Not the Same Sky Read Online Free

and if there were, who had them.
    Matron had seen no note, nor had she been given advice as to how to pick out the suitable ones other than the vague specifications she still held in her hand: suitable orphans with good English. They had not told her how this was to be put to the girls. They did not tell her how to point at girls and say their names out loud. What was she to say to them this afternoon? No one had told her how to do these things. She would have to see Matt Dwyer on his way back to Dublin. Perhaps he might have some ideas.
    In the afternoon Matron called the named girls to the doorway and stood before them. ‘As you can see, things are not good here, look around you.’
    Some did take a quick look around, trying not to see into the darker corners of the room.
    ‘Things will be better for you in Australia, there is plenty of food there.’
    Honora Raftery’s sister, who had not been mentioned, stood behind Honora in the shadows and whispered, ‘You should go,’ implying they had a choice in the matter.
    Matron continued, ‘And you’ll be able to get work. It will be for the best. But only if you’re fit and can get a reference.’
    She had just remembered about the references. Would she have to write them? If not she would certainly have to go out to the places they came from and find suitable people to vouch for their character. Who would read the references?
    ‘Australia, away out of that with you!’ Julia Cuffe said.
    Matron left the room. Was that laughing she heard behind her? Was there ever laughing in the room when she was not there? She did not know. Now she would have to prepare the girls for departure, and find out who had relatives fit to come visit. There was much work to be done.
    Matt Dwyer said his goodbyes. He was glad to leave, to return to the order of his office. Matron would be able to handle the arrangements without him being there.

CHAPTER 4
    Matron called Honora Raftery aside and designated her to help with departure preparations. There were trunks already arrived into the back hallway that needed to be cleaned and filled. When Honora’s sister saw them she looked to the top of the opposite wall and walked past. The instructions clearly stated that each trunk, measuring two feet long and fourteen inches high and wide, was to contain new clothes provided by the workhouse. There was to be a gown, a cloak, a shawl, handkerchiefs, collars, an apron, stays, a comb, hairbrush, prayer book, needle, thread, tape and scissors. The trunks were to be clearly marked, the name of each girl painted on the front, and the list of contents written on the inside of the lid. How could these things be afforded when other things could not? The instructions did not state whether any of the girls’ own familiar smelling clothes were to be folded in with the new. Matron thought this might give some small comfort, but wasn’t sure how to get old garments up to standard. And perhaps that was too trivial in the face of all that had to be done in the next few days. The filling would be done by local endeavour but Matron would need Honora’s assistance to ready the trunks.
    They did not speak much as they cleaned them and covered the insides with paper donated by the local minister. Matron did not know what to say. The silence grew uncomfortable.
    ‘Do you know any of the other girls?’ she finally asked.
    ‘Not before here,’ Honora said.
    ‘You’ll get to know them now. You will all have this in common.’
    This last sentence sounded unfinished, but what could she say?
    ‘There will be girls from other places too. Near two hundred of you.’
    ‘That many,’ Honora said, because she had to say something. In truth she couldn’t really imagine what that would look like.
    ‘How will we go?’
    ‘You will be brought to the ship, Dublin for you, and then to Plymouth I think, yes that appears to be the assembly point, that’s in England.’
    ‘Yes I know that. My father said I was good at