Friendship's Bond Read Online Free Page B

which did not fit the body stepping from the doorway, a shape fading even as it spoke again.
    ‘There be cream pans a waitin’ to be scalded and benches to be scrubbed and they won’t bide while folks stands daydreamin’.’
    Turning to find Leah and not a uniformed figure watching her, Ann blinked the last remnants of mist from her mind. ‘I . . . I’m sorry,’ she said as she reached for the kettle and hurried with it into the scullery, ‘I was miles away.’
    Leah hooked her own large pan of water to the iron trivet then swung it above the fire, saying as she returned to the scullery, ‘We all gets carried away betimes wench, me no less than many, but it don’t do to go a wanderin’ the lanes o’ memory when reaching forra boilin’ kettle.’
    Leah was right of course. When the older woman had gone from the room Ann bent to the task in hand. But how did you prevent the memories returning? How did you banish words and pictures that had you long for sleep which came only with the dawn?
    Leah was as well-meaning as she was kind. She had taught Ann many things since bringing her to this house, had answered many questions, but even she could not answer that one.
     
    How was it a young woman and a lad had managed to travel so far? Not that she knew the number of miles separating Russia from England. Leah looked up from yet one more cloth she was sewing to cover an increasing number of cream vats, letting her glance rest on the boy sitting at the table.
    Worry rested heavy on the shoulders of the lad, that was obvious in the way he scanned the newspaper, but far from home and family as he was then it was only natural he would fret.
    What of his family? Leah returned to her sewing but her mind stayed with Alec. He himself, though friendly in conversation, never made mention of parents, of brothers or sisters. Was that because of some dreadful happening that had robbed him of all his kin? An event so awful he had closed his mind against it? That was something she had seen in several men repatriated from the front, their bodily injuries only one part of the harm this dreadful war had done them, while other more terrible injuries had been done to minds so filled with horror they had withdrawn into themselves like men hiding from life.
    This lad surely could not have been called up into any army, he were barely of an age to be gone from school. But then who could say what policy other nations abided by. Glancing again at the figure, tow-coloured head bent over the newspaper, Leah silently repeated the prayer said so often in the privacy of her bedroom.
    Lord, may the light of Your mercy shine on all who be sufferin’, may the comfort of Your love ease grief and heartache, Your grace rest on them who seek to ease the pain of others and for the many who have been taken by this terrible war, I ask You gather them into Your loving arms as I knows You have gathered my own sons.
    After she finished, Leah held her breath tight to prevent a sob, but she hid her reaction as Ann rose from the chair asking if Leah would care for a cup of tea.
    ‘That’d be welcome and mebbe’s Alec would like some hot milk, I brought a jug fresh from the last milkin’ and there be a spoonful or two of cocoa left in the tin.’ She smiled across at the boy carefully closing the newspaper. ‘I knows y’ be partial to a sup o’ cocoa.’
    A smile had accompanied his reply but Ann had seen the hint of tears glinting in the soft light.
    Ann mixed cocoa powder with sugar she knew Leah deliberately declined to take so there would be a little extra for Alec. She felt her heart twist in sympathy for the boy she had come to care for as she might a younger brother. He was hurting inside; much as he tried to mask it he was not always successful, and though many times she had hoped he would confide in her, tell her how he had come to be at Morskoy Vokzal that day, so far he had not. She had wondered if she should ask whether he and the man with him had