A Nightingale Christmas Promise

by Donna Douglas

  ‘If I’m that bad, how come I treat your mum to expensive presents?’ Jimmy said. He jerked his head at Lily. ‘Go on, show her.’

  Her mother glanced at Sadie, then at Jimmy. Sadie could sense her reluctance. ‘Show me what?’

  ‘Go on, show her!’ Jimmy barked.

  Her mother’s smile was even more strained as she fished inside her blouse and drew out a small locket on the end of a thin chain.

  ‘Jimmy gave this to me. Pretty, ain’t it?’ She spoke with a pride that didn’t match the mute desperation in her eyes.

  Sadie looked at the locket. ‘Where did it come from?’

  ‘She just told you, didn’t she? Have you got cloth ears or what? I gave it to her.’

  ‘It looks like gold.’

  ‘That’s right. Nothing but the best for my Lil.’ Jimmy smiled, pleased with himself.

  Sadie examined the locket more closely. It was engraved, leaves and flowers encircling what looked to be initials.’

  ‘AR,’ she read them aloud.

  Her mother turned away, tucking it hastily back inside her blouse.

  ‘Where did you get it?’

  ‘The pawn shop, if you must know.’

  ‘You sure it wasn’t nicked?’

  ‘Of course it wasn’t!’ Lily flashed a nervous glance sideways at Jimmy. ‘You should know better than to say such things.’

  But Jimmy seemed unconcerned, smirking as he helped himself to another glass of beer. ‘Call it my reward for a job well done.’

  As he lifted his glass, Sadie caught the glint of a gold signet ring on one fat finger. A dim memory stirred at the back of her mind.

  ‘Ronson,’ she said. ‘Maurice Ronson.’

  Jimmy’s expression darkened. ‘Eh?’

  ‘That was the old man’s name. The one who ran the post office. The one who got killed. It was in the newspaper. Maurice Ronson. He was a widower, seventy years old. His wife was called Annie.’

  Her mother’s face paled. ‘Now, we’ll have no talk about that in this house. We don’t know anything about any robbery, do we, Jimmy?’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘No, we don’t.’ He stared moodily into the depths of his glass.

  Sadie kept her eyes fixed on him. ‘It wasn’t enough for you to rob the post office, was it? You had to go upstairs and steal his valuables while he lay dying.’

  ‘That’s enough!’ her mother snapped.

  Sadie turned on her. ‘You’re just as bad, turning a blind eye. You really think he bought that locket for you? Why are you hiding it, in that case?’ She shook her head. ‘You know the truth as well as I do. Make you proud, does it, knowing you’re wearing a stolen locket? I wouldn’t be surprised if that old man died trying to protect it.’

  ‘That’s enough!’ Jimmy brought his fist crashing down on the table. ‘You’d better shut your mouth if you know what’s good for you, young lady!’

  Sadie looked at him. ‘What’s the matter? Touched a nerve, did I?’

  ‘Stop it, Sadie!’ her mother jumped in. ‘Take no notice of her, Jimmy,’ she pleaded. ‘She’s talking nonsense, you know she is.’

  ‘That’s right. You stick up for him as usual.’ Sadie curled her lip in disgust. ‘Why’s he been in hiding all this time if he didn’t have anything to do with it?’

  ‘He hasn’t been hiding,’ Lily insisted stubbornly. ‘He’s been away on business.’

  ‘What kind of business?’

  ‘My bloody business!’ Jimmy snapped. He pointed his finger in Sadie’s face. ‘And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop asking questions. You don’t want Billy Willis to find out you’re sticking your nose in where it’s not wanted.’

  Billy Willis … Sadie had grown up hearing that name, usually whispered in fear. Billy Willis ruled most of the East End, from Hackney Marsh back towards the city beyond Clerkenwell. Nothing illegal went on in Bethnal Green without Billy having a hand in it.

  Jimmy worked for him, collecting rents and money from the girls he ran and the businesses he protected. For a while her mother had worked in one of Billy’s brothels, which was how she and Jimmy had first met. Although the way Lily told it, anyone would think it had been some kind of fairy tale, with Jimmy as her Prince Charming.

  ‘I ain’t scared of Billy Willis,’ Sadie said.

  ‘You should be.’ Jimmy looked her up and down insultingly. ‘Billy’s always had an eye for a pretty girl. Maybe I should introduce you to him, see what he makes of you.’

