The Healing Hand Read online

  “I never heard such a thing! Of course you should have come out last year and that is exactly what I thought had happened, but we were away and were extremely upset when we learnt that your father had died.”

  “I was not even able to say goodbye to him,” Tania whispered with tears welling up in her eyes.

  Selina was about to speak, but then drew her lips together.

  She had always disliked the second Lady Amesly, but had understood that Tania’s father was very unhappy and lonely when his wife died.

  He had therefore succumbed to the very determined onslaught made upon him by Isobel.

  But she had no idea that she was being unkind and, what really amounted to cruel, to poor Tania.

  She evaded an uncomfortable moment by saying,

  “My friend Florence is at the moment really happy as she is now in charge of a small hospital in Harley Street.

  “It is named ‘The Institution for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances.’ To be honest the name is longer than the place itself! But needless to say she has been a huge success and hopefully you will be able to see her now you are returning to England.”

  “I should love to meet her again and I am so happy to see you here, Mrs. Bracebridge.”

  “I sent you a Christmas present, Tania, but I had no idea you were not be at home or I would have sent it to your school. Would I be right in supposing that you never received it?”

  “No, or I would have thanked you. My Stepmama’s secretary wrote to tell me that various presents had arrived in London, but that it would be a nuisance to have to send them on. So she said they must wait until I return home.”

  “She has obviously not been in a hurry to let you do so if you say you are over eighteen?”

  “She does not want me around at all. To be honest I am just wondering what I will do when I do reach home.”

  “Perhaps it will not be as bad as all that, my dear. After all, you are looking very much like your dear Mama and very pretty. I am sure you will be asked to many balls. In fact, I will make sure that your parents’ friends know that you have returned.”

  “That is so kind of you, and it will be nice to go to balls and meet people of my own age.”

  “I see you have already met one handsome young man,” smiled Selina.

  Rupert and Charles, having ordered the champagne, had walked out on deck, leaving Selina and Tania alone in the cabin.

  It was a double one and therefore much bigger than Tania’s. Besides two bunks there were also chairs and a table for the champagne.

  “I do hope,” Selina remarked when the men came in, “that we will not have to wait here very long.”

  “I am afraid you are being a bit over-optimistic, my dear,” replied Charles. “As far as I can learn there is no sign yet of anyone from the railway accident and I doubt if the ferry will sail without them.”

  “I was just telling Tania about dear Florence – ”

  “I am interested in hearing too,” added Rupert. “I have heard people talking about your friend, Florence Nightingale, and how brilliantly she has managed the hospital in London.”

  “Who told you that?” asked Selina.

  “My late mother was a member of a charitable trust headed by Lady Canning, who told her a long time ago that a new superintendent was needed and another friend, Lady Petheridge, had put forward Miss Nightingale’s name.”

  “I am not surprised you heard that,” added Charles. “Florence has run it brilliantly and every single patient has left praising her up to the skies.

  “She is worth fifty doctors and has more common sense than they ever expected to find in a woman!”

  They all laughed and Tania knew it was something very strange and wonderful for a woman to be in charge of sick people.

  In essence it was quite a sensation.

  As if Selina guessed her thoughts, she remarked,

  “Florence’s main difficulty is to find nurses. There are absolutely none who are properly trained and, as you can imagine, the doctors are not at all helpful.”

  She paused thoughtfully and then commented,

  “I am just wondering, if we go to war with Russia, what she will want to do about such a serious problem.”

  “You know the answer to that,” said her husband. “But she will not find it at all easy to be accepted on the battlefield.”

  “I just cannot believe that we will really go to war!” exclaimed Selina.

  “I’m afraid that there will be no alternative,” Rupert told her. “We all know the Russians have been exceedingly tiresome lately.”

  “At the same time it seems such a long way away, and I cannot believe that you or any soldier would want to fight a war in a climate that is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.”

  “It is what we will have to put up with unless the Russians give way and I just cannot see them doing that.”

  “The trouble with these foreigners is that they find it impossible to lose face,” Charles declared. “So we can only hope that by some miracle peace will come and save us at the last moment.”

  As they finished their champagne, Selina was telling Tania how much Florence Nightingale had enjoyed their journey to Rome.

  “I am sure you would love to go there yourself, my dear. Florence wrote to me that she had never enjoyed any time in her life as much as when she was in Rome.”

  “I can understand. Mama always spoke of Rome as one of the most beautiful places she had ever seen.”

  “Florence spent a whole day in the Sistine Chapel with me staring up at the ‘Heaven of Angels and Prophets’. She also loved the journey to Egypt and we meant to take her with us this time to Berlin, but she was far too busy.”

  “If there is a war,” commented Tania, “I’m sure she will want to care for the wounded.”

