wailing now. ‘Don’t cut me open, I don’t want to die.’
‘Shhh, shhh,’ soothed Maud, but still the woman wailed, and when Maud glanced up the ward she could see a murmuring of concern from the other patients.
‘That’s enough, now, Mrs Williams,’ said Alice, appearing at Maud’s elbow. ‘We don’t even know what’s wrong with you yet. Getting worked up will only make the pain worse, so please try to calm yourself.’
Something about the exact tone of Alice’s voice seemed to soothe the woman and, almost instantly, she quietened.
‘There, there,’ said Alice, ‘nobody’s going to do anything without your consent. All we want to do is have a look and try to work out what’s going on.’
Maud gave her friend an appreciative glance. ‘I’ll go and get the wooden screens,’ she said, ‘and find Sister Pritchard.’
When Maud returned, with Sister in tow, she found Mrs Williams gently sobbing in the bed but much more settled as she clung to Alice’s hand. Maud erected the wooden screens as Sister Pritchard moved straight in to examine the patient.
First she laid a hand on the woman’s forehead. ‘You feel hot, Mrs Williams, I think you might have a fever.’
‘I’ll check with the thermometer afterwards,’ offered Maud.
‘Now, let’s have a feel of your belly,’ Sister said, gesturing for the woman to lie flat on her back.
Maud scrutinized the expert way that she moved her hand over the woman’s abdomen, concentrating on the pelvic area just above the symphysis pubis.
‘So, Dolores,’ she said, ‘when did you get married?’
The woman looked puzzled but answered the question. ‘About four months ago.’
‘And have you had any monthly bleeding since you got married?’
‘No, I don’t think so,’ said Dolores.
Sister placed a hand on the woman’s lower abdomen again, pressing gently just in a particular spot. ‘Well, I can’t be exactly sure,’ she said, ‘but what I’m feeling here feels very much like an enlarged womb.’
‘Oh no, what’s that?’ cried Dolores.
‘Stay calm, Mrs Williams,’ said Sister firmly. ‘What it means is that you are very likely to be pregnant. Of course, there is no real way of knowing for sure until you start to feel quickening, but it shouldn’t be long before you feel that as well.’
‘What is quickening?’
‘It’s the first movements of a baby. I’ve heard it described as the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings.’
Dolores was almost in tears now, and then she was drawing her knees up in discomfort. ‘But what about this bad pain?’
‘Well, yes, you are right, the pregnancy wouldn’t cause the pain, but it might make you much more prone to inflammation of the bladder. Have you had any discomfort whilst passing water?’
‘Yes, I have,’ said the woman, almost gleeful now. ‘It’s been like passing pins and needles.’
‘Well, there you are then. I think what you have is no more than severe cystitis. We’ll need to get you to drink plenty of barley water to try and flush it out. And if your symptoms don’t settle, we might try dry cupping or some leeches over the area to help relieve internal congestion … but I’ll ask our surgeon to check you over, just in case—’
‘No, no, he’ll want to cut me open.’
‘He won’t want to do any such thing,’ said Sister firmly, ‘he’s far too busy. Nurse Linklater, Nurse Sampson, do you want to feel an early pregnancy?’
Alice, still holding Dolores’s hand, responded automatically, ‘Oh, that’s all right, when I was—’
‘Yes,’ said Maud, covering the revelation that Alice was about to make, ‘yes, we would.’
They soon had Dolores settled, with a full jug of barley water by her bed and the beginnings of a smile on her face. Maud went to find the husband. Michael had left him waiting in the corridor near the hospital entrance. Sister Pritchard had advised that they tell him, for now, that all was well with his wife, she was in no danger, and he needed to come back at visiting time. She thought it best that his wife tell him that she might be pregnant.
Maud found Mr Williams pacing up and down the corridor, his pale hair almost standing on end where he’d run his hands through it and his face flushed pink with anxiety.
‘Mr Williams?’
‘Yes,’ he said, walking tow
ards her, his face blanching with anxiety.
‘No need to worry. Your wife doesn’t need any surgery, she has some inflammation of the bladder. But Sister is happy with her condition and advises you to come back at visiting time.’
The man couldn’t speak. His whole body slumped with relief, and he needed to reach out and rest a hand on Maud’s shoulder to support himself. And then he looked up and smiled, flashing a mouthful of discoloured teeth.
‘Thank you, Nurse,’ he said. ‘Thank you very much.’
‘Oh, and bring her some flowers,’ called Maud as he turned to flee the hospital as quickly as he could.
Later, Maud saw Mr Williams file in with the rest, at visiting, clutching a ragged bunch of pink carnations. ‘Mmmm,’ commented Alice as she walked by, ‘looks like it might be a baby girl they’re expecting.’
Within moments of his arrival he was shouting the news to the whole ward. ‘A baby, it’s a baby, she’s going to have a baby!’
As Maud and Alice walked towards the Nurses’ Home at the end of their shift, they found Eddy perched on the step, waiting for them. She ran and hugged them both at the same time and then, as they all walked together through the city in their nurses’ capes and hats, she told them more news of Indars Berzins. ‘What an improvement in him since his grandson was born. He’s moving in and out of bed much more easily, he doesn’t have as much pain. He’ll sit for hours with the baby, rocking him to sleep. And the ulcers that he had on his legs, I’ve been treating them for months, no change. But now, they’re actually starting to heal. It’s like a miracle …’
‘The miracle of Eddy,’ said Maud, linking her arm and pulling her close.
‘No more so than the work that you two do,’ grinned Eddy. ‘And you, Maud, with what you did yesterday at the scene of an accident.’
‘And can I just say, here and now? And I know I’ve said it before,’ smiled Maud, ‘I love working on Female Surgical with Sister Pritchard – and with you, of course, Alice.’
‘Ha,’ laughed Eddy, ‘you and Female Surgical. You do know you’ll end up going back to Sister Law and the male patients at some stage?’
‘Oh, yes. I know it won’t last for ever, and I also know I’ll have to go where I’m put. But for now, I’ll just enjoy it. I’ve never felt as comfortable nursing men. I don’t really know why but, well, they’re so male, aren’t they? With all that hair on their bodies …’
