April 1917
Eve was tending to a soldier at the base hospital when an ambulance rushes in full of wounded soldiers. Eve did the finishing touches on the soldier's bandage before joining the others to assist those out of the ambulance. The wounded that came out of the ambulance were a mix of British, American, and French soldiers. Eve helped an American shoulder with a bleeding arm out of the ambulance and into the base hospital before helping him sit down on a bed.
"I'm going to have to cut your uniform, Captain. So, I can see the severity of and treat the wound," Eve explained as she grabbed a pair of scissors and cuts up the sleeve.
"Don't worry about it, Principessa," The soldier said with an American accent with an Italian inflection.
Eve examines the wound and the soldier grunts in pain as she touches the wound.
"You'll have to go into surgery to repair the damage caused by the bullet," Eve told him.
"What's your name?" He asked her.
"Matron Eve De La Cruz," She replied.
"Your name sounds religious. Eve De La Cruz. Eve of The Cross," The soldier said.
"And what is your name, Captain?" Eve asked.
"Emilio Luca De Santis," He answered.
"Your name is a mixture of Spanish and Italian," Eve noted.
"My mother is Italian and my father a Spaniard," Emilio told her, "I was born in America. My parents raised me in Spain but we spent a lot of time in America. It was how I managed to get here as an American soldier. What about your parents?"
"My father was American but his family was from Mexico and my mother was English," She replied as she wrote down on his chart, "I was born in America and spent most of my childhood there until my parent's death. I was then brought to England and raised by my Uncle and Aunt."
"You are truly beautiful, Principessa," Emilio told her.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Captain De Santis," Eve said as she tried not to smile, "You will be taken into surgery in a little while."
"Will you be assisting the Doc with the surgery?" Emilio asked.
"I'm not sure, why?" She questioned.
"Because I only trust my life in your hands, Principessa," He answered.
"I'll ask the doctor, but in the meantime, Captain, rest," Eve told him before walking away.
Eve stood with Major Macleod in the operating room as one of the orderlies wheeled Emilio in on the table and when Emilio saw Eve in the room he smiled at her.
"Glad that you could join, Principessa," Emilio said with a smile on his face.
"I wouldn't miss this for the world, Captain," Eve responded.
"Nurse Franklin put the patient under," Major Macleod ordered and Nurse Franklin nodded before placing the face mask on Emilio, who smiled at and kept his eyes on Eve until the anesthesia took effect and he fell asleep. When the surgery was over, Major Macleod repaired the damage that was caused by the bullet, and Emilio was taken to post-op. A while later, Eve was checking in on the unconscious Emilio when Colonel Blake walked into the room.
"Good afternoon, Matron De La Cruz," Colonel Blake greeted.
"Good afternoon, Colonel Blake," She returned.
"You've been granted another furlough, Matron De La Cruz," Colonel Blake said, but before Eve could say a word, he stopped her, "I know that you are committed to helping people, but if you keep going around like this you will eventually pass out in the middle of surgery and we can't have that. Now, by the end of the week, you will be leaving the base hospital for England and you will be there for a little over a month. Do I make myself clear, Matron De La Cruz?"
"Yes, sir, Colonel Blake," Eve responded.
"Good," Colonel Blake said before taking a look at Emilio's chart, "Ah, one of Macleod's patients. He does do good work."
"He managed to fix the damage in the arm that was done by the bullet. Major Macleod said that if the bullet was a bit further up it would have caused him to lose the arm," Eve said as she held Emilio's hand in hers. Eve stayed there for a moment longer before she went on to finish her duties.
Before Eve knew it, the end of the week had come and she was now on her way to England. She had informed her family that she would be coming home and they recommended that Eve should join her Aunt Rosamund and Sir Richard Carlisle, Mary's new beau, on the train, and then Branson would take them to Downton. She met them at the train station, Eve and her Aunt Rosamund talked during most of the trip while Richard Carlisle merely read his newspaper.
