A Daughter's Sorrow by Cathy Sharp

Author:Cathy Sharp [Cathy Sharp]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

Eleven

‘I’ve written to Tommy every week since he’s been away, but he hasn’t sent me even a line on a postcard. I’m worried about him, Maggie.’

‘It’s natural you would be,’ she said. ‘But didn’t Father O’Brien say it only upsets the children if their families visit? If you wait a little longer they may write and tell you that you can go.’

‘If I did go, would you look after Mam for me?’

‘You don’t need to ask. I’m just thinkin’ to save you a wasted journey, Bridget.’

‘Father O’Brien says the doctors there are wonderful.’

‘There you are then,’ Maggie said. ‘Tommy is probably enjoyin’ the seaside and too busy to think of you. Sure, it’s a terrible worrier you are, Bridget.’

The memory of my brother’s haunted eyes as I’d left him with strangers was coming back to me more and more of late, but it might upset him if I went down. Especially if they wouldn’t let him come back with me.

‘I suppose I should wait.’

‘Just a few more weeks,’ she said. ‘Have you seen Maisie recently, Bridget? I used to meet her about the market when she first gave up her stall, but I haven’t seen her for a week or more now.’

‘I shall take her a few buns when I go on Saturday,’ I told her. ‘I didn’t get there last week because Mam was playing up and I had too much to do, but I shall go tomorrow same as usual.’

‘Give her my love,’ Maggie said. ‘I might have a bit of meat pie going in the mornin’.’

‘I’m sure she would be glad of it. Her hands make it difficult for her to cook much these days.’

‘It’s standin’ out in all weathers brings out the rheumatics. You’re better off takin’ a lodger, Bridget.’

‘I sometimes wonder.’ I pulled a wry face. ‘Miss Elton is a difficult person. She’s so fussy and I have to be extra careful when I do her ironing. If there’s the smallest crease she creates something awful.’

Miss Elton’s money had made things easier for me, but she wasn’t very friendly, though she did talk about the people she met at her suffragette meetings sometimes.

‘You should come to one of our meetings,’ she’d said to me that morning before she went out. ‘I’ll give you some pamphlets written by Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.’

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I should like to learn more about the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.’

‘The Movement has been gathering strength for a long time. We’ve been helped by the Chartists, who fought for the promotion of human rights, but there have been too many influential people against us. Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Gladstone and Disraeli have all held us back.

‘In America some of the states have already given women the vote. They have worked so hard: Lucretia, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Henry Ward Beecher and Wendell Phillips. Their work encourages us. One day we shall win through — even if we have to use more violent methods of protest to gain attention.

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