When the cab came, Flora implored the driver, ‘Get us to Lambeth Road Infirmary, as quick as you can.’
In her haste she hadn’t covered the blood, which was now staining Alice’s blanket. ‘What’s wrong with the child, Missus? I don’t want to catch anything.’
‘Please, please don’t refuse us – my child’s life is at stake.’
‘Well, all right, but I’ll ’ave to keep the windows of the cab open.’
In the few minutes it took to get to the hospital, Flora was frozen to the bone, but she took no heed of this and jumped from the cab, leaving Cyrus to pay the driver. When Cyrus caught up with her, she was at the reception desk, imploring the nurse on duty to get a doctor for Alice.
‘There isn’t a doctor here, love. This is a hospital run by the board of the Poor Law. A doctor only visits once a week. We have an isolation ward free; your daughter will be admitted there, and we will take care of her as best we can, but we’re short-staffed and have very little equipment or medication. Your best bet is to take her to the London General, which used to be St Gabriel’s College, on Cormont Road. It’s a military hospital, but they have a sanatorium. They’ll charge you, unless you’re military, sir?’
‘No. I was, but I was discharged.’
‘Well then, try the Royal London on Whitechapel Road. They make a charge, but not as much, and they have everything your daughter will need. Can you afford to pay?’
‘We’ll get the money. Thank you.’
Outside there were a number of cabs. ‘I don’t know if I have enough money to pay for a journey of five miles or so, Flora. Oh God, what are we to do?’
‘We’ll take the cab to my parents’ house first. I’ll beg my father for some money to pay the driver, and for the hospital. Surely he won’t refuse, for his only granddaughter?’
Saying this brought back to Flora the devastating news that Olivia had given them, but she didn’t devote her attention, or any of her emotions, to this. She had to block it all out. Alice’s life was at stake.
With a dread that caused her heart to ache, she admitted to herself that Alice most likely had tuberculosis of the lung. A fatal illness, if not treated properly, but even then, her chances of survival would be slim. No matter what it took, she had to try to give her daughter that slim chance.
As her family home came into view, Flora began to pray for courage. Alice stirred in her arms and coughed. This was enough to drive Flora forward. Shouting at the driver to wait for them, she dashed out of the car to the front door and rang the bell.
To her surprise, Francis opened the door. He jumped back, embarrassment seeming to leave him unsure what to do. ‘Flora! Why have you come? It isn’t a good idea. I – I think, well, Father isn’t well . . .’
‘Oh, so you remember my name, eh? Having a good life, are you, Francis? Forgot you had a sister? Most convenient. I need to speak to Father, and I’m not leaving until I do. It’s a matter of great urgency!’
‘If it is about your incestuous marriage, dear sister, we all know and are disgusted with you, even if we did think it a surprising act of revenge. You seem capable of doing anything to disrupt this family.’
Harold came towards the door and pushed Francis out of the way, as he said this.
Flora looked up at him. ‘Our child is very sick and we need some money for her treatment. That, and that only, is the reason I have lowered myself to step over this doorstep. Now I haven’t much time, please let me speak to Father.’
‘No. I absolutely forbid it!’
Before Flora could speak, Cyrus gently pushed her out of the way. ‘Well, I – as the eldest son – overrule you. Get out of my way. I want to see my father.’
The enormity of Cyrus’s words hit Flora hard. Oh God, I can’t bear it! I didn’t want it to be the truth.
‘So your slut of a mother informed us . . . Hey, let me go!’
Cyrus held Harold by the collar and pushed him against the wall. ‘Do you know what the worst thing is, about what I discovered only tonight? That you are my brother – you disgusting excuse for a man. Now, get out of our way.’
‘Don’t let them in, Harold . . . Francis . . . Stop them!’
‘Mother, please, our child is dying. Please help me.’
‘What is happening?’
‘Go back into the withdrawing room, Mags; please, darling. And you, Mother, I don’t want you involved in this.’
‘But, Harold . . . Flors! Oh, Flors, are you all right?’
‘Help me, Mags, please, please help me. My little Alice . . . she’s dying. I – I haven’t any money for her treatment. I came to ask my father, but they won’t let me in.’
‘My God! Harold? Why not?’
‘It is none of your business, Mags, please leave this to us.’
‘My business or not, I’m not standing by and letting a child die! Nor am I going to refuse to help my dearest friend. Flors, I’ll come with you. I have some money, and I can arrange as much finance as you need.’ Mags turned to the maid, who stood, white-faced, looking on. ‘Please bring my coat.’
As the bodies in the doorway parted, Flora saw who the maid was, and for a fleeting moment felt triumph over Harold as she said, ‘Oh, I see you still have Susan in tow?’ But she felt immediate remorse as Mags looked from the cringing maid to Harold, and a shadow of doubt and hurt crossed her face.
‘You vixen! And you wonder why none of us wants you near to us. Get out! Get out, do you hear me? You have broken the law, dear sister, and I am going to inform the police that you are cohabiting with your half-brother! You’re disgusting!’
‘No, Cyrus!’
