The Healing Hand Read online

  “Thank – you! Thank you!” she faltered. “I don’t know – how to tell you how incredibly grateful – I am.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  It was Charles Bracebridge who sat down to make all the arrangements.

  He next turned to his wife,

  “Now take Tania off at once to meet Florence and leave everything else to me.”

  Before he hurried away, Tania managed to say,

  “I arranged for all the clothes I bought yesterday to be delivered to my home today. So please, please prevent them from going to Amesly House if you possibly can or my stepmother will be certain to keep them all for herself!”

  “I will certainly do my best, Tania. Which shops did they come from?”

  Tania gave him the address of the Bond Street shop where she had bought so many clothes as well as the hat shop as she had taken away with her only the hat she was weaning.

  She was to learn later that Charles had gone straight to the dress shop and, as everything was ready, he took the gowns away in his own carriage and he did the same with the hats.

  Then he went to the kitchen door of Amesly House and asked to see Dawson.

  He knew him well from the many visits he had paid to Tania’s mother and father when they were alive.

  Dawson was delighted to see him.

  “You be a sight for sore eyes, sir,” he said, “and I were so glad to hear you were that kind to Miss Tania on her journey from France.”

  “I am going to be a great deal kinder to her now,” Charles whispered, “because she has run away and I need your help.”

  Dawson looked over his shoulder to make sure that no one was listening and then stepped outside the kitchen door and closed it behind him.

  “The footman tells me that Miss Tania’s gone out, sir, but I weren’t aware she’s no intention of coming back.”

  “She has very wisely decided to put herself in my and my wife’s hands,” responded Charles, “but as you will appreciate, she only has what she is wearing so, if you can fetch me some clothes from her room, Dawson, without her Ladyship’s knowledge, it would be very helpful.”

  “Leave it to me, sir – ”

  Charles went to sit in his carriage in the Mews.

  Ten minutes later Dawson appeared carrying a large case with him.

  “I’m only bringing the personal things Miss Tania will need and all the new dresses I understands she bought yesterday,” Dawson reported as he reached the carriage.

  “It was clever of you to think of that, Dawson, and I see you brought her some flowers as well.”

  “They was sent to her this morning, and I thinks as they were from the young gentleman she fancies and she’ll want them wherever she be.”

  “You are a genius,” exclaimed Charles, tipping him generously. “And if any letters come for Miss Tania let me have them and not her Ladyship.”

  “You can be sure about that, sir!”

  Charles drove away feeling he had done a good job and felt relieved that Lady Amesly was not yet aware that Tania was missing.

  When he arrived back at Belgrave Square, it was to find that Selina and Tania had already left for Number One Harley Street.

  It then struck him that he should have suggested to them that Tania should now use an assumed name.

  Her parents might have known some of the patients who were or had been in the nursing home.

  Selina, however, had had the intelligence to realise that if Tania was hiding, there must be no one in on the secret except herself and her husband.

  She had ordered a carriage from the stables.

  Then she turned to Tania,

  “We must think of a name for you. It would be a mistake even for Florence Nightingale to know who you are.”

  Tania’s eyes widened.

  But she realised without arguing about it that Selina was being sensible.

  “What shall I call myself?” she asked. “Have you another name?”

  “Yes, I was christened ‘Mary Tania’. Mary was my mother’s first name and that is why I was called ‘Tania’.”

  “Then I think Mary Anson would be easy for you to remember and it could not be connected in anyone’s mind with your stepmother.”

  “You are so clever!” sighed Tania.

  Selina smiled.

  “We have to be clever over this and I feel certain that you will want to go out to Turkey with Florence.”

  Tania gave a cry of delight.

  “But of course I want to. I would be near to Rupert even if I cannot see him.”

  “Then what you must do,” suggested Selina, “is to make yourself indispensable to Florence. Thus I intend to tell her that I have been worried about her doing too much herself and it will be even worse if Sidney Herbert has his way. Therefore she definitely needs a secretary.”

  “You don’t think she will consider me too young?” Tania questioned her in a frightened voice.

  “You may be rather young, but you have had a very good education, far better than most secretaries have – and I believe quite a number of languages.”

  “That is true. Having been so long in France my French is perfect, but as well I speak Spanish, German, and a little Greek. So it should not be too difficult for me to learn to speak at least some Turkish.”

  “Splendid, Tania! Now pray really hard that I can convince Florence that she needs you.”

  When they arrived at the nursing home, Selina left Tania in the waiting room and went to find Florence.

  When she arrived back about twenty minutes later, she was smiling.

  “We have won,” she cried and took Tania to meet Florence Nightingale.

  Like everyone else Tania found her an irresistibly attractive woman who was totally different in every way from anyone else she had ever encountered.

  From the moment they shook hands she was ready, as many others were to be in the future, to serve Florence and to help her in every possible way.

  Tania was allocated a bedroom on the second floor of the nursing home, while Selina went back to bring what luggage Charles had been able to collect for her.

