The Forgotten Sister (The Shaw Family in Liverpool) by Summers Judy

Author:Summers, Judy [Summers, Judy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Welbeck Publishing
Published: 2021-07-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The first Thursday of Meg’s week in the house was also the first Thursday of the month, but she dared not mention the subject of her promised half-day so early in her time there; visiting Sally and Martha would have to wait. As she spent the afternoon at the sink she thought of them, wondering how they were getting on and hoping they would be safe without her. She hoped that Mrs Leech hadn’t taken out any of her anger with Meg on them; logically there would be no reason for her to do so, because there was no point if Meg wasn’t there to be forced to watch it – but then again, you never knew with Mrs Leech. She was quite capable of being cruel without needing a particular reason. Meg did her best not to think about the disappearing girls, for there was nothing she could do about them. For a moment in Mrs Leech’s office, she thought she’d worked it out: Mrs Leech was selling the girls into service, just as she had sold Meg. But that didn’t quite ring true. Meg hadn’t disappeared, she’d been offered a place, had time to say her goodbyes and then left. There had to be something more going on.

The washing-up was light: Mr Harcourt was out at his business, so the mistress had eaten her meal alone. ‘Luncheon’, they called it, as the family had their main meal of dinner in the evening, the other way round from the servants and the nursery, who had dinner in the middle of the day and tea later on. Meg had therefore already finished and was wiping her hands when she heard the back doorbell ring.

As luck would have it, it was the one delivery boy she didn’t really like. Although ‘boy’ was the wrong word: the others were all youths of about her own age, but Walter from the grocery was a grown man, probably around twenty if Meg was any judge. However, she wouldn’t have to put up with his superciliousness for long: he had been sure to mention several times on his previous visit that he was about to be promoted to shop assistant, so he would pass the deliveries over to a new, younger boy. He barely acknowledged Meg as he swept past her now, taking his crate of goods into the kitchen, thumping it down on the recently scrubbed main table and unpacking it for Mrs Roberts’s inspection.

Her work in the scullery done for now, Meg lingered in the kitchen to watch. She had caught glimpses of Mrs Roberts’s inspections before, and was fascinated by the different methods she used to check all sorts of goods. Meat was weighed, of course, before it was taken to the cold shelf in the larder, and examined for signs of having gone off; fish were poked to see that the flesh was firm, and the cook even checked the eyes, noting to Hannah – and overheard by Meg – that they should be bright if the fish were fresh.

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