[Content warning: reference to teen pregnancy and child marriage]
Church that morning had been even worse than last week. Last week some people had stared and whispered, but they could still pretend that it was because they had a visitor with them and people just wanted to know who Tobias was. It wasn't because of Alice. Surely the news didn't spread that fast. Anne has reassured herself that it was because of Tobias, even if she only half believed it.
This morning, however, Tobias hadn't been with them, and it was undeniable that it was poor Alice who was the object of all the staring and whispering, especially among the youth. Most parents would stop their children from whispering, some might briefly stare in Alice's direction, making it all the more painfully clear that the gossiping had concerned her. Those grown ups were above such a display of disrespect towards the poor pregnant girl. They would wait for the privacy of their homes, the yards, the back lanes, to shamelessly discuss who the father might be, how far along she was, how shocking it was that such a sweet girl would do such a shameful thing, how Ben was handling it, what her prospects were. Anne knew it. Father knew it. Alice knew it. The whole community was talking. Perhaps it was mercy, after all, that Alice would marry a man from elsewhere, rather than Whitby. The poor girl had run from church before the service was over, and father - indeed, father, who never let them skip church or even a minute of it - had left church to go after her.
Father hadn't demanded that Alice would go to the Methodist Girls Mission that afternoon, but Anne had to go. She hated it. Right now she hated every single girl there. She had experienced how other fishing girls on the beach would talk to her just to try and get juicy details out of her, and she wanted to be anywhere right now than here among a group of gossip-y teenage girls. As soon as their Bible quiz was over and they began their charity work for the afternoon - embroidering bible verses and biblical scenes on handkerchiefs for soldiers - Anne took her work and sat down in the farthest corner, brooding.
Church that morning had been even worse than last week. Last week some people had stared and whispered, but they could still pretend that it was because they had a visitor with them and people just wanted to know who Tobias was. It wasn't because of Alice. Surely the news didn't spread that fast. Anne has reassured herself that it was because of Tobias, even if she only half believed it.
This morning, however, Tobias hadn't been with them, and it was undeniable that it was poor Alice who was the object of all the staring and whispering, especially among the youth. Most parents would stop their children from whispering, some might briefly stare in Alice's direction, making it all the more painfully clear that the gossiping had concerned her. Those grown ups were above such a display of disrespect towards the poor pregnant girl. They would wait for the privacy of their homes, the yards, the back lanes, to shamelessly discuss who the father might be, how far along she was, how shocking it was that such a sweet girl would do such a shameful thing, how Ben was handling it, what her prospects were. Anne knew it. Father knew it. Alice knew it. The whole community was talking. Perhaps it was mercy, after all, that Alice would marry a man from elsewhere, rather than Whitby. The poor girl had run from church before the service was over, and father - indeed, father, who never let them skip church or even a minute of it - had left church to go after her.
Father hadn't demanded that Alice would go to the Methodist Girls Mission that afternoon, but Anne had to go. She hated it. Right now she hated every single girl there. She had experienced how other fishing girls on the beach would talk to her just to try and get juicy details out of her, and she wanted to be anywhere right now than here among a group of gossip-y teenage girls. As soon as their Bible quiz was over and they began their charity work for the afternoon - embroidering bible verses and biblical scenes on handkerchiefs for soldiers - Anne took her work and sat down in the farthest corner, brooding.