Cyrus had raised his fist, but stopped at this shout from Flora.
‘Leave him, I shouldn’t have said what I did. All of this is wasting so much time, and Alice has so little. Will you help us, Mags? I don’t know what else to do.’
‘Yes, I will, dear Flors.’ Mags turned and took her coat and purse from a mortified Susan.
‘I forbid you to, Mags. As your fiancé, I forbid you to go with these . . . these . . .’
‘Your sister, Harold?’
‘She has never been like a sister to me.’ He turned and took their now-sobbing mother in his arms. ‘Nor a daughter to our mother. She has always caused pain and trouble.’
‘I – I haven’t. I haven’t, I was never allowed to be your sister . . . I—’
‘Oh, don’t come up with that trash; you were destructive and had to be sent away, or our mother would have become even more fragile than she already is.’
‘Harold, I think we have a lot to talk about, but in the meantime I am not turning my back on Flors, or her husband and child. If that goes against your wishes, then I am sorry, and you will have to do as you see fit. Come on, Flors. Let’s get Alice to the hospital.’
Alice was taken from them when they arrived. The sister in charge told them they must wait while an assessment of Alice was made. It might be that they would have to call in a specialist, but whatever their decision, they would inform the family as soon as they could.
With Alice taken from her, Flora collapsed inwardly and gave vent to all the pent-up feelings that had strangled her heart.
‘Oh, Flors, what a mess. How did it all come to this? Though the way Harold acted was driven by how his mother shaped him. Well, shaped both her sons. She is manipulative in the extreme. If she doesn’t get what she wants, she feigns illness.’
‘I know, but I thought Harold had her under his control.’
‘He does, but what has gone on down the years has made Harold what he is. He bats for the side that he thinks most beneficial to him. I believe, when he was all right towards you, that he saw you as a weapon he could use against his father, to get what he desired – to be put in charge of the mill, and so be in an essential job that didn’t require him to go to war. But he’s made some bad decisions, and he is failing. That is where I come in. I have what he wants – a successful mill that will prop up his mill. Or at least my father does and, as his son-in-law, Harold will get what he needs to boost his business.’
‘And, knowing all of this, you still love him, Mags?’
‘Love is something we cannot help. I would have thought you would understand that, Flors.’
‘Oh, I do. And I know that it can surmount everything, but . . .’ She reached out and took Cyrus’s hand. ‘How we will surmount the bombshell that has landed in our laps today, I just don’t know. I haven’t been able to give my mind to it at all. I’m so very worried about our little Alice.’
‘You mean you truly didn’t know until today? Nothing that either of you said to the other even gave you a clue?’
‘No, why should it?’ Cyrus replied. ‘We met out of the blue, and in a foreign country. We had an immediate and very strong attraction to each other, which hit us both hard. Yes, it was love, but not brother–sister love. Oh, there were a few coincidences in what we learned about each other later on: my music, and how Flora’s father was gifted at playing on the violin, as I myself am. Me having been to the same school as those I now know are my half-brothers. But I completely believed that my father had been killed in the Boer War and that my allowance came from my late grandfather’s will, which is what my mother told me and my aunt confirmed. As did the picture they gave me, of my supposed father and grandparents. I didn’t have an inkling that I wasn’t who I was told I was. It is devastating news.’
‘I believe you, and I am so sorry. But Harold is afraid, and is acting irrationally because of his fear. He has convinced himself, and the rest of the family, that Flora set out to find you and married you incestuously, to spite them all. They found out, because your father had a relapse just after he’d asked for a letter to be sent to his solicitor. Harold read the letter that your father was answering. It was from his solicitor telling him what your mother had found out. Harold verbally abused your father, saying that his so-called daughter had had the last laugh, by marrying his bastard son. Your father admitted that he had been paying an allowance to his son and his mistress, whom he still loved and would have gone to for good, but for his illness.
‘This set your mother off, Flora. She was hysterical and a doctor had to be called. Your father had a relapse, and Harold forced him to sign a letter to the bank to stop the payments to you, Cyrus, and to your mother. And then ripped up the letter your father was going to send, and wrote one himself to his father’s solicitor, and made his father sign that, too. He is now consulting solicitors as to the impossibility, and the illegality, of you being recognized as the heir to your father, Cyrus.’
Bitterness entered Flora. ‘Did none of them think that if they had not rejected me, this wouldn’t have happened? That, in the normal run of things, I would have brought Cyrus to our home to meet my family; and that Father, on hearing all about Cyrus, would have realized the truth and the marriage would not have gone ahead? They are to blame. They forgot they had a daughter and a sister, and left me floundering on my own. But none of this matters at the moment. Only that you believe us, Mags, when we say that we are innocent of what Harold accuses us of. And, even more than that, we love each other so very much, and at this moment are facing the awful prospect of losing our daughter, and each other.’
‘Oh, my darling Flora, don’t think of either of those things happening. We will find a way. We have to,’ Cyrus urged her. ‘I can’t bear to be apart from you, and can never be a brother to you. You are my wife, my everything.’
