Lucy ate her sandwich and drank the coffee, and as no one else came in to disturb her she slipped off her shoes, put her feet up on the sofa and closed her eyes again. She must have fallen asleep, for the next thing she knew Dr Schultz was leaning over her and gently shaking her arm.
‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ Lucy apologized, swinging her feet down to the floor. ‘I closed my eyes for a moment; such a comfy sofa—’
‘It’s all right,’ the doctor said. ‘Taking a short nap is very beneficial. Would you like to freshen up, and then I’ll take you back to meet the doctors again.’
Lucy thanked her and in a nearby washroom she washed her hands, rinsed her face and combed her hair, which had become disarranged while she slept. Then once more she walked along the corridor with Dr Schultz, who didn’t chat this time but kept her eyes in front. When they reached the interview room Lucy was invited to be seated, and Dr Schultz took a chair at the end of the long table with the other doctors.
‘How are you feeling, Miss Thornbury?’ Dr Cavendish asked.
‘Rather strange now that it’s all over,’ she answered honestly.
Dr Cavendish gave her a questioning glance. ‘Why do you think it might be over?’
Lucy licked her lips. ‘I, erm, I hardly dare dream that I – might have been successful,’ she said softly.
‘And yet you said that medicine was your dream,’ Dr Cavendish reminded her.
‘It is,’ she said fervently, ‘and if I haven’t been successful this time I will keep studying and in another year or two, if it is possible, I will apply again.’
‘I really don’t think that will be necessary, Miss Thornbury,’ Dr Cavendish said calmly. ‘Not necessary at all to put you through this again. My colleagues and I have come to the unanimous decision that you will be a welcome asset to our profession. You are very young, but we do not think your youth will be a liability.’
Lucy put her finger to her right ear and pressed it to clear the ringing. Were they saying – what were they saying? But yes, they were all smiling, even the sombre dean, and they were all standing up waiting for her to say something. She looked at Dr Schultz, who was smiling broadly and beckoning to her.
‘Come along, Lucy,’ she said. ‘The good doctors are waiting to shake you by the hand.’
She shook hands with them all; her heart was hammering and she was so overcome that she could barely speak and a few tears trickled down her cheeks. When they asked her if she would be prepared to stay overnight as there was a visit planned that afternoon to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead where she would be given a tour, she stammered that she had booked a second night at her hotel in the fervent hope that she would be invited.
The dean nodded and said that they liked to see a positive attitude in their students.
Dr Schultz took her back to the comfortable waiting room and said she would order her another drink and that it would be about an hour before she and another doctor would be ready to take her to Hampstead.
‘Perhaps I could step outside for a few minutes?’ Lucy asked her. ‘And then when I come back in the door it will be as a medical student.’
Dr Schultz laughed. ‘Of course, and if you wish to send your family a telegram with the good news, there’s a telegraph office just a hundred yards away where you can do that.’
‘Oh! How wonderful. Yes please, thank you, I would love to do that, thank you, thank you very much.’ Impulsively she reached up and kissed the doctor’s cheek. Dr Schultz looked very surprised, but gratified. ‘You have been so very kind,’ Lucy said by way of explanation of her reckless behaviour.
‘I remember how nervous I was when I came for my first interview and so I like to help a little if I can.’ A little smile touched Dr Schultz’s lips. ‘However, I will tell you that I will be one of your tutors and I may not always be kind, although I hope that I am always fair. Now,’ she said briskly. ‘Off you go. Be back in half an hour.’
Lucy stood outside for a second taking deep breaths and absorbing the sounds and sights of the road. Electric trams zinged past and horse-drawn drays and wagons rattled along accompanied by the phut-phut and sharp explosive bangs of motorized cars, of which there were far more in London than she had ever seen in Hull. She looked up and down and then set off as directed towards the telegraph office.
On a slip given to her by a clerk she wrote out a brief message home. Success Stop she wrote. Home tomorrow Stop Celebrate Stop.
‘Is that all, miss?’ the clerk asked her as she pushed the slip towards him and fumbled in her purse.
