Page 37 of Beauty and the Baker
Chapter 10
Georgina watched him sit down on a stool and look her in the face. He told her of men that lured young orphan boys and girls into working at the factory. They were kept segregated from the rest of the workers. Charlie only found them because he was taking fabric to a store area and made a wrong turn.
He saw children chained to beds and living in filthy conditions. They were beaten and starving and pleased for him to help them.
He snuck food down to them when he could. He tried to find out more information so he could go to the authorities. But when he did finally talk to the police, the word went right back to Mr. Weston and his problems soon started.
His father was accused of theft. His sister was being forced into a marriage she didn’t want. Even Charlie had been threatened with his life if he didn’t forget what he saw.
But Charlie couldn’t forget. He would see men in suits come through and then suddenly five, six or more of the children would disappear.
It wasn’t until he saw the paperwork someone had left carelessly behind that he realized what was happening.
He made a connection in the State’s Department of Justice and told him what was happening. They couldn’t just storm into the factory because no one had reported the children missing. They could, however, open an investigation if there were children under 14 working at the factory.
Child labor was a huge problem in New York. Many of the children worked from their homes until they were old enough to actually go the factory. The hours were long, and it was commonplace for the children to be abused while they worked.
Charlie remembered being caned if he wasn’t performing fast enough. You learned very quickly how to avoid punishments.
So, Charlie stole a pair of pants and turned them over, along with a sworn statement that he had seen someone under 14 sew them.
Charlie disappeared until a man found him and asked if he could do the same thing down at the docks. Check out the waterfront and see if the same thing was happening there.
Charlie agreed. He didn’t have anyone at home since Cassie and Hal already left, so he offered to do it. If it meant saving someone from a terrible fate, he would always do it. His best friend Ian insisted on accompanying him.
They did in fact, find many young children working the docks. In fact, he found young girls and women, just around Cassie’s age, being held for a shipment to the West Indies.
He couldn’t locate his contact who had asked him to help, so he did the only thing he could. He took the young girls, leaving behind the women, and hid them.
He, Ian and James, one of the boys who managed to escape from working and was going to verify Charlie’s story, were jumped in a warehouse where they were planning their next steps.
When he awoke, he was in the holding cell of a ship. He could feel it moving in the water, but he didn’t know where they were going.
He could hear James crying in the cell next door. Ian was in one right behind him. They spent the next few days comforting each other and making promises on what they would do if someone could escape.
How Ian managed to escape, he didn’t know. They were docked somewhere, but he didn’t know where they were. Two large men came down, grabbed Ian from his cell and dragged him kicking and screaming out of the area.
Charlie remembered yelling for his friend until he couldn’t yell anymore. Shortly thereafter they came and took James away and Charlie was left alone.
He screamed until his voice was hoarse, but no one came. Around dark, the men returned and grabbed him as well. They stuffed a rag in his mouth and put a cover on his head. He felt himself being put in a box and carried off the ship.
They took him to a warehouse, where they tied him up and flogged him, demanding he tell them where he took the children. Charlie wouldn’t say. Instead he just let them beat him, until there was nothing left in his lungs. If he thought it couldn’t get worse, then they decided to douse his back in fuel and light him on fire.
Charlie screamed until he passed out. The next thing he knew he was waking up in the hospital.
“So, you think that your job might not have been important, but Georgina, you saved my life.”
Georgina stood there, feeling the tears roll down her face. “I am so sorry. I didn’t know what happened to you.”
Charlie reached out and cupped her face, wiping away the tears with his thumbs. “I didn’t tell you to make you sad.”
“I can’t imagine that Lawrence would do anything like that.”
Charlie nodded. “I would like to think that. I’m just sharing what I learned about a very ugly side of society.”
“Where are the children now?”
Charlie shrugged. “I don’t know. I took them to a church, and I never found out what happened to them.”
