Daisy Branning’s disclosure to Sunday Small turns a new job, meant to offer safety beyond the workhouse, into the revelation of another abuse by Albert Pinnegar. Daisy is pregnant, and Pinnegar has used the threat of sending her brother, Tommy Branning, to Hatter’s Hall to silence her. Sunday recognizes the pattern from Cissie Burns’s experience and responds first with protection, then with a cautious plan to seek help. The episode shows how an abusive authority can extend its power beyond the institution itself, while the women around Daisy begin to make a counterweight of trust and mutual support.

Arrival and discovery

Daisy and Tommy have come to work at Biddy Spooner’s home after Sunday helped arrange their placement. As Sunday shows Daisy her new room, Daisy asks through tears whether they will have to return to the workhouse. Sunday embraces her and promises to do what she can to prevent that. In the embrace, however, she feels a small mound at Daisy’s stomach. The discovery changes the meaning of their arrival: the home offers a refuge, but Daisy has brought with her a secret that may expose her to renewed danger.

Sunday recognizes the sign because she has encountered it before. Cissie had become pregnant after Albert Pinnegar targeted her, and Sunday had seen the consequences when Cissie was sent away to Hatter’s Hall. Daisy’s lowered head and tears confirm Sunday’s suspicion. When Sunday asks whether Pinnegar was responsible, Daisy nods. The episode thus connects the new disclosure to an earlier case, making Sunday’s recognition both personal and informed by what happened to her friend.

Daisy explains that the abuse began shortly after Sunday left the workhouse. Pinnegar began requiring her to go to his office, where he assaulted her. When Daisy threatened to tell someone, he threatened to have Tommy sent to Hatter’s Hall. The threat made her silence part of the coercion: speaking up might not only bring consequences for herself but could also separate her from the brother for whom she feels responsible. Her pregnancy makes the concealed abuse increasingly difficult to keep hidden, while her fear of Pinnegar limits what she feels able to do.

Sunday’s response and Daisy’s choices

Sunday does not treat Daisy’s pregnancy as evidence of wrongdoing. She tells her that Pinnegar took advantage of her, relating Daisy’s experience to what happened to Cissie and to Sunday herself. Daisy, however, doubts that other people will believe them. She fears that the workhouse master’s standing will outweigh the testimony of girls with little power, and considers running away. Sunday counters that Daisy has no means to live independently and urges her to remain where she is while they work out what to do.

At first, Sunday decides not to disclose the pregnancy immediately to Biddy Spooner or Lady Lavinia Huntley. She suggests that Daisy continue wearing a loose dress so that her condition will not be noticed, giving them time to consider how to act. This is not a resolution of the danger but a short-term attempt to protect Daisy from an outcome Sunday fears. In particular, Sunday remembers that Cissie was promised a suitable place for herself and her baby, only to be taken to Hatter’s Hall instead. That history makes disclosure a calculated risk rather than an uncomplicated appeal for help.

The practical details make the delay brief. Sunday estimates that Daisy is still early in pregnancy: she has missed one menstrual period and is nearing a second, while experiencing tenderness in her chest and morning sickness. Sunday reasons that Daisy is not yet visibly showing and estimates that the baby will be due in early April. A few days later, Annie recognizes Daisy’s condition. Daisy begins to cry, and Sunday identifies Pinnegar as responsible, explaining that he had also harmed Cissie. Annie believes them and says that Biddy Spooner needs to know, offering to speak to her so Daisy will not have to explain alone. The disclosure is therefore no longer solely Sunday’s secret to manage; another trusted adult is prepared to support Daisy.

Sunday also considers making a wider case against Pinnegar. She intends to speak with Lady Lavinia Huntley, who already knows what happened to Cissie, and reasons that several people willing to testify could force the Board of Guardians to act. Daisy remains unsure whether she can face that prospect; even thinking about Pinnegar brings on a cold sweat. Sunday does not demand an immediate decision. She settles Daisy under warm blankets and leaves her to rest, placing care before testimony while keeping the possibility of a collective accusation open.

The workhouse behind the threat

Daisy’s fear is grounded in the unequal conditions of the Nuneaton Union Workhouse. Its residents are divided by gender, and work is assigned across separate groups: men and stronger boys may pick oakum or crush bones, while women and girls sew, cook, clean, or work in the laundry. Inmates rarely gather as families except on Sundays, a separation Sunday has seen cause serious harm. These arrangements help explain why Pinnegar’s threat to send Tommy away carries particular force: institutional authority can reach into family ties that residents have few means to protect.

Sunday’s later account to Lady Lavinia Huntley supplies further context for why an appeal to the institution cannot be assumed safe. She describes poor meals and punishment in a cellar without a bed or blanket, where she was once confined for three days without food or drink. She also recalls two little girls who disappeared after being locked there; Miss Frost said they had died of influenza. Sunday tells this history because she hopes that speaking honestly may improve conditions for those still inside. Her testimony about Daisy belongs to the same larger effort to make concealed abuse visible, although she remains alert to the risk that the institution may punish the people who speak.

Consequences and significance

Daisy’s disclosure establishes that Pinnegar’s abuse is not an isolated allegation in Sunday’s experience. Cissie had been assaulted and sent to Hatter’s Hall; Sunday now links Daisy’s account to those events and to what she herself endured. The repetition reveals a method of power: Pinnegar’s position gives him access to vulnerable girls, while threats against a sibling can deter them from seeking help. Daisy’s pregnancy makes the effects of that abuse harder to conceal, but her status as a young worker and her fear of institutional retaliation still shape what she can safely say.

The episode’s immediate outcome is a fragile form of protection rather than a completed inquiry. Sunday keeps Daisy close, Annie offers to speak on her behalf, and Sunday considers approaching Lady Lavinia Huntley and the Board of Guardians. Daisy has not yet agreed to make a formal accusation, and the evidence here does not establish the final outcome of that proposed action. Later, Verity Lockett reports that conditions in the workhouse have improved: meals are better, bullying and fear have receded, and the new matron has broken Miss Frost’s split cane. That later change provides a contrast with the regime Daisy fears, without erasing the uncertainty she faces at the moment of disclosure. The scene’s decisive movement is from enforced silence toward the possibility of shared testimony, built through Sunday’s recognition, Annie’s belief, and the prospect of Lavinia’s support.