Clover Moon Read online

  ‘Of course you can’t go back to such a monster!’ said Mr Rivers. ‘You can stay here until you’re fully grown, can’t she, Sarah?’

  But Miss Smith was looking very grave. ‘Not if she has a living parent who lays claim to her. I’m afraid it’s the law. I have to be very particular on this point. I have tried to save girls from unfortunate families before, and the authorities have threatened to close the home down altogether if I persist.’

  ‘Then the law is ridiculous! It can’t possibly be right to return this child to a woman who clearly terrifies her. I can’t believe this of you, Sarah! You of all people! The champion of waifs and strays!’

  ‘Please don’t shout at me, Edward. I agree it would be terrible to let Clover go, but I cannot change the law. There’s nothing else I can do.’

  ‘Then let her run away now, before she comes!’ said Mr Rivers.

  But it was too late. There was such a banging at the front door that we heard it even up in Miss Smith’s office.

  ‘Open up, open up! You’ve stolen our girl away from us!’

  Mildred was already here.

  21

  ‘IT’S HER! MILDRED! Oh please, let me hide from her!’ I cried.

  ‘For pity’s sake, Sarah, can’t you see the child is terrified of this woman?’ said Mr Rivers. ‘Don’t let her into the house!’

  But we heard the front door opening and Miss Ainsley remonstrating. But even formidable little Miss Ainsley was no match for Mildred. We heard her shouting and then thundering up the stairs.

  ‘Sarah! She’ll be up here in an instant!’ said Mr Rivers, seizing hold of me protectively.

  ‘Calm down, Edward.’ Miss Smith was whiter than usual, but her manner was unruffled. ‘Why don’t you take Clover into my private study while I conduct the interview with this lady?’

  ‘I had better stay to protect you,’ Mr Rivers offered, very pale too.

  ‘Nonsense. I am used to dealing with agitated women,’ said Miss Smith. ‘You look after the child. Only come out of the study if I call for you. Take your things with you, Clover.’

  I grabbed my pillowcase and Mr Rivers took my hand. We went through the door behind Miss Smith’s desk, into her writing chamber beyond. There was only one chair. Mr Rivers sat down heavily and I leaned against the wall, trembling.

  We heard the door to Miss Smith’s office opening.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Miss Smith, but this . . . person insists on seeing you!’ It was Sissy’s voice, sounding outraged.

  ‘Yes, I blooming well do insist!’ said Mildred. ‘You’re the lady in charge of this girls’ prison, are you?’

  ‘How do you do?’ said Miss Smith coolly. ‘I am Miss Smith and this is my refuge for destitute girls. It is certainly not a prison. It is a private home. Now how exactly can I help you, Miss . . .?’

  ‘It’s Mrs to you, Mrs Moon. I’m a good, God-fearing woman and I made sure Mr Moon and I were decently wed. I’ve come about my eldest, Clover,’ said Mildred.

  ‘She’s not my mother!’ I mouthed at Mr Rivers, and he patted me reassuringly.

  ‘Clover Moon?’ Miss Smith repeated vaguely, as if she hadn’t heard my name before.

  ‘Don’t try and pull the wool over my eyes! I know she’s here. I seen the letter she wrote to that horrid little cripple doll-maker. It’s all his fault. He lured her away from her own family, filling her up with all kinds of fancy nonsense. I always knew he was up to no good. Heaven knows what he’s done to that poor innocent girl, the evil little monster!’

  ‘How dare she!’ I whispered.

  ‘I’m afraid I have no acquaintance with the gentleman,’ said Miss Smith.

  ‘He needs locking up! He stole her away and brought her here, and now she’s writing to him telling him she loves him, and she’s only eleven years old! I knew it! I’ve been backwards and forwards to his shop, trying to get the truth out of him, but when I tackled him he just came out with a whole pack of lies. But this time I barged past him into his workshop and there was this letter on his desk, all squiggly writing that makes your eyes cross, but I saw this little picture, a green leaf thing, and it suddenly clicked. She’d drawn a clover leaf, like some secret signature – I knew it had to be from her. I got the letter-reader down the market to spell it all out for me, and I was that incensed I had to come straight here to collect her. Don’t sit there all po-faced looking down your nose at me, Madam Muck. You give the girl back, or I’ll fetch a policeman and have you arrested for abduction!’

  ‘I don’t abduct little girls, Mrs Moon,’ said Miss Smith, her tone icier now. ‘They come here of their own free will. I give them shelter and food and education until they’re ready to make their own way in the world. Meanwhile this is their home.’

  ‘Our Clover’s got a home back with me and her pa and her little brothers and sisters. They all miss her so. They’ve wept buckets since she was taken away, and her pa’s not himself at all. It’s come so hard, especially since our second eldest died of the fever. Oh, how I miss that poor mite! And it was the last straw when our Clover got snatched away,’ said Mildred, and she started sobbing.

  ‘She didn’t shed a single tear for Megs!’ I whispered. ‘She’s just play-acting.’

  ‘I can see how grieved you are,’ said Miss Smith dryly.

  ‘My heart’s fair torn apart!’ Mildred declared. ‘It shows what a motherly soul I am because them two girls aren’t even mine by birth. But when I married their father I took them on without a word of protest and I’ve been a loving parent ever since.’

  ‘You say you have your own children too, Mrs Moon?’

  ‘Six fine sturdy little dears, fair and handsome. There’s a new little one now, young Sammy, and dear Lord, he’s got a right pair of lungs, that one, bawling night and day. That’s why I have to get our Clover back, see. She’s got a knack with the young ’uns. I need her at home to look after them. I’m fair worn out with trying. I might look strong but I’m weakened with childbirth. You’ve no idea how it takes it out of you, you being a single lady. My insides feel like they’re fair dropping out of me at times,’ Mildred whined.

  ‘But surely Clover would be out at school all day?’ Miss Smith enquired.

  ‘School? We don’t bother with no schooling! What’s the point? That doll-maker learned her all that rubbish and look what it did to her. She gave herself airs and looked down on us all – especially me, her own mother! She needs to be taken down a peg or too, that one. Knocked into shape,’ said Mildred, her voice hardening.

  ‘Knocked into shape?’ Miss Smith repeated quietly.

  ‘Well, in a manner of speaking.’ Mildred suddenly sounded cautious. ‘I don’t mean I’d really give her a caning. Well, only if she said something very bad. That girl’s got a wicked tongue on her. She needs to be a bit more respectful to me seeing as I’m her mother. Spare the rod and spoil the child, that’s what they say, don’t they? And that one’s spoiled, I’m telling you.’

  ‘You’re telling me a great deal, Mrs Moon,’ said Miss Smith. ‘It makes me want to do the right thing. But I’m afraid I cannot help you in your quest. I believe a child called Clover Moon might have spent a night or two here. I will check the record book. However, I’m afraid she did not settle. I cannot tell you where she is now.’

  ‘Oh, Miss Smith is brilliant,’ Mr Rivers whispered in my ear. ‘Note how wonderfully evasive she’s being, so she doesn’t have to tell a downright lie!’

  But Mildred was no fool.

  ‘You can mouth off at me in that niminy-piminy way, but I know you’re up to something. I reckon our Clover’s here, hidden away. Maybe you’re in league with that doll-maker and set about procuring young girls and starting them on the path to ruin,’ said Mildred.

  ‘I find your suggestion offensive, madam,’ said Miss Smith. ‘Kindly leave these premises immediately or I will call a constable. There’s a police station two minutes away, in the Strand.’

  ‘Is that the case?’ said Mildred. ‘Well, I’ll sa