She had been in the house in France now for four days. She was locked into a room at the top of the building like a prisoner, yet the two women who came in and out to bring her food, put coal on the fire, empty the slop bucket and bring water to wash in were kind to her.They didn’t speak English, but the way they looked at her, brushed her hair, and tutted when she hadn’t eaten the food they’d brought, showed they cared about her. She wondered if they were whores – they didn’t appear to be as they wore dark blue plain dresses, caps and aprons. Back at Annie’s the girls wandered around in a state of undress most of the day.Belle had tried with sign language and miming to ask them what was going to happen to her, and to try to make them understand she wanted to write a letter to her mother, but they just shook their heads as if they had no idea what she meant.So Belle fluctuated between thinking that she was like the children in Hansel and Gretel, being kind of fattened up before being presented to a man.