‘Flors, I’m so sorry. Try to hold on to the fact that Alice is in the best hands possible. As for yourselves, there will be a way, as Cyrus says. You will have to be very careful not to be seen to be carrying on as husband and wife, now that you know what your true relationship is. Then, as soon as you can, you must go away somewhere, where Harold cannot do you any harm. He is very bitter at the moment, and could take action that could see you both going to prison and your children taken from you. I have been very worried for you since news of this broke. I didn’t know what to believe, or what to do. I should have warned you and kept faith in our friendship, Flors, but Harold is powerful, when he sets his mind to something.’
‘Please don’t worry. None of this is your fault, Mags. But, you know, although I don’t like to admit it, I am like Harold in some ways, because I would ask you – even though it is a terrible betrayal of our friendship – to use the power you have over Harold to help us.’
‘How can I do that? And what power?’
‘By threatening to leave him, if he carries out his threat of going to the police. You say he needs to marry you? Well, that gives you power over him to help us – please, Mags. And, if you can, please forgive me for asking this of you, but I cannot bear to see Cyrus go to prison, and the threat of that hangs over me, too. And to lose our children . . . Oh God. What have we done to deserve all that?’
‘I will help you. I will, Flors, but I will make conditions. These are to secure my future happiness with Harold. I won’t blackmail him, but I will help you financially, and make sure that he does, too, to get away – somewhere abroad, where the law of England cannot touch you, and no one there will know your status, thereby enabling you to continue to live as man and wife. But you must do something for me. You, Cyrus, must renounce all claim to your father’s fortune.’
This shocked Flora, but as it was a way out for them, she was willing to agree. However, she had no time to, because the door to the waiting room opened. ‘Mr and Mrs Harpinham, the doctor would like to talk to you.’
‘Sister, is our daughter all right?’
‘I’m sorry, Mr Harpinham, but I cannot speak to you about your daughter’s condition. You need to ask the doctor. Please come this way.’
‘M – Mags, come with us, we may need you.’
‘Who is this lady? Is she a relative?’
‘Soon to be my sister-in-law, and aunty to Alice. We would like her with us.’
‘Very well, come this way, please.’
Flora held on to Cyrus’s hand as if her life depended on it. She had nothing else but his love. Her mind cast aside for the moment the thought that they could be forced apart, as they were still together and facing something much bigger than any of their other problems.
‘I’m sorry, Mr Harpinham, but your daughter is dying. How long has she had a cough? Did you not seek to have her medically checked out? There might have been a chance.’
Cyrus folded. This gave Flora strength. ‘She had a childhood cough. I have been a nurse, and I thought it was croup. I – I did what was necessary . . . I—’
‘Oh, where did you train? Why did you think that being a nurse gave you enough skill to diagnose your child and treat her?’
Flora wanted to say that she loved her child, that she didn’t want Alice to die, that she would give her own life for her, but all of this sounded hollow in the face of the neglect that the accusing voice seemed to level at her. Her head bent over in defeat.
Mags spoke up. ‘You are talking to someone who single-handedly ran a hospital in Belgium, after the Germans invaded, with only two other volunteer nurses and a few staff to help. In that situation she often had to be the doctor, and did a sterling job of saving many lives. Not only that, but when she got out, she then went to the Somme and gave of her all there. She is a devoted mother, who has fallen on hard times. If you doctors gave of your services to those less fortunate, as my friend has done, this situation wouldn’t have arisen!’
The doctor was taken aback for a moment. ‘I apologize. I see a lot of cases of neglect. I misjudged the situation.’
‘Neglect or an inability to change things, Doctor?’
‘Madam, I am not on trial here. I want to help these parents and their child. There are charitable organizations . . .’
‘Please, it doesn’t matter. I accept your apology. Please, Doctor, tell me and my wife what, if anything, can be done for our child.’
Flora was relieved at this intervention by Cyrus, but felt a little pride at how Mags had reacted. This was the old Mags, the spirited Mags. She would always do the right thing as she saw it, and would fiercely defend those she loved. Flora just wished she didn’t number Harold amongst them.
‘I have to say there is very little that can be done. Living in a country where the air is full of oxygen, such as Switzerland, is one treatment, but I’m afraid this would only delay the inevitable. I regret to say that tender care is all that can be offered. We have an isolation ward where this can take place.’
‘I want her home. I want to nurse her myself.’
‘That is very noble, and I am sure that you are highly capable, but, my dear, you have to consider how TB spreads. You have to think of yourself, your husband and any other family you may have.’
‘I am, and I will. I will isolate one of our rooms at home. I will take every precaution that the nurses here will take, when entering and leaving that room. I must take care of my own child. I have done so for so many other mothers, and I need to do this for my own child.’
‘Very well, I will discharge Alice to you. And, because of what your friend has said, I will visit and prescribe medication at no cost to you. You, young lady, have awoken my conscience and that isn’t a good place for me to visit.’
The doctor and Mags smiled at each other, but Flora couldn’t smile. Her world had collapsed.