The Matron of Redwater House – Part 2: Visiting Hour

The cell was whitewashed and cold, with a plank bunk, a tin basin and a high barred window. She showed him the latch, an ordinary iron bar, and he lifted it twice with his thumb. She nodded. She closed the door. The clang rang down the corridor like a struck bell. In the dark he heard her turn the great key, and hang it, audibly, on its hook, and stand there a moment. He felt, with extraordinary relief, that he had nowhere to be.

She was exact and tireless. Every half hour the iron stair rang under her shoes, and the lamp swung past the grille, and she stood in front of the door and looked at him without a word. She inspected the cell. She inspected him. She read him a list of his faults in a low, even, frightening murmur. She made him scrub the floor on his knees with a brush, to the standard of a woman who had run a boarding school. She made him stand at the window for an hour while she mended a stocking in the corridor, and neither of them spoke. She tilted his chin with two fingers and looked into his face and said, once, "You are trying very hard," and he nearly wept.

"Does Ellery wish to continue?"

"Yes, Matron."

"Say it plainly."

"I do, Matron. Thank you."

"The Matron does not require thanks." But her voice was gentler than the words.

At midnight she brought a plain cup of cocoa, and held it to his lips with her own hands, and said, "Drink slowly." He did. He felt the warm sweetness go down through him and he thought: no one has done that since I was a child.

At two, the old building settled and sighed.

"Visiting Hour," said Octavia, softly.

It was her word, and she used it for them both. The shawl came off. The stiff white collar came undone. She unlocked the door and came in and sat down on the plank bunk beside him in her ordinary cardigan, and drew the grey blanket round his shoulders.

"How are you?"

"Corrected," said Hugh, with a shaky laugh. "And, I think, rather rested."

"You were an excellent inmate." She kissed his forehead. "The best I have had."

"May I return?"

"The house is open on Tuesdays." She smiled. "I shall consult my ledger."

"I'll bring my own bucket," said Hugh.

"You'll bring your best behaviour," said Octavia, "which is a great deal more than you think."

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