by Weaver, Pam
‘I hate to ask you this,’ said Mabel, ‘but I’m really worried about my nephew.’
‘Linton?’ asked Bea.
Mabel nodded. ‘He’s never been the same since the war, and his chest gets really bad in this weather. He hasn’t been to see me for a couple of weeks, and my legs won’t take me as far as Heene any more.’
‘Are you thinking he’s ill?’
Mabel shrugged her shoulders. ‘To be honest, I don’t know, Bea. He was with your Nelson at Ypres, and his death upset Linton something rotten.’ She sighed. ‘There are times when I think the gas didn’t just affect his lungs, but his brain as well.’
‘Why’s that?’ Bea asked.
Mabel got up and went to her dresser. It was lined with cups and saucers, with a card or two propped against them. Bea knew that some of them had been up there for donkey’s years, but Mabel couldn’t bear to throw them away. Pride of place was given to the last birthday card her husband ever bought, before he died. Mabel took off the lid off a Royal Albert teapot, her pride and joy, and tipped it up. It rattled as she moved it and something fell out. When she brought it to Bea, Bea was surprised. It was a piece of lead in the shape of a bullet. She frowned and looked up with a puzzled expression.
‘When my Jack died,’ said Mabel, ‘I needed money, so I decided to sell some of his things. I found this in his best suit pocket. When I showed it to Linton – honestly, Bea, I thought he was going to pass out.’
Bea swallowed hard. She’d seen something like it before, but for a minute she couldn’t for the life of her remember where. ‘Why was Linton upset?’ asked Bea.
‘He wouldn’t say,’ said Mabel. ‘I was going to chuck it away, but after Linton’s reaction, something made me keep it.’
Bea turned it over in her hands. ‘“Victory,”’ she read on the side. ‘What does it mean?’
Mabel shrugged. ‘With things as they are, I’ve got a lot of time to think these days,’ she said, ‘and I remember the odd things my Jack did, in the days before he died.’
Bea was intrigued. ‘What things?’
‘He was never one for flowery language, if you get my meaning,’ said Mabel, ‘but if he told me once, he told me a hundred times that he loved me.’
‘Are you saying he had a premonition he was going to die?’
‘I don’t know what I’m saying,’ said Mabel. ‘All I know is that when I showed Linton this thing, it upset him so much that he hasn’t been the same since.’
‘I’ll go to his place tomorrow,’ said Bea.
‘You’re an angel,’ said Mabel.
‘I know,’ Bea smiled. ‘And modest with it too.’
With the coming of the long-awaited electrification of the railway line between Victoria and West Worthing on December 30th, the dignitaries who came promised all sorts of new amenities, which would bring new jobs to the area. An eighteen-hole golf course was promised on Lower Warren Farm in Broadwater; a hippodrome cinema was to be built in Rowlands Road; an Astoria cinema in Bath Place; and a palace of dreams called The Showboat in Liverpool Terrace, which, with its nautical design, porthole windows and such, would give the appearance of a great ocean liner. Everything was supposed to be up and running by June 1934, but Ruby couldn’t wait that long. She needed a job and she needed it now.
In his first letter from Dorset, Jim had shocked her by saying that he planned to stay a lot longer in Wimborne. It seemed that the celebrated photographer had taken quite a shine to him and wanted to teach Jim a lot more than the prize allowed. The deal was open-ended, but Jim hinted that he might be away for some while.
He had already been gone for three weeks before Ruby finally found a job. She hated lying, but when they’d asked her for a reference, she told them that although she could get a character reference, she had been looking after her sick mother since she’d left school and this would be her first job. They accepted her on face value, and Ruby was to begin as a ward cleaner in the hospital on Lyndhurst Road the following week, on Monday the fifth. It wasn’t much of a wage – less than she’d been getting at Warnes and, from the sound of it, she was going to have to work very hard – but she would be able to pay her way at last. This was going to be a long haul and, if she was going to marry Jim, it didn’t matter anyway.
She still kept up her German lessons. John Coffey had a steady business now, but he still found time to set her a challenge and she knew it comforted him to speak in his mother tongue, even if it was only with a stumbling beginner. Since Ruby had lost her job Percy had been a bit grumpier and, although her mother accepted what Ruby had told her about needing a change from the hotel, she couldn’t really understand why. Bea kept pressing her, but Ruby gave no explanation.
