Prim and Terry had tears in their eyes as the girl continued.
“Mother and I were picked up by a lifeboat, and brought to land. Then mother took pneumonia from the exposure, and she died the next week. She had a brother much older than herself, he was wealthy but lived like a hermit, she told me. She wrote to him asking him to look after me.”
“But how did you get in with Nancy Heron?” asked Terry impatiently.
“She was looking after my mother and after her death Nancy thought she saw a way to make some money. She sent my mother’s letter with one of her own to my uncle John Wentworth in Westhaven, hoping that the rich old man would pay her for her trouble.”
“What a terrible woman!” exclaimed Terry. “How she must have loved money!”
“Yes, but it didn’t do her any good,” answered Sally. “For the letter was returned unclaimed. No one knew anything about John Wentworth. He had left Westhaven years before and there was no address or means of finding him.”
“Then what happened, Sally? What did you do then?”
“Nancy was disappointed and took out her spite on me. She put me to work and I’ve been at it ever since, slaving and giving her all my pay,” Sally confided in a low voice.
“Have they been kind to you in any way, Sally?”
“Not what I call kind. But they seem to think they’ve done a lot for me. That’s what they tell people.”