Lucy had made some good friends in York and renewed her acquaintance with Elizabeth Warrington, who had left school a year earlier than Lucy for finishing school in France. Lucy had been pleased to see her depart as she thought her very snooty and arrogant, tending to brush off anyone she considered unworthy of belonging to her set.
Jane Woodall and Primrose Chambers, both country girls, and Celia Marriot from Harrogate had become Lucy’s special friends, and on their last day at school they had all promised to keep in touch, each in her heart wondering if she would ever see the others again. Their lives had been about to change and each was taking a separate path. Jane and Primrose had been returning to their parents’ respective country estates whilst Celia was going on to finishing school in the Swiss Alps. ‘Not,’ she had emphasized, ‘anywhere near Elizabeth Warrington. I shall be in the mountains above Interlaken, and if you happen to be holidaying in the district do come and see me. My parents know someone whose daughter went there and she recommended it highly.’
Jane and Primrose had said they might, but Lucy had shaken her head. She had other ideas that she hadn’t shared with them, but she had mentioned them to Oswald. She knew she would get a straight answer and opinion from him.
‘So what are you going to do, Lucy?’ Celia had asked her. ‘Wait for someone rich and handsome to ask for your hand?’
‘You can’t possibly be serious?’ Primrose had laughed. ‘We all know that Lucy is a suffragette and not looking for a husband!’
‘I am not a suffragette,’ Lucy had defended herself. ‘I believe that women should have the right to vote, but I am not opposed to men in general and if someone rich and handsome and with half a brain comes along then I might consider him.’
‘I’d have your handsome cousin,’ Jane had sighed. ‘Those dreamy grey eyes behind his glasses!’
‘Oh, me too!’ Primrose had agreed. ‘Like a shot.’ She too had sighed. ‘That strong square chin …’
Lucy had bristled. How dare they be so personal? She and the other girls had been in York on a half-day shopping trip the previous year before leaving for the summer holidays, and quite by chance they had met Oswald and two friends who had come into the city from Pocklington. It had been Oswald’s final term at school and he was waiting for his university application results to come through. She had introduced him to her friends and he had introduced his and they’d all gone off to have tea together. Oswald hadn’t spoken much; he was still inclined to be quiet with people he didn’t know, although his friends had chatted volubly, showing off in front of the young ladies and trying too hard to make a good impression.
‘His eyes are grey-blue,’ she had reluctantly agreed. ‘And I suppose he might be considered handsome, but it’s difficult for me to judge as I’ve known him most of my life; in fact he’s more like a brother than a cousin. He’s not rich but he is extremely clever and expected to do well at Cambridge, and that’s much more important,’ she had added, in an offhand kind of way.
Oswald had been determined on studying science and physics and to his amazement had obtained a place at the prestigious university; his school tutors had been convinced he would embark on a brilliant career once he obtained his degree.
‘They didn’t tell me what kind of brilliant career it would be,’ he’d told Lucy when he heard he had been accepted. ‘What will I be fit for?’
‘Anything and everything,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘You’ll have people scrabbling at your feet to offer you the world!’
He’d laughed. ‘I don’t think so. And what about you, Lucy? What will you do when you’ve finished at York? I suppose you won’t need to do anything, but of course you’ll want to. You’ll take up a charitable cause or something, won’t you?’
She had hesitated; she was only just sixteen and so far hadn’t shared her thoughts with anyone as she wasn’t sure that she could achieve what she dreamed of. But Oswald would listen seriously. He wasn’t the negative young boy he had once been, and she had become convinced, once she was old enough to consider the matter, that the change in him had happened when he had adopted the name of Thornbury and become a completely integrated part of the family.
‘Not charitable exactly,’ she’d answered. ‘Although I’m in favour of supporting those who can’t support themselves, whatever the reason. But I’d like to be a woman with a purpose.’
