Chapter Two
T
his is the dormitory where you will be sleeping. That bed over there will be yours and this one here is for you,’ Mrs Bates told the girls when they eventually stepped into a long, narrow room at the top of a steep staircase. There were rows of narrow, iron-framed beds down either side with a small locker between each one, and like the rest of the place it was bitterly cold. It was also very bleak-looking with nothing to brighten it whatsoever. Even so, Pearl noted that each bed had a pillow and a thin grey blanket folded on the end of it, and after sleeping on the rough hay mattresses they were used to, she was looking forward to sleeping in a proper bed. She also noticed that everywhere was spotlessly clean with not a speck of dirt to be seen.
‘Please, missus . . . couldn’t me an’ Eliza sleep next to each other?’ she plucked up the courage to ask.
Mrs Bates glared at her. ‘No, you could not. We’re not a fancy hotel, you know! We’ve had to cram two extra beds in here for you as it is, so just be grateful that we didn’t turn you away and that you won’t be sleeping in a shop doorway out in the snow tonight. Now come along, there’s work to be done. You earn your keep in this place – we have no time for slackers!’
Still clinging to each other’s hands, the girls followed her back down the stairs, worried they would never find their way back to the dormitory again. The place was absolutely enormous and they felt totally out of their depth. Pearl’s limp was more pronounced than ever as she tried to keep up, and once on the ground floor they followed Mrs Bates through yet more corridors, until she paused to tell them, ‘This is the laundry and where you’ll both be working for now.’
As she opened the door, hot steam took their breath away and they had to squint to see through the fog. For a brief moment, Pearl was grateful for the warmth, but within seconds it was stifling. They found themselves in an enormous room. Huge, bubbling copper boilers stood along the length of one wall; against another were rows of deep stone sinks. Through a further door they could see sweating girls and women furiously feeding washing through massive mangles, and they both felt as if they had stepped into hell.
‘I don’t think Eliza will be strong enough to work in ’ere—’
Pearl’s words were cut short when Mrs Bates grabbed her arm and yanked her deeper into the room. Instantly a woman in a uniform approached them and eyed the two newcomers through narrowed eyes.
‘Yet more new inmates?’
Mrs Bates nodded. ‘Aye, I’m afraid so. One a cripple an’ the other a halfwit,’ she said unkindly as she pushed Pearl none too gently towards her. ‘Just make sure they earn their keep.’ And with that she turned and strode away, leaving the girls at the mercy of the laundry mistress.
Mrs Flanders, as the woman introduced herself, was a plump woman with iron-grey hair, muscular arms and hands like hams.
‘Right, you two, you can come over to these two empty sinks an’ start scrubbin’ the sheets before they go into the boiler,’ she told them, leading them to the vacant sinks.
There were girls already scrubbing sheets at the sinks on either side of them, but they didn’t even glance up as Mrs Flanders pointed to a pile on the floor and Pearl rightly guessed that they were too afraid to take their eyes off what they were doing. ‘You open ’em out an’ get any marks off ’em an’ it’ll be woe betide the pair o’ you if you don’t do it right,’ she warned. ‘There’s plenty o’ carbolic soap there an’ a scrubbin’ brush each. Just call me when you’ve done an’ I’ll come an’ check ’em before they’re put in the boilers.’
‘Yes, missus,’ Pearl said quietly, rolling her sleeves up. As the woman walked away, she snatched up a sheet and nodded at Eliza to do the same.
The first sheet she unfolded made her heave. It was covered in stale faeces and the smell was disgusting. The second she plunged the sheet into the sink the water turned a dirty brown, and glancing to the side she saw that the one Eliza had lifted wasn’t much better; hers was covered in blood. Eliza stood vacantly staring at it until Pearl hissed, ‘Get the brush and start scrubbing it before you get into bother.’
