Excerpt: The Silver Flute

Rhea was glad of Daisy's help with the washing.
"This ain't bad," Daisy said. "You should have seen what we had to do back at the Orphanage. They took in laundry from all round and we were hard at it all day every day, even with everyone working at it."
The kitchen was hot and steamy and Rhea pushed her hair back from her forehead. "You're glad to be here then?"
"I am that. It's much better for Oliver too." She looked fondly at her baby, lying in a basket on the table where he could watch everything that went on. Rhea had given him baby toys from when Tom and Amy were young: a stuffed rabbit and a wooden teething ring. His terrible nappy rash had cleared up now that he was being changed regularly and he was taking much more interest in life.
"You're much nicer to me than those old biddies at the Orphanage. They were always going on at us about how we were fallen women and we'd brought it all on ourselves. It was a right swiz, too, because I hadn't done nothing."
Rhea smiled. "You must have done something to end up with Oliver." At Daisy's frown she hurried on, "Don't get me wrong, I'm in the same boat. I've got Tom and I'm not married and no man around to take care of me unless you count my brother."
Daisy shrugged. "I know that's what everyone thinks but it wasn't like that. I was the scullery maid at a big house in town, and they had three sons. The younger one had a roving eye, roving hands too for that matter, and he got me when I was on my own and pushed me up against the scullery wall and ... well. Three months later I'm putting on weight and throwing up in the mornings. I haven't seen my monthly visitor since Claude done it to me so I know what's going on but what am I supposed to do? Mrs High-and-Mighty says, 'Daisy, I think you have been up to no good.' Up to no good my arse. Anyway, she has her doctor examine me and he says I'm three months gone and off to the bad girls' home it is with me. No one ever said nothing to Claude that's for sure."
Rhea stopped stirring the boiler to look at Daisy. "That's awful. At least no one threw me out when I got pregnant with Tom. If I'd been able to name the father they'd have married me off to him and everything settled but he wasn't around by then."
"Did he die?"
"No, he was with the circus. They come through every year and I fell for him hard. He was dark and wiry and very strong and we had three glorious weeks together. I wasn't worried when he moved on, not even when I realised I was expecting Tom, I was so sure that the next year he'd be back and he'd have to take me and Tom with him. But it didn't happen. He vanished. The circus people said he had gone out for a walk on the last day before they set off from here and he'd never come back. They thought he'd join them at the next town but he never appeared again."
"Do you think he fell through one of them cracks like we come through?" Daisy asked.
"Star's teeth! I never thought of that. There have been so many people disappear, like my Mum and Dad. I wonder if we can get them back if Claire and Toby sort out this gate problem. I wish I could go with them."
"Why don't you?"
Rhea was surprised. "Toby of course. I can't leave him."
"You've got Will and me to look after him. You could even get Beth to watch him if you set her a room downstairs. It would be good for her too."
"Oh, Beth."
"Yes, Beth. You're not fair to her. She really isn't very well and I'm sure she'd do more if you'd have a bit more patience with her and let her sleep downstairs so she doesn't have the stairs to manage every day."
"You've been here what, two days? And you know Beth better than I do?"
"I talk to her. She's OK. Look, you're never going to find someone who's good enough for your kid brother, are you? It's a bugger that she's so weak but it is how it is and you just have to make the best of it. That's what I think anyway."
Rhea grabbed the tongs and lifted the heavy linen from the boiler and into a bowl for wringing and rinsing. "Hold this," she said. "You can do the first mangling."
Daisy grabbed the bowl to stop it sliding across the floor. "I'll take good care of Tom," she said. "I like minding kids. And you can go and sort out the problem with the gates and see your friend Claire."
Daisy's face was innocent but Rhea wondered how much she knew about Rhea's feelings for Claire.