‘You’re not helping him, Gertie!’ She snatched the swab from my hand. ‘Remember, there are a million microbes trying to enter this wound and kill our gallant soldier. We must destroy them! If our soldier suffers some discomfort, reassure him you’re saving his life. Sepsis and gangrene kill more than any of Kaiser Bill’s bullets. Do you understand?’ she shouted, scrubbing vigorously at the wound.

‘Yes, nurse. Sorry, nurse.’ I glanced at the soldier’s face. For a moment, his pain had gone and he winked.

Josephine’s voice softened a little. ‘Now go back to saving lives, and take no nonsense from these men.’ She faced the soldier.

‘Young man, if I catch you staring at this VAD’s chest once more, I’ll find the biggest ogre on the camp to give you a cold bed-bath, do you understand?’ Weak laughter came from neighbouring beds.

The soldier’s eyes flicked to my breasts and his face lit with a grin that dimmed the pallor of his pain.

Josephine winked, and I understood a part of nursing that would never be seen in the medical manuals. Pain relief was a state of mind, as well as opiates in a syringe.

Dear Mother and Father,

I hope this letter finds you well. Father will be pleased to hear I am learning so much.

I put on a brave face, but the truth is I have at times been overwhelmed by it all. However, every day is less shocking.

Today we were introduced to the doctors and surgeons and we visited the other military hospitals, to observe how they were run.

The first hospital, wards of tents, housed almost two thousand men with arms, legs, or faces blown off. The face wounds are the worst! Then, we had elevenses – bread, blackcurrant jam and strong tea. Next, the blinded soldiers. Five hundred of them learning to accept their future. The cripples will get new limbs, but the blinded?

The tents overflow, with hardly walking space between bodies. Wards are divided into ailments, dysentery being the largest with thirty thousand cases! Also, six thousand frostbites from who knows where. Add rheumatic fever, shrapnel injuries, and bullet wounds, and the figures become impossible.

Apart from this, I am fine and strive to excel in memory of our Arthur and Sissy.

Do not be alarmed if the letters are sparse once I start work in earnest.

Your loving daughter,

Gertie X

*

Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

SHELLY

Dover, present day.

SHELLY OPENED THE DOOR. DJ thrust a bunch of flowers at her. They both said ‘Hi,’ in the first breath, laughed awkwardly in the second breath, swallowed hard and gazed at each other.

‘Are you going to ask me in?’ he said gently.

‘Actually, shall we go to the pub? We’ve got half an hour before dinner.’

He let out a gust of air, his shoulders dropped. ‘Great plan, thanks.’