by Sheila Riley
‘They most certainly are our girls. Both of them,’ Archie answered.
‘And don’t forget Ned,’ Ruby said.
‘How could I ever forget Ned.’ Archie let out a low rumble of a laugh hiding the fact he knew Ned was in mortal danger.
6
‘Hospitals are finding it so hard to cope with the number of casualties coming in, even the town hall has been converted into an auxiliary hospital,’ Ellie told Ruby, and Anna nodded in agreement. ‘The authorities are desperate for more accommodation.’
‘That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,’ Ruby said, urging the two girls to sit in the spacious drawing room. ‘I want to go over the details of Ashland Hall being turned over to the Red Cross as soon as the new doctor arrives.’
‘I heard we will be known as Ashland Hall Auxiliary Hospital for the duration of the war.’ Said Ellie.
‘How exciting!’ Anna said.
‘Electricity has been installed in most rooms,’ Ruby said proudly. And only the low rumble of engines stopped her from explaining the benefits of light at the flick of a switch.
‘The medics are here,’ Archie said as he came into the room, and in a flurry of excitement Ruby hurried towards the door. The two girls watched her eager exit with interest.
‘Let’s go and see.’ Anna was first up, and Ellie quickly followed. Every electric light had been turned on in readiness for the new doctor’s arrival. Nothing Aunt Ruby did surprised them.
Outside, standing at the top of the semicircle of steps, they watched a fleet of motor vehicles being halted by a wiry-haired woman whose voice sounded much bigger than her diminutive stature.
‘This way!’ The woman’s voice rang out across the vast acres of verdant lawns that surrounded Ashland Hall, while Ellie and Anna looked wide-eyed at each other, but said nothing, returning their gaze to the woman dressed in a military-style jacket and ankle-length skirt, her unruly rust-coloured hair appearing to fight to be freed from its captive fasteners. ‘Stop!’ Her booming instruction caused a flock of nesting birds to desert their post in the summer sunshine, and she held up the outstretched palm of her hand.
‘Girls,’ said Ruby, looking like she had just bagged the bargain of the age. ‘I am thrilled to introduce you to Bea Tremaine. Doctor Bea Tremaine.’
‘Doctor Tremaine?’ Anna and Ellie chorused, knowing Ruby had kept that vital piece of information from them. They had heard about the female doctors who were now practising medicine, of course they had. But they had never actually met one of them.
‘Aye, lassies,’ Doctor Tremaine’s brogue invited no further questioning when she asked, ‘do we have any problems?’
Both nurses shook their heads and confirmed that they were quite happy with whatever had been arranged.
‘I have handed over the Hall with immediate effect,’ Ruby told the two girls, ‘we will move into the lodge today.’
‘We will be up and running as soon as we have everything in place,’ Doctor Tremaine’s springy red hair seemed to take on a life of its own as she talked, and after a hospitable cup of tea, the new lady doctor was eager to inspect each room for its suitability. ‘I reckon we can take our key patients as soon as the Red Cross supplies start to arrive.’
‘I also managed to obtain a whole new kitchen from Cunard,’ Ruby said proudly. ‘They were only too happy to donate.’
The two young nurses looked at each other, almost telepathically knowing that Ruby would never leave a fundraising empty-handed, especially when they saw supplies of bedding, towels, soap, cleaning requisites, buckets, mops, and many other cleaning accoutrements arriving, thanks to Ruby’s many influential associates.
‘I expect you girls are eager to get started immediately. And you will call me Doctor Bea,’ Doctor Tremaine said expectantly.
‘So soon?’ Anna asked. ‘We have not asked permission to leave Seaforth Military Hospital.’
‘I have made all the arrangements,’ said Doctor Bea, whose authority appeared to be matched by a fierce determination. ‘Your things will be sent over. Matron is not expecting you back.’
Anna and Ellie accepted what was expected of them and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the auxiliary hospital. They knew their services would obviously be needed here at Ashland Hall, and they were eager to get started in any capacity they could, to make sure the injured had a place to come home to.
