Nell

Nell is a thirteen-year-old orphan who has lived in the workhouse since her parents died when she was five. Her move to Biddy Spooner’s household gives her a place beyond the institution and connects her with Sunday Small, whose earlier kindness she remembers. That promise of welcome is tested when Nell is attacked on the canal towpath: the episode makes her vulnerability plain, but also shows the practical care offered by the household around her.

Identity and Workhouse Background

Nell’s childhood is shaped by institutional life. Verity Lockett explains that Nell entered the workhouse at five after her parents’ deaths and is now thirteen. She describes the girl as a good worker, while cautiously noting that Nell is “a little bit . . . slow”; the evidence offers no diagnosis, and Nell is presented through her own reticence and conduct rather than a defined medical condition. Verity has met her and reports that she is shy and excited by the possibility of being taken on.

The workhouse divided women, boys, girls, and men into separate sections, and assigned residents different kinds of labour. Men and stronger boys could be sent to oakum picking, bone crushing, or garden work; women and girls sewed, cooked, cleaned, or worked in the laundry. Inmates rarely gathered as families outside Sunday church attendance. These details describe the system Nell has grown up in, though they do not specify which duties she personally performed. Sunday’s account of poor meals and harsh punishment, given after she leaves the institution, further reveals the difficult environment from which a placement in a household could offer some relief.

Placement with the Spooners

Verity arranges a trial position for Nell at Biddy Spooner’s home, asking whether the household will take her despite her perceived slowness. Biddy agrees because Sunday is overburdened with work and could use help. The next day Nell arrives at the residence. She speaks little, but proves a good worker, and the household takes to her quickly. Sunday is pleased to have her there.

Sunday prepares the last spare room in the servants’ quarters rather than placing Nell in Daisy Branning’s room. Daisy’s room remains as she left it, and Tommy Branning refuses to let Sunday clear away his sister’s belongings. Sunday understands that the room is where Tommy can feel close to Daisy and does not press him. Nell’s placement therefore takes shape alongside the household’s grief: she is welcomed, but the family does not erase the absence she has arrived among.

Nell’s connection to Sunday and Daisy is already present before she comes to the Spooners. Verity says Nell remembers that Sunday was kind to her, and remembers Daisy too. Her arrival extends the household’s network of care beyond its original members, while giving Sunday someone to look after and a measure of help with the work.

The Towpath Assault and Care

Later, while Sunday is away in London, Nell takes a shortcut home along the canal towpath. A man steps out from a hedge, knocks her down, beats her, and begins to assault her; he runs off when a bargee approaches with a horse-drawn boat. The bargee brings Nell home. Mickey immediately goes to fetch a doctor, and Nell stays in bed for the rest of the week as she recovers. The assailant escapes, despite the bargee’s attempt to pursue him and Mickey’s search after Nell is brought back. The police tell the household that there is little chance of catching him.

When Sunday returns, she finds Nell under the blankets, frightened and in pain. Sunday embraces and comforts her, promises that someone from the household will accompany her whenever she goes out until the attacker is caught, and listens as Nell explains that she is afraid. The response cannot undo the assault or guarantee that the perpetrator will be found. It does, however, turn care into a concrete safeguard: Nell will not have to travel alone while the danger remains unresolved.

Continuing Bonds and Narrative Significance

Nell’s place in the household continues after Sunday leaves for work at Yew Tree Farm. At Whittleford Lodge, she is washing up when Sunday comes to visit, and she eagerly asks about Sunday’s new life on the farm, including whether it has dogs and cats. Her questions show a familiar, affectionate connection, while her presence at the sink confirms that she has continued working in the household. Annie and Nell both welcome Sunday warmly; when Sunday declines to stay for tea because she is needed at the farm, Nell becomes tearful as she leaves.

Nell’s story is not given a final resolution. The evidence records her arrival, her attack, her recovery at home, and the continuing bond with Sunday, but does not say whether the assailant is caught or how Nell’s life develops afterward. Within that limited arc, she serves as more than additional labour for the Spooners. Her treatment draws a contrast between an institution that organizes children’s lives through separation and work, and the household’s responsive acts of welcome, protection, and companionship. Her remembered gratitude for Sunday’s kindness also makes that care reciprocal: Nell is not only someone in need of protection, but a person who recognizes and sustains a bond.