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Synopsis
Rachel and Joss are married and keen to continue the hard work to rebuild Eastby End. But as new arrivals bring fresh challenges and heartache, their future together becomes far from certain ...
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Have you discovered all of Anna Jacobs' wonderful series?
For a heartwarming and emotional saga set in a Lancashire valley, try the BIRCH END series:
A DAUGHTER'S JOURNEY
A WIDOW'S COURAGE
A WOMAN'S PROMISE
Release date: November 21, 2024
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Print pages: 320
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Secrets of Eastby End
Anna Jacobs
1
1897
Joss Townley smiled at his wife and slipped his arm round her waist for a quick hug. ‘We really do need to appoint a new nurse to Eastby End now, Rachel love.’
He patted her belly with his other hand, a proud smile on his face. ‘The baby is starting to show now and people will be horrified if you continue working for much longer. Well, some of them are a bit shocked already that you’ve continued to work since we got married, and when they find out about the baby, they’ll throw a fit.’
She rolled her eyes at that. ‘Poor women have always continued to work after marriage because it was that or starve, and that includes when they’re expecting. I’m a skilled nurse and my efforts were and are not only needed but can help save lives. What’s more, I enjoy looking after people.’
‘Well, I’d like you to be a bit more careful from now onwards, because of that young fellow you’re carrying.’
‘Or it might be a girl,’ she threw back at him quickly.
He grinned because he’d known she’d say something like that. ‘I don’t mind which it is, really. But even you must admit that you’re getting tired more quickly now and won’t you find your job more difficult still as you grow bigger?’
She nodded, unable to hold back a sigh. ‘Unfortunately, yes, I will and I don’t intend to run myself ragged. But as we’ve already agreed, I am going to stay involved in some nursing work even after I’ve had the baby, not doing the visits to people’s homes because I don’t want to bring any infections back to my child, but helping to organise things at the clinic at least.’
‘Well, Dr Coxton can’t take over your duties and she has enough on her plate dealing with patients in Ollerthwaite, so can’t do more in Eastby End. We need at least one more nurse to replace you and perhaps a second one as well.’
‘But I can still help organise things, and I can read the medical journals, find out about new treatments and spread the word if it’s relevant. There will be a variety of things I can do to help people, even if we have more than one child.’
‘I always realised that you’d not give up completely – and why should you? I also bet myself that you’d be trying to help people in Eastby End particularly. Am I right?’
‘Yes. I really care about improving things for those who live there. Parts of it are so run down and that could be improved with a little goodwill from people who own property there. Proper maintenance and decent housing can save lives, too, and especially women’s lives because they have to care for their families as well as themselves. Their menfolk are mostly out earning a living.’
‘What shall we do about Hanny when you stop work? She’ll still need a job. Is there some way we can make sure the new district nurse accepts her as her assistant? She’s a good worker.’
Rachel glanced sideways, watching him rather warily as she spoke. ‘I’ve got a better idea. You keep telling me we’re not short of money, so I’d like to offer to pay for Hanny to train properly as a nurse. She’s so good with people who’re sick or need some sort of help, and she’s so eager to learn. What do you think?’
She waited, watching him frown in thought and as the silence continued, she said coaxingly, ‘It won’t cost a great deal. If she enrols at Bristol, she’ll be able to live in the hospital dormitory while she’s training and there’s no charge for that, just the fees to pay the college for doing the course. I think we ought to provide some personal spending money for her, though.’
‘Do you think she’ll want to do all that training?’
‘I’ve mentioned it to her and she’s excited at the mere idea, can’t seem to believe that she really can get such a chance, coming from a poor family. She’s a really hard worker in anything she does, and I’m quite certain she’ll do well on the course.’
‘Then I’m happy for us to help her. But that means we’ll have to find not only a new nurse but a new assistant as well, to go out and about visiting patients together. We’ve improved safety in the district and I intend to keep working on further improvements, but it’s still not wise for a woman to go out on her own after dark round the centre of Eastby.’
He gave his wife a very solemn look. ‘I shall be glad when you’re no longer doing it, even with Hanny accompanying you, I must admit. I can’t help worrying about your safety.’
She saw his eyes go to her belly as they often did and he smiled without realising he was doing it. He was so happy at the thought of becoming a father, as happy as she was to be bearing his child.
‘And yet you’ve not stopped me from doing it.’
‘I know how greatly you care about district nursing and how much good you’ve done with your visits to the poorer people in their homes. And as you’re the first person to do such work in Eastby, it’s you who’s set it all up. I can’t tell you how proud I am of what you’ve done, my darling. And fortunately, we know that you bear babies quite easily.’
Joss saw her look sad and pulled her into his arms. She had borne a baby while she was still a very young woman, following a rape by a man who lived nearby. She’d been very young and had had no family to help her raise the baby herself, and had moved away to live with a kind couple and allowed them to adopt her tiny daughter. The child would be what, twelve now? Nearly as old as she’d been when she fell pregnant.
He knew Rachel was looking forward to keeping this baby and bringing it up herself, and he was quite sure his wonderful wife would make a good, loving mother to their first child.
She put her arms round his neck and plonked kisses first on one cheek then the other. ‘You’re a wonderful husband, Joss Townley, and don’t think I don’t appreciate that. I love you to pieces.’