In no time at all, the motor vehicles emptied, and the Hall was filled with volunteers who were clearing rooms and scrubbing floors, ready for hospital beds and other medical equipment.
‘Isn’t it exciting!’ Ellie squeaked. ‘I can’t wait to see our first casualties.’
‘Archie, come and meet Doctor Bea,’ said Ruby, who turned to the doctor and said, ‘you don’t mind me calling you Doctor Bea?’
‘I don’t mind at all,’ said Doctor Bea, who was suddenly more interested in Archie. Ruby bristled.
‘Well now,’ Doctor Bea stared into Archie’s eyes, causing no end of consternation to Ruby. And after a moment of thought the doctor leaned forward and in hushed tones she said to Archie, ‘I think we need a private word,’
Archie looked puzzled, and Ruby’s deep-set frown told the two young nurses she was not happy with Doctor Bea’s obvious attention to her husband.
The morning tore into the afternoon and Ashland Hall became a seething mass of bodies, busy in every room of the house. Men, women and even the local Boy Scouts and Girl Guides moved furniture, transported medication, lugged boxes of bandages, pills, and anything else that would be needed to supply a thirty-bed auxiliary hospital capable of receiving patients directly from ambulance trains.
People were rushing back and forth at breakneck speed, with barely a room finished before it was claimed by Doctor Bea and her upper-class band of Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses (or VADs as they were referred to) who, Ruby was reliably informed, had received three months training in The Royal Infirmary after attending twice a week for three hours at a time.
‘At least they have had some training,’ said Anna as wardrobes and beds were delivered, ‘even if it is only the most rudimentary kind.’
Ellie nodded, directing volunteers.
‘Where shall I put this?’ Ruby asked, hugging a silver-crystal fruit bowl she had rescued from the Emporium.
‘How about the table by the window, where it can be admired,’ Anna suggested drily as she and Ellie manoeuvred a heavy wardrobe, walking it into the alcove in the drawing room.
‘Of course,’ said Ruby. ‘It will catch the light there.’ She ignored Anna’s sardonic tone and, tilting her head to one side, stood back to admire her handiwork. ‘Look how it sparkles… like a diamond…’
‘Very nice,’ Ellie managed. Wiping a trickle of perspiration from her brow, she was discouraged from saying something more unladylike by the timely interruption of a loud ran-tan on the front door.
‘Who can it be, who has no respect for my door knocker?’ Ruby asked. Her shapely bosom heaving with pride as she watched Archie leave the iron bed, which he was in the process of building, to go to answer the knock at the front door. Seeing that everybody was busy and being no observer of etiquette he did not mind answering his own front door. He looked very handsome dressed in his official police uniform, Ruby thought, knowing Archie had immediately volunteered to join the dwindling police force when the regulars went off to war.
‘Right,’ Mrs Hughes, the housekeeper called above the hubbub, ‘it’s about time everybody had a nice cup of tea.’
‘Now, ladies,’ Doctor Bea addressed the nurses gathered in the sunny room, knowing they all needed a short break. ‘Let’s all raise our cups and congratulate each other for all our hard work.’ Then, more sombrely, she said, ‘I have a feeling the hard work will continue for a long while yet.’ Rallying, and not wanting the occasion to descend into gloom, she added, ‘But we will meet it with strength and fortitude.’
‘Strength and fortitude,’ the volunteer nurses, suffragists before the war, al
l chorused, raising their cups high in the air. ‘A toast to our heroes, marching through foreign fields, fighting for each and every one of us.’
As the room descended into unladylike whoops and cheers of encouragement, Anna’s thought turned, as always, to Ned, who was held in that place she liked to think of as the harbour of tranquillity – her heart. A letter had arrived this morning, but she had not had time to read it yet, and it was burning a hole in her pale blue pocket. But her thoughts were not allowed to linger.
Ruby was pleased to see the front drawing room was ready for the first batch of casualties; gone was the fine furniture, which had been stored securely in the stables, the horses having been donated to the cause.
