by Evie Grace
The Amazing Ajax dropped to one side and crawled along the rope upside down, like a monkey. Clinging on with his legs, he released his grip with his hands, and caught an apple that came flying through the air, courtesy of Mrs Allspice. He bit into the fruit and tossed it away, then he was back on the rope, unfastening what appeared to be a skipping rope from his middle. He skipped a step, and another, then down he fell, tumbling through the air and landing on the safety net suspended beneath him.
The crowd roared with laughter as he pulled a funny face, bounced and fell down once more, spread-eagled on his back, but where he should have bounced up again, the net fell away beneath him, dropping him flat on the floor where he uttered a bloodcurdling scream.
‘He’s dead, sure as eggs is eggs,’ somebody cried out.
‘Please, ladies, do not be alarmed,’ the ringmaster shouted, walking across to Mr Allspice and catching his boots in the net which was spread across the sawdust. ‘It’s all part of the act. Ajax, let me help you to your feet.’
‘Can’t you see I’m ’urt?’ the ropewalker cried. ‘Someone ’as nobbled me.’
‘You can stand up?’
‘I told yer, I’m injured – I can’t move me legs.’
‘You can’t stop the Amazing Aerial Ajax – he’s always clowning around.’ The ringmaster nudged him in the arm with the toe of his boot. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, there’s no harm done, no harm at all. He’ll be as right as rain in a couple of days.’
Some members of the audience were more sympathetic.
‘Is there a doctor in the house?’ one asked as Mrs Allspice came running across the ring and fell to her knees at her husband’s side. She grasped his hand and broke into a terrible wail.
‘Come quickly, Hannah,’ James said.
As they made their way down the steps, she saw Alan, who was wearing grey trousers over his costume, calling for a stretcher.
‘Don’t move him. He mustn’t be moved,’ James bellowed.
‘Doctor Clifton?’ Alan recognised him straight away. ‘Nurse Bentley.’
‘It’s Sister Bentley now,’ James said.
‘He has to be moved – the show must go on,’ the ringmaster interrupted.
‘’E ’as to stay there. Doctor’s orders,’ Alan said. ‘I trust these people – they’re the ones who made me better.’
‘I need to assess his injuries before he goes anywhere – it won’t take long,’ James said, taking charge.
‘What can I do?’ Hannah asked as he knelt in the sawdust beside the afflicted man.
‘Go to the other side of him – take off his shoes.’ She squatted down, untied his laces and removed his sweaty slippers which had holes in the soles.
‘Send for a constable,’ Mr Allspice gasped. ‘I want ’im arrested and thrown in gaol.’
‘Who?’ Mrs Allspice said.
‘That felon – your brother. ’E’s the one who put the net up – ’e offered.’
‘My brother would never ’urt you.’
‘We will deal with this ourselves, within the family,’ the ringmaster said, but Mr Allspice wasn’t listening.
‘Alan, fetch your brother and go after ’im. Catch that murderin’ bastard and bring ’im back here so I can give ’im what for. He says I’ve defaulted on a loan, that I haven’t paid ’im back yet. When he borrered me that money, ’e said it was a gift.’
Which was a lie, Hannah thought, recalling the conversation that Mr Milani and Mr Allspice had had in front of her and Ruby at the Hall by the Sea.
‘’E said I’d promised to make ’im top of the bill as well. Does ’e really think I’d put ’is act above mine?’ He tried to drag himself up, but his legs were limp and his body shaking.
‘Don’t move,’ James said. ‘For your own sake, keep still until I say so.’
Alan acknowledged Hannah with a nod of his head, then disappeared.
‘I can’t afford to pay a quack.’ Mr Allspice swore out loud, and Hannah heard the whispers and rustle of the ladies’ dresses as they got up from their seats and began to make their way out of the theatre.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, there’s no need to hurry away,’ the ringmaster insisted. ‘The show will go on.’
‘We’ve had more than enough entertainment for one evening,’ one said. ‘The poor man – this is most unfortunate.’
‘We’ll worry about payment later,’ James said. ‘Are you able to move your legs?’
