wife, waddle underneath some rusty old scaffolding erected to give the Double Crown a much-needed facelift. She was picking up the debris left from the workmen’s lunches and throwing it in a dented bin. The newly painted white stucco stood out against the dark oak beams. Several patrons, who stood outside chatting, nodded approvingly at the changes.
“Nice job ya done, Missus Peck,” a man in uniform shouted through the scaffolds.
She stood up quickly, knocked her head on a board, cursed, and waved. “Glad you’ve lived to enjoy a pint, love,” she said, grinning. She crouched down and continued removing debris.
“This scaffolding is too much like a ladder,” Clara said as she stepped into the street to avoid walking under it.
Di laughed, shaking her head. “You are superstitious!”
“I need to be. I’ve had my share of bad luck.”
“I know you have.” Di reached out and squeezed her friend’s hand.“Let’s be happy,” Clara said. “For Ivy’s sake. It’s all so confusing. I’ve made the best decision, but I will always miss my homeland.” Di pressed her finger to Clara’s lips. They had already had this conversation.
A man dressed in a shapeless brown tweed suit stepped out of the pub and motioned for the incoming customers to stop. “You’ll need to wait in the entryway ’cause we got a full house. ’Bout ten minutes should do it. Judge a pub by its lineups,” he said, grinning, then scooted back inside.
“Phew! I can smell the musty beer from here,” Clara said, screwing up her nose in distaste.
“With prohibition you won’t have any damp pubs in Canada,” Di said, laughing.
“Ah, well, that’s why some Scotch whisky and brandy will be crossing the Atlantic in my steamer trunk.” Clara chuckled. “I remember returning to the hospital after purchasing my libation to find Dr. Newbury imitating Canadian temperance ladies marching in large feathered hats to seize all the medicinal beer in the Galt Hospital. The soldiers had been asking about his hometown, Lethbridge. They stopped laughing when they saw me, of course, but I pretended to be absorbed in reading a chart. But Dr. Newbury had his back to me and didn’t notice. ‘Lethbridge ladies of the night work in cozy brothels,’ he was saying. ‘In Montreal, they work on the street in the midst of danger and crime.’” Clara’s face became thoughtful. “Dr. Newbury is as wise as he is witty. I would never have made the decision to go where my sister was banished without his encouragement.”
Di put her arms around Clara and they held this embrace until Miff marched into the entryway and said: “Ladies, we’ve been waiting. I didn’t notice you’d arrived. The waiter has asked us to move to a smaller booth to make way for a larger party.”
“Hurry on in, mates,” the man in the rumpled suit urged. “We’re filled to the rafters.”
The atmosphere in the Double Crown was jovial, and lively conversations echoed through the smoke-filled room. Everyone seemed to be talking at once. Across the room, the offer “Want a Players?” resonated, suggesting rationing of cigarettes was slowly easing. Waiters wearing white shirts and black trousers wove through rows of heavy oak tables, holding up trays topped with jugs or glasses filled to the brim. They had towels draped over their shoulders, ready to mop up spilled beer. Several tables, pushed together to seat larger groups, made it difficult for the waiters to pass. A waiter’s swinging hip knocked one of the tables, causing a huge splash of beer and a clatter of broken glass as a jug tipped onto the floor. “If that happened at the club,” exclaimed Miff, “the waiter would lose his job.”
“Women aren’t allowed at your club, Miff, so don’t fuss about spilled beer,” Addy retorted.
Di interjected, pulling a box from under the table, “Your auntie and I have a present for you, Ivy, to keep you warm at the North Pole.”
“You know I’m not going to the North Pole,” Ivy said, putting her hands on her hips and smiling. “Can I try it on?” she asked, bouncing on her seat as she tore open the box and saw what it contained.
“Oh my, rabbit fur!” Clara said as she let Ivy slip out to try on the coat. There was a matching hat that she set on the table.
“Don’t that little miss look smart,” a man sitting opposite said to his companion.
Ivy blushed and refused to put on the hat, but she went around the table to give Di and her aunt each a big hug.
With Ivy momentarily out of earshot while she went to the washroom, Miff began questioning Clara. “What do you expect to be doing exactly at the hospital? Do you know anything about the Galt? With whom have you corresponded?” Miff looked concerned. He had attended to Clara’s finances and, finding them tight due to George’s poor planning, he had advanced her a hundred pound sterling “to be paid back at any time.”
Clara lowered her voice. “I’ve communicated with Dr. Orr, who is the medical officer of public health for Alberta. He wrote me that there’s a serious problem in that province with the rapid spread of venereal disease brought back by the soldiers. The highest incidence is in Lethbridge. He explained that it’s not surprising since the city had the highest enlistment for its population in all of the Dominion.”
“Well, that suggests great loyalty to our country,” Miff said, nodding approval.
“What about your living arrangement?” Di asked, joining the conversation. “We worry about you being so far away.”
“I’ll have a small flat in the nurses’ home. I was sent a photo, and it seems that the home is attached to the hospital. The nursing students, or what we call probationers, live there as well.”
“What’s this segregated area you’ve talked about, Clara?” Addy asked, frowning.
“It sounds very American,” Di interjected.
“No, it’s quite Canadian.” Clara laughed.
“But you’re a surgical nurse, not a social worker,” Addy added.
“Well, it looks as though I’ll be both. Lethbridge began as a mining town filled with amorous bachelors, so it tolerated prostitutes. The segregated area is a red-light district for brothels and some Chinese merchants that citizens refuse to have in the downtown area. Prohibition complicates things, according to Dr. Orr. He indicated that brothels are also a place to have a drink and as such most prosecutions are for liquor infractions. The ladies of the night themselves are rarely charged. I won’t know much more than that until I arrive.”
Ivy was now sitting down again beside her mother, and Addy gave Miff a censoring look.
“Dr. Orr covers the entire province. I’ll be working more closely with Dr. Morris Lafayette, the medical officer of health for Lethbridge.”
“What a strange combination of English and French,” Miff said.
“Dr. Newbury explained that Dr. Lafayette’s mother changed Maurice to Morris when her husband died to appease her Scottish family, who never approved of her marriage to a Frenchman.” Clara looked at her brother-in-law. “I’ll have my challenges, Miff. I know that.”
Miff put his arm around Clara. “We’re going to miss you both terribly.”
Chapter