‘So much work has been done to the house since you and Archie decided to turn it into an auxiliary hospital.’ Anna smiled, knowing Aunt Ruby loved this huge room which looked out on to the shore, understanding the servicemen needed it far more than she did.
‘The lodge on the other side of the lake has plenty of room for us,’ Ruby said.
Ashland Hall was running efficiently under the blunt, plain-speaking and forthright Doctor Bea, who had worked mainly in the women’s hospital and in paediatrics, given that, in her words, the backward-looking male doctors – even in this enlightened age – believed that women should sit still and behave themselves, not rampage into the Houses of Parliament and throw rotten tomatoes at ministers who refused to give women the vote.
However, she later told Ruby, all that had been put to one side while hostilities were the order of the day and she promised to concentrate on the patients under her care. Doctor Bea also made it clear she did not want any bad reports of hysterical girls spreading bloodcurdling rumours.
Anna knew that since the beginning of the war, there had been stories of the enemy sneaking up the Mersey Estuary from the Irish Channel. Luckily, none had managed to get here yet.
‘Will there be any answer, Sir?’ asked the telegram girl who put the dreaded communication into Archie’s capable hand. Archie looked at the telegram and invited the girl inside. His voice low and solemn when he asked her to wait a moment; unsure if there would be an answer. Walking back into the drawing room, he saw the two nurses engaged in making perfect envelope corners on a new hospital bed.
Dusting her hands, Anna was about to say something when she noticed the telegram in Archie’s hand. And her heart flipped. A telegram was not a good sign in wartime.
Archie headed straight towards her and Anna resisted the urge to run from the room. She must be strong even though dreading the expected bad news to come, especially when the Navy were undergoing such heavy fighting to protect the Grand Fleet from U-boats.
Archie’s face was grim as the words slipped from her lips in a whisper.
‘Please, Lord. No.’ Her darling, she could not bear the thought that she may never see him again… ‘Not my Ned?’
‘I’m afraid this is for you, Ellie,’ Archie’s words hung in the air as he handed her the telegram, while Anna remained still and silent, feeling a keen sense of shame that her first reaction to Ellie’s news was relief.
Ellie’s eyes went from one to the other in the room. Unasked questions and muddled thoughts took the place of good humour, which she and Anna had shared moments earlier.
As she took the dreaded telegram, her hands visibly shook as time seemed to stop still. Raw fear prickled Ellie’s scalp, and needing to know what the message contained, yet dreading the news, she took a deep breath, gathering as much courage as she could before ripping open the telegram. A small, almost inaudible gasp escaped as her hands flew to her lips. Her eyes scanning the words, over and over again.
‘German Zeppelins raided the East Coast,’ she whispered. Looking up, her dark eyes, so like Ruby’s, looked dazed, as if taking in nothing of what she saw. Her posture stiffened and she closed her eyes. ‘My father has been killed in a Zeppelin raid.’
‘Oh, my poor girl,’ Ruby said, taking Ellie in her arms, her racing heart palpable. It was no secret to any of them that Ruby did not suffer Giles Harrington gladly. However, Ellie’s feelings mattered a great deal. She could not bear to see her so upset. ‘My poor, poor, girl.’
‘Poor Mama,’ said Ellie, her stoic eyes wide with unshed tears, ‘she will be all alone. I must leave to be with her.’
‘Archie,’ Ruby said, taking immediate charge of the situation. Her usual level-headed pragmatism that saw her through so many testing times kicked in, and her dark eyes softened. ‘When the funeral is over, May must come back home. Where she belongs.’
Archie gave a brief message to the telegram girl that would tell May they would be with her soon. When he closed the door, about to return to the front room, Archie was stopped by Doctor Bea. Again, she silently stared at him, making Archie feel extremely uncomfortable.
‘How long have you suffered from decreased vision?’ Her voice lowered and Archie looked round quickly to make sure Ruby was not in the vicinity to hear.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Archie said, his body rigid as he squinted in the half-light of the hallway, trying to focus on the small doctor whose presence seemed to fill the house from the first time she entered Ashland Hall.
