Sister was inspecting the ward before the doctors did their morning rounds one morning in June when she told them, ‘There will be a new doctor on the ward this morning, nurses. His name is Doctor Parkin and he has just transferred here from Guy’s Hospital so I shall expect you all to show him how efficient we are.’
‘Yes, Sister,’ the nurses chorused as she walked along the line they had formed, inspecting their uniforms. Woe betide any of them if she found so much as a button out of place. It was the same for the patients before the morning visit. The nurses had to truss them up so tightly in their sheets that the poor souls could barely move, but rather that than risk a crease in their bedspreads. It was even worse on the days when the matron accompanied the doctors.
Unfortunately for Holly one of the patients who was allocated to her care suddenly needed the toilet just as the doctors arrived, so she had to quickly pull the curtains about the woman’s bed and hurry off to the sluice room to fetch a bedpan. By the time the woman had finished, the doctors had almost completed their round and as she flicked the curtains aside again she found them standing at the foot of the patient’s bed and Sister looked none too pleased.
‘Couldn’t you have waited, Mrs Batty?’ she asked crossly and the old woman gave her a gummy grin.
‘’Fraid not, luvvy. Yer know the old sayin’, “When yer’ve got to go yer’ve got to go,” an’ ooh I don’t ’alf feel better now.’
Holly hurried past the doctors with the covered bedpan in her hand and caught the eye of a young doctor who was doing his best not to smile. This, she assumed, was Dr Parkin.
‘So, Mrs Batty,’ she heard him say as he unhooked her notes from the bottom of her bed and quickly read through them. ‘You’ve had your appendix removed, I see. How are you feeling now?’
‘Ooh, ever so much better, luvvy,’ the old woman told him cheerily. ‘But I ain’t ready to go ’ome just yet. It won’t ’urt me old man to see to ’isself for a while. ’Appen he’ll appreciate me a bit more when I do go back. An’ why would I wanna rush away anyway when I ’ave a handsome young man like you lookin’ after me?’ She gave the young doctor a suggestive wink which brought colour flooding into his cheeks.
Holly grinned to herself as she disappeared into the sluice. Mrs Batty was a card, there was no mistake about it, but thankfully the young man appeared to have a good sense of humour, unlike some of the other doctors.
To her surprise she found him waiting for her when she came out of the sluice.
‘Ah, Nurse Farthing, isn’t it?’ He held out his hand and she shook it awkwardly. ‘I’m Dr Parkin and I believe you are caring for Mrs Batty?’
‘Yes, doctor.’
‘Well, the good news is I’ve examined her and she’s coming along nicely. I think she could go home the day after tomorrow when she’s had her stitches out if she continues as she is. I shall come to the ward to remove them myself late tomorrow afternoon.’
‘Very well, doctor.’ He was very good-looking: tall and broad-shouldered with thick, dark hair that had a tendency to curl, and deep brown eyes, fringed with thick lashes that most girls would envy. But it was his attitude that Holly found the most appealing. He spoke to her as an equal whereas most of the doctors tended to talk down to the nurses, especially the Red Cross ones who weren’t yet fully qualified. Suddenly she found herself looking forward to seeing him again but at that moment the sister bore down on her with a list of jobs as long as her arm and for the rest of the morning Holly was too busy to think about anything else.
Her lunch hour was delayed by almost an hour that day because of an emergency arriving on the ward and as she headed for the hospital canteen she was looking forward to a nice hot cup of tea and a sandwich to tide her over until she and Ivy had their evening meal. Laden with a tray she glanced around for an empty table and when she found one she sat down and began to eat her meal. Seconds later a male voice asked, ‘Would you mind very much if I join you?’
Holly felt hot colour flood into her cheeks as she glanced up into the handsome face of the young doctor who had visited the ward earlier.
‘I, er … I don’t mind,’ she said. ‘But the doctors aren’t encouraged to mix with the nurses.’
He laughed. ‘Not during work hours perhaps but we’re on our lunch break, aren’t we? Who could object to that?’ He slid onto the chair opposite her and suddenly Holly felt tongue-tied. What did one say to a qualified doctor? He was almost like a god in her eyes – and in the eyes of most of the other nurses if the way they were glancing enviously across at her was anything to go by.