‘I don’t think so …’ Mr Allspice grimaced. ‘Are they movin’, Doc?’
James shook his head as he moved round to his feet. ‘Hannah, may I prevail on you for the use of a hat pin?’
She removed one from her bonnet and handed it to him.
He used it to scratch the patient’s soles. ‘Can you feel this? Or this?’
Mr Allspice shook his head, his eyes dark with misery as the impact of what had happened began to sink in. Sticking the hatpin through the flap of his waistcoat pocket, James asked him where he was feeling pain.
‘All over …’ His teeth began to chatter.
‘Is there anywhere where it feels worse?’
‘My back and my legs – they’re on fire.’
‘You’ve suffered an injury to your spine and in view of my suspicion that the bone is fractured, you must remain completely still. Don’t move. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, Doc.’ Mr Allspice’s face was etched with fear.
‘If we can immobilise you on a stretcher to get you to the infirmary in Margate, then we can look at putting you into a full body cast.’
‘I can’t ’ave that – we have shows booked for weeks in advance.’
‘’E’s right. If ’e can’t work, we can’t feed our littluns,’ Mrs Allspice contributed. ‘They’ll starve.’
‘Mr Allspice, you are paralysed from the waist down. Without enforced rest, there is no route to recovery. Even then, there are no guarantees. I can’t work miracles – all I can do is support the body in healing. The rest is in God’s hands.’
‘Will I be able to walk the rope again?’
‘I don’t know, sir.’
‘If I can’t be up there, bringin’ exclamations of wonderment and tears of laughter to the public, I may as well be dead.’
‘You are in good hands,’ Hannah said.
‘I know, I know. Then take me to the infirmary and the sooner the better – the show will go on.’ He turned to his wife who was sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth, sobbing and crying. ‘Stop snivellin’ and get out there, cap in ’and before all these gen’rous people disappear. Call the papers, but don’t let slip a word without agreein’ payment in advance. Got that?’
She nodded.
‘What am I supposed to say to ’em?’
‘You’ll tell ’em the truth – that your brother, your own flesh and blood, tried to murder your ’usband.’
‘You can’t ask me to squeal on ’im.’
‘I’m tellin’ yer to. It’ll serve you well to remember where your loyalties lie.’ The patient’s eyes were bulging with anger and pain. ‘Now, send the littluns their pa’s love and tell ’em to behave or I’ll ’ave their guts for garters when I get ’ome.’
Hannah and James travelled to the infirmary in one hansom cab, while Mr Allspice went strapped to a door in another. When they arrived, they woke the duty porter, and disturbed the night staff. Their patient was grunting and groaning with pain worse than an animal, and it was all they could do to transfer him to a trolley to convey him to one of the men’s wards. Doctor Clifton prescribed opium, and Hannah and the night sister helped him strap Mr Allspice into a temporary cast which Hannah obtained from the splint workshop.
‘It’s quite a coincidence that you and Doctor Clifton were at the same performance in Ramsgate tonight,’ the night sister said with a sly look, while Hannah waited for James to write up his notes.
‘And a lucky one for Mr Allspice,’ Hannah said. ‘He would have been in even more of a predicament if we ha
dn’t been there – the ringmaster was all for moving him so the next act could follow on.’
‘Sister, you will permit me to walk you home,’ James interrupted.
‘Oh no, I can make my own way,’ she said, flustered.
‘I couldn’t have it on my conscience to let a young lady wander the streets alone at this time of night.’ Hannah wasn’t sure if she was pleased that his chivalry extended to other young ladies, but she reminded herself that that had been her choice. At least, when she became a matron one day, she would have this evening to look back on. ‘I’ll drop by in the morning to look in on Mr Allspice,’ he added aside to the night sister.
‘Yes, Doctor. I wish you goodnight.’
‘This escapade will be all over the house tomorrow,’ Hannah observed as James offered his arm to cross the street outside. She took it, thinking to make the most of his company.
‘It’ll give the gossips plenty to talk about, but it’ll soon blow over. Do you think that the lion tamer really tried to kill Mr Allspice? He must have known that he’d guess who the culprit was.’