‘I love you too. Some of the men round here think I should be more forceful with you and make you behave more meekly, like their wives do, and they don’t hesitate to say so. But I don’t happen to agree with them, so I tell them that you’re an intelligent human being not a cabbage, and you’re saving lives by what you do.’
‘I’d not have married you in the first place if you hadn’t been so modern in your outlook.’
They moved closer together for a few moments, clasping hands again briefly, after which they got on with their day.
Rachel didn’t waste any time, but wrote to her friend and mentor at Bristol University about Hanny training as a nurse, and the need for a new district nurse to take her own place. Advertisements hadn’t brought any replacements for her, probably because district nursing was a new area of work and there weren’t many women experienced in it, certainly not enough of them to go round every town and village that wanted to hire one.
She walked along the street to the postbox to catch the last collection, blowing the letter a kiss as she dropped it in. Pearl Grayson was head of nursing and had been very kind to her when she was young. Any nurse trained under her supervision would be good at the job and easily find employment anywhere. And perhaps she might know someone who’d like to work in a small country town and would agree to come and work in Eastby End and live nearby in the shadow of the moors.
The Crossleys would take over supervising the new nurse and her helper as Rachel stepped away from the job to have her baby.
She hoped Hanny would come back to work in Ollindale once she’d qualified and gained a few years’ experience. The two of them had become good friends when they worked together and she would miss her company.
In the meantime, the people who lived here needed another district nurse and surely by now the local town councillors had seen the good district nurses could do for the poorest citizens. It would make things so much better locally if they would agree to provide enough money to pay for two district nurses to cover the whole area properly.
The trouble was, some of the more old-fashioned councillors didn’t like to see women going out and about to do their jobs like the men did. Some even refused to accept that such services were not only necessary but so useful that it was their duty to provide such services to their constituents.
She’d better discuss Hanny’s future with her, though she was sure her assistant would jump at the chance of training properly as a nurse. And they’d need to work out how to find another suitable person as assistant for whoever took the job as the next district nurse. Perhaps Hanny would know someone who lived here who could take over her job.
However, even though she very much wanted this baby, Rachel would miss her work. She loved helping people, seeing their health improve, making sure their injuries were properly treated, seeing that babies were born safely.
2
On the morning of her husband’s funeral there was a knock on the front door of the tiny two-up, two-down labourer’s cottage in the quiet little village near Bristol. Livia’s neighbour didn’t wait for her to answer but opened it straight away as everyone did with their neighbours round here and peered inside. ‘Ready, love?’
‘Yes.’ Livia checked her reflection in the speckled old mirror over the living-room fireplace and settled her black felt hat more firmly on her head. Then she took a deep breath and walked out to join both sets of neighbours who had been kind enough to wait and escort her to the church.
No fancy funerals for people round here but as always, friends and neighbours had rallied round to make sure Nigel had what they called ‘a good send off’. He’d had no close relatives to take the necessary actions but Livia knew some of the men who lived nearby had already taken the rough pauper’s coffin she’d been given and delivered it to the small church, using the hand cart belonging to the village shop.
Nigel would be waiting for her in the place where they’d been married five years ago. After the brief service she’d say a final goodbye to him and the coffin would be taken to be buried in the paupers’ section of the council cemetery because she hadn’t got the money to buy a plot in the churchyard. She’d decided not to go with it, couldn’t bear the thought of that being her last memory of her dear, kind husband.
As she alternately sat and stood during the brief ceremony offered by the curate to those who were too poor for anything but charity funerals, she admitted to herself that it would be a huge relief to have all this fuss over and done with. But it was what people round here did, what Nigel himself would have expected, so she endured it and did as custom demanded.
One person was missing from the group of mourners, a former employer for whom she’d worked for five years before her marriage, and with whom she’d kept in touch ever since by monthly letters. They were also distant relatives, some sort of cousins, she wasn’t quite sure of the exact connection, just knew that both sides acknowledged it.
She’d written to Pearl Grayson to invite her to the funeral, but perhaps her cousin was too busy today. She was an important person, head of the nurses’ training school, and would have had to sacrifice nearly a whole day of her time and come by train from Bristol to attend.
After the ceremony was over and the coffin had been carried away, Livia stood at the church entrance and the few friends and neighbours attending shook her hand or kissed the air above her cheek as they left. They knew she couldn’t afford to offer them any hospitality, not even a cup of tea each.
She walked home with her next-door neighbours, barely managing to hold back tears now. Only thirty-five Nigel had been, five years older than her supposed age, though she’d been pretending to be older than she was since the age of fourteen, so she was really only twenty-five now.
At last she was alone in the house she could no longer live in because it was needed for another farm labourer. She had only been allowed to stay there out of kindness by the farmer when Nigel grew really weak and unable to work at all.
The door knocker sounded as she was about to go upstairs to bring down the shabby suitcase containing her clothes and the few cherished personal possessions still left. She couldn’t hold back a low groan. Who wanted her to do something now?
She nearly didn’t answer it but that would be wrong, so she somehow summoned up the inner strength to walk across the front room and open the front door, which led out directly from one corner.
She found Pearl Grayson standing on the doorstep and only then did she lose control and burst into loud, sobbing tears because she knew she was no longer on her own.
