Nobody’s Darling

by Nobody’s Darling (retail) (epub)

  ‘Take your filthy hands off me and get out of my house!’ Mustering all her strength she pushed him towards the door.

  He laughed at her futile efforts. ‘Your house, is it?’ he mocked. ‘My, my! We’re quite the little property owner, aren’t we?’ Gripping her wrists harder he said cuttingly, ‘What would you do, I wonder, if it was all taken away from you? How would you survive without your precious business?’ Jerking her backwards, he insisted, ‘Somehow I don’t think you’d like it… back in the gutter. Too high and mighty for all of that now, aren’t you, eh?’ He saw the shock on her face, and misunderstood. ‘That frightens you, doesn’t it?’ He grinned, bending his head to kiss her. ‘Oh, but there’s no reason for you to be paupered, my sweet… not if you’re nice to me, there isn’t.’

  A terrible fight ensued when he locked her arms behind her back and began tearing at her nightclothes with his free hand. In a minute both robe and gown were flung on the floor and he was softly laughing. Terrified, yet determined that he wouldn’t violate her, Ruby kicked and squirmed; but her fierce resistance only served to excite him. ‘I’ve waited a long time for this, my beauty,’ he told her. Keeping one arm secured round her slim body and bunching her small fists tight behind her back, he had her at his mercy. His glittering eyes ravaged her nakedness. He had dreamed so often of seeing her like this, and now here she was, flesh and blood in his arms, stripped before his eyes and ripe for him to take her.

  He was in a frenzy, clumsily undoing the buttons on his trousers. His released member was thrust out large and erect as he feverishly probed between her thighs. He crushed her over the table, roughly opening her legs with the force of his body and crying out with delicious pleasure when he felt the heat of her skin against his belly. When Ruby frantically twisted away in an attempt to grab the centrepiece from the table, he snatched her towards him, ignoring her cries of pain.

  ‘You little witch!’ he snarled, gripping the tablecloth and sending the whole lot crashing to the floor. ‘I’ve waited long enough for this. Too long for you to stop me now!’

  He whipped the back of his hand against her face. The blood spurted from her lip, but she wouldn’t be still. She twisted and turned, and when he leaned close she pinched the skin of his face between her teeth and bit hard, until she could taste his blood in her mouth. Jerking back in agony, he was like a thing demented. Still he held on to her. He meant to have her. He was too far gone to stop now.

  * * *

  Out in the street, Johnny waited. He couldn’t believe it, but he couldn’t deny it. Ruby had opened the door to Luke Arnold, and with a smile had taken him inside. Unable to sit still, he had climbed down to the pavement and was pacing up and down. In the light from the street lamp, he could see that the door was slightly open. ‘Couldn’t even wait to close the door,’ he muttered angrily. In his mind’s eyes he could imagine them inside. But then he couldn’t imagine them. He couldn’t bring himself to believe it even now; even though he had seen the way Ruby had welcomed him. He paused beneath the street lamp and stared at the door. He lowered his gaze, and then he brought it back to the door again. His whole body ached with fury. It was all he could do not to tear in there and turn the whole house upside down. He began pacing the pavement again. Pacing and stopping, staring at the house, then pacing again. ‘She wouldn’t,’ he murmured. ‘I was mistaken. It can’t have been Ruby.’

  Almost without realising it, he was walking across the cobbled road towards the house. Suddenly he was outside the door, staring up, wondering whose house it could be, for he had made himself believe that it was not Ruby’s. But I saw her with my own eyes, he recalled. He was in a turmoil. He was bitterly jealous and deeply ashamed. Ashamed for her, ashamed that she could stoop to entertain such a low creature. But then he was ashamed of himself. How could he believe that it was Ruby he had seen? It was someone who looked like her, that’s all, he told himself. But then he knew there was no other woman who looked like her. Ruby’s image was etched on his heart, seared into his mind, so how could he ever mistake her?