  “That is what my husband has been saying to me all the time we have been travelling and I am convinced that anything I may say to dissuade her will fall on deaf ears.”

  They sat talking for a little while longer until Selina said she felt tired and must to retire to bed.

  Tania quickly rose and kissed her goodnight.

  “I apologise, Mrs. Bracebridge, for staying so long, but it is so wonderful to talk to you and to remember how fond my parents were of you and your husband.”

  “I am glad I am not forgotten,” Charles added. “I always thought your mother was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. I know you will be pleased when I say that you are very like her.”

  “Thank you,” replied Tania, “that is a compliment I really appreciate. If I am half as lovely and clever as my Mama, I will be content.”

  She and Rupert left the cabin together.

  When they were outside, he suggested,

  “Let’s go and see if the others have arrived yet.”

  They walked to the other side of the ferry.

  The lights were still burning brightly and there was some activity at the Station, but there was no sign of the crowds who were expected to come from the train crash.

  “I feel so sorry for those poor people,” Tania sighed, “but you would not have thought it would have taken them so long to rush a relief train to the accident.”

  “I don’t know, Tania, I fancy it would take a long time especially as they had to manhandle all that luggage. I only hope mine is not left behind.”

  “I hope the same, but of course we are being selfish. But I am very very grateful that you rescued me.”

  “And I am delighted I did so, and now that you are being properly chaperoned by one of your Mama’s friends, you need not feel guilty of coming away with me when I suggested it.”

  “I didn’t feel guilty – merely very grateful because you had been so kind.”

  “Just how could I be anything else when, as Mrs. Bracebridge has already told you, you are so beautiful. In fact I expect you will take London by storm.”

  “I think you are being over-optimistic.”

&nbs
p; “But I would like to point out that I found you first! Thus I feel not only privileged, but deserving of more than those who may come after me!”

  Tania laughed.

  “Now you are making me feel very important, which is just what I want to feel, especially as you realise I am really too old to be a debutante. Perhaps, when I do reach London, no one will want to bother with me.”

  “I think you are greatly underestimating yourself. I for one will want to see you and dance with you – in fact I am determined to spend as much time as I can with you before I am sent away into the back of beyond.”

  There was a silence before Tania asked him,

  “Are you quite certain that if there is a war you will have to go?”

  “Of course, and I want to take part in it! My only wish is that it was not in that particular part of the world. I am also hoping that the British Army is ready for a war, which may be an extremely bitter one.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I would not say this to anyone who is not British, but since the Battle of Waterloo the Army has been run down and scandalously neglected.”

  He spoke with an obvious bitterness, which made it impossible not to believe that he was speaking the truth.

  “Surely you are being pessimistic, Rupert? I believe that our Army is the pride of the country and we need its strength to protect our great Empire.”

  “That is just what it ought to be, but for thirty-nine years the Army has been neglected and the victim of gross economies. I am exceedingly worried now as to whether we have enough arms to fight – apart from anything else.”

  “But surely you should speak to someone about it? I am sure my father would have done so, if he had not been in ill-health and unable to take up the post that was offered to him in the Cabinet. He said over and over again that the whole organisation should be brought up-to-date.

  “With respect, he was speaking from his sick bed, so no one was likely to listen to him.”

  Because he seemed so upset, Tania put out her hand and laid it on his arm.

  “I am sure it will not be as bad as you fear and, if the war actually does come, the British will wake up and, as they always do, win the battle.”

  “That I am prepared to believe, but it may be at the expense of a large number of men being killed who might otherwise have lived. We have nothing like the numbers of trained soldiers that we should have.”

  Realising he should not be saying this to a young girl, he forced himself to add in a different tone of voice,

  “This does not concern you, Tania. All you have to do is to be lovely and make us men happy before we go to war and welcome us back with open arms if and when we return.”

  “I believe every woman who cares for England will do so, but I am very worried by what you have just said.”

  “Then it’s a big mistake for me to have said it,” he muttered before saying brightly,

  “What we must do now is plan how you can enjoy yourself, having missed a Season in London, before I leave, if I do have to, for Turkey.”

  Tania felt an excitement within her she had never known before.

  “Do you really mean it?” she asked him. “Will I see you again when we reach London?”

  “I have every intention of seeing you, Tania, and I intend to tell all my relatives – and I have quite a number of them – that they must open their doors to you so that you can accept their hospitality.”

  “Which I will be most happy to do, kind sir. You do realise that being cooped up at school, even though they were very kind to me, is not the same as being allowed to be grown-up and attend the endless balls and parties that make a debutante’s Season.”

  “Nothing is ever too late to mend. Now, before we worry about the war or anything else, we must worry about you and how organised you must be.”

  Tania thought at the back of her mind that if there was any organising to do, it would be her stepmother who should do it.

