Winny smothered a gasp, and Jack resisted the urge to turn around and stare at his friend. Mary would already be doing that, he was sure, because she wasn’t saying anything.
“Don’t look so shocked,” Edward said. “I just thought you should know.”
“I did know,” Mary said softly. “I just never thought you’d tell me.”
“It’s all right if you don’t want to say anything, but I wanted to tell you. I missed you the last time, and I expect that won’t change this go around.”
“I’ll miss you too.”
“Good for him,” Winny whispered to Jack. “Never thought he’d work up the nerve.”
Jack snuck a peek behind and was surprised to see the two were holding hands, and a small smile played on Mary’s face. An odd sense of loss rolled in his chest, but he let it go. He was glad for her. And it would change nothing between him and Mary. Nothing ever could.
Eventually Mr. Keller turned onto a driveway and they passed beneath a domed brick entrance big enough for a car to drive under. A large, red stone mansion loomed before them, its round turrets walled with windows.
Jack gave a low whistle as he lowered the little girl from his back. “That’s posh, ain’t it?”
“It’s like a castle,” Winny said.
The children followed Mr. Keller and Miss Pence into the front room of the building, where a crackling fire welcomed them. The heat felt like a blanket after the cold rain outside, and the children rushed towards it with their hands held out for warmth. As their shivers died down, Jack looked around in awe, taking in the panelled walls, the lofty ceiling, the elaborate cornices that made doors and windows into pieces of art, and the wide, carpeted staircase that stretched to the second floor.
“Boys and girls,” Mr. Keller said, drawing their attention to a large, moustached man standing beside him, wearing a neat suit and leaning on a cane. “This is Mr. Hobday, Dr. Barnardo’s manager here in Canada. I know you’re all tired, but it is very important that you pay attention to what Mr. Hobday has to say to you.”
“Good evening, children,” Mr. Hobday boomed. “Welcome to Northwold, Barnardo’s exquisite receiving home here in Toronto. On the second floor are your bedrooms, which your teachers will assign to you, and in the morning, you will enjoy your meals in our elegant dining room. You may not leave the second floor unless directed. This ground floor is reserved for the servants’ quarters, and my family and I live on the third floor.” His gaze slid over every sopping child as he spoke. “Over the next few days, we will receive word from the families who are waiting for you. You will either leave here with them, or you will be put on a train to meet them. Until then, we expect your best behaviour, of course.”
They were divided boys from girls, but this time Jack wasn’t concerned. He’d see them in the morning, and knowing that made everything easier. It was a relief to peel off his wet clothes, to rub a blanket over his pruned skin before changing into his pyjamas. Their bunks were soft and inviting, and Jack and the others sank into them with pleasure.
“I may never get up,” Edward groaned into the darkness.
“You’d better,” Jack teased. “Otherwise I’ll have to explain to Mary where you are.”
Edward paused. “You don’t mind, do you, Jack?”
“Of course not.”
“I’m glad,” Edward replied, “because I think she’s brilliant.”
“All right. That’s enough,” Cecil said from an upper bunk. “This lad’s ready to sleep if you’d only shut it.”
“Good night,” Jack said, and he drifted off to sleep within the first few breaths.
* * *
The next morning, Mr. Keller came into their room well before the sun rose and switched on the overhead light. “Up we get,” he announced, shaking Jack’s shoulder. “We must get you to the station.”
Jack swept his hand over his face, hoping he had misheard. “Today, sir? I thought we had a few days.”
“Some of the children will be leaving sooner than others, and it happens that we have a call for some strong lads this morning, so you’ll be going right away.”
His mouth went dry. “I need to say goodbye to my sister.”
“No time, I’m afraid. We’re behind schedule already. Come along,” he said, waking the other boys. “Time to go. Get up, get dressed. You can sleep on the train.”
Edward frowned at Jack. “We’re leaving? But the girls—”
Jack’s heart was racing as he pulled on his clothes. “Mr. Keller,” he said. “I can’t just leave my sister or Winny. We promised we’d see them.”
