The Liverpool Nightingales, page 4
‘It’s all right,’ said the boy, and Maud thought that he was trying to smile at her.
‘I keep trying to clean the soot off your face,’ she laughed. ‘But I don’t seem to be getting very far.’
‘Mr Greer says I have to keep the soot to protect the skin. And he doesn’t want Mrs Greer having to wash and clean for the likes of me.’
Really, thought Maud, the smile frozen on her face as she felt the anger start to rise again. ‘Well, you don’t need to worry about Mr Greer or his wife from now on,’ she said, determined to make sure that was the case.
‘But Mr Greer said he needs me to climb the chimneys and get some money back for him, the money he had to pay to get me out of the workhouse,’ said the boy with his eyes wide, trying to raise himself back up again in the bed.
‘Lie down, lie down,’ said Maud reassuringly. ‘And don’t you worry about Mr Greer or his chimneys. Miss Fairchild and I will deal with Mr Greer. Now just you lie quiet and let’s see what the doctor has to say about your arm.’
The boy still looked worried but he nodded his head.
‘What’s your name?’ asked Maud.
‘My name’s Alfred, miss, but Mr Greer calls me “boy”.’
‘Right, Alfred,’ said Maud. ‘My name is Maud and I will stay with you today for as long as I can, and then, I hope, I will be able to come back and see you tomorrow.’
The boy tried to smile but then closed his eyes, almost as if the effort had been too much. Maud continued to wipe his face with the cloth and although she could tell that he wasn’t really asleep or passed out like before, he didn’t seem to mind and so she continued. Then she looked at his small hands, thick with soot, and when she picked one up to give it a wipe she felt the calluses where he had held the sweeping brush. She almost cried as she held each hand in turn and as she wiped them she tried to remove not just the soot but the hurt and the pain that the boy must have endured in his short life.
When the doctor eventually came he told them, thank goodness, the bone hadn’t broken the skin. That would have meant amputation and then who knew if the boy would have survived? Maud felt her heart harden further against the chimney sweep when she realized how dangerous his actions had been. She could not believe that with all the progress that had been made in her lifetime with clever machines and steam railways and gas lighting, small boys were still climbing the chimneys of big houses.
Thinking of how badly the boy had been treated, both by the workhouse who had farmed him out as an apprentice and then by the sweep who had used him so cruelly, Maud was more determined than ever to make sure that the boy was cared for properly from now on. She stayed with him whilst the doctor pulled on the arm to straighten it, and held on to Alfred as he screamed with pain, feeling his heart hammering through his thin chest, keeping time with her own. And then she helped one of the nurses to bind the arm and, at last, to put it back in the sling.
As he lay there on the bed afterwards, still exhausted and trying to bear up to the pain, she sat by him and held his hand, praying that he might fall asleep and get some rest. She asked the nurse if the boy could have anything for the pain and she had said no, their supply of laudanum was low and besides, they didn’t like to give it to the children because sometimes a drop too much could put them to sleep for ever. But seeing Maud’s face the nurse felt sorry for them both and in the end she brought the boy a measure of brandy. He swallowed it down and coughed a bit but it might have helped him a little as within an hour his face began to relax and then he had fallen into a restless sleep.
The doctor had told them that if the bones in the arm knitted together properly then the boy should get some use back in the arm. But not for climbing chimneys, vowed Maud. Greer would have to stride over her dead body if he wanted to claim this boy back.
Maud was shocked at what had happened to the man in the next bed. He’d gone from some poor soul trying to get out of bed to a man possessed by demons, or so it seemed. He spent most of the day shaking and gnashing his teeth and shouting out, and he was still climbing out of bed as well. The nurses were in constant attendance and they kept trying to sponge him down, but he was lashing out at them. She had seen him catch one or two with his punches, and one of the nurses even had a black eye.
Maud could see that he couldn’t help it, but the noise of the iron bed rattling and the agitated shouting that came from the man added to the general racket on the ward so that she found the cacophony difficult to manage. One thing that they always had in the big house was plenty of quiet and plenty of calm.
