Raising his glass, he turned to Rosetta, his face split in a huge grin. ‘I ain’t one for speeches, but I’d just like to thank my beautiful bride for agreeing to take me on. I’m the luckiest man alive. Here’s to us, Mrs Noakes.’
A round of applause from the other diners brought the colour flooding to Rosetta’s cheeks. Raising her glass, she downed the port and lemon in one gulp.
‘Here, steady on, girl,’ Billy said. ‘You’ll make yourself poorly.’
The wine on an empty stomach was already playing hopscotch in Rosetta’s brain. ‘If you don’t want yours, Ruby, I’ll have it.’
Before Ruby could protest, Rosetta had swallowed the contents of her glass too. She smiled,
feeling the lead weight that had been pressing down on her lifting, leaving her light-headed and pleasantly muzzy. ‘Cheers.’
‘Well, it is our wedding day,’ Billy said, lighting a cigar. ‘Drink up, Mother Capretti and Grandmother Mole. We’re celebrating.’
Granny Mole jerked her head in Rosetta’s direction. ‘I think she’s had enough.’
‘I’ll have another, Billy,’ Rosetta said, tossing her head. ‘And a cigarette if you’ve got one on you.’
‘A cigarette!’ Sarah almost fell off her chair. ‘You don’t smoke, Rose.’
‘I do,’ Rosetta replied, with a careless shrug. ‘Sometimes I do. All the girls at the Falstaff smoked.’
With an indulgent smile, Billy took out a packet of Argosy cigarettes. ‘Go on then, ducks, let’s see you smoke one of these.’
It was all Rosetta could do to prevent herself from coughing as she sucked in the pungent smoke. She had only tried a Woodbine once and that had made her feel sick, but the look of shock on the faces around her made it worthwhile. She blew a plume of smoke into the air, holding the cigarette between her fingers, mimicking the actions of Aggie and the other girls in the chorus.
Leaning across the table, Sarah’s face was a picture of outrage. ‘You can just give up that
disgusting habit, Rose. Married or not, you won’t smoke under my roof and that’s that.’
‘Lucky we got our own place then, ain’t it?’ Rosetta said, flicking ash into the ashtray. ‘We got a really nice landlady. She lets me do just as I please, so it’s as well we don’t have to live with you.’
‘That’s what you think,’ Granny Mole said, glowering at Rosetta over the top of her glass.
‘What?’ Rosetta turned to Billy for an answer. ‘What’s she saying?’
‘Er, well, I was going to tell you later, love.’ Billy ran his finger round the inside of his starched collar. ‘You see, I had a lot of expenses lately and I been spending time with you when I should have been out working.’
‘What he’s trying to tell you,’ Sarah said, folding her arms across her chest, ‘is that he can’t afford the rent where you’ve been staying. You’re both coming to live at Tobacco Court with us.’
‘No! It ain’t true.’ Rosetta turned to Billy, clutching his arm. ‘I only stayed last night for the look of things. This is a joke, ain’t it?’
Shaking his head, Billy’s face crumpled into a worried frown. ‘Sorry, pet. All this cost an arm and a leg. I wanted to do it in style …’
Without waiting to hear the rest, Rosetta jumped to her feet and stormed out of the chophouse.
‘Leave her, Billy,’ Ruby said, getting up from the table. ‘It’s all been too much for Rose in her condition. Let me talk to her.’
‘I dunno what I did wrong,’ Billy said, shaking his head. ‘She’s been acting queer all day.’
‘Needs a good slapping,’ muttered Granny Mole.
‘I was like that with Joe,’ Sarah said, staring gloomily into her port and lemon.
Hurrying out of the building, Ruby found Rosetta outside, sitting on the edge of an ornate, stone horse trough with the cigarette burning away between her fingers. Taking it from her hand, Ruby ground the dog-end into the cobbles. ‘Calm down, Rose. There’s no need to get in such a state.’
‘How would you know? You’ve got it easy, living with your fancy man. Just look at you, Ruby, all dressed up to the nines and me in this cheap rag.’