Branson drives the car up to the front door, where Cora, Mary, and Cassandra were waiting for them. Sir Richard Carlisle gets out first of the motor and walks toward Cora.
"Hello," He greeted.
"We're so pleased to have you here, Sir Richard," Cora welcoming, shaking his hand.
"Lady Grantham."
Robert walked out of the grand house and greeted Sir Richard Carlisle, "Welcome."
"Thank you," The two men shook hands.
"I hope the train wasn't too tiring?" Cora asked.
"Not a bit. No, I got a lot done," Sir Richard Carlisle replied.
Rosamund and Eve stepped out of the motor and the moment Eve kneeled to the ground, Cassandra ran toward her and began to nuzzle her head on Eve's neck.
"Hello, Mary," Rosamund greeted as she kissed her on the cheek.
"Hello Aunt Rosamund," Mary returned.
Rosamund walked over and greeted her brother, "Brother, dear."
"How are you?" The two kissed each other on the cheek.
"Lovely to see you, Rosamund," Cora greeted before walking toward her niece to hug her," We are so glad that you are back, my dear."
"I've missed you all so much," Eve said before the family goes inside while Branson talks with Sir Richard's servants.
That evening in the drawing-room, Eve stood with Sybil and their Aunt Rosamund discussing what they thought about Sir Richard Carlisle, Sybil, and Eve's experience with nursing during the war.
Mr. Carson walks into the drawing room and announces, "Mrs. Crawley, Captain Crawley, and Miss Swire."
He steps aside for them to enter the drawing room.
Across the room, Sybil, Eve, and Rosamund watch as everyone interacts with each other before Sybil and Eve speak with their aunt.
"What do you think Mary sees in him?" Sybil asked her aunt.
"Besides the money, you mean?" Rosamund commented.
"It must be more than money," Eve argued.
"For you two. Not necessarily for her," Rosamund stated.
Dinner was announced and they gathered in the dining room. Violet was the first to begin a conversation.
"I gather your footman Thomas has returned to the village," Mr. Lang offers her the sauce, but Violet refuses, "No."
"Crikey. Where did you see him?" Robert asked.
"At the hospital," She answered, "Seems he's working there."
Eve saw Mr. Lang walk around Mr. Carson, past Robert to serve Lady Rosamund, and knew that Mr. Carson would not like that.
"I wonder how he wangled that."
"Get back! behind me!" Mr. Carson whispered to Mr. Lang.
"Perhaps, while I'm here I could work at the hospital. I am here for a month and I would hate to feel useless," Eve said.
Carson and Lang switch places and Lang serves Robert the sauce. Robert and Rosamund speak in low tones to avoid being overheard. Mr. Lang continues down the table to Rosamund.
"Thank you, but I already have some," She said.
"No, no. Give that to me," Mr. Carson told him. Mr. Lang tries to hand Mr. Carson the sauce, but Carson drops it and it spills all over Edith, I-I do apologize, my lady. I- Mr. Lang, get a c-" Mr. Carson suddenly groans in pain and seizes up. The entire table stands up to help Carson.
"Carson? Carson, what's the matter?" Cora asked worriedly.
"Carson, it's all right. Everything will be fine," Mary comforted him from behind.
"Edith, go with Branson and fetch Major Clarkson. I'll telephone and explain what's happened," Isobel instructed as she helped Mr. Carson sit down.
"What about my dress?" Edith complained.
"Edith! We'll get you a coat! Come," Cora seethed with annoyance at her selfishness.
"Sybil and Eve will know what to do until the doctor comes," Mary assured.
"You'll find there's never a dull moment in this house," Violet said.
"Lady Sybil, Miss Eve, and I will take him upstairs. Mrs. Hughes will show us the way, please," Matthew voiced.
"I can help," Mary offered.
"No, let me. I know what I'm doing," Sybil said.
"I'm sure that's not necessary, my lady," Mr. Carson protested, still rather incapacitated.
