Sapphire Battersea Read online

  I could not bear to see my dear foster brother in such torment. ‘Then do not go!’ I said. ‘You could just walk right out of the hospital! You’ve got the whole of London to hide in. You’re tall and smart. You will be able to bluff your way, find some kind of work and get lodgings. It’s so much easier for a boy.’

  ‘I have thought of it often. Perhaps I will find the courage to do that – but I rather think not. I told you, Hetty, I am a coward. We should have swapped places with each other when we were in that baby basket. I should have been the girl and you the boy.’

  ‘Come along there, Smeed! Stop dallying with the servants and get to your lessons, boy,’ someone shouted.

  Gideon flinched.

  I held his hand fast. ‘Remember, Gideon, I am your dear sister and I love you very much. I will always care for you. Maybe one day when you are on leave, you can come and take me out. I should love to be escorted by a fine soldier in a splendid uniform,’ I said earnestly.

  ‘Gideon Smeed! Are you listening? Head in the clouds as always! Move, or I’ll prod you!’

  ‘I have to go, Hetty,’ said Gideon desperately.

  ‘Goodbye, dearest Gid. Good luck!’ I said, and I reached right up and kissed him on the cheek.

  The boys surrounding us jeered and whistled, and Gideon went as red as his waistcoat, but he blew me a very quick kiss in return. Then he went on his way and I wondered if we would ever see each other again.

  I felt so cast down that I nearly lost my courage. I almost wished I were staying at the hospital. It was a cold, cheerless place, especially without dear Mama, but it had been my home for nine full years. I tried to have faith in Miss Smith and her writing gentleman, but I wasn’t at all sure that this was a good move. Maybe I should take my own advice to Gideon, and make a run for it the moment I stepped outside the hospital gates.

  I had survived my two or three days of freedom when I was ten. In many respects I had had splendid adventures – and even earned enough to feed myself too. I was much better equipped now to find myself some desirable employment. Perhaps I should take this one and only chance! I felt badly about Miss Smith, but perhaps she would understand.

  I gathered my few possessions in my small brown travelling box, ready to go. But Matron Bottomly called me to her room first. Matron Peters was there too, both of them shaking their heads at me.

  ‘Well, Hetty Feather, you are leaving us at last,’ said Matron Stinking Bottomly.

  ‘We will always remember you,’ said Matron Pigface Peters. ‘You are undoubtedly the wildest and most wilful girl we have ever had in our care.’

  ‘You will come down to earth with a bump once you’ve had a taste of the working world outside,’ said Matron Bottomly. ‘Beware, Hetty Feather! If you stick to your sulky ways, you will be dismissed for insolence, without a character, and then where will you be?’

  ‘Following in the footsteps of your mother, I dare say,’ said Matron Peters, and they both sniggered.

  ‘I’ll thank you not to bad-mouth my mother,’ I said. ‘I don’t have to listen to either of you ever again. I shall be off now. Goodbye.’

  ‘Goodbye and good riddance!’ they said in unison, like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Nurse Winnie had read us the two Alice books in her sewing class when I was little.

  They accompanied me along the landing and down the stairs. Nurse Winnie came running up. She took no notice of either matron and threw her arms around me.

  ‘Good luck, little Hetty! I can’t believe it’s fourteen whole years since I held you in my arms and tried to comfort you. I’ve never known a babe scream so much! But I knew even then that you were a very special child, and would go far.’

  ‘Oh, dear Nurse Winnie! Thank you so much for being so very kind to me over the years. I will never forget you,’ I said, suddenly close to tears.

  ‘Come along, Nurse Winterson. There’s no need to single the girl out. She has a high enough opinion of herself already,’ Matron Pigface snapped.

  ‘It seems to me you thoroughly spoiled her and ruined her character when she was in the junior school,’ said Matron Bottomly. ‘It was very hard for me to make a serious impression on such an imp of Satan. You must heed the warnings of the Good Book, Nurse Winterson – spare the rod and spoil the child.’

  ‘That’s nonsense!’ I cried. ‘Nurse Winterson is the only nurse here who shows us real love and care. That’s the only way any of us have thrived in this grim prison!’

  ‘Hush your mouth, Hetty Feather! How dare you talk to us like that!’

  ‘I dare say anything I wish, because neither of you have any power over me any more,’ I declared.

  ‘Don’t be so sure of that! We will be checking up on you vigorously. If you fail to please your new employer, we have the power to call you back to the hospital to retrain you,’ Matron Bottomly threatened.

  That certainly unnerved me! I didn’t want to risk going to Mr Buchanan’s now. I’d start afresh, where no one could keep track of me. I wasn’t going to be Hetty Feather any more. I was Sapphire Battersea, only child of dear Ida. I would show these pig-faced stinking matrons. I would make my own way in the world, no matter what. I had to make a bolt for it now.

  But my spirited plans were instantly thwarted. There was a strange woman lurking in the entrance hall – strange to me, and certainly strange in appearance. She was a very large woman. She made even Matron Pigface Peters appear sylph-like. She was dressed in a bizarre dark-red costume that made her resemble an immense slab of bloody meat. She wore a bonnet to match, trimmed with white, like mutton chops with paper frills. I stared at her in astonishment. She seemed equally bewildered by me.

  ‘This scrawny little creature cannot possibly be Hetty Feather!’ she said, hands on her hips. ‘I thought you said she was fourteen and a good strong girl? This child is barely ten – and her arms and legs look as if they should be in a box of Bryant and May.’

  ‘This is Hetty Feather, ma’am, and her fourteenth birthday was three full months ago – isn’t that correct, Hetty?’

  I hesitated. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t like the look of this great meaty woman at all. I felt a further few weeks in the hospital might even be preferable. What was she doing here? Why had she come to fetch me? Where was Mr Buchanan?

  ‘I thought I was going to be Mr Buchanan’s servant,’ I mumbled.

  ‘Indeed you are, child. If you are of age.’

  ‘Speak up, Hetty, and reassure the lady. You’ve never held your tongue for long previously,’ said Matron Bottomly.

  ‘I’m fourteen. I’ve always been very small.’

  ‘With carrot-coloured hair too! I hope you don’t have a temper to match. Lord knows why we’ve been lumbered with you,’ said the meaty one, giving me a prod in the chest. ‘Come along then, child. We’ve got quite a journey ahead of us.’

  ‘Goodbye, Hetty Feather. Try your hardest to be dutiful and diligent. Might I suggest, ma’am, that you treat her severely right from the start. She has wild ways,’ said Matron Bottomly.

  ‘Frankly speaking, she could do with a good whipping every now and then,’ said Matron Peters.

  I glared at them. My lips were pressed tight together. I wouldn’t even say goodbye. I clutched my box in both hands. My heart was beating fast. I decided to run for it the moment the great door was opened, but the large woman seized me by the shoulders, her fat fingers digging into my flesh, kneading me like bread. She marched me down the long pathway to the outside gate. I twisted my neck to look one last time at the hospital where I had been locked up for so long. I stared at the barred attic window and saw a ghost of myself looking down.

  I shivered in the cold air because I didn’t have any kind of mantle or shawl.

  ‘Ah, you’re not quite so bold now!’ said Mistress Meat. ‘You’re quivering like a jelly in a mould.’

  ‘I am simply a little cold, ma’am,’ I answered, my chin up – but she only laughed at me.

  She called to the porter at the gate. ‘I