This time, thinking it the best thing to do I kept my mouth shut.

“I ASKED YOU A QUESTION URCHIN!” yelled my Uncle. I’d soon learn that whatever I did would be bad in the eyes of my uncle and my cousin.

The details here are slightly blurred for me. All I remember after that was waking up on the floor of my bedroom with pain springing at my back. My dress had been left undone at the back and as I reached back to see what was wrong, a fresh pain came and my hand came back tingd red with blood.

No one came to clean me up that day. I was left in my room till the next morning. I ad to be independant if I didn’t want an infection. I was old enough to know that if a wound wasn’t clean it wouldn’t heal and if it didn’t heal bugs could make it nasty. So I found a spare scrap of linen, dipped it in my basin and tried my best to clean myself up.

That was the first of many beatings for me. Me and my big mouth. It’s how I got into this mess, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.