Georgina

GEORGINA - Chapter 2: The Mill

Georgina awoke properly soon after first light.   Cold, very hungry and unable to find a comfortable position on the damp stony soil; yet she was reluctant to face the new day, fearing to stand on her swollen feet and in trepidation at what she might find on returning to her home.  Reluctantly realizing she couldn't lie there curled up in a shivering ball all day, she took a deep breath and scrambled back up the steep slippery bank towards  the road.  Almost at the top she grabbed in desperation at a thick briar but the the sharp thorns ripped into the flesh of the palm of her right hand and with a yelp she let go and slid. down the slimy slope on her belly, to end up lying face down sobbing in the wet red clay alongside the stream.  Her next attempt a few yards downstream was more successful and she regained the road with hair plastered over her muddy face and reddish brown stains down the front of her bodice and skirt, which, together with her petticoat was now so ripped down the side that, every time she put her left foot forward, the flesh of that leg was exposed almost up to her hips. 

She felt a sense of detachment from her body as she limped with trepidation towards the front door of her house, which was shut with two soldiers of the Duke of Lancaster's Yeomanry standing guard in front of it.  Several despondent looking men loitered uncertainly in the road.  As Georgina approached the militiamen the others moved nearer, already suspicious of  her identity.  Nervously fingering his musket the younger soldier asked uncertainly "Mistress Hudson?'

"Please, where are my parents?  Do you know, have you heard anything" she asked the older one in a slightly more imposing uniform.

It was the younger one who replied "It's not safe for you here miss, I heard say that your father had gone to Liverpool and taken passage to America with his family.  They..." and he motioned slightly to the gathering crowd "...are furious that he's got away with enough money for that when they cannot even feed themselves and will like as not end up in the workhouse."

Georgina turned and started to run from the gathering crowd, despite the agony of her bleeding, bruised feet, but after only half a dozen steps felt her head yanked back by the hair.  She fell heavily onto her bottom and was dragged by her hair across the hard cobbles towards the mill with its shattered windows and broken down doors.  She tried clawing at the arms of whoever was grasping her hair but another man grabbed her slim wrists with large coarse hands and dragged her along, legs flailing, into the mill.  Fortunately the remains of her dress protected her from most of the shards of broken glass from the shattered windows which covered the floor, until she was roughly dragged to her feet. 

Looking around in terror she saw that about thirty men had followed her assailants into the building. One shouted "Is that Hudson's daughter then?'

"She looks more like a Wigan whore after a bad night!" laughed a tall red faced man "we might as well use her like one.'

"Better tie her up first" suggested the man hanging on to her wrists.'

A heavily built man grabbed a large spanner from a shelf by where the lineshaft entered that part of the building "I'll just give 'er a tap with this, that'll stop 'er floundering like a landed fish."

"Piss off,  I want her alive when I fuck her" retorted the red faced man "tie her to the machinery and make sure you spread her legs well!"

Georgina found herself being dragged callously over the iron carriage of the spinning mule then she struggled hopelessly as she was turned onto her back,  her arms spread and stretched out across the frame and her wrists seized to the bobbins on it by cotton rovings.  She let her head hang back to hide her face in shame from her attackers who now spread her legs then harshly pulled them to the spindle carriage so her body was lifted clear of the ground, securing her legs to the spindles with more of the cotton which although quite soft still dug into her ankles under the weight of her stretched body.  As she felt the cold metal of a knife against her collarbone she craned her head forward to see a leering youth insert the knife under the top of her tattered bodice then tear it right open, to fall away exposing her pert breasts and stretched torso to the eager crowd.  Her skirt was easily ripped from her by pulling at the existing tears and she let her head hang back in resignation as the knife made short work of stripping away her petticoat and undergarments leaving her pale lithe body totally uncovered before the excited crowd.

"Let me at 'er first, I was the one who recognised 'er" shouted a gruff voice, as the terrified girl turned her tear stained face to one side to see a couple of men starting to unfasten their trousers.

"No, please, it's not my fault, no!" she screamed hysterically as an unshaven man, bare from the waist down, clambered over her left leg heedless of the agony his weight imposed on her frail suspended body. She hung limply, eyes tightly closed as she felt coarse hands exploring her crotch then moving to feel up the sides of her abdomen to her breasts and her shamefully erect nipples. 

As his fingers again explored her indecently exposed labia a stentorian woman's voice thundered "Joseph Webb, what the hell do you think you're doing!" and he immediately scrambled away from her.  Georgina looked up again to see several furious women glaring at their ashamed menfolk most of whom tried to shrink away or hide their faces.

With relief she saw most of her assailants turn and flee the building, though two or three boldly stepped forward and one, who appeared no older than Georgina,  arrogantly sneered at the woman "You've seen off your old man,  now piss off  and leave the bitch to us."

