The Forget-Me-Not Sonata by Santa Montefiore

Author:Santa Montefiore [Montefiore, Santa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9781471132087
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2014-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Leonora lay in the darkness with Saggy Rabbit listening to the coughing and rustling of the seven other children who shared her dormitory. The sounds were a comfort for they reminded her that, as solitary as she felt, she wasn’t alone. She had had supper at one of the long tables in the grand hall which resembled a scene from a medieval banquet, except there were no pigs roasting on spits in the fireplace, just a large display of dried flowers that sat collecting dust. She had placed herself next to Caroline Stainton-Hughes who announced that she’d like to be known by her nickname, which was Cazzie. Then she had turned to Leonora and told her that she had to have a nickname too. So everyone had called her Leo, like Alicia did, and they had eaten macaroni cheese and thick slices of white bread with butter in an attempt to fill the emptiness inside. One of the matrons called Sally had brought some of Miss Reid’s dogs around to comfort the new girls and she had sat on the floor with Cazzie and a couple of the other children who were particularly homesick stroking them and drying their tears on their fur. But then it had been time to shower and prepare for bed. She had hung her wash bag up on the peg next to dozens of others and had suffered a sudden twisting of the gut when the name tape on her bath cap, so lovingly sewn on by her mother, had flashed at her as she expanded the elastic to put it on. Now she lay in a ball in her bed. In spite of the heavy blanket she felt cold. The mattress was hard and the springs squeaked each time she moved. She heard the head matron’s footsteps followed by the light tap-tapping of her black Labrador as he followed her down the narrow corridors. She stopped at each room to shine her torch onto the beds to check that each child was where she should be then continued, the rubber soles of her comfortable shoes squelching on the wooden floorboards.

Leonora must have drifted off to sleep because she awoke in the early hours of the morning with a desperate need to use the lavatory. She lay there deliberating whether she had the courage to go by herself. The light was on in the corridor and all she had to do was creep through Dickens, across the landing to the bathrooms. She was aware that the floors groaned underfoot and was afraid that she would wake everyone up. Then it occurred to her that perhaps one of the other girls was in the same predicament. ‘Is anyone awake?’ she whispered loudly. Her voice sounded strange as it hissed into the silence. She tried again, this time a little bit louder. But no one responded.

Finally, when the pressure in her bladder won over her anxiety she slipped out of bed and slid her feet into her slippers.

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