Maria was panting, the light of triumph in her eyes that she had aroused him, and suddenly he didn’t want to see her face any more. He turned her over roughly so that her face was pressing into the pillows and she was lying on her stomach. She wanted to be treated like a whore, they all did, even though they might cry and protest when he gave them what they asked for. He parted Maria’s rounded buttocks with his hands, hearing her gasp as he entered her. He knew he was hurting her but that was part of his pleasure and her punishment that she wasn’t Rose.

Chapter Twenty

Rose stood looking around the back of the bakery where all the food was made before being taken through to the front of the shop. She was exhausted but the two huge ovens, the bath tins, the wooden tables and all the other equipment were now clean to her satisfaction, along with the tiled floor which she’d scrubbed numerous times. Stanley Cunningham hadn’t been too particular about his working conditions, that was for sure, although the front of the shop had been dirt-free. Stanley’s sister had told her that after his wife and bairns had died she had come twice a month to give the living accommodation above the shop a ‘going over’, but Rose had spent a good few days in there too, scrubbing and washing and painting walls and ceilings. But now everything was ready for them to make their move from the little house they had lived in for the last few years. Amy and Frank were going to help her move all their furniture and belongings in the next day and then her new life would begin.