Georgina looked hopefully at the woman who had spoken but she spat in Georgina's face "Why did you have to come back?  You Hudsons have ruined our lives enough already without you fucking up our men."

Another tall woman with red eyes,  as if she had been crying,  moved to the side of the machine and heaved the heavy flat leather drive belt from the lineshaft off the spoked iron pulley on the machine which she then grabbed by the rim and started to turn.  Puzzled, Georgina tried to see what she was doing; another heavily built young woman then heaved the other end of the loose belting off the lineshaft pulley and dragged it towards her.   Struggling against the lashings holding her shamefully naked body taut Georgina realised that as the pulley was turned the carriage was now slowly moving further away from the frame, stretching her arms and legs, lifting her strained  body higher from the floor as the bonds cut painfully into her wrists and ankles.  She screamed.

The younger woman swung the heavy loop of flat leather high into the air bringing it crashing down over the tortured girls chest painfully flattening her breasts as it knocked all the breath out of her at the same time almost dislocating her shoulders.  She gasped for air then, seeing the woman raising the belt into the air for another blow she gave a  piercing screech which echoed through the vast building.  Even as the moving carriage stretched her further, her bonds cutting off the flow of blood to her hands, the heavy belt struck her again, this time across her belly and pelvis cutting short her screaming.  Wet faeces trickled from her arse onto the floor as the stiff edge of the belt cut  into her flesh against her bottom rib and she arched her neck back in agony with her mouth open wide unable to breathe for several seconds.

"Don't kill her till I've fucked her" yelled the young man in desperation, stepping forward as the woman started to raise the belt for a third time.  She paused for a few seconds then started to swing the belt again and Georgina closed her eyes tight,  half expecting the next blow to rend her in two.

A loud gunshot echoed through the building and the woman dropped the belt in surprise.  She turned to see the younger soldier holding his still smoking musket pointed above their heads. "There'll be no murder here today, I don't care who she is!" he shouted.

The woman sensed a slight uncertainty in his voice and shouted back "Yer no proper soldier, I know you, your only a gamekeeper.'

The second soldier who had followed him into the mill spoke authoritatively "While he's in that uniform he's a soldier and in any case this building's now the property of Lord Rawtenstall which we've been ordered to guard, so clear off.  We're allowed to shoot looters if necessary, remember the magistrate had to read the Riot Act again this morning when you lot tried to get back into the house."

Mouthing almost silent oaths the crowd shuffled away, the last to leave was the young man who could be clearly heard muttering "I bet they'll get to have some fun with her now."  The younger soldier drew his bayonet and quickly cut the bonds securing Georgina’s ankles so she dropped to a sitting position.  Hazily Georgina felt her arms cut free from the frame and her body slump onto the  broken glass littering the floor before losing consciousness.  The older soldier, a corporal, dragged a large canvas bag intended for cotton waste over her naked bleeding body while the younger man struggled to free the tightly wrapped rovings from her wrists and ankles without cutting her delicate skin, the blue tinge of her hands adding a sense of urgency. 

"You'd better get the stupid mare well away from here" said the Corporal "Before you go, pop down to the camp at the Chapel field and send Perkins up to take your place guarding the house" after a moments thought adding "Better tell Haversham I want him up here as well in case of further trouble.'

Georgina awoke groggily with a vague recollection of being carried across the countryside slung over someone's shoulders wrapped only in a piece of canvas.  She now lay on her back, shamefully realising she was naked beneath a coarse blanket.  She tried to roll onto her side to see where she was but when she tried moving her arms stabbing pains shot from her shoulders to her chest and she realised she couldn't feel her hands. Even taking a breath caused a pain right across her chest and she started to panic and pant shallowly.  "Easy girl, you've  taken a hell of a beating" said a voice which she recognised as that of the young gamekeeper volunteer. 

"Where am I?" she predictably whispered in a weak hoarse voice.

"Keepers Cottage, on Hather Moor" he answered.

"But this is Lord Rawtenstall's  estate" she replied trying to lift her head

"Aye, but at least your away from the mob, for now" he pointed out as he placed his hand to support her head and offer a mug of water to her lips.

"My hands, I can't feel my hands" she croaked starting to panic again.  He took hold of her left hand and started to massage it vigorously.

"At least they've got more colour in them now" he said, yet she could still see concern in his face.  "I don't know if I can get the doctor" he said quietly "His Lordship might not approve" he then took her right hand and inspected the red mark around that wrist before massaging that one as she drifted back into sleep or unconsciousness. 

He looked at the girl, she looked childlike now her eyes were closed and she was free of pain.  With her filthy matted hair and dirty face he barely recognised her as the haughty young woman who had accompanied William Hudson and his wife at the Hunt Ball.  Checking she wasn't awake he gingerly puled back the blanket to stare at her naked body.  Only in his most erotic dreams would he have imagined having a naked lithe young woman lying on his bed and yet, looking at her pale bloodstained body covered in blotchy blue and reddish purple bruises, trying to visualize how her breasts might look when not swollen and bluish grey, he felt pity rather than arousal.  He stared at her crotch and put his hand towards her thigh to move her leg aside but stopped guiltily and carefully replaced the blanket, taking care not to wake her.