"It's not milady now, Carson. It's Nurse Crawley."
"Come now, let's get you to bed, Mr. Carson," Eve said as she, Sybil, and Matthew helped Mr. Carson up and to his room. When Major Clarkson arrived, he informed everyone that it was not a heart attack.
The next day, while the rest of the family was shooting, helping the Drakes, etc. Eve and Sybil were at the hospital exercising grounds with Thomas teaching Lt. Courtenay how to walk with a cane.
"That's it. That's right, sir. If you move the stick fast enough, you don't have to slacken your pace," Thomas instructed as Lt. Courtenay guided himself through the chairs.
"And check the width of the space as well as any possible obstruction," Sybil added.
"And be sure to move the cane in rhythm with your feet, with the cane tip always being on the opposite side of your forward foot," Eve informed him.
"Lieutenant Courtenay!" Major Clarkson called as he approaches them, "Well done. You're making good progress."
"Thanks to my saviors," Lt. Courtenay replied. Sybil and Eve smile while Thomas salutes the major.
"So you'll be pleased to hear that we're all agreed that it's time for you to continue treatment elsewhere," Major Clarkson informed.
"What?"
"At Farley Hall. You're not ill anymore. All you need is time to adjust to your condition, and the staff at Farley can help with that," He elaborated.
"But, sir, these three are helping me here," Lt. Courtenay tried to argue.
"Nurse Crawley, Matron De La Cruz, and Corporal Barrow are not trained in specialist care."
"Please. Don't send me away. Not yet," He pleaded.
"Sir, surely we-" Thomas cuts himself off when Major Clarkson shoots him a look. Eve slightly prayed with her heart that he would change his mind and allow Lt. Courtenay to stay.
"Lieutenant, you must know that every one of our beds is needed for the injured and dying from Arras. Mm?" Major Clarkson pats Lt. Courtenay on the arm, "Corporal, I'll see you in my office."
Major Clarkson then left.
After returning Lt. Courtenay to his bed, Sybil and Eve rushed to Major Clarkson's office and knocked on the door.
"Yes!" Major Clarkson responded before Sybil and Eve stepped into the office.
"We thought you may want to know what we think," Sybil began to argue.
"Why should I? Nurse Crawley, Matron De La Cruz, I may not be your social superior in a Mayfair ballroom, but in this hospital, I have the deciding voice," Major Clarkson bellowed, "Please help him prepare his belongings. He leaves first thing in the morning."
"But Major Clarkson-" Eve began.
"My decision is final, Matron De La Cruz," He interrupted.
That night at the hospital, Eve was working the night shift and was going to see how Lt. Courtenay was doing when she saw blood from his wrists dripping into a pool. She rushed off to get help, but when they returned it was too late to help him. As two medic corp soldiers took Lt. Courtenay's body away, Eve said a prayer for him so that God would forgive him for taking his life.
That morning in the exercise yard of the hospital, Major Clarkson, Isobel, Sybil, and Eve are discussing the events that took place last night.
"He must've smuggled a razor into his bed," Major Clarkson informed, "There was nothing to be done."
"It's because we ordered him to go," Sybil sighed.
"He must have felt that we were tired of him or decided we no longer cared for him," Eve said.
"We don't know that," Isobel argued.
"This is a tragedy, I don't deny it. But I cannot see what other course was open to me. We have no room for men to convalesce here and Farley is the nearest house I can send them to," Major Clarkson explained.
"There is a solution and it's staring us in the face. Downton Abbey," Isobel suggested and the four of them stop walking.
"Would they ever allow it?" Major Clarkson questions with a scoff, "Or even consider it?"
"I think they would. After this, I think they can be made to," Eve revealed.
Outside the cottage hospital, Branson carries a basket to the hospital where wounded soldiers are piling out of hospital trucks. Inside, Sybil and Eve settle the wounded while Isobel directs them to their beds. Branson brings the basket to Sybil and Eve.
