The Winter Orphan

by Cathy Sharp

  She walked for a long time. It was very cold and Bella felt the bitter wind in her face. She clutched her shawl around her and resisted the temptation to stop and eat. Bella had no money other than the florin Mr Stoneham had given her, because there was none in the house that she knew of and even if there had been, she would not have dared to steal it. It was bad enough that she was wearing boots Karl had paid for and had taken one of the fresh loaves. She comforted herself that she had been paid no wages and was entitled to the things she had, but could not truly believe it.

  Bella stopped when she heard a church clock strike the hour of three. She was hungry and thirsty and her feet had begun to hurt. Seeing an old barn just ahead, Bella made for it and discovered that it was merely three-sided and bales of hay were stored beneath the shabby roof. But she could make a place to rest in its warmth for a while, and if she just moved a bale a little, it would shelter her from the wind.

  She found a place to sit and broke a piece from her bread, eating that and the tiny piece of cheese, drinking a few sips of water. Bella did not know when she would have the chance to get more food. She would ask for work when she came to a town, but a village, she was certain, would be more curious about where she came from, and Karl might put up posters to advertise his loss.

  Sighing, Bella curled up into a ball and hugged her knees. It was lonely but Bella was used to feeling alone. She’d never known the warmth of true love, though Florrie and Marta had been kind, and at least when Annie was alive she’d had regular meals and a bed to sleep in. Now she had nothing but what she found for herself. As she snuggled into the hay, her eyelids grew heavy. She was warmer now and her eyes began to close. For several nights she’d hardly slept and now she was so tired that she could not stop herself falling asleep …

  Bella was woken by a hand shaking her shoulder. She cried out in fright and shrank back when a lantern was held close to her face as someone peered at her from behind the light. She’d been caught! Karl would beat her black and blue. Trembling, she tried to scramble from her perch and run but a strong hand held her.

  ‘No need to fear me, girl,’ a rough voice said. ‘I’ll not harm yer – but yer’ll die if we leave yer out all night.’ He turned to someone Bella could not see behind him. ‘John, fetch the hay to the horses while I take this little lass to Polly.’

  Bella found her arm taken in a firm grip. ‘Please let me go. I’ve not stolen anything!’

  ‘Not even the bread you’ve been eating?’

  Bella’s cheeks flushed. ‘I baked it myself this morning,’ she said defensively. ‘I took it instead of wages.’

  ‘Did you now?’ the man said. ‘You’d best come home with me and tell me your story, lass – my Polly will want to know, and I want the truth or I’ll put you straight out.’

  Bella looked at him. It was difficult to see his face, because it was nearly dark now and she was very cold, her teeth chattering. As they approached the farmhouse, she saw that a lantern hung outside the kitchen door and the windows were bright. Now she could see that her discoverer was a man of middle age with a bushy brown beard and long, untidy hair. His fingernails were dirty and he smelled of animals and dung, but she did not mind that as long as he did not beat her. She could not escape his firm grip and allowed him to push her inside the kitchen, feeling the warmth of the range immediately.

  ‘Look what I found in the hay barn,’ he said to the plump woman standing by the kitchen range. ‘If we hadn’t needed fodder for the horses I reckon she’d have been dead by the mornin’.’

  ‘The poor child,’ the woman said. ‘She’s shakin’ with the cold and her teeth are chatterin’. Bring her to the fire, Ernie, and I’ll give her a drink of hot milk and honey.’

  Bella was pushed towards the range and the front was opened so that she saw the red coals and felt its fierce heat. ‘Sit down on the stool, lass,’ the woman said. ‘I’m Polly – what’s yer name and what are yer doin’ out on such a day?’

  ‘I’m called Bella,’ she whispered, feeling pain in her hands and feet as the numbness began to wear off. ‘My mistress died and I was frightened of my master and his nephews …’

  ‘So you ran off with a loaf of bread and the clothes you stand up in.’ The farmer looked at her and frowned. ‘Did your master beat yer, Bella?’

