Ruby McBride

by Freda Lightfoot

  Only at the end had there been any true sign of tenderness, but she’d still been too obsessed with her dreams to notice. And even then she couldn’t be sure of the significance of that tenderness. Was it out of love for her, or pity for her childish infatuation for Kit?

  She could accept Kit and Pearl’s casual disregard for her property, but coming to grips with the realisation that they’d been betraying her all along was hard to swallow. The mere fact of Kit pretending he had no idea of Pearl’s whereabouts, when all the time she was probably occupying his bed night after night, was more than she could reasonably take in at one go.

  Ruby thanked Sparky for his honesty, assuring him she didn’t hold him in any way responsible for not telling her earlier about all of this. It had been up to her to ask, not for him to decide what she needed to know. He’d kept his word to Bart, and that was important.

  All that day she thought about what he’d told her, and during the long night. Throughout the rest of the week she watched Kit and Pearl and saw how close they were, how she was excluded from this private world they shared. Even then, Ruby was reluctant to confront them, to face the truth about how long this situation might have existed.

  She decided, in the end, to do nothing and, apart from having to deflect some puzzled looks from Sparky, life continued very much as before with Kit and Pearl going out every night like a pair of giggling children. As usual, Ruby stayed on board to look after the boat, deal with the washing and housework, mind little Tommy, and cook all the meals. She was utterly exhausted but had no wish to upset the apple cart of her dreams entirely. She’d waited years to have Pearl back with her. How could she deprive her sister of the first decent home she’d ever had? It would be too cruel. Didn’t she deserve a little mothering at last?

  But then Ruby recalled what Sparky had told her, about the pair having known each other for a long time, and suddenly it seemed as if the whole plan must have been calculated from the start.

  But how could it have been? Wouldn’t that mean they’d intended all along to dispose of Bart? Ruby’s mind balked at the thought. Now she really was allowing her imagination to run away with her. Kit might be foolish and selfish, he might be a weak male where Pearl’s charms were concerned, but that surely didn’t make him guilty of premeditated murder?

  Kit was heartily fed up. He’d lost all patience with waiting for Ruby to come up with the goods. She seemed stubbornly determined to hang on to everything herself: control of the barges, the house they lived in, the baron’s possessions, even that flaming pendant which could bring in a bob or two. She also had the cheek to pay him a wage, as if he were no more than an employee and not an equal partner. Kit hated the feeling of being beholden to anyone, least of all a woman. That hadn’t been his plan at all. He’d expected her to go along with his schemes, as she had done when she was a girl. Selfish, Pearl called her, and he was beginning to think she might be right. At first he’d argued that Ruby was only suffering from a sense of guilt, that she was simply being overcautious, absolutely certain he could win her round in the end.

  But she was turning into a veritable nag, constantly asking him questions. Where was he off to tonight? Which pub was it? When was it, exactly, that he’d first met Pearl? He was beginning to grow tired of being interrogated. Worse than the rozzers she was. Anyone would think she didn’t trust him. It came to him one day that perhaps he’d been too patient. She was having him for a fool. He had a right to his fair share of the baron’s business, which she wouldn’t have had at all were it not for him.

  He knew where she kept the pendant. He’d secretly watched as she hid it away, just as if she were afraid someone might steal it. Kit prised up the board and lifted it out. He smiled to himself. Well, somebody just had. Never miss an opportunity, hadn’t that always been his motto?

  With a swagger of self confidence at his own cleverness, he took the gem to Samuel, the pawnbroker on Liverpool Road. The old man refused to touch it.

  ‘How would you come by such a gem honestly? It must be hot.’

  Kit took it to another shop further along the road, and another, and the one after that. The reaction was always the same. Either they wouldn’t handle the jewel at all, or they offered him a derisory sum, far below its true worth, to offset the risks involved. Kit was annoyed and excited all at the same time. Pleased that it was genuinely valuable, but irritated and frustrated when he couldn’t find anybody to touch it.

