As though sensing Mercy’s questions, Twiggy looked their way. People told Mercy she was pretty like Twiggy, that she had her mum’s blue-green eyes, yet Mercy couldn’t remember the last time she’d looked into a mirror to see for herself.

Now a sadness in Twiggy’s eyes dulled the beautiful blue-green, a sadness that clawed at Mercy’s insides.

Charity broke away from Mercy and skipped through the muddy yard toward their mum. Mercy wanted to break out of line too and run over to Twiggy the same way, skipping along without a care in the world, trusting that the one who’d birthed her would always love and protect her.

But Mercy couldn’t run to Twiggy with her problems any more than she could run to God. Both had abandoned her long ago.

Twiggy snatched Charity up into a hug, one that seemed tighter than normal, which scratched at Mercy’s insides all the more. Something was amiss, and Mercy wasn’t sure she wanted to find out what.

She finished waiting her turn in line, filled her pot from the trickling spigot, and slowly made her way across the courtyard, bouncing sweet Paul as his hungry grunts and squeaks grew louder.

At the courtyard entrance, Twiggy took the babe from Mercy, snuggling into Paul’s neck and breathing in deeply of his downy hair that was as black as coal, unlike Twiggy’s or Ash’s.

Mercy never said anything about the landlord climbing up to the garret room with Twiggy whenever he came into the neighborhood in his fancy hackney. Mercy never said anything when Twiggy shooed everyone out of their home while her boss from the rag factory came calling. And Mercy never said anything when Twiggy had new babes who didn’t look like Ash. Mercy understood well enough how Twiggy came by the occasional extra food or the additional lumps of coal.

But that hadn’t stopped Mercy from silently chastising Twiggy. Twiggy wasn’t being fair to Ash, who worked long and hard for their family. She wasn’t being fair to the children she already had by bringing more babes into the family. And she wasn’t being fair to the babe, knowing the child would eventually go hungry and wear castoffs that weren’t fit for the rag factory. They didn’t have any more space in the garret room they rented. And besides, a new babe only gave the housing agent another reason to increase their rent.

“He’s as smart as a sixpence, ain’t he?” Twiggy whispered as she kissed Paul’s perfect nose.