  ‘Sometimes – and he hit his wife after the baby was born and she was so weak from the birth. One of the nephews was to take a wife and they spoke of puttin’ me to the chain-making—’ Bella stopped, realising she had said too much for there would not be many such workshops in the area.

  ‘Was yer master Karl by name and a brute by nature?’ Ernie asked and his frown increased as she nodded. ‘I’ve heard of him, though he be set some miles from here. Yer know what yer risk by running from a man like that?’

  ‘I risked more if I stayed!’ Bella lifted her head defiantly. ‘I would rather die of cold in the night than return to him!’

  ‘Well, you shall not go back there,’ Polly said and placed a cup of hot milk in Bella’s hands. ‘Drink that and it will put some colour into your cheeks, lass.’

  ‘Yes, mistress.’

  ‘My name is Polly Green, and Ernie is Farmer Green – and you need not fear us. We’ll not send you back to the brute that killed Annie Rush and his first wife, God rest their souls.’

  ‘I took Annie’s babe to the doctor. I feared he would die too – but I know not what will happen to him if my master takes him back now.’

  ‘I doubt he will; he’ll leave him to be fostered until he is grown – and then, when he’s of some use, he’ll claim him,’ Farmer Green said and belched.

  Bella drank most of the milk straight down. It was food as well as drink and she needed something more than bread inside her. ‘You are kind – did you know Annie? I liked being with her better than the workhouse for Mistress Brent did not like me. She was unkind to us all …’

  ‘She is no longer mistress of the workhouse at Sculfield so I’ve heard tell,’ Polly told her. ‘She has been dismissed and is being hunted as an accessory to the murders her husband committed.’

  Bella’s eyes opened wide with fright as she looked from one to the other.

  ‘He is accused of murdering several children placed in his care – you are lucky that you escaped him, lass,’ said Farmer Green.

  Bella nodded. She had not thought of herself as fortunate but perhaps she had been – but she was not sure what would become of her now. ‘What would you have of me now, master?’

  ‘We must discuss the problem,’ Ernie said and looked at Polly. ‘If we put yer to bed in the warm will you give me your word yer will not run off again?’

  ‘If you give me yours that you will not make me return to the chain-maker.’

  ‘The lass has a tongue on her,’ Polly said and chuckled, her chins waggling with mirth. ‘We’ll not do that, lass. I give yer me word.’

  Bella thanked her and Polly led the way upstairs to a small room at the end of the corridor. Inside, there was room for a single bed, which was covered with a candlewick counterpane and had black-painted metal rails at each end, and a few hooks for clothes on the wall.

  ‘’Tis small,’ Polly admitted, ‘but it was meant for a child and it will do. In the morning I shall rouse you and we’ll decide on your future.’ She turned and the light from her oil lamp went with her, leaving Bella to scramble into bed fully dressed.

  At first it was pitch-black but gradually a little light penetrated the tiny window, which was high on the wall and had no curtains. Bella could have managed to undress but because she was still cold, she burrowed under the covers and held them tight around her neck. She was nervous and anxious and it was a while until she could rest, but gradually the exhaustion of the past weeks since the birth of Annie’s child stole over her and she closed her eyes. By the time Polly came up to look in at her, she was soundly sleeping.

  ‘She is but a child,’ Polly said when she joined her husband in the large double bed they shared.
‘She is like the daughter I never had …’ Polly had given her husband one child, their son John, and she loved him dearly, but he was a big lump and the fragile beauty of Bella’s features had touched a soft spot in her heart. ‘Could we not keep her, Ernie? She would be no trouble to you, I promise.’

  He sighed and hunched his shoulders. ‘Polly, I would keep her if I could, but the chain-maker would hear and come for her – and he would demand her return or money.’

  ‘We could pay …’

  ‘We have little enough to spare,’ her husband reminded her. ‘The harvest was poor last year and we had to buy fodder for the cows and pigs. If I offer to buy her – illegal though that would be – I’ll have nothing left if the harvest is bad next year.’

  ‘We can’t let him take her back. I promised her, Ernie, and I won’t give her to him!’