He took a huge bite out of his sandwich and a gulp of tea before asking, ‘So, do you have a first name, Nurse Farthing?’
She gulped. ‘Yes … it’s Holly.’
He held his hand out and she felt she had no choice but to shake it though she was very aware of people watching them.
‘I’m Richard. It’s nice to meet you, Holly. Have you been here long?’
She hastily explained that she merely worked part-time as she also had another job.
‘It seems you’re a young woman of many talents,’ he commented admiringly after Holly had told him all about the work she did in Miss May’s shop, and she blushed becomingly.
‘Are you from around these parts?’
‘Actually I came here from my home in Nuneaton in Warwickshire.’
‘Ah, the home of George Eliot, the novelist,’ he remarked. He seemed so genuinely interested in everything she had to say and was so remarkably easy to talk to that the time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
Sadly, however, much as Holly would have liked to sit talking to him all day, she had to get back to the ward. ‘I really ought to go,’ she told him eventually after glancing at the large clock on the wall. ‘Sister is a stickler for timekeeping.’
‘From what I saw of her she’s a stickler for everything.’ He grinned, revealing a lovely set of white teeth. ‘Goodbye for now, Holly. I’ll see you tomorrow when I come to take Mrs Batty’s stitches out.’
‘I don’t work on Thursdays so I won’t be here,’ she told him, crestfallen, wishing that she was going to be there.
Ivy was already in the flat when she got home that evening and she seemed to be rather down in the dumps.
‘Is anything wrong?’ Holly asked as they sat down to their meal of sausage and mash some time later.
Ivy shrugged. ‘Not really, Jeremy is busy again tonight so I’m going to a suffragette meeting. He’s started working for the Daily Telegraph now, it pays slightly more than the Daily News did.’
Holly casually mentioned the new doctor she had met that day then and for the first time that evening, Ivy grinned.
‘Do I detect a hint of romance in the air?’ she teased.
‘Of course not. I was merely commenting on how pleasant he was,’ Holly retorted and quickly changed the subject.
‘Actually, I was thinkin’ of leavin’ my job,’ Ivy informed her. ‘I’ve almost finished my evening course now and Emmeline Pankhurst has offered me a job in Poplar at their headquarters. I’d be seein’ to the printin’ of the magazines and doing the clerical work. What do you think?’
‘I think it would be much safer for you than working in the match factory,’ Holly said enthusiastically. She’d noticed that Ivy’s skin had taken on a yellowish tinge lately and she was sure it was because of the job she did. She couldn’t help but worry about her. ‘Will it be more money?’
‘Not an awful lot more,’ Ivy admitted. ‘But I think I’d enjoy it.’
‘Then if you get the chance do it,’ Holly advised and Ivy nodded. ‘Er … where did you say Jeremy was this evening?’ she asked.
Ivy shrugged. ‘Off chasing some story or other for the newspaper,’ she grumbled. ‘That’s the trouble with a journalist’s job, they have to chase stories no matter what time of the day or night it is.’
Seeing how disgruntled Ivy was, Holly let the subject drop but she couldn’t help wondering if perhaps Jeremy and Ivy were drifting apart. That would surely explain Ivy’s sudden mood swings.
Ivy didn’t see Jeremy again until early the following week and she was none too pleased about it.
‘So exactly when are you plannin’ on takin’ me to meet your family?’ she queried. ‘You keep saying you will but every time I mention it you always come up with some excuse.’
‘There’s nothing I’d like more than for them to meet you,’ he told her silkily as he traced his finger tenderly down her cheek and Ivy felt herself melting. Just one glance at his handsome face and she was like putty in his hands and he knew it. ‘But I daren’t take time off from my new job just yet. Look what I bought with my wages.’ He stared down at his new suit and smart shoes and Ivy had to admit he did look very grand.
