By the time seven o’clock rolled around that evening Flora was so exhausted that she could barely stand. Her face was throbbing painfully and her hands were so sore that she didn’t know what to do with them. Every item of clothing she wore was sticking to her with sweat and she wondered how she was going to bear it. Mrs Yung was a hard taskmaster who would not allow any of her staff to slack for a minute and Flora was forced to question if she had been right to run away. Surely anything that Alex could have done to her when she discovered the truth would have been better than this?
Seeing her exhaustion, Colleen smiled at her reassuringly. ‘It does get easier,’ she promised, taking Flora’s hand and leading her to the door. ‘I remember my first day, so I do. I was so tired I didn’t know if I could ever come back and face another day here, but needs must. Come on, I’ll get you back to our room now. Our other roommate will no doubt already be cooking for us, so she will.’
They stepped outside and the cool air after the heat in the laundry hit Flora like a smack in the face and she felt dizzy. Even so she tried to keep up with Colleen as she strode purposefully along. The girl was tiny and yet Flora had noted that the amount of work she had got through that day would have done justice to someone twice her size.
Once again Flora entered the gloomy alleys and her heart began to pound with fear as she thought back to the night before but Colleen seemed confident enough.
‘Nearly there now,’ she told her encouragingly. ‘But don’t be expectin’ too much, mind. Mrs Yung doesn’t provide the best workin’ nor livin’ environment but ’tis better than sleepin’ on the streets, to be sure.’
As Flora eyed the dismal houses they were passing she could well believe it and she began to shiver as she thought back to what had almost happened to her the night before. It seemed that all the nationalities of the world were gathered in these back alleys and they eyed her suspiciously as she and Colleen moved on.
Eventually Colleen stopped in front of a tiny, terraced house and opened the front door. They stepped into a narrow hallway and a multitude of smells assaulted them: curry, boiled cabbage, stale urine and other smells that Flora didn’t dare to try and imagine what they might be. The walls were running with damp and ahead of them a steep, narrow, wooden staircase rose up to the first floor. A number of dull-eyed children were playing with some glass marbles on the floor and Flora’s heart ached for them as she saw how thin and lethargic they looked – as if they hadn’t had a decent meal for weeks. The clothes they wore were little more than rags and were so faded that it was difficult to distinguish what colour they might once have been.
Colleen beckoned Flora to follow her up the stairs. A baby was wailing loudly somewhere and as they reached the first floor landing they were just in time to see a thick tail and a pair of red eyes disappear into a hole in the skirting board.
‘Ugh, was that a rat?’ Flora squeaked and Colleen giggled.
‘It was so, but don’t be worryin’, he’s more afraid o’ you than you are of him, so he is.’ They climbed up yet another flight of stairs and at the top Colleen took a key from her pocket and unlocked a door.
‘Well, this is it,’ she announced as they stepped into a small, musty-smelling room. ‘It might not be much but it’s home for now.’
Flora stared about in disbelief. A number of straw mattresses were scattered along one wall with blankets neatly folded at the end of them and by the only cracked window was a small table with two mismatched chairs, one of which was leaning drunkenly to one side. A pair of faded curtains hung at the window and there was an old washstand with a chipped jug and ewer standing on it. The only other furniture the room boasted was two battered chests of drawers, but what did strike her was that although the room was dismal, Colleen and her roommate had done their best to make it as clean as they possibly could. The bare floorboards had been scrubbed and she was heartened to see a small fire glowing in a tiny fireplace.
‘Ah, my roommate is back,’ Colleen commented when she saw the fire. ‘She’ll be downstairs in the kitchen cooking a meal, no doubt. We take it in turns,’ she explained and the words had barely left her lips when the door opened and Flora blinked in surprise when the pretty Chinese girl who had helped her when she got lost was standing there.
‘It’s Jia Li, isn’t it?’ Flora croaked and with a wide smile the girl carried a heavy pot to the table and placed it down before nodding.
Colleen looked surprised. ‘So, do you two know each other?’
Flora nodded. ‘We met once when I lost my way and Jia Li was kind enough to give me directions.’
‘How do you do, missy.’ Jia Li again placed her hands together and gave the curious little bow that Flora remembered. ‘It is nice to meet again … but what are you doing here?’
Flora’s face became solemn. ‘It’s a long story but perhaps I’ll tell you one day.’
‘Well, whatever it is it won’t be good.’ Colleen shook her head sadly as she approached the pot Jia Li had carried in and lifted the lid, sniffing appreciatively. ‘None of us end up here if we have anywhere better to go, but never mind that for now. Jia Li makes the most wonderful curries you’ll ever eat. Come on, let’s have it while it’s still nice and hot.’ She crossed to some shelves that Flora hadn’t noticed before where a selection of mismatched pots and pans were placed and lifted down three chipped dishes which she proceeded to fill. Then, handing round some spoons, they all sat down on the mattresses and began to eat. Just as Colleen had said, the curry was like nothing Flora had ever tried before and was quite delicious.
‘We share the kitchen downstairs with the other residents for making our main meals,’ Colleen informed her. ‘But we have a kettle up here so we can make tea and coffee in our room. We have a toasting fork as well, so sometimes we make our own toast too.’ She smiled at Jia Li then and Flora saw that the two girls were close.
‘And how do you er … have a bath?’ Flora asked.
Both the girls chuckled. ‘There’s a tin bath hanging on the wall outside so once a week we cart it up here between us and boil kettles to fill it, usually on a Sunday. We’re too tired to be bothered on the days we work so we just make do with a good wash down, but we get by one way or another.’