  Tania sat down on her bed and said a little prayer of thankfulness.

  She was safe from her stepmother.

  More important than anything else in the world she would be near Rupert if Florence Nightingale was allowed to go to Turkey.

  *

  She found that the work she had to do at Number One Harley Street took more time than she expected.

  But it was comparatively easy.

  Her job initially was to answer the large number of letters Florence received from people asking her advice on their health.

  She wrote endless cheques for the tradesmen’s bills and kept accounts of everyone who visited or stayed at the nursing home – they might be requesting admittance or had come to discuss their ailments with Florence.

  Selina had told Tania it would be a great mistake for her to pop in and out of Belgrave Square.

  And she and Charles were very determined to help Florence to go to the war zone.

  The first thing they had to do was to assist her in finding nurses to accompany her.

  Even before Florence received her invitation from the War Office, she was assured in her mind that this was the work God had chosen for her.

  She had refused marriage and dedicated her life wholly to the purpose of healing and nursing.

  It had been very difficult for Sir Sidney Herbert to persuade the Government that she should go to Turkey.

  He was supported in his effort by his wife, Liz, who wrote to Lady Stratford de Redcliffe, the wife of the then British Ambassador in Constantinople saying,

  “This is not a lady, but a real hospital nurse and she has had a wealth of experience.”

  When he finally won his way, Sir Sidney Herbert was delighted.

  He had managed to obtain for Florence not only the Government’s approval but also an official status.

  It took time, but in the end he could offer Flore
nce the Official appointment of Superintendent of the Female Nursing Establishment of the British General Hospital for Turkey.

  It was to be a brave effort besides a difficult one, as no woman had ever been employed as a nurse to wounded soldiers.

  As several Members of the Government grumbled,

  “Deep prejudice will inevitably be aroused.”

  However, supported by the Duke of Newcastle, Sir Sidney Herbert secured the agreement of the Cabinet to the appointment.

  Florence Nightingale was to be given full authority over the seclusion, disposition and welfare of her nurses.

  But they were all to come under the orders of the Chief Medical Officer on the spot, whose name was Doctor Menzies and he was to give her ‘every aid in his power and every support in the execution of her arduous duties’.

  Directions, she was informed, would come from the British Ambassador, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, who would afford her every facility and assurance.

  She was also told that the Treasury would pay the passage and salary for the nurses and she was given one thousand pounds for expenses. After that she was to rely on the Purser of the Forces at Scutari.

  All this naturally was not achieved in a hurry.

  There were long discussions and consultations and a considerable amount of disapproval.

  However, once permission was obtained, Florence had only to collect her nurses before she left.

  This was far more difficult than anyone could have expected and Tania was astonished that there were so few volunteers.

  An Office was opened in the Herberts’ house at 40 Belgrave Square to receive applications.

  “I am afraid that you will have a great many to deal with,” Tania advised them. “But, if you scribble their names and addresses down, I will copy them all out carefully each night and keep them in a book, so that we can get in touch with them at any moment.”

  To her surprise just a trickle came forward and even then they were mostly women Florence had no wish to take abroad with her.

  Actually as Tania confided in private to Selina,

  “The nurses are not to be paid enough! They are to receive just fourteen shillings a week with board, lodging and uniform. If their conduct is excellent for three months they will receive sixteen shillings – and if they survive for a year eighteen shillings!”

  *

  In the meantime Tania was to learn that in June the British Army had landed at Varna in Bulgaria on the West coast of the Black Sea.

  By this time she had received quite a large number of letters from Rupert.

  But she was aware that he did not yet know she had left home or that she was hiding as a secretary to Florence Nightingale under the assumed name of Mary Anson.

  His letters, and he wrote to her as frequently as he could, were intercepted by Dawson as soon as they arrived and when he had the time, he took them over to Charles in Belgrave Square.

  Every day Tania scanned the newspapers for news of the Army, but there was very little reported.

  It was not until September that the news came that the British and the French forces had landed on the Crimea with the object of destroying Sebastopol, the Russian naval arsenal on the Black Sea.

  There had been a savage battle on the River Alma on September 20th.

  “It was a glorious but bloody victory,” one reporter wrote, “but the casualties were high.”

  “Surely we should be leaving by now? They will be needing us,” Tania remarked to Florence.

  “I really cannot leave until we are ready,” Florence replied. “As you know, Mary, we don’t have enough trained nurses and I refuse to take women who have not the slightest notion what to do and might easily do more harm than good.”

  Then despatches reaching London from The Times correspondent, William Russell, shook the nation.

  The aftermath of the Battle of Alma had disclosed how completely inadequate Army organisation had been in practice.

  Despite endless official promises there was no plan of any sort to cope with the sick and wounded.

  “We must go out and help them,” Tania exclaimed desperately.

  At last the move she felt had been almost cruelly delayed took place.

