Hope - Lesley Pearse [140]
It was a second or two before Hope realized that the burly man wearing nothing but a ragged shirt was in fact a patient who had been brought in early that morning.
Yet to her astonishment Bennett didn’t hesitate at all. He leapt over the rows of sick people until he reached the man, caught hold of his shoulders and pulled him away from Sal.
‘Whatever are you thinking of?’ he exclaimed. ‘This is a hospital!’
The man threw Bennett off him and turned to face him brandishing the knife, his face purple with anger. ‘A hospital! It’s a bloody store room for bodies. You fuckin’ Burker!’
Hope knew that this man had been brought in with three other people who were all in the same lodging house. It was clear now that he wasn’t a cholera victim at all, but had probably been so insensible with drink or opium when the Corporation cart came for his companions, it was thought he was sick too.
‘Calm down,’ Bennett commanded. ‘If you are well you are free to leave here.’
‘Calm fucking down!’ the man yelled, his eyes rolling alarmingly as he made stabbing gestures towards Bennett with his knife. ‘I wakes up to find that old crone robbing me of me breeches, and see I’m locked in a pest house.’
Hope couldn’t believe how calm Bennett was. The man was far heavier and taller than him, and his knife was dangerously close to Bennett’s chest, yet he stood there fearlessly.
‘Put that knife down,’ Bennett said in the kind of gentle tone he used with all the sickest patients. ‘It is no one’s fault but your own that you were collected by the carter. The nurse was only taking your breeches to make you more comfortable; she wasn’t to know you were only sleeping off too much drink.’
‘You brought me here to cut up my body,’ the man shouted back.
Bennett shook his head despairingly. ‘I don’t have the time or inclination to cut up bodies,’ he said. ‘If you look around you’ll see all these other people are desperately sick, and my task is to try to save them. Sal, give him his breeches back and let him out.’
Sal scuttled towards the small adjoining room. Hope guessed she had been stealing the breeches, perhaps because she thought there was money in the pockets. But just when it looked as if the big man was going to back off, he suddenly lunged forward at Bennett with the knife.
Hope screamed, but to her surprise Bennett side-stepped the lunge and caught hold of the man’s forearm, in one swift movement disarming him and knocking him off balance so he fell to the floor.
Bennett picked up the knife and looking down at the man on the ground, he half-smiled.
‘I could have you arrested right now,’ he said. ‘But I’ll let you off this time because I’ve no doubt you were frightened when you awoke to find yourself here. Just count yourself lucky you haven’t got cholera. And in future don’t get so drunk.’
Sal came back with the breeches, her eyes downcast as if expecting Bennett to order her out too.
‘I take it any money in those pockets is still intact?’ Bennett asked her, his tone and expression very stern.
‘Yes, sir,’ she muttered, handing them over.
The man pulled the breeches on – he didn’t appear to have any boots – and slunk towards the door. Bennett unlocked it, handed him his knife back and let him out.
Once the door was locked again Bennett turned to Sal. ‘If I even suspect you’ve taken anyone’s property again, Sal, I shall have you put in the Bridewell,’ he said, his eyes burning into her. ‘But for the grace of God we could all go down with this terrible disease, but while we are healthy it is our duty to treat the sick with kindness. To rob them is a terrible sin.’
‘I’m sorry, doctor,’ she said, eyes downcast, surprisingly not even attempting to deny that was what she intended.
Bennett stepped nearer to the old woman and put one finger under her chin to lift her face up. ‘Go and make yourself a cup of tea now,’ he said gently. ‘I’m sure he frightened you very badly. And in future we must all be vigilant when new