Hetty Feather Read online

  We found the spot where Sissy had valiantly attacked the vile foot-stroker, and gathered up as many fallen flowers as we could, though some had already been trampled underfoot.

  'We'll soon sort them out,' said Sissy, kneeling down and arranging them deftly. 'Lovely moss roses, these are, and gentlemen will pay a penny for a little posy. They make a sweet little surprise for a lady, my posies do. That's how me and our Lil do better than most of the other girls. We don't just sell flowers, we make 'em look special. When we sell our violets in the spring, we bind them with green leaves and a tiny piece of lace or ribbon. We beg them from this milliner who used to know our mother. Then we make such a pretty nosegay, some gentlemen might even pay threepence to show their ladies it's spring at last.'

  'How pretty,' I said, trying to copy Sissy, prinking the drooping little roses and arranging them just so.

  'That's right, Hetty, you're getting the hang of it already. Come with me then, girl. We'll go down St Martin's way. The gentlemen won't pay so much but it's safer there. Don't want no nasty men making off with you again, do we, Hetty?'

  I trotted along beside Sissy and sat with her on the steps of a great church by a huge square with fountains and vast lion statues. It was so crowded I wondered if the Queen was returning on another Jubilee procession, but Sissy said it was simply folk coming out to go to the theatre and the halls. Most of them ignored us, though I looked extra mournful and Sissy accosted them energetically.

  'Come on, sir, buy a lovely posy for the missus. Beautiful moss roses freshly picked! Make a girl happy, sir. Only tuppence – what a bargain!'

  It was a novelty at first and I enjoyed myself, but then it started raining and everyone hurried by under umbrellas, not even glancing in our direction. I hoped Sissy might give up, but she sorted the few coins in her pocket anxiously and said we had to stay.

  'We need at least another shilling, Hetty, hopefully twice that,' she said worriedly.

  'But you could buy a big meat pie and buns for you and your Lil with the money you've got,' I said, hoping she'd share a few pennies with me too.

  'Bless you, Hetty, it's not just a question of money for our food. I have to make the wherewithal tonight to buy fresh flowers from the market in the morning – these will all be withered by then. And then there's Father to consider. He'll start fretting for his drinking money. If I don't get home with enough for his beer, he'll take it out on me and our Lil.' She took a deep breath. 'Maybe I'd be better going back to where I was. I reckon I could earn a couple of quick sixpences there. You could stay here, Hetty, and I'll come and collect you, I promise.'

  I wasn't quite sure what she meant, but I clung to her nevertheless. 'No, Sissy, stay. We'll get the money here.' I cast my eyes around. I was used to weighing up the hospital visitors on Sunday, working out who might be generous with sweets. I saw a portly middle-aged couple and took a chance.

  I snatched a posy and ran up to them in the pouring rain. 'Oh please, ma'am, sir, would you care to buy one of my pretty posies?'

  They seemed taken aback.

  'What are you doing in the rain, child? And barefoot too! Why don't you run along home?' said the lady.

  'Oh, I daren't, ma'am, for my father will beat me viciously if I don't take him money for his drink. And then there's our Lil too, she's poorly.' I decided to embellish things a little. 'And then there's my sister Sheila, she's got the smallpox and is hideously disfigured, and my sister Monica, who's been kicked by a horse and is very dim-witted now.' I started going through half the dormitory at the hospital, inventing ailments and misfortunes galore. I took care to keep my tone tragic and my face a mask of mournfulness – but to my astonishment the lady and gentleman started laughing.

  'Be off with you, you naughty minx. You should not tell such stories!' said the lady.

  'Yes, it's very bad of you to try and con us – but here's a little something for your cheek,' said the gentleman. He fished in his pocket and handed me a couple of coins.

  'Oh thank you kindly, sir,' I said, bobbing him a curtsy.

  I thought he'd handed me a couple of pennies, but when I opened my fist I saw it was two shillings!

  'Oh, Hetty, you're a marvel!' said Sissy, giving me a hug. 'There, you've brought us luck! We can indeed go home now.'

  I stood still. 'But . . . I have no home,' I said.

  'You come along with me,' said Sissy. 'You can stay with Lil and me for now.'

  'Won't your father mind?' I asked anxiously.

  'So long as he's got enough to drink he don't mind anything,' said Sissy. 'Come on, little Hetty. Come home and meet our Lil. She'll take a shine to you, I'm sure.'

  20

  Sissy led me through a maze of dark alleyways to her home. They were so dark that I kept stumbling on the uneven cobblestones, and when I tried walking in the gutter I stepped in something unspeakable in my bare feet. I hoped I might be able to have a proper wash at Sissy's house – but when we got there at last, it came as a rude shock.

  I was not a fool. I knew Sissy was very poor. I hadn't pictured her in a palace. I'd thought she would live in a very modest house, rather like the country cottage where I'd lived with my foster family.

  But Sissy's family didn't have their own house. They had one room in a large, bleak, five-storey tenement building, the bricks black with grime, the window glass mostly missing, the roof partly collapsed.

  I stared up at it in horror. 'Is it falling down?' I asked.

  'It soon will. It's been condemned a while now so the rent's cheap. Do you want to pee first? We're up four flights of stairs, so it's a good idea to go now if you want to.'

  There was no proper privy, just a stinking hole in a tumbledown shed in the back yard. Judging from the smell and the slime on the walls, folk simply tipped their chamber pots out of the window. There was a tap over a drain. Sissy turned it on for me so I could sluice my feet – but only a dribble of water came out.

  'That tap's no use. Never mind,' said Sissy. 'I'll go up to the pump at the end of the street later on and bring a jug back.'

  There were cockroaches crawling along the dark corridor of the fourth floor. Sissy stamped on them with her boots, while I walked on tiptoe, agonized. She opened the door of the room right at the end. It was very dark, but I could see it was pitifully small and barely furnished. There were two thin mattresses on the floor, and a rickety chair and a stool. Someone had hung sacking curtains at the narrow window and worked a rag rug for the floor, but these were the only homely touches. A big slovenly man sprawled on one mattress while a little girl huddled on the other, coughing and coughing.

  'Lil? Oh, dearie, ssh now. Here, darling, take a drink,' said Sissy, hurrying to her side.

  She helped Lil sit up and held an old tin cup to her lips. 'There now, my lovey, this will help,' she said.

  'Cough, cough, cough! It drives me mad,' said the father, scratching his head. 'She only does it to annoy, I'm sure. A man can't even have a little nap for that cough, cough, cough. Clear your throat, Lil, and then shut up.'

  He rubbed his eyes and then blinked at me. 'Who's this? Clear off out of here, this ain't your room!'

  'Hush, Father, this is my new little friend Hetty. She's brought me luck. She's a dab hand at flower-selling, almost as good as our Lil. Look what she's earned for us!' She held out one of the silver shillings.

  He snatched it, bit it hard and then shoved it in his pocket. 'Well, I'll be off for a little constitutional,' he said, not giving me a second glance now. 'I'll just stretch my legs and maybe take a drink to ease my parched throat. I'll be back within the hour.'

  He stuck his feet in his old broken boots, clapped a greasy bowler hat on his tousled hair and made his way over to the door.

  'Within the hour!' Sissy muttered. 'We won't see him till midnight – and good riddance. There now, Lil, take another sip, that's my good girl. Give Hetty a smile, dearie, and show her that someone in our family has good manners.'

  Lil tried valiantly to master her cough. Sh