A Maiden's Voyage by Rosie Goodwin

Author:Rosie Goodwin [Rosie Goodwin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2019-02-03T16:00:00+00:00

‘By all that’s holy, you weren’t jokin’ when you said there were t’ings to be done, were you?’ Colleen said when they arrived back at the shop sometime later. They had practically had to carry Jia Li between them and the poor girl seemed oblivious to everything that was going on.

‘It’s mostly elbow grease and a lick of paint that’s needed,’ Flora answered as she gently helped Jia Li onto a chair. ‘But before we do anything perhaps we should get a doctor out to take a look at Jia Li?’

Colleen shook her head. ‘No point in wasting money. There’s nothing they can give her for shock. Time will be the healer,’ she pointed out sensibly. ‘Perhaps if she’s no better tomorrow we should t’ink about it then.’

Flora supposed she was right and as she looked about her her shoulders sagged. Suddenly she was feeling overwhelmed at the amount of work that needed doing and didn’t quite know where they should start, but thankfully Colleen took charge when she said, ‘Show me the rooms where we’ll be living then. I reckon we should get them straight and comfortable before we start down here, so I do.’

Seeing the sense in what she said, Flora led her upstairs expecting Colleen to find fault but instead she was quite taken with their new living quarters.

‘Well, both t’ese rooms are bigger than the one we were all sharing,’ she mused as she stared around her. ‘We could perhaps make one into a sitting room and sleep in the other, and with the use of the kitchen as well we’ll be snug as bugs in rugs. I reckon the first t’ing we should do is get all the rubbish out into the yard then go t’rough the furniture an’ see what we can salvage.’

And so the two girls set to dragging out the empty boxes sending dust and cobwebs swirling into the air. Within an hour all the rubbish was piled in the yard and Colleen rubbed her hands together. ‘There,’ she said with a satisfied smile. ‘We’ll be able to see where we’re going now, but first I t’ink we should have a hot drink and somet’ing to eat. It’s been hours since breakfast.’ Her red hair was coated in dust but her green eyes were bright as stars as she began to think of their new venture. After making a hasty meal of sandwiches and tea between them they managed to persuade Jia Li to eat and drink a little and slowly the colour began to return to her cheeks, although she was prone to bursting into tears every few minutes.

‘Just imagine how angry the old witch will be when she turns up to our old room to throw us out and finds us already gone,’ Colleen chuckled. Some of Flora’s enthusiasm was rubbing off on her now, despite her earlier reservations, Flora noticed with relief, and she grinned back at her. They trooped back upstairs then and threw all the windows open as they sorted through what was left in the two rooms.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.