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earth closets which smelled strongly of urine and vomit. She did it gladly.
    Sister George kept her word and Billy was allowed to see them every day after that. Little by little the pinched look eased from his small, anxious face; the tired bruises caused by countless sleepless nights faded, though he never quite returned to the lively, boisterous little boy he had once been. Something had changed in him, and Ruby didn’t know how to get it back.
    From that day on it became perfectly clear to Ruby that she had made an enemy. Sister Joseph was infuriated by Sister George’s intervention, but it was on Ruby that she took her revenge.
    Never, for one moment, was she permitted to perform a simple task if a worse one could be found. Every question she was asked in class seemed to be a thousand times more difficult than the ones required of the other girls; every sum more complicated. Ruby’s spelling had to be correct in every detail, her lettering perfect, or she would be made to copy her work out again. If she were one minute late for morning mass, she would be forced to polish the dormitory floor, another task largely conducted on her hands and knees, which Sister Joseph considered to be highly appropriate.
    Religious studies took up an increasingly large portion of Ruby’s life, as if Sister Joseph had decided that she was more in need of it than the other girls: chanting prayers, singing hymns, listening to readings, or endlessly reciting dozens of Hail Marys as penance for her failings. There were lessons on the meaning and interpretation of the catechism, and she would be regularly examined and interrogated on every aspect of the scriptures to prove that she fully comprehended their spiritual message. And woe betide her if she got any of it wrong! Punishment would follow, swift and sure. This strict regime demanded unquestioning obedience, a state of mind Ruby struggled hard to achieve.
    Morning showers at Ignatius House were always cold and, because of the large number of girls, necessarily short. Each was allowed four minutes and Sister Joseph would time them to the second on a fob watch which dangled, together with a large bunch of keys, from her belt. If a girl overran her allotted time, she would march over and turn off the tap. Ruby considered herself fortunate if she was allowed three minutes and generally managed to wash herself in half of that time, just to make sure she was gone before the nun reached her. Otherwise, she might very well find the soft skin of her backside rapped by the bundle of watch and keys for being dilatory and slow, and poor Ruby would feel the stinging blows for hours afterwards. But then, the slightest misdemeanour seemed to bring down the wrath of Sister Joseph upon her head.
    Even for something as relatively minor as not being able to find her handkerchief when it was time to hand it in for a clean one. She would be given a thorough scolding in front of everyone and made to manage without a clean one for a whole week. And always she had to keep smiling or Billy started to worry.  
    ‘Are you sick, our Ruby?’ he would ask if her spirits faltered.
    ‘No, Billy. Just tired.’
    ‘You won’t be going to the sanitary, will you?’
    ‘No, Billy. I shan’t be going to the sanatorium. I’d never leave you.’
    ‘Mam said she’d never let me out of her sight, but she did, didn’t she?’
    Ruby’s throat tightened on a shaft of pain. ‘Mam couldn’t help it. I can. I’m not going to be ill, so stop worrying.’
    She could tolerate anything in order to see Billy every day, and keep a careful eye on him and Pearl. So long as they could all stay together, Ruby felt certain she could cope.
    But the worst part about living at Ignatius House was not the amount of work they had to do, the stark routine, or even the severity of the punishments. It was the lack of love and absence of emotion of any kind. The children were adequately, if plainly, fed on three meals a day. They were