by Sheila Riley
Ellie, unfazed, turned to Anna and said in a voice that carried, ‘Would it hurt her to crack a smile now and again?’
‘What’s your name?’ Sister asked Anna as Daisy dragged a chair from under the much-scrubbed table, plonking herself down. Sister gave Daisy a fleeting look of dismay.
‘Anna Cassidy.’ Anna’s smile too was fleeting, given Sister’s frosty countenance.
‘Daisy, do behave,’ Sister said in a you-always-get-one tone of voice. Then turning to Anna, she said briskly, ‘Matron told us you were coming earlier.’ She looked accusingly at Daisy, who was now gazing out of the window, innocent as a newborn babe, ‘Were you supposed to bring them earlier, Daisy?’
‘We were a bit busy, Sister,’ Daisy said as the nurse scanned Anna and Ellie’s letters of recommendation. Then, without another word, Sister, folded the letters and put them in the pocket of a pale blue dress under her pristine apron. She stood up, her movements quick, alert. ‘The fact that you have recommendation from the Chief Constable means nothing out here.’
‘Why did we have to obtain it, then?’ Ellie asked, confused. All she wanted to do was to be shown to her room, soak in a bubble-filled bath and have an early night.
‘Follow me,’ the older nurse nodded to the luggage littering her spotless foyer and Anna, lifting her suitcase, followed her and Daisy at a run down the winding stone steps.
‘I can take that if it’s too heavy,’ Daisy called over her shoulder and Anna got the distinct impression that mischief laced her words.
‘It’s no bother,’ Anna answered, suspecting imminent damage to Sister’s polished floor.
‘Hurry along now,’ Sister called over her shoulder, rushing on.
Anna, not slow at the best of times, wondered if Sister was speeding up intentionally, just to show who was in charge. Nonetheless, Daisy, easily keeping pace, turned, and winked at Anna, who was fascinated with the busy energy of the girl at the end of a demanding shift. Nothing seemed to slow down round here, and Anna suspected she was not even seeing it at its most busy.
‘Take a seat,’ Sister told all of the new nurses who later were gathered together, some, like Anna and Ellie, were qualified nurses, and some were VADs.
Daisy, however, was not upper class. Nevertheless, she displayed highly qualified talents and seemed a force to be reckoned with. ‘You’ll get used to me,’ Daisy said heading towards the door, ‘see you later.’
Half an hour later, with Sister Blake’s increasing list of do’s and don’ts ringing in their ears, the girls were greeted once more by Daisy, whose knowing grin was a sure sign she had toddled off deliberately.
‘Has she finished yet?’ Ellie asked and Anna nodded, sighing when Sister barked instructions for them to go to their quarters and change ready for duty.
‘I thought we would at least start tomorrow,’ Ellie said as they crossed the hotel grounds and headed towards their billet. Then, when she saw Daisy dressed in a feather boa, she said incredulously, ‘What is she wearing?’
‘Do you like it?’ Daisy’s tone suggested a compliment had been paid her, when in fact it had not. She twirled unashamedly in the middle of the room, showing off her hobble skirt, ‘Sister said it reminded her of a horse she once tethered to stop it running away.’ Daisy gave a burst of effervescent laughter.
Anna was sure that not many people could get away with wearing one of those narrow skirts, so tight at the ankles you could only totter in short steps.
‘I’ve been dying to wear one of those, but Mother doesn’t like them,’ Ellie said.
‘I have to admit, it is a bugger to run in, but it’s never stopped me…’
‘Young ladies do not run unless they are being shot at, especially in this hospital,’ Sister replied, catching the tail end of the conversation.
‘Do they not?’ Daisy’s brows met in a disbelieving crease. ‘I’d better practise walking then, hadn’t I?’
Leaving the small hotel, requisitioned for recovering soldiers, they headed towards rows of white tents, and Daisy watched their expressions with interest. Most newly arriving nurses expected that they were going to be put up in the hotel. However, they were wrong.
‘I come from a long line of nurses,’ Daisy said confidently, keeping a jovial conversation going while waiting for the inevitable shrieks of incredulity, ‘going right back to Florence Nightingale herself.’