  ‘I’ll not ask yer to,’ her husband grunted. ‘I’ll take her into Alton and ask the workhouse there to admit her. I know the master and he’s a decent man. If I tell him she was ill-treated by the chain-maker he will not let her be taken back – but it is some miles distant and if we do not speak of her Karl Brett will not know. Even if he did, I doubt he would he dare to go there for the master is an honest man, not like those Brents.’

  ‘I still wish I might keep her. She could help me with the work and the baking.’

  ‘The answer is no,’ he grunted and rolled over, pulling the bed covers up around his neck. ‘Now hush, wife, and let me sleep.’

  Polly sighed but she knew her husband to be stubborn. He might have kept the girl and stood up to her master if he’d not been so worried over losing his farm. If he did not earn some money soon they could not pay the landowner and they would be cast out. Ernie needed his sleep and he needed to be free of this extra problem. She closed her eyes, dashing away the single tear that escaped and trickled down her cheeks.

  Her husband would not go to market for three days so she would feed Bella well and care for her in the meantime, even though she knew that she had already begun to give her heart to the young girl …

  Bella was woken by a gentle hand shaking her. She started up in alarm but as Polly smiled her fear fled as she remembered. She sat up and took the cup of milk that was offered her.

  ‘Come down as soon as you are ready. I shall give you breakfast and then you can wash in the scullery when the men have gone. This room would not suit you if you were stayin’.’

  ‘You will not send me back to him!’ Bella looked at her in alarm but Polly shook her head.

  ‘Nay, lass, fear not. My husband will take you to the town when he goes to market on Saturday. He will present you to the master of the workhouse and tell your story. You will be properly cared for there, Bella.’

  ‘I hoped you might keep me. I would work hard for you …’ Bella looked at her pleadingly, tears hovering.

  ‘I know you would, child, and I wish that I could give you a home here – but we are not wealthy. We scrape a living on this land, Bella. Last autumn we lost much of our potato crop to blight because the rains came at the wrong time and we could not get on the field to lift them.’ Polly looked grave. ‘We shall struggle to pay our rent this year, which is why my husband must travel to the market with goods we wish to sell. I have made curtains and a coverlet to match which should bring a good price and he will sell two pigs. I put a few coins by and if need be I will help him pay the landowner’s rent – but we have none to spare to pay your master if he comes here demanding your return nor to fight him at law.’

  Bella stared at her in silence. She had thought she might be safe here but now she saw she was not. Polly had given her a bed for the night and seemed genuinely sad to part with her, but her husband was more practical.

  ‘Thank you for the milk and the bed,’ Bella said. ‘I slept well.’

  Polly nodded sorrowfully. ‘I would keep yer if I could, child. Should yer master give yer up, I would take you in and you could be as a daughter to me.’

  Bella nodded and tried not to weep. She felt that she could have been happy here but Polly’s wishes would not count when Ernie could hardly afford to pay his rent.

  After Polly left her, Bella made her bed tidy and brushed at her dress. It was creased where she had slept in it, but it mattered not. She was apprehensive of the new workhouse she was to enter but if the master was a fair man it would be better than staying with Karl and his nephews.

  The breakfast that awaited her made Bella’s mouth water. There was a slice of fat bacon, an egg with a yellow yolk that ran when she stabbed it with her bread, and two mushrooms, also some fried mixed potatoes with cooked greens. The tastes were so delicious that she ate ravenously.

  ‘Do you like my bubble and squeak?’ Polly asked as Bella cleared her plate. ‘I have more – but no more bacon or egg.’

  Bella accepted another portion of the delicious treat and felt so full she thought she might burst. She had never been fed this well, even when Annie was on her feet and cooking big meals for her husband.

  ‘What would you like me to do for you?’ Bella asked when she had cleared her plate. ‘I can clean, wash clothes and scrub floors.’

  ‘I need to black-lead my range this mornin’,’ Polly said. ‘If you feel up to it you can wash the pots and then clean the scullery for me.’

  ‘Yes, mistress!’ Bella jumped up and started to clear the table. She put hot water and soda crystals into the big stone sink in the scullery and washed all the dishes and pots, stacking them on the dresser and in the plate rack above the range.

