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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2018
Copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Cover photographs © Gordon Crabb/alisoneldred.com (girl), Topical Press Agency/Stringer/Getty Images (background scene)
Cathy Sharp asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008286651
Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008286668
Version: 2018-09-06
Eliza curled into a ball, crossing her arms over her stomach as the ache became a gnawing pain of hunger and she bit her lip to stop herself moaning. It was three days since sheâd eaten anything, and sheâd drunk only a few sips of water that Ruth had risked a beating to bring her just after she was shut up in here. Since then no one had come near. She was so cold that her fingers felt numb and her teeth were chattering. She believed she might die, locked in this dark cellar because of the mistressâs spite. Sheâd been beaten and thrown in this terrible place without a blanket or a mattress to lie on, all because she had told Mistress Simpkins that she was a liar.
âYou wicked, evil child!â the incensed mistress of the workhouse had yelled at her. âHow dare you say such a thing to me? How dare you speak to your betters in such a tone?â
âYou told us a lie.â Eliza had stuck to her guns, despite her fear. âTommy Hills died because you beat him for falling over when he was working but he was ill and â and it was your fault, because you withheld his rations,â she ended defiantly, staring proudly at the woman who ran the female side of the workhouse. Tommy was not in Mistress Simpkinsâ ward, but sheâd given him the task of clearing a pile of heavy wood intended for repairs to the roof. Heâd suffered with a malady of the lungs and heâd been coughing and gasping for breath when he staggered and fell, dropping an armful of the logs in front of the mistress. In a rage, Joan Simpkins had beaten the lad with the cane she carried at all times, striking him across his shoulders and arms until heâd collapsed into a heap on the ground at her feet.
Eliza had tried to help him and so had Ruth, but theyâd been told to go about their business and the mistress had had one of the men carry him to the infirmary, where heâd died in the night. An infection of the lungs, so the mistress had told them, but the inmates all knew who was to blame. Only Eliza was foolish enough to say it out loud and now she was being punished for her audacity.
âYou are both disorderly and refractory,â Mistress Simpkins said in a cold voice, âand you know the punishment for breaking the rules, girl. You will be put on short rations and removed to a place of solitude until you are suitably penitent.â
Eliza had stared at her defiantly, refusing to be cowed by the womanâs cruel threats and for that she received several hard blows across her face. She had been seized by the arm and dragged into the dismal punishment room and there she had been stripped by other women and forced to wear the filthy garb of one judged disorderly, after which she had been brought here to this dark place and thrust into it.
âYou are disobedient, a wicked evil girl,â the mistress had told her. âIt would serve you right if I just left you there and forgot you.â