Pearl put an arm round her and they walked through into the back room. ‘My dear Livia, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you at the funeral but the train was delayed by an accident at a level crossing. Fortunately more damage was done to the cart that got hit than to the people riding in it.’
She kept her arm round Livia’s shoulders, occasionally hugging her slightly and waiting for her to calm down.
‘Sorry to weep all over you . . . but it’s been . . . difficult.’
‘I’m sure it has. Hard enough to lose a loved one, desperately hard to have to nurse them for so long. Unfortunately I couldn’t get away to help you today till later than I’d hoped and—’
Pearl stopped speaking to look round in shock as if she’d only just noticed that there wasn’t any furniture in the room except for one scarred and battered upright chair and a small, wobbly table. Of course, she guessed what had happened.
‘Have things been so bad that you’ve had to sell everything, Livia?’
‘Yes. Dying slowly is rather expensive.’
‘You should have asked me for help. Why didn’t you?’
‘I don’t like to ask for charity.’
‘I’d not count it as charity, it’d have been more accurate to call it helping a relative, don’t you think? And I’d do that willingly, for your mother’s sake as well as for your own.’ She followed that with another of her lovely hugs, then studied the little gold pocket watch pinned to her bodice.
‘It’s a good thing I looked up train times for later today as well as for tomorrow. You’re coming back with me this very afternoon, Livia Blake, and I won’t take no for an answer. I have a spare bedroom and an idea for how to help you use your nursing skills to build an interesting new life.’
Relief shuddered through Livia. ‘Are you sure? I don’t want to be a nuisance. If you can just help me to find a job, I’ll manage.’
‘I’m very sure you can find employment quite easily. People always need nurses, but let’s be practical about how we do this. First, we need to get you to Bristol, then we’ll talk properly about another possibility. What else do you need to deal with here?’
‘I only need to close my suitcase and bring it down from the bedroom, then say goodbye to the next-door neighbours, who’ve been very kind. They can take any furniture that’s left. It isn’t much, but they’re very poor and will welcome anything.’
She gulped and only just managed to hold back more tears. ‘I’m sorry but I’ve so little money left now that I can’t even offer you a cup of tea.’
Pearl gave her a searching look. ‘That doesn’t matter. Did you have any breakfast?’
Livia pointed across to the stale end of a loaf standing on the windowsill, which was the only food she had left. ‘A piece of bread and a drink of water. I wasn’t hungry.’ She’d didn’t tell Pearl that she’d thrown half the slice of bread away, finding it difficult to swallow anything so dry and stale.
‘No wonder you’ve lost so much weight, you poor love.’
Her gentle tone made more tears come into Livia’s eyes. She smeared away the first few, but others escaped and then sobs followed them. She was glad to take the handkerchief Pearl held out and bury another set of sobs in it.
For the past few weeks, everything had been horribly difficult for her to deal with on her own, and poor Nigel’s illness had seemed to go on for ever, a strain on him as well as her. Towards the end, he’d slept a lot, not seeming fully conscious, which had been a relief.
She’d coped and kept him clean at least. But she’d only managed to deal with his pain and medical needs by selling everything they owned, piece by piece.
Pearl glanced down again at the little fob watch hanging from her bodice. ‘Is there someone who can fetch us a cab? I’ll slip them sixpence to hurry. If we leave quickly we should be able to catch the early afternoon train back to Bristol. And isn’t there a little refreshments kiosk at the station? Yes, I thought so. We’ll get you something to eat there and you must force it down, if necessary. I don’t want you fainting on me.’
Livia tried to speak calmly but she felt as if her own words were echoing from a long distance away. ‘The lad next door will go for a cab but you don’t need to pay him that much, Pearl. People would queue up to earn half that amount because there’s not a lot of work round here and hasn’t been for a while.’
‘Will the lad share the money with his mother?’
‘Oh, yes. He’ll give it all to her. Like everyone else round here, that family is struggling to put bread on the table.’
‘Then sixpence seems a fair payment to me and it’s what I wish to offer.’
‘You’re always so kind to people.’
‘I do my best to help others whenever I can, and once you’ve sorted out a new life for yourself I’m sure you will too, my dear girl. In the meantime let me take charge of your life for a while and give you time to recover. I can see that you’re worn out.’
It was an effort even to nod, she felt so weary. ‘Yes, I am rather tired. Thank you.’
They hugged again. Livia was so grateful for those hugs. Each one seemed to make her feel a little better.
She went next door and sent young Wilf off to earn the sixpence. She also told his mother she could have everything that was left in the house, like the stale loaf end, the few pieces of chipped crockery, the chair, the thin old flock mattress and the ragged blanket. She also asked her neighbour to return the keys to the rent man and apologise to him that she couldn’t afford to pay the usual week’s rent in lieu of notice.
Then she went upstairs for the last time and brought down the shabby suitcase, which was only heavy because it contained every single thing she still owned.
A few minutes later there was the sound of hooves and wheels from the end of the narrow street and the lad next door jumped down from a cab that had stopped there to wait for them. The two women walked quickly along to it and Pearl paid the lad his sixpence, which made both him and his mother beam.
As she got into the cab Livia waved and called goodbye and thank you to those of her neighbours waiting in their doorways to see her go. But once the cab set off she didn’t look back again, not even once.
