Anna von Wessen by Mae Ronan Read Free Book Online Page A

enough, I suppose,” he answered, in a voice made small and weak from overexposure to fright. But do not think badly of him, for honestly enough, more than half of his housemates appeared even worse off than himself. They floated up the staircase like ghosts, traumatised by their own terror.
    “Get to sleep,” Anna advised him, as she pressed his hand.
    “Right away, I’m sure,” he said. “Will you come up with me?”
    Anna was ready to follow him, but was stayed by Valo’s hand upon her arm. “Wait with me in Father’s study,” he said. “He will want to speak with you, too.”
    “Just get to sleep,” Anna repeated to Greyson, with what she hoped was a comforting smile. He trudged off up the stairs, looking subtly back over his shoulder at Valo, with rather a disgruntled look upon his face.
    But Valo did not notice; for he was quite busy looking at Anna, and smiling in what he seemed to think was a very charming way. And, granted, it was very charming – so much so, that perhaps someone like Ari would not have known just how to contain herself.
    But Anna was not touched. She pulled her hand away, when Valo tried to take it, and led him silently to Ephram’s study, where a fire still burnt. They set themselves down in the chairs before his desk.
    They were a long while waiting. When finally Ephram appeared, directly before them and seated in his great leather chair, the sun was beginning to show its faint pink radiance, at the boundary of the sky just outside the window.
    “Hello, my dears,” Ephram said wearily, taking a moment to settle himself back, and pass a hand over his face. Anna and Valo shared a deferential silence.
    “Adrian Ilo and I have had a very long talk,” Ephram went on. “After much debate, I have come to my own conclusion.”
    Still his children said nothing.
    “We will go to Europe.”
    Anna and Valo did a rapid double-take, glanced confusedly at each other, and then looked back to Ephram. But there could be no misinterpreting what he had said.
    “When?” asked Anna.
    “Tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow!” exclaimed Anna and Valo together.
    Ephram only gave a small smile, and then sank back in his chair, thoroughly exhausted. “We will discuss this further,” he said, “after I have slept a little. Come back to me at noon.”
    “Only we two?” asked Valo.
    “Only you two.”
     
    ~
     
    Anna parted with Valo at the third-storey landing, and dashed directly for Greyson’s room. Probably she should not tell him yet, she knew; but she was so very flurried, she simply could not abstain from it.
    She knocked once at his door, but pushed into the room without waiting for a response. “Greyson!” she whispered, going to the bed to prod him in the shoulder. “Greyson, wake!”
    “Oh, what do you want?”
    “I have to tell you something.”
    “Then tell me, and leave!”
    He looked at her crossly out of one bleary eye.
    “We’re going to England,” Anna told him.
    “Fascinating, terribly intriguing! You woke me for that? What do I care if – wait.” He tipped his head to the side, and looked up into Anna’s face. “We – what are we doing?”
    “I knew you would catch on eventually.”
    So Anna sat down beside him, and proceeded to tell him the whole of what brief intercourse had taken place in Ephram’s study.
    “It can’t be!” Greyson said wonderingly. “You know as well as I do, that Ephram will never return to England.”
    “That’s what I thought. He spoke of it once before, though – just a few days ago. At the time I thought him very tired, or slightly mad. Yet he returned from Adrian Ilo, with quite the most resolute expression upon his face.”
    “No!”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, I’ll be,” said Greyson, shaking his head. But then his face brightened, and he glanced up in excitement. “We shall go sailing, Anna!” he cried. “You and I sailing, in a great ship!”
    Anna smiled in return; but needed admit to herself, that she was not quite so contented