Back at the unit, Robert was swiftly carried into the operating tent.
‘You do realize I’m going to have to amputate his arm, don’t you, Pips?’ Giles said.
Dumbly, she nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. Would he survive and, if he did, what would he do for the rest of his life with only one arm? It was a future that Pips dared not contemplate; the only thing in her mind at this moment was to save her brother’s life.
Giles worked swiftly. Leonore stood by, but Pips wanted to be the one to assist in the surgery and the older, more experienced, sister understood her reasons.
Alice and William returned late that night. Both were at the point of exhaustion, but Alice still found the strength to go to Robert’s bedside to see how he was. She sat down beside him and took his left hand in hers. It was there that Pips found her at two o’clock in the morning, asleep with her head resting on his bed, his hand still firmly clasped in hers.
‘Come along, my dear. You should get some proper rest.’
‘But I . . .’ Alice began again, but Pips was insistent. ‘You’re no good to him or to anyone else if you wear yourself out. We’re all watching over him and I promise I’ll tell you at once if there’s any change.’
‘You’ll wake me up?’
‘Of course,’ Pips said and knew she would have to keep her promise.
Over the next several hours they watched for any sign of infection.
‘I tried to clean the wound as much as possible,’ William said, ‘before I came back and he wasn’t out there too long – not like some poor fellows – though he was covered in a shower of earth.’
‘That’s what can cause infection. If he gets gas gangrene . . .’ Giles said, but left the rest of the sentence unspoken. They all knew the consequences of that.
At three o’clock in the morning, Pips shook Alice gently awake. ‘He’s calling for you, Alice. He’s delirious, but it’s you he wants.’
‘Is – is it infection?’ Alice asked, as she scrambled out of bed and dressed hurriedly.
‘We don’t think so. But – but Giles says if he survives the night, then he’ll pull through. He’s seen this before. It’s the shock of the injury and the aftermath of the amputation, he thinks.’
‘He’ll come through,’ Alice muttered, more to herself than to Pips. ‘He has to.’
She ran to the tent where Robert lay amongst other wounded; there was no space for him to be treated any differently. ‘He wouldn’t want it anyway,’ Pips had said firmly. ‘He’d want to be with the men.’
Alice sat with him through the rest of the night, sponging his face and giving him sips of water. She held him when he thrashed about in the bed, crying out in his delirium. Giles, Pips and the other nurses came often to look at him, glance sympathetically at Alice and then silently walk away. The girl, though officially unqualified, was doing everything that could be done. No one could do more for him than the devoted former lady’s maid.
As dawn broke, Robert fell into a deep sleep. He was calmer now and not sweating so much. Giles came to take his pulse and feel his forehead. Pips was standing just behind him, holding her breath. At last, Giles stood up and he was smiling as he said, ‘The fever’s going. I really think he’s going to be all right.’
Tears of relief and thankfulness ran down Alice’s face and Pips had to swallow hard.
Robert had been lucky – if it could be called lucky to lose his right arm – he had not developed the dreaded infection.
Now Alice refused to leave his side. ‘I’ll take it as leave of absence, if you wish,’ she told Leonore, who was responsible for drawing up the nursing duty rota.
‘No need,’ the sister said briskly. ‘Pips has said she will do extra duty to cover for you.’ She lowered her voice. ‘And with all due respect to our other patients, he is rather special, being our doctor.’
Alice’s face fell as the enormity of Robert’s injury sank in. ‘But he won’t be any more, will he?’
‘Sadly, no.’
‘Have you – will you be sending for a replacement?’
‘I have sent word to Dr Hazelwood through Mrs Parrott and he will make arrangements. Pips has informed their parents.’ She paused and then added kindly, ‘You do realize that as soon as he is fit enough to be moved, we will have to send him to a hospital and then home?’
‘I – hadn’t thought that far, but, yes, of course.’
Sister Leonore regarded the young girl. ‘I expect you would like to accompany him?’ It was a statement rather than a question, but Alice’s head shot up and she gazed at the sister.
‘Could I? I mean – aren’t I needed here?’
Leonore smiled. ‘Of course you are. You are a very valuable member of our team, but you’ve been out here since the beginning, apart from that one trip home and the odd day or two’s leave here. I think it’s high time we got another nurse and allowed you some extended leave to take him all the way home.’
‘We’d need to ask for Dr Hazelwood’s approval, wouldn’t we?’
Leonore’s face lit up as she chuckled mischievously. ‘I already have.’
‘We must get him on a train home,’ Pips declared. ‘Alice, you must go with him.’ Pips grasped her hand. ‘Sorry, I mean, Alice, will you please go with him?’
Alice smiled tremulously. ‘Of course, Pips. I’ve already agreed it with Sister Leonore.’
‘Oh, that’s good. I – we – don’t want him left unattended for hours on end in a railway siding or on a platform.’
Worrying stories had filtered back to them of how the wounded on their way across France were left unattended for hours whilst priority was given to trains carrying troops, ammunition and supplies to the front. The wounded, it seemed, were at the bottom of the priority list. ‘And you could help others nearby too, couldn’t you?’
