Frontline Nurses

by Holly Green

  Victoria had become a regular visitor to the house and it seemed natural that when Ralph was off-duty he and Tom should make up a foursome with the two girls for tennis and cards. Unfortunately, it was apparent from the start that Ralph and Victoria had taken an instant dislike to one another. Things came to a head one evening at dinner when the subject of the forthcoming camp was raised. Ralph was at his most pompous, mocking the whole idea that women might have any part to play in a future conflict.

  ‘The battlefield is no place for a lady,’ he said. ‘You have no idea of the horrors you might encounter.’

  ‘Have you?’ Victoria asked bluntly.

  Leo saw her brother flush. ‘It is something that every soldier is prepared to face, in the defence of his country,’ he said stiffly. ‘It is a matter of honour.’

  ‘And are women to have no honour?’ Victoria demanded.

  ‘Surely,’ Tom Devenish said, ‘a woman’s honour consists in supporting her husband and providing him with heirs to carry on the struggle.’

  ‘Well said, Tom!’ Ralph exclaimed.

  Victoria turned to him with a look of contempt. ‘So that is all we are to you? Walking wombs. No more than hens or brood mares.’

  It was Tom’s turn to blush. ‘Not at all. That is not what I intended to imply. I have the greatest respect for women, but the battlefield is not the right place for them.’

  ‘Not as fighters,’ Leo said, ‘but surely you can’t deny that there would be a use for us in caring for the wounded.’

  Ralph laughed. ‘Would that be before or after you had recovered from your faint?’

  ‘And how would delicately brought-up young ladies, like yourselves, have the strength to lift a man and carry him back to the clearing station?’ Tom asked.

  ‘It’s what we train for all the time,’ Leo said.

  ‘And it’s what we shall be practising when we go to camp,’ Victoria added.

  Ralph sat back in his chair and gave a snort of laughter. ‘Women under canvas! You won’t last two days.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Ralph,’ Leo retorted. ‘I’ve camped out in Egypt with Father when we were at a dig.’

  ‘Yes, in a nice dry climate, with servants to fetch and carry for you. And men around to protect you. You wait till you try it on your own in a muddy English field. You’ll be back after the first night.’

  ‘No we won’t! You wait and see.’

  ‘What do you think, Mr Devenish?’ Victoria asked, a challenge in her look.

  Tom hesitated. ‘I think you’re being rather brave, actually.’

  Ralph turned on him. ‘For heaven’s sake, Tom! Whose side are you on? I expected you to have more sense.’

  It was the first time Leo could remember Tom failing to back up whatever her brother said and she was shocked by the violence of Ralph’s reaction. She saw Tom blanch and he turned his head away as if he had been struck.

  Later, they left the two men to their brandy and cigars and retired to the drawing room. Leo’s grandma had a headache and had had dinner sent up to her room, so she and Victoria were alone.

  Victoria helped herself to a cigarette from the box on the table and remarked, ‘I suppose you realise that the only reason Tom Devenish wants to marry you is because he can’t marry your brother.’

  Leo gasped. ‘That’s a terrible thing to say!’

  ‘I don’t see why. I’ve met a lot of men like that. You can’t blame them. We send them off to school at the age of twelve and shut them up together where they don’t see a woman for weeks on end. To them we’re a race apart. They don’t know how to deal with us. Is it surprising that they fall in love with other?’

  ‘And you think that is what has happened to Ralph and Tom?’

  ‘I’d put money on it. They may not have done anything about it. They probably aren’t even fully aware of it. But that’s the way things are, take my word for it.’

  The following evening Leo was sitting alone in her room writing letters when Ralph came in. It seemed that he was in a more conciliatory mood. He sat down opposite her at her writing table and laid a hand on her wrist.

  ‘Leo, I want to talk to you, seriously.’

  She put down her pen. ‘Yes?’

  ‘All this galloping about in uniform pretending to be nurses is great fun, I’m sure, but you really should be thinking about your future, you know.’