She started work at her new job at seven, making tea for all the patients on her ward. The night-staff were getting ready for the day-staff to take over at eight, so the first hour was quite challenging. After making the tea, Ruby had to collect the water jugs and glasses, alongside the empty cups, and wash them up. After that she cleaned the ward itself. She was thorough and methodical. Everything was wiped with a damp cloth and the floors were mopped and dried. At any time she might be called upon to clear up a mess, or to make toast and a boiled egg for someone who had just been admitted, or for someone recovering from an operation and who had missed the dinner trolley. The only time she left the ward was to empty bins, and she quickly taught herself to watch out for amorous doctors and to keep out of Matron’s way.
Matron was a bit of a tartar, but she was never vindictive, like Mrs Fosdyke; and funnily enough, all that Ruby had learned in Warnes paid off. More than once Matron had complimented Ruby on her neatly kept linen cupboard. And it didn’t take long for Ruby to work out a better system of doing things. Her ideas ensured they never ran out of linen, or anything else, under her care. Working at the hospital didn’t take much thought, but once she got into the swing of things, she enjoyed it. Some of the nurses were a bit snooty, but others were very friendly and it seemed that, once she had proved herself to be hard-working and conscientious, everybody liked her.
The hospital was closer to home than Warnes, which was just as well because the February weather was awful. Bitterly cold winds compacted the snow, which had fallen since the beginning of the year. The hospital was bursting at the seams with patients, especially the old, who had fallen on the ice and broken bones. Few of them survived; once infection set in, or in some cases shock, not even the best nursing could save them. Ruby had to get used to the most cheerful of souls going downhill very quickly. It was the one drawback of an otherwise enjoyable job.
Jim’s letters were full of praise for his tutor. He was enjoying what he was doing. Wildlife photography was very different from the portraiture he’d been used to, and at the moment Jim wasn’t sure which he liked doing most. I want to marry you as soon as possible, he wrote. I have a little money saved, but I can’t support a wife yet. We must be careful, my love. You must be the strong one.
She knew what he meant. If they hadn’t been interrupted that night, when Mr Hayward came home early, she could have been in all sorts of trouble. Jim was asking her to be the strong one, but Ruby wasn’t sure she could be.
Edith from Warnes Hotel turned up at Ruby’s place.
‘We all miss you, Roob,’ she told her. ‘We couldn’t believe what that old cow did. She told us you’d just walked out.’
‘All in the past,’ said Ruby, anxious not to discuss it in case she cried. ‘How’s Bernard from the bacon counter?’
Edith gave her a nudge. ‘Promoted now,’ she chuckled, ‘so you won’t be able to tease me any more. He’s been given a more managerial position, so he’ll be ordering from suppliers.’
‘That’s marvellous, Edith!’ cried Ruby. ‘Does that mean your mother might let you get married sooner?’
Edith shook her head sadly. ‘Not a chance.’
‘Oh, dear,’ Ruby sympathized.
‘Anyway, tell me something about yourself,’ Edith said,
and Ruby told her about Percy coming home, and about her new job at the hospital. Edith was fascinated to hear that Ruby was having German lessons, so Ruby dazzled her with a couple of sentences. ‘You always were a clever bugger, Ruby Bateman,’ she said admiringly, and Ruby blushed.
‘How’s Mrs Fosdyke?’ she asked.
‘It’s better on the days when she doesn’t turn up,’ Edith shrugged. ‘We always seem to be in her bad books these days. You always kept us in line.’
‘And there you were, calling me a slave-driver,’ Ruby laughed.
‘You have to admit that you were good at organizing us, Roob,’ said Edith quite seriously. ‘And when you did, you never made us feel like something on the bottom of your shoe. I wish we had someone like you in charge.’
Ruby nudged her playfully. ‘Go on with you.’
‘It’s true,’ said Edith.
‘Well, thank you,’ said Ruby, deeply touched. ‘You have no idea what that means to me.’
When she had gone, Ruby turned over the old postcards she’d had from Miss Russell. Such lovely exciting places, but it was no good wishing for something that was never going to be. She took them down to put them on the fire, but she just couldn’t do it. Instead, she put them in a box. It was time to turn her back on the past and look to the future, wherever that might lie.