She wanted to leave all the pain behind her, leave everything except the memories of the few years of happy marriage before Nigel fell ill. How long ago those seemed now.
In Bristol they took a cab from the station straight to Pearl’s flat, which was on the first floor of the college. It seemed like a palace to Livia after the mean little house she’d been living in for the past year. It had spacious rooms and windows, and seemed full of light and warmth.
Best of all, there was comfortable furniture, including a highly polished mahogany table with a vase in the middle and two armchairs you could sink right into, which she couldn’t resist trying out straight away. Recently she’d had to manage without most of her furniture, which she’d sold piece by piece to buy food, and her life had been uncomfortable in every way, in body and in mind.
As they stood just inside the guest bedroom, Pearl said gently, ‘You’ll need a few days to rest and regain some of your old vim and vigour. Don’t try to do or decide anything yet, dear, because you won’t be thinking clearly till you’ve recovered your health.’
Livia didn’t protest because she knew Pearl was right, and because she was so very weary.
It was wonderful to be at her cousin’s home. She had books to read and keep her happily entertained for hours while Pearl was at work and enough food at every single meal, good food too. During the day she could stroll round a small park nearby whenever the weather permitted or simply walk along the local streets and stare at the well-kept houses.
And since her friend had an evening function to attend one night and often brought paperwork home to do, this restful period went on for the whole of the first week with early nights most of the time. That suited Livia perfectly because for the first few days she couldn’t seem to get enough sleep.
On the Saturday, however, Pearl looked at her over the breakfast table as they finished their meal. ‘You’re looking a lot better. Are you ready to talk about the future now, dear?’
‘Yes. And I’m more grateful than I can say that you’ve given me this quiet time to rest and recover. I can’t thank you enough.’
‘You’ve been no trouble, Livia dear. I only had to leave you to rest. You even cooked our tea the last three nights. I didn’t realise you were such a good cook.’
‘That task was exactly what I needed. I enjoy cooking, when I have the ingredients that is. But I’m ready to look for a job now.’ It would still take a big effort to go back to work, but she mustn’t depend on Pearl for too long. She had to learn to stand on her own feet again and that meant earning a living.
‘Well, I can easily find you a job as a private nurse, Livia, or you can wait until a position comes vacant in a nearby hospital, but I have what I consider a better suggestion.’
‘Oh? Tell me. If anyone knows what’s going on in the nursing world and what’s the best thing for me to do, it’s you.’
‘Why don’t you enrol for the next course and become a district nurse? You’re good with people, always have been, and I think you’d find that sort of work far more interesting than single-person private nursing, which can be lonely.’
As the idea sank in, Livia began to smile and nod. ‘I’ve read about district nursing at the library and have a vague general idea of what’s involved but I don’t know much about the training district nurses receive or the actual details of what this new type of work involves. I’ve been a bit out of touch with the practicalities of modern nursing since I got married and had to give up work, I must admit. And out of touch with nearly everything since Nigel got really ill.’
Then her face fell. ‘Oh, but how much does the course cost? I don’t have any money left.’
Since she moved here she’d been able to catch up with some of what was going on in the nursing world by reading Pearl’s old newspapers and journals. But her cousin used and referred to articles in back copies for her own job and for the lectures she gave, and kept those in her office at the college, so Livia hadn’t been able to borrow all of them.
She realised her companion was waiting for her to pay attention.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes. Sorry, Pearl. My mind was just – wandering.’
‘That’s all right. You’re bound to be upset by your loss. But you’re starting to look better now and it’s really important that we deal with this soon, so try to concentrate on what I tell you about our course. To get accepted on it, applicants need to have had two years’ experience in hospital nursing, then have done other nursing work in the community as well, so you’re easily eligible to apply for the six months’ training. In fact, you pretended you were older and worked for about five years in all before your marriage, didn’t you? And after your marriage you did part-time odds and ends for a while?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, there you are. You’re fully eligible. After the training has been completed, you will become a Queen’s Nurse and will be able to start looking for an interesting job that will be better paid than usual for a woman. Some places will try to hire you and pay less, but fortunately the country is short of district nurses, so hold your ground on that and you’ll get the wages you deserve.’
‘That sounds . . . interesting.’ Livia gestured with one hand for her companion to continue, listening intently now, because she really liked the sound of this sort of work and the wages she’d be earning. She never wanted to be penniless again or confined to one bedroom nursing a sick relative, even if he was her husband. Never, ever.
‘Different parts of the country are setting up their own District Nursing Associations to organise the work, but most smaller towns or country districts are contenting themselves with becoming affiliated to a larger association. In other words, things are starting to come together all over the country. A job like that would, I’m sure, suit you nicely.’ She waited, a questioning look on her face, but was already sure of what her younger friend would say from the expression on her face.
‘I’d love to do some more training, Pearl, absolutely love it. I’ve always enjoyed learning new things but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m rather out of touch with the latest developments in nursing and medicine generally. You know how quickly things can change.’
‘I’m sure you’d enjoy this course and I have a brochure for you that explains and lists the details of what’s involved in the training. Once you’ve completed the course, however, the job itself is so new that no one has fully fixed ideas of how things should be done. And to make things more difficult, there is country versus town work, so places can have extremely different nursing needs.’
