THE DEPRIVED... Chapter 3... Part 19.

A continuation of my book.

In the Oakum Room, the girls sat on long benches with an assortment of old ropes spread across their knees. Beth was given a large nail, called a spike, and shown how to pick at the ropes so they unravelled and fell into collecting baskets as fibre. The dust made by the spiking was a seething mist, flying into the air and clogging noses and into the mouth of the girls who had not tied a piece of old rag across their faces. Beth worked hard, picking away, her chest heaving as she spluttered and coughed. There was no talking allowed although the girls used mouth-whispering, the lips hardly moving as the words came out being hardly audible. They also used a series of hand-gestures, each finger indicating a need.
Beth was made to sit in the front row along with a line of girls who had also lost any earning rights, their work rigorously watched by a Madam who was seated on a chair in front of them. Though the work was not hard, it was tedious and never-ending with more ropes thrown across the knees by the head girl as soon as the one lot was picked clean.
Later, at the dinner table Beth had to sit along with the others who had been punished, having to sit and watch the other girls eat.
“Each day you will lose a set meal. Today you will miss dinner. Tomorrow you will miss tea and the next day you’ll have no breakfast.” Beth was told by the watchful Madam.
After dinner it was time for more prayers in the dormitory, kneeling beside the beds and then it was back to work for the afternoon till tea-time. Beth had quickly learned to hurry down with the ‘Slop-Buckets’ after tea, to empty them and clean out the insides before rushing back with them and hurrying to mop around her area of bed before the candle was blown out.

 

It was on the third night of her stay at the workhouse that Beth was woken up by loud whispering and the sound of a man’s voice. Keeping her head to the pillow, Beth opened her eyes just enough to make out the dim figure of a man in a Master’s uniform pass the bed led by the head girl and two others. As quietly as she could Beth turned in her bed to watch as the girls, with pillows in their hands, crept up to one of the young girl’s bed further up on the other side of the dormitory. Suddenly the girls pounced, the head girl smothering the young girl’s face with her pillows while the others pinned the girl to the bed. The Master had removed his britches and undergarments before climbing into the bed with the girl. Beth closed her eyes as the muffled screams began. Beth knew some of the other girls were awake but there was not a sound except for the man’s grunting and animal noises as he sated his needs before rising from the bed and tying back his trousers as he walked out of the dormitory.
The head girl whispered orders to the others and each girl padded their way back to their beds and leaving the young girl to cry from the pain and discomfort which bloodied the mattress beneath her.

 

The next morning the girl was put on punishment routine, to break rocks and stones with a hammer and lose her food for forty-eight hours solid.
“You wanton trollop! Harlot!” had screamed the Madam on seeing the soiled mattress. “Take the mattress off the bed and take it downstairs and scrub it clean! You’ll sleep on the bare iron tonight and until the mattress is clean. Once you’ve scrubbed the mattress you can wait outside the Matron’s office for being ‘Disorderly’. Off you go and stop your snivelling, girl!”
Beth had desperately wanted to run to the girl’s aid, to inform the Madam of what she had seen on the night but the eyes of the head girl and her friends were on her, spiteful pale blue eyes so that Beth kept quiet.
For the next two nights Beth hardly slept, forcing herself to stay awake and then through the day she seemed to work in a daze till on the third night

 

Beth fell into a deep sleep and was not aware of the whispering sounds and the padding of bare feet on the floor. Beth was not sure what was happening to her, only aware of being smothered so that she could not breathe and she struggled to break away from the dark nightmare which gripped her. She began panicking and swam between consciousness and unconsciousness, between waves of dark and light. Beth became aware of a weight bearing down on her and then the piercing pain which shrieked into her mind. There was an insertion which had pain ripping through her and she sank into a merciful darkness.

The next morning Beth lay in a stupor. There was pain to her lower form and the tips of her fingers touched blood, bringing the stain to the surface when she raised her hand above the blanket. Suddenly it all came back, the smothering pillows and then the pressure of a man’s body and now the pain which throbbed her body. Beth began to scream, the sound tearing its noise through the dormitory and echoing throughout the whole building.

“Take her to the detention quarters.” ordered the Matron to the two burly Masters.
The men held Beth down and bound her with ropes and gagged her. The watching girls turned their backs as they were ordered to. Carrying her down the stairs and across the yard, the men entered a side building and down a flight of stone steps which lead to a basement where there were a row of cells. Opening a door to one of the cells, Beth was laid down on the floor and left alone. After a while the two men came back into the cell, carrying a large tub of cold water between them. They stood over Beth and tipped the tub up so that the water splashed out, covering Beth and flooding the floor. Without a word the men left the cell, slamming the door behind them. The sudden drenching brought a sudden realisation of what had happened to her. Beth opened her eyes and lay shivering in the cold with her mind as clear as a bell and as cold as the water which lapped around her.

Some hours later two more men entered the cell. These men wore white coats and white berets and lifting Beth up between them they carried her out, taking her up the stone steps and to a room at ground level. There they laid her onto a couch which had a rubber cover.
“Are you going to scream?” asked one of the men.
Beth raised her head as much as she could and shook her head. One of the men removed the gag from her mouth. Beth closed her eyes and said nothing, her body still shivering from the cold.
“Will you behave if we untie you?”
Without opening her eyes Beth nodded her head. Gently the men turned her over as they untied the knots, freeing her from the ropes and then removed the flimsy nightdress.  Beth was past caring and did not try to hide her naked form, lying on her back with eyes closed.
“Here.” said one of the men as he lay a rough piece of towelling on the couch along with a heavier flannel nightdress. “We shall leave you here so you can dry yourself off and get dressed. We will come back later.”
Beth waited till the key sounded in the lock then sat up, wincing as the pain gripped her. Standing down onto the floor she scrubbed at herself with the towel as if she wanted to take the very skin from her body. Breathing hard she put on the nightdress, glad of its warmth and climbed back onto the couch to lay there with eyes closed.

It was the next morning when the door opened and a woman came into the cell. She woke Beth up.
“How are you?” she asked.
Beth said nothing, her mind still numb.
“Would you like to go and join the other women?”
Beth was not sure what the woman meant but simply sat up and nodded.
“Will you behave yourself if I take you up to a warm room?”
Again Beth nodded. Still half asleep and bemused by what had gone on, she did not care what happened to her. She wanted to die but did not say so.