The Seaside Angel

by Evie Grace

  ‘That doesn’t surprise me. The father wanted to check on Alan’s progress, so he started releasing the traction, can you believe it? Sister Trim had to give him a good telling-off, and then he started arguing with his wife for being on Trimmie’s side. Apparently, Alan’s booked to perform at the circus very soon, and Mr Allspice wants him out of here in time for it. He’s prepared to go against doctor’s orders and undo their good work.’

  ‘Then he’s a fool.’

  ‘Oh, he’s a fool all right. Alan said he wished the ground would swallow him up – I think he meant his father, not himself. Anyway, Mr Allspice did bring exciting news – they’re planning to bring the animals from the Hall by the Sea on to the wards.’

  ‘Really?’ Charlie was still sitting glumly in bed. Perhaps this would cheer him up, Hannah thought. ‘How come?’

  ‘It’s a thank you to the infirmary for looking after his boy.’

  ‘I’ll tell Master Swift,’ Hannah said, but it seemed that he already knew.

  ‘I ’eard you.’ He smiled. ‘Do you think they’ll bring the lions?’

  ‘I doubt it. Mr Anthony will have to sew your heads back on if they do.’

  ‘You’re scaring him,’ Charlotte said. ‘Spare a thought for the night staff. And us, for that matter. Imagine cleaning the floors after a parade of animals. Trimmie’s furious – she said they shouldn’t come, but Matron’s overruled her.’

  ‘It will give the children such a lift to see them, though.’ It would brighten their day as well, Hannah thought. Any change on the ward was as good as a rest.

  She recalled the day when, having begged Pa in vain to let them go to the circus, Nanny had taken it upon herself to take the four Bentley children out for a walk around Canterbury, an expedition which had fortuitously coincided with the parade as it passed along St Dunstan’s to Westgate Towers.

  Hannah had been fifteen, Ruby twelve and the twins nine years old, and just about to start as choristers at the cathedral. They had formed a procession themselves, the girls in front, the boys next and Nanny walking along behind, until they’d met with the crowd that was spilling from the pavements and into the street. It had seemed that the whole of Canterbury had turned out to see the spectacle – except for Pa and Stepmother.

  ‘Make way for the children,’ Nanny ordered, prodding the people in front of them with her umbrella. ‘They can’t see.’ As a couple parted to allow them through, Nanny pushed through too.

  ‘Now we can’t see,’ the woman complained.

  ‘I can’t possibly let these little ones out of my sight,’ Nanny said. ‘Hannah, hold Ruby’s hand.’

  ‘I’m too grown-up for that,’ Ruby hissed, pushing Hannah aside.

  ‘It’s Nanny’s orders,’ Hannah said as they were swept closer to the edge of the pavement, but Ruby ignored her. Hannah turned to look for the twins – Nanny had hold of their hands and they were standing quietly, like little angels – while Ruby bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, her eyes flashing with excitement.

  A marching band with drums and trumpets appeared through the central arch of the towers, followed by a gilded carriage drawn by four cream horses wearing state harness. Britannia, carrying a gold shield and trident, sat inside it, with a lion and a lamb at her feet.

  ‘Why don’t the lion eat the lamb?’ someone said.

  ‘It’s a miracle, if you ask me. Look, there’s Lord Sanger.’ Another pointed at the second carriage which conveyed a man in a top hat, who was waving to the crowd.

  ‘He i’n’t no Lord – that’s just what ’e calls ’imself. ’E’s plain George, and that glamorous wife of ’is, Madame de Vere, is in fact Ellen Chapman.’

  ‘You’re jealous ’cause ’e’s made ’imself a millionaire out of makin’ entertainment for the common people.’

  ‘Oh look, what is that?’ Theo said, pointing. The twins were dressed in matching sailor’s outfits. They were blonde-haired and blue-eyed with delicate lashes and pouting mouths, not like their half-sisters at all.

  ‘It’s a camel – it stores food and water in its humps,’ Nanny said knowledgeably. Pa had selected her from the best candidates in London, and she was young and enthusiastic about education.

  After the camel, the clowns – in chequered pantaloons with fearsome smiles painted on their faces – came tumbling by, followed by the freaks who looked down from carts pulled along by spotted horses.

  ‘Who are those poor people?’ Hannah asked.

