Page 73 of His Illegitimate Duchess

N ext Wednesday morning, the Talbots were finally alone with each other in their carriage, on their way to meet the Coopers.

Neither said anything for a while, not even a passing remark about how cold it was.

The husband couldn’t stop staring at the wife, whose dispassionate gaze was directed out the window.

“You probably remember Mrs Cooper saying that they help at four different hospitals,” he said, having determined the work ahead of them to be the wisest topic of conversation. “They will show us two today, and two next Wednesday.”

The duke congratulated himself on his intelligence when his wife looked at him for the first time since entering the carriage and even acknowledged him with a nod.

“One is a charitable lying-in hospital for poor married women,” he continued, emboldened by her response, “and the other is a…” He feigned an inability to remember the name, so he reached into his waistcoat pocket, pulled out some papers and started looking through them.

“Doctor Cooper has explained it all to me here… Ah! The Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes.”

Where he would normally have twisted his mouth in distaste at discussing such matters, Talbot intentionally worked on keeping his face open and pleasant. Lizzie watched him with suspicion and curiosity warring against each other in her narrowed eyes.

“From what I’ve gathered, two of the hospitals are focused on healing and health, whereas the other two are focused on education and reformation. Listen to this,” he said and theatrically lifted a page out of Dr. Cooper’s letter.

“The Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes focuses on the rehabilitation of fallen women, be they brothel workers or victims of seduction. In order to be admitted, the women must demonstrate a sincere desire to be reformed.

The women attend daily religious services and are trained in work such as laundry,” he concluded.

He’d wanted Elizabeth to know where they were going and who they would be dealing with. He didn’t know how much Mrs Cooper had explained to her, and he wanted to give her the chance to change her mind if this kind of interaction was offensive to her.

“What does he mean by victims of seduction?” Lizzie asked in a quiet voice.

“Sometimes servants are ill-used by their employers, and then find themselves thrown out, or with child, or both,” he said, carefully watching her face, knowing what she would most likely be reminded of.

His wife nodded, then asked, “What else did Doctor Cooper tell you?”

Colin wanted to stamp his foot victoriously, but instead he intently looked through the pages, searching for another paragraph that he’d found particularly interesting.

In my opinion, it would be wise to conceal Your Graces’ true identities in these institutions, in order to spare the people we shall be working with further embarrassment or discomfort.

During the first several visits, you and your wife can observe what Mrs. Cooper and I are doing, and later indicate which activities you would be comfortable participating in.

If some part of the work is offensive to you or, for instance, you decide you do not wish to touch those who are ill, let us know, and we will assign you duties that do not entail such contact.

If you have any ideas or suggestions on some new activities or improvements, likewise, inform us and we shall find a solution together. Open communication is key for making this a successful and pleasant endeavour.

Colin stopped reading and looked at his wife, who was nodding. “What do you think?” He asked her.

“I think we’ve arrived,” she said as the carriage stopped.

As Colin helped her out of the carriage, Lizzie hissed under her breath. He immediately grabbed her by the elbows, concerned.

“What is it? Are you unwell?”

She shook her head.

“It’s my courses,” she whispered. “I’m fine.”

Colin felt the blood drain from his face as he remembered the crimson sheets. He looked away, certain she’d see the anguish in his eyes.

“Is this the Magdalen Hospital or the one for the poor married women?” Lizzie asked as she looked around for their friends.

“I believe this is the one for the married women. Ah, there they are,” he replied, and they started walking towards the Coopers.

Talbot felt like he was inside a nightmare as they were being led through dark, poorly ventilated hallways filled with grunts and screams of varying levels of intensity and desperation.

“This hospital has been operating for the last sixty years,” Doctor Cooper explained cheerfully, undisturbed by the noises.

“The biggest danger these mothers are facing is puerperal fever in the first seven days after birth. It is almost always incurable, so we watch them carefully for any signs of it.”

“How can we help?” Lizzie asked.

“Well, we help clean and air the rooms, and we raise funds to pay washerwomen to provide the women with clean sheets more often than the hospital can afford,” Mrs. Cooper said, and for the second time in an hour, Colin was assaulted by the memory of bloody sheets.

