Read Online Fields of Home by Marita Conlon-Mckenna - Free Book Online Page A

sick.’
    ‘What did he say?’
    ‘Well … he said he wouldn’t recommend me to continue on working at the factory. He said the fibres and dust were giving me lung infections …’ she trailed off.
    ‘What’ll you do?’
    ‘James and John have great plans. They want to leave the city. They have both saved money from their wages and they think the time is right now for them to purchase land and stake the Connolly claim.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘They want to join one of those wagon trains heading out west, and they want me to go with them!’
    Peggy let out a gasp of amazement. ‘You wouldn’t go, Sarah, would you?’
    ‘That’s just it, Peggy, I will! I don’t want to stay here in Boston without my brothers. It’s all right for you – you have Kitty and the Rowans and Miss Whitman and Mrs O’Connor to share everything with. If James andJohn go, I’ll have nobody!’
    Peggy sat very still. A wobbly heat-haze seemed to have made the people on the path and around her shimmer, their voices coming and going.
    ‘Peggy! Peggy!’ Sarah gripped her friend’s arm, excitement lighting up her eyes. ‘I wish you’d come with us! James and John said there would be space for you. We could all share the work and …’ But Sarah stopped. Peggy didn’t seem to be listening. Obviously, it was not to be.
    Peggy tried to collect herself. There was no point in telling Sarah that Kitty had gone and how lonesome she felt already. Sarah’s health was breaking down, it was only sensible for herself and the brothers to go in search of a place of their own. She herself would carry on working – polishing and washing and cleaning and pressing clothes and helping Mrs O’Connor serve meal after meal. She was just a maid and that was her station in life. She had a good job and was earning good money.
    Every month the bank collector called to the back-kitchen door and she would give him another small deposit from her wages. Mr Keane would sit at the kitchen table and fill in the amount in the small black bank-book she kept hidden under her mattress. He would stamp it with the mark of the East Coast Savings Bank before joining herself and the rest of thestaff who saved with him for a cup of tea and a chat. Usually, he would tell them that business was booming and how their money was growing and accumulating. It did her good to listen to him. When he was gone she would run her eyes up and down the columns of figures, mentally totting up her savings. This was her independence.
    Peggy came back to the present. The mid-west was so far away – some people called it the wild west. Oh why did Sarah have to go so far away?
    ‘Peggy,’ said the other girl, tapping her shoulder. ‘What do you think?’
    To be honest, Peggy didn’t know what to think, but when she looked into Sarah’s pinched, white face and thought of the factory where tomorrow she would spend every daylight hour working, Peggy knew that leaving the city and moving into the open countryside would mean salvation for Sarah, and a fresh start.
    ‘I think it’s grand, Sarah! Honestly I do,’ said Peggy hugging her friend, ‘and by the time you all get settled, they’ll have built the railroads and I’ll keep on saving every dollar and dime and in no time I’ll have enough money to come and visit you.’
    Sarah clapped her hands softly. ‘Oh Peggy! That would be great. But I’ll really miss you. I do wish you would come with us.’
    The rest of that sunny afternoon was spent strollingthrough different parts of the park, chatting and laughing and giggling. Peggy gave Sarah a blow-by-blow account of Roxanne’s wedding and Sarah told her all the latest gossip of the factory. They watched as a group of young men played football together. They counted the growing young ducks and cygnets on the lake, and admired the latest styles worn by fashionable ladies who promenaded with their parasols.
    ‘Come on, Peggy! We must go home and get something to eat,’ urged