by Dilly Court
‘Are you all right, miss?’
Ruby spun around to look into the smiling face of the young nurse. ‘Yes, ta for asking.’
‘You’ve been waiting for such a long time. How about a nice cup of tea?’
‘I dunno …’ Ruby shot an anxious glance at the stern-faced sister.
‘Of course you would. Don’t mind old fish-face; you come with me.’
Suppressing a giggle, Ruby followed her to a side room filled with steam from a spirit kettle.
‘Sit down, before you fall down,’ said the nurse cheerfully, as she made a pot of tea. ‘We’re not supposed to do this, but you look as though you could do with a little sustenance.’ Adding two teaspoonfuls of sugar, she passed the mug to Ruby. ‘My name is Pam, Pamela Chadwick, and you are?’
‘Ruby Capretti.’
‘Well, Ruby, you sit here and drink your tea and I’ll go and find out what’s happened to your people.’
‘Oh, they ain’t mine,’ Ruby said, gulping down a mouthful of hot tea. ‘I mean, Billy’s a friend, but I don’t know the others. We was just on hand at the right moment.’
‘Then well done you! I mean, your prompt action probably saved their lives.’
Ruby felt the blood rush to her cheeks. ‘Oh, I dunno about that.’
‘Nurse Chadwick!’ A voice echoed down the corridor.
‘Coming, Sister.’ Pulling a face, Pamela opened the door. ‘I have to go or I’ll be in trouble. Stay and finish your tea, Ruby, but don’t let old fish-face see you.’
Ruby swallowed the tea as quickly as she could and then she tidied everything away so that Pamela would not get into trouble. Making sure no one saw her, she made her way back to the vestibule and took a seat next to a fat woman who had nodded off to sleep and was snoring with grunts and whistles. After waiting for what seemed like eternity, Ruby felt like stuffing a cork in the woman’s mouth and was about to go outside for a breath of fresh air when Pamela returned with Billy. He was smiling but he looked deathly pale and his hands and forearms were swathed in bandages.
Ruby jumped to her feet. ‘Billy, are you all right?’
‘Well, I ain’t going to go ten rounds with the champ,’ Billy said, attempting a laugh and ending up with a rasping cough. ‘But they fixed me up good, so I can’t complain.’
‘He’s had a dose of laudanum for the pain,’ Pamela whispered. ‘He’ll be a bit dicky for a while.’
‘How is the baker?’ Ruby asked anxiously. ‘He looked really bad.’
‘He’ll survive, but it may take a while for him to get well again.’
‘And his wife and the little girl?’
Pamela smiled. ‘They’ll be fine, thanks to you and Mr Noakes.’
‘I’m fine too,’ Billy said, grinning stupidly and hooking his arm around Ruby’s shoulder. ‘Let’s go to the pub. I’m parched and I really fancy a pint.’
‘Yes,’ Ruby said, humouring him. ‘We’ll do that, Billy, but first we ought to take your poor old horse home.’
‘He’s a good chap, is my old horse. Best friend I got.’
Pamela laid a hand on Billy’s shoulder. ‘You’ll need to get your doctor to change the dressings regularly, Mr Noakes.’
‘If I can’t work, love, I can’t afford to pay the sawbones.’
‘I know,’ Pamela said, her smile fading. ‘If I had my way all medical treatment would be free.’
‘Maybe I could do it?’ Ruby felt herself blushing. ‘I mean, I’m sure I could, if you was to show me how. I’ve always wanted to be a nurse, just like you.’
‘I’m sure you’d make a wonderful nurse, Ruby. Come back this time tomorrow and I’ll show you how to change the bandages and put on a dressing. There’s really nothing to it.’
‘Nurse Chadwick, stop chattering and get back to work.’ Sister’s voice echoed off the high ceiling.
Pamela gave a guilty start. ‘See you tomorrow then,’ she whispered as she hurried off.
‘There now.’ Billy nudged Ruby in the ribs. ‘Nurse Capretti.’
‘Never mind that now,’ Ruby said, leading him to the exit and holding the door open. ‘Let’s get you home.’
Stepping outside, Billy stopped, staring around with a dazed expression. ‘Me cart’s gone.’
‘It’s all right, Billy. It’s just round the corner.’
