‘Grace.’
‘Grace, I am in your debt forever,’ Anna said quietly.
Grace Fillion cupped her hands around Anna’s face, hands roughened by work but so tender. No one had touched her like that since the death of her mother.
‘When you are settled and comfortable, we will both write to Captain Beattie,’ Grace said. ‘He must know what is going on. Do you have a black dress?’
‘I do.’
‘Good. You’ll be perfect for the front desk. My clientele is always respectful. They’re rowdy sometimes over at the Perpetual Whist Game, but I make allowances.’
‘I won’t mind that,’ Anna said, dismissing her quiet life, which—truth to tell—was a boring business. Things were going to be different from now on. If she really thought about it—and why not?—life before Captain Beattie had knocked on her doorwasa trifle slow. ‘I won’t mind at all.’
Grace clapped her hands. ‘Bravo! My dear, welcome to the Drake.’
Chapter Twelve
Anna soon acquired three things: a second black dress; the ability to organise officers unaccustomed to being told what to do into an orderly queue; and the abiding knowledge that a smile worked wonders on exhausted officers needing a bed. She also learned a fourth thing: how deeply she could love.
She’d feared first of all for Allan, who burst into tears when he was told they were moving again. Anna could never scold a heart mangled by desertion, and the absence of a loving, if often absent, father. Their eviction deadline loomed, but Anna had found a moment to sit with him.
‘Will my father know where I am?’ Allan asked.
‘Indeed, he will. As soon as we are settled at the Drake, Mrs Fillion and I will each write a letter, so there will be no doubt where we are.’ She added shrewdly, ‘You may write Papa a letter, too, telling him what you’re doing at the Drake.’
‘Doing?’ She heard interest this time, not fear.
‘Yes. We will be working for Mrs Fillion.’ She kissed his head and let him cuddle her, as if they had all the time in the world. ‘She tells me that making officers comfortable is howwefight Napoleon right here in Plymouth.’
That was the clinching argument. He nodded, hopped off her lap and helped Ben strap down a box.
Pru had no trouble pitching in; change and chaos were all she knew. Anna felt a pang when they prepared to climb aboard the cart taking them to their new adventure. As they stood together on the pavement, Pru tugged at Anna’s skirt.
‘Am I to come along, too?’
Shocked, Anna pulled Pru close. ‘I will never leave you behind, Pru. I should have made myself plain about this. The promise I made to Captain Beattie extends to you, too.’
‘I hoped it might,’ Anna heard her reply, and rejoiced in her heart.We can do this, Captain Beattie. Just you wait and see.
Grace must have explained everything to her staff, because all Anna saw were smiles when they arrived at the Drake. Willing hands unloaded their possessions and took them down the stairs to their quarters. In a matter of minutes, Mrs Moore was nodding happily to instructions from Grace’s chef, a Frenchman with a cautious expression.
‘Anna, you should share a room with Allan,’ Grace said.
‘I agree.’ Anna watched Allan pat the pillow on one of the two narrow beds and give her his first smile of the whole, upsetting day. ‘He needs familiar faces around him.’
‘What is this war doing to our children?’ Grace whispered back. ‘And you, my dear?’ Her expression hardened. ‘Nosy gossips can cause the same damage as cannon and bayonets.’
‘I intend to put it behind me,’ Anna assured her. She could reflect later on how completely her own life had changed since Captain Beattie had come into her orbit, a frantic man forced to trust a stranger. ‘Perhaps I was getting complacent.’
‘I admire you, Anna. You will succeed admirably at the Drake.’
She did, they all did, but it took patience. Her first reminder came the next morning, when she dressed in black to follow Grace upstairs to work behind the front desk.
She got no further than the door of the room she shared with Allan. He and Pru were heading to the kitchen close by, ready to chop and dice. When he saw her, his Missy, dressed for work, his eyes filled with tears.
‘Please don’t leave me, Missy!’ he cried.
She held him close, ready to explain that she was only going above-stairs to the lobby. A firm hand on her shoulder reassured her that there was far more to Grace than running a hotel.