That night, despite her best intentions, Ruby lay in her bed thinking about what might have been. Why was it that all the major events in her life never seemed to work out properly? She had wanted to train as a typist, but her father had made her work at Warnes. He’d died just as she’d got the opportunity to work for Miss Russell, but she couldn’t walk out and leave her mother. And now Jim wanted to marry her. She loved him a lot and looked forward to being with him, but she worried that even that would go wrong. Dear God, she prayed, let everything go right this time.
CHAPTER 24
Bea stirred the few potatoes, carrots and onions in the pot and sighed. She hadn’t got a lot in the cupboard when she’d started the meal, and even less now. Her stomach rumbled. With Percy back home, she had thought things would get a lot easier, but if anything they were worse. The weather hadn’t helped. Percy hadn’t been able to fish, and he’d made no attempt to find something else to tide them over. What was even worse was that ever since he’d come home he’d become more and more morose and bad-tempered.
John was paying two lots of rent now, which certainly kept the wolf from the door, but with another hungry man in the house and two rooms to heat, it was getting harder to manage the housekeeping. Although she was working now, Ruby hadn’t had a job for the whole of January. She brought home even less now than she did from Warnes. May needed new shoes, which had eaten into Bea’s reserves, small as they were, and although during the day she survived at home on her own with no fire at all, the coal-hole was almost empty.
Of course she knew she was luckier than some. Poor Linton’s chest was getting worse every week. She could only manage to walk to Heene on a Wednesday, and even that was a struggle, but Mabel had been relieved to hear that her husband’s nephew was still alive and kicking. In the north of the country the Depression meant that families were literally starving. Bea kept a shilling on the mantelpiece, in case anyone needed the doctor, but she didn’t tell the family how ill she herself was feeling. Dizzy and often light-headed or with a thumping headache, she was beginning to find everything a real effort. She was feeling down all the time, and even though she tried to shake it off, she knew it was getting worse. On top of that, she had lost weight. Her clothes hung on her now, although an extra jumper to keep the biting cold at bay hid it from the family. The one thing that kept her going was the thought of seeing Rex later in the year.
Life was difficult in other ways too. May was always complaining. Nelson had spoiled her rotten, giving her everything she asked for, and it was difficult for the child to adjust. ‘Why can’t I have a new book?’ ‘Why can’t I go to the party?’ ‘Elsie Thomas has ribbons in her hair, so why can’t I?’ The questions went on and on, wearing Bea out with the continuous whining that accompanied them.
She tasted the stew with a spoon and it was delicious. The little bit of scrag end of mutton that she’d got from the butcher made all the difference. With a hunk of bread to pad it out, it would at least be a nourishing meal for John and the family. Ruby got paid today, so they could eat better tomorrow.
She heard Percy come in and called out a greeting. He took off his boots in the scullery and came into the kitchen.
‘Not very warm in here,’ he remarked. ‘Has the fire gone out?’
‘No,’ said Bea, anxious that he might put more coal on the fire. ‘It’s taking a while to get going, that’s all. How did you get on today?’
‘For God’s sake, Mother,’ he snapped. ‘Don’t start nagging the minute I get in the door.’
‘I wasn’t,’ Bea protested innocently. ‘I only asked—’
‘Well, don’t!’ Percy shouted.
Bea turned her back and, biting back her tears, stirred the pot again.
‘Aren’t you dishing up now?’ Percy asked.
‘We have to wait for John.’
‘Why?’ Percy demanded. ‘If he can’t be here on time, why should we wait? I want to go out tonight, Mother. Serve mine now.’
The door opened and Ruby called, ‘Hello, Mum.’ She came into the room, taking her scarf from around her neck. ‘Oooh, not very warm in here.’
‘That’s what I said,’ said Percy, shaking out his paper.
Bea said nothing. Ruby kissed her mother’s cheek and handed over her unopened wage packet. ‘Where’s May?’
‘Gone over to Elsie’s place,’ said Bea. ‘I’m just about to fetch her. There’s a letter for you on the mantelpiece.’
‘Want me to go and fetch May, Mum?’ asked Ruby cheerfully. ‘I’ve still got my coat on.’