‘I know something about it – I was present during a conversation when Mr Allspice revealed that Mr Milani is his brother-in-law. Mrs Allspice is Mr Milani’s sister.’
‘I suppose it isn’t surprising that they have a family connection – they’re both showmen who spend time in each other’s society.’
‘What I heard would support Mr Allspice’s allegation – I think I should go to the police.’
‘I should sleep on it, if I were you, Hannah.’
‘I want to do the right thing.’
‘I know, but you don’t want your name – and your sister’s – to be dragged into something which doesn’t concern you. If Mr Allspice can provide enough evidence to back up his accusation, there’s no need for you to get involved.’
‘That might be wise,’ she concurred. If the story broke in the newspapers, would she not be accused of making false claims against Mr Milani as revenge for his pursuit of her sister?
‘I imagine that the details will unfold naturally over the next few days,’ James said. ‘It’s been a most unexpected and eventful evening, but I have to say that there’s no one I’d rather have spent it with than you.’
‘Thank you,’ she said softly, her heartstrings taut with desire and regret as they walked on in silence to the lodging house. He stood waiting for her to go inside.
‘Goodnight, dear Hannah,’ she thought she heard him say as she closed the door behind her. A sweet yearning filled her breast. If only … She was a fool, she told herself. Love and lust were like opium – once tasted, one only wanted more. She should never have let him persuade her to go to Ramsgate. It had awakened the feelings she thought she had overcome.
Chapter Sixteen
The Rules of the House
Hannah threw off her cape and fumbled in the dark to find a stub of candle and a match. She struck the match and touched the flame to the wick which flared, flickered and died, expelling a whiff of tallow. She tried again, and the flame caught, illuminating a tiny pair of eyes under the kitchen table. A mouse! But she didn’t chase it away. She had other fish to fry.
She went to the bedroom and pushed the door open, walked across to her sister’s bed, pulled the coverlet back and shone the candle in Ruby’s face.
‘What are you doing? I was asleep!’
‘Really? I’m surprised that your conscience allows you to rest. You lied to me. I saw you at the circus, gawping at the infamous Mr Milani.’
Ruby didn’t attempt to deny it. She pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the bed.
‘How is Mr Allspice? I heard him fall.’
‘Doctor Clifton thinks that he’s broken his back. He’s at the infirmary, but he may never walk again.’ She recalled his accusations against the lion tamer. ‘How could you go against me yet again?’
‘I don’t know,’ Ruby stammered. ‘When you forbid me to do something, it’s like a red rag to a bull. I just have to do it.’
‘You have no modesty or self-restraint.’
‘Whereas you have both of those virtues in buckets.’
Hannah straightened and stepped back, holding the candle as the wax dripped hot on to her fingers. She snuffed it out and put it on the washstand, before opening the curtains to let in the light from the moon.
‘I can’t help feeling more than you do,’ Ruby went on. ‘I’m not as good or as clever as you. All I want is to be loved.’
‘Modesty and restraint can be learned,’ Hannah said softly, thinking of how she had had to suppress her feelings for James. ‘You don’t think I feel anything?’
‘There are times when you are as cold as ice.’ Ruby’s eyes glittered with tears.
‘That’s unkind. I feel at least as much as you do – I just don’t show it.’ There were occasions – she recalled Peter’s demise – when she couldn’t help revealing her emotions. ‘And I don’t let it rule my impulses.’
‘I had to see him. Forgive me.’
‘I’m not sure that I can this time.’
‘Do keep the noise down!’ Mrs Clovis banged on the floor upstairs, creating a small shower of plaster and whitewash in the corner of the room.
‘Did Doctor Clifton see me?’ Ruby asked, lowering her voice.
‘I don’t know,’ Hannah said quietly. The last thing she wanted was to annoy their landlady when their position was already precarious, thanks to Ruby’s behaviour. ‘I don’t think so. We got caught up in the accident, which’ – she wouldn’t spare her – ‘apparently might not have been an accident at all, but attempted murder. Clearly, the ropes on the net hadn’t been fastened properly …’
‘I’m not entirely surprised,’ Ruby said. ‘Mr Allspice is regarded with little affection – he beats his wife and treats his children cruelly. There are many people who don’t like him.’