  After she had finished, she poured hot water from the kettle into a pail and mixed in some cold, then she found a bar of yellow household soap, a scrubbing brush and a cloth. She folded a mat and knelt on it and began to scrub the brick floor of the scullery. It was filthy where the men of the house had traipsed in and out and had not been scrubbed in a while. Bella emptied three buckets of dirty water before she was satisfied. By then her hands were red and she wiped them on an old cloth and went into the kitchen to find Polly, who had finished polishing her range until it shone.

  ‘Have you finished?’ Polly went to look at the brick floor and nodded. ‘You have done well, Bella. Fill the kettle now and we’ll make a cup of tea. The men will be in for their docky soon and after that we must prepare the vegetables for dinner.’

  Bella did what she was told and watched as Polly brought some tins from the pantry. She opened them and told Bella to fetch three plates from the dresser. From the tins she took pastries and cakes, setting them on the plates. To Bella it looked a rich feast, for there were pastry rolls filled with savoury sausage meat, apple turnovers with crisp brown sugar on the surface, and a large fruit cake as well as several smaller pies, one of which had pork meat in the middle.

  ‘My husband and son have hearty appetites,’ Polly said, smiling as Bella stared. ‘We kill our own pigs and use every bit of them – and the apples come from my orchard. I store them, and I bottle plums, apples, gooseberries and raspberries in season as well as makin’ jam. We have enough food – but there is little money for paying bills. If we owned our land then we should want for nothing.’

  ‘You are very lucky,’ Bella said. ‘I have never seen such food.’

  ‘You must eat and enjoy it,’ Polly said, ‘for you will leave us on Saturday.’

  Bella took her at her word, eating one of the pastry rolls and a slice of the delicious seed cake. She sipped the strong tea Polly had poured for her, finding it a little bitter and strange, but it was warm and she knew that the tea was brewed for the men, who liked it that way.

  ‘Ah, here they come now,’ Polly said as the scullery door opened and the men tramped in, bringing mud with them. They washed their hands at the sink in the scullery with the yellow soap Bella had used for the floors and then came into the large kitchen.

  ‘That looks good, Polly love,’ Ernie said. ‘We’ve been movin’ the last of the roots – the mangles fer the cattle. I’ve got them stored in the small shed by the
byre now so it will be easier for feeding.’

  John looked at Bella as she moved away from the long pine table, taking her plate and cup into the scullery. ‘You need not move for me, lass,’ he said and smiled at her. She saw Polly in his smile and gave him a shy look in return, which made him chuckle.

  Polly was busy serving her men for a while but then she brought utensils and empty plates to the scullery. ‘John likes you,’ she said. ‘’Tis a pity we cannot afford yer price, child.’

  Bella nodded but did not answer. She had met with nothing but kindness and honesty here and she wished with all her heart that she could stay here forever. She would work hard to please them but it seemed the farmer’s mind was set and she would be taken to a workhouse once more …

  CHAPTER 15

  ‘I made inquiries at the forge,’ Toby’s groom told Meg and Hetty as they sat together in the sewing room that afternoon. ‘It seems that the girl Bella has run away. She waited until the day after her mistress’s funeral and then she bolted while they were all at work. Needless to say, he is furious. He suspected us of harbouring her but I told him my purpose was to inquire after her wellbeing.’

  ‘Where could she have gone?’ Meg asked and looked anxious. ‘She cannot be more than eleven or twelve at most and it is a harsh world out there. The nights are still cold, though it is the end of March and she could die under a hedge.’

  ‘We must pray that she has found shelter.’ Hetty looked at Hobbs. ‘Did you inquire in the village?’

  ‘Yes, Mistress Hetty. I asked at the inn and the doctor’s and several women in the street – but no one had seen her since the funeral. The general opinion was that Karl might have murdered her.’

  ‘Do you think he looked guilty?’

  ‘No,’ Hobbs said and frowned. ‘He was too angry and suspected us of having spirited her away. It seems that Mr Stoneham spoke to him of Bella’s future and offered to buy her back from him and he thinks she may have gone to him.’