‘You are related to Florence Nightingale?’ Ellie asked, showing a sudden interest.
‘By God, no,’ Daisy laughed, ‘but I had an aunt who met her once.’
Anna had immediately liked this effervescent young woman, who positively fizzed with energy and good nature, and took obvious delight in confusing Ellie.
‘What’s this?’ Ellie’s jaw dropped and all merciful thoughts disappeared into nothing when she caught sight of their new home for however long they may be here. ‘Surely, we are not expected to sleep in these things?’
‘You will get used to it – or my name’s not Tallulah Starr,’ Daisy said with the obvious delight of one who had become accustomed to her circumstances and was now having a fine old time watching their apparent shock.
‘But you said your name was Daisy Flynn?’ Anna asked, bemused, looking to Ellie who shrugged.
‘Yes, I did,’ Daisy sighed theatrically. ‘Tallulah Starr is my stage name. I sing you know.’
‘Fancy.’ Ellie appeared not to be the least enthralled.
Anna now knew Ellie had a different kind of adventure in mind, where she ministered cool cloths to fevered brows of handsome soldiers and listened to their tortured tales of heroic battle. Although she had worked with severely injured soldiers at Ashland Hall, she did not expect to tend men with missing limbs who were delirious with pain in a tent and have to sleep in one too. If Anna was honest with herself, nor did she. Nevertheless, now that they were here, they might as well do the job properly.
‘Canada?’ Anna jumped when a cat-sized rat scurried over her foot. She hadn’t seen one that size since she lived near the Mersey docks.
Daisy nodded, not speaking now. They had quickly become friends. Anna liked the girl, who, on the face of it, appeared harum-scarum, but to anybody who cared to look closer, she was a caring and thorough medic.
‘I don’t usually talk about my past; some people might get jealous,’ Daisy said in a half-hearted attempt to be frivolous. Nevertheless, Anna felt privileged to be her confidante. The young woman was not treated the same as the other VADs, even though she was more knowledgeable than some who thought they knew it all.
‘Which part of Canada are you from? My brother went to Canada, on board a ship called R.M.S Sunshine.’ Excitement hummed through Anna’s body and her hopes soared, but they quickly dashed when Daisy began to laugh until tears ran down her pretty powdered cheeks. Anna looked towards Ellie, who shrugged, her brows pleated now.
‘R.M.S. Sunshine?’ Daisy wiped her eyes and stopped laughing. But still the tears continued to roll down her cheeks. ‘We were the chosen ones, they said. We were the children of the Empire who were going to build a new world, they said…’
‘Daisy…?’ Anna went towards the young ambulance driver, who was usually so cheerful, always singing and making people laugh, who now looked bereft.
‘We were the orphans, the deserted children, the kids who had no family, we were the street Arabs. The children that nobody wanted.’
‘My brother must have thought the same thing?’ Anna said.
‘That was who we were,’ Daisy nodded as if to supplement her words with some kind of obvious confirmation, ‘to the child exporters we were cheap labour…’
‘We were told he was heading for a new life, a good life.’ Anna could hardly get the words out, ‘I’ve seen my brother on the big screen at the cinema. That’s why I chose to come out here. He’s a medic, and he’s here in Belgium.’
‘As are many home children,’ Daisy said, ‘prepared to travel through the jaws of hell and risk our lives for a country that did not w
ant us.’
‘Surely you were wanted, Daisy,’ Anna cried.
‘As soon as Ma had enough of this little nuisance, she had me shipped out of Liverpool…’ Daisy offered a mirthless laugh, then she said quietly, ‘Not just me, there were a hundred other nuisances.’ She was not talking to anybody in particular, but the expression in her eyes had a quiet, seething anger about them now.
‘I didn’t mean to open old wounds, I’m sure you weren’t a nuisance, Daisy…’ Anna said, ‘and neither was our Sam. He was not. He was not…’
Daisy looked to Anna, as if waking from a dream and seeing her for the first time.
‘Sam was my friend’s name, too.’ Daisy looked wistfully over the shell-shocked horizon. The rain had not stopped, but it was less torrential now. ‘“We will always be pals, Dais,” he had said just before we were separated again in France, as we were in Canada.’