  Confused, he turned away, retracing his steps. It was then that he heard the muffled cries from inside. Before he drew a second breath he was leaping up the steps and flinging open the door. Going down the passage at a run, he could hear the cries more clearly now. There was no mistaking Ruby’s voice. Enraged, he kicked open the parlour door. The scene before him was one of mayhem; chairs turned over and ornaments smashed on the carpet. The tablecloth and centrepiece strewn on the floor, and beside it Ruby’s nightclothes. She was naked, pressed backwards over the table with the half-clothed Luke on top; his face was scarred and bleeding, and the blood was dripping on to her bare shoulder, making a weird meandering pattern across the pale, creamy skin. As Johnny rushed forward, Ruby’s wide frightened eyes swivelled towards him. The fear was superimposed with shame. In her helplessness, she turned away.

  What happened next took place with such speed that Ruby could never recall it completely. All she felt was the weight snatched from her, followed by the confusing sense of a struggle, the nauseating crack of knuckle against bone as one man fell sideways and the other stood over him. Then Johnny’s face staring at her, wilder and angrier than she had ever imagined. ‘How could you let him into your house?’ he asked. His voice was low and condemning as he collected the tablecloth from the floor and threw it over her nakedness.

  ‘I didn’t know,’ she said lamely, sinking into the chair. Every bone in her body was hurting. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Luke’s misshapen form. Johnny’s vicious punch had struck home, sending him across the room. Like a rag doll, he lay sprawled unconscious in the armchair. ‘He said he was Lenny,’ she explained in a whisper. When Johnny gave no answer to that, she assumed that he thought her a liar. ‘I’M NO LIAR!’ she snapped, flinging the cover tighter round her body. Struggling out of the chair, she stood defiantly before him.

  He wanted so much to take her in his arms, for he believed her, and knew he had been wrong. Yet he sensed that if he was to put out one hand to her, she would shrink from him. His instincts warned him it wasn’t right for them yet. She wasn’t ready for him. So instead he asked simply, ‘Why don’t you go home, Ruby?’

  She realised his good intention, but she resented it. ‘I am home,’ she answered. Her dark eyes blazed into his. Beneath all that defiance was a mountain of shame. ‘And anyway, I’m not answerable to you.’ She glanced scornfully at Luke’s prostrate figure. ‘Thank you for what you did just now, but I’d be grateful if you would just get him out,’ she said. ‘I don’t expect you to believe it, but he did trick his way into this house.’

  He continued to look down on her with questioning eyes. In spite of himself there still lingered the smallest of doubts. After all, he had seen her smile at Luke at the door. ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’ she demanded.

  ‘Does it matter what I believe?’

  Unable to contain her anger she hit out at him with her fist. It made no impact. He stood his ground while she screamed at him. ‘I don’t give a damn whether you believe me or not, so get out and take him with you!’ The awful incident had left more than its physical mark on her. She had been terrified for her very life, and now the relief was too much. That Johnny had seen it all was both shocking and infuriating to her. The bitter tears fell down her face. ‘I said, get out!’ she cried, going to the door and willing him away from this awful scene.

  It was a moment before he moved, and when he did it was to stride across the room and tower over her. ‘You don’t belong here,’ he told her in a soft firm voice. ‘Go home to Lizzie… to your family.’ When he saw that he had touched a nerve, he dared to go on, ‘Better still, let me take care of you.’

  Ruby felt herself weakening. What she wanted was to fall into his arms and admit she had been wrong. Yet what she actually did was to order him in a stiff voice to: ‘Leave me alone.’

  For what seemed an age he continued to look down on her. She seemed so vulnerable. The tears were st
ill wet on her face, and even though she wanted him to think how independent and able she was, he saw the helpless little girl in her. His heart turned over at her beauty. One minute he was looking into her upturned face, and the next she was in his arms and they were kissing; a tender warm kiss filled with passion and a love that could not easily be denied. ‘Come home.’ he said, gently holding her, his dark eyes softly smiling.

  She drew away, shaking her head. ‘I am home,’ she said again. ‘My mam turned me out, and now I’m turning you out. Please go.’ She knew if he stayed, she would be lost.

  He made a deep groaning noise in the back of his throat. ‘You little fool!’ he said in a controlled voice. ‘What is it that drives you? Is it money? Is it power? Is it the fear of leaning on someone else?’ He shook his head slowly from side to side, ‘Oh, Ruby. RUBY!’ Placing his two hands on her shoulders, he held her there. ‘Whatever it is, don’t you think the price is too high?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ The touch of his strong hands on her shoulders was wonderful.

