The Liverpool Nightingales, page 5
‘Right,’ said Ada. ‘How do you think that I could help?’
‘Well, I’ve been hearing about this Contagious Diseases Act. The police are picking women up off the streets and taking them in, forcing them to be examined for the pox, and then keeping them and making them have treatment for weeks and weeks. Well, my girls are clean – I make sure of that for their sake – but I’m wondering if they’ve been taken anyway. It doesn’t seem to make any difference whether they’re infected or not. Ma says she’s heard that the girls are set on by doctors with metal instruments; they’re held down and forced. It’s like an attack. And then they keep them for weeks, treating them for pox. And Ma says that some of the women never come back.’
Ada sat for a moment deep in thought and then she looked up with a frown between her brows. ‘Yes, I’ve heard of the Contagious Diseases Acts and I know that women are being brought in for treatment. We at the Infirmary have always treated women for syphilis – it’s a terrible disease – but we’ve always treated men as well, and if it is true that women are being held against their will then that is completely wrong and it needs to be stopped.’
‘It is happening, Ada,’ said Stella, standing up from her chair, ‘right under our noses, and it’s all about the men. They passed the law, they arrest the women, they examine ’em, and they are the ones who bring the pox to the brothels in the first place. They should be the ones held down and have a piece of metal forcibly shoved up their—’
‘I know what you’re saying,’ said Ada, holding up her hand. ‘Look, I will make enquiries. If your women are anywhere they will be in the Lock Hospital. I don’t have any jurisdiction over there, but I will send word if I find anything.’
‘Do you know where …?’
‘My brother has your address,’ said Ada standing up from her desk and walking over to open the door for Stella to leave.
‘Ah, yes,’ said Stella with a smile. ‘Frank does know where we live.’
‘Now if you don’t mind …’ said Ada, who wasn’t smiling.
‘Yes, yes, of course, you need to get on with your work … but, just one thing: you might want to wear a hat with a veil and not look so la-di-da if you come to see us on Lime Street. It might not suit some of your fine companions here at the hospital if, on their way to the railway station, they spot you dodging into some brothel. They might be reporting you to Miss Florence Nightingale her very self.’
‘I’ll be careful,’ said Ada, pursing her lips. ‘Now I need to—’
‘Get on with some work,’ said Stella, smiling at Ada one more time before slipping out through the door, hoping at last that she was starting to see a chink in her sister’s armour.
Back on the ward, Maud was watching Sister Law as she marched in their direction. She knew that Sister was coming to Alfred’s bed. Despite all her efforts not to be intimidated by the woman Maud couldn’t help but feel nervous and she found herself looking down at the floor.
Then she heard the click of Sister’s heels stop at the bottom of Alfred’s bed. Maud looked up, and was shocked to find that the woman was trying to smile at the boy as he sat up. The glance that she gave Maud was icy, but then she shifted her gaze back to Alfred and spoke gently.
‘Now, young man, the doctors are very pleased with the way that the arm has been set and we are all admiring of your calm and pleasant manner on the ward.’
Alfred glanced at Maud and gave her a quick smile.
‘We were hoping that we would be able to discharge you home now, or back to your employer, but we would like you to stay here for a while longer so that we can make sure that you have the right diet. You seem very thin – have you been eating?’
‘Yes, Sister,’ said Alfred. ‘My employer, Mr Greer, has been giving me porridge.’
‘Is that all you’ve had?’ said Sister with a frown.
‘Yes.’
‘Mm, was it made with milk?’
‘No, it was water, I think,’ said the boy tentatively, as if afraid to give the wrong answer.
Sister tutted. ‘Well, no wonder your ribs are poking through. A growing boy needs more than that. You should have milk and meat each day, and some greens as well.’
Maud could see that Alfred looked worried.
‘This is not your fault, Alfred,’ said Sister, immediately switching her gaze to Maud, who sat up straighter on her stool.
‘The boy has been apprenticed to a chimney sweep,’ said Maud, feeling her face flush red. ‘I’ve only known him since he injured his arm.’
