before. I suppose I hadn't thought about it. But do you know how many women have come into that hospital in even the few days I've been there, who are worn out and ill as a result of bearing child after child?" She leaned a little farther to face Callandra. "And how many are there we don't see? How many just live lives in silent despair and terror of the next pregnancy?" She banged the chair arm again. "There's such ignorance. Such blind tragic ignorance."
"I am not sure what good knowledge would do," Callandra replied, looking not at Hester but at the rose bed and a late butterfly drifting from one bloom to another. "Forms of prevention have been around since Roman days, but they are not available to most people." She pulled a face. "And they are very often weird contraptions that the ordinary man would not use. A woman has no right in civil or religious law to deny her husband, and even if she had, common sense and the need to survive on something like equable terms would make it impractical."
"At least knowledge would take away some of the shock," Hester argued hotly. "We had one young woman in hospital who was so mortified when she discovered what marriage required of her she went into hysterics, and then tried to kill herself." Her voice rose with outrage. "No one had given her the slightest idea, and she simply could not endure it. She had been brought up with the strictest teachings of purity and it overwhelmed her. She was married by her parents to a man thirty years older than herself and with little patience or gentleness. She came into the hospital with broken arms and legs and ribs where she had jumped out of a window in an attempt to kill herself." She took a deep breath and made a vain attempt to lower her tone.
"Now, unless Dr. Beck can persuade the police and the Church that it was an accident, they will charge her with attempted suicide and either imprison her or hang her." She banged her fist down on the chair arm yet again. "And that monumental fool, Jeavis, is trying to say Dr. Beck killed Prudence Barrymore." She did not notice Callandra stiffen in her seat or her face grow paler. "That is because that would be the easy answer, and save him from having to question the other surgeons and the chaplain and the members of the Board of Governors."
Callandra started to speak, and then stopped again.
"Is there nothing we can do to help Marianne Gillespie?" Hester persisted, her fists clenched, leaning forward in the chair. She glanced at the roses. "Is there nobody to which one could appeal? Do you know Sir Herbert said his own daughter had been assaulted and had become with child as a result?" She swung around to Callandra again. "And she went to a private abortionist in some back street who maimed her so badly she can now never marry, let alone bear children. And she is in constant pain. For Heaven's sake, there must be something we can do!"
"If I knew of anything I should not be sitting her listening to you," Callandra replied with a sad smile. "I should have told you what it was, and we should be on our way to do it. Please be careful, or you are going to put your arm right through my best garden chair."
"Oh! I'm sorry. It's just that I get so furious!"
Callandra smiled, and said nothing.
* * * * *
The following two days were hot and sultry. Tempers became short. Jeavis seemed to be everywhere in the hospital, getting in the way, asking questions which most people found irritating and pointless. The treasurer swore at him. A gentleman on the Board of Governors made a complaint to his member of Parliament. Mrs. Flaherty lectured him on abstinence, decorum, and probity, which was more than even he could take. After that he left her strictly alone.
But gradually the hospital was getting back to its normal routine and even in the laundry room they spoke less of the murder and more of their usual concerns: husbands, money, the latest music hall jokes, and general gossip.
Monk was concentrating his attention on learning the past and present circumstances of all the doctors, especially the students, and of the treasurer, chaplain, and various governors.
It was late in the evening and still oppressively warm when Callandra went to look for Kristian