‘You know I could, but I won’t leave Robert alone.’
Pips gazed into the younger girl’s eyes. Bluntly, she said, ‘I do know you’re in love with him, you know.’
For a moment, colour suffused Alice’s face, but then she raised her head proudly.
‘I’ve loved Robert for years, Pips, but I’ve always known it could never come to anything.’ She grimaced. ‘After all, back home, I’m only a maid.’
Pips patted her hand absent-mindedly. ‘You never know, Alice. This war will change everything. It really depends on what Robert feels for you and that is not for me to say. But just remember, it was you – not me – he was calling for when he was injured; it was you he wanted by his side after the operation and to tend him since.’
Alice shook her head. ‘Oh Pips, half the men here fall in love with their nurses. I’m not going to start hoping based on that.’
‘You’re very sensible, but, like I say, you never know. But just for the moment, please get him home safely, won’t you?’
‘Hetty, my love, come into the parlour for a moment, will you?’
Henrietta’s heart seemed to miss a beat as she saw her husband’s serious face. Closing the door behind them, Edwin said, ‘I’ve had a telegram . . .’
Before he could say more, she let out a cry and covered her mouth with her fingers.
‘Robert has been seriously wounded, my love, but he is alive.’
‘How?’
Edwin’s voice was heavy with sorrow as he said, ‘He has lost his right arm.’
Henrietta turned white and fell back against the sofa cushions.
‘What happened? Why on earth was he in such danger?’
Edwin shook his head. ‘I don’t know, but Pips has sent the telegram and she says a letter will follow.’
‘That could take days,’ Henrietta moaned. ‘I need to know now. Can you get in touch with the authorities to see if they know any more?’
‘I’ll try,’ was all Edwin could promise.
Thankfully, the letter reached them amazingly quickly.
When it was delivered, Henrietta carried it through to her husband’s surgery waiting on tenterhooks until the patient he was seeing had left the room.
‘I’m sorry, I must just have a word with the doctor,’ she apologized to the two women who were still waiting.
Seeing her anxious face, they nodded. As she went into Edwin’s room and closed the door, the two women whispered to each other. ‘Reckon it’s bad news by the look on her face, don’t you?’
Inside the room, Henrietta said, ‘You open it, Edwin. I just can’t.’
Edwin tore it open and read the first few lines swiftly. ‘He’s all right. Giles amputated his arm with Pips assisting and, very soon, he’ll be on his way home.’
‘Oh my,’ Henrietta murmured, her eyes filling with tears. ‘How brave she is to do that for her brother.’
‘She says that they’re all sure he’s going to be all right. There was no infection, which is the curse for all the wounded out there. Alice is to accompany him all the way home.’
‘Not Pips?’
‘No, she says Alice is coming with him.’
When he was well enough to be moved, Robert was taken by ambulance, with William driving, first to the casualty-clearing station at Poperinghe. Although it was a longer journey, they had chosen to take him there rather than to Albert, as they all knew the area, and the route home, so well.
‘You’re still here?’ He smiled at Alice as she tucked him into a proper bed in the huge tented ward.
‘Yes, you don’t get rid of me that easily.’
‘I don’t want to, Alice,’ he murmured, but then added more strongly, ‘Aren’t you needed at the unit?’
‘Sister Leonore said I was long overdue a home leave, so I’m going to see you all the way back to Doddington Hall, spend a little time with my family and then – and then return to the unit.’
Robert grasped her hand tightly. ‘No, Alice. Don’t leave me. Stay with me. Please.’
‘I’ll stay as long as you want me to,’ she whispered, ‘but once you’re home with your family, you won’t need me.’
Slowly, he turned his head on the pillow towards her, his dark brown eyes gazing deeply into hers. ‘I’ll always want you beside me, Alice.’ Then his eyes closed and he slept.
Alice felt as if her heart had turned over in her chest with love for him, but she was sensible enough to realize that this was a sick man clinging to his nurse for care and support. Despite what he said – and she believed that at this moment he meant every word – once he was back at home with his family, his need of her would evaporate. But for the moment, he wanted and needed her, Alice Dawson. It was little comfort for the young woman, who had loved him devotedly for as long as she could remember, but it would have to be enough. No one could ever take away these precious few days she would spend with him.
As she turned away to see how she could help around the hospital now that Robert was well enough to be left for a while, she saw William hovering in the doorway.
‘I must go back, but I just wanted to see that you were both all right.’
Alice smiled. ‘We’ll be fine. I’m going all the way home with him to see him safely settled back at the hall. And then I’ll spend some time with our family. Have you any messages for them?’
He stared at her incredulously before saying harshly, ‘No, I have not.’ He turned on his heel and would have walked away from her without another word if she had not run after him and caught hold of his arm. ‘William – don’t go – not like that. You’ve no need to be bitter towards me, now have you?’
He stopped, turned and hugged her tightly. ‘I’m sorry, Alice. I didn’t mean it to be against you.’
‘It’s all right,’ she said, returning his hug, but she said no more about their family. Instead, she added, ‘Just take care of yourself. Promise me? And look out for Pips and all the others too.’
‘I will,’ was all he said.