He’d cast a questioning glance at her but didn’t speak, which was typical of him, she’d thought. If there was a pause in a conversation he would wait for the person who had started the subject to fill the gap before commenting.
She’d heaved a breath. ‘I’d rather you didn’t mention it to Uncle William or your mother, not until I’ve thought it through.’
‘So are you sure you want to discuss it? This purpose that you haven’t thought through? You don’t have to say anything now,’ he said. ‘You can tell me when you’re ready, if you want to,’ he added.
The house was quiet. They had both been in the sitting room, Oswald stretched out on the floor reading a newspaper and Lucy on the sofa mending one of her stockings. Uncle William was at the bank and Aunt Nora was out with Eleanor. Lucy was almost ready to go back to school the following week and Oswald had finished sorting out the books that he would need to take with him to university and was wondering how to fill the rest of his time before then.
It was, Lucy had thought, as good a time as any. ‘You won’t laugh, will you?’
‘Why would I laugh?’
‘Well,’ she said hesitatingly, biting her bottom lip. ‘It’s a big ambition, although I feel that I can apply myself.’
He had sat up and hooked his arms around his knees. He was very tall now and his long hair flopped over his forehead, and he was trying to grow a moustache. ‘I won’t laugh.’
‘I want to study medicine. I want to be a doctor.’
He leaned forward. ‘Lucy,’ he’d said on a breath. ‘How wonderful! How absolutely inspiring. Such an aspiration.’
‘But can I do it?’ she said, encouraged by his enthusiasm. ‘I’m doing well at school, but can I hope to achieve such an ambition?’
He jumped to his feet and sat beside her on the sofa. ‘If you work hard of course you can. You’ll probably have to matriculate at university first before being accepted at medical school but you won’t be the first female to apply, if that’s what’s worrying you. This is what you should do. Speak to the school. Make an appointment to speak to the head.’
‘I don’t need to do that,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It’s a very progressive modern school. I can just knock on her door.’
‘Then you must do that as soon as you start term. Tell her that’s what you want and ask her to suggest what you should do next.’
Lucy licked her lips. ‘I’m studying maths, art and sciences already. And human biology,’ she added, ‘but I didn’t tell Uncle William in case he didn’t think it a suitable subject.’
He laughed. ‘He’s no fuddy-duddy, you know.’
Her cheeks burned pink. ‘I do know really; it’s just that I feel embarrassed that he might be – well, embarrassed.’
‘He won’t be,’ he had said quietly. ‘I feel that I know him very well now and I can say unequivocally that he’s the most liberal and understanding man that I’ve ever met. Tell them as you’ve told me.’
She had done as he suggested and he had been right. Her uncle and aunt had been delighted, as were her teachers, who warned her however of the rigid and exacting course work that was entailed, some of which she would have to study elsewhere in order to matriculate. She had completed her final year in York; then, inspired in some part by the death of Florence Nightingale at the age of ninety, she had taken a first aid and nursing course, volunteered at a local hospital as an orderly, and been accepted at Cheltenham Ladies’ College for one further year of study in mathematics, science, classics and French. She was now awaiting her final exam results and to find out if her application for an interview at the London School of Medicine for Women had been successful.
At home one morning she kicked her heels, unable to unwind after all the work she had been studying. Oswald, who had celebrated his twenty-first birthday last month, had been given a job as runner at William’s bank as he wanted to earn some money during the summer holidays, so he wasn’t at home, and Aunt Nora had taken Eleanor out to buy some new clothes as she was growing so rapidly. Lucy decided to visit Edie, who was still working in her uncle’s grocery shop.
She was bored with wearing school clothes of navy skirts and white shirts and pushed these to the back of her wardrobe, bringing out instead a slim fitted cream dress with the skirt cut on a flared bias that kicked out just above her ankles. Next she chose a large blue hat trimmed with a flower and a froth of cream lace. She tried it on this way and that and then took her hairbrush, swept up and pinned her thick hair away from her face and angled the hat firmly over one ear.
