The Seaside Angel by Evie Grace

Author:Evie Grace [Grace, Evie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473562639
Publisher: Random House
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

When the Remedy is Worse than the Disease

Over the next three weeks, there was much debate between the physicians and surgeons about the approach to the scrofula in Samuel’s elbow joint. Mr Anthony wanted to amputate his arm while Doctor Clifton wanted to give a longer course of thalassotherapy. On the morning of the ball, they were still arguing over it.

‘If the scrofula should reappear in the other arm, then amputation would be a disaster for the boy,’ Doctor Clifton said. ‘We shouldn’t be too quick to chop out the diseased tissue in this case. I don’t think we would be able to say with a clear conscience that we’d done right by him.’

‘What do you suggest, then?’

‘A dose of Hirudo medicinalis.’

‘Isn’t that rather outdated? Gone are the days when physicians let blood.’

‘I think it would do no harm and may do much good. If it makes no difference, then we’ve lost nothing.’

‘Except that you will have lost face, Doctor Clifton,’ Mr Anthony smirked. ‘All right. If you must, but this wasn’t my idea, remember? I don’t want to be mocked for sending the house back into the Dark Ages, when the afflicted might hug a chicken to his chest to suppress a cough, or hold a hanged man’s hand to cure goitre.’

Doctor Clifton turned to Hannah.

‘Sister, you will apply’ – he lowered his voice so that Samuel couldn’t hear him – ‘the leech.’

‘I’ll order one from the dispensary.’ They were kept with the other medicines, in ornate jars suspended in murky water and unfed for up to a year. The thought of it made her flesh crawl – she’d line Charlotte or Nurse May up for the task. She smiled to herself – that was one great advantage of being a sister. One could delegate.

Later, a dispensary nurse came in with a tray with a lid on top.

‘I have something for you, I believe,’ she grinned, as Hannah walked across to take it from her.

‘It’s just what I’ve always wanted,’ she chuckled. ‘Nurse Finch, where are you?’

‘She’s gone to clean the bedpans with Nurse May.’ Beckett looked up from where he’d made a station for the toy train out of boxes and pencils. ‘She said it would take them quite some time. Shall I fetch her for you?’

‘No, thank you. I’ll do it.’ Hannah left the ward, keeping half an eye on what was going on behind her, in case the boys took advantage of her brief absence to get up to mischief. She hesitated outside the door to the sluice and listened for a moment. At the sound of clattering and laughter, she pushed the door open to find Nurse May leaning on the handle of her mop, while Nurse Finch twirled across the room from the sink to the cupboard, holding a broom across her chest.

‘That, so Henry’s told me, is how to dance a waltz!’ Charlotte broke off abruptly. ‘Sister! Oh dear.’

Hannah didn’t need to tell them off for malingering – they knew they’d done wrong.

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