Never Look Back (92 page)

Around a small central landing, on which lay an empty tray, presumably once holding the food the lawyer had taken them, and an empty pitcher, there were a dozen narrow doors, each with an open grille in it. Matilda looked through one and instantly recoiled from the smell of excrement.

‘They’ve eaten the food I brought them, but their slop pails haven’t been emptied since Mrs Honeymead’s arrest,’ Mr Rodrigious said, putting his hands over his nose. ‘I haven’t succeeded in getting anyone to come in here and see to anything.’

Matilda opened the door nearest to her, and taking the lamp from his hand, she walked in. A small girl was curled up on the floor like a dog. As she was caught in the beam of light she let out a yelp of terror and tried to back away into the corner.

The windowless room was more like a cage, less than three feet wide, approximately five feet long, the ceiling so low a man would need to stoop to go in. Not one stick of furniture, only a blanket on the floor and the stinking pail.

The girl was no more than ten and Chinese, her only covering a ragged stained shift. She wrapped her skinny arms around her legs, and her eyes darted fearfully between Matilda and the man in the doorway.

‘I’ve come to help you,’ Matilda said, moving closer to her. She reached out to caress the girl’s forehead. ‘That man wants to help too. He won’t harm you.’

There was no response, and Matilda guessed she didn’t understand English. ‘Friend,’ she said, taking one of the girl’s small hands between hers and rubbing it.

‘There is another Chinese girl, two Mexicans and four Negroes,’ Mr Rodrigious said from behind her. ‘I can translate Spanish, but I’m afraid I don’t know any Chinese.’

As Matilda saw each girl, so her anger and indignation at Mrs Honeymead and the men who had used these girls grew. Just the way they had stayed cowed in their own cages, instead of seeking comfort from the others, showed how terrified they were. One of the black girls had the most fearful wounds from a recent beating, and both the Mexicans looked near death, they were so still and silent on their blankets.

They were in a far worse state than the children in Five Points,
for lack of food and clothes were easily rectified. But these girls had been imprisoned in the dark, subjected to untold cruelty and perversions, and it would take a great deal more than a hot bath and a few good meals to mend their broken spirits.

Mr Rodrigious stood out on the landing as she spoke to each of the girls. She felt he was a good man at heart, but even further out of his depth than she was.

‘We have to get them out of here,’ she said as she rejoined him. One of the youngest black girls seemed to understand she was there to help and had come nearer to her, slipping her hand into hers. ‘They are all sick, half starved, and heaven knows where their minds are.’

Mr Rodrigious looked dismayed. ‘But there’s nowhere to take them to,’ he said. ‘The orphanage won’t take girls like these.’

Matilda flared up with anger at his stupidity. ‘Surely you can see that before they can be questioned about what went on here, they have to be nursed back to health.’

‘But who will do that?’ he said, his sallow face blanching. ‘They could be harbouring any number of serious diseases.’

He was right in that, and much as she wanted to scoop them all up and take them to her own place, that would be foolhardy.

She thought fast. ‘I’ll do the nursing,’ she said. ‘And if there isn’t anywhere else to take them, then it will have to be here, downstairs in the saloon. But you’ll have to find a doctor prepared to come and examine them.’

‘No doctor I know would come here,’ he said, and he moved towards the stairs as if he intended to run off.

It was a sudden clear picture of Cissie, Amelia and Susanna lying in their beds dying that suddenly clarified Matilda’s mind. Nothing could have saved them, and nothing would ever wipe out the pain of losing them. But she could and would save these children, whatever it took.

She stepped in front of him, barring the stairs. ‘Look here, Mr Rodrigious, when you came to me asking for help, I believed that was because you had a kind heart and a caring nature. One of the biggest hurdles these girls will have to face is learning to trust men again. You can assist in that by doing something for them right now,’ she said fiercely.

‘But I don’t know any doctors likely to come!’

‘Go to Henry Slocum, he’ll know someone, tell him I insisted.
And I want some clean mattresses brought here, sheets, blankets, food and a couple of women to clean the kitchen, I’ll pay whatever it costs.’

‘I don’t know about this,’ he said, backing away from her. ‘My instructions were merely to get you to help in bringing witnesses forward, not to turn the place into a hospital.’

