Hope - Lesley Pearse [180]
It was good to be in a better hospital, but Hope found herself to be an anomaly there. She had far superior nursing skills and medical knowledge to the ladies who worked charitably as volunteer nurses, but she wasn’t of their class. And the nurses from her own background appeared to resent her because she wasn’t quite one of them either. Missing Bennett, afraid that the day would never come when she’d be his wife, and frustrated that the vast majority of people saw nursing as a lowly profession, there wasn’t much to cheer her. Often she felt she was trapped on a kind of treadmill going now here.
But in January 1854 Bennett had come back to England, insisting they get married as soon as they could arrange it.
He had changed a great deal during his time in South Africa. Aside from his bronzed face, sun-bleached hair and more muscular body from regular riding, he was also much more assertive, confident and worldly. He’d learned a lot from older regimental doctors and had become used to performing quite complicated surgery under primitive conditions, and to running his own field hospital. Living and working in an all-male environment had toughened him up, and he was no longer concerned what his uncle’s opinion might be on how he should live his life.
Hope had seen Dr Cunningham many times while Bennett was away, both at St Peter’s and then in the General. He had been very frosty at first as he clearly blamed her for his nephewleaving his practice. But maybe Alice had been working on him, for he gradually began to soften about a year later, and he would stop to talk when he saw her.
Yet it was only last year that he had finally admitted he thought she was a fine nurse, and that Bennett could do a lot worse than marry her. Hope might have been offended by that remark, but she often called to see Alice on her day off, who told her the old doctor spoke about her in glowing terms. Hope sensed that he would still have preferred his nephew to be married to someone who would enhance his career, but if he did think that, he didn’t voice it. He even suggested that she should leave the General immediately and come to live at Harley Place until the wedding as there were so many preparations to be made.
They were married just a stone’s throw from Harley Place, at Christchurch, in early February, a bitterly cold day with snowthreatening. Alice had made Hope a wedding outfit, a deep pink wool dress with a fashionable bustle, and a matching hooded cape trimmed with fur.
There were only a few guests: Alice and her sister Violet, Dr Cunningham and a few old friends of Bennett’s, including Mary Carpenter. Hope would have given anything to have had her brothers and sisters there too on such an important day, but as it simply wasn’t possible she tried hard not to think of them.
As they set off to Lyme Regis for their honeymoon, Bennett said he thought that as soon as possible they should go and visit Ruth and her husband in Bath. He believed that if Hope explained everything to them, they could decide how to let the rest of the family know so that Albert couldn’t take it out on Nell.
Dr Cunningham had lent them his carriage to take them to Lyme Regis, and with a hot brick beneath her feet, a warm rug snuggled round her, and her husband beside her, Hope was so happy that she didn’t want to think of anything serious. She’d been away for seven years now, and a few more weeks wouldn’t make any difference to her family problems.
Hope knew that whatever great age she lived to, she would never forget her wedding night. Their room in a guest house overlooking the sea had been so warm and inviting. There was a roaring fire, thick brocade curtains shutting out the cold night air,