Shadow Baby Read Online Free PDF Page B

and pegs, and making a great racket.
    ‘What’s your name, pet?’ the woman who lived there asked, turning aside from a whispered consultation with her friend.
    ‘Evie.’
    ‘Oh, she has a tongue. Mine’s Minnie, and this is Pearl. Now what are we to do with you? Where’s your mam?’
    Evie didn’t know what to say. Did she have a mam? She wasn’t sure, she had never been sure. If she did have one then she’d gone. ‘Gone,’ she said.
    ‘Where?’ asked Minnie.
    ‘Don’t know.’
    ‘When? When did she go? Early this morning?’
    Evie shook her head and twisted her skirt in her hands. Finally, she said, ‘I’ve never seen her, if I have a mam,’ and began to cry again. Both women told her to shush, but kindly. Minnie gave her a piece of bread and a small mug of tea, and told her to get them down, she’d feel better. Another whispering session followed and then Minnie, who seemed to be in charge, said, ‘Pearl’s got to go now, so you can help look after little George. You can help me this morning till we see what’s what.’
    Evie enjoyed the morning helping. She spent it on the rag-rug playing with George and the other two children. She put the
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    wooden pegs into a pan, a battered old tin thing, and put the lid on and shook it about and then emptied it with a flourish. The babies loved it. She did it again and again and they never seemed to tire of the rattling noise and the surprise, a surprise every time, of the pegs cascading out. ‘You’ve a way with you,’ Minnie said approvingly. Later, she fed all three children. Minnie gave her a bowl of porridge and she made a game of feeding it to them. When one of them crawled or rolled off the rug she had to persuade them back on to it and she loved the feeling of the warm, soft, wriggling bodies. She hugged them and they hugged her back, their hands catching in her untidy hair and pulling it but she didn’t mind. ‘Got little brothers and sisters, have you?’ Minnie asked Evie shook her head. ‘Big ones, then?’ Evie shook it again. ‘Oh dear, you are an odd one,’ Minnie said. She watched Evie carefully. It was as clear as crystal what would happen to her, what the situation was. The grandmother was dead, Pearl was sure, the stench in the bedroom alone had told her, and unless some relative stepped forward it would be the orphanage up above the river for poor Evie. It was a shame, she was a pathetic scrap of a thing, she deserved better, but better was unlikely to be available.
    Pearl, on her way to work in Carr’s factory, reported the situation she had found at 10 St Cuthbert’s Lane that morning, and the temporary address of the little girl, Evie. The body of Mary Messenger was removed before noon. A policeman came round to Minnie’s house in the afternoon and asked (in front of Evie) if she was willing to keep Evie. Minnie said she was willing but that she couldn’t, she had no room Evie would have to go somewhere else but she hoped the child wasn’t to be sent off without her things The policeman said he’d take Evie back to her grandmother’s house first, before handing her over to ‘them up above the river’ (with a significant look at Minnie) and she could take some clothes and anything else of hers that was small enough to go in a bag. Minnie made each of the babies kiss Evie, then told her she’d see her one day and to try not to take on too much, she would only make it worse.
    The policeman took Evie home and made a list of what the child took from the house. It was not a long list. Two dresses, two pinafores, two shawls, a pair of clogs, some woollen stockings and a tin box. These all went easily into a bag with a drawstring which Evie produced from behind the bedroom door. She found a coat,
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    which she put on, a shabby article but thick and warm-looking, and a tam-o’-shanter which hid her hair completely. ‘Ready for your travels?’ the policeman asked her, but she neither responded nor nodded, she just