Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening (Summerset Abbey Trilogy) by T. J. Brown Page A

shrugged. “I trained VADs like you all day. The more volunteers we have, the less I have to work.”
    Victoria snorted, collapsing into a red wingback chair. “As if you would work any less.” Eleanor had taken a position with the Red Cross as a training nurse and now educated young women like Victoria in basic first aid and nursing. Wounded soldiers were already arriving from the front by the thousands, and makeshift hospitals were being assembled in community centers and private houses. Soon there would be a nursing shortage unless volunteers were trained and quickly.
    “I gave up the job at the prison,” Eleanor protested.
    “Only when you had to.”
    “What about you? You train all day, volunteer to write letters for soldiers, and go out all night with Kit. As your nurse, I must protest.”
    Victoria grinned at the woman who had become as close to her as her own sister. “I’m perfectly fine now, as long as I don’t run or catch cold, and you know it, too.”
    Susie came into the room carrying a tray with a teapot and miniature tea sandwiches. “And I suppose you won’t catch cold working with all those sick men?”
    Victoria took the cup Susie held out to her, then helped herself to a plate of sandwiches. “Oh, thank you, you blessed creature. And they’re wounded, not sick, so don’t bother fussing. Prudence, Rowena, Elaine, and Eleanor have already tried to talk me out of volunteering—all to no avail. The settlement house where I was going to volunteer, if you remember, has been turned into a recovery home for soldiers, so I had to change my plans. One does what one must.” Victoria waved her cup, almost spilling her tea.
    Susie harrumphed and left the room, and Eleanor gave Victoria a weary smile.
    The doorbell rang and Eleanor started to rise before Victoria waved her back down. “Susie will get it. You look fagged out.”
    “I am,” Eleanor admitted, settling back onto the chaise. “I never thought I would live to see the day where I had a housekeeper to answer the door. Have I told you how much I love living here?”
    “Only a dozen times a week.”
    “I can’t possibly say it enough.”
    “Say what enough?” Prudence asked, coming into the room.
    “Pru!” Victoria stretched up her arms to give her friend a hug. “I would get up to greet you, but I can’t feel my feet. Susie! Bring some more tea!”
    “As if you have to tell me how to do my job?” Susie yelled from down the hallway.
    “Such impertinence!” Victoria exclaimed with a grin. “What brings you to Chelsea? Not that you need a reason. I’m always so happy to see you!”
    One of the best things about living in London again was that she got to see Prudence on occasion. Now that Andrew was in training in Salisbury, Prudence had become a frequent visitor to the flat Kit fondly called the Hen-Pen.
    Victoria looked at Prudence sharply. Shadows marked her friend’s eyes and she looked thin and tense despite that her cheeks looked rounder.
    “Other than just seeing your sweet self?” Prudence asked after greeting Eleanor. “I’ve come to ask a favor, actually.”
    Susie brought in another cup for Prudence and then helped Victoria remove her shoes.
    “What sort of favor?” Victoria asked, intrigued. Prudence rarely asked for favors, even while they were growing up together.
    Prudence sat on the velvet sofa and set her cup carefully on the low table in front of her. “You told me that Colin is in the 1st King’s Dragoon, right? When will he be joining his regiment?”
    Susie brought in a steaming tub of hot water, and Victoria gingerly put her feet into it before answering, “I’m not sure. They are on their way back and then will no doubt be heading to France or to Africa or some hellish place like that. Why?”
    Prudence stared into her tea as if she were reading the future. Victoria leaned forward, her shoulders tensing. Whatever Prudence wanted, it was important.
    When Prudence finally looked up, her green eyes