  ‘We are not “pretending”. We are absolutely serious. It’s time you men learned that women are good for more than just bringing children into the world.’

  ‘You sound like that harridan Victoria.’

  ‘She’s not a harridan!’

  ‘Well, however that may be, the fact is you can’t go on behaving like this for the rest of your life. Isn’t it time you thought about getting married?’

  Leo sighed. ‘Here we go again! Ralph, I don’t want to marry Tom. I don’t want to marry anyone.’

  ‘But why not? What’s wrong with Tom?’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s kind and … and inoffensive and dull. He never seems to do anything. He just … hangs around in your shadow.’

  Ralph’s grip tightened on her wrist. ‘Leo, you don’t know him. Tom Devenish is the bravest, most loyal friend a man could have. He took a flogging for me, once, at Harrow.’

  ‘A flogging!’ Leo exclaimed. ‘How? Why?’

  Ralph sat back. ‘It was all my stupid fault. I’m not proud of myself. You know what I was like at school. I never cared much for lessons and I got up to all sorts of silly japes. At the beginning of my last term the Head sent for me and told me that if I came up in front of him one more time I’d be out on my ear. I promised to behave myself but then someone challenged me to a dare, and I could never resist a dare.’

  ‘Dare to do what?’

  ‘Oh, it was just a silly prank. Our housemaster’s wife had a little dog – a nasty yappy little white thing that bit anyone who tried to make friends with it. I got hold of some dye and dyed it red. It didn’t do the dog any harm but she was furious. Mr Washington got us all in the hall and said that unless the culprit owned up he was going to punish the whole house. Of course, I knew my number was up and I was just about to get to my feet when Tom stood up and said it was him. Well, of course Washy knew it wasn’t. Tom was never in trouble. But he couldn’t very well call him a liar. So he asked if anyone else had been involved and Tom said, no, he’d done it all on his own.’ Ralph dropped his head and put his hand over his eyes. ‘And I sat there and said nothing, sis. Not a word. He thrashed Tom, right there, in front of everyone. And do you know what Tom said, when I tried to thank him afterwards? He said that he’d get over the flogging soon enough, but if I’d been expelled it might have ruined my whole life, and he couldn’t let that happen.’ He looked up. ‘That’s the sort of chap he is, Leo. That’s the sort of man you’re turning down.’

  Leonora looked at him in silence for a moment. Then she said, ‘It was a brave thing to do, and the action of a good friend, as you say. But he did it for you, Ralph. That doesn’t make him a good husband for me.’

  Her brother got up impatiently. ‘I don’t understand you! What difference does it make? Tom is a good chap and you should be grateful he’s so patient. He won’t hang around for ever, you know, waiting for you to come to your senses.’

  ‘It’s not a question of me coming to my senses,’ Leo snapped back. ‘Tom’s your friend and you’re in his debt. That doesn’t mean I have to marry him. Do you know what Victoria says? She says he only wants to marry me because he can’t marry you.’

  She regretted the words as soon as they were spoken. She saw the colour drain from Ralph’s face and for a moment she thought he was going to strike her. Then he flushed deep crimson.

  ‘That’s a foul thing to say! That’s the foulest thing anyone has ever said to me.’

  He turned and left the room without another word.

  No further objections were raised to the idea of the camp, so Leo and Victoria set off in Sparky t
he following weekend. Leo quickly had to recognise the force of what Ralph had said at dinner that night. It rained, and the ground was soon churned to mud. In addition to making her own bed and caring for her horse, she found herself lugging buckets of water from the river and collecting bundles of firewood and peeling huge mounds of potatoes. She got used to waking to reveille at 5.30 in the morning and living on porridge that tasted of wood smoke and meat that was singed on the outside and red in the middle. She had never worked so hard in her life – and she loved every minute of it.