  ‘I mean that nothing in the world is worth the loneliness you must be feeling right now.’ He jerked his head sideways and moved his dark eyes round the room. It was a pleasant enough place, but it had no heart. ‘Look around you, Ruby. Where’s your mam? Where are your brothers and sisters? Your family? Where are the things you’ve always cherished? I thought the very reason you wanted to move out of Fisher Street and go up in the world was so you could give your family a better life?’ He looked on her with the love of a man who believed that love may be lost. ‘Lizzie adores you, but she can’t give up what she’s had all these years, and you’re wrong to expect it. Her home is where she brought up her children. It’s that damp and draughty house where she lived content with her husband for all those years. You were born in that house… all the children were. Your father was buried from that house.’ He shook her gently. ‘Oh, Ruby, can’t you see what I’m saying? Your mam is afraid of you.’

  ‘Afraid of me?’ She was shocked. Until she recalled how violently her mam had reacted when she asked her: ‘What is it you’re afraid of?’

  ‘You’re asking her to do something that she just can’t do. You are asking her to be a stranger in a strange place. Think hard, Ruby. Think of her, and you’ll see that it would break her heart. She has her memories, and they’re all back in that house on Fisher Street. Lizzie will never set foot in this house. It’s you who will have to go to her.’ He stroked her hair. ‘And then there’s me. No man will ever love you more.’ His voice hardened when he felt her stiffen beneath his hands. ‘I want you to be my wife, but I have little to offer.’

  Without another word he went to the chair and lifted Luke’s limp body on to his shoulder. As he passed her, he kept his eyes straight ahead, a tall proud man who had been rejected yet again. Will I never learn? he asked himself bitterly as he went out of the house and into the street. God knows, no man could ever love her more than me. But it wasn’t enough. She was a woman who had made herself a good business, and he admired her for it. Sadly for him, though, it had carried her further away, and now he could never see her making a life with him.

  From the doorway, Ruby watched as he threw his passenger into the carriage. When he glanced back at her, she stepped quickly into the passage and closed the door. For a long time she leaned against the door. The sound of the carriage wheels made a distant and musical sound against the raised cobbles. Another moment, and then the silence was thick and unnerving. Coming into the parlour, she looked with sorry eyes at the wreck there. She heard Johnny’s words: ‘Where’s your mam? And your family? Nothing in the world is worth this loneliness.’ The tears fell freely down her face. ‘Oh, Mam, what have I done to us?’ she murmured. Something else he’d said came into her mind. ‘I want you to be my wife.’ How many times was he prepared to say those wonderful words to her? Perhaps never again.

  It was some time later, after the parlour was tidied and she had bathed, that Ruby went to bed. She couldn’t sleep. Her thoughts were too alive with memories of Johnny. I can’t give it all up, she reminded herself. It was too hard, and now I have it all. But what did she have? More and more, his words had made her think. On the one side, she felt that it ought not to be just her who made sacrifices. On the other, she began to realise the ‘sacrifices’ she was already making, and it opened her eyes.

  Weary and undecided, she closed her eyes and drifted into a restless sleep. Her mind was alive with images; Johnny, Luke; her mam. And all she could hear was Luke’s veiled threat: ‘What would you do if it was all taken away?’ What did he mean by it? Nothing of course, she told herself. He was a loud-mouthed thug who thought with his tongue. Her business was safe from him. She was safe from him.

  Ruby gave herself up to sleep. But, even as she slept, disturbing events were taking place that would determine her future.

  * * *

  A week later, an official-looking gentleman paid a visit to Scarborough and Widow Reece. When she opened the door, he was secretly delighted to see that she looked harassed and somewhat unhappy. ‘Mr Lawton, Ma’am,’ he said, in a warm polite voice. ‘From the firm of Lawton, Armitage and Castle.’

  At once her expression lifted. ‘Oh. Please, come in.’

  Removing his trilby, he followed her into the parlour. It smelt of medicines and liniment. He didn’t want to stay long so he promptly declined her offer of tea and biscuits. At that same moment, there came a sharp knock on the ceiling. They both glanced up, ‘I’m sorry,’ Mrs Reece muttered, going at a painful rush across the room. ‘It’s my sister. She’s very poorly, you know.’