“I’m sorry, Jack. I cannot allow you to wake them. You’ll see them again soon.”
“Will we really?” Jack asked.
Mr. Keller took a breath as if to speak, then he dropped his chin. “I am not sure. But we shall hope.”
Hope wasn’t enough. Jack ducked past Mr. Keller and burst into the corridor. “Mary!” he yelled, banging on the first door. “Mary! We’re leaving!”
“Jack, stop that!” Mr. Keller called. “You’ll wake the whole house.”
“Mary! Winny!”
Edward and Cecil joined in, running down the long hall and bellowing the girls’ names while they hammered on every door, Mr. Keller on their heels.
A moment later, a flustered Mr. Hobday appeared from the upstairs rooms. “What is the meaning of this?”
One by one, the doors opened and curious faces peered into the hall, blinking sleep out of their eyes. Miss Pence hurried out of her room, tying her belt around her robe as she came, trying to block the girls and ordering them all back to bed. Finally, Jack pounded on the right door, and it swung open.
“Jack!” Mary cried. “What’s happening?”
“They’re taking me and the lads away right now.” He reached for her and hugged her tight, panic surging through him. “I’m so sorry, Mary. You were right. They’re separating us.”
Miss Pence grabbed Mary’s arm and tried to drag both her and Winny back to their room, but Jack hung on, and Winny fought back.
“Please,” she begged. “Please let us say goodbye!”
Mr. Keller reached Jack and pried him off Mary, shoving him back toward the stairs where Mr. Hobday and a couple of the servants had a hold on Edward and Cecil. “Back to your rooms, girls. Now!”
“I won’t go!” Mary cried, her voice shrill. “I need to say goodbye! Have you no heart at all? He’s my brother! I need to say goodbye!”
“I’ll find you!” Jack yelled, struggling against Mr. Keller. “I promise I’ll find you both.”
Smack! Jack bent in half, reeling from a searing blow to his side, and he looked up with disbelief at Mr. Hobday. Edward and Cecil surged forward to help him, but Mr. Hobday’s cane came down again. Smack! Edward stumbled under another strike, and Cecil went to him.
“That’s enough,” Mr. Keller ordered flatly, and everyone stopped, including Mr. Hobday. “It’s time to go.”
Edward’s hand reached for Mary, but Mr. Keller pulled him back. The boys moved down the stairs, their eyes on the girls, who clung to the banister, sobbing.
“I’ll find you!” Jack promised, but even as he said the words, doubt crept into his mind. How could he ever do that in this vast, strange country? How would he even know where to start? But the girls would be counting on him, and he would never let them down.
I will find them, he told himself as they stepped out into the cold morning, if it’s the last thing I do.
six WINNY
Winny didn’t have time to fall apart. Mary collapsed in her arms, and Winny swore to herself that she would hold her friend until the end of time if she needed to. Thankfully, Miss Pence took pity and left them alone in the bedroom.
Winny had never seen Mary like this. Being separated from Jack at the orphanage had been terrible for them both, moving away to the Home had been bad as well, but this was a new level of sadness. Once the sobs slowed and the tears dried, it was as if there was very little left of
her.
“It’ll be us next,” Mary said, picking at the blanket on her bed, not meeting Winny’s eyes.
Winny wasn’t sure how to answer. She was terrified at the thought of losing Mary, but she couldn’t show it. What Mary needed most was support. She took a deep breath and thought of Jack. He was always so strong for them. It was her turn now.
“Maybe we’ll end up living close to each other,” Winny said, then she realized she was picking anxiously at her fingernails. If Mary looked up she would see Winny was scared. So Winny consciously separated her hands from each other and pressed them to her sides. “Then we can visit all the time. And then one day, Jack will find us and we’ll be together again.”
“I wish I could believe that.” Mary’s voice was no more than a whisper.
“We will see each other again,” Winny replied softly, though even she had begun to doubt it.