‘The milky lens of your eyes tells me you have something called cataracts.’ Doctor Bea did not rein in her words. ‘And given the opaqueness, I would say they are ripe for removal.’
‘You will do no such thing,’ said Archie, ‘I am not having anybody…’
‘Let alone a woman…’ Doctor Bea had heard the expression often.
‘That is not what I was going to say,’ Archie was no stranger to strong-minded women. ‘I have it on good authority that I am losing my sight which is why I can’t defend my country.’
‘Whoever told you such a thing is a fool,’ Doctor Bea sounded impatient and enraged. ‘I know an excellent eye surgeon who has done brilliant work with men who have been injured in battle.’
‘Surely, given these worrying times, his time will be taken up with more urgent matters.’
‘I have successfully accompanied him in his many operations, I know what to do. If he is unavailable, I will remove them myself.’
‘What if it goes wrong?’ asked Archie. He was not worried for himself, although the procedure was not something he would willingly undergo if he had the choice, but he did worry about the effect his blindness would have on Ruby. ‘I do not want my wife worried over this.’
‘The worst thing is to do nothing,’ she said, ‘but you must inform your wife. There is no need for you to suffer. We will do it as soon as we have furnished the operating theatre,’ said Doctor Bea, who had taken over the morning room because the light was better there. ‘Or first thing tomorrow morning, whichever is soonest.’
‘Will I be able to see straight away?’ Archie asked.
‘Your eyes will be covered to allow them to heal,’ said the doctor. ‘Then, after about six weeks or so, you will be able to do menial tasks until they are fully healed.’
‘We have just learned of a death in the family,’ Archie explained, ‘I will be taking Ruby and my niece to Scarborough. Ellie’s father was killed, and we will be bringing Ruby’s sister back to the lodge.’
‘In that case, we will perform the operation when you come back home. Help is at hand when you return.’ Doctor Bea was sympathetic, but she sounded sterner when she said, ‘A fully sighted policeman is of much more value than one half-blind. You will wear thick-lensed spectacles thereafter.’
‘A small price to pay, don’t you think?’ said Archie, relieved that something could be done, knowing the hard part was telling his wife.
Doctor Bea nodded, setting in motion the confusion of springy curls.
7
July 1916
Anna and Ruby were at the Charity Shop by the docks, to drop off blankets which had been donated by the Corby Townswomen’s Guild.
‘I can’t see any let-up,’ Anna said. ‘Not if the incoming casualties are anything to go by.’ The
war was getting worse.
‘I doubt the war will be over by this time next year, either,’ Lottie said. ‘Who do they think they are kidding?’
‘We will just have to wait and see,’ Izzy answered. Glad her other son was now doing his duty, like his brother, instead of loitering round street corners with some of those other layabouts. Jerky had no choice when subscription was brought in, he had to take the King’s shilling or go back to jail.
‘The authorities are talking out of their backsides,’ said Lottie, who had become embittered by her separation from her beloved Jerry and was in no mood to be placated. In fact, if she was honest, she wasn’t in the mood for anything. She was so tired. The first thing she did each morning was throw her guts up in the lavatory, and the thought of a cup of tea made her feel worse.
‘I heard tell the enemy was on its way over here.’ Lottie said, trying to take her mind off her nervous stomach. She blamed everything on the war and the rumours that were flying round like litter on the wind. ‘I heard tell the Huns were coming over in the middle of the night and women and children are being murdered in their beds.’
‘It’s best that you ignore scaremongering stories like that, Lottie,’ said Anna, working at her efficient best to allay the wild rumours going round when she noticed wide-eyed customers hanging on to every word. Everybody had someone fighting in Flanders Fields and hearsay could become fact in the blink of an eye.
‘Some of those reports are so outrageously ridiculous, I wonder how any sane-minded person could possibly believe them to be true.’ Anna said knowing her Ned was doing his very best to stop the marauding enemy from storming up the dock road and ravishing any passing female. However, there were women like Lottie who believed every word. ‘Are you sickening for something, Lottie,’ Anna asked, ‘you look a bit peaky.’