‘Where was he from?’ Anna’s heart hammered in her chest. Was it too much to hope for?
Daisy informed Anna that Sam was from Liverpool. Anticipation caused Anna to cease breathing. There were more Sams in Liverpool than her brother.
‘It couldn’t be him,’ Daisy said with certainty, shaking her head, ‘his name was not Harrington it was Cassidy.’
A stuttered intake of breath nearly choked Anna and she spluttered, coughing and wheezing. When she could get the words out, she gasped
‘That’s Ellie’s name, Eleanor Harrington… My name is Anna Cassidy…’
‘Sam is your brother…?’ Daisy covered her mouth with her hand as if to staunch the words she was about to say, but no matter, they came out anyway. ‘You are Anna? Anna who died?’
Anna nodded, her eyes wide, and Daisy shook her head as if to clear it.
‘But you are a qualified nurse.’ Daisy sounded incredulous, ‘you live in a big country mansion. Your parents are richer than the King.’
Anna shook her head. The girl obviously had her information mixed up. ‘No, Daisy, I am an orphan, I was taken in after my family were killed in a fire.’ She did not want to use that word, murdered.
‘Sam… My friend Sam… He had a sister called Anna… she died… in hospital…’
‘I was in hospital with pneumonia when my brother went away…’ Anna saw the look of realisation spread across Daisy’s face and her cornflower blue eyes danced.
‘You are Anna,’ Daisy laughed, ‘but you are not dead.’
‘No, Dais,’ Anna pinched her own arm, ‘I am not dead. I don’t intend to be either.’
Moments later, they were hugging each other, dancing around, laughing, crying, and jabbering like monkeys in their haste to share information What did he say? What did he feel? Anna wanted to know all about her Sam’s departure.
‘He only left because they said you died,’ Daisy told her. ‘They said he would have a better life…’ Quiet for a moment, as if seeing the scene playing out like a film on the picture house, she did not say who they were. ‘I got my legs slapped for calling out to him before… before…’ Daisy could not say any more as huge tears rolled down her cheeks. This cheeky nurse with the voice of an angel could not get the words out now.
‘Holy Mother,’ Ellie was visibly shocked, ‘I wish I had a huge revelation to share.’ Refusing to be excluded, she hugged them both.
26
It didn’t take them long to get into the swing of things and a few months later, the three of them were sent to the casualty clearing station at Passchendaele, all hands desperately needed there, and soon Anna and Ellie realised that genteel nursing was impossible as they viewed a crocodile line of incoming wounded and had to get stuck in as Daisy put it.
Giving immediate instructions to nurse anyone who needed it, Anna quickly learned how to haul ten-stone men onto stretchers between completing bedpan rounds, preparing food and drinks on leaking primus stoves, which reeked of paraffin, and in rare moments of quiet time, even helped shocked soldiers write letters home.
Separated from Ellie and Daisy, Anna was far too busy to notice how tired she was, and she soon fell into the rigorous routine. All romantic notions of propriety and meekness quickly dissipated after hours in the fields.
When she later flopped onto the bed recently vacated by another nurse, Anna was still wearing her uniform. Luckily, she did not have time to crease it, as a short while later another batch of wounded were brought in on stretchers, over shoulders, any way they could get to the clearing station. Having learned quickly to run in her sleep, she was heading towards the ambulances to go and collect the injured. By the end of the month, she knew for certain why she felt the need to be here.
‘This kid needs a blood transfusion,’ the medic said. ‘Doc Robertson has brought in a new method of transfusion.’ he continued as she worked with the medic who had been assisting Doctor Robertson set up the first blood transfusion equipment at the casualty clearing station on the Western Front in early spring. He worked as he talked, extremely fast. Teaching other medics the things he had learned on the battlefield. ‘In the case of severe primary haemorrhage supplemented by shock, this transfusion of blood produces immediate and remarkable results.’ His rapid effort was accompanied by equally speedy speech, which Anna could barely make out as the Canadian medic had his back to her, his voice almost drowned out by the thick mask, which she recognised as a female sanitary towel, covering his face to protect him from a poisonous gas attack.
