THE DEPRIVED... Chapter 3... Part 24.

A continuation of my book.

It was the noise which woke Beth, the whispering of bare feet on the floor brought her to a sudden panic. She opened her eyes, the fear flooding through her as the memory of a time before when whispering voices and bare feet had ended up with her being held down while a man did as he wanted to her, ravishing and grunting.
“Who is it?” she called, sitting up and staring out into the dark.
“Shush, Beth. It’s only us, me and some of the girls who is out on a lark!” whispered Flo fiercely.
Flo had run over to Beth’s bed and put a hand over Beth’s mouth. Beth had pulled back, the scream beginning in her throat.
“Beth me love, what’s up with you? We are on a creep to take some grub from the kitchen. Do you want in on the lark?”
Beth relaxed, now seeing two more girls appear out of the gloom, who stopped and waited with wide grins on their faces.
“You took the breath from me. I’m afraid of the dark.” whispered Beth loudly.
Flo giggled.
“You want in on the larking?” she asked again.
“No.” said Beth.
“Come on, Flo.” urged one of the girls.
The shadowy figures crept out of the room and the door shut after them.  Beth lay there and allowed her heart to slow down and knowing it would be hard to get back to sleep. She closed her eyes and recited the prayer she had made up for her baby.
“Polly.” she whispered into the dark. “I love you.”

 

The next morning Beth was shown around the complex by Joy, who seemed to take her work very seriously. During the day Joy worked in the children’s classroom, teaching the youngsters to read and write.
“So they can become better people and able to go out and serve the poor and also teach them about the works of God.” she had said.
“Do all of those young ones have no Mammy or Da?” asked Beth.
“Not all the children are orphans or street beggars and the like. There are some who come here each day to learn and be educated. Their parents have the money to pay.”
“Fancy giving up the time to learning. I’d sooner have the food in my belly.” replied Beth.
During the day Beth was shown many things by Joy. She visited the classrooms and places where women and girls were being taught embroidery and sewing as well as darning and cooking. Beth changed her mind about learning and joined in with the education, taking quickly to reading and writing. Everywhere was a sense of happiness. Outside, in the gardens, the Nuns worked alongside trainee gardeners and older girls, forking the soil and planting as others dug up the potatoes and greens.
“We grow all our own vegetables.” said Joy proudly. “If you would like to, you can belong to the garden party.” she finished.
Beth nodded although she had no wish to belong to the gardening party.
“Or.” said Joy with inspiration. “You might want to become a Nun, become a Postulant like me.” she said.
“What happens there? I mean, what do you have to learn to be a Postulant?” asked Beth.
“There is a lot to learn. We Postulants devote much of our time in study of the Bible and the vows we will have to take to become Nuns.”
“What do you take vows for? what do they do?”
Joy stopped and looked at Beth. She smiled.
“We have to take vows of obedience. We vow to do the Lord’s work and never question the work we do. We have to take a vow of chastity and…”
“What’s that?” interrupted Beth.
“What is what?”
“What does that word mean, chastity?”
“Chastity? Oh, that’s to be free of the sins of the flesh. We can never marry. And also we will take a vow of poverty, not to want material things. It means I will give all I have, all I work for to the convent. That’s how the convent exists, through charitable means.”
Beth wrinkled her nose. That would not be her idea of fun.
“I’m not into living like that.” she affirmed.
Joy smiled and continued to walk, pointing out other aspects of the convent and the way it worked. Beth realised that while the convent worked for the good of the people, for the poor and the illiterate, the vulnerable and the downtrodden, at the same time religious instruction was the base point and no-one was accepted if they did not attend the three definite prayer meetings each day. Beth loved seeing the children. They all seemed bright and well fed as they played and enjoyed themselves and she asked if she could help out in the classroom. Again she was told by Joy that she would have to wait until she had been at the convent for a year before she would be allowed to take part in any of the outside services.

Beth loved the antics of Flo. She seemed not to care for anything which tied her down. She went to the prayer meetings as she had to but made up funny words to the prayers and hymns which Beth tried hard not to laugh at. Flo was up to all kind of stunts, getting other girls to join in with her midnight raids to the kitchen and to the garden stores and coming back to the dormitory with apples and pears which the girls ate, core and all and so leaving no trace of the crime. One night Flo came back with half a bottle of communion wine which she shared with the girls, each having a sip. The girls in the dormitory accepted Flo as the leader even though there were not many who would follow her in her escapades and high jinks. In a way Beth was pleased that Flo seemed to choose her as an ally, sharing her dreams with her and sitting on the edge of her bed at nights, whispering bits of gossip about members of the staff and especially Sister Dominique, although there was never any real menace and whether there was any truth to what Flo told Beth, she accepted the stories with laughter.
It was one night that Flo told Beth her biggest secret.
“Does you know what the larking is on Saturday nights for me, ducks?” she whispered.
Beth sat up.
“Tell me.” she asked.
“I goes out. I goes out on me visiting to a certain gent of high priority."
“Go out? What do you mean?”
Flo giggled.
“I goes out from here into the night, that’s me accounting of going out.”
Beth had stared at Flo, trying to access whether Flo was teasing her or not.
“I goes out, I tells you Beth.” affirmed Flo. “I has a knowing of a little gate in the wall near the chapel and I has the key, so I comes and goes as I please. Mind you, I only jiggles it on a Saturday for me larking and some jollies, sweets and fancies me man gives me.”
Beth held a hand up to her mouth. To believe that this young girl, even younger than herself was secretly working as a Night-Lady.
“Shall I tell you a secret, me ducks?”
“Yes, Flo.”
“I‘m leaving here next time of going and I aint coming back!”
Beth’s eyes opened wide, her hand to her mouth.
Flo giggled at Beth’s expression.
“This man of mine is doing the rights by me and is setting me up to being a high lady.”
With that Flo had kissed Beth lightly on the cheek before running back to her bed.

 

The following Saturday night Flo carried out her plan and her bed was empty the next morning. Beth was quite upset and hoped Flo was having a good time with life. She thought of what her mother had told her, making Beth promise never to take up that kind of lifestyle.
The dormitory seemed to lay in a state of gloom with Flo gone, the girls quiet in their behaviour and becoming orderly without the audacious nightly raids to the kitchen and garden stores. The girls had lost a leader and in a strange way Beth seemed to fill the void with the younger girls coming to her for help with things they did not understand. Such behaviour did not go unnoticed by Sister Dominique who quickly offered Beth a position of orderly, one who sees to the welfare of the girls in the dormitory and who works alongside the members of staff in the running of the juveniles, the youngest children in the convent.
“I know you have only been her for nine months Beth but we feel you can be trusted and a valued member within our community.” was how Sister Dominique put it.
“You know Beth, we can teach you how to become a nursery governess if you study real hard. It would be good if you could leave here with a chance of creating a good life for yourself.” Joy had told her.

Joy had taken her vows and now wore the full Nun’s habit. She worked mainly outside the convent on social duties and worked among the poor. Beth did not see much of her and it was only in passing that Joy had stopped to speak to her.
“I’m not really in to being a governess or anything of that nature.” had answered Beth. “I wants to be free in choosing what way I go and not to be above my station.”
Joy had nodded, then asked.
“Have you considered coming out with me, as a junior aide to me in the field of working among the poor?”
“Do I have to wear a Nun’s dress as you do?”
Joy had laughed, a tinkling sound.
“Of course not, Beth. You will be wearing your school uniform. But you would be ever so helpful to me. You know the people and how their minds work. You can speak as they do and can be my front line. What do you think?”
And so began a new chapter in Beth’s life.