‘Well, now you’ve got some money again you can perhaps take me out somewhere nice instead of to your poky little room all the time,’ she said churlishly. She wasn’t going to forgive him that easily. In actual fact, the first time he had taken her to his lodgings she had been appalled and rather shocked. After all, Jeremy came from a very well-to-do family so she would never have imagined him living in such a hovel. He rented two rooms in a large terraced house in Whitechapel and to say they left a lot to be desired would have been putting it mildly, as she’d told him.
‘Ah, but there’s a reason for it,’ he’d told her. ‘I am a journalist after all and these lower class areas tend to be where I get most of my stories from. Whitechapel is full of thieves and villains, what better place is there for me to be? But only for now, of course. I don’t intend to stay here for long, I assure you.’
And Ivy believed him, just as she believed everything he told her.
‘I tell you what,’ he said with the smile that could always melt her heart. ‘We’ll go to the picture house. I don’t know what’s showing but there’s bound to be something on we fancy. What do you say?’
Ivy immediately perked up and linking her arm with his she followed him through the streets adoringly. He had told her that he was planning to buy a motor car soon and then they would travel in style.
They had reached the door of the theatre when Jeremy reached into his pocket and softly swore under his breath.
‘I don’t believe it,’ he muttered grimly. ‘I’ve only gone and left my wallet in the pocket of my old suit … you couldn’t lend me a few bob, could you, sweetheart?’
Ivy’s face fell. ‘B-but you haven’t given me back what you borrowed last week … or the week before,’ she pointed out. ‘And I’ve had to pay my share of the rent and the bills this week so I’m a bit short.’
He shrugged. ‘It’s back to my room then or we could go for a nice walk.’
Ivy sighed as they turned in the direction of Whitechapel. She’d been on her feet at work since early that morning and hardly felt up to tramping the streets.
As they let themselves into the house where Jeremy lived a host of smells assaulted her and she wrinkled her nose. It reminded her very much of the nasty flat in Soho she and Holly had lived in: boiled cabbage, stale urine and other things that she couldn’t name made her want to gag. A baby was crying somewhere and as they climbed the stairs she couldn’t help but wonder where the attentive man she had met a short while ago had gone.
Once in his rooms she stared about in dismay. A small sink in the corner of the room was full of dirty pots, and discarded clothes were strewn everywhere. Jeremy would certainly never win any prizes for housekeeping. But then she supposed if he had been used to having servants wait on him he wouldn’t know how to look after himself.
‘Put the kettle on while I have a tidy up,’ she told him resignedly as she began to lift clothes and sort them into piles but it soon became clear that Jeremy had other things on his mind.
‘Never mind that, give us a kiss,’ he said, snatching her to him and placing his mouth over hers. As always she felt herself melt against him but when a few minutes later his hand strayed to her breast she gently began to push him away.
‘No, Jeremy, I’ve told you, I’m not prepared to do that sort o’ thing till I’ve got a ring on me finger,’ she told him breathlessly. This happened every time they met now and each time it became that little bit harder to say no.
He instantly turned away from her with an aggrieved expression on his face and lit a cigarette, which made her feel guilty.
‘Haven’t I told you we’ll be married one day,’ he said miserably. ‘I just need to get established in my new job first. But I’m only flesh and blood, you know, and a man has needs! If you really loved me you wouldn’t push me away all the time. I haven’t even got any money because I had to spend my wages on new clothes. It wouldn’t look good if a journalist turned up looking like a tramp, would it?’
Ivy immediately fumbled in her bag and emptied the entire contents of her purse onto the table.
‘Have it all, I can manage until I get paid again. And I do love you,’ she gushed, terrified that she was going to lose him. He was so handsome that she was sure he could have had any girl he wanted. She hurried over to him and clung to his arm like a limpet. ‘I’m just frightened that’s all. What if … you know? I found out I was having a baby?’
‘That wouldn’t happen because I’d be careful,’ he snapped, shrugging her hand from his arm and now she was really afraid. He was the first person she thought of every morning and the last one she thought of at night and the prospect of living without him was unbearable.
‘Please … don’t be angry with me.’ She flung her arms about his neck and for a moment he held himself stiffly. But then dropping his cigarette butt onto the floor he ground it out on the bare floorboards with the heel of his shiny new shoe and took her into his arms again, and this time when his hand once more found her breast she didn’t stop him.