Girl of Shadows Read Online Free

only had to putup with Rachel floating in and out of her dreams. Though now that she thought about it, even perpetually good-natured Harrie had been subdued and … distracted lately.
    No one said anything for a minute.
    ‘You haven’t heard, then?’ Harrie asked at last. ‘From Bella?’
    Friday shook her head.
    ‘God,’ Sarah said under her breath. ‘It’s driving me bloody mad, waiting.’
    The waitress arrived with their order. She set down a two-tiered plate stand on which were arranged cakes and scones, poured three cups of tea, and asked, ‘Will there be anything else?’
    Harrie said, ‘No, thank you.’
    When the girl had gone Friday said, ‘Don’t think about it. She’ll be biding her time, having the time of her life, thinking about us sweating.’
    ‘It’s not so bad during the day,’ Sarah explained. ‘It’s at night when I’m asleep. I don’t seem to be able to keep hold of what happens to my thoughts.’
    ‘Could you not take a sleeping draught?’ Harrie suggested.
    Sarah shook her head. ‘I might sleep too long in the morning. Esther would love that. It’d give her another reason to make my life a misery. God I hate that woman.’
    Harrie reached for the sugar. ‘Well, try not to think about Esther Green today. This is supposed to be a celebration. Come on, drink your tea before it gets cold.’
    ‘Yes, here’s to us.’ Friday raised her cup. ‘One year down.’
    They clinked cups.
    ‘It doesn’t feel like we’ve been here a year already,’ Harrie remarked. ‘It’s been bad, some of the time, hasn’t it? But apart from that, it hasn’t really been as awful as I imagined it would be. I actually like where I’m assigned now. I like the Barretts.’
    Friday agreed. ‘Look at me. An ordinary old whore, and I’m earning ten times more than I did in London.’
    Sarah made a rude noise. ‘You’re barely twenty, and you’re so popular the cullies have to book a week in advance.’
    ‘Though you’re not supposed to be doing that,’ Harrie reminded her. She helped herself to a scone from the lower cake plate, inspected it, took a bite and said through it, ‘Imagine how much less you’d be making if you really were a hotel housemaid.’
    Friday waved her hand vaguely. She’d got away with it for nigh on a year now, and fully expected to continue to do so.
    Harrie let the matter pass, as she always did. They needed the money and, if Friday weren’t working as a prostitute and Sarah weren’t stealing jewellery from Adam Green, there wouldn’t be any.
    ‘You should have a pastime,’ she said to Sarah. ‘Something to keep your mind occupied, so you don’t worry so much. Then you might not have such awful nightmares.’
    ‘A pastime? What a good idea,’ Sarah said. ‘If only I’d paid more attention to the straw-plaiting lessons at the Factory.’
    Friday giggled. ‘What about pin-prick pictures? Or you could press wild flowers. That’d be satisfying.’
    Harrie frowned, but Sarah laughed. ‘Paper-work or quilling?’
    ‘Shell-work?’ Friday suggested. ‘You could have your own shell grotto.’
    ‘What about papier-mâché?’ Sarah added, getting into the swing of it. ‘Or feather-work or wax flowers?’
    ‘Knitting, knotting or tatting?’
    ‘Butterfly collecting?’
    ‘Playing the harp?’
    ‘Stop it, you two,’ Harrie said, laughing herself now. ‘I mean it, though, Sarah. It wouldn’t do you any harm to have a pastime. What about embroidery? I could draw some really nice patterns for you. Mr Barrett is thinking of sending some of my designs to England to calico-printers and lace workers he knows there.’
    ‘Is he now? Well, you’d better make sure you get paid for them if he does,’ Sarah cautioned.
    ‘Well, of course I will,’ Harrie said, who hadn’t thought about that at all.
    Sarah chose an Eccles cake and cut it in half, poking at the fruit inside with the tip of her knife. ‘It’s nice of you to think of me, Harrie, but I don’t