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ready to go. But Matron Bottomly called me to her room first. Matron Peters was there too, both of them shaking their heads at me.
    ‘Well, Hetty Feather, you are leaving us at last,’ said Matron Stinking Bottomly.
    ‘We will always remember
you
,’ said Matron Pigface Peters. ‘You are undoubtedly the wildest and most wilful girl we have ever had in our care.’
    ‘You will come down to earth with a bump once you’ve had a taste of the working world outside,’ said Matron Bottomly. ‘Beware, Hetty Feather! If you stick to your sulky ways, you will be dismissed for insolence, without a character, and
then
where will you be?’
    ‘Following in the footsteps of your mother, I dare say,’ said Matron Peters, and they both sniggered.
    ‘I’ll thank you not to bad-mouth my mother,’ I said. ‘I don’t have to listen to either of you ever again. I shall be off now. Goodbye.’
    ‘Goodbye and good riddance!’ they said in unison , like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Nurse Winnie had read us the two
Alice
books in her sewing class when I was little.
    They accompanied me along the landing and down the stairs. Nurse Winnie came running up. She took no notice of either matron and threw her arms around me.
    ‘Good luck, little Hetty! I can’t believe it’s fourteen whole years since I held you in my arms and tried to comfort you. I’ve never known a babe scream so much! But I knew even then that you were a very special child, and would go far.’
    ‘Oh, dear Nurse Winnie! Thank you so much for being so very kind to me over the years. I will never forget you,’ I said, suddenly close to tears.
    ‘Come
along
, Nurse Winterson. There’s no need to single the girl out. She has a high enough opinion of herself already,’ Matron Pigface snapped.
    ‘It seems to me you thoroughly spoiled her and ruined her character when she was in the junior school,’ said Matron Bottomly. ‘It was very hard for me to make a serious impression on such an imp of Satan. You must heed the warnings of the Good Book, Nurse Winterson – spare the rod and spoil the child.’
    ‘That’s nonsense!’ I cried. ‘Nurse Winterson is the only nurse here who shows us real love and care. That’s the only way any of us have thrived in this grim prison!’
    ‘Hush your mouth, Hetty Feather! How dare you talk to us like that!’
    ‘I dare say anything I wish, because neither of you have any power over me any more,’ I declared.
    ‘Don’t be so sure of that! We will be checking up on you vigorously. If you fail to please your new employer, we have the power to call you back to the hospital to retrain you,’ Matron Bottomly threatened.
    That certainly unnerved me! I didn’t want to risk going to Mr Buchanan’s now. I’d start afresh, where no one could keep track of me. I wasn’t going to be Hetty Feather any more. I was Sapphire Battersea, only child of dear Ida. I would show these pig-faced stinking matrons. I would make my own way in the world, no matter what. I had to make a bolt for it now.
    But my spirited plans were instantly thwarted. There was a strange woman lurking in the entrance hall – strange to me, and certainly strange in appearance. She was a very
large
woman. She made even Matron Pigface Peters appear sylph-like. She was dressed in a bizarre dark-red costume that made her resemble an immense slab of bloody meat. She wore a bonnet to match, trimmed with white, like mutton chops with paper frills. I stared at her in astonishment. She seemed equally bewildered by me.
    ‘This scrawny little creature cannot possibly be Hetty Feather!’ she said, hands on her hips. ‘I thought you said she was fourteen and a good strong girl? This child is barely ten – and her arms and legs look as if they should be in a box of Bryant and May.’
    ‘This is Hetty Feather, ma’am, and her fourteenth birthday was three full months ago – isn’t that correct, Hetty?’
    I hesitated. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t like the look