Seeing her worried face, Alfred had reached out his hand to her and said, ‘Don’t fret. I’ve seen plenty like that in the workhouse. It’s the drink that does it. They’re all right when they’re drinking but when they stop they get the shakes and they start screaming and shouting.’
‘But how could you sleep at night?’ said Maud, thinking of the silent room in the attic of the big house that she shared with one other maid.
‘I can sleep through anything,’ he said. ‘You have to in the workhouse, and besides, I was there all my life until I went to Mr Greer’s and then I slept in the shed with the donkey.’
‘With the donkey!’ gasped Maud. ‘He couldn’t even find you a bed?’
‘Well, it was all right because I had some straw to sleep on and it was quiet out there, and I liked the donkey,’ Alfred said.
This brought tears to Maud’s eyes. How could anyone treat a child no better than an animal?
‘No, don’t cry,’ said the boy. ‘The man will be all right. Once he gets through the shakes he will go quiet and he will be able to sleep and then he will be able to eat.’
‘I’m not crying about the man,’ said Maud, ‘I’m just thinking about you and all the things that have happened to you.’
‘Oh, I’m all right, miss. I’ve been lucky. Lucky as a baby to be found on the steps of the workhouse before some wild dog or some bad person got to me, and lucky to be rescued from that chimney by you,’ said Alfred, looking at her with his wide blue eyes.
‘That’s good then,’ said Maud, moved beyond words by the trust he was showing in her. She’d never had much to do with children but she knew honesty when she saw it, and the way he spoke was clear and honest. He may have seen all sorts of stuff in the workhouse and had to suffer many things but he didn’t seem to have been twisted up by it. The more time she spent with him the more she began to know just how remarkable he was.
Looking again at the man in the next bed as he thrashed from side to side, she thought, I hope he starts to settle soon, not least for the young nurses who keep having to wrestle with him.
Then he started calling out, ‘Drink, drink, I need a drink.’
Still the nurses did not come and Maud could see that the man was getting more agitated. Then she spotted a spouted cup by the side of his bed. She had seen one of the nurses giving the man a drink from it. She couldn’t see any harm in trying to help him with that herself. So she picked up the cup and offered it to him. He paused in his thrashing for one moment and stared at her, then he took a sip. Instantly his face contorted with rage and he growled, ‘Not that drink,’ and smashed the cup clean out of her hand.
Maud yelped with shock and stepped back as the man tried to swing his legs over the side of the bed again and get up. She could have run straight back to the safety of Alfred’s bed, but she stepped forward once more in an attempt to restrain him. She knew that if he tried to get up he would fall and hurt himself.
So Maud clung to him as she shouted for a nurse, determined to keep him as safe as she could. They must all be busy with an urgent case, she thought, when no one came. She could see the boy looking at her and he seemed to be pleased that she had stepped in to help. Then the man got his arm free and grabbed at her hair, and she wasn’t sure what was going to happen next but she knew that she needed to stay calm.
Just at that moment a small woman appeared by Maud’s side. She was like an angel appearing from on high, as far as Maud was concerned. An angel with a light-grey dress and dark curly hair piled up and firmly pinned. She had the face of an angel as well. Maud could see she was beautiful.
‘Now,’ said the nurse, placing a firm hand on the man’s arm, ‘please let go of this young lady’s hair.’ Maud heard the man make a low growling sound but then to her absolute amazement he did as he was told and released her.
‘Now you stand back,’ said the angel quietly to Maud. ‘I’ve got him.’
So Maud moved back and then the small woman looked down at the man who was starting to rant about something again. She said quietly, ‘Hello, are you one of the soldiers that served in the Crimea?’
The man scowled at her.
Then she said, ‘I believe you met Miss Nightingale.’
He scowled at her again and then he said in a slurred voice, ‘I did, and she saved my life. She saved my life and she saved my leg. Not that it’s much use to me now, but I’ve still got it. She saved me, Miss Nightingale saved me.’ Then he started to sob and cry while the nurse crouched down by the side of his bed and held his hand.