Minutes later Pearl had got the worst of the mess off the one she was doing, although it would definitely need to be boiled as there was no way she could get the stains out completely. But another quick glance at Eliza showed that her little sister wasn’t doing so well. ‘Come here an’ wring this one out ready to go in the copper while I finish that one,’ she whispered, but before Eliza could do as she was told Mrs Flanders bore down on them, her mouth set in a thin grim line.
‘What’s this then?’ She grabbed a corner of the sheet Eliza was tackling and stared at it disdainfully. ‘You’ve barely touched it, girl.’ With that she brought her huge fist back and boxed Eliza’s ear soundly, making the girl yelp with pain. ‘You’ll need to do better than this else it’ll take you all day to do one sheet. Now put your back into it, girl, else you’ll get another wallopin’!’
Pearl bit down hard on her lip as tears stung her eyes and she reached for another sheet; it broke her heart not being able to protect her sister, but she’d already got the measure of this place and it seemed the only way for either of them to get by was to keep quiet. Saying anything would surely only make things worse for both of them. Another girl gave her a sympathetic smile as she collected the sheet Pearl had just done in a large laundry basket and bore it off to the copper.
And so the rest of the morning went on. Within no time, both girls’ clothes were clinging to them but Pearl was relieved to see that Eliza was at least coping. Sweat was running off them but they daren’t slow down for fear Mrs Flanders would come back. At last a bell sounded and the other girls and women sighed with relief and stepped away from the sinks as they mopped their wet brows.
‘Tidy yerselves up an’ form an orderly line,’ Mrs Flanders barked. Immediately the girls and women did as they were told. Pearl and Eliza tacked on to the back with no idea where they were going as another woman appeared to march them away. With Pearl struggling to keep up, they tramped through numerous corridors until they eventually found themselves in a cavernous room where rows of tables were laid out in straight long lines.
At one end of the room some women were standing behind a trestle ladling food into dishes and Pearl’s mouth watered at the thought of finally being fed. She’d been up since dawn and hadn’t eaten yet, and their hard work in the laundry had certainly built up an appetite. At least they weren’t going to starve here, Pearl thought, her stomach grumbling, which was something, she supposed.
‘This is the dinin’ room,’ the girl in front of her whispered and Pearl saw it was the girl who had been collecting the sheets in the laundry. ‘I’m Susan, by the way.’
‘I’m Pearl an’ this ’ere is me sister, Eliza,’ Pearl said in a hushed voice as the queue shuffled forwards.
‘That’ll be enough talkin’ back there.’ Mrs Bates was glaring at them and, too afraid to say anything else, they fell silent.
Once it was their turn, following the lead of the girls in front of them, Pearl collected a dish from the pile on the end of the table and gestured for Eliza to do the same. As they moved along the line the first woman unceremoniously dumped a spoonful of lumpy mashed potato on to it. The second woman threw on a single sausage and a third woman dolloped on a spoonful of overcooked cabbage. It could hardly be called appetising by any stretch of the imagination, but to Pearl and Eliza, who sometimes went without food for days at a time, it was a feast. They seated themselves next to the girl called Susan on one of the long benches and waited as the housemother, who was seated with the other staff at the centre of the table, stood up and said grace.
For the next few minutes nothing could be heard but the sound of cutlery scraping the dishes. Sliced loaves were laid out at intervals along the tables and both Pearl and Eliza had two slices each and a large glass of water, which they both glugged down. It tasted so much nicer than the water they got from the rusty outside tap at home.
‘P’raps it won’t be so bad ’ere after all,’ Pearl whispered to Eliza, but she got no answer, Eliza was too busy eating.
Things got better still after lunch when Mrs Bates approached them to say, ‘Go with Harper here.’ That, Pearl realised, was Susan’s surname. ‘You will be allowed ten minutes fresh air out in the yard and then you will have classes for the next two hours before returning to work in the laundry.’
Pearl had always longed to be able to read and write, so after they had taken a short break in the freezing cold yard she was delighted to do as she was told and follow Susan and the other children to an enormous room where small desks and chairs were set in regimentally straight rows.
