Maisie Dobbs

  “Did you remember to tie the scarf, Maisie?” asked Iris, referring to the cloth tied to the tent pole, which would indicate to the orderlies that the nurses inside were on the first shift to be called if wounded came in at night.

  “Yes. It’s there, Iris. ’Night.”

  “’Night, Maisie.”

  Often Maisie would fall into a deep sleep immediately upon climbing into her cot. Time and again her dreaming mind took her back to Chelstone, walking toward her father in the orchard. Yet as she came closer to him, he moved away, reaching up to pick rosy red apples before moving on. She would call out to him, and he would turn and wave, but he did not stop, he did not wait for her. This Frankie Dobbs simply picked the deep red apples, placed them in his wicker basket, and moved through the long grass of late summer.

  Such was the weight he carried, that rich red juice ran from the bottom of the basket, leaving a trail for her to follow. She tried to run faster, yet her long, heavy woolen dress soaked up the red juice, clung to her legs, and caught in the grass, and as the distance between them extended, Maisie cried out to him.“Dad, Dad, Dad!”

  “Bloody hell, whatever is the matter with you?”

  Iris sat up in bed and looked across at Maisie who, in her sudden wakefulness, lay on her back staring straight toward the top of the main tent pole, her violet eyes following drops of rainwater as they squeezed through the canvas and ran down to the ground.

  “Are you all right?”

  Iris leaned over and nudged Maisie.

  “Yes. Yes, thanks. Bad dream. It was a bad dream.”

  “Not even time to get up yet. Brrr. Why doesn’t it ever seem to get warm here? Here we are in the third week of May, and I’m freezing!”

  Maisie did not answer, but drew the blankets closer to her jaw.

  “We’ve got another half an hour. Then let’s get up and go and get ourselves a mug of that strong tea,” said Iris, making an attempt to reclaim the comfort of deep sleep.

  “Looks like we’ve got some ’elp coming in today, ladies.”

  One of the medical officers sat down with Iris and Maisie, ready to gossip as he sipped scalding tea and took a bite out of the thick crust of bread.

  “Lord, do we need it! There’s never enough doctors, let alone nurses,” said Iris, taking her mug and sitting down on a bench next to Maisie.

  “What’s happened?” asked Maisie.

  “Think they’re coming in from the hospital up the line. We’ve been getting so many in each day ’ere, and someone pushing a pencil at a desk finally got wind of it. Some docs are being moved. Down ’ere first.”

  Maisie and Iris looked at each other. She had written to Simon only yesterday. He had said nothing to her about being moved. Was it possible that he was one of the doctors being sent to the casualty clearing station?

  “Mind you, they might not like it much, what with them shells coming in a bit closer lately,” added the medical officer.

  “I thought the red cross meant that we were safe from the shelling,” said Iris, cupping her hands around her mug.

  “Well, it’s supposed to be safe. Red crosses mark neutral territory.”

  “When will they arrive . . . from the hospital?” asked Maisie, barely disguising her excitement. Excitement laced with trepidation.

  “End of the week, by all accounts.”

  It was late afternoon when new medical personnel began to appear. Maisie was walking through the ward, with men in various stages of recovery waiting for transportation to a military hospital in beds on either side of her, when she saw the silhouette she knew so well on the other side of the canvas flap that formed a wall between the ward and the medicines area. It was the place where nurses prepared dressings, measured powders, made notes, and stood to weep, just for a moment, when another patient was lost.

  He was here. In the same place. They were together.

  Without rushing, and continuing to check her patients as she made her way toward Simon, Maisie struggled to control her beating heart. Just before she drew back the flap of canvas, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then walked through into the medicines area.

  He was on his own, looking through the pile of records, and familiarizing himself with the stocks of medicines and dressings. As Maisie entered, Simon looked up. For a moment neither moved.

  Simon broke the silence, holding out his hand and taking hers.

  “Why didn’t you tell me in your letter?” whispered Maisie, looking around, fearful that someone might see her speaking with Simon.