‘Mm,’ said Sister, narrowing her eyes, ‘that may well be the case.’
Maud opened her mouth to make sure that Sister knew it was definitely the case, but the nurse was speaking again already. ‘So I think we need to keep you a while longer, young man, not only to make sure that arm heals properly but also to see if we can get some meat on your bones. Is that all right?’
‘Yes,’ said Alfred and Maud together, exchanging a glance as Sister moved from the bottom of the bed and strode down the ward, glancing as she went to the beds at either side.
Once Sister had reached the end of the ward and Maud could see that she was involved with one of the nurses and a patient, she said quietly to Alfred, ‘I’m just going to get some water to see if I can clean up some more of that soot,’ and with that she got up from her stool and slipped in through the door of the sluice again.
She was surprised to find one of the young nurses in there and even more surprised to hear the sound of her retching into a bucket.
The girl looked round and Maud saw then that it was the nurse with the pleasant manner who she’d helped earlier that day. Her face was red and she couldn’t even speak for the retching.
‘Are you all right?’ said Maud, fearing that the girl had picked up the typhus or some other deadly fever.
The girl nodded and then tried to speak but she retched again and then she started to cry, tears streaming down her face.
‘There, there,’ said Maud, pulling out her handkerchief and dabbing at the girl’s face.
‘I’m not sick … I’m with child,’ sobbed the nurse, when at last she could speak. And then she was weeping and retching over and over into the bucket.
‘Oh dear,’ said Maud, putting her arm around the girl and then soaking a cloth in some cold water and sponging her face. She stood with her until she stopped retching and then she helped her tidy up her hair.
‘Thank you,’ said the girl.
‘Should you still be working in your condition?’ said Maud. ‘Does Sister know?’
‘Nobody knows except you,’ said the girl. ‘Please, swear that you won’t tell anyone … I need to keep this job.’
‘Yes, of course, but you can’t keep the baby a secret for ever. Your belly will start to show soon.’
‘I know,’ said the girl, her eyes still brimming with tears, ‘but I have to work for as long as I can.’
‘Have you got family?’ asked Maud.
‘I have, but they live over thirty miles away. My mother is strict – she wouldn’t let me back in the house if she knew I was in this condition – so there’d be no sympathy there. I’d be sent straight to the workhouse.’
‘And is there a …?’ said Maud, not quite knowing how to ask about the father of the baby.
‘He’s not around. He’s gone away, far away,’ said the girl, choking up as she started to cry again.
‘Don’t cry. I won’t tell anyone; you can trust me, don’t worry.’
‘Nurse Sampson, Nurse Sampson? Where is that wretched girl?’ shouted Sister from the other side of the sluice-room door.
‘That’s me,’ whispered the girl to Maud. ‘I’m Alice Sampson and that’s Sister Law, the one who must be obeyed.’ Then, straightening her cap, which sagged limply on her head, and smoothing her skirt, she whispered urgently, ‘I need to go; promise you won’t tell?’
‘I won’t tell,’ said Maud as the girl slipped out through the door.
‘Ah, there you are at last,’ Maud heard through the door. ‘I hope you’ve been cleaning in there, Nurse Sampson, and not skulking out of the way. I don’t like skulkers …’
Managing to sneak back to Alfred’s bed without being seen by Sister, Maud continued to wash the boy as he lay quiet, used now to the gentle pressure and the rhythm of what had become a ritual for both of them. Eventually Maud was delighted to see that the colour of his hair was starting to emerge. Alfred had a fine head of blond hair.
‘Your hair is very fair,’ she said to him.
‘Is it?’ he replied. ‘Well, I never knew that; I’ve never been able to see it.’
‘Really?’ said Maud, smiling at him. She felt increasingly drawn to this strange child.
‘I’ll just clean you up a bit more but then I’ll have to get going back to the big house,’ she said.