‘Yes, that makes sense. Go on.’
‘The district nurses usually work alone or in pairs in their own areas, especially in the smaller country towns, and they do whatever seems nec. . .
1897
Joss Townley smiled at his wife and slipped his arm round her waist for a quick hug. ‘We really do need to appoint a new nurse to Eastby End now, Rachel love.’
He patted her belly with his other hand, a proud smile on his face. ‘The baby is starting to show now and people will be horrified if you continue working for much longer. Well, some of them are a bit shocked already that you’ve continued to work since we got married, and when they find out about the baby, they’ll throw a fit.’
She rolled her eyes at that. ‘Poor women have always continued to work after marriage because it was that or starve, and that includes when they’re expecting. I’m a skilled nurse and my efforts were and are not only needed but can help save lives. What’s more, I enjoy looking after people.’
‘Well, I’d like you to be a bit more careful from now onwards, because of that young fellow you’re carrying.’
‘Or it might be a girl,’ she threw back at him quickly.
He grinned because he’d known she’d say something like that. ‘I don’t mind which it is, really. But even you must admit that you’re getting tired more quickly now and won’t you find your job more difficult still as you grow bigger?’
She nodded, unable to hold back a sigh. ‘Unfortunately, yes, I will and I don’t intend to run myself ragged. But as we’ve already agreed, I am going to stay involved in some nursing work even after I’ve had the baby, not doing the visits to people’s homes because I don’t want to bring any infections back to my child, but helping to organise things at the clinic at least.’
‘Well, Dr Coxton can’t take over your duties and she has enough on her plate dealing with patients in Ollerthwaite, so can’t do more in Eastby End. We need at least one more nurse to replace you and perhaps a second one as well.’
‘But I can still help organise things, and I can read the medical journals, find out about new treatments and spread the word if it’s relevant. There will be a variety of things I can do to help people, even if we have more than one child.’
‘I always realised that you’d not give up completely – and why should you? I also bet myself that you’d be trying to help people in Eastby End particularly. Am I right?’
‘Yes. I really care about improving things for those who live there. Parts of it are so run down and that could be improved with a little goodwill from people who own property there. Proper maintenance and decent housing can save lives, too, and especially women’s lives because they have to care for their families as well as themselves. Their menfolk are mostly out earning a living.’
‘What shall we do about Hanny when you stop work? She’ll still need a job. Is there some way we can make sure the new district nurse accepts her as her assistant? She’s a good worker.’
Rachel glanced sideways, watching him rather warily as she spoke. ‘I’ve got a better idea. You keep telling me we’re not short of money, so I’d like to offer to pay for Hanny to train properly as a nurse. She’s so good with people who’re sick or need some sort of help, and she’s so eager to learn. What do you think?’
She waited, watching him frown in thought and as the silence continued, she said coaxingly, ‘It won’t cost a great deal. If she enrols at Bristol, she’ll be able to live in the hospital dormitory while she’s training and there’s no charge for that, just the fees to pay the college for doing the course. I think we ought to provide some personal spending money for her, though.’
‘Do you think she’ll want to do all that training?’
‘I’ve mentioned it to her and she’s excited at the mere idea, can’t seem to believe that she really can get such a chance, coming from a poor family. She’s a really hard worker in anything she does, and I’m quite certain she’ll do well on the course.’
‘Then I’m happy for us to help her. But that means we’ll have to find not only a new nurse but a new assistant as well, to go out and about visiting patients together. We’ve improved safety in the district and I intend to keep working on further improvements, but it’s still not wise for a woman to go out on her own after dark round the centre of Eastby.’
He gave his wife a very solemn look. ‘I shall be glad when you’re no longer doing it, even with Hanny accompanying you, I must admit. I can’t help worrying about your safety.’
She saw his eyes go to her belly as they often did and he smiled without realising he was doing it. He was so happy at the thought of becoming a father, as happy as she was to be bearing his child.
‘And yet you’ve not stopped me from doing it.’
‘I know how greatly you care about district nursing and how much good you’ve done with your visits to the poorer people in their homes. And as you’re the first person to do such work in Eastby, it’s you who’s set it all up. I can’t tell you how proud I am of what you’ve done, my darling. And fortunately, we know that you bear babies quite easily.’
Joss saw her look sad and pulled her into his arms. She had borne a baby while she was still a very young woman, following a rape by a man who lived nearby. She’d been very young and had had no family to help her raise the baby herself, and had moved away to live with a kind couple and allowed them to adopt her tiny daughter. The child would be what, twelve now? Nearly as old as she’d been when she fell pregnant.
He knew Rachel was looking forward to keeping this baby and bringing it up herself, and he was quite sure his wonderful wife would make a good, loving mother to their first child.
She put her arms round his neck and plonked kisses first on one cheek then the other. ‘You’re a wonderful husband, Joss Townley, and don’t think I don’t appreciate that. I love you to pieces.’
‘I love you too. Some of the men round here think I should be more forceful with you and make you behave more meekly, like their wives do, and they don’t hesitate to say so. But I don’t happen to agree with them, so I tell them that you’re an intelligent human being not a cabbage, and you’re saving lives by what you do.’