  “I didn’t know I’d be sent. Not until yesterday.” He smiled. “But now we’re together. Couldn’t believe my luck, Maisie.”

  She held his hand tighter.“I am so glad. So glad that you are here. And safe.”

  “Good omen, don’t you think? That we’re here in the same place.”

  In the distance Maisie heard a wounded soldier calling for her, “Sister. In ’ere. Quick.”

  Simon held onto Maisie’s hand for a second before she rushed to attend to her patient.

  “I love you, Maisie,” he said, and brought her hand to his lips.

  She nodded, smiled, and ran to her duties.

  Working side by side was easier than either had thought it might be. For three days, wounded were brought in to the hospital and, time and time again, Maisie saw another side of the Simon she loved, the Simon who had stolen her heart as she danced in a blue silk dress. He was a brilliant doctor.

  Even under the most intense pressure, Simon Lynch worked not just to save a life but to make that soldier’s life bearable when the soldiering was done. With Maisie at his side, ready to pass instruments to him even before he asked—to clear the blood from wounds as he brought shattered bones together and stitched vicious lacerations— Simon used every ounce of knowledge garnered in the hospitals of England and in the operating tents of the battlefield.

  “Right, on to the next one,” said Simon, as one patient was moved and orderlies pushed forward with another soldier on a stretcher.

  “What’s waiting for us in the line?”

  “Sir, we’ve got about a dozen legs, four very nasty heads, three chests, three arms, and five feet—and that’s only as far as the corner. Ambulances coming in all the time, sir.”

  “Make sure we get the ones who can travel on the road as soon as possible. We need the room, and they need to be at the base hospital.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The orderlies hurried away to bring in the next soldier, while Simon looked down at the wounded man now dependent upon his judgment and skill, a young man with hair the color of sun-drenched wheat, and a leg torn apart by shrapnel. A young man who watched his every move so intently.

  “Will you be able to save me leg, sir? Don’t want to be an ol’ peg-leg, do I?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll do my best. Can’t have you not able to chase the ladies, can we, Corporal?” Simon smiled at the man, despite his exhaustion.

  Maisie looked up at Simon, then down at the corporal, and as Simon removed the shrapnel, she cleaned the bleeding wounds so that he could see the extent of the injury. To keep the soldier’s spirits up— this man so conscious of everything happening around him—Maisie would look up for a second from her work and smile at him. And as Simon cut skin and brought together flesh, muscle, and bone that had been torn apart, the soldier took heart. For though he could not see Maisie’s smile through the white linen mask that shielded part of her face, her warm blue eyes told the soldier what he wanted to hear. That all would be well.

  “Right. On your way to Blighty you are, my man. Done the best for you here, and God knows you’ve done your best for Blighty. The sooner you get home, the sooner they’ll get you moving again. Rest assured, Corporal, the leg is staying with its owner.”

  “Thank you, Captain, sir. Thank you, Sister. Never forget you, ever.”

  The soldier looked intently at Simon and Maisie, fighting the morphine to remember their faces. A “Blighty,” a wound sufficiently
severe to warrant being sent back to England—and he would keep his leg. He was a lucky man.

  “This one’s ready for transport. We’re ready for the next one.”

  Simon called out to the orderlies, and Maisie prepared the table as Corporal William Beale was taken to an ambulance for transfer to a base hospital closer to the port. He would be home within two days.

  “I feel sorry for the ones who are left,” said Maisie.

  She and Simon were walking by moonlight along a corridor of ground between the tents, quiet and ready to part quickly should they be seen together. Distant sporadic gunfire punctured their conversation.

  “Me too. Though the ones I ache for are the ones who are injured so terribly, so visibly to the face or limbs. And the ones whose injuries can’t be seen.”

  “In the London Hospital, there were many times when a woman cried with relief at the passing of her husband or son. They had wounds that the family couldn’t cope with—that people on the street couldn’t bear to see.”

