Free The Windsor Girl by Sylvia Burton Page B

now.  You can tell me about it tomorrow if you feel like it’.  She planted a kiss on her cheek, ‘good night Kate’.
    Kate remained silent.
    About eight o’clock, Ellie put down the book she was reading.  She was finding it difficult to see in the dimming light.  She peered at Kate who seemed to be asleep.  She listened but there were no sounds coming from the bed.  She found the matches and lit the candle.  The flame danced before her eyes and she felt sad that Kate was not able to enjoy the game of ‘save the candle’'.  She could not begin to guess what had happened today to cause such distress.  It had to be something really terrible she was sure.
    She could no longer concentrate on her reading so, she too, lay down to sleep.  She snuffed out the candle and closed her eyes.
    A moment later Kate spoke, hesitantly.  ‘Ellie?  I’ll have to tell you.  If I don’t then someone else will’.
    ‘Go on Kate and take your time.  It will be all right you know’.
    ‘ Er ... Well ... er. It’s about the eggs’.
    ‘ Oh, Kate! ’
    ‘Oh Ellie, I know what you’ll say.  You’ll hate me I know you will’.  She began to weep once more.
    ‘Don’t say that.  You know I couldn’t possibly hate you, no matter what you’ve done.  Tell me Kate, did you steal the eggs?’  Ellie already knew the answer.
    ‘Yes, yes, I stole the blooming eggs.  I didn’t think they would be missed.  There were such a lot in the bucket and how was I to know they had been counted?  It was awful Ellie.  Everyone was questioned and there was an awful row’.
    Kate paused to blow her nose, and then continued, ‘I wasn’t going to admit to it but cook told Mister Blunt that you had asked for some and when she turned round there was Miss Maud.  And you know what she’s like?  The old devil said it had to be you and she would punish you when you got back’.
    Kate dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief, ‘anyway, Cook stood up for you and said that you would never take anything that didn’t belong to you.  She wouldn’t hear of it and neither would Mister Blunt, so Miss Maud said it had to be young Jimmy, the little lad who comes in on Fridays.
    Kate started to weep again and, with the words coming out in short gasps, she went on, ‘well I couldn’t stand it any longer, not for the sake of three, measly, eggs, so I told them it was me.  So that’s that and I don't know what will happen to me now’.
    Ellie thought for a minute then said, gently, ‘why did you take them Kate?  You knew it was wrong’.
    ‘Just once in my life, I wanted to give you something that you wanted, and you wanted the eggs for your brothers.  I know that God will forgive me cause he knows why I did it.  But yes, I knew it was wrong and I’m so sorry’.
    Ellie got up and went to get into Kate’s bed; she knew she would like that.  As she slipped in beside her, Kate winced.  Ellie whispered, ‘what is it Kate?’
    ‘It’s nothing Ellie’, but she held the blankets tight.
    ‘Now Kate, there’s something else you’re not telling me, isn't there?  Let me see’.
    She lit the candle and looked at Kate.  Kate looked afraid and Ellie asked, ‘Kate, have you been beaten?’
    Kate hung onto Ellie and cried again but this time she wept out loud.
    Ellie lifted Kate’s shift and cried out in alarm.  ‘My God, what have they done to you?’
    Kate’s thin body was shaking as Ellie examined the flesh of her back.  It was covered with great red wheals, all of them swollen, and some of them, bleeding.
    ‘How could they do this to you?  How could anyone be so vicious?  Who did it Kate?  Who used the leather?’
    ‘It was Mister Blunt that did it.  Miss Maud was there too, it was horrible.  It hurts so much Ellie’.
    ‘Don't worry Kate and try to get some sleep’.  Ellie got up, placed her shawl over her nightshirt, and left the room.

Chapter Eight
     
    Some of the kitchen workers were still at work in the kitchen