A sudden, fearful death by Anne Perry Page A

future for them unless
beliefs change a great deal." He regarded her earnestly. "There is
one in particular, a Miss Barrymore, who was with Miss Nightingale in the
Crimea. She is remarkable in her perception, but I regret not everyone admires
her as they might." He sighed, smiling at her with sudden total candor, an
intimacy that sent a warmth racing through her. "I seem to have caught
your zeal for reform."
    He was saying it as if joking, but
she knew he meant it with the utmost seriousness, and that he intended her to
know it.
    She was about to reply when there
was a shout of anger in the passage outside, a woman's voice raised in furious
temper. Instinctively both of them turned toward the door, listening.
    Another angry shout followed a
moment later, then a shriek as of pain and rage.
    Kristian went to the door and
opened it. Callandra followed and looked outside. There were no windows, and
no gas lit during the day. A few yards along in the dim light two women were
struggling together, the long hair of one of them hanging loose and untidy, and
even as they watched, her opponent made another lunge to snatch at it and pull.
    "Stop it!" Callandra
shouted as she passed Kristian and advanced on the women. "What is it?
What's the matter with you?"
    They stopped for a moment, largely
out of sheer surprise. One of them was in her late twenties, plain-faced, but
not unappealing. The other was at least ten years older and already looking
worn and aged by hard living and too many drunken nights.
    "What is it?" Callandra
demanded again. "What are you fighting about?"
    "The laundry chute," the
younger said sullenly. "She blocked it by putting the linen in it all in a
bundle." She glared at the older woman. "Now nothing will go through
and we'll all have to carry everything right down to the boilers ourselves. As
if there weren't enough to do without going up and down them stairs every time
there is a sheet to change."
    For the first time, Callandra
noticed the bundle of soiled sheets on the floor by the wall.
    "I didn't," the older
woman said defiantly. "I put one sheet down. How can you block it with one
sheet?" Her voice rose in indignation. "You've got to be a real
clever bitch to put down less than one at a time. What do you want? I should
tear it in 'alf, then sew it back together when it's clean again?" She
stared belligerently at her foe.
    "Let us see," Kristian
said behind Callandra. He excused himself between the nurses and looked down
the open chute which took linen straight to the laundry and the huge copper
boilers where it was washed. He peered down it for several seconds and they all
waited in silence.
    "I cannot see anything,"
he said finally, stepping back again. 'There must be something blocking the way
or I would be able to see the baskets at the bottom, or at least a light. But
we will argue later as to who put it there. In the meantime, the thing is to
remove it" He looked around for something to accomplish the task, and saw
nothing.
    "A broom?" Callandra
suggested. "Or a window pole. Anything with a long handle."
    The nurses stood still.
    "Go on," Callandra
commanded impatiently. "Go and find one. There must be a window pole in
the ward." She pointed at the nearest ward entrance along the corridor.
"Don't stand around, fetch it!"
    Grudgingly the younger woman
started, hesitated, and glared back at her companion, then continued on her
way.
    Callandra peered down the chute.
She could see nothing either. Obviously the obstruction blocked it entirely,
but how far down it was, she could not judge. = The nurse came back with a
long-handled window pole and gave it to Kristian, who poked it down the chute.
But even when he leaned as far as he could, he met with no resistance. The
obstruction, whatever it was, was beyond his reach.
    "We'll have to go down and see
if we can dislodge it from below," he said after another unsuccessful try.
    "Er—" The younger nurse