  She moved closer to Simon, who took her hand.

  “It’ll be over soon. It has to be, Maisie. The war just can’t go on like this. Sometimes I feel as if I’m doctoring in a slaughterhouse. One body of raw flesh after another.”

  Simon stopped and drew Maisie to him and kissed her.“My Maisie of the blue silk dress. I’m still waiting for an answer.”

  Maisie drew back and looked into Simon’s eyes. “Simon, I said to ask again when this is over. When I can see a future.”

  “That’s the trouble,” said Simon, beginning to tease her, “Sometimes I think you can see the future—and it gives me chills!”

  He held her to him again.“I tell you what, Maisie. I promise that I won’t ask you again until the war is over. We’ll walk together on the South Downs and you can give me your answer then. How about it?”

  Maisie smiled and looked into his eyes, bright in the moonlight. Simon, Simon, my love, she thought, how I fear this question. “Yes. Yes, Simon. Ask me again on the South Downs. When the war is over.”

  And Simon threw back his head and laughed, without thought for who might hear him.

  “God . . . .”

  Simon’s lips were drawn across his teeth as he looked at the wound to the soldier’s chest, and uttered his plea to the heavens. Maisie immediately began cleaning the hole created by shrapnel, while Simon stanched the flow of blood. Nurses, doctors, anesthetists, orderlies, and stretcher-bearers were everywhere, rushing, running, working to save lives.

  Maisie wiped the sweat from Simon’s brow and continued to work on the wound. Simon inspected the extent of the injury. Lights flickered, and the tent shuddered.

  “God, I can hardly even see in here.”

  Suddenly it seemed as if the battlefield had come to the hospital. As they worked to save the lives of men being brought in by the dozen, the tent shook again with the impact of a shell at close quarters.

  “What the bloody hell . . .?”

  “Sir, sir, I think we’re coming under fire,” an orderly shouted across to Simon. The operating tent was becoming part of the battlefield itself. Maisie swallowed the sour liquid that had come up from her stomach and into her mouth. She looked at Simon, and to combat her fear, she smiled at him. For one second he returned her smile broadly, then turned again to his patient. They could not stop.

  “Well, then. Let’s get on with it!”

  Let’s get on with it.

  Those were the last words she heard Simon speak.

  Let’s get on with it.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  It was on a warm afternoon in late September that Maisie stepped out of the MG and looked up at the front of an imposing Georgian building in Richmond. Two Grecian-style columns stood at either side of the steps, which in turn led to the heavy oak doors of the main entrance. The house had once been a grand home with gardens that extended down toward the Thames, where the great river grew broader on its meandering journey from the village of Thame in Oxfordshire, after it emerged as a small stream. From Richmond it would rush on toward London, through the city, and into the sea, fresh and salt water meeting in a swirling mass. Maisie loved to look at the river. There was calm to be found in viewing water. And Maisie wanted to remain calm. She would walk to the water and back, to get her bearings.

  The Retreat affair had been brought to its conclusion. Jenkins was now at Broadmoor, incarcerated with those who were considered mentally ill and dangerous. Archie and others involved in Jenkins’s wrongdoing at The Retreat were also in institutions where they would find a measure of compassion and solace. They were not being held “at His Majesty’s Pleasure” but would be released in time. Other men had returned to families or to their solitary lives, some finding renewed understanding.

  Billy Beale found that he did not really enjoy publicity, that it was enough for him to go about his business each day, though if a person needed help, then he, Billy Beale, was the man.

  “Of course, the missus don’t mind gettin’ a bit extra when she goes into that skinflint butcher for a nice bit of lamb, and the attention’s brought a bit of a smile to ’er face. But me, I dunno. I’m not your big one for bein’ noticed on the street.”

