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Back Sisters of Gold Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication page
  4. A Week’s Work in Birmingham
  5. I
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. II
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. III
  47. Forty
  48. Forty-One
  49. Forty-Two
  50. Forty-Three
  51. Forty-Four
  52. Forty-Five
  53. Forty-Six
  54. Forty-Seven
  55. Forty-Eight
  56. Forty-Nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-One
  59. Fifty-Two
  60. Fifty-Three
  61. Acknowledgements
  62. Further Reading
  63. About the Author
  64. By the Same Author

‘Ask me another,’ Eb shrugged. ‘Blessed if I know. I hardly see the feller. He’s a retiring sort, but he was about more before his missus passed on – that’s a good while back now. Nice lady she was, weren’t ’er, Hatt?’

‘Florence Tallis? Oh, yes – quite a character she was. Made some of her own things too.’

‘You mean she was a silversmith?’ Margaret asked.

‘Now and then,’ Eb conceded, rather grudgingly. ‘Not like a real professional smith, but a few of the ladies like to sort of have a go, you know.’

I’d like to have a go, Margaret found herself thinking – to her own surprise.

‘But this Mr Carson,’ she said. She felt a blush moving through her cheeks and even Annie, hearing something in her voice, had stopped gazing solely at the food and was looking at her. ‘Who is he?’

‘As I say, he teaches at Vittoria Street,’ Eb said. ‘It only opened a few years back, but a lot of them do their training there now. Come to think of it, his wife’s some sort of smith an’ all.’

‘You didn’t train there yourself then, Uncle?’ Margaret asked. She was somehow relieved to hear that Mr Carson had a wife.

‘Oh, no – there weren’t nothing like that. Learned off my father, I did. He never had a big shopping like we’ve got here.’ She could hear the pride in his voice. ‘But he taught me what I know, all right – no need for some bloomin’ school and all them fancy ideas.’

‘Well, you obviously learned well,’ Margaret said carefully, hearing the defensive pride in her uncle’s voice.

‘You ask Mr von Titz – he likes my work!’ Eb sat back and chuckled again.

‘Aunt Hatt,’ Margaret went on quickly, ‘I asked little Daisy Tallis if she would like to come in for a bit of drawing or something this afternoon. Would it be all right for me to go out and buy a few pencils for her?’

‘Course you can, dear,’ Aunt Hatt said. ‘I always feel that no one does enough for that child, with only the maid and that odd father of hers. Now there’s a kind thought if ever there was one.’

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Two

Daisy Tallis sat waiting that afternoon, seeming lost in her thoughts. But as soon as Margaret spoke to her, she jumped to her feet and Margaret saw the eager gleam in the girl’s eyes.

‘Come along, dear.’ She held out her hand, looking forward to spending some time with a child again. ‘I’ve some paper and pencils. Did you ask your father?’

Daisy nodded. As they went into the house, Margaret said, ‘I don’t believe I’ve ever met Mr Tallis.’