"No." Maisie felt a tug at her heart as she remembered how frightened and lonely she had been. "My brother stowed away on a ship going to Boston. I've not seen him or heard from him since. I slept at a rubbish tip for a week. Thank God the weather was mild--it was May. It only rained one night: I covered myself with rags and had fleas for years afterwards.... I remember the funeral."
"Whose?"
"Tobias Pilaster's. The procession went through the streets. He'd been a big man in the town. I remember a little lad, not much older than me, wearing a black coat and a top hat, holding his mam's hand. It must have been Hugh."
"Fancy that," said April.
"After that I walked to Newcastle. I dressed as a lad and worked at a stables, helping out. They let me sleep in the straw at night, alongside the horses. I stayed there three years."
"Why did you leave?"
"I grew these," Maisie said, and jiggled her breasts. A middle-aged man walking by saw her, and his eyes nearly popped out. "When the head stablehand found out I was a lass he tried to rape me. I smacked him across the face with a riding crop, and that was the end of the job."
"I hope you cut him," April said.
"I certainly cooled his ardor."
"You should have whacked his thing."
"He might have liked it."
"Where did you go when you left the stable?"
"That's when I joined the circus. I started as a stablehand and eventually became one of the riders." She sighed nostalgically. "I liked the circus. The people are warm."
"Too warm, I gather."
Maisie nodded. "I never really got on with the ringmaster, and when he told me to gam him it was time to leave. I decided that if I'm going to suck cocks for a living I want a better wage. And here I am." She always picked up speech mannerisms and she had adopted April's unrestrained vocabulary.
April gave her a shrewd look. "Just how many cocks have you sucked since then?"
"None, to tell the truth." Maisie felt embarrassed. "I can't lie to you, April--I'm not sure I'm cut out for this trade."