Billy stared at his bandaged hands. ‘Bugger it! I can’t do nothing with me hands all trussed up like a Christmas turkey. I suppose I’ll have to ask you to drive me home, Ruby.’
Billy’s home turned out to be a loft above a stable that was situated next to a coal yard, close to the railway lines. Having unhitched the horse and settled him in his stall and, ignoring Billy’s protests that he could manage on his own, Ruby took the key from him and ran up the wooden steps to unlock the door. Hesitating on the threshold, she peered into the gloomy interior. The room was clean but sparsely furnished with a narrow bed, a table, two chairs and a chest of drawers; the only source of light was a small roof window and that was coated with grime and bird droppings. Stumbling past her, Billy fumbled with a box of matches but the bandages made him clumsy and he spilt them all over the tabletop. He swore loudly and Ruby hurried over to help him.
‘You’re helpless as a baby,’ she said, lighting the paraffin lamp. ‘You oughtn’t be here on your own, Billy.’
‘Ta, but I’ll be all right,’ Billy said, sitting down suddenly as the drugging effect of the laudanum began to wear off. ‘A good night’s kip is all I need and tomorrow I’ll be back to me old self again.’
‘I don’t see no food,’ Ruby said, glancing around the room. ‘You ought to eat something.’
‘I ain’t hungry. If I get peckish I can always go down the pie and eel shop.’
‘Don’t be so stubborn, Billy. Give us the money and I’ll go down the pie shop for you.’ Fixing him with a stern stare, Ruby held out her hand.
‘Maybe I could manage some pie and mash. There’s some money in the top drawer of the chest.’ Billy waved his bandaged hand in the vague direction of the chest of drawers.
Ruby found the coins and was counting out the pennies when she dropped one and it rolled under the wooden pallet that served as Billy’s bed. Getting down on her hands and knees, she lifted the coverlet and ran her hand over the bare boards. As she found the coin her fingers touched something soft wrapped in material. It was too dark to see but Ruby’s experienced hands recognised the texture of a wax doll. Reaching beneath the bed, Ruby pulled out one doll after another. Jumping to her feet, she faced Billy, waving a doll by the leg.
‘So you never sold them to the wholesalers!’
‘You wasn’t meant to find them.’
‘But you gave Mum the cash for the dolls. You said they was sold to the warehouse.’
‘Ruby, don’t go on. I done it for the best. Your old man was sick and I knew that pious old sod of a priest wouldn’t pay up.’
Ruby gasped in horror. ‘Don’t talk about Father Brennan like that. You’ll end up in purgatory.’
Billy threw back his head and laughed. ‘Get on with you. You don’t believe all that religious cant.’
‘What I believe don’t count,’ Ruby said, laying the dolls out on the coverlet and smoothing their crumpled dresses. ‘But I thank you for what you done and I’ll pay you back somehow or other. You’re a good man, Billy.’
‘Leave it out, girl. I owed Aldo a favour. I’ll sell them on and probably make meself a tidy profit. There’s only one person what matters to me and that’s Billy Noakes.’
‘You never gave yourself a thought when you run into that burning building, so don’t give me that.’
‘Anyone would have done the same. You get on home, Ruby. I’m going to be just fine on me own.’
‘I’m going, but not until I’ve seen you fed.’ Ruby slipped the money into her pocket. ‘I’m off down the pie shop but I’ll be quick as I can. You sit there and don’t move.’
‘Yes, nurse,’ Billy said, with a mock salute.
When Ruby returned to work after the funeral, the women at Bronski’s had been a bit cool after they discovered that she had tricked them into thinking she was Rosetta. Big Biddy and little Winnie had stuck up for her, but Ruby got the feeling that she had broken their unwritten code of comradeship, and that the others were more hurt than angry. If she could have found another job quickly, she would not have gone back to Bronski’s, but with Poppa barely cold in his grave, there was no alternative. On the morning after the fire Ruby went to work, determined to get off early so that she could visit Billy and make sure he was all right. The fire and Billy’s injuries had put the business of returning the stolen money out of her head; Ruby was quite unprepared for the welcome she received and the heartfelt gratitude of the women, that was largely delivered in pats on the back, winks and whispers. All the same, she couldn’t help wondering how they would all react if they knew that their benefactor was the person who had ordered the robbery in the first place. But she wouldn’t think of that now. She had to find a way to get off work early and having confided in Big Biddy, Ruby realised for the first time the power of collective action. At a given moment, Ruby pretended to faint and the women did the rest. They buzzed around her like worker bees around the queen, giving Vinegar Lil no opportunity to examine her, and countering her protests that one faint did not merit being sick enough to go home with a tirade of angry catcalls. Within minutes, Big Biddy had hefted Ruby up on her shoulder and carried her outside into the alley.