  Maisie laughed at Billy, who daily told of the latest encounter that came as a result of being the hero of events at The Retreat. He was supervising the placement of her new office furniture, which had just been moved to a larger room on the first floor of a grand building in Fitzroy Square, just around the corner from the Warren Street premises. Finally giving in to Lady Rowan’s insistent nagging, Maisie would now be living in her own rooms at the Belgravia house.

  “Look, my dear, Julian and I have decided to spend most of our dotage at Chelstone. Of course we’ll come up for the Season, and for the theater and so on. But it is so much calmer in Kent, don’t you think?”

  “Well, Lady Rowan . . . .”

  “Oh, no, I suppose it wasn’t that calm for you, was it?” Lady Rowan laughed and continued. “Anyway, with James on his way to Canada to take care of our business interests again—thank heavens— the house will be all but empty. We’ll have a skeleton staff here, naturally. Maisie, I must insist you take over the third-floor living rooms. In fact, I need you to.”

  Eventually Maisie concurred. Despite the fact that business was coming in at a respectable clip, Billy was now working for her, and money saved on her own rent would contribute to his wages.

  As was Maurice’s habit at the closure of a case, Maisie had visited the places of significance in The Retreat affair. During her apprenticeship, she had learned the importance of such a ritual, not only to ensure the integrity of notes that would be kept for reference, but for what Maurice referred to as a “personal accounting,” to allow her to begin to work with new energy on the next case.

  Maisie had walked once more in Mecklenburg Square, though she did not seek a meeting with Celia Davenham. She had received a letter from Celia after events at The Retreat became headline news. Celia had not referred to the inconsistency with the surname Maisie had given, but instead thanked her for helping to put Vincent’s memory to rest.

  She took tea at Fortnum & Mason, and at Nether Green Cemetery she placed fresh daisies on the graves of Vincent and his neighbor Donald, and stopped to speak to the groundsman whose son rested in a place overlooked by passing trains.

  Maisie drove down to Kent in early September, when the spicy fragrance of dry hops still hung in the warm air of an Indian summer. She passed lorries and open-top buses carrying families back to the East End of London after their annual pilgrimage to harvest the hops, and smiled when she heard the sound of old songs lingering on the breeze. There was nothing like singing together to make a long journey pass quickly.

  She drew the car alongside menacing heavy iron gates, and looked up, not at blooms, but this time at blood red rosehips overgrown on the wall. The Retreat was closed. Heavy chains hung on the gates and a sign with the insignia of the Kent Constabulary instructed trespassers to keep
out.

  Because memories had been given new life by her investigation, they too were part of her personal accounting. Maisie wrote letters to Priscilla, now living with her husband and three young sons in the South of France, each boy bearing the middle name of an uncle he would never know; to the famous American surgeon Charles Hayden and his family; and to Iris, who lived in Devon with her mother. Like many young women who came of age in the years 1914–18, Iris had no husband, for her sweetheart had been lost in the war. Maisie’s letters did not tell the story of The Retreat, but only reminded the recipients that she thought of them often, and was well.

  Now, as Maisie stood in the gardens of the grand house, looking out over the river and reflecting once again upon how much had happened in such a short time, she knew that for her future to spread out in front of her, she must face the past.

  She was ready.

  The conversation demanded by Billy had untied a knot in her past, one that bound her to the war in France over ten years ago.

  Yes, it was time. It was more than time.

  “Miss Dobbs, isn’t it?”

  The woman at the reception desk smiled up at Maisie, her red lipstick accentuating a broad smile that eased the way for visitors to the house. She crossed Maisie’s name off the register of expected guests and leaned forward, pointing with her pen.

  “Go along the corridor to your left, just over there, then down to the nurses’ office. On the right. Can’t miss it. They’re expecting you. Staff Nurse will take you on from there.”

  “Thank you.”

  Maisie followed the directions, walking slowly. Massive flower arrangements on each side of the marble corridor gave forth a fragrance that soothed her, just as the sight of water had calmed her before she entered. Yes, she was glad she had made this decision. For some reason it was not so hard now. She was stronger. The final part of her healing was near.