‘I’d not have married you in the first place if you hadn’t been so modern in your outlook.’
They moved closer together for a few moments, clasping hands again briefly, after which they got on with their day.
Rachel didn’t waste any time, but wrote to her friend and mentor at Bristol University about Hanny training as a nurse, and the need for a new district nurse to take her own place. Advertisements hadn’t brought any replacements for her, probably because district nursing was a new area of work and there weren’t many women experienced in it, certainly not enough of them to go round every town and village that wanted to hire one.
She walked along the street to the postbox to catch the last collection, blowing the letter a kiss as she dropped it in. Pearl Grayson was head of nursing and had been very kind to her when she was young. Any nurse trained under her supervision would be good at the job and easily find employment anywhere. And perhaps she might know someone who’d like to work in a small country town and would agree to come and work in Eastby End and live nearby in the shadow of the moors.
The Crossleys would take over supervising the new nurse and her helper as Rachel stepped away from the job to have her baby.
She hoped Hanny would come back to work in Ollindale once she’d qualified and gained a few years’ experience. The two of them had become good friends when they worked together and she would miss her company.
In the meantime, the people who lived here needed another district nurse and surely by now the local town councillors had seen the good district nurses could do for the poorest citizens. It would make things so much better locally if they would agree to provide enough money to pay for two district nurses to cover the whole area properly.
The trouble was, some of the more old-fashioned councillors didn’t like to see women going out and about to do their jobs like the men did. Some even refused to accept that such services were not only necessary but so useful that it was their duty to provide such services to their constituents.
She’d better discuss Hanny’s future with her, though she was sure her assistant would jump at the chance of training properly as a nurse. And they’d need to work out how to find another suitable person as assistant for whoever took the job as the next district nurse. Perhaps Hanny would know someone who lived here who could take over her job.
However, even though she very much wanted this baby, Rachel would miss her work. She loved helping people, seeing their health improve, making sure their injuries were properly treated, seeing that babies were born safely.
2
On the morning of her husband’s funeral there was a knock on the front door of the tiny two-up, two-down labourer’s cottage in the quiet little village near Bristol. Livia’s neighbour didn’t wait for her to answer but opened it straight away as everyone did with their neighbours round here and peered inside. ‘Ready, love?’
‘Yes.’ Livia checked her reflection in the speckled old mirror over the living-room fireplace and settled her black felt hat more firmly on her head. Then she took a deep breath and walked out to join both sets of neighbours who had been kind enough to wait and escort her to the church.
No fancy funerals for people round here but as always, friends and neighbours had rallied round to make sure Nigel had what they called ‘a good send off’. He’d had no close relatives to take the necessary actions but Livia knew some of the men who lived nearby had already taken the rough pauper’s coffin she’d been given and delivered it to the small church, using the hand cart belonging to the village shop.
Nigel would be waiting for her in the place where they’d been married five years ago. After the brief service she’d say a final goodbye to him and the coffin would be taken to be buried in the paupers’ section of the council cemetery because she hadn’t got the money to buy a plot in the churchyard. She’d decided not to go with it, couldn’t bear the thought of that being her last memory of her dear, kind husband.
As she alternately sat and stood during the brief ceremony offered by the curate to those who were too poor for anything but charity funerals, she admitted to herself that it would be a huge relief to have all this fuss over and done with. But it was what people round here did, what Nigel himself would have expected, so she endured it and did as custom demanded.
One person was missing from the group of mourners, a former employer for whom she’d worked for five years before her marriage, and with whom she’d kept in touch ever since by monthly letters. They were also distant relatives, some sort of cousins, she wasn’t quite sure of the exact connection, just knew that both sides acknowledged it.
She’d written to Pearl Grayson to invite her to the funeral, but perhaps her cousin was too busy today. She was an important person, head of the nurses’ training school, and would have had to sacrifice nearly a whole day of her time and come by train from Bristol to attend.
After the ceremony was over and the coffin had been carried away, Livia stood at the church entrance and the few friends and neighbours attending shook her hand or kissed the air above her cheek as they left. They knew she couldn’t afford to offer them any hospitality, not even a cup of tea each.
She walked home with her next-door neighbours, barely managing to hold back tears now. Only thirty-five Nigel had been, five years older than her supposed age, though she’d been pretending to be older than she was since the age of fourteen, so she was really only twenty-five now.
At last she was alone in the house she could no longer live in because it was needed for another farm labourer. She had only been allowed to stay there out of kindness by the farmer when Nigel grew really weak and unable to work at all.
The door knocker sounded as she was about to go upstairs to bring down the shabby suitcase containing her clothes and the few cherished personal possessions still left. She couldn’t hold back a low groan. Who wanted her to do something now?
She nearly didn’t answer it but that would be wrong, so she somehow summoned up the inner strength to walk across the front room and open the front door, which led out directly from one corner.
She found Pearl Grayson standing on the doorstep and only then did she lose control and burst into loud, sobbing tears because she knew she was no longer on her own.
Pearl put an arm round her and they walked through into the back room. ‘My dear Livia, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you at the funeral but the train was delayed by an accident at a level crossing. Fortunately more damage was done to the cart that got hit than to the people riding in it.’
She kept her arm round Livia’s shoulders, occasionally hugging her slightly and waiting for her to calm down.