  It was a mate of his who, quite inadvertently, offered a solution. Kit had idly asked him where he would go if he’d come by an item of some value which a normal pawnbroker wouldn’t take. And he’d given a harsh little laugh and said, ‘The only one with any brass round here is Pickering. Sell it to him, whatever it is. If he can’t afford it, nobody can.’

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Dressed in his cleanest trousers and jacket, with his Sunday bowler clutched respectfully in his hand, since he didn’t want to be mistaken for anything less than an honest merchant or artisan fallen on hard times, Kit stood in Pickering’s office, acutely aware of the weight of the pendant in his pocket. The great man himself was seated behind his mahogany desk, a fat cigar clenched between his teeth and a sour expression on his bony face. ‘I hope you aren’t intending to waste my time, young man. I’ve better things to do than sit hear listening to the likes of you prattle on over some misconceived complaint or other.’

  Oh, I reckon you might be interested in what I have to show you,’ Kit remarked, and laid the pendant on the blotter before him. Pickering’s reaction was astounding. The cigar fell from his mouth and had to be rescued before it set fire to his trousers, and his face turned every shade of purple, his lips going almost blue.

  ‘Where the blazes did you find that?’

  ‘I didn’t find it. It belongs to a friend of mine. She’s been left a widow and this is the only item of any real value left to her by her husband.’

  ‘Don’t lie to me, man. I’m no fool. If you’ve stolen it, I could have you arrested.’ Not that he would, Pickering thought. Hadn’t he long dreamed of holding this pendant in his hands once again?

  Kit was blustering, showing outrage at the very idea he might have stolen it. ‘I never did no such thing,’ he lied. ‘I told you, her husband give her this trinket, and now he’s a goner. Dead as a door nail. Hard cash would’ve been more useful since she has a kid to think of, and I’ve promised to deal with the matter for her.’

  ‘This is no trinket.’ Very tenderly, as if half afraid to touch it, Pickering reached for the pendant and held it tenderly in his hand. It might have been Dresden from the delicate way he handled it. He considered it worth dealing with a common thief, just to have it in his possession at last, after all these years. He turned it this way and that, allowing the light to catch the fire in the ruby. ‘She has a child you say?’

  ‘Aye, a boy.’

  ‘Name?’

  ‘Tommy, just a babby he is.’

  ‘I meant the woman.’

  ‘Oh, Ruby McBride, at least that was her name afore they wed.’

  Pickering was still examining the pendant. ‘That must be hard for her, having to cope with a child so young. And you say her husband is dead. When did he die? How? Does she have regular employment or other assets to help maintain her? I would be interested to know...’

  Growing impatient with all the questions, Kit interrupted, ‘There’s others I could take it to if you’re not interested.’

  A soft chuckle came by way of response. ‘But you chose to come to me. I wonder why?’

  ‘I thought as how you would be the sort to appreciate classy goods.’

  ‘How right you are.’ Then he looked Kit full in the eye. ‘How much are you wanting for it?’

  Kit couldn’t resist a smirk of satisfaction. His mate had been right. This was the chap to make things happen round here. ‘As much as it’s worth.’

  Pickering gave a brittle laugh, as if Kit had said something amusing. ‘Some items are beyond value.
Name your price.’

  Kit drew a deep breath, inwardly warning himself that this was his best chance yet, possibly his only one since no one else would touch it. ‘Enough to set me up with me own pair of barges,’ he said, rather breathlessly.

  ‘Done!’

  Minutes later he was outside of the office door with the money in his hand, in a state of numb disbelief. His only regret was that he hadn’t asked for more.

  It was a day or two later and they were back in the house on Quay Street for their day off. Kit and Pearl had gone off for the evening, as usual, and again, as usual, Ruby had stayed behind. She was no nearer to making a decision. Ruby had half decided to do nothing at all about the information she’d gleaned from Sparky. Where was the point in raking up old grievances? Bart was dead. She’d no wish to lose Pearl too, even if Kit hadn’t turned out quite so well as she’d hoped.