  ‘Don’t!’ Lily spoke up. ‘Leave her out of this, Jimmy, please.’ She turned to Sadie. ‘You’ve got to be careful,’ she said. ‘He’s right, you don’t want to get on the wrong side of the Willis family. Jimmy won’t be able to protect you if you go making trouble.’

  ‘Protect me?’ Sadie laughed. ‘Look at him, he’s more frightened of Billy Willis than the rest of us put together!’

  ‘I ain’t afraid of no one!’ Jimmy pulled himself up to his full height. ‘Besides, me and Billy are mates.’

  ‘Is that why he sent you away?’ Sadie said.

  ‘He was looking after me.’ Jimmy looked defensive. ‘Billy looks after his own.’

  ‘Billy looks after himself,’ Sadie said. ‘You think he sent you into hiding for your own protection? It was for his own sake, not yours. He didn’t want you around him, not after you got too heavy-handed at that post office. God knows what he must think of you, getting careless and killing someone. I expect the last thing Willis needs is Old Bill sniffing around. And you brought them straight to his door.’ She looked at the ring on his finger. ‘Does he know you’ve got that? I wouldn’t go around flaunting it in front of him if I were you, or you’ll be dead next.’

  ‘You dunno what you’re talking about. I told you, Billy looks after his mates.’ But she noticed Jimmy twisting the ring off his finger and slipping it into his pocket as he said it.

  ‘But you ain’t his mate, are you? You’re just a dogsbody, doing his dirty work for him.’

  ‘Stop it!’ Lily begged. ‘Take no notice of her, Jimmy, she don’t know what she’s saying.’

  ‘And you can shut up, an’ all!’ Jimmy snarled, turning on her. ‘I don’t need some old brass sticking up for me. I know where I stand with Billy. We’re like brothers. I could have been part of the family, if I’d married one of his sisters. He gave me his blessing, you know that? But instead I had to go and saddle myself with an old whore!’

  ‘I know, Jimmy.’ Lily stared down at the bare boards, her hands twisting together.

  Sadie stared at her. ‘Are you really going to let him talk to you like that?’

  ‘He’s right,’ Lily said humbly. ‘I know he could have done a lot better for himself than me.’

  ‘Too right I could!’ Jimmy’s pride had reasserted himself. He strutted around the room like a fat, greasy-haired peacock. ‘I should never have let myself get tied down. I should have taken up with a decent woman. Someone like Billy’s wife, Mollie. Now there’s a proper lady. You’d never see her plying her trade down the docks, lifting up her skirts for sailors without even knowing their names.’

  ‘How dare you—’ Sadie started to say, but Lily silenced her.

  ‘Leave it, Sadie,’ she pleaded. ‘He’s right. He could have had any woman he wanted. I dunno why he ended up with me, truly I don’t.’

  Sadie stared at her mother, furious and frustrated. Stand up for yourself, she pleaded silently. Put him in his place for once. Perhaps if Lily spoke up, Sadie might be able to stop despising her …

  A picture came into her mind of another Lily Sedgewick, a pretty, sparky young woman, singing with Belle as they painted up their faces. Sadie had been very young then, when she and her mother shared lodgings with Belle. The two women had brought her up together. There was little money in their household, but a lot of love and laughter.

  How had Jimmy Clyde managed to turn that lively young woman into the sorry, downtrodden creature who stood before them now, wringing her hands?

 
; ‘I’m sorry,’ Sadie said. ‘I can’t stand to stay around and listen to this, even if you can.’

  ‘Go on then,’ Jimmy said. ‘No one’s asking you to stay.’

  Sadie looked over at her mother. All her adoring attention was fixed on Jimmy, as usual. Her Jimmy, her man, returning like a conquering hero with his stolen spoils.

  It was only when Sadie was walking away from the building minutes later that she realised she hadn’t told her mother the good news about her examination.

  She shrugged it off. Lily probably wouldn’t be interested, anyway.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sir Philip Carlyle was true to his word about not helping his daughter. Kate was mortified when her father refused to allow her to join his firm. Instead she was placed under the direction of another of the hospital’s consulting physicians, William Ormerod.

  ‘Don’t be so despondent, sis. Ormerod has an excellent reputation,’ Leo tried to console her.

