Tita was all hard lines around her mouth this morning. There was no breakfast laid out for Anna and she didn’t look up from the kitchen sink when Anna came in.
‘I’m sorry, Tita. For the way I spoke to you and throwing my bowl. I won’t do it again.’ Tita looked up and nodded. Anna sighed a breath of relief that she wouldn’t have to listen to a lecture, and she started making herself a piece of toast. Just as she sat down to eat, Tita cleared her throat.
‘I’m only going to say one more thing, Anna. When you live in my house, you respect my rules. Your mother, she didn’t respect my rules and that is why I told her to leave. I loved her, but she had no respect for me. I love you too, but I will never tolerate the way you behaved last night. If you speak to me like that again, you will no longer be welcome under my roof. Is that understood?’
Anna nodded and looked away. As she shovelled the toast into her mouth, she vowed to move out as soon as possible. Her mother built a good life for them without Tita. For a while, anyway. Anna would build an even better one. She would find somewhere to live where she could be free.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE NEXT MORNING, all three of Anna’s housemates were in the kitchen when she woke up. Talia was in her usual spot by the stove, Sako was standing at the bench dividing ingredients into separate containers, while Mads was sitting on a stool, staring into a cup of coffee she held with both hands, her expression corpse-like. Anna found it unsettling to walk into the cramped kitchen, having to turn sideways to get to the fridge.
‘Morning,’ Anna muttered without looking at anyone in particular. Both Talia and Sako greeted her the same way but Mads remained silent. Anna made her breakfast as quickly as she could, eager to get back to her bedroom even though it was too early to start getting ready for work.
‘You feeling better?’ Talia asked, just as Anna put her first spoonful of cereal in her mouth.
‘Mhhmm,’ she mumbled with her mouth full.
The four of them could be strangers on the street for how much they knew about each other, Anna thought. She knew little more about each woman than what Jeanette had told her on the day she moved in. Anna had no idea if her housemates had family or friends or even why they’d been to prison. But she supposed it was no different to knowing so little about Ro and Sam after spending so much time in prison together. Maybe that’s just how her life was destined to be – existing with people but never growing close to them. Anna shrugged and focused on finishing her cereal.
‘What?’ Mads said, breaking the silence and Anna’s thoughts.
Anna looked up and saw that Mads was glaring at her. Anna raised her eyebrows and Mads rolled her eyes.
‘What are you shrugging about? Too good for us, are you?’ There was venom in Mads’ voice and her eyes weren’t quite focused; it was as though she was looking just past Anna.
‘Shut up,’ Anna said as she turned back to her breakfast.
‘No! Why were you shrugging, huh?’ Mads stood up, leaning towards Anna.
‘Give it a rest, Mads, the world isn’t out to attack you, all right?’ Sako said, shaking her head as though she were talking to a naughty child. But Mads didn’t even look at her.
‘You think you’re so good, so much better than us, coming in here like you own the place. You don’t! No-one owns it. We’re nothing and so are you.’ Spittle formed at the corners of Mads’ lips as she ranted and Anna felt like she was back during her first weeks inside, when girls were testing her out, starting fights for no reason. She had learned to punch well within the first few days, aiming for the cheekbone in a short, sharp jab. Anna stood up and reacted the same way now. Mads stumbled backwards and fell to the floor, cradling her cheek and swearing in a jumbled tirade. Anna took a deep breath and sat down, continuing with her breakfast. She’d barely used any force, so she knew Mads was fine, but she’d needed to stand her ground. There was no way she was going to be pushed around by a girl like Mads.
‘Childish,’ Sako said to Anna, and then to Mads she said, ‘Get up, you idiot.’
‘Me? The idiot? Are you serious?’ But Mads shut up when Talia threw an icepack at her.
‘Put that on your face and get out of here.’ Before Mads could protest Talia added, ‘You started it, Mads. You’re not getting any sympathy here so just drop it.’ Mads swore some more and then went to her room, slamming the door behind her.
‘You didn’t have to hit her,’ Sako said. ‘No fighting here, all right?’