‘There now, you get off and see to Billy. We’ll sort out Lil and Bronski too, if it comes to it.’
‘Ta, Biddy. You’re a sport.’
Ruby ran all the way to Billy’s place and found him lying on the bed, still fully clothed, flushed and feverish. For a moment she was seized with panic, uncertain what to do next. Billy groaned and opened his eyes but there was no recognition in them, just the fog of high fever. Knowing instinctively that she must get the fever down, Ruby seized the jug from the chest and went down into the yard to fetch water from the pump. The horse neighed at her from his stable, but she told him he must wait. She would see to him later.
After stripping Billy of the charred remnants of his shirt, Ruby bathed him and put a cold compress on his forehead. When he seemed to be quieter, she took what was left of the money in the drawer and ran down the street to the nearest chemist to buy quinine and a pennyworth of laudanum. Back in Billy’s room, she dosed him with quinine mixed with a little water and gave him enough laudanum to ensure that he slept while she went to the hospital.
Ruby was relieved to find that Pamela was on duty in the vestibule, collecting patients and taking them to the treatment rooms, just as she had been on the previous day. As soon as she had a free moment, Pamela took Ruby to a treatment room and gave her gauze, lint and bandages and some salve to put on Billy’s burns, with instructions on how to cut away the soiled dressings and a quick demonstration of how to bandage a hand.
‘Can you remember all that, Ruby?’ she asked, making a parcel of the dressings.
‘I think so. I’ll have a go, but I’m a bit worried about him.’
‘I get off duty at eight o’clock. If you meet me outside the hospital you can take me to Billy’s house and I’ll have a look at him, although he really should be seen by a doctor.’
‘I’d be ever so grateful.’
‘Then that’s settled.’ Pamela handed Ruby the parcel of dressings. ‘Put that under your shawl so that old fish-face doesn’t see you taking anything out of the hospital. The way that woman carries on you’d think it all came out of her wages.’
‘I can pay for the bandages.’
‘Never mind that, you get back to Billy and I’ll see you later.’
As she changed the dressings on Billy’s hands, Ruby tried to remember all Pamela’s instructions. He was still too feverish and drugged with laudanum to understand what she was saying, but Ruby kept up a one-sided stream of conversation while she worked, realising that the mere sound of her voice had a quietening effect upon him. Once or twice he called her Rosetta and she did not correct him. When she was done, she made him as comfortable as possible, lighting the paraffin lamp on the table before she left for home and telling him that she would be back soon and not to worry. There was no way of knowing whether or not he had understood and Ruby worried about him all the way to Tobacco Court.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ demanded Sarah. ‘And don’t tell me you was at work because that Vinegar Lil come round checking up on you.’
‘Oh, no!’ Ruby pressed her hands to her cold cheeks. ‘That’s put the kibosh on it.’
‘Well, it would have if I hadn’t been too quick for the old cow,’ Sarah said, puffing out her chest. ‘Now if it was Rosetta what had gone missing I wouldn’t have been surprised, but when you miss an afternoon’s work then I know there’s something up, so I told Vinegar Lil that you was sick in bed.’
Granny Mole, sitting by the fire snoozing, opened one eye. ‘You’ll never go to heaven, Sal.’
‘Maybe not, but it sorted that woman out good and proper. So come on, Ruby, out with it or there’s no supper for you, my girl.’
Slipping off her shawl, Ruby moved closer to the fire. Her hands were numbed with cold and began to tingle painfully as she held them close to the flames; she couldn’t even feel her feet. A pan of vegetable soup simmered on the hob and her stomach growled with hunger. There was nothing for it: she would have to tell Mum everything.
Ruby began by admitting that she had not gone to Mass on Sunday, explaining that Jonas Crowe had offered to take her in his motor car to visit Rosetta. She ended by telling them of Billy’s heroic actions in the fire and of the injuries he had suffered.