‘There won’t be any witnesses left alive unless you do help,’ she snapped at him. ‘I’m not asking you to roll up your sleeves and do any dirty work, only to care enough for eight children that you’ll act on their behalf.’

He was now twitching with agitation, and she saw he was weak rather than heartless.

‘Two of those girls are the same race as yourself,’ she said, intent on driving her message home. ‘How would you feel if one of your daughters was lured away from home on the promise of a good job, only to find later that she’d died in a brothel for want of one man getting her help?’

He sighed deeply and pulled at his moustache. ‘Okay. I’ll do what I can, Mrs Jennings. But I must warn you, I think you are being overly emotional and foolhardy.’

‘Better foolhardy than a coward,’ she said in a determined manner. ‘Now, go on downstairs while I explain to this little one that I’ll be back.’

She knelt down in front of the little black girl and smoothed her face gently. ‘I’m going to take care of all of you,’ she said gently. ‘But first I have to go out and get some things for you. But I’ll be back very soon with food and other things. Don’t be scared when you hear noises downstairs, it will only be me coming back with some kind ladies. Can you try and tell the other girls that too?’

Three hours later, Matilda was ready to bring the girls downstairs.

It occurred to her as Mr Rodrigious drove her back to London Lil’s that using the saloon as a dormitory wasn’t practical. If men came hammering on the door and windows at night, the girls would become even more distressed. So she’d decided to use Mrs Honeymead’s parlour and bedroom, which at least had a semblance of comfort, and windows that weren’t barred and blacked out. She asked Dolores to come with her too.

Two women were brought to her, one Irish and the other Negro, and although they seemed apprehensive, once Matilda had explained the position, and offered them extra money, they soon had the stove lit and pails of water heating, and the sound of scrubbing and the smell of soap filled the lower part of the house.

Dolores took soup and bread up to the girls while downstairs Matilda stripped out surplus furniture and anything which might be a reminder of Mrs Honeymead. When the mattresses and bedding were delivered, she made up beds on the floor.

The two women had made an excellent job of the kitchen. The last task Matilda gave them before paying them off was to bring in two tin baths from outside and fill them with hot water.

Then she and Dolores went upstairs to get the girls.

Dolores had already stated that she believed one of the Negro girls was beyond help, her entire body area was covered in bruises and she thought that she had internal injures too, both the Mexicans were too weak to take more then a few spoonfuls of soup, and the little Chinese girl Matilda had seen first was so fearful of her she had to leave the soup and bread on the floor and walk away.

‘We’ll jist have to carry the weakest ones,’ Dolores said as they reached the top landing. ‘Maybe the others will follow.’

Matilda went into each of the rooms to greet the girls before moving them. The small black one who had held her hand before came eagerly enough, and the first Chinese girl shuffled a couple of feet in her direction. Picking this one up in her arms, she was astounded to find she weighed around the same as Amelia, and holding her tightly she went back into each of the other rooms again.

‘We’re coming back for you,’ she said. ‘We won’t be long.’

Dolores carried the very badly injured black girl, crooning gently to her as they made their way down the stairs. A padding of bare feet behind them made them pause – the little black girl was following them cautiously.

‘Come on then,’ Matilda nodded to her. ‘There’s nothing to fear.’

While Matilda put the Chinese girl straight into the bath, Dolores felt her girl was too badly hurt even to sit up, so she laid
her on the kitchen table and began to strip off her bloodstained shift. ‘Come and look at this,’ she whispered.

Matilda moved nearer, but the shock of what she saw made her nauseous. The girl’s ribs were sticking out through her skin at odd angles, hardly an inch of her body was left unbruised, and as Dolores parted the girl’s stick-thin legs she saw her vagina was torn and swollen.

It took a long time to get each of the girls clean and into their new beds. Every movement had to be slow and gentle so as not to frighten them further, and they couldn’t even discover the girls’ names to make it easier to communicate with them. Matilda followed Dolores’ lead by chatting gently about nothing in particular, in a crooning manner, for they seemed to find that soothing.

But then the doctor arrived, and the moment he walked into the room with Matilda, they all began to wail, except for the badly injured one who didn’t seem to be aware of anything.

‘He’s not a bad man,’ Matilda said firmly. She knew Polish Dr Wilinsky slightly, as he sometimes came to the saloon. ‘He’s a doctor, and he’s come to make you well,’ But her words did nothing to calm their fears.