Behind a larger desk at the front of the room, a young woman was sitting writing. As the pupils trooped in, she raised her head to smile at them and Pearl knew instinctively that here was someone she was going to like.
‘Good afternoon,’ the woman said when they had taken a seat, and then for the sake of the new arrivals who had no idea who she was, she added, ‘I am Miss Sweet and today we are going to focus on learning our alphabet.’
She stood and began to write letters on the large blackboard behind her. Pearl was beside herself with excitement; no one had ever taken the trouble to teach her anything before and she watched avidly, while Eliza sat daydreaming with a blank expression on her face.
‘Now then, who can tell me what letter comes after C?’
A few hands went up and Pearl flushed with shame because she had no idea.
The time in the classroom seemed to pass in the blink of an eye and by the time Mrs Bates arrived to take them back to the laundry Pearl had written down the whole alphabet on the small slate in front of her.
‘Very well done, Pearl,’ Miss Sweet praised with an encouraging smile, sensing that here was a girl who was hungry to learn. Some of the lesson had been spent in the class reciting the alphabet and already Pearl could remember the letters right up to H, although Eliza was struggling and couldn’t remember a single one in order. The letters she had copied were merely gobbledegook to her.
‘She’s so nice,’ Pearl whispered to Susan as she followed her back to the laundry behind Mrs Bates.
Susan smiled, transforming her pinched little face. ‘She’s sweet be name an’ sweet be nature,’ she whispered back. ‘Not like the rest o’ the bleedin’ staff ’ere, who’ll give yer the strap for nuffin’.’
Susan was clearly a cockney through and through, and Pearl sensed that in her she would find a friend.
It was six o’clock in the evening before the girls were told they could stop work, and by then Pearl was aching in muscles she hadn’t even known she had.
Eliza was sniffling. ‘Me ’ands are all sore, Pearl,’ she muttered miserably.
Her sister patted her encouragingly on the shoulder. ‘It’ll get easier as they harden up,’ she promised. ‘But don’t get cryin’ an’ makin’ a fuss now, else you’ll get yourself into trouble wi’ Mrs Bates. An’ at least we ’ave some supper to look forward to.’
Eliza bravely blinked back her tears as she slid her small hand into Pearl’s. She had never been strong and despite her brave words Pearl was worried about her. It was back-breaking work in the laundry. Even she had found it hard and she had no idea how Eliza would stand up to it.
Once back in the dining room, they were served stew and dumplings. Admittedly the dumplings were as hard as rock and the stew was thin and watery with just fragments of gristly meat and overcooked vegetables floating around in it, but Pearl and Eliza cleared their dishes in seconds. They were then given a dish of semolina pudding each and a glass of watery milk, and for the first time in days their stomachs were full.
‘What happens after supper?’ Pearl asked Susan.
Keeping a beady eye on Mrs Bates, who seemed to have eyes in the back of her head, Susan whispered back, ‘We goes to the chapel fer prayers an’ then we goes to bed.’
Pearl guessed that it couldn’t even be seven o’clock at night but after the hard day they had had she didn’t mind; in fact, she was longing to lie down and rest; her short leg was aching after being on it all day.
The chapel shocked her. It was quite beautiful with stained-glass windows that twinkled in the lights from the many candles that were placed at intervals about the room. A stern-faced nun, who reminded Pearl of a big black crow, led the prayers and when they were over they were all marched to the toilet block before being led back to their dormitories.
‘Get yourselves changed now,’ Mrs Bates told them. ‘And don’t let me hear any chattering. Lights out in ten minutes so be sure you are all in bed when I come back or it will be the worse for you.’
The girls instantly began to undress and struggle into the scratchy nightgowns they had been supplied with. It was bitterly cold in the dormitory and they leapt into their beds, pulling the thin grey blankets across them. Soon after Mrs Bates reappeared.
‘Right, not a peep out of any of you till the morning or you know what will happen,’ she warned. Then she picked up the one oil lamp in the room and left, leaving them in pitch-darkness.
