Hudson street had fine houses in the young girl’s eyes. Palaces they seemed to a girl who had shared a small cottage with a large family and a privy and pump with a whole yard. She found the address, but stopped before the garden.
 
She wasn’t so sure about this all of a sudden. Father hadn’t been sure about it to begin with. Certainly two shillings a week made a difference to a family whose income depended on the caprices of the sea. Her work was needed at home, but they could probably buy bait on those two days, get someone to bait the lines, and still keep a whole shilling a week.
 
But she was a girl from a yard and she didn’t have references. Not to mention, she was terribly shy. Father had told her it was an attractive position, but probably not worth her time applying, and Anne wouldn’t have put herself through this probably unsuccessful ordeal, if she didn’t have her private ulterior motive. Father might allow her to keep a tuppence. And though it wasn’t much, it was something. She could save up a little. Plus, she would gain work experience and a reference, hopefully. And all this might help her towards saving Alice from her misery one day. She had to try, no matter how slight the chance. No matter how frightened she was.
 
She had dressed in her best clothes – a blue cotton dress that reached to halfway her calves and dark stockings, and though it was still a girl’s garb, she had put her long red hair up for the first time in her life. On top of her head, she wore a straw boater with a new dark blue ribbon.
 
She took a deep breath and clutched her sweaty fists for a moment. She wished she were braver, but she had always been the shy one of her family. “Come on now, for Alice,” she whispered to herself. Anne would face any challenge, cross any fire, fight any demon for Alice. And so she made herself cross the little front garden and knocked. She bit her lip. Come on now, be brave.
 
Her face was redder than her hair.