  Chapter 3

  Returning to Sussex Gardens felt like being forced back into a straitjacket. To make matters worse, she found that her grandma had enrolled her in her absence at a finishing school, which she was expected to attend every morning in order to improve her ‘deportment’ and polish her social skills. When she protested that this clashed with her riding lessons at the cavalry barracks her grandma threatened to stop her allowance if she refused to attend. As if this was not bad enough, Ralph had refused to speak to her since their conversation about Tom. He visited very rarely and when he did the atmosphere between them was bitter. Leo would have apologised, given the opportunity, but he made sure they were never alone together.

  She had been back from camp less than a week when she opened The Times to read that the Bulgarians and the Serbs, in alliance with Greece, had declared war on Turkey. By early November the Bulgarian army had reached Chataldhza, the last line of Turkish defences between them and Constantinople, and the Greeks had captured the port of Salonika.

  Three days after this news arrived Victoria burst into Leo’s room when she had only just finished dressing.

  ‘Have you seen this?’ She waved a copy of The Times under Leo’s nose.

  ‘Seen what? You’re very early. I haven’t had breakfast yet.’

  ‘This!’ Victoria folded the paper back and held it for Leo to see. She read, ‘GALLANT YOUNG LADIES HEAD FOR WAR ZONE. The ladies of the Women’s Sick and Wounded Convoy, under the direction of Mrs Mabel St Clair Stobart, set off yesterday for Bulgaria, where they intend to offer their services as nurses to the allied forces.’

  Leo put the paper aside and stared at Victoria. ‘They are actually going! Going to a real war, to do all those things that we are only playing at.’

  Victoria nodded grimly. ‘Makes you think we joined the wrong outfit, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Couldn’t we go, too – we FANYs, I mean?’

  ‘No chance. I heard someone raise the idea with Ashley Smith the other day and she turned it down flat. She said our duty was to our own people and we had to save ourselves in case we were needed here.’

  ‘But think of the experience!’ Leo said. ‘Vita, do you think Mrs Stobart would let us join her?’

  ‘I’ve no idea. Anyway, it’s too late now. See what it says in the paper? They left yesterday.’

  ‘How are they getting there, do you think?’

  ‘By train I suppose. On the Orient Express.’

  ‘Then couldn’t we follow?’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  A bubble of excitement was growing in Leo’s chest. She felt it almost choking her. ‘If we left tomorrow …’

  ‘I suppose we could catch them up and offer our services. Provided Stobart is willing to take us on.’

  ‘She could hardly turn us down, could she, after we’d come so far? And we are trained – well, you are, and I’m not exactly a novice anymore.’

  ‘But Leo, would your grandma let you go?’

  Leo’s bubble burst and she felt as if all the air had gone out of her lungs. ‘No, of course she won’t.’ For a moment she was silent. The past weeks had been a desert of boredom and frustration, and the only prospect she could see ahead of her was more of the same. Finally she said, ‘I’d have to slip out without telling anyone. I could leave a note.’

  ‘Would you really do that?’

  ‘Yes! I know it’s wicked but I want to do this so badly and if I don’t break out now I’m afraid I never will. Let’s do it, Vita! We may never get another chance.’

  Victoria looked at her. ‘I have a feeling I ought to be saying, “no, think of the danger”. I ought to be sensible and responsible but …’ Leo saw the same excitement catching fire in her friend’s eyes. ‘To hell with it! You’re right. We may never get another chance. But we must plan properly. We can’t just jump on the first train. We don’t even know where they were heading, exactly. The whole of the Balkans is a war zone.’

  Leo nodded, forcing herself to be calm. ‘Listen, my father had an old friend who works in the Foreign Office. He specialises in Eastern Europe and my father often went to him for advice when he was planning a trip. He will know the best route, if anyone does.’

  ‘But if you tell him what we are planning to do …’ Victoria said.

  ‘Yes, that’s a point. But he’s not one of those men who think women should sit at home and knit. I’ve met him several times and he always encouraged Father to take me with him on our travels. If I were to tell him that the FANYs are thinking of going … that we’ve been invited to join the WSWC and I’ve been asked to seek his advice …’

  ‘It would be a lie.’