‘I think you’re through the worst of it now,’ she said. ‘Let’s get you comfortable in this bed. I think it’s time you got some rest.’
‘Yes, miss,’ said the man, rolling on to his back and allowing the woman to straighten the sheet and pull his pillow into a better position.
When she was satisfied that the patient was settled, the nurse got up from the side of the bed and turned to Maud to thank her. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked. ‘I can see that you aren’t a nurse, so you must be a visitor.’
‘I’m with the boy,’ said Maud, able to speak at last and pointing to Alfred in the next bed, who was looking straight at them with his eyes wide.
‘I see,’ said the nurse. ‘He is a lovely boy, isn’t he? Is it Alfred? The nurses have been telling me about the boy with the beautiful eyes. I can see he’s fairly soot-stained – is it true that he’s a climbing boy?’
‘He is,’ said Maud, ‘but not any more. I’m going to make sure of that.’
‘Good for you,’ said the nurse. ‘Look, I need to go now but my name is Miss Houston, Ada Houston. I’m the assistant superintendent here at the hospital. What is your name?’
‘Oh, sorry, yes, I’m Maud Linklater.’
‘Right, Maud, well … I don’t know what kind of work you do or even if you would consider this, but I think that you would make an excellent nurse and we happen to have a position for a probationer with the new set that have just started. If you’re interested, come and see me. Ask one of the girls; they know where to find me.’
Maud was astounded. She stood with her mouth dropping open for a moment and then she stumbled out a garbled thank you, her head reeling with this unexpected offer.
Then Miss Houston turned and started to walk down the ward. Maud watched her go and then looked over at the boy, who was grinning from ear to ear. ‘I think you would make a good nurse too,’ he said quietly.
Maud looked back down the ward to check that Miss Houston was actually a real person who had just said those things to her, and yes, there she was, and she had in fact stopped just a few beds down. She seemed to have been confronted by some woman with a yellow ribbon in her hair.
Maud hadn’t liked to judge, but she had thought from the way that the woman was dressed she might have been what Miss Fairchild called ‘a lady of the night’. Again, she couldn’t be sure and to Maud, it didn’t matter. She seemed like a good person: that’s what was important.
Looking at her now as she faced Miss Houston, Maud wondered what was going on. The woman stood with her hands on her hips, her black, curly hair pulled back from her face with the yellow band. She didn’t look happy and she could hear Miss Houston starting to raise her voice.
‘I can’t see you now,’ she said.
‘Well, when can you see me?’
‘You need to make an appointment. Come to my office,’ said Miss Houston, her shoulders held square. Maud could see the tension in her body.
And then she saw Miss Houston try to sidestep her, but the woman grabbed her arm and said, ‘Look, it wasn’t my fault, you know. I had no control over what my father was doing. I was a baby.’
Maud could see Miss Houston’s face – it looked like she was in pain – and then her head dropped and the woman let go of her arm.
‘Make an appointment,’ said Miss Houston as she walked away.
‘I will, you can count on it,’ said the woman before continuing up the ward to the man in the next bed, who now seemed to be sleeping soundly.
Maud watched her as she stood looking down at the man but she could tell that the woman’s thoughts were elsewhere. She seemed to relax a little and Maud saw her straighten the sheet over him and then she looked up, straight at Maud.
Maud felt her face flush a little; her gaze was very direct. She opened her mouth to speak but the woman was already smiling at her and saying, ‘You must have wondered what was going on back there.’
‘Well, no, it’s not—’
‘Don’t worry,’ said the woman, her smile now creasing the corners of her eyes, ‘if I were you I’d want to know what was going on … some strange woman accosting the assistant superintendent in the middle of the ward.’
‘Well, if it’s private …’
‘Don’t you worry about that,’ said the woman. ‘I like the look of you and your young lad, so I’ll tell you … Well, the thing is, my name is Stella O’Connor, and Miss Houston and me, we are family, but she doesn’t want us to be. She’s my half-sister; we have the same father.’
