I did not know that was her aim. “

“I wanted to see her, to tell her about us. Of course I couldn’t get to her. She has so much to do and is in constant demand. She is passionately dedicated and on friendly terms with the Palmerstons, the Herberts … and several influential people. But I did get an address to which I could write and I told her about us … you mostly, how you had that feeling for nursing and wanted to learn something about it and that I had heard there was a place called Kaiserswerth. ” Her eyes were sparkling.

“I had a letter back. She did not think we could be taken into Kaiserswerth. That was an institution of which the hospital was only a small part and it was staffed by Deaconesses who had been consecrated by the Church. But some of these Deaconesses had been sent to form institutions in various parts of Germany. There is one of them which is given over almost entirely to a hospital and where young women who wished to train as nurses might be accepted. Miss Nightingale would find out if we were acceptable and let us know. ” She waved the letter at me triumphantly.

“I was waiting for this. Of course I didn’t know whether I should hear anything. But it came this morning. Miss Anna Pleydell’s and Miss Henrietta Marlington’s application to train at Kaiserwald is accepted.”

“Henrietta!” I cried.

“Say I’ve been clever.”

“You have been magnificent, and so secretive.”

“I wanted to burst on you with the whole of the good news. It’s never so effective piecemeal.”

“It’s wonderful.”

“When do we go?”

“Next month?”

“So long to wait?”

“We have to get ready. Besides, we must be here for Lily’s wedding.”

“There’ll be a lot to do. How long shall we be away?”

“Three months, I believe.”

“Does it take that long to train?”

“I can learn a lot in three months. So can you.”

I smiled. It was just what I needed. I wanted to get right away from my thoughts of Aubrey, and having been at the Minster my yearnings for my child had become more intense again.

On a brisk October day Lily was married.

I was pleased to see such a happy sequel to her story. She was radiant and William seemed a very pleasant young man.

Mr. and Mrs. Clift were obviously delighted by the marriage and already fond of Lily; so everything seemed perfect.

The bridal pair were to have a week’s honeymoon in Brighton and then Lily would take up her abode in the Clift household.

Jane and Polly were a little subdued. They were going to lose not only Lily but us. It would be as it had been before I came home, they said.

“Not quite,” I replied, ‘because you’ll be visiting Lily and she will be coming here. She is only going to live round the corner and we shall only be away for a few months. “

“It won’t be quite the same,” said Jane.

“Life never is,” added Polly lugubriously.

Joe was downcast, too.

“Carriages wasn’t meant to sit in mews stables, and horses was meant to be exercised,” he commented.

I told him he must take the carriage out regularly.

“Carriages without passengers is like stew without dumplings,” said Jane.

“It’s not forever. We shall be back.”

Nothing could stem our excitement and we went ahead with our preparations.

At the end of that October Jane and Polly stood at the door waving us off. Polly wiped an eye and I realized afresh how fond I was of them.

Joe drove us to the station.

“I’ll be there to pick you up when you come back,” he said.

“And I’m hoping that will be sooner than later.”

“We shall look for you, Joe,” I said.

“What is it that the newsboys are calling out?”

Joe cocked an ear.

“Something about Russia. There’s always something about Russia.”

“Listen,” I said.

“Russia and Turkey at war,” said Henrietta.

“Well, someone is always at war.”

“War!” I said.

“I hate it. I think of William Clift. It would be awful if he had to go overseas.”

“Russia … Turkey …” said Henrietta.

“That’s a long way off.”

It was true; and we forgot about the war and gave our minds to what lay before us.

When I saw Kaiserwald, I felt as though I had stepped into an enchanted land which belonged in a fairy tale. The house had been a small schloss, with towers and turrets, which had belonged to a nobleman who had given it to the Deaconesses to be used as a hospital.

It was situated among mountains wooded hills and forest. It was a perfect setting, for the bracing air of the mountains was said to be good for patients suffering from respiratory diseases; indeed, such air would be good for us all. A carriage had been waiting to bring us up to the house, and as it climbed the steep road I had felt more and more exhilarated; and when I glanced at Henrietta, I could see that she shared my feelings.

I could smell the redolent odour of pine; I could hear the water of the falls which tumbled down the mountains. Now and then we heard the tinkle of a bell which, our driver told us, meant that cows were nearby. There was a faint haziness in the air which touched everything with a misty blue. Even before I saw Kaiserwald I was entranced.

We came to a clearing in the forest and the carriage pulled up abruptly. A girl was crossing our path. Her long fair hair streamed down her back and she carried a stick; before her waddled six geese, who refused to be hurried.

Our driver called out something to her, to which she responded with a shrug of the shoulders. My German was far from perfect. I had forgotten most of what I had learned at school but I did gather that she was Gerda the Goosegirl who lived with her grandmother in a cottage nearby. He tapped his forehead.

“A little short up there,” he said, which with the help of the gesture I was able to translate.

I replied haltingly that she made a very pretty picture with her geese.

Now we were at the schloss. In front of it was a small lake little more than a pond. Willows trailed in the water and with the mountains in the background it was a sight of breathtaking beauty.

“It’s wonderful,” said Henrietta; and I agreed wholeheartedly.