‘And how long have you both shared a room for?’ Flora questioned curiously.
Colleen shrugged. ‘Oh, for a few months now. Mrs Yung doesn’t tend to keep staff for long so the workers come and go.’
If what she had seen of the woman that day was anything to go by Flora could well understand why no one ever stayed long. She was like a mini sergeant major barking out orders with never a word of praise. Flora had even seen her cuff one young girl round the ear earlier in the day because the poor little thing had slipped on the wet floor and dropped a basket of freshly washed sheets.
‘I can quite understand why no one stays,’ Flora commented, at which both girls giggled.
‘Huh! If you t’ink she’s bad just wait until you meet her son!’ Colleen whistled through her teeth and frowned. ‘He’s a real tyrant! He t’inks because we all work for his mother that he has licence to do what he wants with us, so he does! He’s started hassling Jia Li, here, and I’ve heard whispers that more than one lass has been sent packing without a penny piece with his baby growing in her belly, yet his mother won’t hear a word said against him. She worships the very ground he walks on, so she does, so beware if you meet him and try to keep out of his way. His name is Huan.’
‘I’ll remember that,’ Flora said, horrified, and they all fell silent as they enjoyed the rest of their meal. When it was done, Jia Li carried the pots down to the kitchen to wash them and returned with a jug of cold water from the tap in the yard.
‘It is to bathe your face,’ she told Flora gently. ‘It must be very sore, yes?’
‘It is rather,’ Flora admitted as she tentatively raised her hand to touch her swollen face.
Jia Li gently began to bathe it for her and Flora had to grit her teeth to stop herself crying out.
‘Who do this to you?’ the Chinese girl questioned softly and instantly tears began to spill down Flora’s cheeks. She had intended to keep what had happened to herself but somehow, she sensed that she could trust the two girls, so it all came pouring out.
‘I did something unforgivable,’ she told them in a wobbly voice. ‘It started on the night the Titanic went down. I was travelling here with my young mistress but …’ By the time she had finished the sorry tale she was drained.
‘So, you see … I deserve what happened to me last night, I’m a very bad person,’ she ended.
Colleen and Jia Li shook their heads in unison.
‘No, you’re not bad,’ Colleen soothed. ‘You were about to arrive in a strange country and you were scared, so you did what you had to to survive.’
Jia Li nodded in agreement. ‘Yes, everyone knows of the disaster on the Titanic. It must have been … how do you say … trum … traumatic?’
‘It was.’ Flora closed her good eye and again in her head she could hear the screams of the poor souls in the icy water and see Connie pitching to her death. ‘But what about you two? What brought you to this?’
Jia Li and Colleen glanced at each other but it was Jia Li who spoke first.
‘I came here some long months ago aboard a cargo ship from my home town in China. My father, he a very rich man, he a banker. As child I was very spoiled but then my father, he arrange a marriage for me but …’ She paused here and took a deep breath. ‘The man he wish me to marry is very old and rich but I not love him. I love Bai, but he only a poor chef and my father forbade me to see him. And so just days before my wedding, Bai arrange a place on a ship coming here for me, and soon he will join me. Until then I have to work for Mrs Yung to live for I ran away with nothing but what I stood up in.’
‘How very sad.’
‘And what about you?’ Flora looked at Colleen now and the girl lowered her eyes and shrugged.
‘Oh, my story is about as opposite to Jia Li’s as you could get,’ she said quietly. ‘Back in Ireland I was one of fourteen children, though not all of them survived. We lived on a little smallholding just outside of Kilkenny, packed in like sardines, we were, in the farmhouse, but the fields and the countryside are glorious. We had pigs and sheep, as well as a cow for milk and hens for fresh eggs but me mammy was downtrodden, God love her, and me daddy was a boozer. Many the day we had not a crust on the table but me daddy never went without his ale. Then as the girls reached a certain age he decided that they could earn their keep on the streets, if you get me drift? Some of them agreed, some of them did a runner, so they did, and then it came to my turn and I couldn’t stand the thought of it, so much like Jia Li I sneaked aboard a boat and ended up here, and though it’s not much of a life, sure it’s better than the one I had, so it is. At least I don’t have to lie awake now waitin’ for me daddy to come in drunk an’ use one or another of us as a punchbag.’
Flora’s eyes filled with tears as she gazed at them silently. They had been through so much in different ways and she felt ashamed.
‘But what about you?’ Colleen asked then. ‘Will you be going back to London?’
Flora sighed. ‘How can I now? I’ve no doubt Alex will inform my parents of what I’ve done and though they’ll be relieved to know I’m alive after all, they’ll be so ashamed of me. I don’t think I can ever face them again now. Sometimes I even wish it had been me that had died instead of Connie …’
‘That’s a terrible t’ing to say,’ Colleen scolded while Jai Li looked on with her beautiful dark eyes. ‘Sure, life is precious an’ to be lived an’ though we may not have much at the minute there’s many worse off than us, so there are. An’ I wouldn’t mind bettin’ that your mammy an’ daddy would be thrilled to have you home, no matter what you’ve done.’
‘Well, we’ll see.’ Flora wiped her nose on the sleeve of her dress. ‘But it won’t be for a while. I need to save enough up for the fare for a start off, even if I do ever decide to go home.’
The three girls stared at each other silently for a moment and Flora felt a little comfort for the first time since the Titanic had sunk. At least with these two girls there were no lies between them and she would no longer have to watch every single word she said. They had bared their souls to each other and she had the feeling that they would become good friends.