The Dressmaker's Secret by Rosalie Ham

Author:Rosalie Ham [Ham, Rosalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-06T22:00:32+00:00

At lunchtime the next day, still smarting from her stint in the linen press the evening prior, Elsbeth Beaumont went to the kitchen and lifted the lid on the stockpot. She scraped around with the spoon until she’d found all four leg bones. ‘I knew there were two missing. Do you think I can’t count? I gave permission for one chook.’

‘There weren’t enough vegies to pad out the stew,’ said Lois, who had chicken feathers in her hair and a spray of chicken blood across her apron.

‘You could have used rice.’

‘We don’t like foreign food.’

‘You’re a greedy thief, Lois Pickett. You could live easily on half rations.’

‘You’re the fief, you never paid your bills and you’re mean and nasty and you fink you’re Hitler.’

The people in the kitchen ceased cooking, organising crockery and cutlery for lunch, and folded their arms.

‘Oh, I see,’ laughed Elsbeth. ‘You’re on strike, are you? Isn’t that pointless? You’ll just end up starving and homeless. There will be no chicken next week.’ She looked at Felicity Joy. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Making a chicken sandwich.’ She would take it to the safety of the roof, lean against the chimney with her book and search for messages from the red plains about anything out of the ordinary, leaving the adults to their endless squabbling.

‘You’ll end up as big as your mother. Have a carrot instead.’ Elsbeth turned in her small worn shoes, marched back to her bedroom and resumed stitching the beaded hem of one ball gown onto another, the ruined faux-fur collar thrown deep into the corner of her infested wardrobe.

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