‘Hurry, nurse,’ the medic asked, holding his hand out for a scalpel.
‘I’ve only got one pair of bloody hands,’ Anna called impatiently, accustomed to the salty language now, ‘and it’s Sister to you, not bloody nurse!’ She found letting go of the odd expletive kept her sane.
‘I would recognise that censorious tone anywhere in the world, but I didn’t expect to hear it here on the battlefield and anyway I thought you were dead!’
Anna felt a hand on her shoulder and was being turned round. But nothing on God’s green earth could have prepared her for the sight that met her eyes.
Anna’s wide eyes filled with tears and she pressed her hand to her throat, coming face to face with the brother she had not seen for seven long years.
‘Sam! When did you…? How did you…?’ Words failed her as she threw her arms round his neck Laughing. Crying. ‘Sam. Sam. Sam.’ His name was a balm on her lips. ‘I never thought I would ever see you again! But why did you think I was dead?’
‘Me neither because I was told you were dead before I left the orphanage. That’s why I didn’t come to see you before I left for Canada,’ Sam said, holding her at arm’s-length now. But to see you again, alive, and here of all places …
Anna could hardly see him for happy tears.
Suddenly another boom lifted her off her feet and she suspected the gunfire had pierced her eardrums. Nevertheless, in no time, Sam had dragged her out of the mud. She could hear again. The deafness, caused by an earful of mud, soon remedied.
‘I see you for the first time in years and you saved my life,’ Anna shouted over the noise of exploding shells.
‘My work here is done.’ Sam let out that familiar laugh the whole family shared… Had shared. However, Anna knew this was not the best time for reunions.
Sam had to move away to attend to another soldier who had been blown off his feet, and before she had a chance to speak further, her wonderful brother had the other young soldier hooked up to a bottle of blood.
‘You’re a doctor?’ Her voice sounded incredulous, amazed at his swift expertise. Transfusions were unheard of at the beginning of the war but from the spring of this year, many lives had been saved by another man’s claret, and it was hard to imagine a time when none was available.
‘Let’s just say I’m a gifted amateur,’ Sam answered. ‘I’ve been taught by the best.’ They watched as the colour began to return to the soldier’s ashen face, ‘It’s a long story, but we’ll have plenty of time to go over it later.’
‘Nurse! Over here, we have more coming in.’
‘It’s Sister to you,’ Sam yelled, and Anna smiled, reluctantly leaving to tend new patients in the clearing station. She did not want to miss another moment with her beloved brother. She wanted to know everything that he had gone through, from the moment he left her at the hospital, until the fabulous moment she met him once again on the battlefields of Passchendaele.
Sam hurried forward to another casualty and, bending over the soldier, pumped his chest. ‘We’ve got him back,’ Sam said with a nod of thanks to his team, ‘although he might need a pint of claret too, so keep the stocks up, and tell the troops they can have two biscuits with their cup of tea if they volunteer to give blood. If they do not offer,’ he joked, ‘tell them they’re on a charge.’
‘I think this guy will be all right now, doctor,’ said an orderly, ‘where shall I put him?’
‘Put him here in the side ward,’ Anna said, used to allocating beds to soldiers in most need back at Ashland Hall, ‘he’s ready to go to the hospital ship.’
‘Well soldier, your war is over for now,’ said Sam, ‘that’s a lovely Blighty wound you’ve got there, it’s back home for you tomorrow. Take him over now,’ he instructed a male orderly.
Life had changed so much for both of them after their family was killed that Christmas Eve… All she wanted to do now was find out what Sam had been through… However, there was no chance of that happening any time soon. In a moment, he was gone again, and she felt that familiar shock of panic run through her. What if he were injured. What if she never saw him again? What if that was their final goodbye?
Anna was on the go all through the night, collecting casualties, distributing them to the clearing station, field hospital, advanced operating theatres, or isolation. Anywhere they were going to get the best treatment. She and all the other nurses worked so hard, Anna sometimes wondered how body and soul stayed together.
When Anna returned to the billet to sleep, Ellie was already on a bed gently snoring, giving Anna no time to tell her of her discovery. Her brother, Sam, wonderful Sam, was alive and well and right here in Belgium.