The journey across France to reach a coastal port and a ship to take them home was tortuous. But Robert’s experience – and that of those on the same train – was made easier by Alice’s presence. Her first duty was to him, but Robert himself insisted that she should help others too.
‘They’re my comrades,’ he said. ‘Do whatever you can for them, Alice.’
So Alice, with the help of the other nurses and orderlies travelling on the hospital train to care for the wounded, dressed their injuries, handed out soup and sandwiches and stayed with them if they were de-trained and had to wait for hours on a draughty platform for a connection that would take them to the next stage.
At last they boarded a ship.
‘We’ll soon be home now, Robert. We’ve sent word and your father is coming down to meet us.’
Robert reached for her hand and clasped it. ‘Dear Alice. I wouldn’t have survived without you by my side. You will stay with me, won’t you? You won’t go back straight away?’
Huskily, Alice said, ‘I’ll stay with you as long as you need me.’
Robert turned his head to look into her eyes as she leaned over him. ‘I’ll always need you, Alice.’
Dr Maitland was waiting at Charing Cross Station to greet them.
‘My boy,’ he said gently as he knelt beside the stretcher as it was set carefully on the platform.
‘Father,’ Robert murmured and closed his eyes to blot out the anguish on Edwin’s face.
‘Let’s get you home,’ Edwin said. He looked at Alice for reassurance. ‘Will he be all right sitting in the car?’
‘He has to go to the hospital here in London first, Dr Maitland, just to be checked over before he travels any further, but I’m sure they’ll transfer him to Lincoln hospital very soon.’
Edwin nodded as he stood up. Now, he could not speak. There was this great weight of sadness in his chest and yet there was joy too that his son had at least survived, albeit maimed for life. But Robert was home now – home for good – and they’d work together as a family to build a life for him.
At last, he found his voice and turned to clasp Alice’s hand. ‘My dear girl. How can I ever thank you for bringing him home? Now, once we’ve seen him to the hospital here, I will take you home to your parents. They need you. I can come back to fetch Robert when the hospital says he can be discharged.’
Robert’s eyes flickered open. ‘No, she stays with me. Don’t leave me, Alice.’
She touched his shoulder and said softly, ‘You know I won’t.’ Then she turned back to Edwin and said gently, but with a hint of firmness that he could not fail to notice. ‘I have promised Robert that I will stay with him as long as he needs me and I will. I’m sure the hospital here will have plenty of work I can do for them so that I can be near him and yet be useful too.’
For a moment, Edwin was startled by the change in the family’s former maid, but then his kindly nature recognized that all she had seen and endured had changed her, had given her a new-found confidence, and he respected her for it.
At that moment, two stretcher bearers came to carry Robert to a waiting ambulance. Alice touched Edwin’s arm. ‘We’ll soon be home, and then you and Mrs Maitland will be able to see him as often as you want.’
Edwin nodded, his gaze never leaving his son as Robert was borne away and put into the back of the ambulance.
‘I must go with him. Goodbye.’ And without waiting for a response, she hurried away.
When Edwin arrived home, his face was sombre.
‘Where is he?’ Henrietta greeted him anxiously, her hands clasped together to stop them shaking. ‘I thought you were bringing him home.’
‘He had to be taken to the hospital in London first. We’ll have to abide by the rules.’
‘How is he?’
‘Much as I expected, my love, but at least he is alive and he’ll soon be back home. I hope they will release him into our care very shortly.’
‘Is Pips with him?’
‘No. Alice has accompanied him all the way like Pips told us she would. He seems to be relying on her heavily, but I suppose it’s only natural.’
‘He’ll be better once we get him here,’ Henrietta said confidently. ‘I expect Alice will want to go back to Belgium, won’t she?’
‘Nothing’s been said about that, but she did say she thought we’d be allowed to see him often when he’s transferred to Lincoln hospital.’
‘Allowed!’ For a moment Henrietta was angry that anyone should even think of keeping her from her son’s bedside. ‘And what authority has Alice got, might I ask?’
Calmly, Edwin said, ‘The authority of his nurse. You will notice a big change in your lady’s maid, my love. I don’t expect that she will ever return here in her former role. She has matured and found a new confidence and, I think, a new purpose. I suspect that will have happened to a great many young women who have been nursing in the war zone. Life will never be the same again for them as it was before the war started. Nor for the servicemen either. This will change the way of life as we have known it, Hetty, I fear, for ever.’