We drove into a courtyard and then alighted. A young woman came out to greet us. She wore a light blue gown with a white apron over it. She was fair-skinned and fair-haired; and she spoke English. She regarded us with some curiosity, and I fancied I detected a hint of scepticism. She told us afterwards that she had heard we were two English ladies of good family who were interested in nursing, and she did not think we would stay at Kaiserwald more than a week.

We were taken to our bedroom. It was a long dormitory with whitewashed walls and divided into cubicles. In each was a bed. These were our sleeping quarters, she told us, and we should wear white aprons over our gowns and be prepared to perform any tasks which were asked of us.

There were two hundred patients in the hospital, most of them seriously ill.

“We do not take them unless they are,” we were told.

“This place is for the truly sick; and those who come here have to work. It is not often that we have visiting ladies. The Head Deaconess has accepted you to please Miss Nightingale.”

We said we understood and I explained that we were eager to be trained nurses.

“It is only years of work among the sick which can make you that,” was the answer.

“We’re going to make a start,” said Henrietta with a dazzling smile.

Our guide gave her a look of disbelief; and I could understand that.

Henrietta gave the impression that she was made more for gaiety. As for myself, sorrow and experience had no doubt etched a few lines on my face. My manner was more serious, so perhaps I made a better impression.

We were introduced to our fellow workers. Very few of them spoke any English. They were religious people who had come to nursing because they had an aptitude for it. Most of them came from poor homes and it was a livelihood for them, but the atmosphere here was quite different from that which I hadi briefly glimpsed when I had gone to Lily in the London-hospital. We were taken to the Head Deaconess, a lady of great character. She was middle-aged with iron grey hair and cool  grey eyes.

She told us: “Most of the patients here are suffering from J respiratory diseases. Some will never recover. They are sent here from other places throughout Germany because the air is I said to be beneficial. We have two resident doctors Dr. Bruckner and Dr. Kratz.”

Her English was quite good and she went on to tell us about the aims of the hospital.

“I share the views of your own Miss Nightingale,” she said.

“Too little is done to cure the sick. We are pioneers here. Our aim is to arouse people’s consciences to the need to look after the sick and heal them if possible. We I have had some approval for what we are doing and are visited I now and then by doctors from other countries. We have had them from your own country. They are interested in our “I methods. I think we are making a little progress. We are all overworked here and you will find living far from luxurious. “

“We did not expect anything else,” I said.

“Our patients demand a great deal of time. There is little leisure, and when there is we are far from towns.”

“You have the beautiful forests and the mountains.”

She nodded.

“We shall see,” she said, and I knew that she, like the Deaconess who had brought us in, did not expect us to stay.

It was not easy. I was amazed that Henrietta accepted it. With me, it was different. I wanted hard work; I wanted forgetfulness; and to find myself in unusual circumstances was of great benefit to me.

We lived like Spartans. We had expected to work hard but not quite so persistently. We were required to do whatever was needed. I was struck by the cleanliness of the ward. The bed linen had to be washed by us and we must scrub the floors. We arose at five in the morning and were often working hard until seven in the evening, until, said Henrietta, the patients were tucked up in their beds. It was a religious order and when we had finished our work we assembled for a reading from the Bible, prayers and the singing of hymns. During the first week I was so exhausted at the end of the day that I went to bed, where I sank into delicious sleep and did not wake until the rising bell. In a way it reminded me of school.

Meals were taken in a long hall with whitewashed walls and we sat at a long table where we all had our places to which we were expected to keep.

Breakfast was just before six o’clock and usually consisted of rye bread and a drink which I believed was made of ground rye. It was peasant food. We served the patients’ food at eleven o’clock and assembled in the hall at twelve to have ours. There was broth, vegetables, and a little meat or fish.

We had a few hours off duty now and then, and after the first week when we were too tired to do anything but lie on our beds and talk desultorily we would walk down to the edge of the lake and sit there listening to the sound of the breeze in the pines; even though we were accustomed to the hard work by that time, all we wanted to do was sit and rest. I felt extraordinarily at peace.

Sometimes, as we sat there, people would pass on the way to the village which was only about a quarter of a mile away from the hospital. Most of the people had a few animals cows mostly and many of them did embroidery on dresses and blouses which were sold in the shops in the towns. The woodcutter would walk by with his axe over his shoulder and call a greeting to us. They all knew who we were and respected us as the nurses of Kaiserwald and they showed us the utmost courtesy.

It was a long time since I had felt so happy.

Best of all I loved the work in the ward. It was a long room with bare whitewashed walls and at each end there was a large crucifix. The beds were close together and there was a curtain across the room dividing the men’s section from that of the women. The doctors worked constantly and I think they had a mild contempt for the nurses and particularly Henrietta and myself, for they knew that we were not working for a e of nursing. No doubt they thought we were ladies indulging in a light-hearted adventure to relieve the boredom of our useless lives.

This attitude irritated me far more than it did Henrietta. I was determined to show them that I was not playing at being a nurse. I knew that I had a special flair for this kind of work and I was gratified when one of the patients had an attack of hysterics and no one could calm her not even the doctors but myself. I think their feelings towards me changed after that and even the Head Deaconess became interested in me.