Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

Author:Sally Hepworth [Hepworth, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-06T16:00:00+00:00

24

JESSICA

BEFORE

Miss Fairchild’s behaviour became intolerable.

‘You didn’t give her those crackers, did you?’ she shrieked one evening after Alicia had managed to get the most recent foster baby to eat some rice crackers. The baby had refused everything but formula for three days. The irony was, Miss Fairchild had given Alicia the crackers and pressured her to feed them to the baby. After all, it wouldn’t look good if babies lost weight on her watch.

‘You stupid girl! Babies can’t eat those. Are you trying to kill her?’

There was no point in arguing with her, or defending themselves; it only made things worse. After a while they’d learned just to lower their gaze as if she were an aggressive dog.

‘We’ve had a lot of these crying babies,’ she snarled another time, after they’d cheered upon getting a burp out of a particularly colicky newborn. ‘You three are the common link. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.’

That day, it was noon and she was still in her pyjamas, her greasy hair in a ponytail. As she watched them suspiciously, Jessica found herself wondering if she’d been drinking. It worried her. She’d always been unpredictable, but this was something else.

The first night-time rampage happened on a Monday.

It was after midnight. Jessica had just finished settling a nine-month-old girl called Suzy who’d arrived with insect bites all over her body. Suzy was (quite rightly) incensed by the itch. It had taken an insane amount of rocking, shushing, singing and calamine lotion to get her to drop off in her crib. When at last she did, Jessica thought she would cry with relief.

Then Miss Fairchild burst into the room.

‘Girls!’ she cried, switching on the light.

Alicia and Norah sat up in bed sleepily, shielding their eyes.

‘I’ve been rocking the baby for two hours and she’s just gone down,’ Jessica whispered, holding her fingers to her lips. ‘Can you turn off the light, please?’

‘Can I turn off the light?’ It was clear from her slurring that Miss Fairchild had had a lot to drink. ‘Well, that’s lovely, isn’t it? I’m the one who feeds you, puts a roof over your head . . .’

Jessica was too concerned about waking the baby to absorb Miss Fairchild’s sloppy rage. She glanced down into the crib and saw that, of course, the baby was stirring.

‘She’s awake!’ Jessica said, her heart sinking.

‘Whose fault is that?’ Miss Fairchild retorted, and she flounced from the room. She never explained what had brought her into the room in the first place, yet Jessica had a feeling she’d got exactly what she came for.

The next night, she burst in at 2 am.

‘What’s going on in here?’ she demanded, fumbling for the light switch.

Jessica and Alicia sat up in alarm. Norah buried her face under a pillow.

Jessica didn’t know what to say. What was going on? Up until that moment, they’d been fast asleep. Luckily, Miss Fairchild didn’t require an answer. The purpose of her visit was to shout about how ungrateful they were until the baby woke. Then she disappeared, leaving them to deal with it.

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