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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

Annie looked at the pathetic figure curled against a sooty factory wall and was filled with rage. A feckless man, no doubt drinking down his wages and taking off when responsibility no longer suited him – off to sow his seed elsewhere, leaving his family close to destitution. Hadn’t she heard this sorry story so many times before! She felt as if the Lord stood in righteousness at her shoulder and she was filled with anger and exaltation. So – here was her mission, in a different guise! This was the beginning.

‘Come on, Lizzie,’ she said in a steely voice. ‘Look, let me put my arm round your waist. We must get you home.’

Lizzie found her way as if the street was a part of her own body. Soon she stopped at one of the entries.

‘You’d better loose me,’ she murmured. ‘It’s not very wide.’

Annie obeyed, but to her relief, Lizzie caught her hand and led her along the black slit, where the fetid stenches seemed to linger and gather strength. She thanked God that she had at least already looked along one of these alleyways in daylight, or now she would have been utterly terrified.

There was dim light at the end. As they emerged into the yard, she saw a gas lamp bracketed to the wall in the middle of the row of back houses, giving off a miserly light, as if even the gas supply was poorer in this district. The air was so thick with the stench of dry pan lavatories, of chemicals and smoke, that the foreign concoction of smells was making her just as nervous as the dark strangeness of the place. She found herself glad of the shrouding dusk, afraid of what daylight might show her. Sounds came from the houses: voices, a rhythmic banging from the end of the yard like someone putting an axe through wood, and somewhere, a young child was letting out a grizzling cry.

‘Watch it –’ Lizzie pulled her away from a black pool gathered in a low point of the uneven brick yard. ‘You don’t need to come with me – I’m home now.’ Lizzie pointed at the crouching row of houses. Even sick as she was, the girl seemed ashamed at the idea of taking anybody inside.

Only then did it dawn on Annie that she was somehow going to have to get home again through this dark warren. She had not paid much attention to where they were going.

‘It’s all right, Lizzie,’ she said, bracing herself. ‘I can come and meet your family. And you’ll have to tell me the way back again.’

‘All right,’ Lizzie said doubtfully, but she had no energy to argue. ‘My brother can go with yer.’

She pushed the door open. Inside, Annie saw the wavering light of a candle and the sound of the crying child grew louder.

Eighteen

Eighteen