‘No, love,’ said Bea. ‘I need to have a word with Elsie’s mother. Lay the table, will you?’
Ruby took off her coat and hung it up. She took her letter down from the mantelpiece and smiled. It was from Jim. She would read it later. Taking the cutlery from the drawer, she said, ‘How’s the fishing?’
‘Don’t you start,’ Percy growled.
The two women glanced at each other with a knowing look, then carried on with what they were doing. Bea dished up a portion of stew for Ruby and Percy. Pushing the loaf of bread in front of them, she said, ‘Eat up. Save enough for John and May. I shan’t be long.’
‘What about you?’ Ruby frowned.
‘I had mine earlier,’ said Bea, putting on her coat. ‘Won’t be long.’
Percy took his plate to the pot of stew. ‘Go easy on that,’ said Ruby.
‘There’s not enough on my plate to feed a flea,’ said Percy. ‘And if I want to find a piece of meat, I’ll have to send in the dogs.’
‘Percy, please don’t take too much,’ Ruby insisted. ‘I don’t think Mother has had anything.’
He threw himself sulkily back in his seat. ‘It’s not my fault the weather’s too bad to fish.’
‘Times are hard,’ she observed.
‘Times are hard, times are hard,’ he mimicked. ‘What do you expect, with this bloody government? The whole country needs a damned good shaking.’
Ruby was shocked. ‘What’s the matter with you? You’re like a bear with a sore head.’
‘This is not what I planned for my life,’ he said angrily.
‘That’s funny,’ said Ruby. ‘I feel exactly the same way. The only difference between you and me is that, being a man, you can make changes. Being a woman, I can’t.’
‘I’ve had my offers,’ said Percy. ‘They want me to work in the BUF HQ.’
‘Why don’t you then?’ Ruby challenged.
He stared at her in shocked silence, a piece of torn bread still hanging from his mouth. He’d never before heard Ruby answer back. The door opened behind them and John walked into the kitchen.
‘I’m sorry,’ s
aid John. ‘Am I late?’
‘Yes,’ Percy mumbled.
‘Not at all,’ said Ruby, jumping immediately to her feet to get another plate of stew. John sat at the table, with a nod in Percy’s direction. ‘My mother has gone to fetch May from a friend’s house.’
They ate in awkward silence.
‘It is good,’ said John.
‘You’re welcome,’ said Ruby, conscious that there was little left in the pot, and her mother and May were still to come.
‘It is good,’ John repeated.
The door opened again as Bea and May came in, and May’s shrill voice pervaded the room. ‘Elsie has got a teddy at one end and she puts her dolly at the other end. It’s not fair.’
‘Lots of things are not fair,’ said Bea patiently. ‘Now sit up to the table.’
May hauled herself onto a chair and sat there with a pouty mouth.
‘What’s up with you?’ Percy asked.
‘She’s cross because Elsie has a new dolly’s pram, and she can’t have one,’ said Bea.
‘It’s a twin pram,’ said May, ‘and it’s not fair.’
Her mother put a plate of stew in front of May and smiled at John. ‘More stew, John?’
Ruby’s heart sank as John held out his plate. She dared not say anything, but if he had more, there would be virtually nothing left for her mother.
‘I don’t want this,’ May scowled.
‘Eat up,’ said Ruby quietly in her ear. ‘There’s nothing else. You’ll be hungry.’
May pushed the plate away from her so vigorously it tipped up and the contents went all over the tablecloth.
‘May!’ Ruby scolded firmly, and at the same time there was a loud thud, followed by the sound of a plate smashing onto the stone floor behind her. When Ruby turned round, her mother was on the floor, her white face turned towards the ceiling.
Percy leapt to his feet in shocked surprise. ‘Oh my God, Ruby!’ he cried. ‘Is she dead?’
CHAPTER 25
Cousin Lily lay back on the pillow and closed her eyes. By her side Albert snored gently. This wasn’t how she’d imagined it would be. There was no conversation between them now. She and Albert had been together for almost four months, and it had been a few weeks since she’d given herself to him for the first time. Back then he had been the perfect lover; a little hurried at times, but he’d said romantic things and talked of the day they would marry. She wanted to tell the family of their plans, but Albert wouldn’t hear of it.