Nurse Ann Wood by Valerie K. Nelson

children,” he told her abruptly, “but I suppose they are in bed.”
    “I expect they are. Miss Pollard is with them.” Surely that must be true, since Averil had run ahead of Burrows and herself.
    “Oh, is she?” His frown deepened and another layer of ice was added to his voice.
    Ann sat very still. The pain in her shoulder was growing worse, and her head was swimming with faintness. He went on almost accusingly, “where is everybody? Surely you haven’t been left on your own — you, a sick woman!”
    She raised her head protestingly. “I’m not a sick woman, Mr. Sherrarde. At least, not physically, and the doctors say that here, among people I know, my memory will soon return.”
    But she didn’t know them, she thought forlornly. They were strangers, and if Mrs. Woods was anything to go by, not particularly friendly. And the source from which she had expected kindness...
    Perhaps because there was a line of pain between those big, lavender-grey eyes, perhaps because her expression was so forlorn, the man’s voice softened slightly. “Despite your protestations, Miss Woods, you don’t look at all well. I suppose you were lonely, and that’s why...”
    He stopped, staring at her questioningly, but Ann’s eyes were averted. She hoped she wasn’t going to be silly enough to faint. When there was no answer to his half-veiled accusation, he went on, his voice hardening, “Where are your mother and sister?”
    Ann had decided today before she left hospital that there was a limit of deception beyond which she was not prepared to go. She said in a tired voice, “I can’t remember anything about my family, Mr. Sherrarde. Mrs. Woods seems like a stranger to me, and I haven’t seen — Beverley. I think she is in her own room with the housekeeper in attendance, as she hasn’t been well all day. Mrs. Woods had a long-standing dinner engagement.”
    He was watching her intently as she spoke in a flat, almost uninterested voice about the women who were her nearest relatives. Could there have been a mistake? Was she really as alien to these people as she appeared to be?
    A gleam of light came into his eyes and went almost at once. Whatever this girl had forgotten, it was certain that neither Mrs. Woods nor Beverley Derhart had lost their memories.
    He spoke again, dryly. “I understand from my aunt that you’re going to take charge of the children and also to give your sister such care as she requires. Obviously that’s too much for anyone to do. Looking after the children is a full-time job. I’ve been insisting that Miss Pollard must go as she is inefficient, but she certainly can’t leave until you are fully recovered. Otherwise the children must come back to my aunt’s care, which is what I would prefer.”
    He was the children’s trustee and Ann could understand his reason for wanting the children under more reliable care than they seemed to be getting at Fountains. But there was that in his voice which stung her to protest.
    “You would take the children completely away from their mother?” she asked with raised brows. “Even though she can’t have them with her very much, you surely wouldn’t be so cruel as to deprive her of them altogether?”
    He looked uncomfortable. “They could come down each day to see her.”
    Ann brought the conversation back to herself. “I’m very strong, really. One has to be, to be accepted as a nurse, and the training toughens one. I shall be able to cope quite successfully with the children and help Beverley when she needs me.”
    He continued to prowl restively round the room. “You’re not to live a life of slavery. You must have free time, and some social life.”
    “Of course,” Ann replied, though she guessed that Mrs. Woods might take a different view. “Nurse Elliott is going to cycle over on her free afternoons.”
    She thought she saw a softening in his expression and she decided that she must broach the subject which was now looming over her like an