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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

Margaret was distraught. That their father expected them to exist under the same roof as her attacker – the man who was supposed to love her – was too much to bear. Each night the girls pushed the chest of drawers across the door and lay uneasily, knowing that he was breathing yards away. He had not asked to see Margaret. There was no offer of an apology.

She still waited for her father to soften to her but there was no change in his granite-like manner, nor apology for his injustice towards her. Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds. Annie quoted Shakespeare to her. And the second night, Annie suggested writing to Uncle Eb and Aunt Hatt.

‘We’ve got to get away from here,’ she said. ‘If Father can’t admit that he has wronged you – wronged both of us – we shall have to show him.’

Margaret felt a mixture of awe and horror towards Annie for what she had done, but her clear sight was a help. She tried to cling to Annie’s reassurances that she had done no wrong. And during those days, in her pain, Margaret hardened her heart against both her father and Charles.

They had an answer from Birmingham by return of post and they were already packed when they told William Hanson where they were going.

‘I can’t stay here,’ Margaret told her father coldly. He was standing close to his desk, facing the window, hands clasped behind his back. ‘Not with that man here and with your blame. I do not think –’ here her voice trembled as she struggled not to weep – ‘that I have done anything wrong, but you have sided with him against your own flesh and blood. So long as he remains here, we shall not come home. And you must promise not to tell him where we are.’

‘Yes,’ her father said in a strained voice. ‘I shall not tell him.’ He still would not turn and look at her. She was speaking to his broad shoulders and he could not see the tears running down her cheeks. There was a long silence and she turned to go. As she was closing the door of his study she heard him say, ‘Best if you go. If you stay here, I’m afraid of what any of us might do.’

II

II

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Five

October 1904

Annie hurried through the steel-grey morning, head bowed against the rain. It had been blowing a gale all night and even now she had to hold her hat on, its brim already dripping. The pavements were giving off the dull sheen of water and the gutters were gurgling. Broken tiles crunched under her feet.

I can’t be late! She tore along the street. Just as she got to the gates of Masters, Hogg & Co., someone held the door for her and she dashed inside.