  ‘That’s not the point,’ Kate said bitterly. ‘Everyone in the hospital will know Father has turned me down, and they’ll all wonder why. I bet he’s done this on purpose to humiliate me, hoping I’ll run off back to Hampstead.’

  Leo pulled a wry face. ‘Then he doesn’t know you very well, does he?’

  ‘No,’ Kate said. ‘No, he doesn’t.’

  In spite of her disappointment, she was determined to put on a brave face when she joined her fellow students for her first morning of hospital practice. The students were due to meet outside the Female Medical ward at nine o’clock for Dr Ormerod’s morning round, but Kate was early as usual. She had hardly been able to sleep for excitement.

  This was what she had always wanted. She had enjoyed her time at the Hampstead, but at the back of her mind there was always the nagging feeling that she could do more, if she was only given the chance. Now she had been given that chance, and she intended to make the most of it.

  Pride swelled in her bosom as she made her way through the warren of green-painted passageways. Her three brothers had walked these same corridors when they were medical students. Now it was her turn to make her mark on the Nightingale, to make her father proud …

  She arrived outside Everett, the Female Medical ward, and peered in through the glass-paned double doors. The ward was bigger than those at the Hampstead, a cavernous, high-ceilinged space with tall windows running the length of one wall. Forty beds were arranged in two long rows, with the ward sister’s desk in the middle. The scene was a hive of activity, with nurses bustling to and fro, pushing trolleys and putting up screens.

  She looked up and down the empty corridor. It was five minutes to nine. At the Hampstead, the students would all be waiting at least ten minutes before the consultant was due, just in case he was early.

  As the clock ticked towards nine, she heard footsteps and the sound of voices approaching. Kate took a moment to tidy herself, smoothing down her skirt and blouse and tucking loose strands of hair back into the knot at the nape of her neck, then turned back as two doctors came around the corner, their white coats flapping.

  She recognised Rufus French’s stocky figure immediately. With him was a taller, sandy-haired young man.

  The other man saw her first. ‘Well, well, who have we here? Looks like you owe me half a crown, French.’ He smiled and held out his hand. ‘You must be Miss Carlyle? I’m Charlie Latimer, senior houseman with Ormerod’s firm.’

  ‘Pleased to meet you,’ Kate greeted him, then turned to Rufus. ‘Hello again, Dr French.’

  Rufus nodded tersely. He seemed very different from the jovial young man she had encountered in the Casualty Hall the previous week.

  ‘French told me you’d met,’ Charlie Latimer went on. ‘An accident, wasn’t it? Chap with his leg hanging off?’

  Kate winced at his casual tone. ‘How is the patient?’ she asked Rufus.

  ‘Surviving, just about. He’s recovering on Blake ward.’

  ‘I heard you saved his life,’ Charlie Latimer said. ‘French was most impressed. Weren’t you, old boy?’

  Kate looked at Rufus French’s scowling face. He didn’t look very impressed.

  ‘It was a nasty accident, by all accounts,’ Charlie went on. ‘I’m surprised you managed to keep such a cool head, Miss Carlyle.’

  ‘Because I’m a woman?’ Kate turned on him. ‘You expect me to have a fit of the vapours at the first sight of blood?’

  ‘No! No, indeed not.’ Charlie Latimer looked taken aback. ‘I just meant – well, as I said, it was a nasty accident. I reckon it would have turned the strongest stomach. It would have turned mine,’ he said.

  His face coloured, and Kate felt sorry that she had snapped at him. She had to stop being so prickly, she decided.

  Just then, the other students came round the corner. Half a dozen young men, talking amongst themselves. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Kate.

  ‘You’ll have to excuse them,’ Charlie Latimer laughed. ‘They’re all utterly terrified of ladies, I’m afraid. Especially Randall here.’ He slapped the back of a nervous-looking young man, so hard that his spectacles slipped down his nose. The boy pushed them back in place, his face scarlet.

  ‘That’s half a crown you owe us, French!’ said another of the students, a ginger-haired boy with a freckled face. ‘Pay up!’

  ‘I’m afraid you’ve cost our friend French here rather dear,’ Charlie Latimer explained to Kate. ‘We all had a bet with him about whose firm you’d be with. He was adamant you’d be with your father.’

  ‘So was I,’ a handsome, dark-haired young man piped up. ‘I assumed you Carlyles would stick together.’

  Kate glanced away. ‘My father didn’t want to show any favouritism,’ she said.