I should have burned those as well, he told himself.

“We also help distribute the broth and food from the kitchens, and help the women correctly give suck to the children. I also examine them, since I’m a midwife,” Mrs Cooper concluded.

“What about the men?” Elizabeth asked.

“In this particular hospital, your husband can help best with his coin purse,” Mrs Cooper said in a tone filled with authority and determination, which Talbot had never heard her speak in before. “Whereas my husband usually helps with surgical issues that arise.”

Once they reached the end of the corridor and were faced with two possible directions to go in, Mrs. Cooper spoke to Lizzie again, “You and I shall go see the women first, since they are in various states of undress and need to be warned if men will be joining us.”

“You and I can wait in my office,” Doctor Cooper indicated a door to Talbot.

The Doctor immediately sat down at his desk and, after an apology, started going through the papers that had been left there for him. Talbot, not wanting to disturb him, decided to entertain himself by going over to the bookshelf and examining some of its contents.

The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus Exhibited in Figures, he read the title and opened the book. Nothing could have prepared him for the images he encountered there.

I never want Elizabeth to be pregnant, he thought.

He reached for another book, A Treatise on the Management of Pregnant and Lying-In Women. Some pages discussed cutting women open to remove the child, so he quickly closed that one as well.

Good God, how do women survive this? Why is man’s entrance into this world such a frightening, unpredictable business? He wondered. All these doctors and accoucheurs, and they couldn’t even save the Princess of Wales and her son.

The next book was called Infancy and seemed to be written in verse, so Talbot assumed it did not contain frightening drawings or horrifying ideas.

He sat down and read parts of it while Doctor Cooper worked.

The book mostly spoke of giving suck to children, which turned out to be a fascinating subject.

“Isn’t giving suck to children a natural thing?” He asked Dr. Cooper after a while. “Why is there an entire book about it?”

Doctor Cooper glanced at the title. “That’s actually part of a series of six books, I believe.

And unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions about nursing infants and mothers’ milk, so the books are very necessary, I’m afraid,” he said as he stood up and walked up to Talbot. “We can go join our women now.”

Talbot liked the sound of that.

Walking around the sad, drab room with Doctor Cooper, who cheerfully conversed with the women and complimented their ( rather unattractive , Talbot felt) newborns, had been most uncomfortable for the Duke.

He knew how to behave in his own social set, but was out of his element here, so he decided to bite his teeth and persevere, even when some of the women had addressed him as “Mister.” He had to continuously remind himself of why he was there.

When he could no longer bear it, he walked over to where his wife was standing with Mrs Cooper.

“They all appear so exhausted,” he told them quietly.

“This is actually a vacation for most of them,” Mrs. Cooper replied.

“Most of them work and have multiple other children, and no help whatsoever. All of that is waiting for them at home, in addition to the newborn they now have. This is the only rest they will have in the following months, if not years. That is the main reason why we encourage these women to come to the hospital instead of giving birth at home, which most of them could easily do.”

“I’ve never thought about that,” Talbot admitted while some unpleasant feeling welled up inside his throat.

“Well,” Mrs. Cooper said with a shrug, “I wouldn’t have either if my mother hadn’t been perpetually pregnant while I was growing up. I’m the oldest of eleven.”

The two couples drove to the Magdalen Hospital afterwards.

“Can you tell us what to expect next, Doctor?” Colin inquired, disliking how quiet the carriage was.

The Doctor and his wife exchanged one of their glances that Colin had become inured to by now, and it was Mrs. Cooper who spoke, “You shall witness many broken souls where we are going. Some of these girls… Some of them aren’t even twenty years old, and they have been with hundreds of men.

Not because they enjoyed it, mind, but because they had to. ”

Lizzie paled at the thought, and Colin’s mind conjured up the face of the unenthusiastic brothel worker he’d encountered as a young man, and he now, for the first time, wondered what circumstances had brought her there.

Back then, she hadn’t even been a real person to him, and upon realising that, the unpleasant feeling from earlier returned.

I wonder if she’s even alive, he thought with a shudder.