‘Ah, I see,’ said Maud, glad that she had an explanation and aware from the many staff who worked at the big house that families could be complicated. So much so that sometimes she had thought that maybe it was best to be like she was, completely alone in the world. But she knew in her heart that she would like a bit more complication, even if it did cause trouble.
‘You look alike,’ said Maud. ‘She is quite a bit smaller than you, but you have the same hair.’
‘And the same temper,’ said Stella, laughing. ‘That’s why we are … how we are.’
‘I suppose so,’ said Maud. ‘I hope you can work things out.’
‘Oh, I think we will, one way or another. In fact, now he’s sleeping it off, I might just go up there and see if I can find where she has her room, appointment or no appointment. See you next time, young lady,’ said Stella as she strode down the ward. ‘Wish me luck.’
‘Good luck,’ said Maud, smiling after her.
‘Looks like she means business,’ said Alfred.
‘She does that,’ said Maud.
‘And, Maud,’ said the boy, ‘you know what you said to the other woman, that Miss Houston, about me never going back to being a climbing boy? Is that right?’
‘It is,’ said Maud. ‘I will make it right. Don’t you worry.’
‘Even if you decide to be a nurse, is that still right then?’
‘It is,’ said Maud. ‘I will make sure that it is.’
‘What do you mean coming in here like this in the middle of a busy day? I told you to make an appointment,’ said Ada, glaring at Stella, who’d just managed to get herself shown into the office by one of the clerks.
‘Well, Ada, I think it’s time we sorted things out and I don’t think there’s any time to lose. I’ve tried and tried to speak to you, and your brother has as well. Frank keeps telling me that he’s tried, but there’s no shifting you.’
‘Look, I have no objection to you as a person or your friendship with my brother, but, let me be clear: I do not want to see you. I do not want to know you. I do not want to be your friend.’
‘Ada, your father already had a relationship with my mother before I was born, before you were born. It was nothing to do with me. I didn’t even know that you existed. What was I supposed to do?’
For once Ada had no reply. She didn’t want to have a conversation that stirred up the loss that she had always felt: the loss of a mother who died on the day that she was born.
‘I know you don’t approve of my profession and that I live in a brothel—’
‘That has nothing to do with it,’ shouted Ada, surprising herself at the strength of her feelings.
‘Well, you could have fooled me,’ said Stella, raising her voice to match that of her half-sister, her hands on her hips.
Then the door clicked open and the small face of a worried clerk appeared.
‘It’s all right, Emily,’ said Ada. ‘There’s no need for concern.’
The door clicked shut and then Ada looked at Stella again.
‘I think you need to leave,’ she said. ‘I can’t have my clerks upset. Emily has a delicate disposition.’
‘Delicate indeed,’ said Stella, starting to smile. ‘Does she live in a mouse hole?’
‘No she does not,’ said Ada, also starting to smile in spite of herself.
‘Maybe I should bring her a small piece of cheese next time,’ said Stella, picking up on the warmth that was just beginning to show on her half-sister’s face.
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ said Ada. ‘Look … just sit down and let’s talk.’
‘Well, the thing is,’ said Stella, after she’d settled herself on the most comfortable seat that she could find and leant her elbows on Ada’s desk. ‘The thing is, it’s not really about the family stuff that I’ve come today. Yes, I’ve always wanted us to be friends – you know that – but I’ve got another reason for coming that relates to my profession.’
‘Really?’ said Ada, keeping her voice formal as she tried to stop herself becoming interested in anything that Stella had to say.
‘Well, yes,’ said Stella. ‘Some of my girls have started going missing.’
‘Missing?’ said Ada, unable to hold back the concern in her voice. ‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m certain. They’re reliable girls, keep out of trouble, and they’ve got regular work with me and Ma. But they’ve been gone weeks, two of them, no sign. I’ve been to the police but they just laughed in my face. You can guess what they think.’