‘Is that one of the rules?’ Anna snapped, sounding bitchier than she’d intended. This was not what she wanted. She didn’t want to be punching her housemates. She just wanted to be left alone and she’d needed Mads to know that.
‘It is,’ Talia said. ‘You have to just ignore her, like we do, yeah?’
Anna looked up at Talia. There was no malice in her eyes; Anna could tell she just wanted a peaceful place to live, too. Anna sighed. ‘Yeah, all right. Sorry.’
‘It’s all good. She takes time to get used to, and she stops being annoying if you don’t give her any attention.’
Anna nodded, feeling stupid now for acting like she was still in prison. ‘Got it.’
Talia nodded and went back to her cooking, while Sako put her containers away and gave Anna a small nod as she left for work. Still feeling a little foolish, Anna quickly cleaned her breakfast dishes and went back to her room to lie down for a while before work. There was a missed call and voice message on her phone. Anna sat on her bed and listened.
‘Hey Anna, it’s Brayden. I just wanted to touch base with you, oh, sorry that sounds a bit dumb, ah, I mean I just wanted to check that you were feeling better today? If not, you’re entitled to sick days, I wasn’t sure if you knew that, but um, just give me a buzz if you need one and I’ll get a casual to cover you. Okay. Um, bye.’
Anna smiled as she imagined the blush spreading across his cheeks as he spoke. That he believed she had actually felt sick yesterday, and her job was clearly safe, made her feel relieved. Yet the thought of spending the whole day at home made Anna twitch with restlessness. She picked up her phone and wrote a text to Brayden. Thanks for your message, Brayden. I feel better, will see you soon. Anna lay down on her bed and closed her eyes. Just as she felt she might fall back to sleep an image flashed in her mind. A woman, the same one she’d seen when she touched the crystal, was standing on a weird kind of stage. Her arms were tied behind her back and her dress was filthy. Her cheek was smeared with old blood and her eyes were filled with fear.
Anna sat up, filled with despair. Why had she imagined that? The way the woman had looked, her fear – the image had come out of nowhere.
Maybe she should call Nina. Anna reached for her phone, but hesitated. Perhaps it was just her imagination playing games with her. It was probably a scene from a movie she’d watched when she was younger, coming back to her. Weren’t there studies that proved humans held everything they saw in their minds? Surely it was normal for random thoughts like that to flash back, like a file popping up on a computer screen.
Anna decided not to bother calling Nina and pushed the image from her mind as she dressed and made her way to work. She ignored the crying from Mads’ room as she walked past.
QUARRENDON VILLAGE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE ENGLAND 1770
Aisleen sat on her kitchen floor using a vinegar-soaked cloth to meticulously clean the crystal she had found. Joseph, busy with spring planting, wasn’t due to return to the house for hours, so Aisleen made no attempt to hide what she was doing. She’d been keeping the crystal hidden outside in the chicken coop, since she was the one to collect the eggs each morning. But once it was clean, she planned to find a hiding spot inside her home.
Her fingers pruned and sore, Aisleen dropped the cloth and held her crystal to her eye. The stone absorbed the light of the late morning sun through the small window, its deep pink centre gradually becoming translucent towards its surface. Every crack and edge seemed so perfectly placed that Aisleen wondered if a human had carefull
y planned and created this strange rock. But Aisleen knew it was not man-made. This crystal was from the earth and there was a magic within it, offering her courage. Aisleen held it to her chest and went over her plans for the next day.
‘Are you sure that I shouldn’t come with you?’ Joseph asked as Aisleen was fastening the buttons of her coat.
‘No, I’ll be fine. I only need to swap this material. The silly girl cut the wrong sort for me. It won’t take more than an hour. I don’t want to keep you from your work.’ Aisleen’s smile wobbled a little as she recognised a trace of disbelief in Joseph’s eyes. But after a moment he nodded.
‘All right,’ he agreed. ‘Please Aisleen, be careful.’
Aisleen kissed his cheek. ‘Of course.’
Without looking back, Aisleen started the journey into town. Her legs trembled slightly as she walked; she was unable to block the fear creeping in. Then her memories were assaulting her before she could stop them.
