Bess slumped back in her chair and gave Charlotte a hard look. “I wonder you’re here at Milkweed Manor, then, and not up the road.”
“What do you mean?”
“Queen Charlotte’s up the road at Bayswater Gate. I would have thought you’d go there, what with your name and all.”
“Queen Charlotte’s?” Charlotte repeated, confused.
Mae, her pretty bedmate from the night before, said, “Maybe she thinks one queen is enough in a place, and she wants to be ours.”
“No, I ...”
At this, Bess Harper leaned in, her thin lips disappearing in a frown of disdain. “Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital. Telling me you never heard of it?”
“No. Should I?”
Bess looked pointedly at her middle, and Charlotte fought the urge to look away in shame. She threaded her needle and said weakly, “It is my first time.”
“Sure it is,” Mae said, “just like the lot of us.”
Bess grinned wickedly, “Oh, me too. You never heard me say otherwise.”
Sally leaned toward Charlotte and explained gently, “They only takes girls what haven’t gotten themselves caught breeding before.”
“They aim to reform us here,” Bess said. “Put us on the straight and narrow and all that.”
“One fall they can forgive.” Sally sighed. “But two and you’re done for.”
“Yes,” Charlotte said. “I believe the matron said the Manor Home was for ‘deserving unmarried women with their first child.’”
“Deserving? I’m deserving all right,” Bess said. “How ’bout the lot of you?”
Mae nodded her head. “Very, very.”
“I believe we’re all deserving a cup o’ tea about now, don’t you agree?” Bess said.
“Aye.” Sally grinned and rose to fetch some. “And jam tarts besides.”
From time to time, Charlotte glanced around the workroom, taking an inventory, of sorts, of the two dozen or more girls. She was curious as to why she hadn’t seen the young girl who had shared her bed last night. Surely her time had not already come.
“Mae, might I ask the name of the other girl who shares our room?”
“Young Becky, you mean.”
“Yes. I don’t see her about, do I?”
“No. It’s her morning, I’m afraid.”
“Her morning? She’s delivering right now?”
“Nay. Her morning to be examined by one of them blood and bone men, you know.”
“Oh ...”
“Better her than me.” Mae shuddered.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
