‘What’s to do with thee?’ grumbled Mrs Hall when she came in and saw her sitting down.

‘I don’t feel so good.’

It sounded like Mrs Hall was speaking to her from a way off. Her voice was faint and Mary could feel the blood thumping past her ears as she struggled to hear. She felt the knife being taken from her hand and her senses steadied now that she wasn’t standing.

‘Did tha take them pills?’

‘Aye. I took two at Ma Critchley’s house and more about an hour ago,’ she admitted.

‘Well, best go and have a lie-down for a bit,’ suggested Mrs Hall. ‘I’ll finish off in here.’

Mary put her hands on the table to steady herself as she stood up. She felt wet and when she moved away from the stool she saw the trail of vivid red blood that followed her steps. ‘I’m bleeding!’

‘Aye. The pills have done their work and brought on thy flow. Go and put thy cloths on and have a rest. Tha’ll be right as rain later on,’ said Mrs Hall.

Mary’s legs felt weak as she crawled up to the attic bedroom on her hands and knees. At least she had reason to put Mr Starkie off tonight, she thought. She closed the door and went to get her rags. When she lifted her skirts to tuck them between her legs she saw that she was soaked through. She’d never had so much blood before, but she supposed it was the build-up of all the times she’d missed. That would account for why it was three or four times as much as normal.

She fetched clean drawers and put the soiled ones in the basin with some water to soak. She’d scrub them later, but hopefully a good soaking would stop them being stained. A fierce pain convulsed through her. It was like the times she’d seen her mother giving birth, but this wasn’t birth. It was just a late monthly. She took off her skirt. It was an old one that she used to work in the kitchen but she still didn’t want it spoiled. When she hung it over the chair she saw the huge wet patch at the back. She must have bled through it whilst she was sitting on the stool. She’d put it to soak in the tub later, she thought, as she eased herself down on to the bed. The faintness was coming over her again and she needed to rest if she was going to feel well enough to serve customers later on.

Mary opened her eyes and couldn’t make any sense of where she was. Nothing looked familiar and she could hear a noise like someone rattling a door. Perhaps it was the wind, she thought as she closed her eyes again and sank back into the darkness.

‘Mary? Mary?’ Someone was saying her name over and over. She didn’t know who it was although the woman looked familiar. She thought she should know her. ‘Tha needs to get up now. There’s work to be done,’ the woman told her.