Sitting down beside her, Ruby resisted the temptation to put her arms around Rosetta,
knowing that, at this moment, any show of sympathy would only make things worse. ‘First off, Jonas isn’t my fancy man. I just work for him, Rose, as you well know. And you look beautiful, you always do. You could wear a flour sack and make it look good.’ Rewarded by a watery chuckle, Ruby patted Rosetta’s hand. ‘What’s up? You can tell me. Remember? We always told each other everything.’
‘I’m a bad person,’ Rosetta said, stifling a sob. ‘I let Alf Ricketts have his way with me because I wanted to get out of the chorus. I made Billy think I was in love with him when there was someone else and now I’m stuck. I’m hitched to a man I don’t love and I got to go back and live with Ma and Gran.’ Flinging her arms around Ruby’s neck, Rosetta burst into loud sobs. ‘I wish I was dead.’
Ruby held her, patting her back and murmuring words of comfort that sounded feeble even to her own ears, allowing Rosetta to cry until she subsided against her shoulder exhausted. Billy had come out of the chophouse and was about to cross the street but Ruby shook her head, signalling him to leave them alone. He paused, looking uncertain for a moment before retracing his steps. Understanding only too well the pain of loving someone totally unobtainable, Ruby stroked Rosetta’s damp curls back from her forehead.
‘If it’s Jonas you’re thinking about, Rose, then best forget him.’
‘You want him for yourself.’ Rosetta jerked herself upright, staring at Ruby with undisguised hostility.
‘No, no, of course not.’ Ruby grabbed Rosetta’s cold hands. ‘He’s not the man for you. He’s bad news, Rose. He doesn’t care for anyone but himself.’
Wiping her eyes on her sleeve, Rosetta hiccuped and sniffed. ‘I can’t help it. I love him.’
‘You don’t know him.’
‘I know he’s rich and successful. He’s exciting and dangerous. I know he’d want me too, given half a chance. Billy is – just Billy.’
‘He’s a good man in spite of his shady dealings and at heart he’s decent. Billy loves you, Rose. Don’t throw that away for something that doesn’t exist.’
Jumping to her feet, Rosetta stared down at Ruby, her bottom lip quivering and her eyes brimming with tears. ‘You’ve never been in love. You don’t know how I feel.’
‘You’re so wrong. I know exactly how you feel.’
‘Ruby?’
Glancing across the road, Ruby could see pale faces staring at them through the window of the chophouse. Rising swiftly, she grabbed Rosetta’s hand and began to walk. ‘I’ll tell you a secret,
Rose, but only if you swear you’ll keep it to yourself.’
Ruby had confessed everything to Rosetta, everything that is except the truth about the night when Jonas had taken her by force and the second occasion when, to her everlasting shame, she had wanted him, but he had walked away from her. Jonas had left her alone since then, passing the time of day if they happened to meet in the labyrinth of corridors in the house, but never going out of his way to seek her company. For this, Ruby was relieved, and yet a small part of her was hurt and angry. She had been humiliated and used but it shamed her even more to remember that there had been excitement and illicit pleasure in the shocking act. Then Jonas had surprised her, yet again, with the handsome present of an outfit for Pamela’s engagement party. Ruby knew that she ought to have thrown it back at him, but she had not; she had worn it and enjoyed the luxury of being dressed like a real lady. Perhaps her punishment had been the way the toffs had seen through her, knowing at once that she was not one of them. Rose was not the only one who would be doomed to perdition. Ruby was only too glad that living in Raven Street she was far away from Father Brennan’s parish and the confessional. It would take a river of tears to wash away her sins.
