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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

‘I see,’ Margaret said. Mrs Flett must be the middle-aged woman she had seen coming and going. The girl was softly and politely spoken. She found herself unsure what to say next. Looking at the plaques by the door, she tried, ‘So your father is Mr Tallis, the silversmith?’

Daisy nodded. Suddenly, she smiled. It was a sweet, sad smile and Margaret felt a pleasant tenderness, as if she had tamed a young horse and it had come trustingly to eat from her hand.

‘I need to go inside now,’ Daisy said. Standing up, she grasped a little canvas bag which had emerged from her lap. ‘Goodbye.’

Seventeen

Seventeen

Everyone ignored Annie as she settled at her press the next morning. After all the business over piecework, she had looked around her cautiously as she clocked in. She was ashamed that she felt so wary of some of the women – afraid, in fact. She found it hard to admit, but she had made bad mistakes in her first weeks at the factory and now she was anxious to make up for them. It was an unusual feeling for her to have to be humble.

I mustn’t work too fast, she thought. It cut against her pride, her competitive nature. But she could see she was only going to make trouble for herself. And the effort had also been truly exhausting.

Doris was blathering on as usual in her booming voice. The other women all greeted Lizzie and joked and chatted with each other. Annie felt a pang of loneliness.

Lizzie sat on her stool not looking from one side to the other. Annie wondered if the other women had warned even sweet-faced Lizzie not to talk to her and her loneliness increased until she remembered that Lizzie had been feeling unwell the day before, saying she felt sick, and she had not eaten anything at dinner time. She did look pale, Annie thought, glancing round at her.

The bell rang and everyone set to, the rhythmic stamp of the presses all along the room. Annie worked steadily but not too fast. Better to lose wages, she thought, than turn everyone against her.

It was hard to look about you anywhere when you were working and it was not until later in the morning that she heard a disturbance.

‘No one’s allowed out of here until one o’clock, you know that, Lizzie Poole.’

‘I’ve got to, Miss Hinks.’ Lizzie’s voice came low but urgent. She said something else that no one could hear.

‘Well –’ Miss Hinks sounded very displeased. ‘I suppose you’ll have to then . . .’

Miss Hinks, though austere and usually unbending, let Lizzie out of the room.

‘Well, I never,’ someone else remarked. ‘There’s not many can sweet-talk old Hinky.’

Lizzie came back in later, head down, and carried on working.