Rough Justice Read Online Free PDF Page B

at the best of times, but when she was in a mood like this she completely terrified him. He didn’t even need to feel the welts on his backside to remind him of what she could do when roused.
    Nell rose to her feet, being careful not to lift herself to her full height as she was now considerably taller than the matron, and Nell knew that for some reason this infuriated the older woman.
    ‘Good morning, Mr Thanet, Matron Sully,’ she said politely. ‘What would you like me to do today?’
    ‘I’ll deal with this, Mr Thanet,’ said the matron, before the governor could speak. ‘I know how busy you are.’
    ‘Well, I am rather, Matron Sully,’ said Mr Thanet with a pleasant nod, only too glad of the opportunity to slip away for a post-breakfast browse of the newspaper followed maybe by a short nap before luncheon.
    ‘If there’s anything I can do to help, sir?’ Nell kept her gaze lowered, wary of annoying the matron any more than necessary.
    ‘That won’t be necessary, my dear,’ said Mr Thanet, not wanting his morning spoiled by having to do anything that resembled actual work. ‘But, as always, thank you for your kindness.’
    Clara Sully barely managed to keep her lip buttoned as she waited until the governor was out of earshot; she then stepped out into the corridor.
    ‘Right, bedding; first floor,’ she barked, knowing it to be the worst of all the jobs in the home – stripping and then laundering the almost invariably soiled sheets from the cribs and cots of the younger inmates. It was even worse than cleaning the lavatories, especially in such cold weather, because the steamy heat of the laundry made the chilblains of those unfortunate enough to be selected for the task tingle, irritating them so badly that without self-discipline they would scratch them until they bled.
    ‘Right away, Matron,’ said Nell courteously,annoying Clara Sully so much that the woman had to stop herself from slapping the girl around her simpering, smiling face – the privacy of the office, not the corridor, was the place for that.
    The matron had intended to pick out a couple of other troublesome girls to help her in the laundry, but after that behaviour, why should she?
Anything I can do to help, sir?
Let the ungrateful wretch do it all by herself for trying to make her look inadequate in front of the governor, for showing her such contempt.
    She watched Nell walking away, so briskly, so artificially keenly that she felt like running after her to give her a good shake.
    This time, the girl really might have pushed her too far.

Chapter 6
    A dense, wintry darkness had fallen outside the tall narrow windows before Nell had at last finished her work in the laundry – a grim, double-height corridor-like space that ran along the length of the whole of the back of the home. Her hands were red raw from scrubbing and wringing and mangling, and her arms and back ached from draping the piles of wet linen over the drying racks, and from tugging the ropes through the pulleys to lift the racks high into the air. Her clothes and hair were damp through from the steam and the constant dripping down from the sheets above her head. She was doing her best not to think about her chilblains, but she couldn’t deny that she was worn out. Despite her tiredness, she knew that rather than retreating to the dormitory, falling onto her bed and giving in to the deep sleep she so craved, she would have to go into supper or risk inflaming the increasingly bad-tempered Matron Sully to the point where she resorted again to physical punishment. Nell ached enough without being beaten with the cane across the back of her thighs into the bargain.
    She walked slowly along the ill-lit passageway that led from the laundry back into the mainbuilding, with the gas mantles popping and fizzing and her footsteps ringing on the flagstones. She paused for a moment to glance at her reflection in the glass-panelled door at the end of the passage, patting at her hair,