half a dozen oranges as well, and some bananas. There are few decent apples about at the moment, though.’
‘It’s very kind of you, miss, but there’s no need to go to the trouble. How much do I owe you?’
‘Nothing, Minnie. They are my gift to you.’
The girl was about twenty, maybe twenty-one, with well-tended raven hair under a plain bonnet. She was slim with an elegance that breeding brought, with classic facial features but not pretty. Her expression seemed perpetually serious but, when she did smile, her eyes softened as they lit up and her lips formed an appealing crescent that revealed two ever so slightly crossed front teeth. Her clothes were plain and unfussy, but their fine quality was undeniable.
‘I don’t know as I need any help o’ that sort,’ Minnie answered. ‘Not with fittles at any rate. But it’s kind o’ you all the same. Would yer like a cup o’ tea or summat? I got the fire a-goin’ today, look, so I can boil a kettle. If you hang on a minute, I’ll run to the pump and fill it.’
‘If it’s no trouble, Minnie,’ the girl said, glad of the chance to be detained, for it would prolong the time she could usefully spend with her. ‘Aren’t you going to put a coat on? It’s quite cold outside.’
‘Oh, I’m hardy, miss.’
The young woman sat quietly, taking in the awful ambience and squalor of the little house, while Minnie fetched the water. Soon she returned and hung the filled kettle on a gale hook, its base resting on the hot coals.
‘It’ll soon boil. Would you like a bit o’ cheese on toast, miss? That’s what I was a-doing for me dinner.’
‘Oh, please carry on, Minnie. Don’t let me interrupt you having your meal.’
‘Right … if you got no objection, miss …’ Minnie pierced the half-toasted piece of bread with the fork again and, leaning forward on her chair, resumed holding it in front of the fire. ‘You still reckon I’m a lost soul then, eh?’
‘I don’t believe you are lost yet, Minnie. I don’t believe it’s too late to save you from the precipice you’re swaying over …’ Minnie uttered a little laugh of mockery. ‘You would soon find forgiveness in Christ—’
‘Am yer a Methody, miss?’
‘No, I’m not a Methodist, Minnie … Don’t you ever consider the joy and contentment marriage might bring, Minnie? The love and devotion of one man?’
‘That’s a joke, miss,’ Minnie retorted disparagingly. ‘I can see no man ever giving me love and devotion. Leastwise, not the sort you’m on about. Nor me them either, to tell you the truth.’
‘I think you could be pleasantly surprised. Holy matrimony was ordained not just for the procreation of children, but as a remedy against sin, to avoid fornication, so that those who are not blessed with the gift of continence might keep themselves undefiled members of Christ’s body.’
Minnie turned the piece of bread on the fork to toast the other side. ‘I don’t know about all that, miss. Men am ten-a-penny and I fancy having me share of ’em afore I’m done. I like men, and men like me. Why shouldn’t I enjoy ’em, and make a shilling or two at the same time? Me only power over ’em is when I got ’em danglin’ on a string, wanting me. Once a man gets me in wedlock, then that string’ll be round my neck, but good and proper. Bearin’ kids, cookin’, bakin’, washin’, workin’ – mekin’ nails up some backyard till all hours, an’ all, I shouldn’t wonder. I mek me living by lyin’ on me back, miss. It’s easy work, it comes natural to me and I enjoy it. I don’t see as how marryin’ some chap’s gunna improve my lot.’
It was a long speech for Minnie and the toast was done. She cut a few slices off the lump of cheese that was on the table and placed them methodically on the toast. Then she opened the oven door at the side of the grate and popped the toast inside to melt the cheese.
‘But Minnie, don’t you feel any damnation for your sin?’
Minnie looked candidly at the young woman. ‘Only from you, miss.’
The young woman returned the look with caring, sympathetic eyes. ‘Why don’t you let me help you find repentance in God’s love?’ she beseeched. ‘Would you not prefer the love of God to the arms of Satan? Let me help you find salvation … and faith. I beg you to reach out for Christ, and feel His love for you returned a hundredfold. Rejoice in His absolute redemption of your sins. Follow the guidance of the Good Shepherd, Minnie.’
The girl had a soft persuasive lilt in her voice, but Minnie shook her head with a serious look on her face. ‘No, miss. It ain’t for me, this church lark—’ Minnie gave the fire a poke and the kettle sighed as the coals beneath it were disturbed. ‘I don’t see as why you should want to bother wi’ me, miss.’
‘You don’t have to call me “miss”. Let us be friends, Minnie. Please call me Virginia.’
‘That your name? Virginia?’
Virginia smiled, her doe eyes exuding a look of gentleness and unending patience. ‘I wouldn’t ask you to call it me if it wasn’t.’
‘You know what it means, don’t ya? Virgin?’ Minnie asked provocatively.
‘Yes.’ She smiled again, a little embarrassed at Minnie’s directness and what she implied. ‘I possibly know more about the name than you, but I understand the point you are trying to make. Virginia was originally a Roman family name, but it has a greater significance now as a reference to our great Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen.’
‘So, am yer a virgin … Virginia? I mean – you know as I ain’t.’
The rich aroma of cheese cooking permeated the room and Virginia breathed it in. It was a warm, homely smell, incongruous in this spartan den of iniquity in which she now sat.
‘I am unmarried, Minnie. But rest assured that I shall remain a virgin until I attain the blessed state of holy matrimony.’
‘You don’t know what you’m missin’, Virginia … You don’t, honest.’
‘No, and I can’t begin to imagine, either, Minnie. I’d rather not even try.’
The kettle was starting to bubble and steam profusely, so Minnie lifted it from the fire, holding the handle with a rag. ‘I’ll mek that tea now.’ She reached into the cupboard at the side of the grate and took out a packet of tea.
‘I shall not be deterred by your resistance to repentance, you know, Minnie,’ Virginia said. ‘God’s bounteous love is too potent a force to resist for long. So I shall not be despairing of you.’
Minnie smiled appreciatively. ‘I know you’m a good person, miss. You’m well meaning an’ all that. You’m welcome here any time. We can always enjoy a mug o’ tea together, eh? But I ain’t gunna promise that I’ll ever tek up this church lark … Nor give up me whorin’.’
In his eagerness to see Poppy, Bellamy was a few minutes early collecting her for the drive
