Bramwell

The Thrift is not yet fully operational, but an emergency patient, Frank Harrison, is brought in with a serious burn on his arm. When he returns the next day asking for more morphine, Eleanor realises he has a more serious ailment. He is suffering from a strangulated hernia, but turns violent when she asks to examine him. Meanwhile Robert provides his daughter with her first private patient, a Miss Peggy Heart, but Eleanor is not amused to discover that she is in fact a music-hall singer whom her father is seeing socially. When Harrison collapses in the street, Eleanor is at last able to convince him that he urgently needs an operation. She is eager to perform it herself, as she has not previously had any surgical experience (apart from amputating Daniel Bentleys toes), but requires the services of a qualified anaesthetist. Joe Marsham fits that description, and when Eleanor presents her case as an emergency, he agrees to assist, though he has anbitions to be a surgeon himself. L

A young boy, Tom, is brought into the Thrift with injuries suffered when he fell from a ladder after being sent down a sewer. His employer had abandoned him, and it was only one of the other workers who rescued Tom. The poor little waif soon has Nurse Carr completely charmed, but Daniel Bentley and Dr. Marsham have reason to believe that the little scamp is less innocent than he appears. Eleanor, meanwhile, is called in by neurologist Dr. Hunter to examine his housekeeper, Mary Warner. Eleanor confirms Hunters diagnosis that Marys heart is enlarged, and she cannot carry on with her normal work. Eleanor is flattered when Dr Hunter seems to be taking a personal interest in her. Later, when Dr. Hunter summons her to examine Mary again, they discover her in her room, dead. Lady Cora tells Robert that she has heard rumours that Hunter appears to be in distressed circumstances, and Hunter seems unusually anxious to get Eleanors signature on the death certificate. Then at the club, Ro

The Thrift has been in operation for some months now, and the strain of too much work with too few staff is beginning to show. Lady Cora is acting as administrator, but she is feeling decidedly unwell. When a 16-year-old labourer, Wilf, is brought in to the Thrift after an accident and cannot feel anything, a broken neck is suspected. Lady Cora has learned of a contraption called an X-Radiography machine, and approaches Sir Herbert at the East London Hospital to beg the use of one. Sir Herbert is warned by the radiographer, but overexposes Wilf to the X-rays and burns him horribly, though Wilf cannot feel it. Back at the Thrift, Nurse Carr believes Wilf when he says he thinks he can feel his toes, but Dr. Marsham thinks hes imagining things, and this leads to sharp words with Nurse Carr. Lady Cora has called in Sir Herbert for help with the Thrift as well as for medical advice for herself. For Lady Cora he diagnoses, without bothering to examine her, a spastic colon and prescribes

On their way to an auction to bid for a building neighbouring the Thrift, Robert and Eleanor are caught up in a horrific train crash on the underground near King William Street station. Robert suffers a broken arm, and so is only able to direct Eleanor in amputating the crushed leg of a fellow passenger, in order to extricate him from the wreckage. Upon bringing their patient, Peter Mills, to the Thrift, they are surprised when his two younger brothers arrive on the scene and take up protective positions. It turns out that the Mills brothers are notorious local gangsters, and soon the grateful Peter produces the deed to the building Eleanor had presumed was lost. But there is a price to pay, and when Peters wound turns septic with gas gangrene, he will not allow anyone but Eleanor perform the further amputation. His brothers are more than a little obstructive, and it quickly becomes apparent that they will not long mourn their elder sibling, should he shuffle off his mortal coil.

Robert is celebrating his impending election as a Fellow the Royal College of Physicians, thanks to his old friend Sir William Fredericks. Sir Williams son, Martin, plans to go to medical school and is being given the opportunity of observing Roberts practice and the Thrift. In the midst of the festivities, Roberts long-estranged sister Emily returns from India twenty years after eloping with a married man, an estate manager. Emily had taken with her not only all of her mothers jewels, but also 5000 pounds in cash--which would have been Roberts inheritance. Needless to say, Robert is less than thrilled to see her. Mr. Coxon, Emilys lover (whose wife had refused to divorce him), has died and, since she has no claim on the pension, she is now penniless. Eleanor tries to effect a reconciliation, believing that her aunt is now a reformed character, but Robert is resistant. Meanwhile, Marshams two-year-old daughter Molly is admitted with a broken leg to the Thrift, where a child has

A Bramwell family friend (a former military colleague of Robert), Guy le Saux, returns to London from Canada with a new wife half his age, whom Guy had ""selected"" from a Canadian orphanage. Guy confides in Robert that certain aspects on the marital front have not as yet taken their natural course, but Robert and Eleanor soon suspect he is beating his wife. Meanwhile, Daniel Bentleys widow has a 10-year-old daughter, Lil, whom Eleanor wants to propose for Guys programme for relocation to Canada. But when Mrs. Bentley catches her son Sidney thieving, she is all too ready to send him off instead. Unfortunately, the all-scientific Guy finds Sidney substandard, on the basis of skull measurements. Dr. Marsham finds Sidney substandard on quite different grounds, when Sidney nicks his razor (and, in the process, nicks himself, as well). Robert ejects his old friend from the house when he is convinced Guy has been beating his wife, but when Kathleen collapses and Robert must perform surgery o

