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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

‘When I said goodbye to ’er . . .’ She could hardly speak for tears. ‘I dain’t mean goodbye. There was this woman took ’er and ’er said ’er’d be safe there. It ain’t for long – ’er won’t remember it, will ’er? Little babby like that? I’ll go and get ’er out of there . . . I will . . . I’ll go and get my little babby back . . .’

‘Oh, Mary,’ Margaret said, her own voice choking. She leaned forward and put her arms round Mary Poole’s painfully thin shoulders. She could see that Mary, in her desperation, was doing what she thought was for the best for her family, but all Margaret could feel was heartbroken for her and very afraid.

Annie had her arms round Lizzie and both of them were crying. After a moment, Margaret got to her feet, patting Mary’s shoulder, and went to Den and Ivy. Ivy’s face crumpled.

‘Where’s our Nellie?’ she cried. ‘I want ’er – and I want our Ada. I want ’er to come back!’ She laid her tousled head on her arms on the table and wept, heartbroken.

Den sat with his jaw tight, fists clenched on the table, not looking at anyone.

‘Nellie will be back, we hope,’ Margaret said, though she felt great misgivings about promising anything. ‘Your mother is trying to make things better for you all.’

She bent to put an arm round each of the children. Ivy sat up and rested her head wearily against her, but Den flung her off and got up violently from the chair. He went and sat on the floor by the fire, cross-legged, his back rigid, staring straight ahead of him.

Forty-Three

Forty-Three

This time, when Margaret told Annie on the Sunday morning that she was going for a walk with Philip and Daisy Tallis, Annie did not say a word. She got up silently and took herself off to church, which Margaret found almost more disturbing. The past weeks had changed Annie. Always so sure, so fiery and argumentative, she had grown quieter, as if a deep, more uncertain conversation were going on inside herself.

Margaret had noticed this especially since Friday night and her storm of tears at the Pooles’ house. Yesterday she had gone into the factory for cleaning as usual, then wandered off for most of the afternoon. In the evening when Margaret asked where she had been, all she said was, ‘Oh, just walking.’