She smiled. ‘Yes,’ she said happily. ‘For the time being.’
Another pot of coffee and a slice of cake were brought to her and Lucy sat again and waited, and pondered on what had happened to the other two applicants. Perhaps it was their first interview. Maybe if they are successful I will see them again. But she didn’t like to ask Dr Schultz when she came back again to say there was a cab waiting for them.
‘It will take about an hour to get there,’ the doctor said, walking briskly to the door. ‘We’ll take a tour of the hospital wards and I’ll show you the lecture room and the theatre if it isn’t occupied, just to give you an idea of the layout of the hospital and introduce you to some of the medical staff.’
‘H-how many other students will be there?’ Lucy asked hesitantly.
‘Of those starting in October only six, that is if the next two interviewees come up to standard. This will be a preliminary induction only to find out how you shape up.’
‘I’m rather nervous,’ Lucy told her.
‘I would expect you to be,’ Dr Schultz said. ‘This is a very big and important step you are taking.’
Dr Schultz introduced her to Dr Rose Mason who was waiting for them by the hansom cab and the three of them squashed into the vehicle to make the journey to Hampstead and the hospital.
‘Do you know this part of London, Miss Thornbury?’ Dr Mason asked her.
‘No, I don’t know London very well at all,’ Lucy answered. ‘It seems very exciting to me, bustling with traffic and people, much busier than Hull.’
‘I remember your mother,’ Dr Mason said. ‘She was from the south of England as I was; I recall teasing her when she said she was leaving London for the north.’ Then she fell silent and glanced at Dr Schultz, who was giving a little shake of her head.
Lucy was taken aback. ‘I – was she?’ Why did I assume she was from Hull? Uncle William has often talked of when he and my father were young, although he did once say that he hadn’t known Mama’s parents; if they were not from Hull that must have been why. ‘I thought my mother was from Hull, as my father was.’
She briefly thought of Aunt Nora; when she was a child she had once asked her why she said ‘Go with Ada for your barth’ instead of bath, and she and Uncle William had both laughed.
‘Berkshire,’ Dr Mason said quietly. ‘I’m so sorry. I thought you would have known.’
‘No,’ Lucy said softly. ‘I know very little about her. I wish I knew more.’
Dr Mason again glanced at Dr Schultz and then murmured, ‘Perhaps when you are settled in we might have a chat about her.’
‘I’d like that,’ Lucy began, but was interrupted by Dr Schultz who said something about students having little time for chatting. Lucy said no more, but privately she was determined that she would at some time in the future approach Dr Mason and ask her to tell her all she knew about her mother.
At the hospital she was given a white cap and gown to wear and led to a washroom where they all soaped and washed their hands. Lucy looked at herself in the mirror and thought she looked more like a nurse than a doctor; neither Dr Schultz nor Dr Mason wore any additional garment over their plain dresses.
Lucy was taken on a tour of the wards with another young woman, Leila Stockton, who was also to undertake medical training. She said, indifferently, that she was familiar with hospital wards as her father was a doctor. Lucy spoke to some of the female patients – those who were well enough to sit up in bed – and said she hoped they were making a good recovery. Leila Stockton didn’t speak to any of them but picked up their notes and looked over them, much to the disapproval of Dr Schultz, who removed them from her, saying that they were private and for medical eyes only. The surgical theatre was occupied and so they were not allowed to enter.
They were shown the room where patient files were kept, the hospital laundry and a room where medication was under lock and key; they saw a large room with wooden chairs and a long table which was where they would attend lectures or study, and then they were taken to the nurses’ rest room where a young nursing student offered them a cup of tea. Lucy thanked her but refused as she had seen how busy the nurses were as they flitted from patient to patient, and she then thought of Edie and determined to visit her as soon as she got home to find out if she had got any further with her thoughts on nursing.
Lucy was fired up with enthusiasm. She felt that she couldn’t wait to start her professional training for a career which she knew would be long in coming and extremely difficult to attain, no matter how determined she was to achieve her goal; but, she thought decisively, I will attain it.