Sunday confronts Albert Pinnegar at the market

Sunday Small’s market confrontation with Albert Pinnegar brings his campaign of intimidation into the open: he appears with two henchmen, publicly humiliates her, and explicitly threatens revenge for the loss of his position at Nuneaton Workhouse. The encounter ends not with proof of his suspected crimes, but with Sunday deciding that remaining with Biddy Spooner may endanger the people she loves.

Causes and Background

Pinnegar’s hostility has roots in the abuses Sunday witnessed at Nuneaton Workhouse. Her friend Cissie Burns had become pregnant after Pinnegar forced himself on her. When Cissie was told she would be sent somewhere safe with her baby, Sunday saw the promise collapse: a carriage from Hatter’s Hall arrived to take Cissie to the asylum. Cissie recognized it, panicked, and protested that Pinnegar was responsible. Miss Frost seized her, knocked her bundle to the ground, and shook her while denouncing her accusation and shaming her as an unmarried mother. Cissie was taken away; Sunday never heard from her again.

Later, when Lady Lavinia Huntley asked whether Pinnegar had been a kind master, Sunday overcame a moment of panic and recounted what had happened to Cissie. Her account named Pinnegar’s coercion and Miss Frost’s deception, and ended in grief for the friend who had disappeared into Hatter’s Hall. Pinnegar’s anger at Sunday is therefore not a simple personal quarrel: she had spoken about the abuse he wanted concealed and had helped bring consequences upon him.

After Pinnegar lost his position, his presence continued to disturb life around Biddy Spooner’s home. He was seen lurking nearby, and Nell became upset when she noticed him silently watching the comings and goings. Jacob Bartlett sometimes went out to send him away; Pinnegar answered with abuse, though he did not then threaten Jacob with violence. The household could not call the constable merely because Pinnegar was passing by. This left his watching unsettling but difficult to challenge, and set the market encounter against a longer pattern of harassment.

The Market Encounter

Sunday had grown more confident through her first trip to London. On the day of the confrontation, she was out shopping with a basket over her arm. Grey weather gave way to heavy rain, and she ducked into an empty shop doorway on Stratford Street to shelter and protect her new bonnet and coat. As she brushed rain from the coat, someone blocked the light. Pinnegar stood at the entrance, with two henchmen close behind him.

One of the men made a lewd remark about Sunday, repeating the degrading sexual gossip Pinnegar had spread about her. Rather than show the fear the men were trying to provoke, she raised her chin and demanded to know what Pinnegar wanted. His response ignored her question. He accused her of enjoying her week away with a supposed lover, referring to the time she had spent in London with Jacob Bartlett and Biddy Spooner. Sunday understood that gossip had reached him and that he had interpreted her trip as a private outing with Jacob.

The accusation was both humiliating and threatening. Sunday denied it, but Pinnegar stepped farther into the doorway, forcing her to shrink back against the wall. With few people about because of the rain, she felt particularly exposed. She asked him to leave her alone and reminded him that she had no interest in him. His anger sharpened: he said that he would not touch her, but claimed she was in his debt and blamed her and her friend for costing him his workhouse job. He promised that she would regret crossing him. The threat made explicit what his lurking and insults had suggested: he saw his revenge as unfinished.

Consequences and Aftermath

Pinnegar eventually turned and stamped away, followed by his two men. Sunday sagged against the wall, relieved that the confrontation had ended but shaken by how close he had come. She suspected he might be behind the fire at the Lodge and the attack on Nell, yet she had no proof and could not accuse him as though suspicion were certainty. His direct threat nevertheless changed the stakes for her. If he was responsible for those incidents, she feared that her continued presence at Biddy Spooner’s would expose those closest to her to further harm.

She concluded that she would have to leave the household and go somewhere Pinnegar could not find her. The prospect filled her with dismay: Biddy Spooner’s was the first place where she had found happiness, and leaving it meant surrendering a hard-won sense of safety. Even her prized new bonnet, which had prompted her to take shelter from the rain, no longer mattered as she checked that Pinnegar had gone and hurried towards the blacksmith’s. Inwardly, she addressed her dead friend Daisy Branning, admitting her fear.

Significance

The confrontation reverses Sunday’s earlier position in the doorway at Nuneaton Workhouse, where she watched Cissie face removal to Hatter’s Hall and could not prevent her being taken. Here Sunday speaks directly to the man she holds responsible, refusing to let his sexual slurs dictate her answer. Yet her defiance cannot make the encounter safe: Pinnegar has companions, a grievance, and the freedom to continue watching her. Her decision to leave is an act of protection, but it also shows how his intimidation constricts her choices and threatens the chosen home she has built. The market scene thus turns a public encounter into a private reckoning: Sunday has endured his abuse before, but now understands that the danger may extend beyond herself.