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yawned Peggy. ‘Why’re you doing your hair at this hour anyway?’
    ‘I want to have a few curls tomorrow so it’ll look softer,’ said the other girl wistfully.
    ‘’Tisn’t you that’s getting married!’ snapped Peggy.
    ‘But I’m assisting her and that’s special. I’m her right-hand woman,’ Kitty said importantly.
    Peggy tried to stifle a laugh. ‘Here, pass me a bit of that cloth, you silly old thing,’ she said, and she grabbed a piece of her friend’s mouse-brown hair and wrapped it around her finger before tying it with a tight bow.
    ‘Peggy! I’ve something to tell you.’
    ‘Hmm!’ answered Peggy, picking out another piece of hair.
    ‘Promise you won’t get cross!’
    ‘I promise.’
    ‘Roxanne has asked me to go and work for herself and Mister Fletcher Parker in the new house in Baltimore.’
    Peggy dropped the piece of hair. ‘I hope you told her no, Kitty!’
    A heavy silence hung between them.
    ‘Well, that’s just it, Peggy. I told her yes, that I’d like to go.’
    ‘Why, you miserable little … Are you crazy! Work for that shrew? She’ll beat you black and blue and screamat you and make your life a misery.’
    ‘But I’ll be her personal maid, with higher wages, and sort of chief housekeeper too. They’ll take on a cook and a skivvy. She said I can advise her on household management and the like.’
    Peggy swallowed a bitter lump of jealousy. It was ridiculous – Kitty advise anyone! It was just too stupid.
    ‘What about the household accounts and bills?’ questioned Peggy.
    ‘Well, Miss Roxanne intends to keep the books herself, but I should be able to manage the day-to-day stuff,’ Kitty said. ‘Thanks to you teaching me to read and write,’ she added.
    Tears came into Peggy’s eyes. Kitty was going away and leaving her! ‘Kitty! Won’t you miss the house and Greenbay?’ Peggy asked. But what she really wanted to say was, Won’t you miss me?
    ‘But I’ll come here. Miss Roxanne will often come to visit her parents and naturally I’ll travel with her.’ Kitty looked shyly at her friend. ‘And I’ll still get to see you, Peggy. You don’t think I’d forget about my best and dearest friend.’
    Peggy swallowed hard. She looked around the small bedroom with its two brass beds and cold linoleum floor. The washstand with its jug and bowl. The window with the stiff catch, their eye on the world. The glass pitcher with its now dried-out flowers. Thetwo samplers they had spent weeks working on, hanging on the wall above their beds: BE GOOD SWEET MAID and FRIENDSHIP IS A GIFT, worked in multicoloured embroidery threads. Peggy couldn’t imagine this room without Kitty.
    When Peggy had first arrived, homesick and miserable, missing her home in Ireland, it was Kitty who had made her smile, and helped her settle into this new life.
    ‘Oh God, Kitty, I’ll miss you so much,’ sobbed Peggy. The two girls hugged each other. ‘It’ll be so lonesome here without you.’

CHAPTER 6
    The Wedding

    SUNSHINE STREAMED ACROSS the whole of Greenbay and seemed to dance and jiggle through every window of Rushton House. The big house basked in the warmth of a special family day. The garden was heavy with blooms, and pink roses clung to the trellising and the bower, and trailed along near the front porch and across the terrace. Swags of cream magnolia blossoms decorated the huge trees in front of the house. The mistress had had a team of gardeners tending the lawns and filling the flower-beds for months, so now there wasn’t a weed to be seen, only a blaze of stunning colour.
    There’s nothing like a summer wedding, thought Peggy wistfully, as she gazed across the beautiful gardens.
    Kitty and herself had been up at the crack of dawn.Kitty was so excited you’d think she was to be bridesmaid or something, thought Peggy. They grabbed an early breakfast for themselves in the kitchen. The family had theirs on trays in their rooms, as the dining table and breakfast table were