‘That’s no reason to try to get rid of him. Please, tell me what you know.’
‘There was an argument over the money that Antonio lent to Mr Allspice. Everyone heard them, not just me.’
Hannah sat down next to her sister, the bed creaking beneath her.
‘Then it’s all over between you and Mr Milani. Thank goodness for small mercies.’
‘How can you say that? It’ll never be over. I’ve told you before – I love him.’
Hannah grasped Ruby’s hands and squeezed them tightly.
‘You can’t blame him for this,’ her sister sobbed. ‘He’s from just outside Rome, you see. The people there are renowned for their hot blood and fiery tempers. It’s the sunshine that does it.’
Mrs Clovis banged on the floor once more. ‘Please! Have some consideration!’
‘Have you any idea where he is?’ Hannah murmured, refraining from offering her opinion on Ruby’s beliefs.
‘No, but if I did, I’d throw myself upon him and beg him to take me with him. I’d follow him to the ends of the Earth. He will send for me one day, I’m convinced of it.’
‘I don’t know what to do with you,’ Hannah whispered angrily. ‘I can’t afford to lose my place at the infirmary. Your wayward conduct is pushing me into a corner.’
‘I wish I could go and stay with Grandma for a few days.’ Ruby broke down completely, her shoulders racked with sobs.
Hannah was about to snap back at her, but she took a breath. Grandma was gone and here they were arguing – she would have hated it.
‘I’m sorry … She’s looking down on us from Heaven,’ Hannah said softly.
‘On you, you mean? You were always her favourite.’
‘That isn’t true. She loved us both the same.’
‘She lost Ma not long after I was born – she always blamed me.’
‘She didn’t say that, did she?’
‘It was the way she looked at me sometimes.’
‘With sadness and regret for what might have been, nothing else. I know that, because she talked about you and Ma when I was living with her. She adored you.’<
br />
‘Did she?’
‘You know she did.’ Hannah despaired – Ruby’s moods were like the clouds flitting across the sky: sometimes light, often dark, always changeable.
‘I could always say, if anyone asks, that you were with me this evening, that we went to the circus together,’ Ruby offered.
Hannah didn’t deign to grace her with a reply. She would do what she thought was right, not get herself entangled any further in Ruby’s lies. She was worried sick, though, about what the next few days would bring: what Ruby might do, and what James would think of her if he found out about her connections to the circus through her sister.
She kept busy the following morning, running the ward and looking after her patients. Doctor Clifton didn’t turn up for rounds – Mr Hunter said that his appointments at the clinic were fully booked, thanks to the publicity surrounding his evening at the circus. He didn’t say anything else, but Nurse Finch and Nurse May were itching to know exactly what had happened.
‘Mr Allspice’s accident is the talk of the house,’ Charlotte said when they were taking lunch on the balcony with the patients.
‘There isn’t much to talk about. He fell from a great height and, by coincidence, Doctor Clifton was present to treat him and bring him back to the infirmary.’
‘Where he lies, trussed up and unable to walk,’ Charlotte added. ‘There are rumours that someone tried to kill him.’
‘I don’t know anything about that – you’ll have to ask him.’
‘Oh no, I don’t think so. He’s giving Sister Trim and her nurses terrible trouble. In any event, I’m sure we’ll find out the truth soon enough. The police inspector’s been in to speak to him.’
‘How are your plans for the wedding?’ Hannah changed the subject.
‘Everything is underway, ready for Christmas. I’ve chosen my dress and flowers, and the only issue that could thwart us is if Henry fails to gain his registration with the Royal College of Physicians in time.’
‘I wish him luck,’ Hannah said.
As she made her way back to the Lettsom after lunch, Matron called her into her office.
‘You look as though you could use a tot of brandy and some sleep, Sister Bentley.’ Mrs Knowles smiled as she offered her a seat. Hannah glanced down at the ale stains on her apron – she wasn’t her usual pink of neatness today.