  ‘They are the curiosities. Their unfortunate appearances are a consequence of their own sins, and those of their fathers,’ Nanny said.

  What had they done to deserve their fate? Hannah stared at the Wolf Woman whose face was covered in long, dark hair. Then there was a child – no, twins – joined at the chest, and the World’s Fattest Man.

  Hannah felt a sense of relief when the elephants came through, ambling along, one behind the other, trunk to tail in order of decreasing size. She was so busy watching the baby elephant gambolling along at the end of the line that she didn’t notice Ruby step off the pavement until it was too late. There was a cry of pain as the smallest one playfully knocked her to the ground.

  ‘Oh, Ruby, what have you done?’ Nanny stepped forwards. ‘Hannah, I told you to hold her hand.’

  ‘It isn’t Hannah’s fault. I tripped,’ Ruby stammered, knowing that she’d done wrong.

  ‘I’m going to be in a lot of trouble,’ Nanny said fearfully, her face whiter than Ruby’s. ‘Perhaps it will be all right. Let me help you up.’

  It soon became clear that Ruby’s arm had been broken. Within the hour, they had returned to the smart four-storey townhouse on Dane John with its stone parapet and iron balcony. The bonesetter was called for, Nanny sent packing and the girls put to bed. Pa made them both suffer a month of bread, gruel and rice pudding to cure Ruby’s intemperate behaviour and violent emotion.

  ‘Your daughters are running wild without Nanny’s guiding hand,’ Stepmother complained a week or two later, in front of Hannah who’d been doing some embroidery in the peace and quiet of the parlour.

  ‘Why don’t you take some responsibility for them?’ Pa closed his book and put it aside. ‘You complain of having no occupation.’

  ‘I don’t know what I can do. Hannah is a strange child – she takes no notice of anyone. I can’t believe she sprang from your loins. Perhaps she didn’t. Perhaps you were cuckolded. I wouldn’t blame her. Mercy must have been driven mad being here with you.’

  What was a cuckold? Hannah wondered. She wished Ma was there to explain.

  ‘But Ruby is a sweet girl,’ Stepmother continued. ‘When she’s dressed up, she looks like a tiny doll.’

  ‘That’s all very well, but when we married, we did so on the understanding that you would take on the role of mother, looking after the moral education of my daughters.’

  ‘That was your understanding, not mine. Oh, you are so very dull. You promised me dinners, dances and the company of high society, yet I can’t remember when we last went out together. I think you would have me locked away and kept prisoner for the rest of my life.’

  ‘We have an invitation to dine at the Mostyns’ next week,’ Pa said.

  ‘I hope you’ve declined. I can’t bear those people. Mrs Mostyn is always talking about the good she does for the poor, and her husband does nothing but complain about his infirmities.’

  ‘They’re friends of mine, and I wish to spend time with them in the company of my wife. Mr Edison from the bank will be there too.’

  ‘Ugh, I detest that man. I wish you wouldn’t keep inviting him here – I don’t like the way he looks at the girls, Hannah especially. I won’t go,’ Stepmother said.

  ‘You have no choice. As the head of this household, I have the final word. You will be ready on the allotted day at the required time, dressed in your green gown and with a willing smile on your pretty features.’

  ‘I won’t go,’ Stepmother repeated, and Pa rose from his seat, his fists c
lenching as he leaned close to her and growled, ‘You are my wife – you will obey me. If you don’t do as I say, I promise I’ll drag you kicking and screaming to the Mostyns’.’

  The blood drained from Stepmother’s face. ‘You wouldn’t?’

  ‘I’m not in the habit of making false promises. Dry your tears, Miranda.’ Pa returned to his chair, picked up his book again and started to read, and Stepmother stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. ‘That woman has no decorum,’ Pa muttered, ‘no decorum at all.’

  Hannah returned to the present, smoothing the sheet and folding it so it sat flat across the mattress. There was nothing for Trimmie to criticise – gone were the days when her corners had looked like dogs’ ears.

  Hannah’s complexion and her confidence returned to normal quite quickly, and although Alan complained a lot, his hip was improving again under traction. After another three days, he was allowed out of bed on crutches and there was talk of him going back to the circus.

  That evening, Hannah walked home with Charlotte.

