Chapter Twenty-Three

Next time Mary woke it was daylight and Mrs Hall was making breakfast. She cut two thick slices of bread and stabbed the prongs of a toasting fork through one before handing it to Mary to hold in front of the fire.

‘We might as well eat this up,’ she said. ‘It’s too stale to give to customers now.’

Mary looked down at her skirts. They were filthy and needed to be put to soak. She’d do it later, she thought as Mrs Hall spread butter on the toast and handed it back to her on a plate. She bit into it hungrily. It was a rare treat and she savoured it.

‘Tha were lucky to get home in one piece,’ Mrs Hall told her. ‘William Hart had come here lookin’ for thee and when he heard tha were out in town he went straight back out to search for thee, but he were gone that long I didn’t think he were coming back so I locked up to be safe.’

‘They were smashing windows all over town,’ Mary told her. ‘The military had to come out.’

‘Aye, so he said. It sounds quiet enough now though. Happen I’ll open for a bit later on.’

‘I hope he doesn’t come in again,’ said Mary.

‘Who? William Hart? Why not?’

‘I can’t stand him,’ she said. ‘And I’ve decided not to have owt to do wi’ men any more. If I can’t find work here I might try Preston way.’

‘I doubt tha’d be any better off. At least here tha has a roof over thy head.’

‘Aye, but only until the money runs out.’

Mrs Hall hesitated before she answered. ‘It were William Hart as paid me that money,’ she told her. ‘He’s very fond of thee.’

‘If he thinks he can pick up where Starkie left off then he’s got another think coming,’ Mary told her. ‘I’m sworn off men.’

‘Tha should be grateful!’ said Mrs Hall. ‘It’s allowed thee to be a lady of leisure this past while. And by all accounts owt could have happened to thee last night if he hadn’t fetched thee back when he did.’

‘But tha wouldn’t turn me out, would tha?’ asked Mary. She’d begun to think that the landlady was her friend.

Mrs Hall shrugged. ‘I’ve a business to run. I can’t afford charity,’ she told her. ‘So tha’s going to have to make a decision before very long. He’ll not keep paying thy bed and board without owt in return. So if tha’s really sworn off men and there’s no jobs to be had, it looks like tha’s going to be knockin’ on the workhouse door.’

Mary watched in silence as Mrs Hall slammed a bowl down on the scrubbed table and began to chop onions for the hotpot. It was a stark choice.

She filled a jug with hot water and went upstairs to her room where she stripped off her clothes. She washed herself all over, enjoying the warmth on her body and wondering what it would be like to slip into a bathtub as the Sudells had done. She shivered as she stood naked, deep in thought, then opened a drawer to take out a clean petticoat. She looked through the dresses that were hanging on her rail. They were all things that Mr Starkie had given her and she didn’t want to wear any of them. Not now. Instead she put on a dark skirt and white blouse that were her own. She brushed out her hair and fixed it into a simple bun. She pinned her paisley shawl around her shoulders and carried the used water back down to throw it out of the door. The air was thick with the smell of smoke and gunpowder and somewhere she could hear people brushing up the broken glass.