Aisleen’s heart pounded as she ran through the dense woods, her bleeding feet scraping against rocks and fallen branches. She knew there was at least one Enforcer running after her, but she could lose him. She was so close now, only a few hundred yards from home. She struggled for breath, but her tired legs didn’t let her down. Soon she had cleared the woodland and was on her own property. She didn’t bother stopping to make sure she’d lost him. This was her home. They couldn’t just take her from her mother and expect her to live with a man instead. Her mother would set everything right. It was all a big misunderstanding.
Aisleen reached the front door, but froze as screams echoed through the house.
‘Mother!’ Aisleen yanked the door open. The scene in front of her was incomprehensible. One of the Enforcers, dressed in his red and black uniform, was holding her younger sister Mary by the throat, lifting her clear off the floor. Mary’s small feet kicked uselessly beneath her. Her mother was bent over the kitchen table at an awkward angle, her head forced down by another of the men, blood leaking from her nose.
‘Let them go!’ Aisleen screamed, lunging at the man holding her sister, tugging at his arms. He laughed and used his elbow to fling her away. Aisleen landed on the floor but jumped up and tried again.
‘Drop the girl,’ a deep voice said from behind Aisleen. The man immediately dropped Mary, the young girl falling to the floor in a crumpled heap, gasping for breath. Aisleen turned around to see a large man, wearing the same Enforcer uniform. He had been the one who removed her from her home days earlier. A giant brute and the leader of the Enforcers: Edmund.
‘Look what you’ve done to your family.’ He shook his head. ‘This is very disappointing. You’ve broken the rules.’
‘I don’t care about the rules! I belong here!’ Aisleen’s words were like throwing dust at a brick wall. The brute ignored her and motioned for the man holding her mother to release her also.
‘You have tested my patience, girl,’ he spat, grabbing Aisleen’s shoulder and lifting her up to his face. ‘If you try to come back here, ever again, I will kill all three of you.’ He threw her at one of the other men. ‘Six months imprisonment for defying the rules.’ After a pause, his deep voice boomed through the small kitchen: ‘We are the Enforcers and you will follow our rules or die.’
As the men dragged Aisleen by her hair out of her childhood home, the sobs of her family echoed in her ears.
‘No!’ Aisleen said aloud. She stopped walking. She had fought so hard to keep these memories buried and couldn’t allow them to overcome her now. It had been six years since she’d attempted to escape. The situation was different now. In the early days after the Enforcers took over, the town was steeped in chaos and fear. Women were arrested, publicly whipped and, worst of all, hanged. The sight of a woman struggling for her last breath while the town was forced to watch was burned in Aisleen’s mind. Over a dozen townspeople had been hanged in the first year. Half a dozen in the second year, and only a couple of women in the third year. Since then, no woman had been bold enough to break the rules; even new brides accepted their fate with little fuss.
The Enforcers had begun as a small group of men attempting to convince the village council that women were dangerous and should be kept apart. Although the group successfully recruited members, the townspeople largely ignored their speeches and protests. Aisleen’s mother laughed them off when she encountered a few Enforcers in town just after they first formed. She claimed it was all down to Edmund.
‘He’s an evil man. His mother gave him away right from birth, running off to another village to be free of him,’ her mother had whispered to Aisleen and Mary. ‘He’s hated women ever since and now he wants every other man to join him. Pay them no heed, nothing will come of it.’
But when Quarrendon was cut off from the rest of Britain because of the Floods, the Enforcers took the opportunity to overthrow the small village council with an onslaught of unexpected and vicious violence. The Enforcers blamed women for the disastrous weather that had wreaked uncertainty through the village – women gathering together upset God and the Floods was their punishment. Most men in the village sided with the Enforcers from the beginning; their lives were nowhere near as affected as the women by the takeover. Even the most kind-hearted men found it easier to comply with the Enforcer’s regime than try to fight it.