  ‘It’s so busy I can almost believe that I’m back in London,’ she said, dodging the families and couples who thronged the seafront, making the most of the warm summer evening. Glancing at the pale blue sky and skeins of pink cloud, she found herself wishing that she could be walking arm in arm with Doctor Clifton.

  ‘I’ve heard that the wives stay here all week while their husbands join them on Sundays. I don’t think I’d like that – if I was married, I’d want to keep an eye on mine,’ Charlotte observed.

  ‘Has Mr Hunter said anything to you?’ Hannah teased. ‘He hasn’t asked you to go looking for any more splints with him recently?’

  Charlotte didn’t reply. She had stopped to look behind her.

  ‘I think someone’s stalking us. I’ve had this feeling since we left the house.’

  ‘You’re imagining things.’ Hannah followed her gaze back along the road, taking in the horse and carriage moving smartly along the gravel, the group of teetering ladies dressed in straw bonnets, and a man carrying a bucket of herring.

  ‘I’m not. I’m certain of it. Didn’t you see her?’

  No sooner had Hannah spotted the figure in a hooded cloak, struggling along with a bag and hatbox, than it vanished again behind a haycart. Hannah hesitated, her heart beating faster. There was something very familiar about the young woman …

  ‘It’s my sister!’ she exclaimed. ‘She’s here in Margate!’

  Charlotte slipped her arm through Hannah’s, and they hurried back down the road as the figure reappeared.

  ‘Ruby!’ Hannah cried as they reached her. ‘You should have warned me you were coming!’

  Ruby dropped her luggage and pulled down her hood, revealing tears running down her face. Her dark brown eyes were filled with fear, and her hair, in waves the colour of stout, was dishevelled.

  ‘I couldn’t,’ she sobbed. ‘When Pa found out I was sending letters without his permission, he locked me up. He made me a prisoner in my room. Only the maid was allowed in with food and water, and to empty the chamber pot.’ She flung her arms around Hannah’s neck and clung to her like a limpet.

  ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Ruby,’ Hannah said. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘I’m all the better for seeing you,’ she said, growing calmer as she took a step back. Although she was seventeen, the top of her head came less than halfway up Hannah’s chest.

  Hannah noticed a welt on her sister’s arm. ‘What’s that, Ruby?’

  ‘It’s nothing. A flesh wound. I caught it on a nail as I was climbing out of the window.’ She was speaking so quickly that Hannah could hardly make out the words. ‘I threw my boxes out on to the roof below, then clambered down the drainpipe under the cover of darkness last night.’

  ‘You could have fallen. Ruby, you could have been killed!’ Hannah trembled at the thought.

  ‘I was willing to take the risk. The day before, Pa came to tell me that he’d pay two doctors to sign a certificate of insanity, like he did with Ma. He said I was losing my mind. How could I stay any longer?’

  ‘Did you stay out all night?’

  ‘I walked the streets – I had nowhere to go while I was waiting for the trains to start running this morning, and then I didn’t like to disturb you at work.’

  Hannah became aware that a small crowd was forming around them.

  ‘Let’s go somewhere quiet. I don’t want all and sundry knowing our business.’ She turned to Charlotte. ‘This is my friend, Charlotte. Charlotte, allow me to introduce my sister, Ruby.’

  ‘It’s lovely to meet you, although it could have been under better circumstances,’ Charlotte said. ‘Hannah talks about you often. Come home with us.’

  ‘If that’s all right with you,’ Hannah said. ‘It’s rather an imposition.’

  ‘Not at all. You’d do the same for me – not that I shall ever see my sister again.’

  Hannah walked along, holding Ruby’s hand like they used to when they were little girls promenading along the city wall in Canterbury with Nanny. She wished she could confront their father and tell him exactly what she thought of him. He’d had Ma locked up and look what had happened. He was even more wicked than she’d imagined for him to have incarcerated Ruby after that.

  When they arrived at the nurses’ home, Charlotte made herself scarce while Hannah and Ruby talked.

  ‘What did you do to upset Pa like that?’ Hannah had to ask.

  ‘It was a punishment for something I didn’t do … I don’t know – I seem to be a constant irritation to him, like a flea on a dog.’

  ‘You must have done something.’

  ‘I answered back when he accused me of leading the butcher’s boy astray, that’s all. And I may have lied to Cook a little.’ Ruby’s lip trembled. ‘You have to believe me.’

