Cissie Burns’s removal to Hatter’s Hall is a forced separation disguised as care: after Albert Pinnegar abuses her and she becomes pregnant, the workhouse sends her away under the threat of permanent confinement rather than allowing her to keep and care for her child. The carriage makes the deception visible, while Cissie’s accusation and Sunday Small’s resistance expose how little protection the girls can expect from the institution that controls them.

Background and Signs of the Pregnancy

After Miss Frost gave Cissie a savage haircut, Albert Pinnegar’s interest in her did not diminish. Over the following weeks, he repeatedly summoned her to his office under the pretext that the floor needed mopping, choosing Cissie for the task. Miss Frost had seen his fixation on girls before but, in Sunday’s view, did nothing to stop him. Sunday suspected the matron was jealous that Cissie received the attention she wanted herself; the suspicion belongs to Sunday, while the observable consequence was that Cissie was increasingly isolated with Pinnegar and grew withdrawn.

The change in Cissie’s health became difficult to conceal. The week before Christmas, Sunday woke to find her violently sick into her chamber pot. Cissie begged the other girls not to mention it, afraid, she said, that doing so would make things worse. Her vomiting continued each morning until it became familiar to the children. When Miss Frost finally noticed the smell and demanded to know who had been sick, her gaze settled on Cissie. The public question turned a private illness into an occasion for scrutiny, but it did not bring her safety.

Daisy Branning recognized a possible connection: her mother had suffered the same morning sickness during a pregnancy. Sunday and Daisy had both believed that a woman had to be married to have a baby, and Sunday initially could not reconcile Cissie’s symptoms with that assumption. Later, after Cissie had been taken to the sickroom and seen by a doctor, Sunday asked what was wrong. Cissie agreed to tell her only after Sunday promised not to repeat it. She confided that she was going to have a baby, and explained that a man’s sexual assault could result in pregnancy. Her words reveal both her understanding of what Pinnegar had done and the gulf between the children’s innocent assumptions and the danger confronting them.

A Promise of Care, Then the Asylum Carriage

Cissie tried to find hope in the future she had been told to expect. She said the doctor was sending her to a special place in the countryside where she would be looked after; when the baby arrived, she imagined having someone of her own to love. The reassurance proved cruelly misleading. Before she could tell Sunday more, the other girls returned with Miss Frost, who ordered Cissie to pack and announced that she would leave first thing the following morning. The abrupt command left no room for discussion or for the girls to help her understand what would happen.

The next day, Sunday was assigned to the laundry while Cissie was sent to collect her belongings. The work was punishing: steam from the coppers made Sunday sweat, soda crystals and hot water left her hands raw, and turning the heavy mangle hurt her back and arms. While she sorted the washing, she heard the enormous wooden gates open and a horse and carriage enter the yard. She and another girl hurried to the door. Cissie came out with Miss Frost, saw the carriage, and froze: she recognized it as the one used to take people to Hatter’s Hall asylum.

Cissie immediately challenged the story she had been given. She had been promised a pleasant place where she could care for her baby, not confinement in the asylum. The stakes were stark: the girls understood that people sent there were unlikely ever to be released, especially if they had no one to come for them. The narrative also places Cissie’s fate within the wider vulnerability of unmarried mothers, many of whom, it was said, lost heart and died in the institution. What had been framed as medical care and a rural refuge now appeared as removal from both her child and any ordinary possibility of return.

Cissie Names Pinnegar; Sunday Resists

Cissie called for Albert Pinnegar, insisting that he had caused her pregnancy and would not allow her to be sent away. Miss Frost answered not by investigating the accusation but by attacking Cissie’s character. She seized Cissie by the arms, knocking her small bundle to the ground, and shook her. She denied that Pinnegar was responsible, asserted that Cissie had been sexually available to male inmates, and cast doubt on the child’s paternity. Cissie protested that girls were never allowed to mix with the male inmates, challenging the explanation used to discredit her.

The two men who had arrived in the carriage wrestled Cissie to the ground. One returned with a straitjacket as she struggled against being restrained. Sunday rushed forward. She kicked one man in the calf, making him release Cissie momentarily, then pulled so hard at his hair that a chunk came away. The violence was desperate and immediate: Sunday acted to interrupt the restraint and defend a friend whom she believed was being taken unjustly. The man threatened that Sunday would be taken too; Miss Frost tried to seize her, and the commotion brought female staff running from the rear entrance.

The staff secured Sunday between two of them, leaving her unable to prevent Cissie’s removal. She watched as the men carried Cissie, trussed in the straitjacket, into the carriage. It rattled out through the gates, closing the scene with the physical separation Sunday had tried to stop. Miss Frost then ordered Sunday taken to the punishment room and denied food and drink until she decided otherwise. Sunday fought the women dragging her down the stone steps; by the time they reached the bottom, her knees were skinned and bleeding. The institution thus punished the witness who intervened, even as the person who named Pinnegar disappeared from its grounds.

Aftermath and Significance

Sunday never heard from Cissie again. Later, when Lady Lavinia Huntley asked whether Albert Pinnegar had been a kind master, Sunday’s recollection of Cissie’s removal came pouring out: Pinnegar had singled her out for office work, Cissie had become sick, and she had confided that she was pregnant by him. Sunday recounted the promise of a safe place, the arrival of the Hatter’s Hall carriage, Cissie’s fight, and the fact that she had never received news of her friend. The later telling makes the immediate loss enduring: the carriage leaves the yard, but the unanswered absence remains part of Sunday’s account of the workhouse.

Cissie’s removal joins sexual exploitation to institutional punishment. Pinnegar’s access to the girls gives him power over Cissie, while Miss Frost’s authority turns her pregnancy and accusation into grounds for shame and confinement rather than protection. The promised countryside destination makes the betrayal especially plain: Cissie believes she will be able to care for her baby, only to recognize the asylum vehicle herself. Sunday’s physical intervention briefly disrupts the process but cannot overturn the workhouse’s control. Her bleeding knees and Cissie’s departure mark the unequal cost of resistance, and the silence that follows leaves Cissie’s fate beyond Sunday’s reach.