Locking the cottage he set off for a brisk walk across the moor with his spaniel, needing the fresh air to clear his thoughts.

For five days she remained in the keeper's cottage recovering from her ordeal.  It was three days before she even managed to stand, wearing an old shirt of the gamekeeper's and a blanket wrapped around her waist.  As she moved to sit on a hard wooden chair he removed the stinking straw mattress soiled with her urine and defecation.  He had been slightly aroused when, sobbing with shame, she had allowed him to help dress her in his shirt.  Her breasts were still painful to touch and many of her bruises were now assuming a greenish tinge.  She stank!  It revolted him but he knew she couldn't yet wash unaided, yet he hesitated to strip and bath her.  As he worked during the day she was constantly on his mind.  He imagined her slim pale body sat in his iron bath tub as he ran his hands over her pert breasts and daringly considered soaping her between her legs.  But when he returned to his cottage he was just revolted by the reality of the filthy snivelling creature huddled on a chair by the fire.

"You can't stay here" he finally found the courage to tell her.  "I never know when his Lordship or his steward might choose to visit and might lose my job and my home if they found out who you are."

"Where can I go?" Georgina quietly replied.

"I am sorry but I can think of no alternative but the workhouse" he sadly replied "I fear though that you will find workers from your father's mill there too.  Surely you have some other friends or family you can turn to?"

She slowly shook her head.  Tearfully she looked up at his face "I have no clothes, what can I wear" she looked down again, unable to imagine walking into a town with just an old blanket round her.

"You can have an old pair of trousers of mine, and you might as well keep that shirt now."  Seeing the look of horror on her face he added "That would probably be for the best, you would look one of the sacked women from the pits then.  You will stand much less chance of being recognised.'

"But trousers!  They will see I'm not a man" she protested.

"That's what the women who worked in the pits wore" he reassured her.

The following morning Georgina despondently set off in the direction of Wigan, having also been given an old pair of the gamekeeper’s shoes, though he was reluctant to lose them as they were still wearable in dry weather.  As she passed through a coal mining district she reasoned that working in a colliery would surely be better than the workhouse, she recalled her father telling any disgruntled workers how it was always ensured that conditions in the workhouse were far worse than any alternative employment, to discourage slackers from seeking help there.  Also she assumed that there would be less chance of being recognised there.

She knocked at the door of the small brick colliery office, instead of being invited in a small weasel faced man wearing glasses came out and stared at her in disgust.  Hearing her request for work he laughed, rather like a braying donkey Georgina thought, then replied "Tell me another one!  Since our prissy new young Queen persuaded Parliament to prevent women and children working underground everyone's after the few jobs on the surface" stepping back into his doorway he added disdainfully "By the way, you stink.  I suggest you have a bath before you try asking anyone else for work" then he slammed the door shut again.

Georgina turned despondently away, perhaps she should wait for nightfall and find a stream to wash in before before presenting herself at the workhouse the next day?  A shabby elderly man shuffling about nearby beckoned to her.  I suppose he thinks I’ll let him screw me for a few pennies she thought, wait till he smells me!  When he beckoned again she thought she had nothing to lose, he looked too frail to force her into anything against her will, so she stepped over to him.

"I heard you talking to the clerk there" he said, adding "If you’re that desperate, and excuse me saying but you look like you are, there's other less scrupulous pit owners around.'

"Go on then" Georgina cautiously replied.

He indicated another village visible to the east "That there pit is one of Earl of Rawtenstall's  and he don’t bother too much what the law say.  Though the pay ain’t up to much some folks must make do on it'

She thanked him with surprising enthusiasm.  First she thought she had better take the clerk’s advice and wash herself before before trying again for a job.  There were too many people about for her to strip off and wash in daylight so she settled down a bit away from the mines to await dusk slightly hidden from the road by a the brick wall of a small orchard.

The more she thought about it the less hopeful she became about finding work.  If a lot of women had been put out of work recently it was unlikely that there would be any hope of her finding employment.  She was starting to feel hungry already, if she found work how long would it be before she got paid so she could buy food?  Where would she live?  With rising panic Georgina realised she had no experience whatsoever of a world without maids and servants to tend to her.  The workhouse, however horrible, began to seem a more attractive option, if only because it wouldn't require her to make decisions.  But then she remembered the likelihood of encountering her recent persecutors again.  Feeling her bruises and stretching her still slightly numb and stiff fingers she determined to at least try to find work in the morning.  Then she started to have doubts about her ability to carry out manual labour, she was still stiff and in pain from her recent beating, indeed her hips and knees already ached from the day's walk towards Wigan.