Read Online Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff - Free Book Online Page B

four. Matron doesn’t like us to be late. It upsets the men’s schedule.”
    Anna grabbed her arm, dragging her around to face her. “Sophie, listen to me. Please.”
    Sophie glared. “You let me prattle on last night when all the time you were laughing at me. Why didn’t you say who you were then?”
    â€œBecause I was curious. You know them. I only know what I’ve read in books.”
    Sophie folded her arms over her chest, but her icy expression held the first signs of thawing. Perhaps Anna hadn’t destroyed this hint of a friendship.
    â€œMy last name might be Trenowyth, but I’m not part of this family. I’m not part of any family. Not anymore.”
    â€œI don’t understand. You told Matron you were related.”
    â€œMy mother came from here, but I never knew her—or them. She left Nanreath Hall before I was born and died when I was six. I never knew my father, and the people who raised me died in an air raid last month in London.”
    Sophie’s brows crumpled in sympathy. “Oh no, Anna. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
    â€œWhy should you? It’s not usually how I begin most conversations.” Anna pushed her sorrow away before it consumed her. If she didn’t think about it, it couldn’t hurt her.
    Seemingly mollified by Anna’s apology, the two of them worked through the morning’s list of tasks laid out in Matron’s neat handwriting.
    In the corridors outside, orderlies moved with quick efficiency, conversations came and went, doors banged, shoes scuffed past, and wheels squeaked as trollies were rolled back and forth between the basement storage rooms and the medical wards, which had taken over the drawing rooms upstairs. It might be late October, but down here, the steam and heat from the nearby laundry saturated the air with damp humidity. Sweat trickled down Anna’s spine and turned her well-tamed hair to a frizz of red beneath her veil, now sadly wilted from the heat.
    Each time she thought they were coming to the end, another orderly would arrive with a fresh batch of linens to be folded and stored for use. Anna’s arms ached, her stomach growled, but the repetitive monotony of the job and the industry beyond the door soothed her into a state of unthinking numbness.
    Sophie worked beside her, the silence congenial now rather than cool until, “Does Hugh know who you are?” she asked.
    Anna looked up from the form she’d been filling out, confused until she realized that while she had laid the conversation aside, Sophie had continued dwelling on it. “I don’t know. It happened a long time ago.”
    â€œThat won’t matter. Families like ours have long memories.” Sophie turned back to a cart filled with enough pajamas and robes to clothe a battalion. “Is that why you came to Nanreath? To find out about your family?”
    â€œI came to Nanreath because I was assigned here. I don’t expect a warm welcome. I don’t expect any welcome.” She felt foolish proclaiming her intent among heaps of pillowcases and stacks of sheets. “I’m here to do a job. That’s all. And at the first opportunity, I plan on transferring to a real hospital with patients that need me.”
    Rather than being dismayed by Anna’s outburst, Sophie smiled, her eyes alive with a curious excitement. “Meet me outside the library after visiting hours. I have something to show you.”
    â€œWhat is it?” Anna asked.
    Sophie continued to look like the cat with the canary. “Let’s call it ‘a long memory.’”
    D espite the linoleum on the floors and the ugly hardboard paneling nailed up to protect the walls in all the downstairs rooms, Nanreath Hall maintained an air of country house serenity. Patients relaxed in the salon, browsing newspapers or listening to the wireless. Knots of men congregated in the armory, where tall windows