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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

‘But I want to do something,’ Annie insisted, as if there had been no interruption to the conversation. ‘To earn my keep, for a start. And I want to see what life is like for . . . for people who work in factories, for people outside the village. I want to know about life.’

‘Annie!’ Margaret interrupted. ‘Don’t be so silly. You can’t seriously be thinking about . . .’

But even Margaret found Aunt Hatt’s glare directed at her and she subsided. An awkward silence had grown up in the room.

‘Now,’ Aunt Hatt said. ‘What about some plum pudding and custard?’ And then you girls can have another nice cup of tea and we’ll let you go up to bed. You look ready to drop, the pair of you. I’ll put some water on the boil for you.’ She smiled at them with concern and said kindly, ‘It’ll all look better in the morning.’

Four

Four

Aunt Hatt led them up to ‘Georgie’s room’, where they were to sleep, in the bigger of the two attics at the front of the house. She had prepared hot water for them to wash with and Margaret enjoyed the warm weight of the basin as she carried hers up the narrow stairs.

‘There we are, dears,’ Aunt Hatt said, rather out of breath as they entered the low-ceilinged room. ‘I think you’ll find it comfortable. It was Georgie’s room – and then his and Clara’s.’ She sounded wistful, Margaret thought. She could see that Georgie had been a much-loved boy, and now Jimmy, his son, would be surrounded by loving family as well. ‘You can put your things in the chest of drawers and that little cupboard.’ These two items were squeezed along the back wall.

A window, lined with deep red curtains, looked out over the street. Aunt Hatt – for already she had become that, not Aunt Harriet – drew them together. There was tan-coloured linoleum on the floor covered by a small rug each side of the enormous bed which took up most of the room.

‘There are towels for you, look – and a po’.’ Delicately she added, ‘You can bring the water and so on down to the yard in the morning. By the way – we have our baths in the scullery. When we get to the new house, we’ll have a bathroom!’ Joyfully, she clasped her hands together under her chin. ‘Hot water from taps – can you imagine! But for now, I have mine on a Sunday morning – and we’ll make sure you each get your time.’

Aunt Hatt came and kissed each of them and Margaret smelt her lavender scent again. Tears filled her eyes at this motherly gesture.

‘Just get your heads down, girls. It’s a nice comfortable bed. Goodnight, dears.’