Finally she slipped on a three-quarter loose coat and cream shoes, smiled at her reflection in the mirror and went downstairs. Ada was crossing the hall and looked up.
‘You look nice, Miss Lucy,’ she said. ‘Where ’you off to?’
‘To see your sister.’
‘Our Edie? Oh, say hello to her from me,’ Ada said, ‘and tell her I’ll be popping in to see her and Mam on my next day off.’
‘I’ll tell her,’ Lucy said, and thought how different this household was from those of some of her friends. To be friendly with the domestic staff – although Ada was now the housekeeper, with a live-in scullery maid and a daily maid beneath her – and for Ada’s sister to be Lucy’s best friend.
She and Edie hadn’t seen much of each other whilst Lucy had been away at boarding school and college, although she always visited when she came home. Edie worked full time at the shop, which stayed open until late, and although they sometimes went out together for coffee and a chat after closing time, Edie was often so tired she had to go straight home to bed. ‘My uncle is such a slave-driver,’ she’d grumble. ‘He always reminds me that he was the first to give me a job.’
She was behind the counter when Lucy called and was serving a woman with a pound of butter that she scooped out of a barrel. She looked rather fed up, Lucy thought, and said so when the customer had gone.
‘I am,’ Edie agreed. ‘I’d like to leave and do something else, but my ma seems to think I’d be letting my uncle down.’
‘Doesn’t his daughter still work here? Or Max?’ Lucy asked.
‘Jenny does.’ She lowered her voice and tossed her head to indicate the back room. ‘She’s just gone home for her dinner, but Max seems to think he’s above serving in the shop and reckons he’s too busy doing the ordering and accounts to serve. I often catch him with his feet up on the desk reading a newspaper.’
‘So can you come out for half an hour?’ Lucy began, before Max himself came out of the back room and just as they had when she was a child his good looks and charm made her heart skip a beat.
‘Lucy!’ He had long since stopped calling her Miss Lucy. ‘How lovely to see you. You look nice. Are you home for the holidays?’ Although he was wearing a brown cotton grocer’s coat she noticed that beneath it he wore a crisp white shirt and a blue necktie with dark blue trousers.
‘Home for good until … well, it depends on my exam results where I’ll go next.’
He smiled. ‘Good. We shall see more of you then?’
‘Lucy just said it depends on her exam results,’ Edie said sharply. ‘She’s got a brain, you know.’
He nodded, virtually ignoring Edie. ‘I know,’ he said, ‘and I’m sure she’ll put it to good use.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘As long as you don’t join those awful suffragettes who are always on ’rampage.’
Lucy bridled. ‘Well I just might,’ she said. ‘Someone has to speak up for women.’
He laughed, rather too heartily she thought. ‘Believe me, all the women in our family know how to speak up for themselves. They don’t need a band of militants to speak for them.’
‘It’s not only about the vote,’ she told him. ‘And it’s the suffragists who are prominent in Hull, not the suffragettes, and they are not militant. They speak on behalf of all women who don’t have the same opportunities as men do, or the same wages for doing the same work.’
‘That they don’t,’ Edie said cynically.
‘My word,’ Max parried, ‘I’d never have put you down as a bluestocking, Lucy. So that’s what boarding school does to such a sweet young lady!’
‘That expression went out in the last century, Max,’ she remarked, but didn’t say more as his sister Jenny came in just then and greeted her. She was furious with him none the less, and thought his attitude deplorable.
‘Right, I’m off for my dinner.’ Edie took off her long white apron and was round the other side of the counter before either of her cousins could object. ‘Back in half an hour.’
‘Goodbye.’ Lucy turned at the door and she could tell by Max’s regretful expression that he knew he had gone too far.
‘Come on.’ Edie took Lucy’s arm and steered her towards Market Place. ‘I know a place where we can get a sandwich and a pot of coffee and it won’t cost much. It belongs to a friend of one of my cousins.’
