over Hetty’s lap, one of many she was making to donate to the abandoned babies on the wards upstairs. ‘I’m not sure there is much I can do for your daughter at the moment, I’m afraid,’ Alice said quietly as she eased herself into the narrow space on the bench beside Hetty.
The stale smell that pervaded the air in the department intensified. Alice stilled for a moment and frowned. There was a pause and then she said: ‘How Mr Simpkins manages his money is only something I can involve myself in if invited, but I suspect –’
‘Oh yes, we know most of his income ends up in the tills of the Red Lion, duck,’ Hetty said, lowering her knitting needles to her lap. ‘No, you don’t want to be involving yourself with him. He’d thrash you soon as look at you. Poor Billy’s been on the wrong side of his fist many a time, I’m sad to say. Isn’t that right, Ted?’
Her husband leaned around her and nodded ruefully, his jaw stiff. ‘Thanks for trying, Miss Alice,’ he said softly. ‘It’s much appreciated.’
Alice pressed her lips together and squeezed Hetty’s hand. ‘I am going to have a word with one of the doctors here, to see if I can arrange a house call to Billy. I will let you know if –’
She stopped abruptly as Hetty winced and clamped a hand to her chest. Alice peered at her. ‘Are you alright, Hetty?’
The woman closed her eyes briefly, her hands closing tight around one of the knitting needles on her lap. ‘Yes, duck, not too bad. I’m just worried about Billy. Is it his chest again?’
‘You must try not to worry,’ Alice said slowly, her eyes still fixed on the elderly woman. ‘I’ll see what I can do to help. In the meantime, I think we should get the doctor to have a little look at you, Hetty.’
‘Oh, there’s nothing wrong with me, duck.’ Hetty made a shooing motion with her hand. The fetid smell in the air turned rancid.
The almoner leaned forward again and looked at Ted, her eyebrows raised. Even almoners without previous nursing experience had a knack for spotting serious problems, their everyday exposure to all sorts of suffering helping them to develop a practised eye. Ted shifted in his seat, looking between the almoner and his wife, and then he seemed to reach a decision. He turned to his wife. ‘She’s right, love, I think you should do what she says. It’s gone on long enough.’ Hetty shot him an angry look. He reached for her hand and patted it, though his eyes were on Alice. ‘She’s been in pain for a while now, Miss, but all she can think about is getting Tilda sorted.’
The woman gave her husband another irritated look. ‘I don’t want any fuss made,’ she told the almoner. ‘I’d rather you spent your time trying to help Tilda get straight.’
Alice reached for her other hand. ‘We can do both, Mrs Woods. Don’t you worry, I will see to it that we do both.’
The nurse in charge of the chest ward and associated clinic, Sister Nell Smith, was a formidable member of the Royal Free Hospital’s staff. A skinny-framed woman with delicate, bird-like features, she was on her feet as soon as the double doors to the department swung open, her sharp eyes trained on Alice as the almoner approached the main reception.
‘Ah, please tell me you’re here to sort this mess out, Miss Hudson. It’s been like Casey’s Court up here.’
Alice frowned. ‘I don’t know anything about any mess. I would like to speak with Dr Harland, please.’
Nell scoffed. ‘Yes, you and me both. I’m afraid the good doctor’s done one of his disappearing acts again. Anyway, someone’s got to sort this charade out.’ She folded her arms across her flat chest. ‘I’m short on beds, long on admissions and running out of patience.’
‘I’m afraid I’m not following, Nell. I’m here to book a patient in for an urgent appointment.’
The nurse dipped her head towards the male ward on the left-hand side of reception. ‘Not before you’ve sorted out old lover boy in there,’ she said. ‘I’ve had just about enough of it. Two of them we’ve had up here since yesterday, all in varying stages of confinement. I’ve never known anything like it. And I’m still waiting on those two convalescence places you promised me last week.’
Alice took her hat off and rested it on the high desk. She scratched her head. ‘Are we talking about Jimmy Rose, by any chance?’
The nurse nodded. ‘One and the same. If he can’t keep his women under control he’ll have to go elsewhere. I’ll not have my department made into a harem for the likes of him.’
Alice took a long breath in. ‘I’ll have a word.’
‘Cup of tea when you’re done?’ Nell called out as Alice walked away.
‘I would love to,’ Alice said over her shoulder, ‘but I have to make some house calls today, and I have several convalescences to organise, remember?’
The newly washed tiled floor gleamed under the bright lights overhead as Alice made her way past the unmanned nurses’ station at the head of the male ward. There were twenty beds on the ward: ten at evenly spaced intervals along one side, another ten mirroring those on the opposite wall. Beside each bed was a side table with a jug and basin on top, and a cup for water.
Locating Jimmy wasn’t a difficult task. Several beds along the ward were empty, the nightgown-clad occupants gathered around a bed at the far end of the ward, where faint plumes of smoke were rising into the air. ‘Ahh, hello, my darling,’ Jimmy said jovially on sight of the almoner, his teeth clamped around the end of a cigarette. It jiggled as he spoke, particles of ash escaping and dropping onto the starched sheets. ‘What a treat for the eyes, so you are.’
The other patients, each holding a set of cards in one hand and a cigarette in the other, exchanged glances and grinned. ‘I would like to have a word with you, Jimmy,’ the almoner said authoritatively.
‘Nothing would give me more pleasure, my darling.’
‘In private, please,’ Alice said, with a fierce glance around the assembled group.
‘Later then, gentlemen.’ Jimmy dismissed his guests with a wave of his nicotine stained fingers and then gathered up the coins that were piled up in the middle of his bed.
Once the other patients had returned to their beds, Alice sat on the chair closest to Jimmy’s. ‘It has been reported that you have had a number of unexpected visitors, Jimmy,’ she began. ‘Intimate associates of yours, so it would seem?’
‘Ah, that. Yeah, I have no idea why they’re targeting me, Miss Hudson, so I don’t. I suppose it’s because I’m such a nice fella.’ He ran his fingers through his dark curls. ‘They get themselves into trouble and think that I’m too soft-hearted to turn them away in their hour of need.’
Alice shook her head and pursed her lips. The almoners were accustomed to unravelling emotional tangles. After only a short time in the job, there was very little that shocked them. ‘You need to sort it out, Jimmy. We cannot have the ward turned into a poker den, and most certainly not a harem. Sister will not allow it.’
‘Oh I will, darling, don’t worry your pretty little head about that.’
Alice rolled her eyes and then informed him that she would be turning her attention to his case in the next few days. ‘Before I go, I shall note down the name of your employer.’