Matilda sensed Dr Wilinsky was only there under duress, and his examination of them was neither thorough nor particularly sympathetic. It was at that moment that she truly began to believe women should be allowed to practise medicine, if only to girls and women who had been abused by men.

Outside the parlour half an hour later, the doctor told Matilda he held out no hope for the badly injured Negro, as he thought her broken rib had punctured her lung, but suggested they bound her ribs firmly with a bandage to ease the pain and gave her laudanum. Of the others, he thought that rest, good food and tender care would bring them round, as he didn’t think any of them were suffering from anything infectious.

She was just about to admonish the slight man for his lack of interest, when he suddenly said he would write a full report to Mr Rodrigious, and he was prepared to stand up in court to see Mrs Honeymead hang for what she’d done to these girls.

‘Well, thank you, doctor,’ she said, glad she hadn’t laid into him after all.

‘I didn’t want to come,’ he admitted, having the grace to look
bashful. ‘I’m just like most folk, I guess, but you have shamed me, Mrs Jennings. Now, what will you do with the girls when they are better?’

‘I don’t know right now,’ she said with a sigh. ‘But I believe every grown man and woman in this city ought to join me in trying to put a stop to this kind of bestiality.’

‘You will have my support,’ he said to her surprise. ‘Especially if you can think of a way of rehabilitating these girls, so they can forget what they’ve learnt in this place.’

A week later, back at London Lil’s, Dolores was packing a big basket with fried chicken, a flagon of soup and some of her home-made bread, ready to go down and relieve Matilda for the night, when Sidney came rushing into the kitchen.

‘Captain Russell’s down in the saloon,’ he said breathlessly.

‘Lord above!’ Dolores exclaimed, her expression a mixture of both delight and apprehension, for like Sidney she realized he couldn’t possibly know about the tragic deaths in Oregon. He’d only left in July, it was now early October, and if he’d spent the past few weeks travelling from Kansas, he couldn’t have got Matty’s letter.

‘I guess we’ll have to tell him before he sees her,’ Sidney said. ‘But I surely don’t want to.’

Dolores patted the lad’s shoulder in understanding. ‘Bring him up, Sidney,’ she said. ‘Master Peter’s in his room doing his homework, I’ll jist make sure he stays there and we’ll tell the Captain together.’

Downstairs in the bar James was puzzled. First, Sidney hadn’t greeted him with his usual warmth, but hurried off saying he had to have a word with Dolores. Then he’d turned towards Mary and Albert, but they seemed to be going out of their way to serve customers at the other end of the bar. Could it be that Matilda had found a new man?

But as Sidney came back downstairs looking strained and asked him if he’d like to step up for a chat with him and Dolores, James suddenly felt frightened that something had happened to her.

He voiced that fear as he was ushered into the parlour.

‘A great deal has happened to her since you were last here,’ Sidney said. ‘That’s what we need to tell you before you see her.’

Dolores came in, poured him a glass of whiskey, then launched into the story.

‘Amelia, Cissie and Susanna all dead?’ he whispered in horror. ‘Oh no! And she’s brought Peter here?’

Dolores nodded. ‘She sure sunk down pretty low for a time, Captain, and no mistake, but she gone and picked herself up again now.’

‘But what about Tabitha?’ he asked. All colour had left his face, and he slumped back in a chair as if the deaths were his own family.

Dolores explained that she’d stayed with the Reverend Glover, and that now she was in Boston at school.

‘So that was Treacle who came to greet me outside?’ James said in a hushed tone. ‘I thought he was remarkably like him, and wondered why he was making a fuss of me. So she brought him back here too?’

‘Well, Tabby couldn’t take him to Boston,’ Sidney explained. ‘And it cheered Peter to have him come. But I’ve got more to tell you yet.’

Sidney went on to tell him about Fern, Gilbert Green, the shooting, and finally what was going on down at Girlie Town.

James looked stunned, and confused, but he managed to get out a few questions.

‘Fern’s better now,’ Dolores said. ‘She’s still here, helping out a bit. But Miz Matilda, she’m putting everything she’s got into gettin’ those girls well again. One died, never stood a chance poor little thing, but Miz Matilda sure ain’t gonna give up on the others, she’s talking all sorts of nonsense, ’bout opening a place for girls like that. You gotta talk some sense into her pretty little head, Captain!’