Lucy laughed. ‘Having a big family must be a great advantage.’
‘Not always,’ Edie said. ‘I’m fed up with working for Uncle Sam, I can tell you. He hasn’t given me a raise in wages in two years and I’m doing more hours than I used to.’
She pushed open a door, setting off a tinkling bell in a café that had gingham tablecloths on the half a dozen or so tables, some occupied, and a counter with delicious-looking cakes covered with muslin.
‘Hello, Edie.’ A bright-faced middle-aged woman greeted them. ‘Come to eat?’
‘Please, Annie. What are you going to have, Lucy? Treat’s on me.’
‘Oh, just coffee please. I’ve had something already.’
Edie ordered a ham sandwich for herself and a pot of coffee for two, calling to Annie to put plenty of mustard on the ham. Then she put her elbows on the table and faced Lucy. ‘Yes, Max was right. You do look nice. Very elegant. So what’s happening? After your exam results, I mean. What are you planning?’
She was always direct, Lucy thought, pressing her lips together. ‘I haven’t spread the news, but I’ve applied for a place at the London School of Medicine for Women.’ She looked at Edie, whose jaw had dropped. ‘It’s at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, which is just outside London. I’ve been studying really hard because they don’t have many places.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Have you heard of Dr Mary Murdoch?’
Edie shook her head, listening avidly.
‘She became house surgeon at the Hull Victoria Hospital for Sick Children when she graduated,’ Lucy continued, ‘and only last year she was appointed as Hull’s first female general practitioner! She’s inspirational, and she’s also a leading light in the women’s suffrage movement in Hull.’
Edie swallowed. ‘Golly,’ she croaked. ‘Lucy! You’re going to be a doctor? I can’t believe it! How – oh, I’m lost for words. I don’t know what to say, except how exciting and wonderful and amazing and oh, I’m so proud of you.’ Her eyes filled with tears and she snuffled. ‘So very proud.’
‘I haven’t got in yet,’ Lucy pointed out, though she was very touched by Edie’s support. ‘It will depend on the results.’
‘Pooh, you’ll get in easy,’ Edie said airily. ‘Hey, that’s one in the eye for our Max, isn’t it?’
‘What was wrong with him?’ Lucy asked. ‘I never thought that Max would be so disparaging.’
‘You took a shine to him when you were little, didn’t you?’ Edie smiled. ‘Our Josh always said so. But I’m afraid he’s got a bit above himself lately. He was walking out with someone but then she joined the Women’s Union or suffragettes or something and he took the huff. That’s why he said what he did.’
‘That will be the suffrage group I meant,’ Lucy said thoughtfully, and then asked, ‘How are Josh and Stanley and Bob and Charlie?’
‘Josh and Stanley are still soldiering. They’re both in ’regular army now so they don’t get home much. Ma misses them and so does Charlie. He’s going to be a boy soldier as soon as they’ll have him. So there’ll be no bairns at home, not even our Bob. He works for ’railway and he’s hardly a bairn any more, since he got married in May.’
Edie paused and then sighed. ‘I’ve been considering leaving my uncle’s shop. There’s no future in it and I don’t want to wait for someone to snap me up and then live a life like my ma or Aunt Mary. Ada’s seriously courting, did you know?’ she added. ‘Everybody thought she was left on ’shelf, but she’s just very particular. She seems serious about this one. She onny sees him on her days off, though. I don’t think your aunt knows.’
‘She doesn’t,’ Lucy said. ‘She would have mentioned it. So, what are you thinking of, Edie? What are you going to do?’
Edie gave a big grin that lit up her face. ‘Well, you might be very surprised to hear this, and bearing in mind that I’m nowhere near as clever or as brilliant as you, but …’ She leaned back in her chair and waited a few minutes while Annie brought the coffee and a plate of sandwiches before she whispered, ‘I thought I’d train to be a nurse!’