  At the same time she was hoping against hope that this charming young man would not forget his promise to her when he arrived in London.

  It was then that they heard the puffing of a train and slowly one came into the Station above them.

  “They have arrived at last. Now we will be able to start our voyage back to England.”

  Even as Rupert spoke there was a babble of voices and a few moments later the first passengers were hurrying down to the ferry.

  Tania knew the Third Class passengers who could not afford a cabin were determined, if nothing else, to find the best seats obtainable.

  She could see Sister Agnes being helped along by the other nun and felt relieved that at least she was being adequately looked after.

  She and Rupert watched as the eager crowd surged further down the gangway and into the ferry.

  *

  It was almost an hour later that Tania remarked,

  “We will be sailing pretty soon, as the engines are already turning, so I think we should now retire to bed.”

  “But I have no wish to say ‘goodnight’,” objected Rupert.

  “We will see each other tomorrow, Rupert.”

  “I know, Tania, but I expect the Bracebridges will be with us and I want you to myself.”

  She looked up at him.

  As their eyes met, they were both very still.

  “It is too soon and I know we have only just met each other,” Rupert said in a low voice, “but I do feel that something very significant has occurred between us.”

  Tania drew in her breath.

  “I hope you are right,” she whispered, “but I have only just met you.”

  “I do not think that is quite true. I feel sure I have met you before, perhaps in another life, which in the East they all believe in.”

  He was silent for a moment and then he added,

  “Perhaps it was just in my dreams I met someone as lovely as you.”

  Tania felt shy.

  “Thank – you,” she breathed. “But as you said – it is too soon to talk about it.”

  The words came jerkily from between her lips.

  Because she was not certain of herself, she ran over the deck to her cabin.

  As she opened the door, she turned back,

  “And goodnight, Rupert, and thank you very much for your kindness.”

  She went in and closed the door.

  Then she stood for a moment with her hands up to her cheeks.

  How was it possible that any man she had just met could make her feel as she felt now?

  Then she told herself that the sooner she climbed into bed and tried to sleep, the sooner she would see him again in the morning.

  She wished she had not run away from him. Now it was too late.

  Even as she thought about it, she heard his footsteps cross the deck and the door of his cabin close.

  ‘He is so exciting and different from anyone I have ever met,’ she pondered.

  After all she had been away for two years and she was only sixteen when she had gone to the French school.

  Although parties had been held for her at home, they had been children’s parties – with children’s games.

  Now she wanted to dance and to feel she was not a debutante but a woman.

  When she climbed into bed, she said her nightly prayers, taking care to thank God for bringing Captain Rupert More into her life and praying that the handsome Captain would remember his promise to her.

  When finally she fell asleep, it was to dream that she was dancing a waltz in the moonlight.

  Rupert was with her, but he was not touching her in her dream and somehow she wanted him to.

  *

  In his own cabin Rupert was thinking about Tania.

  At the very same time he was worrying about what would actually happen if, as he thought inevitable, England went to war.

  As his father had said so often, the worst thing was the inefficient system at the War Office.

  “You can say what you like, Rupert,” he h
ad said the last time he had been at home, “but the chief problem of this country, if we are at war, will not be in beating the enemy, but organising a force that would be a credit to us.”

  “You have told me so often, Papa,” Rupert replied, “that the Army has been run down and neglected.”

  “I have said it over and over again to so many people, but they pay no attention. Mark my words, the rot is there from top to bottom.”

  Rupert knew enough to know that his father was not exaggerating the ineffective system of control.

  The Secretary of State for War was responsible for the Army, assisted by the Minister for War.

  It was he who took the Government’s decisions to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, a General whose Headquarters was in Horse Guards.

  The Major-General of Ordinance was not a soldier, as might have been expected, but a Member of Parliament.

  He controlled procurement of military equipment, weapons, supply of food for the troops and the engineers and artillery.

  Another department was that of the Commissioner responsible for our troops abroad, which came under the Treasury.

  There had been many complaints, to which no one had ever attended, about the food and the Medical Board and a dozen other departments that were badly organised.

  It was Rupert’s father who kept on pointing at two most essential and proved units that had been abolished at the end of the Napoleonic wars.

  They were the Wagon Train and the Staff Corps – both essential after a campaign had taken place.

  “It is the incredibly rapid demobilisation that came immediately after the Battle of Waterloo which will defeat us now as we have never been defeated before,” the Earl of Grantmore had declared over and over again.

  Now his son was wondering if it would be as bad as his father feared. If so, was it too late to do anything about it?

  Just before Rupert fell asleep he was thinking not so much of the war, but of Tania.

  She had appeared just after the train crash looking like an angel, who had just dropped down from Heaven.

  ‘She is entrancing, she is so beautiful and whatever happens I must not lose sight of her,’ he told himself.