  He waited patiently while she went up the stairs, then down again, then up and down once more; the first time to collect a bowl of hot water, and the second to carry out a tray of refreshments. When she came into the parlour again, she brought the pungent smell of disinfectant with her. ‘Forgive me,’ she said, settling into the chair and regarding him carefully. ‘My sister needs constant attention, otherwise I would never have entertained your business proposal.’

  He smiled knowingly. ‘Of course. I can see that you have been placed in a difficult situation. It’s very sad when loved ones fall prey to illness.’

  She was impatient now, and desperately tired. ‘Please, I have little time to spare for you.’

  ‘Indeed,’ he agreed. Without delay he opened his briefcase and withdrew a sheaf of papers. ‘It’s all there,’ he explained, putting them into her gnarled fingers. ‘My client has been extremely generous and, if I may say, you will not better his offer.’

  After she had glanced through the documents, Widow Reece looked up with regret. Most of her money was gone, used up by endless medical bills for herself and her sister. Now it was necessary to employ constant care round the clock for her, and this was why he was here. This man had offered her a lifeline, and though she would rather not have deceived Ruby in this way, she felt there was no alternative.

  His client was willing to buy Ruby’s debt. On top of that, he was prepared to pay a hundred guineas for the privilege. How could she refuse?

  ‘Are we agreed then?’

  ‘On two conditions.’

  ‘Name them.’

  ‘First, the transactions must be approved by my solicitor. Second…’ Widow Reece lowered her gaze. She felt guilty. But the guilt was fleeting. Ruby was young and strong, and what did it matter who owned the debt? Ruby would pay it off, just as she had promised, and be none the wiser. ‘The second condition is that Ruby’s monthly payments should still come to my solicitor. That way she will not know that I’ve sold her debt.’ Her face flushed with shame.

  ‘Agreed.’ In fact, his own client had issued the very same instructions. Ruby Miller must not yet know of this transaction.

  With the proposal generally agreed, he took his leave. It needed only a consultation with Mrs Reece’s solicitor, and the deed would be done. He felt he had done a good day’s work here. And no doubt Luke Arnold would wholeheartedly agree with him!

>   Chapter Seventeen

  Ruby was desperately worried. Christmas and the coming New Year should have been her busiest time. Instead, she had already been forced to dismiss one of the assistants, and most of the time she herself was standing idle.

  ‘It’s very quiet in here, my dear.’ Lady Lloyd-Briggs was still a loyal customer. Looking into the mirror, she roved her concerned gaze around the shop. ‘I recall the time when this place was bursting at the seams,’ she said curiously.

  ‘Oh, we’ve had a rush this morning.’ Ruby lied shamefully.

  ‘I’m not complaining. It’s nice to have the shop all to myself,’ she replied with a warm smile. All the same, she was most surprised at the lack of customers. It was very odd. Very odd indeed.

  Later, when the shop was closed and she was alone with her thoughts, Ruby pored over the accounts ledger. It told a shocking tale. Already she was a month behind with the payment to Widow Reece’s solicitor, and it looked increasingly as though she might have to ask for some more time.

  With a heavy heart, she put pen to paper, explaining the situation which she promised was ‘of a temporary nature’, and then she posted the letter on her way home. More and more, Ruby was learning what a cold unfriendly world it was when you aspired to heights that left your loved ones behind. ’

  In the days that followed Ruby arrived daily at the shop, dressed smartly with her hair brushed to a deep shine and a heart filled with determination. The customers will return, she told herself. But they never did. And she was at a loss to understand why.

  One Monday morning she arrived at the shop, looking every inch the businesswoman, in her expensive brown jacket and long straight skirt. She wondered whether today would be any better. Unfortunately it was not. In spite of her splendid window display and a sign telling the world she had reduced the price of her best hats, only two customers took advantage; one was a passer-by, and the other was Lady Lloyd-Briggs. This time she made no comment about the lack of customers. Instead, she told Ruby, ‘Foolish women, my dear. Some of them wear a hat, not to cover their hair but to smother their pitiful brains’ leaving Ruby to wonder at such an odd statement.