Never Gone by Cherie Mitchell

Author:Cherie Mitchell [Mitchell, Cherie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2020-02-17T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

There was a new patient in Fred's bed by the time Annie clocked off, a sullen-mouthed, spotty-faced 15-year-old named Ian who had twisted his knee and broken his ankle when he jumped off a brick wall to impress his friends. Annie had an inkling that Matron might have placed him there on purpose to save her from looking at an empty bed but she couldn't be sure and Matron hadn’t said anything more to her since their chat in the office. However, Annie was still on edge and the way the other nurses were treating her wasn’t helping matters. Everyone was tiptoeing around her and being so sweet and nice that she wanted to scream. Either that, or run out of the hospital and down to the docks to get on the first ship headed back to Sydney. Today, and more so than on any other day since she'd first arrived here, she needed to wrap her arms around her children and hold them all close.

It was probably fortuitous that there were three letters from the children and one from Wynn waiting on her bed for her when she reached the dorm. Annie let out a squeal when she saw them, making Coral jump. "Oh Annie, I wish you wouldn’t do that! I thought you'd stumbled across a mouse."

"Letters from home! They honestly couldn't have arrived at a better time. Today has been ghastly and these are like a little ray of sunshine shining down on me in the middle of all the horridness." Annie kicked off her shoes and sat cross-legged on the bed with the letters on her lap.

“Yes, I picked them up for you when I went down to get mine.” Coral pulled off her uniform and changed into a rose pink dress that flattered her curvy figure. “Bill is taking me out for dinner tonight but he wants to stop at the shops first.”

“Perhaps he wants to steer you towards a jewellery shop to buy you a ring,” Annie teased, feeling almost giddy with happiness. Three letters! She would organise them into date order and then she would make herself a cup of tea before settling down to read them. She laid the letters down on the bed in a row from oldest to newest and sat her mother’s letter at the top. This was almost as exciting as Christmas morning, a real Christmas morning in sunny, summery Manly.

“Don’t be silly,” Coral said tartly. “We haven’t been seeing each other for nearly long enough to start talking about engagement rings.”

“It was supposed to be a joke.” Annie watched as Coral outlined her lips with a deep pink lipstick. “You look nice.”

“Thank you.” Coral shrugged on her coat and picked up her purse. “Are you going to be ok? I know Fred’s death hit you hard.”

“She’ll be ok,” Muriel called out from her bed across the aisle. “We’ll look after her.” She gave Annie a wink that Annie was unable to return. She wished Muriel had chosen someone else to be her confidant.

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