Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff Page B

for a reckless fling, and anything more serious was unthinkable while the war news continued to be so bad.
    â€œThere you are, Anna. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Tilly burst into their room, bringing with her a frigid blast of air from the corridor.
    â€œWhat do you want to borrow tonight?” Anna asked, unable to hide her smile.
    â€œI resent that.” Tilly jammed her hands on her hips and puffed out her bottom lip. “How do you know I’m here to borrow something?”
    Anna cast her a long, skeptical look.
    â€œOh, very well,” Tilly answered hastily. “It’s that dreamy blue jumper, the one with the pearl buttons. You don’t suppose . . . I mean, you’re not going out tonight, are you?”
    â€œA date with a bottle of Young Red or At Ease pink?” Anna said, waving two bottles of nail polish for Tilly’s opinion.
    â€œThe red definitely. I hear it’s Captain Matthews’s favorite color.”
    â€œAnd why would I care what the MO’s favorite color is?”
    â€œOnly because he’s completely smitten with you.”
    Captain Matthews was the comfortably middle-aged medical officer in residence at the hospital. At least two of the nurses and three VADs were madly in love with him, despite regulations putting him firmly out of bounds.
    Anna was not one of them.
    â€œDon’t be ridiculous,” she said firmly. “He’s merely being polite.”
    â€œHe’s polite to the rest of us. He gushes over you. If I have to hear one more time how Trenowyth knows just the right way to give an enema, I shall scream.” Tilly changed out of her ward dress and into a pretty floral skirt and white blouse.
    â€œHe doesn’t do that.”
    â€œHe does. That’s the act of a smitten man, and I should know.”
    â€œWho’s so smitten with you that you need to borrow my new jumper?” Anna asked, in a desperate attempt at changing the subject.
    Tilly swung round from her mad primping, wearing a cat-with-the-canary expression, her blue eyes dancing with excitement. “Lord Melcombe asked if I’d go into Newquay with him for a pint and maybe some dancing.”
    â€œAre you certain that’s a good idea?”
    â€œAnd why wouldn’t it be?”
    â€œOnly that it would be awkward if things didn’t work out. You could hardly avoid him, could you?”
    â€œIs that why you haven’t accepted Captain Matthews?” Tilly smirked as she brushed her golden hair until it crackled.
    Anna rolled her eyes. Tilly really was incorrigible. “You have to see that Hugh’s different from Captain Matthews. I mean, he owns the hospital . . . this house. He’s not like us.”
    â€œHe’s exactly like you . You’re cousins, aren’t you?”
    â€œYou make it sound more than it is.”
    â€œLast time I checked, he pulls his trousers on like every other man, one leg at a time. That’s good enough for me.”
    â€œIt’s how he takes his trousers off that worries me.”
    Tilly turned back to the mirror, reapplying her lipstick, tucking an errant curl in place. “You leave his trousers to me.”
    â€œThat’s a picture I didn’t need to conjure.”
    â€œReally, Anna. It’s one evening out. It’s not as if I’m planning a walk up the aisle at Westminster Abbey or anything.”
    â€œThe jumper’s in my locker.”
    â€œYou’re the absolute, Anna love,” Tilly said, rummaging through until she found it. “Thanks heaps.”
    She departed with an airy wave of her handbag and a waggle in her hips, leaving Anna alone . . . for almost a complete five silent minutes before Sophie wandered in to collapse in a chair with an exhausted sigh. “Every muscle in my body aches. I’ve just finished cleaning, organizing, and double-checking labels in the drug dispensary. Even the thought of primping for a gin