"Her Ladyship had Mrs. Patmore make this up for you and Miss Eve so you both could eat something during the day," Branson told Sybil.
"Oh, I won't have time."
"You can pass what's in it to the soldiers," Eve suggested.
"Is it what you thought it would be?" He asked Sybil
"No. No, it's more savage and more cruel than I could've imagined, but I feel useful for the first time in my life, and that must be a good thing," She responded.
"Matthew, are you busy?" Eve asked as she walked toward a patient and after she had spotted Matthew.
"No, of course not," He replied and assisted Eve with helping a man to bed.
"So you wouldn't go back? To your life before the war?' Branson asked Sybil.
"No. No, I can never go back to that again," She replied before she goes about her work and Branson watches her for a moment.
That evening when Sybil and Eve returned home and after they changed for dinner, Robert had asked his niece if she would join him to tell Mrs. Patmore about the news of her nephew. When they went down to the kitchen, they could hear Mrs. Patmore giving orders for dinner.
"Fold it in, don't slap it. You're making a cake, not beating a carpet," Mrs. Patmore said before she, Mrs. Hughes, and Daisy froze when Robert and Eve walked in, "Oh. I'm sorry, Your Lordship. I didn't see you there."
"It's quite all right, Mrs. Patmore. I wonder, is there somewhere we could have a word?" Robert asked.
"Why not go into my sitting room?" Mrs. Hughes suggested.
The three of them step into Mrs. Hughes's sitting room, and Robert closes the door.
"Please sit," Robert and Mrs. Patmore sit while Eve stands beside her, "I do have some news of your nephew. I telephoned the war office and they've just come back to me, but I'm afraid it's not good news."
"I-I knew he was dead all along. I- I said so to my sister. I said, "Kate", I said, "He's gone and you'll have to face- " Mrs. Patmore began to rant.
"Mrs. Patmore, it's worse than that," Robert interrupted.
"What can be worse than being dead?" She asked him.
"Private Philpots was shot for cowardice on the 17th of February,"
"Oh my God," Mrs. Patmore exclaimed.
"This explains why the regiment was reluctant to supply information," Robert said before he stands up and opens the door while Mrs. Patmore begins to cry and Eve tries to comfort her as she holds Mrs. Patmore's hands in hers, "Mrs. Hughes, could you come in, please?"
Mrs. Hughes enters and Robert closes the door before continuing, "Mrs. Patmore has had some bad news. Her nephew has been killed."
"Oh, he never has," Mrs. Hughes responded with shock.
"And that's not all," Mrs. Patmore said.
"It is all. Mrs. Patmore," Robert told her. Mrs. Hughes does to Mrs. Patmore's side and joins Eve in comforting her, " Let us make sure it is all. Your sister needs to know no more than this. We cannot know the truth. We should not judge," Robert nods to Mrs. Hughes and Eve before he and Eve left.
After dinner that evening, in the drawing room, the main topic was turning Downton into a convalescent home.
"I think it's a ridiculous idea!" Violet voiced being against the idea of it.
"Why?" Sybil asked offended.
"Because this is a house, not a hospital."
"But, Granny, a convalescent home is where people rest and recuperate," Mary explained.
"Mary is right, Granny. Everyone, great and small, must help," Eve added.
"But if there are relapses? What then? Amputation in the dining room? Resuscitation in the pantry?" Violet argued.
"It would certainly be the most tremendous disturbance. If you knew how chaotic things are as it is," Cora added.
"But when there's so much good can be done," Isobel rebutted. Violet slams her cane on the floor.
"I forbid it!" Violet proclaimed, "To have strange men prodding and prying around the house, to say nothing of pocketing the spoons. It's out of the question."
"I hesitate to remind you, but this is my house now. Robert's and mine, and we will make the decision," Cora seethed. She stood up and takes a drink from Mrs. Hughes.
"Oh, I see. So now I'm an outsider...who need not be consulted," Violet sighed.
"Since you put it like that, yes," Cora snapped.