But now, several years on, Aisleen could tell the Enforcers were becoming lazy and overconfident. They mostly sat around playing cards and gambling. While they were as stringent as ever at collecting taxes from the farmers and shopkeepers of the village, they only occasionally violently reprimanded women who broke the rules. If a female sales assistant spoke to a woman instead of the woman’s male companion, for example, she’d be punished, usually by being dragged out onto the street and punched by a handful of Enforcers. Her punishment served as a reminder to all the townspeople who witnessed it. The men, who socialised freely, would then tell their mothers, daughters, sisters and wives to ensure no woman became complacent.
But the Enforcers weren’t watching the women as closely now, assuming their battle with forcing them into compliancy was long won. They would never expect what Aisleen was planning. She smiled and started walking again, a new-found determination rising in her with every step.
Aisleen looked around the street as she crossed over to the material store. She could see a couple of Enforcers further down the road, outside the former church that now served as their quarters. It was the largest building in the village, and the Enforcers used the old priest’s chambers as a prison and had built a large wooden platform in front for punishments. Aisleen averted her eyes from the platform and studied the two Enforcers on duty. One sat on a chair, his arms folded over his chest, eyes closed to the sun as though he was napping. The other was leaning against the wall of their quarters, his legs crossed in front of him, his bored expression recognisable even from this distance.
Aisleen’s courage rose as she entered the material store and marched to the counter. The sales assistant, Amelia, had her back to the counter as she sat stitching a garment. Hearing Aisleen enter, she turned slowly, a hint of a smile in her eyes as she recognised Aisleen.
‘On Friday evening, if you can get away without being noticed, come to Mary’s farm, the old barn at the back of the property.’ Aisleen spoke in a quiet, calm voice and didn’t pause, even when Amelia’s hands flew to her mouth. ‘Don’t tell anyone, just come if you can.’ With that, Aisleen dropped the material she was returning on the bench. ‘Quick, cut me another piece that I can take home.’ Aisleen smiled and added, ‘Please, Amelia.’
Her jaw still dropped, Amelia managed to take a roll from the rack behind her and swiftly cut and packaged the new material for Aisleen, passing it over with shaking hands.
‘I hope to see you,’ Aisleen whispered. As she walked away from the shop, Aisleen’s heart hammered and she had to focus on breathing deeply enough to fight off the threatening dizzy spell. She was shocked by her own boldness, but she also felt powerful. She
imagined marching right over to the Enforcers and telling them what she’d done, daring them to stop her from secretly gathering with other women. Fighting the urge, Aisleen took another deep, calming breath. This was going to work, she knew it.
Next was the food store where Eliza, her childhood best friend, worked. Every time she accompanied Joseph to purchase the supplies they couldn’t grow themselves, Aisleen imagined throwing her arms around Eliza, laughing together as they’d used to. Of course, she’d never even managed to catch Eliza’s eye, each woman keeping her head down, looking at her feet in case an Enforcer swooped in. Before she opened the door, Aisleen looked back at the Enforcers by the old church. They were both in the same positions, as though statues.
Eliza was sweeping the floor and didn’t look up as Aisleen entered. Aisleen took her time walking around the store, scanning for other customers. When she was sure she and Eliza were alone, Aisleen took a jar of honey from a shelf and went over to the counter to pay. Eliza stood, her eyes on the floor as she reached for the coins from Aisleen. But instead of handing them over, Aisleen squeezed her friend’s hand and repeated the same message she had given to Amelia. Eliza pulled away and stumbled backwards, looking at Aisleen as though she were crazy.
‘Come only if it’s safe for you, Eliza. But please try. I have a feeling … I feel like we can change things.’ As their eyes locked for the first time in years, Eliza appeared to calm and she nodded slowly. She opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment the door swung open. Not looking up to see who it was, Aisleen took the jar and walked out, hoping Eliza had been able to recover quickly enough so as not to bring any unwanted attention to them. As Aisleen walked down the road, wondering whom she should try next, she heard a low, long whistle from across the street. Aisleen looked up to see that the Enforcer who’d been napping was now striding towards her.
‘Woman. Show me what you bought from the store.’ His voice was hoarse, as though he’d not quite woken up properly. Aisleen held out the jar of honey.
The Women's Circle Page 7