The Bad Penny by Katie Flynn

longer quite as cold as it had been. ‘What did you ask him, Patty?’
    ‘I asked him if a baby had been found under his hedge,’ Patty said, glad to be back on the straight and narrow path of truth once more. ‘I said I thought I might be that baby, and – and he said some very nasty things, Matron.’
    ‘I can imagine,’ Matron said drily. ‘Have you ever heard the expression curiosity killed the cat , Patty?’
    Patty, who had heard it many times and usually applied to herself, agreed that she had. ‘Only if you don’t ask questions, Matron, how are you ever going to find out anything?’ she asked, rather plaintively. ‘When I was first moved into Miss Briggs’s class, I had to ask a thousand questions or I would never have caught up with the other girls.’
    Matron smiled. ‘If you hadn’t asked so many questions about the baby in Peel Street, you would not have been condemned to spend a whole month in the house,’ she observed. ‘Because you were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and doing what you should not have been doing, part of your punishment will stand, but you may tell Laura that both she and yourself may have normal meals once more. And in future, Patty, if you are tempted to make off again to satisfy that rampant curiosity of yours, the punishment will be more severe. Go to a member of staff with your questions or, if all else fails, come to me.’ A bell rang out and Matron got to her feet and walked over to the door, beckoning Patty to precede her through it. ‘There’s the dinner bell – off with you!’
    As soon as she was able, Patty told Selina what had happened and admitted that Matron, though strict, had been very much nicer to her than she had expected. ‘She seemed to understand that I wanted to know about me mam,’ she explained. ‘And she didn’t nag me to make me tell more about how I discovered I were the baby under the hedge; she might have, I suppose. She never even asked which of the maids I’d heard talking about it, which is as well! Why, if I’m really good for ages and ages I reckon I might ask her if I could go round to Mrs Thornton’s place once in a while. She invited Laura and me to go back … and those buns were the best thing I’ve ever tasted, Selina! And because Matron listened to me, I wanted to please her. You like her too, don’t you?’
    Selina admitted that she thought Matron was ‘all right’. ‘It’s not her fault that we never get enough to eat,’ she told the younger girl. ‘Or that our coats and shoes are too thin for winter wear, or even that we don’t get much in the way of treats an’ that. It’s the Board of Governors. They’re that mean and cold you’d think they’d never been kids theirselves, yet one of the big girls told me, a couple of years back, that their kids – the Board of Governors’ kids, that is – are all spoiled rotten and get whatever they want. No, Matron does her best for us one way and another, and wi’ so many children in the Durrant she has to be pretty strict and see to it that we don’t break the rules. Lots o’ the kids simply hate her, but I’m glad you saw through the coldness and crossness to the softer person underneath.’ Selina looked sideways at her young friend, smiling. ‘And I’m glad you never telled her … about me finding out who are foundlings and who aren’t,’ she added. ‘I’d hate for Matron to know; she’d think me real sneaky and I’d not like that. Mind you, though I understand why you went off to Peel Street, you’d best not do such a thing again. It’s temptin’ for you, with the street so close, but I hope you’ve learned your lesson.’
    Patty smiled and sighed, but asked Selina what she would have done, in the same circumstances. Selina laughed. ‘I’d probably have done as you did,’ she admitted. ‘Of course you did wrong to run away from Miss Dawson the way you did, but you’re being punished for that, and it’s taught you something, Patty.