Words to Shape My Name by Laura McKenna

Author:Laura McKenna [Laura McKenna]
Language: ita
Format: epub
ISBN: xx
Publisher: New Island Books
Published: 2020-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

They had names for me then. Black Ettie. Black widow. They said I’d eat my own offspring. You can tire of such wit after a time. I struggled to leave them names behind when I moved. When the new Birmingham railway tore up my house, I took the paltry compensation and moved to Euston Grove. Out of the frying pan and into the fire you might say. But this time I put the trains to my own use and turned my small house into a proper lodgings. Right outside the spanking new station. A lodgings for travelling ladies what couldn’t afford the Euston hotel – respectable house servants, governesses, shop ladies and the like, the Victoria being for working men only – I fancied I saw an opportunity and I seized it. Turned out in my favour. Here I’ve only ever been known as Mrs Small, the almost-respectable proprietress of modest, clean accommodation. Can take six guests at a time. Three in each bedroom. More if they’re willing to share a bed. I keep a girl about me, Irish too, goes by the name of Brigid Lordan. She were but a scrawny orphan when I took her on three years ago, and she refused to believe I were Irish-born. Sure how could that be, she said, and you so exotic. I think she may have been frightened of me at first.

Lately though, I been warming to the girl. She works hard, does the scrubbing, the beds, the fires and the like, though I prefer to look after the breakfast myself – simple fare, nothing fancy. But enough for my guests. Respectable.

I say that word. Respectable. Yet still that nasty ditty comes back to me, at times. And that name. Hattie Fricker.

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