After Hours by Jenny Oldfield Read Free Book Online

they’ve been picking by the railway.’
    From the comfort of their living-room above the pub, Hettie and Sadie watched the women drag the sack. ‘A land fit for heroes,’ Hettie remarked, sinking into the shadow of Giant Despair. With an effort she shook herself free. ‘I dunno, Sadie, there’s a lot of work to do before we can afford to rest.’ Picking up her bonnet and fixing it on her head, Hettie got ready for her long, busy shift at the Mission.
    â€˜Anyone’d think you can do it all single-handed, the way you work yourself to the bone, Ett.’ Sadie thought her sister looked worn out. ‘Them women struggling down there ain’t your fault, you know. You shouldn’t take on.’
    Hettie tied the bow smartly under her chin. ‘They ain’t my fault, but they are my sisters, Sadie, as sure as you are, and I can’t let my sisters suffer in silence. We all gotta work and pray, and ask God to forgive our sins, until we reach the Heavenly gate.’
    â€˜And I suppose I gotta watch you suffer in silence?’ Sadie refused to let the point drop. She knew that Hettie worked herself to the point of collapse on behalf of the poor down-and-outs.
    â€˜I ain’t suffering,’ Hettie protested. ‘I’m doing God’s work.’
    She looked so pained and surprised that Sadie regretted her sharp tone and went up to her. ‘I know you are,’ she said gently. ‘And I’m just a horrible sinner, getting at you when I know you’re a hundred times better than me!’
    Hettie smiled. ‘Who’s counting?’
    â€˜I am. I’m a wicked woman, and don’t I know it!’
    â€˜How? How are you wicked?’ Hettie linked arms and fondly stroked Sadie’s wavy hair.
    â€˜Pa thinks I am. The other day he asked Frances not to bring me no more lip-rouge from her chemist’s shop because it ain’t ladylike.’ Poor Sadie had been kept under strict control since her escapade with Richie.
    â€˜And what did Frances say?’
    â€˜She told Pa not to be so old-hat. All the girls wear lip rouge these days.’
    â€˜See.’ Hettie smiled. ‘Frances has her head screwed on.’ Of the four sisters, Frances was the one they looked up to. Even Duke stood in awe of her since she’d married Billy Wray, the widowed ex-newspaper vendor, and gone to live with him above the Workers’ Education place in Commercial Street. ‘You ain’t wicked just because you wear a touch of make-up. Same as the women who come into our shop; they ain’t terrible vain things just because they want a dress to look nice in.’
    â€˜But you don’t know the half of it,’ Sadie told her. Her one serious transgression, the luxurious, forbidden kiss was beginning to worm its way out of her conscience.
    â€˜I know one thing.’ Hettie glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘I’m gonna miss my tram if I don’t get a move on.’ She gave Sadie a quick smile. ‘Why not come to church with me and Ernie tomorrow?’ Her hand was already on the doorknob.
    Sadie half-nodded and smiled. ‘I’ll think about it.’
    But as soon as Hettie vanished downstairs, Sadie’s brooding mood returned. Feeling the urge to shake herself free of it and make herself useful, in a pale shadow of Hettie’s own missionary zeal, she decided to heat some soup and nip down to the depot with it. Rob and Walter would be glad of a warm lining to their stomachs on an afternoon like this. Quickly she set the pan to boil on the range. She put on her broad-brimmed grey hat to keep off the rain, and slipped into a matching wrap-around coat. Then she set the pan inside a linen teatowel at the base of her shopping-basket, tied the towel in a knot to secure the top of the pan, and set off on her errand.
    Puddles barred her way when she reached the cinder-strewn yardwhere Rob and Walter garaged their two