It was another two days before they learned where they were going. To Winny’s relief, Miss Pence called Mary’s name and hers at the same time, along with a few others. As she pinned new name tags to their coats, she told the girls they would take a train to Peterborough, a couple of hours away, where the families who had paid for them would come and pick them up. Miss Pence would be staying in Toronto with the rest of the girls.
Once they were out of the city, the sight of the green, flowing countryside calmed Winny somewhat. Though this land was very different, a memory surfaced from long ago of the little cottage where she’d once lived in Ireland. Life had been hard there, but she remembered happy moments. She remembered feeling loved.
“Have you ever seen so much green?” She nudged Mary. “It goes on forever. Look, Mary! Cows!”
Mary allowed herself a small smile. “I’ve never seen a cow before.”
“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” Winny asked. “Everything looks so bright and happy.”
“Maybe it won’t be so bad.”
After another hour, they reached the Peterborough station, and when the brakes shrieked, Winny’s heart thundered like the wheels on the tracks. “Stay close to me,” she said to Mary, as much for her friend’s benefit as her own.
No one was there to greet them, but their trunks were unloaded near a bench on the end of the platform, so the group of girls headed toward them. As they did, Winny eyed every stranger she passed with a kind of terrified optimism.
After the platform had cleared of the other passengers, Winny noticed wagons, automobiles, and trucks waiting across from the station, and people began to approach in ones and twos, studying the girls as they walked. Most were dressed in faded shirts and overalls, their straw hats circled by wide brims. Farmers, she thought, taking Mary’s hand. What would a farmer need with a housemaid?
The first person to approach the group was an older, bearded man, and he strode directly up to one of the younger girls. Without a word, he reached for her name tag, checked it, then moved on to read the others. Winny made a silent plea that he wasn’t there for either of them. He stopped at a brown-haired girl a few spots before them.
“I’m Mr. Chisholm,” he told her, his voice unexpectedly gentle. “You’re to come with me.”
Every girl still standing on the platform watched her pick up her trunk and go, and no one said a word.
“Miller,” someone called.
Mary’s hand jerked in Winny’s, and their eyes went to a round woman in a blue dress, on her way up the stairs to the platform. Her hair was swept into an untidy bun. She wasn’t old, Winny didn’t think, but she looked tired.
“Miller,” the woman repeated, scanning the girls.
“It’ll be okay,” Winny whispered. “We’ll find each other.”
“Take care of yourself, Winny,” Mary said, then she stepped forward, the hem of her skirt shaking.
“Not much meat on you,” the woman said, scowling at Mary’s name tag. “I paid a full three dollars. I should get what I paid for.” She glanced at Winny. “At least you’re bigger than that one.”
Winny wrapped her arms around herself, wishing she could disappear.
“I guess you’ll have to do. I’m Mistress Renfrew. Get your things and come with me.”
Mary’s chest rose and fell in a bolstering breath, then she turned and trailed behind her new mistress, her trunk gripped in her hands. Every nerve in Winny’s body pulled towards Mary, and she wondered how she could possibly survive without her.
“Wait!” Winny blurted, rushing forward.
Mary dropped her trunk and wrapped her arms around Winny, digging her fingers into her back. “I hope wherever you end up they treat you good.”
“Oh, Mary!”
“That’s enough,” Mistress Renfrew said, pulling the two apart. “I don’t have all day. It’s bad enough that I had to be the one driving in for you. We’ve got a long ride ahead.”
Through a sheen of tears, Winny watched Mary follow the woman to a dusty green truck, where a brood of children sat in its open bed. Winny counted nine.
“Get in, girl.” The woman jerked a thumb then climbed into the front cab. “Best you get to know the kids right off.”
At first, the children stared at Mary, then they shifted, making room for her and her trunk. As the truck began to pull away, Mary’s shining eyes held on to Winny’s.
It’s not goodbye, Winny promised silently, tears streaming down her cheeks. She watched Mary until she was just a spot in the distance. I will find you.