Charles Sheldon, a supplier of surgical equipment to the Thrift, arrives with an emergency casualty, a flamboyantly dressed young woman who he says ran out in front of his carriage. When Eleanor examines the patient, she is shocked to discover it is in fact a young man, Frederick Hackett. The other patients and staff of the Thrift are none too pleased to have a ""Marjory"" in their midst, but his injuries are too severe for Eleanor not to keep him in overnight.Back at the Bramwell home, Robert has been persuaded by widow Elizabeth Quail to entertain her ""spiritual leader"" Mr. Sullivan, a Sally Army zealot whom Mrs. Quail believes could be of advantage to the Thrift.The next day, Mr Beamish, a Thrift patient with an open wound, pops out of the infirmery for a pint and returns, roaring drunk and carrying a broken bottle, with which he slashes young Frederick Hackett before fleeing. Eleanor struggles to save Hackett, and gives her own blood for a transfusion. When Charles Sheldon pops in to

It is the sweltering summer of 1896, and serious industrial accidents amongst the overworked, underpaid employees of the local brewery are on the rise, partly due to the fact that they are slaking their thirst while on the job. Eleanor is appalled to learn of their working conditions, but finds she must hold her tongue because the Thrifts chief benefactor, wealthy widow Alice Costigan, is not only the brewerys owner, but has also caught the eye of her father, Robert.Finn ONeill suddenly returns from America, passing through London on his way to a six-week lecture tour on the Continent. Eleanor finds herself drawn to him just as much as before but, though he, too, claims to want to cement their relationship, there is a small political difficulty back in Chicago, where Finns boss, Dr. Fraser, has ambitions to marry his 18-year-old daughter, Emmaline, to Dr. ONeill.

Fed up with endless self-sacrifice and hoping to improve life for the family he has been neglecting, Joe Marsham has decided to accept the much better-paid position in Edinburgh he has been offered. But then he discovers a secret that his wife has been concealing from him (and which he would have noticed for himself if she hadnt been avoiding marital relations since the death of their infant son George, two years ago): she has developed breast cancer. Despite the utterly pessimistic assessment of Harley Street specialist Professor Osborne, he asks Eleanor and Robert to perform the necessary surgery on his wife--but is it already too late? She urges him to remain in London for the sake of their three daughters, if she should die.

Eleanor has fled to the country and so Robert finds himself temporarily in charge of the Thrift. At Alice Costigans suggestion, and against the advice of Dr. Marsham, he hires a young trainee, Charlotte Adler. Her first assignment is to make a detailed inventory of the infirmary, from which Dr. Marsham discovers that bed-linen and, more seriously, opium, is going missing. Young Sidney Bentley is the obvious suspect and, despite his protestations of innocence, is summarily dismissed.Meanwhile, Ethel has her hands full at home with her aged and rapidly declining mother. When the kindly shopkeeper from across the street, Mr. Collard, offers to help, she refuses to let him in--probably because she has had to tie her mother up to keep her from wandering about. When Charlotte stops by with some flowers while nurse Carr is out, she discovers Till Carr tied up and drugged with opium, and the truth comes out.

Robert has decided to open a Harley Street practice, to which end he borrows the necessary capital through his friend George Talbot, who arranges a very reasonable rate of interest from his banker father-in-law. Unfortunately, that is not the only interest involved, as Robert quickly finds himself having to fend off (without offending) his friend Georges wife (and the bankers daughter), Laura. At the party celebrating Roberts new venture, he proposes to Alice Costigan, and she accepts him. Getting Laura Talbot to accept these circumstances is another matter.At the Thrift, Sidney Bentley seems smitten with a young burn patient named Florence. But despite Joe Marshams encouragement, Sidneys bashfulness seems certain to prevent any relationship developing.

When Dr. Finn ONeill returns once again to London, he is famed for his pioneering work with immunization. As a human being, however, he has not improved at all. He sees no reason why he should avoid the Bramwells despite his shameful treatment of Eleanor, and even tries to resume their former relationship, even with his young wife ill in the same room.Robert, who has never liked Dr. ONeill, suspects that Emmaline ONeills mysterious and increasingly serious illness may in fact be the result of some unspeakable experiment being carried out by the ambitious Dr. Finn to further his own career. A clandestine visit to the Irish doctors laboratory reveals a damaging truth with which Robert could end ONeills career.As Alice and Roberts wedding draws near, Kate becomes convinced that her job is not safe, since Alice will be bringing her own domestic staff.

It is October 1899 and the country is gripped by patriotism as the second campaign of the Boer War commences. Eleanor becomes the examining physician for the local Army recruiting station, to the annoyance of more than one officer, as well as Doctor Marsham, who does not approve of such duties for his fiancee. When a Dutch national is brought to the Thrift for treatment of injuries suffered in a racist attack by some British soldiers, there is staff dissention and further friction between Eleanor and Joe Marsham. When Eleanor meets the dashing young Major Guy Quarrie, she quickly falls under his spell.