‘Sorry to weep all over you . . . but it’s been . . . difficult.’
‘I’m sure it has. Hard enough to lose a loved one, desperately hard to have to nurse them for so long. Unfortunately I couldn’t get away to help you today till later than I’d hoped and—’
Pearl stopped speaking to look round in shock as if she’d only just noticed that there wasn’t any furniture in the room except for one scarred and battered upright chair and a small, wobbly table. Of course, she guessed what had happened.
‘Have things been so bad that you’ve had to sell everything, Livia?’
‘Yes. Dying slowly is rather expensive.’
‘You should have asked me for help. Why didn’t you?’
‘I don’t like to ask for charity.’
‘I’d not count it as charity, it’d have been more accurate to call it helping a relative, don’t you think? And I’d do that willingly, for your mother’s sake as well as for your own.’ She followed that with another of her lovely hugs, then studied the little gold pocket watch pinned to her bodice.
‘It’s a good thing I looked up train times for later today as well as for tomorrow. You’re coming back with me this very afternoon, Livia Blake, and I won’t take no for an answer. I have a spare bedroom and an idea for how to help you use your nursing skills to build an interesting new life.’
Relief shuddered through Livia. ‘Are you sure? I don’t want to be a nuisance. If you can just help me to find a job, I’ll manage.’
‘I’m very sure you can find employment quite easily. People always need nurses, but let’s be practical about how we do this. First, we need to get you to Bristol, then we’ll talk properly about another possibility. What else do you need to deal with here?’
‘I only need to close my suitcase and bring it down from the bedroom, then say goodbye to the next-door neighbours, who’ve been very kind. They can take any furniture that’s left. It isn’t much, but they’re very poor and will welcome anything.’
She gulped and only just managed to hold back more tears. ‘I’m sorry but I’ve so little money left now that I can’t even offer you a cup of tea.’
Pearl gave her a searching look. ‘That doesn’t matter. Did you have any breakfast?’
Livia pointed across to the stale end of a loaf standing on the windowsill, which was the only food she had left. ‘A piece of bread and a drink of water. I wasn’t hungry.’ She’d didn’t tell Pearl that she’d thrown half the slice of bread away, finding it difficult to swallow anything so dry and stale.
‘No wonder you’ve lost so much weight, you poor love.’
Her gentle tone made more tears come into Livia’s eyes. She smeared away the first few, but others escaped and then sobs followed them. She was glad to take the handkerchief Pearl held out and bury another set of sobs in it.
For the past few weeks, everything had been horribly difficult for her to deal with on her own, and poor Nigel’s illness had seemed to go on for ever, a strain on him as well as her. Towards the end, he’d slept a lot, not seeming fully conscious, which had been a relief.
She’d coped and kept him clean at least. But she’d only managed to deal with his pain and medical needs by selling everything they owned, piece by piece.
Pearl glanced down again at the little fob watch hanging from her bodice. ‘Is there someone who can fetch us a cab? I’ll slip them sixpence to hurry. If we leave quickly we should be able to catch the early afternoon train back to Bristol. And isn’t there a little refreshments kiosk at the station? Yes, I thought so. We’ll get you something to eat there and you must force it down, if necessary. I don’t want you fainting on me.’
Livia tried to speak calmly but she felt as if her own words were echoing from a long distance away. ‘The lad next door will go for a cab but you don’t need to pay him that much, Pearl. People would queue up to earn half that amount because there’s not a lot of work round here and hasn’t been for a while.’
‘Will the lad share the money with his mother?’
‘Oh, yes. He’ll give it all to her. Like everyone else round here, that family is struggling to put bread on the table.’
‘Then sixpence seems a fair payment to me and it’s what I wish to offer.’
‘You’re always so kind to people.’
‘I do my best to help others whenever I can, and once you’ve sorted out a new life for yourself I’m sure you will too, my dear girl. In the meantime let me take charge of your life for a while and give you time to recover. I can see that you’re worn out.’
It was an effort even to nod, she felt so weary. ‘Yes, I am rather tired. Thank you.’
They hugged again. Livia was so grateful for those hugs. Each one seemed to make her feel a little better.
She went next door and sent young Wilf off to earn the sixpence. She also told his mother she could have everything that was left in the house, like the stale loaf end, the few pieces of chipped crockery, the chair, the thin old flock mattress and the ragged blanket. She also asked her neighbour to return the keys to the rent man and apologise to him that she couldn’t afford to pay the usual week’s rent in lieu of notice.
Then she went upstairs for the last time and brought down the shabby suitcase, which was only heavy because it contained every single thing she still owned.
A few minutes later there was the sound of hooves and wheels from the end of the narrow street and the lad next door jumped down from a cab that had stopped there to wait for them. The two women walked quickly along to it and Pearl paid the lad his sixpence, which made both him and his mother beam.
As she got into the cab Livia waved and called goodbye and thank you to those of her neighbours waiting in their doorways to see her go. But once the cab set off she didn’t look back again, not even once.
She wanted to leave all the pain behind her, leave everything except the memories of the few years of happy marriage before Nigel fell ill. How long ago those seemed now.
