Nurse Ann Wood by Valerie K. Nelson Read Free Book Online Page A

she had donned on Mrs. Woods’ instructions before she went to see the children, picked up her cloak. Strange that she had been travelling with uniform in her luggage. Just as if she had known that she was coming on a case...
    As she glanced out of the window she saw another figure running across the lawn towards the opening in the thick yew hedge. This time it was a woman, and unless she was very much mistaken, Averil Pollard. Ann went downstairs and through the silent hall, shivering a little, though it was not cold.
    The garden was full of the indescribably sweet scents of the burgeoning year. This was the west country, and spring came earlier here. When she had left London...
    Again there was that blank wall, blotting memories of the life behind her. She had an impression of coldness ... of frost... and then even that impression was gone.
    “Don’t try to force anything. Don’t consciously try to remember. Better to let it come back to you naturally,” the doctors had said.
    With something of a start, Ann noticed that the path she had been following for several minutes had come to an end. In front of her was a gate, standing open. The way beyond was rather dark and shaded by trees. She hesitated, wondering where it led, and whether the path would soon come again into the open.
    As she stood, she heard the sound of voices and laughter. It would seem that she had come in the same direction taken by a couple she had noticed in the distance and hoped to avoid. She turned hurriedly, caught her foot on a stone and, unable to regain her balance, fell heavily with her shoulder striking the iron railing just near to the gate. Her heavy cloak, partly responsible for her fall as her arms had been inside it, shielded her from the worst of the impact, but all the same the jolt was painful, and as she got to her feet her face was rueful. She would have a stiff shoulder tomorrow and probably a bad bruise.
    As she brushed herself down there was the sound of flying footsteps, and along a parallel path that she hadn’t noticed till now a young woman flew past and disappeared behind the bushes.
    It’s time I went back, Ann thought wryly. There’s too much cloak and dagger stuff around here. She began to walk back in the direction from which she had come, and after a few moments she heard hurrying footsteps behind her. She turned, and saw a man, evidently the partner of the flying nymph who had disappeared in the direction of the house.
    It was the man she had noticed earlier from her bedroom window. He fell into step beside her, saying affably, “Good evening, miss. Out for a walk, are you? I hope our good air at Fountains will soon bring an improvement in your health.”
    Ann smiled. “Good evening, and thank you.”
    “I’m Burrows, the chauffeur-handyman,” he told her.
    “Oh,” murmured Ann, realizing with slight amusement that he was discontinuing his pursuit. In any case, Averil must by now be in the house.
    He continued civilly, “I understand you’re going to keep an eye on the children as well as nursing your sister. I hope you won’t find it too much for you. If you’ll excuse my saying so, it seems a formidable undertaking for anyone in full health, but for a young lady, still convalescing, well, to me, it’s a bit inhuman to ask you to do so much. If you’ll excuse my saying so.”
    Ann did not excuse him. She thought his expression of opinion uncalled for and his manner too familiar. The little note of distance that had so infuriated Mrs. Woods was in her voice again. “You’re very kind.”
    He had the grace, it would seem, to recognize the note, and they walked in silence back to the yew hedge and to the house. They had reached the steps which led on to the terrace and to the front door when a man appeared from the other side of the house. Ann’s heart began to pound heavily. It had come, then, this moment for which she had been waiting so long. Even in the dusk there was no mistaking him.
    She was to