  Leo chewed her lip. ‘Only a small one.’

  Victoria shook her head with a laugh. ‘I’ll say this for you. Once you get the bit between your teeth there’s no holding you.’

  The two women met again that evening at Victoria’s flat in Knightsbridge.

  ‘Did you get to see your father’s friend at the FO?’ Victoria asked.

  ‘Yes. He was very sweet. I felt bad about not telling the whole truth.’

  ‘What did he advise?’

  ‘In one word – don’t. But just the way he explained it gave me a pretty good idea what the situation is.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘Have you got an atlas?’

  ‘It’s on the table. I’ve been trying to get some idea of where we might be headed.’

  Leo seated herself at the table and opened the map. ‘Cutting out a lot of the preliminary warnings about the chaotic situation, what he said was this. He thinks that Stobart’s lot might have made a mistake taking the train to Sophia. The battle front is over here, at Chataldzha, almost on the Black Sea and the Turks have cut the railway line. The only way to get there from Sophia is to go to Jamboli and then travel by road and it would take the best part of a week, because the roads are terrible and the only transport is by wagons pulled by oxen. He said, if he wanted to get there he would go by sea to Salonika and then hope to get a train from there.’

  ‘By sea? But it would take weeks from any English port.’

  ‘I know. But if we picked up a ship in Marseilles, that would shorten the journey enormously. I’m sure there are ships going from there to Athens and then we could find another heading for Salonika. We could take the train to Marseilles …’

  Victoria’s eyes lit up. ‘I’ve got a better idea. We’ll go in Sparky.’

  ‘Drive, all that way? Could Sparky do it?’

  ‘Yes, given time. We couldn’t take him on the Orient Express but there wouldn’t be any problem about getting him on a ship as deck freight. And think how useful it would be to have a car. If we can’t get a train from Salonika we could drive, and he could be used for transporting the wounded when we get to the other end.’

  ‘How long would it take to drive to Marseilles?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Four days, three if we’re lucky. Then there’s the sea voyage. It’s still going to take a long time.’

  ‘But Stobart’s lot have got to make arrangements when they get to Sophia. That will take time, too. And if it really is going to take them a week to get from Jamboli to the front we might not be far behind them.’

  ‘Better late than never, I suppose. And the war isn’t going to be over quickly, by all accounts. What do you think?’

  Leo grinned at her. ‘Let’s do it. Whatever happens, it’ll be an adventure.’

  ‘When do we start?�
��

  ‘The sooner the better. Tomorrow night? I’ll have to creep out when everyone has gone to sleep.’

  ‘Agreed.’

  Next day Leo collected what clothes and other things she felt were essential and transferred them to Victoria’s house, telling her grandma that she was taking worn-out clothes to a charity. Meanwhile, Victoria purchased as much in the way of bandages, lint, disinfectant and other medical supplies as they could carry with them. They allowed themselves only the minimum of personal belongings, anticipating that they would wear their FANY uniforms most of the time. What they did take was packed into a large trunk and strapped to the back of the car.

  Leo had one other errand, which she did not mention to Victoria. Her father had left her a brooch and two rings that had belonged to her mother. She took them to a shop in the Burlington Arcade and got what she hoped was a reasonable price for them. It seemed likely that she would be unable to access her allowance and she was determined not to have to rely on Victoria for funds.

  When they met again that evening they were both in a more sober mood.

  ‘You know, we haven’t given this enough thought,’ Victoria said. ‘Do we really know what we are letting ourselves in for?’

  ‘No,’ Leo responded. ‘Perhaps if we did we wouldn’t be doing it.’

  ‘Do you want to change your mind?’

  ‘Not unless you do.’ Leo sat down and leaned urgently towards her friend. ‘It isn’t just about us going off on some mad adventure, Vita. It’s about proving something. Proving that we are capable of taking our own decisions, making our own way in life.’