Read Online Love for the Matron by Elizabeth Houghton - Free Book Online

faraway city. Earlier its throbbing crescendo of movement would have been overlaid by the noises of the town, but now it was as prominent as a heartbeat and as insistent as a rising wind. To its symphony she drifted into sleep, and no dreams came her way and no ghosts walked down the corridors of time.
    The thin ringing sound of her alarm brought her struggling up from the depths of sleep, and suddenly she wondered if Sister Winsley had remembered to tell Annie that she would be breakfasting with her staff. But before there was time to open her eyes properly there was a tap on the door land Annie, a thin-faced little woman with straggly very white hair, came in with a cup of tea and a disapproving look.
    “Good morning, ma ’ am. I ’ m understanding that you don ’ t want me to g ive you breakfast as I did to Miss Brown these past ten years, bless her.”
    Elizabeth felt she was being attacked while at a disadvantage.
    She took the cup of tea from Annie. “It isn ’ t that I think you wouldn ’ t give me a very nice breakfast,” she explained, “but that I feel it would be fairer if I had it with my senior staff.”
    “ Thought you would see enough of them, seeing them all day, but I understand what you mean. It isn ’ t as if you ’ ve been awake half the night with the pain in your joints the way Miss Brown was. She was never the one to make a fuss and she ’ d always have a smile for me no matter how bad she felt, and it would make my day, sort of.” She gave Elizabeth a fierce look. “Do you think they ’ ll be caring for her properly in that place ? ”
    Elizabeth collected her scanty information. “I ’ m sure they w i ll, Annie, and if they can do something to make things easier for her, I ’ m sure you wouldn ’ t begrudge her the chance.”
    “That I wouldn ’ t, ma ’ am, and I ’ d wish her back tomorrow—meaning you no disrespect—if she could be free from the pain. She was St. Genevieve ’ s, if you follow me.”
    “I know what you mean, Annie. Everyone here seems to think such a lot of her. You must feel very proud to have worked for her,” Elizabeth said gently.
    “That I do, ma ’ am. There ’ s no need for me to be working. I ’ ve got my pension and a bit and a small cottage, but I came in to oblige Miss Brown and I ’ ve sort of got into the way of it. I did think of leaving when I heard Miss Brown was going, but who would look after the Matron ’ s house if I did? I ’ ve run your bath for you, ma ’ am, and if there ’ s things you want laundered you might leave them out for me.”
    Elizabeth thanked Annie and didn ’ t tell her that she had had a bath last night, She felt Annie ’ s world had taken enough jolts already.
    Miss Selby and Sister Winsley stood up politely as Elizabeth came into breakfast, and it seemed fairly certain from the air of confusion that she had been the subject under discussion. She wished them good morning and glanced around the dining room. The other tables were empty and the breakfast things had been cleared away.
    “The Ward Sisters have theirs at a quarter to eight, so that they can take the night report,” Miss Selby explained.
    Elizabeth forbore to ask why the senior staff didn ’ t do the same so that the Night Sister could hand over and be off at eight like the rest of her night nurses. No doubt it was one of those little customs whose beginning was buried in the distant past. It was a change she could well leave until later. She might even discover that Night Sister came to first breakfast with the day nurses and preferred it that way.
    The maid came in to serve Elizabeth, and she wondered if the kitchen had been warned that the Matron would be over for breakfast. The egg was nicely poached and a sprig of parsley decorated its top; the toast was hot and crisp and she was given a choice of tea or coffee. Conversation stayed safely on news in the nursing world, and before Elizabeth had finished, the other two excused themselves