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hair cut short. He shrugged his
shoulders. ‘Nowt, just interested that’s all. No offence meant.’
    Meg capitulated and grinned back at him. ‘None taken. Just that we’ve done nothing but answer questions since we got here.’
    The youth nodded. ‘I guess it’s like that, but wouldn’t know.’
    Now Meg was intrigued. ‘Why? Didn’t you have to answer a lot of questions when you came in?’
    He laughed again. ‘Nope. I was born in here. Me mam died having me, so they tell me. I’ve been here all me life.’
    ‘Oh, how terrible!’ The words escaped from Meg’s mouth before she could stop them.
    ‘Is it?’ he asked solemnly, the laughter dying on his face. ‘I’ve never known owt else.’
    ‘No,’ Meg said slowly, beginning to understand. ‘I see that now.’
    ‘Meg,’ Sarah began, ‘we ought to go. I – I need to sit down.’
    At once Meg was contrite. ‘I’m sorry, Mam.’ With Sarah leaning heavily against her, they began to move back towards the gate in the wall, which led from the men’s
courtyard into the women’s.
    Meg glanced back over her shoulder towards the youth. ‘What’s your name?’
    ‘Jake. What’s yours?’
    ‘Meg. I’ll see you again.’
    He pulled a face and lifted his shoulders. ‘Not much chance.
They’ll
see to that. But I’ll watch out for you.’ He winked at her. ‘There are ways – if
you know ’em.’
    Meg nodded, wondering who ‘they’ were, but she could stay no longer. Sarah was looking pale and had deep purple shadows beneath her eyes. ‘Come on, Mam. We’ll find the
dormitory and you can lie down.’
    ‘But she needs to rest. Look at her.’ Meg flung out her arm towards her mother as she stood facing Ursula Waters. ‘She’s done in.’
    ‘She can’t lie down in the dormitory during the daytime. If she’s ill, she should report to the infirmary. And she’s not, else the doctor would have said.’
    ‘She’s not ill, just exhausted.’
    The woman pursed her thin mouth. ‘I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do about it.’
    ‘You don’t want to, you mean,’ Meg muttered.
    ‘What did you say?’ Ursula snapped.
    ‘Nothing,’ Meg answered morosely. How she would like to give this woman a mouthful, but she realized her runaway tongue would only make matters worse, especially for her poor
mother.
    Ursula sniffed. ‘She’s supposed to start work in the kitchens.’ She glanced at Sarah, who was sitting on the chair and looking as if she was about to fall off it at any moment.
Sarah’s pallor must have touched even Ursula’s hard heart, for she relented enough to say, ‘I’ll see what matron says.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Meg said, with more than a hint of sarcasm.
    Ursula glared at her for a moment, before turning and leaving the room.
    ‘Never mind what that dragon says, Mam. Come and lie down. Here, these are our beds next to each other.’
    In the able women’s dormitory the beds were still straw palliasses with rough grey blankets and one pillow, but the mattresses were now sitting on a four-legged wooden frame.
    Sarah allowed Meg to help her to one, where she lay back and gave a weary sigh.
    Meg sat beside her holding her hand, concerned by its feeling of limp clamminess. Letitia appeared beside them and stood for a moment, looking down at Sarah. Then she gave a brief nod.
    ‘We’ll let her rest today, but tomorrow she must try to do a little work. And the following day you’ll have to be interviewed by the board of guardians. That’s when their
next meeting is.’
    Sarah lay quite still, her eyes closed, and made no sign that she had even heard the matron. Letitia Pendleton glanced at Meg. ‘But you go with Waters, Kirkland. She’ll introduce you
to Miss Daley, the schoolmistress. I’m sure she’ll be glad of your help. She’s run ragged by the little tykes.’ But the matron spoke the last few words with a fond
smile.
    Meg rose, bent and kissed her mother’s damp forehead and followed Ursula out of the room.