  She would found solace in working the boats, and of course she had her child - Bart’s child. Tommy was growing into a sturdy, delightful little toddler. She also found comfort in her memories and each night would lift the piece of broken floorboard, pull out the pendant from its hiding place, and go to bed with it about her neck. She lifted the board now, her heart aching with need. How she missed him. More than she would ever have imagined possible. No matter how hard she tried to adjust to her new life, she couldn’t seem to fill the dark, gaping hole left by his absence.

  Ruby slid out the piece of flannel in which she kept her treasure safely wrapped and to her utter shock and disbelief, found it empty. The pendant had gone. So stunned was she that she frantically examined every crevasse, every crack it might have slipped through, unwilling to believe the evidence of her own eyes. It was nowhere to be found. Kit wouldn’t have taken it, surely? Not without her permission. But then, if he could keep quiet about Pearl’s existence, the sister she’d been seeking for years, how could she be sure of anything?

  Perhaps she’d forgotten to put it safely away, though this seemed unlikely. She was always most careful with it.

  Ruby searched the house from top to bottom, including going through Pearl’s things, just in case her sister had decided to borrow it. Of course, she might be wearing it even now. She felt sick at the thought of her careless sister wearing her beautiful ruby pendant in a pub in Rochdale. Who knew what might happen to it in such nefarious company? No matter how Bart had acquired it, whether it were a genuine gem or not, it held a very special meaning for her and the prospect of losing it made her feel ill. But there was not a sign of it anywhere in the house.

  If what she suspected were true, then the moment had come to have it out with them both. They really had no right to borrow her personal things without permission. It was long past time to settle the matter.

  Ruby sat in her chair by the fire, her son safely asleep upstairs, and waited impatiently for Kit and Pearl to return. She had gone over and over it in her mind, and could find no other explanation. The pendant was gone and who else but Kit could have taken it? Hadn’t he demanded it off her once before? And hadn’t she denied the truth long enough? She’d been a fool to trust him.

  As Ruby waited, her frustration and anger mounted with each passing hour. It was not until the clock struck one o’clock in the morning that the pair finally came rolling through the door, smelling strongly of beer and propping each other up as they listed to starboard. Kit was surprised to find her still awake.

  ‘What’s this? Waiting up with the rolling pin now, are we?’

  ‘Where is it?’ Ruby came straight to the point.

  ‘Where’s what?’

  ‘You know full well what I’m talking about: my pendant. What’s happened to it? It isn’t in its hidey-hole under the floorboards where I keep it safe while I’m working. It’s gone.’

  There was a small, stunned silence, mainly because Kit hadn’t expected her to realise it was missing quite yet, but he soon rallied. Pearl dropped into a chair and held her head in her hands as if it were aching.

  Kit snarled, ‘Your pendant! Your hidey hole! While you are working! There are three of us here. Why does it always have to be about you?’

  ‘For goodness’ sake, you’re sounding like an echo of our Pearl, picking up all her bad habits.’

  Kit sniggered. ‘Not quite all of them. There’s a few I wouldn’t care to pick up, thanks very much.’

  ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’

  Pearl lifted her head at this point and regarded Ruby with unfocussed, bloodshot eyes, very much the worse for the gin she’d consumed that evening. ‘Get off yer high horse. You’re the one what’s disposed of her husband, so’s you can sleep with another man. Only it didn’t quite work out hat way, did it, since he’s my man, actually.’

  Ruby jerked as if she’d been slapped while Kit gave a mocking laugh. ‘Oh, dear, Pearl love, now look where your big trap has taken you.’

  Ruby knew she had to remain strong, and time to make it clear she knew everything. ‘I didn’t know at first, as I certainly do now, that you and Kit were a couple. I never planned on anything terrible happening to Bart. I’ve grieved for him every single day since. I wanted only to find you, Pearl, and our Billy, to find a new life for the three of us, in Canada. A foolish dream, as it turned out.’

  Kit laughed. ‘Poor little innocent Ruby. So naive and trusting that in order to achieve that ‘foolish dream’, you believe every damn’ thing we told you.’