One by one, the other girls were picked up by their new masters, but Winny remained. She sat on the bench by her trunk, baking in the heat of the sun, feeling as insignificant as the pebble by her shoe. At one point, the station master walked out of the building and looked at her. She opened her mouth to ask for help, but he went back inside without saying anything. She dropped her eyes to her tortured nails and picked at what remained. What if no one came for her?
Two hot hours later, a dented blue truck with a cracked windshield pulled up to the station, and a haggard-looking woman called out from the cab.
“You the Home Girl?”
Winny nodded.
“I’m Mistress Adams. Get over here.”
Winny jumped to her feet and clutched her trunk. Her heart raced as she ran towards the truck, and she was so nervous she nearly lost her balance on the platform steps. When she got closer, she could see Mistress Adams a little better, sitting behind the steering wheel. She was thin, and the brown hair pulled back into a bun was wispy around her angular face. Beside her, Winny saw a girl she thought might be eighteen or so, with the same drawn face as Mistress Adams.
She stopped at the window of the cab and offered a tentative smile. “My name’s Winny.”
“What are you standing there for?” Mistress Adams demanded. “Put your trunk in the back and get in with it.”
Winny’s smile wavered, but she did as she was told.
“She’s so small,” she heard the other girl say.
“You’re right, Helen. I am disappointed,” her mother agreed. “I think we might have gotten a bigger one if we’d ordered earlier. The other farms took the good ones.”
“Only good thing I see is from the size of her, she won’t eat much. What’s she gonna be able to do with those scrawny arms of hers?”
“That is no concern of yours, is it? You won’t even be around. She will do whatever she’s told. Do not speak to her unless you have to, and she will not speak to you. If she does, don’t listen. She’ll just tell lies.” She glanced back at Winny as she climbed into the back of the truck. “And do not touch her, because she probably has a disease. Or fleas. They say all these Home Children do.”
Winny felt the words like a punch to her gut. She’d taken special care that morning to wash her face and brush her hair, and she’d cleaned her clothes the best she could. She wanted to speak up, to explain that she’d been checked over by the doctor, and he’d said she wasn’t sick, only small. Most of all she wanted to tell them that it was safe to talk to her because she wouldn’t lie. She
never lied. But her mistress’s cruel words brought back the voices of the other women at the Halifax pier, and all the ugly things they had said about Home Children. Was this what everyone thought of her and Mary and Jack and the brothers? Why had the Home gone to all the trouble of sending them here if they were so clearly unwanted?
Helen scowled back at Winny, then Mistress Adams started the engine. As they drove away from the station, Winny gripped the sides of the bed, trying to stay upright even as her head spun with a sense of helplessness. Had Mary arrived safely at her farm? Was it nice? Was her mistress kind? What about Jack, Edward, and Cecil? What had happened to them after they’d left Northwold on that dark, rainy morning? All Winny could do was hope they were all right. Because hope was all she had left.
They bumped along the dirt road, dust billowing behind their wheels, and Winny stared out at the endless farm country that had so delighted her before, the rolling hills and the stands of trees quivering in the breeze. Where was Mary in all of it? And where would Winny end up? For the rest of the long, lurching ride, the Adams women never looked back. It was as if they had forgotten about her.
With every lonely mile, Winny felt herself shrinking away, becoming smaller and smaller. Eventually, she wasn’t sure she was really there at all.
PART – two –
seven WINNY
— Present Day —
The summer grass crackles underfoot as I shuffle through the yard, leaning on my cane. My doctor suggested I start taking daily walks to keep myself strong, and when the sun finally started to shine, I agreed. Despite my slow pace and the toll the exercise takes on my wasted muscles, I’m ever so glad she suggested it. Today I make it as far as Chrissie’s fine little vegetable garden. She’s there, tending to the pea pods and green beans that hang from their climbing stems, plump with promise. My fingers twitch, remembering the feel of the task, the countless hours spent shelling pods at the farm where I learned to go through them like the wind. I cannot imagine crouching in the dirt at my age. I might never get up again.
The Forgotten Home Child Page 6