In Bristol they took a cab from the station straight to Pearl’s flat, which was on the first floor of the college. It seemed like a palace to Livia after the mean little house she’d been living in for the past year. It had spacious rooms and windows, and seemed full of light and warmth.
Best of all, there was comfortable furniture, including a highly polished mahogany table with a vase in the middle and two armchairs you could sink right into, which she couldn’t resist trying out straight away. Recently she’d had to manage without most of her furniture, which she’d sold piece by piece to buy food, and her life had been uncomfortable in every way, in body and in mind.
As they stood just inside the guest bedroom, Pearl said gently, ‘You’ll need a few days to rest and regain some of your old vim and vigour. Don’t try to do or decide anything yet, dear, because you won’t be thinking clearly till you’ve recovered your health.’
Livia didn’t protest because she knew Pearl was right, and because she was so very weary.
It was wonderful to be at her cousin’s home. She had books to read and keep her happily entertained for hours while Pearl was at work and enough food at every single meal, good food too. During the day she could stroll round a small park nearby whenever the weather permitted or simply walk along the local streets and stare at the well-kept houses.
And since her friend had an evening function to attend one night and often brought paperwork home to do, this restful period went on for the whole of the first week with early nights most of the time. That suited Livia perfectly because for the first few days she couldn’t seem to get enough sleep.
On the Saturday, however, Pearl looked at her over the breakfast table as they finished their meal. ‘You’re looking a lot better. Are you ready to talk about the future now, dear?’
‘Yes. And I’m more grateful than I can say that you’ve given me this quiet time to rest and recover. I can’t thank you enough.’
‘You’ve been no trouble, Livia dear. I only had to leave you to rest. You even cooked our tea the last three nights. I didn’t realise you were such a good cook.’
‘That task was exactly what I needed. I enjoy cooking, when I have the ingredients that is. But I’m ready to look for a job now.’ It would still take a big effort to go back to work, but she mustn’t depend on Pearl for too long. She had to learn to stand on her own feet again and that meant earning a living.
‘Well, I can easily find you a job as a private nurse, Livia, or you can wait until a position comes vacant in a nearby hospital, but I have what I consider a better suggestion.’
‘Oh? Tell me. If anyone knows what’s going on in the nursing world and what’s the best thing for me to do, it’s you.’
‘Why don’t you enrol for the next course and become a district nurse? You’re good with people, always have been, and I think you’d find that sort of work far more interesting than single-person private nursing, which can be lonely.’
As the idea sank in, Livia began to smile and nod. ‘I’ve read about district nursing at the library and have a vague general idea of what’s involved but I don’t know much about the training district nurses receive or the actual details of what this new type of work involves. I’ve been a bit out of touch with the practicalities of modern nursing since I got married and had to give up work, I must admit. And out of touch with nearly everything since Nigel got really ill.’
Then her face fell. ‘Oh, but how much does the course cost? I don’t have any money left.’
Since she moved here she’d been able to catch up with some of what was going on in the nursing world by reading Pearl’s old newspapers and journals. But her cousin used and referred to articles in back copies for her own job and for the lectures she gave, and kept those in her office at the college, so Livia hadn’t been able to borrow all of them.
She realised her companion was waiting for her to pay attention.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes. Sorry, Pearl. My mind was just – wandering.’
‘That’s all right. You’re bound to be upset by your loss. But you’re starting to look better now and it’s really important that we deal with this soon, so try to concentrate on what I tell you about our course. To get accepted on it, applicants need to have had two years’ experience in hospital nursing, then have done other nursing work in the community as well, so you’re easily eligible to apply for the six months’ training. In fact, you pretended you were older and worked for about five years in all before your marriage, didn’t you? And after your marriage you did part-time odds and ends for a while?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, there you are. You’re fully eligible. After the training has been completed, you will become a Queen’s Nurse and will be able to start looking for an interesting job that will be better paid than usual for a woman. Some places will try to hire you and pay less, but fortunately the country is short of district nurses, so hold your ground on that and you’ll get the wages you deserve.’
‘That sounds . . . interesting.’ Livia gestured with one hand for her companion to continue, listening intently now, because she really liked the sound of this sort of work and the wages she’d be earning. She never wanted to be penniless again or confined to one bedroom nursing a sick relative, even if he was her husband. Never, ever.
‘Different parts of the country are setting up their own District Nursing Associations to organise the work, but most smaller towns or country districts are contenting themselves with becoming affiliated to a larger association. In other words, things are starting to come together all over the country. A job like that would, I’m sure, suit you nicely.’ She waited, a questioning look on her face, but was already sure of what her younger friend would say from the expression on her face.
‘I’d love to do some more training, Pearl, absolutely love it. I’ve always enjoyed learning new things but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m rather out of touch with the latest developments in nursing and medicine generally. You know how quickly things can change.’
‘I’m sure you’d enjoy this course and I have a brochure for you that explains and lists the details of what’s involved in the training. Once you’ve completed the course, however, the job itself is so new that no one has fully fixed ideas of how things should be done. And to make things more difficult, there is country versus town work, so places can have extremely different nursing needs.’
‘Yes, that makes sense. Go on.’
‘The district nurses usually work alone or in pairs in their own areas, especially in the smaller country towns, and they do whatever seems nec. . .
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Secrets of Eastby End
Anna Jacobs
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