  ‘God forbid,’ Rufus murmured under his breath.

  Kate looked at him sharply. ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘The drinks will be on French and Talbot in the Students’ Union bar this evening!’ Charlie Latimer said, before Rufus could reply.

  Kate ignored him. ‘What did you mean—’ she started to ask Dr French, but the ginger-haired student cut her off.

  ‘Watch out, here comes The Dragon!’ he hissed.

  The double doors opened and Sister Everett appeared, flanked by her staff nurses, with the students trailing at the rear. Kate noticed the keen looks and smiles that passed between them and the medical students. A few of them sent curious glances her way, too, as the ward sister arranged them in a line outside the door.

  ‘I say, Sister, have you met our newest recruit, Miss Carlyle?’ the ginger-haired boy spoke up.

  The ward sister turned slowly. She was a squat, bulky woman in her forties. ‘No, I have not.’ She fixed her gaze on Kate, her eyes like tiny raisins lost in the doughy folds of her face.

  ‘This is Miss Sutton,’ the young man introduced her. ‘Stay on the right side of her and she will make sure you don’t go astray. Isn’t that right, Sister?’

  ‘I’m afraid it might be too late for you, Mr Wallace,’ said Miss Sutton, eyes still fixed on Kate.

  Kate dragged her own eyes away from the ward sister’s unnerving scrutiny. ‘Is Dr Ormerod always this late?’ she whispered to Charlie Latimer.

  ‘Oh, God, yes. This is nothing. Sometimes we can wait an hour for him. He has a huge number of private patients to see before he ever graces us with his presence.’ He turned to the short, stocky student at his side. ‘Go up to the end and keep watch for him, will you, Evans?’

  ‘It’s always me!’ Evans grumbled as he stomped off.

  ‘What’s Dr Ormerod like?’ Kate asked.

  ‘The Great Man? He’s quite a character.’ Charlie turned to her. ‘Not sure what he’ll make of you, though.’

  Kate frowned. ‘I don’t understand what you mean?’

  ‘Well – you’re a girl for a start!’ Wallace said.

  ‘Dr Ormerod disapproves of the decision to allow female medical students to study here,’ Dr Latimer explained.

  ‘He’s no
t the only one,’ a serious-looking boy at the back muttered.

  ‘I don’t think any of Ormerod’s previous students was ever as pretty as you,’ Charlie Latimer said. ‘Apart from Talbot, of course!’ He nodded towards the dark-haired young man.

  The other students laughed. Kate looked round at them all, grinning and so pleased with themselves. ‘I don’t see what that has to do with anything,’ she said, raising her voice over their laughter.

  ‘Don’t you?’ Latimer looked her up and down.

  Kate lowered her eyes. ‘I just want to be treated the same as everyone else.’

  ‘Yes, but you’re not like everyone else, are you?’ Wallace said. ‘You’re a girl.’

  Kate swung round to face him. ‘Well spotted. I’m glad your three years at medical school haven’t been wasted!’ she snapped.

  ‘You heard her. She wants to be treated the same as everyone else.’ Rufus French spoke up, silencing them all. ‘We should all respect that, don’t you think?’

  He turned to Kate. ‘You wanted to know what Dr Ormerod is like?’ he said. ‘Well, let me tell you. The Great Man appreciates plain speaking. He can’t abide mumblers and shufflers. If you have something to say, you should say it. Be bold.’

  Kate looked around at the other students. They were all nodding in agreement.

  ‘French—’ Charlie Latimer started to speak, but Rufus ignored him.

  ‘And he likes a good argument,’ he went on. ‘Make a good impression on him from the start and you won’t have too much trouble.’

  ‘He’s coming!’ Evans plodded back down the passageway towards them.

  ‘Thank goodness for that!’ Miss Sutton sighed with relief and turned away to give her nurses one final scrutiny.

  ‘Thank you,’ Kate whispered to Rufus.

  ‘Don’t mention it.’

  A moment later, the Great Man appeared, barrelling down the passage towards them. He didn’t seem that great at all to Kate. He was a small man, bespectacled, with a perfectly round, smooth bald head. His physical presence was not nearly as imposing as her father’s, Kate decided.

  Dr Ormerod’s brows rose when he saw her. ‘Well, gentlemen, I see we have a new member of our happy band this morning.’ His voice was high-pitched, almost nervous.