BooksBarbecue
Back Sisters of Gold
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

‘Daisy,’ Margaret said, jolted out of her thoughts. ‘Perhaps I should go home now and help my aunt? Could I do it tomorrow, or another day?’

Daisy smiled in delight. ‘Yes! Yes! Come tomorrow!’

That night, as she left Masters, Hogg & Co., Annie stepped out into the foggy street among a crowd of other workers, all hurrying, talking, coughing, gobbing catarrh into the gutter. With mild surprise she realized she had become quite used to all this. No one was immune to colds and coughs and she was streaming herself, having to blow her nose every few minutes. She was looking forward to being at home in the warm and eating her tea.

As she hurried towards Chain Street, cutting along Regent Street, a small figure passed, hastening ahead of her, a cap pulled low over his face. In a moment he had disappeared and only then did she realize that the boy, who looked much like so many other lads, was Den Poole. Or she was almost sure he was.

‘Den!’ she called after him, but he did not come back.

Annie frowned, hurrying after him. Where can that little scallywag be off to? she thought, managing to get him in view again in the gloom of the street. At first she thought he might be heading towards Chain Street, but he scurried past the turning, hugging close to the buildings. She saw him each time he reached the pool of blurred light round a lamp, then would lose him to the dark between. She was not sure why she felt compelled to follow, except that the boy looked somehow shifty, not answering her call, and he worried her, scampering about the streets like that.

It was not long before she found out where he was going. Further down on the right, Den stopped on one corner, at a public house called the Rose Tavern. She moved as close as she dared, not liking to hover near such a place. What might people take her for, lurking about the street corner outside a drinking den? She crossed the road from where she could just make Den out, in the faint light from the pub’s windows. She pulled her scarf tighter round her neck, coughing. Winter was drawing in and within a moment the damp cold settled clammily about her.

Den stood outside the pub looking back and forth, his feet constantly shifting as if he was ready to run at any second. After a moment, Annie saw a burly man with a hat pulled low over his face move into view. He seized Den roughly by the shoulder and dragged him back into the shadows. Words were exchanged that she could not hear. She narrowed her eyes, sure she could see Den taking something from under his jacket and handing it to the man, who appeared to put something into Den’s upturned palm. Then the man nodded and walked quickly back the way he had come.