Chapter One
Today it was her birthday.
It was the third of June in the year 192 6 and she was
nineteen years old.
Audra Kenton stood at the window of her room in the Fever
Hospital in Ripon, in Yorkshire, where she worked as a
nurse, gazing out at the back garden. Absently she watched
the play of light and shadow on the lawn, as the sunlight
filtered through the leafy domes of the two great oaks
that grew near the old stone wall. There was a gentle
breeze, and the leaves rustled and trembled under it, and
shimmered with green brilliance as they caught the sun. It
was radiant and balmy, a day that invited and beckoned.
Matron had given Audra the afternoon off for her birthday.
The problem was that she had nowhere to go and no one to
spend it with. She was entirely alone in this world.
Audra only had one friend, Gwen Thornton, another nurse at
the hospital, but Gwen had been summoned home to Horsforth
yesterday. Her mother had been taken ill and she was
needed. Weeks ago, Gwen had arranged to exchange her day
off with one of the other nurses, so that she could be
with Audra, celebrate this important occasion with her,
and the two of them had planned a very special day. Now
their elaborate plans were laid to waste.
Leaning her head against the window frame, Audra sighed,
thinking of the empty hours looming ahead. Unexpectedly
her throat tightened and she felt the tears gathering
behind her eyes as sadness mingled with bitter
disappointment trickled through her. But after only a few
seconds she blinked and cleared her throat, managed to
take holdof herself. Resolutely she pushed aside the
negative emotions momentarily invading her, refusing to
feel sorry for herself. Audra despised self-pity in
others, considered it to be a sign of weakness. She was
strong. Her mother had always told her that she was, and
her mother had rarely been wrong about anything.
Turning away from the window, she walked over to the chair
and sat down heavily, wondering what to do with herself.
She could read, of course, or do a little embroidery, or
even finish the sketch of the blouse she was designing,
and which she intended to make β when she could afford to
buy the fabric. On the other hand, none of these
occupations had any real appeal for her. Not today. Not on
her birthday.
She had been so looking forward to the outing with her
friend, to enjoying a few carefree hours of pleasure for
once in her life. Audra had little to celebrate these
days, and festive occasions were a thing of the past, a
rarity indeed. In fact, her life had changed so radically,
so harshly, in the last few years, she hardly recognized
it as her own.
It suddenly struck her that resorting to one of those
mundane hobbies, normally used to pass the time when she
was off duty, would be infinitely worse than just sitting
in this chair, doing nothing. They're poor substitutes,
all of them, for the plans Gwen and I made.
Audra had long since trained herself not to notice the
room where she lived in the hospital. But now, seeing it
so clearly illuminated in the bright sunshine, she became
painfully aware of its ugliness and lack of comfort.
Having been born into gentility, albeit somewhat
impoverished, Audra was a young woman of breeding and
refinement. She possessed taste in abundance, had strong
artistic leanings, and the austerity of the Spartan
furnishings and institutional color scheme suddenly
stabbed at her discerning eyes. They offended her
sensibilities.
Confronting her were walls painted a dismal porridge-beige
which ran down to a floor covered with dreary gray
linoleum. The iron bedstead, rickety night stand and chest
of drawers were notable only for their shabbiness and
utilitarian design. The room was chillingly bleak,
intolerable at any time, but especially on this sunny
afternoon. She knew she had to escape its oppressive
boundaries for a short while, no matter where she went.
Her gaze fell on the dress lying on the bed, where she had
placed it a short time before. It was new. She had saved
up for a whole year, putting away a shilling every week,
in order to buy herself a present for her birthday.
She and Gwen had gone to Harrogate two Saturdays ago with
this in mind. They had wandered around for several hours,
mostly window-shoppingand admiring the beautiful things
they saw and which they knew they would never be able to
afford. Audra filled with warm and affectionate feelings
for Gwen as she thought of that day now.
Gwen was especially attracted to jeweler's shops, and
Audra had found herself constantly cupping her hands and
dutifully peering through glass at some bauble that had
caught Gwen's attention. "Oh Audra! Just look at that!"
Gwen kept crying, pointing to a brooch or a ring or a
pendant. At one moment she had clutched Audra's arm
fiercely and whispered in awed tones, "Have you ever seen
anything like that gorgeous bangle, Audra! Why the stones
could be real the way they sparkle like diamonds. It would
suit you, Audra. Let's go in ... it doesn't cost anything
just to look."
Audra had half smiled and shaken her head, not saying a
word, and she had thought of her mother's jewelry, which
had been much more beautiful than any of these tawdry
imitations of the real thing.
Gwen's excited exclamations and urgent proddings;
continued a bit too long for Audra that afternoon, and she
had eventually grown exasperated, had silenced her friend
with a stern look and a sharp admonition to be quiet.
Immediately regretting her shortness, she had quickly
apologized to Gwen.
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