‘Well I never! The poor man!’ Sarah said, ladling soup into a bowl. ‘You oughtn’t to have left him on his own. Ain’t he got no one to care for him?’
Granny Mole choked on her soup. ‘Don’t you bring him here. I ain’t giving up my bed for no one.’
‘No one’s asking you to, Ma. But all the same, I don’t like to think of the poor bloke sick and all on his ownsome. He done us a good turn selling them dolls so close to Christmas.’
‘Bah! I expect he made a bob or two for hisself. He’s a chancer is Billy Noakes.’
‘That ain’t fair, Granny,’ Ruby said, frowning. ‘Billy’s all right, he is.’
Sarah shot her a curious look. ‘So what is he to you, Miss? It’s Rosetta he’s sweet on.’
‘I know that, Mum, but we owe Billy. I found the dolls that he said the warehouse took under his bed. It was his own money what he give us at Christmas.’
‘Well, I never did! And you say he’s sick with no one to look after him?’
‘No one. He’s living in a stable loft, with no heat and not even a cold tap in his room. His horse is stabled better than what he is.’
‘Then that settles it. You got to get him here one way or another. It’s cold enough for snow and he’ll catch lung fever if he ain’t looked after.’
‘I said he can’t have my bed,’ repeated Granny Mole. ‘I need me sleep.’
‘No one’s asking you to give up your bed, Ma. I’ll move in with Ruby and Billy can have my bed just until he’s well enough to go home.’
Ruby stood outside the London Hospital stamping her feet and shivering as lacy white snowflakes fell from a black velvet sky. Every time the doors opened she peered through the swirling snow looking for Pamela, only to be disappointed. Finally, when she had almost given up hope, Ruby saw Pamela come out of the hospital followed closely by a tall young man. They were laughing at some shared joke and Ruby could tell by the way Pamela angled her head to look up at him that he was someone special to her. Embarrassed and thinking that she must have been forgotten, Ruby was about to walk away when Pamela called out to her and came hurrying over, dragging the young man by the hand.
‘Ruby, Ruby, it’s me. Do stop.’
Ruby hesitated, suddenly very conscious of her bedraggled appearance.
‘Ruby, I want you to meet my friend, Adam Fairfax,’ Pamela said, tucking her hand through his arm with a proprietorial gesture. ‘Adam, this is Ruby Capretti.’
‘How do you do, Miss Capretti?’ Adam doffed his hat and bowed. In the soft glow of the gaslight, snowflakes glistened like a halo on his guinea-gold hair.
Ruby swallowed hard and bobbed a curtsey. ‘Pleased to meet you, Sir.’
‘No, please, Miss Capretti. My friends call me Adam.’
His expensive clothes and manner of speaking set him apart as a gentleman, but Adam’s charming smile made Ruby feel quite dizzy and her heart turned a somersault inside her chest. She barely heard what Pamela was saying.
‘Adam is a doctor and he’ll be happy to take a look at Billy’s hands.’
‘Hold on, Pam,’ Adam said chuckling. ‘I’m not a doctor yet. I’ve another year to go before I qualify.’
‘Don’t be such a tease.’ Pamela tossed her head, pouting. ‘You promised you’d help.’
‘And I will, of course. I’d be happy to take a look at your friend’s injuries, Ruby, if you agree.’
Ruby nodded, shivering and staring mutely into his eyes that appeared to be the deepest chocolate brown, that is until he smiled, when they danced with golden glints.
‘My dear girl, you’re frozen stiff,’ Adam said, his voice full of concern. ‘And you’re soaked to the skin. I’ll call a cab.’ Shrugging off his black cashmere overcoat, he wrapped it around Ruby and strode off into Whitechapel Road to hail a cab.
Ruby huddled into the folds of his coat that was still warm from his body. The satin lining touched her cheek like a soft caress and she closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of bay rum and freshly washed linen. No man had ever shown her such consideration and she had never before met anyone remotely like Adam Fairfax; he was a golden, god-like young man, socially out of her class and undoubtedly in love with Pamela. But her heart was beating a tattoo inside her chest and she felt weak at the knees; if this was love then it was a dangerous and impossible passion. Adam was utterly wonderful and completely unattainable.