  It was on a Sunday morning the 21st of October that the party left London Bridge to travel to Boulogne and then on to Paris. They spent one night in Paris before setting off again, and then four nights in Marseilles.

  Florence Nightingale had been given assurances by Sir Sidney Herbert and Doctor Menzies that everything she needed was ready for her in Scutari.

  It was at Scutari where the Hospital was established to receive the wounded from the battles in the Crimea.

  Florence intended to purchase all the provisions and stores she needed in London and transport them with her.

  The faithful Charles and Selina agreed with her and Tania went with them, surprised at the number of items that Florence was determined to spend her money on.

  She received a motley crowd of merchants, shopkeepers and dealers, all of whom were only too willing to supply her with anything she wished to buy.

  “They will come in useful,” she said firmly to all the questions asked about her purchases.

  It was on October 27th when the party boarded The Vectis.

  It was a horrible ship, built for carrying special mail from Marseilles to Malta.

  It was infested with huge cockroaches and Florence, who was a very bad sailor, was prostrate with seasickness.

  On the second day out The Vectis ran into a severe gale and the Stewards’ cabin and the Galley were washed overboard and the guns had to be jettisoned.

  In atrociously cold weather, The Vectis, ‘blustering, storming and shrieking,’ as Florence later wrote, sailed up to the Bosporus.

  They anchored off Seraglio Point the next day and in pouring rain even the majestic City of Constantinople in the distance looked washed out and unattractive.

  On the opposite shore stood the enormous Barrack Hospital and it looked extremely gloomy to Tania.

  One of the nurses in the party suggested,

  “Oh, Miss Nightingale, when we finally land, don’t let there be any delay or red tape. Let’s get straight into nursing those poor fellows.”

  Florence, however, as she gazed at the gigantic pile, replied quietly,

  “The strongest will be wanted at the washtub – ”

  The Vectis anchored at breakfast time.

  Lord Stratford de Redcliffe had sent Lord Napier, the Secretary of the Embassy, to welcome them.

  He was very polite and told Florence that it would give him great happiness to serve her.

  He also suggested that the nurses should go to the Hospital at once as many wounded men had arrived from a battle at Balaclava that had been fought more than a week earlier – and a great many more were expected.

  Several caiques, the local gondola-like boats of the Bosporus, appeared and the nurses were lowered into them with their carpetbags and umbrellas.

  Then the party was rowed across to Scutari.

  Tania, with Charles and Selina by her, looked across at the huge ugly square building with a tower at its centre.

  It dominated the scruffy little village of Scutari. It had been a Turkish Army Barracks and now it was the Barrack Hospital where they were to start work with the wounded.

  Tania could only hope that it was better inside than it appeared from the outside.

  Her wish was not granted.

  The state of the Barrack Hospital was much worse than even Florence Nightingale had anticipated.

  They were soon to find out that there was enormous prejudice against a woman bursting in on what was always considered a man’s affair – especially when they were to find a shocking state of inefficiency and neglect.

  The rain had ceased by the time the last caique had rowed across the Bosporus, but there was mud everywhere and Tania saw the bloated carcase of a horse that had been washed up on the shore being worried by a pack of starving dogs.


  They made their way over to the gate of the great building behind the nurses.

  Doctor Menzies, the Medical Officer in charge, and Major Sillery, the Military Commandant, were waiting to receive them.

  Florence was quick over the conversation that took place on their arrival,asking brusquely to see their quarters.

  One room only had been allocated to the fourteen Hospital nurses.

  There was a tiny room ten feet square for Florence, which she decided to share with Selina.

  There was another, which she said would have to be a sitting room, an office and Charles’s bedroom.

  It was obvious that there was no place for Tania.

  A room on the first floor was taken by ten nurses, but only after the body of a dead Russian General had been moved out.

  “Where am I to sleep?” Tania asked desperately.

  Finally they found exactly opposite the sitting room and office that there was a large cupboard with a number of shelves that had been intended for laundry.

  Fortunately it contained a minute window that had obviously not been opened in many years and, when pushed by Charles’s strong hands, it let in damp air.

  There was just room on the floor for a bed after the bottom shelves were removed and Tania realised that she would have to lift all she required down from overhead.

  At least, she told herself, she would be alone and not have to share with any of the other women whom she found rather uncongenial.

  In the whole Hospital there were no tables, not even one for operations.

  There was nothing at all to cook with, and the daily allowance of water for all purposes was fixed at one pint per person.

  When the doctors left them, Florence exploded,

  “This place is filthy, dilapidated and verminous!”

  They were to find that the wards for the wounded soldiers were far worse than their own accommodation.

  The filth and smell was beyond description.

  The woodwork was rotten, so that it could not be scrubbed, and saturated with filth it became a paradise for germs and disease.

  There were scarcely any blankets and the soldiers lay in their dirty shirts which they refused to part with – if they did, they were given another dirty shirt with a dead man’s lice in it.