  ‘Is there any reason why I wouldn’t?’

  ‘There happen is where your Pearl is concerned.’

  Ruby ignored him, took a deep breath. It was now or never. ‘Sparky has told me that you knew all along where Pearl was, that in fact the pair of you had been living together for a year or more. Is that true?’

  Kit put back his head and laughed. ‘Good old Sparky. Well now, why not ask your loving sister how long we’d been together before we pretended to find her? Go on, she’ll no doubt sing like a flamin’ canary, given half a chance. And while yer about it, ask her what it is she really does in Rochdale. Go on, ask her.’

  ‘Shurrup, you! You were happy enough to spend me ill-gotten gains, so don’t put all the blame on me,’ Pearl protested, swaying drunkenly on her feet.

  ‘Don’t I deserve decent recompense, considering the number of clients I find for you. You’d be lifting your skirts at the end of the tunnel with the other working girls, if you didn’t have me to look after you.’

  Ruby went cold. She could feel herself start to shake inside, though she did her best to disguise it. ‘Lifting your skirts? Clients?’ The conversation had taken an unexpected, not to say unpleasant turn, not at all in the direction she had expected. And if these words meant what she thought they meant, then her worries over a single pendant were as nothing by comparison. ‘Pearl, what is he saying? Tell me it’s not true.’

  ‘Mind yer own business.’

  ‘I believe it is my business. I promised Mam I’d look after you.’

  Pearl flopped back in the chair with a loud groan. ‘Not that old chestnut again.’

  ‘Oh, Pearl, I don’t know what to say, I really don’t.’

  ‘Then don’t say anything. I’m me own boss, not beholden to anybody.’ She hiccupped gently and lolled back, eyes drooping.

  ‘But is it true? Pearl, wake up.’ Ruby shook her , trying to keep her awake. ‘What have you done, for goodness’ sake? You aren’t really a…’ Ruby couldn’t bring herself to use the word. The very idea of her little sister selling her body for money, or worse, some perverted sort of pleasure, was foul beyond belief.

  Instead, firmly closing her mind even to the possibility that this might be true, she switched tracks. ‘Were you deliberately hiding from me? If so, I’d like to understand why. I’ve dreamed of little else but us getting back together again, as a family, finding our Billy and starting afresh, to make up for the troubles of our past. Now I hear that you knew where I was for ages, and did nothing about it. Can you imagine how much it hurts me to learn that?’

&
nbsp; Pearl regarded Ruby with an almost clownish expression of surprise on her face. ‘Canada was your dream, Ruby, not mine. We never had a cat-in-hell’s chance of finding our Billy. Everyone knew that but you, though we’d’ve been happy enough to give Canada a try, see where it got us. Nor are you responsible for me. You’re the one living in the past. So what if I do spread me favours a bit? I earn myself a crust off me own wits, without being bossed about or bullied by anyone.’

  ‘On your back, you mean.’

  ‘So what if I do?’ Pearl giggled. ‘I’m me own boss, just as much as you are. And I’ll thank you to keep your nose out of my affairs. Affairs ... eeh, that’s rich, that is!’ She began to giggle, a raucous, drunken sound far louder than the pun warranted.

  Ruby, on the other hand, found that her eyes were awash with tears. She felt as if she’d failed, that she’d let their mother down. She must not have looked after Pearl properly, though Lord help her, she’d done her best. What more could she have done? ‘Have you thought what you’re doing? Have you ever considered the consequences?’

  ‘If you mean a babby, I did for all that years ago when I had an abortion.’

  Ruby felt sick, and knew in that moment that all was lost with Pearl. The silly girl was her own worst enemy and no one could save her unless she wanted to be saved. Perhaps the reason was that a certain person had far greater influence over her than a nagging sister could ever hope to have.

  She turned again to Kit, remembering the reason why she’d started on this conversation in the first place. ‘So where is my pendant? Have you taken it?’

  ‘What if I have? If you insist on treating me and Pearl like we come off the muck heap, don’t we deserve to look after our own needs once in a while?’