[CW: This threads contains hints of child (emotional) abuse and domestic violence]


After her father had shouted at her, Anne had gone up to the East Cliff and had sat there for a long time, crying to herself and wondering what to do. How could she go home now? She didn't know if her father was done, and she was too ashamed, and there was still the events of earlier this morning that she would get sacked for, and then her father would find out about that too, and she was too ashamed to handle that. She thought of running away to Robin Hood's Bay. But surely her family would send her back. Anyway, she didn't know them that well. 

Then she went to the station and lingered there for a long time. She was desperate to take the train to Castleton and see Alice. They hadn't let her see her sister and the baby yet, as Alice was too ill and needed rest, but Anne had half a mind to go anyway. She needed Alice, as she was sure Alice needed her. They could run away together with the baby!

But Anne had no money for the train and she was afraid to get arrested. And so finally her feet had led her back to Oswy street. She didn't know what to tell Mrs. Blacke and felt rather ashamed now. Had Mrs. Blacke asked for the money back? Had she regretted buying her that corset? Oh, her father was right, she ought to be ashamed!

And yet there was nowhere else to go. The thought of going home made her shrink, and so she knocked on the Blackes's door.

Lottie had returned from the Cragg and busied herself with housework. It would a good long time before she could go back there. Maybe never. Perhaps she shouldn't have said what she did. The knock at the door stopped her pondering. Was that Joe? He had a key, why would he knock? Oh please, not the police. She flung open the door to see Anne Ward in such a state. "Anne! What are ye doin' here?"

Anne hadn't thought of what she was going to say. The sight of a kind face clouded her mind with fresh emotion. Her lip began to tremble before she could even attempt to speak and she felt a fresh lump in her throat. The girl wrestled against the tears for half a minute or so and then they came anyway. "Oh Mrs. Blacke, I'm so sorry about t' corset and everything." And about crying on the woman's doorstep. But her heart was so full with all the emotions of the morning that she just could not control herself. She looked down and hugged herself, while her shoulders shook. She was such a bad person!
.

"Anne!"

The young girl's emotional breakdown surprised Lottie, who switched into instant mothering mode, wrapping her arm around the girl

"Come inside, dear. "

Anne let Mrs. Blacke lead her inside. She had felt so grown up in her uniform this morning, but now she felt like a small child in grown up clothes. She leaned against Mrs. Blacke for comfort. "I didn't mean to go a-beggin'."

"Hush, dear. It's alright. Yer alright now." The older woman led her charge into the main room "Sit yerself down and tell me what happened."

Anne sank down on the sofa and tried to stop crying. "M-my da is so frightfully angry about t' corset." She recounted in a shaky voice. "Oh I didn't mean to beg. I'm so sorry Mrs. Blacke."

Lottie suspected he was more angry about her opinion of his child rearing, but that didn't stop him from being a bastard to his daughter. Lottie knelt down beside Anne, took her hand, and tried to meet those sad eyes with her own.

"Anne, ye didn't beg. I dont care what yer father said. I gave you that corset. Someone has to take care of ye. Ye needn't cry."

Anne put her free hand on Lottie's. "Y-yer not angry then?" She sniffed. "But it was wicked of me to make ye make sacrifices for me, rather than tellin' me da what I needed."

"I'm not angry with ye Anne, you did nowt wrong." Lottie squeezed Annes hand "It's nonsense te think ye are beggin' Yer father should 'ave known ye needed new clothes. Yer mother would 'ave seen to it, I'm sure."