Alfred nodded and settled back into his relaxed state. As she wiped away the soot Maud’s mind continued to turn over all that had happened on the ward that day. She thought about Nurse Sampson in the sluice and wondered if there was anything at all that she could possibly do to help her; but the thought that dominated her mind was what Miss Houston had said to her: that she would make a good nurse.
And, you know what, she thought: this work, here on the ward, is starting to feel like some kind of calling for me. Surely it would be better, if I was to remain unmarried, for me to spend the rest of my life as a nurse in service of the sick and the poor rather than as a housemaid in service to those with money and entitlement?
However, Maud had never made her mind up instantly about anything ever. So as she finished Alfred’s wash she told herself not to rush into anything and to take time to think about Miss Houston’s offer. It was a huge decision and she would talk it over with Miss Fairchild. But then, as she poured the grey water out of the tin bowl in the sluice that day, even though she couldn’t fully admit it to herself yet, she was already starting to acknowledge which way she would go.
3
‘To be a good nurse, one must be an improving woman; for stagnant waters sooner or later … always grow corrupt and unfit for use. Is any one of us a stagnant woman?’
Florence Nightingale
‘Where will I find Miss Houston?’ Maud asked shyly as she sat by Alfred’s bed two days later.
Alice looked up, startled, from her checking of Alfred’s sling, and spoke hesitantly. ‘She does come down to the ward sometimes but she’s a superintendent so she’s in and out. The best place to find her is up in her office on the first floor. Her room is through where the clerks sit. Why would you … is there …?’
Suddenly clicking that Alice might be thinking that she was going to report on her or something, Maud reassured her instantly. ‘No, no, don’t worry. This is nothing about you. It’s just that when I was here the other day, trying to help with the man in the next bed, Miss Houston came and we spoke. She said that she thought I would make a good nurse and, well, if I did want to consider it I was to go and see her. She said that there is a place for another probationer with the new set that have just started.’
‘Really?’ said Alice, smiling. ‘That’s my set. You might end up working here, with me.’ The smile was now a beam.
‘I might,’ laughed Maud. ‘I’ve been weighing it up and I’ve decided I do want to try nursing.’
‘I think you will make an excellent nurse,’ said Alice enthusiastically. ‘I’ve seen what you’ve been doing with the boy … and the way you were with me,’ she added more quietly. ‘And if you can stand the thought of working on this ward, where it is so busy and the work is so hard with all of these men, then the other wards will be a doddle in comparison, that’s all I can say. But you won’t tell anyone about—’
‘Of course not,’ said Maud. ‘That’s just between you and me.’
Just at that moment another nurse that Maud hadn’t seen before appeared from nowhere behind Alice and tapped her on the shoulder. Alice jumped round, clearly concerned that she might have been overheard. Then Maud saw her face flush red as she tried to stammer out an introduction for the beautiful blond-haired nurse, who now stood completely still as if waiting for something.
‘Right, so this is Nancy, Nancy Sellers,’ said Alice. ‘She’s in my set too. And, Nancy, this is Maud, who’s thinking of joining us.’
‘Pleased to meet you,’ said the nurse with a gesture of a smile around her mouth but no sign of it in her eyes as she transferred her gaze to Maud just for a moment. ‘I think we need to get on,’ she said. ‘You know that Sister doesn’t like us getting too chatty or too friendly with patients … or their visitors.’
Maud could swear that she saw the shadow of a sneer on Nurse Sellers’ features, but she couldn’t be sure because her face was like a beautiful mask.
‘All right, yes, of course,’ said Alice, her face still bright red as she almost curtsied to the other nurse, who simply turned her back and walked away casually, throwing an instruction to Alice over her shoulder: ‘We need to check the sluice room. Sister says it smells like vomit in there.’
Maud saw the look of horror that crossed Alice’s face and then she turned and trotted after Nurse Sellers like a puppy.
Alfred said quietly, ‘I don’t like that Nurse Sellers, Maud. I have seen her before but she usually works up at the other end of the ward with Sister.’