Just as Pearl had feared, minutes later she heard the sound of Eliza softly crying. She was afraid of the dark and Pearl had always slept with her.
‘P-Pearl . . . where are yer?’ A little voice came from the darkness.
‘It’s all right, I’m here,’ Pearl answered in a hushed voice. ‘Try to get to sleep now, yer quite safe.’
‘Shush, else you’ll gerr us all in trouble,’ another voice said irritably in the darkness, and for a while silence reigned.
Soon, soft snores were echoing around the room and Pearl realised that Eliza must have fallen asleep, but still she lay there wide awake; she ached in every limb and her hands were sore and throbbing. Yet, for all that, their first day there hadn’t been all bad as far as she was concerned. For the first time in weeks she had come to bed without her stomach grumbling with hunger, she was lying on a real bed, with a real mattress – albeit thin and lumpy – and she had loved the time she had spent in the schoolroom.
She smiled to herself as she thought of Miss Sweet. She had soft blonde hair and the bluest eyes Pearl had ever seen, and her clothes, although prim, had been the sort that Pearl could only ever dream of wearing. She could still picture the blue of the material and the row of tiny buttons that ran from the waist to the neckline, ending in a neat lace collar, and she could hear the lovely swishing noise it made every time the kindly young woman moved. But then, she supposed, she shouldn’t get too settled. As she had assured Eliza, their mother would be sure to come for them once she realised just how much Pearl had done for her and the younger children. On that thought, Pearl finally drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Three
T
he following morning the loud clanging of a bell brought Pearl springing awake. She sat up, completely disorientated by her unfamiliar surroundings. And then the aches in her muscles brought the memory of what had happened the day before rushing back. She glanced anxiously towards Eliza’s bed, which was closer to the door. The other girls were already tumbling out of bed, but Pearl had no time to reach her sister, for just then the door opened and the light from the oil lamp Mrs Bates was carrying spilled into the room.
‘All right then, you lot,’ the woman barked. ‘Let’s be having you. Idle hands make work for the devil.’
Pearl climbed stiffly out of bed, every muscle protesting, and as she began to pull her clothes on, she was dismayed to see that Eliza was making no attempt to get up but was lying curled into a tight little ball, softly crying.
‘Are you deaf, or what?’ Mrs Bates said angrily as she advanced on Eliza and threw the thin blanket back. Her lips curled back from her face in disgust. ‘Why, you filthy, disgusting little guttersnipe,’ she snarled as she grabbed the child’s arm and dragged her from the bed. ‘Just look at the state of this bed! It’s soaked through.’
‘I-I’m sorry, missus,’ Eliza whimpered, clearly terrifi
ed. ‘I needed to wee but I didn’t know where to go.’
Pearl made to go towards her as the woman shook her like a rat, making the poor child’s teeth rattle, but Susan caught her arm.
‘Don’t . . . you’ll only make fings worse,’ she hissed and tears sprang to Pearl’s eyes.
‘Well now you’ll find out what happens to dirty little creatures who dare to soil their beds,’ Mrs Bates ranted, as she dragged Eliza towards the dormitory door. Once in the corridor she rammed the child roughly against the wall and warned, ‘Stand there until I come back for you and don’t even think of moving or you’ll make things worse for yourself.’
Too terrified to do anything else, Eliza stood there trembling as the girls left the dormitory and filed silently past her, some of them sneaking her a sympathetic smile. Susan had to almost push Pearl past her and once in the toilet block where they were queuing to relieve themselves Pearl asked her anxiously, ‘What will Mrs Bates do to her?’
Susan chewed on her lip for a moment as if she was reluctant to answer, but then realising that Pearl would soon find out anyway, she sighed. ‘She’ll be caned an’ then made to stand there wi’ the wet sheet over ’er ’ead fer the rest o’ the day. She won’t get no grub today eivver.’
‘But that’s cruel! She couldn’t help it!’ Two spots of angry colour flamed into Pearl’s cheeks.
An Orphan's Journey Page 3