It was a rare moment of solitude as Sybil waited for the water to boil for her tea. The nurses that worked the night shift had not yet returned and it was almost two hours before those working the day shift had to be up. Sybil had been utterly exhausted when her shift ended yesterday and she had gone straight to bed although it was only eight in the evening. To her surprise she had slept deeply and soundly and now found herself wide awake, rested and ready to start the day a full three hours before she had to be on the ward.
The work was as challenging as Sybil had hoped it would be. Due to the proximity of London to the front in France, most of the severely wounded were sent to hospitals in London as soon as they were able to travel. St. George's received soldiers with all types of wounds. Twelve hour shifts were not unusual especially after heavy fighting in France or even Belgium. Sybil had never been so exhausted yet so exhilarated.
Sitting at the heavily scarred wooden table she reflected how much her life had changed in the six months she had been in London. "Home" was now a twelve by ten foot room simply furnished with a single bed, a dresser and a small wardrobe. She had added a small three shelf stand to hold her favorite books and some medical texts. The only decorative items were a blue flowered porcelain ewer and basin set with matching hand mirror, hairbrush, and pin bowl that she had bought from a small store she had found on one of her walks around the city. They matched the darker blue coverlet she had purchased to supplement the meager bed linens provided by the hospital.
However, her most prized possession was a small antique frame that held a picture of Tom. This was positioned on her nightstand so that the first thing she saw in the morning and the last thing at night was Tom. Shortly after the long ago garden party, the one where Tom had held her hand, her mother had hired a photographer to take some pictures of the family. The picture was one of several taken of Sybil, Mary and Edith but somehow in this one Tom, in his chauffeur uniform, had been prominently displayed in the background while there was only a glimpse of Sybil and Edith and none of Mary. Sybil had secretly retrieved the picture from the waste basket where it had been discarded by her mother. Originally she had meant to give the picture to Tom but something made her hold on to it. She realized now that maybe even back then she felt something more for Tom than she was willing to admit to herself let alone to Tom.
Her room was one of 12 on a floor of a five level annex to the hospital. In addition to the bedrooms, there was a large bathroom and small sitting room that was shared by all 12 occupants of the floor. Due to the various shifts at the hospital the 12 nurses assigned to this floor were never all there at the same time. In fact, there were 2 girls that Sybil had only briefly met once or twice.
The sitting room was furnished with a well- worn couch and two mismatched wing backed chairs. Between the chairs was a three drawer dresser that was being used as a side table. A bare oak coffee table bearing numerous burnt marks in front of the couch completed the sitting room. A dining table with six mismatched chairs separated the sitting room from the small kitchen area which contained a sink and a very old 2 burner stove. Sybil found that she usually made tea and toast for her breakfast while taking the rest of her meals at the canteen provided by the hospital.
While growing up Sybil never had any close playmates other than Mary and Edith. From the time Sybil could remember her sisters had often fought so Sybil became use to playing on her own to escape their bickering. And it seemed that when Sybil became about six years old, neither of her sisters had much time or inclination to play with her. When she was four or five she would occasionally accompany her father to the tenant farms and play with the tenant children while her father conducted business.
Usually the only time Sybil had someone other than Mary or Edith to play with was when friends of her parents visited Downton and brought their children along. This was how she knew Imogen. Several times a year Imogen and her parents would come to Downton for five or six days or Sybil and her parents would go to Imogen's house for a few days. Besides Imogen there were a few other girls close to her age that would visit two or three times a year. But Imogen was Sybil's favorite playmate.
When Sybil went into the village she had always envied the children she would see playing in the school yard. She thought it would be wonderful to be around so many other children, both boys and girls, to play games with or to just talk to. Although she begged to be allowed to attend the local school, her parents would never consider the idea. As befitting "her station" she would be educated by governesses. She was told quite stiffly and sternly by her parents and her granny that the children of the Earl just did not attend the local school. It just wasn't proper.
When Sybil attended her nurses training in York it was the first time she had made a friend that wasn't the daughter of one of her parent's friends. Elizabeth wasn't her roommate but had the room next door. She and Sybil just seemed to gel from the moment they met. So while Sybil was friendly with her roommate, it was Elizabeth that she spent time with studying and talking to. After their graduation Elizabeth had gone to work at a hospital in Dover. They still kept in touch through letters but hadn't seen each other since their training.
In the six months Sybil at been at St. Georges she had become close friends with several other nurses. Margaret and Louise also lived on Sybil's floor while Charlotte and Annabella lived on different floors. Sybil often worked on the same shifts with Charlotte and Annabella and through their close working conditions they became good friends. Charlotte and Margaret were both from London while Louise was from Manchester and Annabella from Bath.
Both Louise and Charlotte had brothers in the army now fighting somewhere in France. They had become nurses as an effort to support their brothers. Through her brother, Charlotte had met one of his fellow soldiers and was now engaged to him. Margaret, the most gregarious of her friends, made no secret that she hoped to win the heart of one of the officers who worked at the hospital as a military aide.
None of these friends or for that matter any of the hospital staff other than cousin Isobel's friend, Matron Smathers, knew of Sybil's background. She was known as Nurse Crawley not Lady Sybil and she wanted to keep it that way.
To unwind from the challenges of their work, Sybil and her friends would visit a pub located around the corner from the hospital once a week if possible. They would always find other hospital staff there enjoying a meal out, a game of darts, and of course a pint or two. Sybil had been delighted the first time Margaret asked her to join her and some of the other nurses and orderlies at the pub although she wouldn't admit to anyone that this was her first time in a pub. While she had been drinking wine with her meals since she was 15, Sybil had never tasted ale or stout or bitters. It had taken some getting used to but Sybil now found she liked a pint although she probably had to admit it was the camaraderie that she liked most. And to her delight, Sybil found she excelled at darts.
Besides the newness of having a group of friends and meeting the challenges of her work, Sybil enjoyed just being in London. While she had very little time off that wasn't spent sleeping or eating, Sybil managed to occasionally explore the city. With the war on, young ladies could now walk in one of London's many parks or stroll down the street window shopping without an escort. Sybil found that sitting in a park or on a bench watching the river Thames was a way to forget or at least get over some of the horrors of her job.
She did visit Aunt Rosamund once a month usually for tea. Although Aunt Rosamund had asked her to attend some dinner parties, Sybil was able to decline stating she was working that evening. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy visiting and talking with Aunt Rosamund but Sybil just couldn't be bothered to dress up and spend an evening trying to make small talk. If she had an evening out, Sybil much preferred to spend it at the pub with her new friends.
In exploring the city, Sybil avoided the few areas she was acquainted with from her family's trips to London. She didn't really want to run into anyone who knew her as Lady Sybil. Furthermore, the stores and restaurants there didn't hold any appeal to her now. They were part of a life that Sybil felt she was leaving behind more each day.