  ‘Oh, I do. Of course I do. I know what Pa’s like. Here, dry your eyes.’ Hannah handed her a handkerchief. ‘It’s done now, and we must think of the future. You’ll stay with me in Margate.’

  Ruby jumped nervously when the door opened, and Charlotte reappeared.

  ‘Come and join us,’ Hannah said. ‘We’re making plans.’

  ’Ruby can stay with us tonight, if that’s what you’re about to ask, then you can start looking for somewhere to live tomorrow. I’ll ask Trimmie if I can swap my afternoon off with you, if it helps.’

  ‘Thank you – that would be a great kindness.’

  ‘We should celebrate. There’s fruit cake in the tin and half a dozen bottles of ale under my bed.’

  They sat and talked for a couple of hours before retiring. Hannah shared her bed with Ruby who fell asleep, exhausted, while Hannah lay awake, grateful that they’d been reunited.

  The next morning, she felt uncomfortable about having to leave Ruby alone and unchaperoned.

  ‘You’ll wait here until I get back,’ she said. ‘There’s a lock on the door.’

  ‘I’ll have to have breakfast, or I’ll fade away.’

  ‘There’s more cake. Ruby, I don’t want you to feel like a prisoner, but what if Pa comes to find you? I saw you last night when Charlotte opened the door – you’re a bag of nerves.’

  ‘I want to go out,’ Ruby said softly. ‘Even if our father does turn up, what can he do? He can hardly snatch me away against my will, not in front of all those people.’

  ‘We’ll have plenty of time to go out this afternoon,’ Hannah insisted. ‘Promise me you won’t leave the house. We’ll go and look for lodgings together. I’ll use some of my savings, and Grandma’s nest egg – she made a proviso that I would use some of it to help you when the occasion arose.’

  ‘Why did she not trust my judgement? No, I mustn’t think of that. She meant well, I suppose.’

  ‘What about your belongings?’

  ‘I have my bag and hatbox, and I managed to smuggle a note to Cook who’s going to send a trunk of my best clothes to this address in the next day or two, if she can. Hannah, you can’t possibly un
derstand how unbearable it’s been.’ Ruby broke into sobs, and Hannah stayed an extra five minutes after Charlotte had gone to console her, and then she missed breakfast and was late on the ward, much to Trimmie’s annoyance and Hannah’s discomfiture. Refusing to be cowed by Sister’s scolding, Hannah resolved to concentrate on the future. No matter how hard it turned out to be, she would make the best life possible for her and Ruby, something she’d dreamt of since running away from home.

  Chapter Eight

  A Bitter Pill to Swallow

  The sisters walked along the seafront where a horse was pulling a water cart and a workman was hosing the roads to keep the dust down. Hannah had done her best to concentrate on her work that morning, but all she’d been able to think about was whether Ruby was safe. To her relief, she was waiting for her at the nurses’ home, looking remarkably cheerful for one who’d suffered so much.

  ‘Where shall we start?’ Ruby asked as they walked past Marine Gardens. ‘We must have a villa with a sea view.’

  ‘We can’t afford to rent a whole establishment. A couple of rooms will suffice, and they mustn’t be too far from the infirmary.’

  ‘We must have a parlour at the very least.’

  ‘What on earth for?’

  ‘For receiving callers.’

  ‘I work six days a week, and even if I had the time, the last thing I’d want to do is entertain visitors.’ Hannah felt a little sorry for her sister – finding out that she led a quiet life had to be a bitter pill to swallow.

  ‘What’s happened to you? You’ve turned out so very dull,’ Ruby blurted out, before quickly apologising. ‘You always were the serious one.’

  ‘Somebody has to be,’ Hannah sighed.

  ‘We’ll go shopping together – it will cheer you up.’

  ‘Another day,’ Hannah said, not wanting to dampen her sister’s infectious sense of joy. Smiling, she linked arms with her, and they continued along the front, looking at the boats in the harbour where the tide was coming in, lifting them upright, ready to sail out again.

  ‘Fat juicy whelks, a penny a quart … Prawns in their shells by the pint …’ came the cry of a street-seller. Further along, a band was playing, and a man was showing off his dancing dog, a small white terrier with a patch over one eye and a spotted neckerchief.