Maud didn’t comment. She would never pass judgement on a person that she had just met. She always tried to give herself time before she formed an opinion about anyone and, even then, very often she would keep her view entirely to herself.
She just stood staring after the two nurses for a few moments and then she made a small noise, as if to rouse herself from her thoughts. ‘Right then, Alfred,’ she said. ‘I’m just going to see if I can find Miss Houston and ask about how I can start my nurse training. I shouldn’t be long.’
Maud wandered the corridors a bit before she found the stairs that led up to the first floor. She knew that she was on the right track when she saw a couple of desks with the clerks that Alice had told her about. One of them, a woman with a small face, looked up from her work as Maud approached and sat patiently whilst she explained her reason for seeing Miss Houston.
‘I’ll just see if Miss Houston can speak to you now,’ said the clerk with a timid smile. Then, after tapping very gently on the polished wood door and saying a few words that Maud couldn’t hear, the clerk showed her into the room.
‘Ah, yes. Maud, isn’t it?’ said Miss Houston, instantly getting up from her desk and crossing the space between them.
‘Yes,’ said Maud, amazed that the assistant superintendent had remembered her name.
‘Sit down, sit down … and if you just give me one moment to finish this paperwork you will have my full attention.’
Maud sat quietly on the chair that had been proffered. She could feel her heart beating a little faster than usual but otherwise she was calm.
‘Right,’ said Miss Houston, at last looking up with a smile. ‘My clerk, Emily, tells me that you have been considering the offer to train as a nurse here at the Infirmary and you have decided to accept.’
‘Yes,’ said Maud, surprising herself at how clear and firm her voice sounded in the large book-lined office.
‘What kind of work do you do at present?’
‘I am a senior housemaid in a large house.’
‘Right, good. I take it you have worked at the same establishment for some time?’
‘Ten years now.’
‘Well, I can’t make any promises to you, Maud, but from what I saw of you on the ward, stepping forward like that to help a stranger, taking a risk to do that, you have the makings of a good nurse. I will be straight with you, though. The training can be tough. You will work long days on the male and female wards, medical and surgical, and there will be very little time off for a full year. Are you prepared to leave your current position?’
‘I think I am,’ said Maud, ‘but do you think that someone of my age and background will be a suitable candidate?’
‘Well, Maud,’ said Miss Houston, leaning forward in her chair, ‘there are no guarantees, and until you get into the work no one can say for sure. However, bear in mind that there are women of all ages and backgrounds who make good nurses. We need all kinds of approaches in nursing. I was very young and without a penny to my name when I started nursing soldiers during the Crimean War, but I met Florence Nightingale in Scutari and went on to learn many things from her nurses in Balaklava. I also learnt from Mary Seacole, who is an older woman with a completely different approach. There was also someone called Betsi Cadwaladr. I didn’t meet her – she had already left the Crimea before I arrived – but she was a Welsh nurse who made a very valuable contribution, and she was sixty-five years old when she started out. In the end it isn’t who you are or where you’re from that makes the difference, it’s the qualities that you have as a person that matter. If, above all else, you want to do good work and you are prepared to fight for your patients then that will make you an excellent nurse.’
Maud sat quietly but her mind and body were fired up by what Miss Houston had just said. She would have taken up a banner there and then and marched through any street of Liverpool to rally the cause, if need be. She felt a bit breathless.
‘Do you have any questions?’ said Miss Houston gently as Maud sat with her eyes shining. ‘This could be a wonderful new beginning for someone like you, Maud. We are lucky enough to be living through exciting times here in Liverpool. When I walk out through the city I can smell change in the air. What with paddle steamers sailing back and forth to New York now, there are more opportunities opening up than ever. Do you know that during the American Civil War hundreds of women volunteered to nurse the troops, all inspired by Miss Nightingale?’
‘Really?’ said Maud, her attention grabbed by news of a world that she had never even imagined could be open to her.
‘Yes, indeed,’ said Miss Houston, starting to laugh. ‘So are you in, Maud?’