Ruby found some relief in throwing herself into work and study. There were examinations to be taken, instituted by the formidable Miss Luckes, and Ruby studied hard, passing with respectable marks. While she was studying, Ruby saw very little of Pamela and even less of Adam. She was grateful for the fact that Pamela did not appear to have noticed her early departure from the engagement party. In fact Pamela had apologised profusely for getting so involved with her other guests that she had completely neglected her friend. Having set the wedding date for the following June, Pamela was full of plans, even going as far as suggesting that Ruby might like to be one of her bridesmaids. Deeply touched, Ruby knew that Pamela was speaking out of simple affection and straight from her kind heart, but to accept would be inviting a fiasco similar to that at the engagement party. They had become firm friends during the time when Pamela was Ruby’s mentor, but that did not alter the fact that socially they were poles apart; Pamela might be able to overlook the incontrovertible truth, but Ruby never could.
Apart from Pamela’s constant preoccupation with wedding plans, the talk in the hospital was mostly about the threat of fresh hostilities in South Africa. As the weeks went by and summer drifted into autumn, Ruby read the newspapers and listened to the war-mongering chat of the
young medical students and housemen, but the fight with the Boers was a world away from Whitechapel and family problems. She made a great effort to visit Tobacco Court when she had any free time but Rosetta seemed to be in a permanent sulk, Granny Mole made things worse with her tactless remarks and constant carping, her mother looked strained and exhausted and Elsie flitted in and out like a pale moth. Billy was never in, supposedly going about his business but more likely, Ruby thought, keeping out of the way. With a house full of squabbling women, who could blame him?
Late one evening at the end of October, Ruby left the hospital, wrapping her coat tightly around her. An autumn gale shredded into shards by the city buildings hurled itself down the street like a hooligan on the rampage, picking up rubbish from the pavements and hurling it in the face of anyone unfortunate enough to be out on such a wild night. Holding onto her hat, Ruby was about to hail a cab when she saw a soldier approaching her. For a moment she thought it must be a visitor to the hospital but a familiarity in the walk wrenched a cry of surprise and joy from her throat. She ran towards him, flinging her arms around his neck ‘Joe. Oh, Joe!’
‘Hold on, ducks. If you strangle me I won’t be no use in fighting them Boers.’
‘No, not you, Joe?’ Ruby stared into his face, pale in the gaslight. ‘They’re not sending you all the way to Africa? Not you?’
Joe grinned. ‘I’m a trained soldier now. Got to do me duty, and to tell the truth I can’t wait to get into the fray, but I had to come to see you first.’
‘This is terrible. When do you have to go?’
‘Got to catch the troop train for Southampton first thing in the morning.’
‘Have you seen Mum?’
‘Couldn’t face it, Ruby. Thought it might come better from you.’
Hailing a passing cab, Ruby grabbed Joe by the arm; this was not the time for arguing. ‘You’d best come to Raven Street with me, then.’
Joe shook his head. ‘Not me. I’m steering clear of Crowe. I just wanted to make sure he was treating you right. I know I run out on you, ducks. I ain’t proud of it.’
‘Jonas has gone to Southend to see Lily. He’s not due back for a day or two. Get in the cab, Joe.’
Unlocking the front door, Ruby went into the hall and switched on the electric light. ‘It’s all right, Joe. He’s not here, I promise you, and there’s no gaming allowed while Jonas is away. The place is empty except for the servants below stairs.’
Taking off his peaked cap, Joe stepped over the threshold, looking uncertain. ‘It don’t feel right, me being here.’
‘Don’t be daft. You’ll be long gone before Jonas gets back and I’ll not turn my own brother out on the street. Come on up to my room.’ Without waiting to see if he was following, Ruby ran lightly up the stairs, leading the way to Lily’s sitting room, which she had grown used to using as her own.
Leaving Joe to make up the fire, Ruby went down to the kitchen to collect a tray of supper. Cook had the night off and, taking advantage of the situation, the kitchen maid was entertaining her young man. They both jumped guiltily as Ruby walked into the kitchen.
‘Don’t worry about me,’ Ruby said, picking up a tray. ‘I won’t say a word.’ With the maid too engrossed in flirting with her boyfriend to see what she was doing, Ruby was able to pile the tray with as much food and drink as she could heft up four flights of stairs.
‘This is the life,’ Joe said, washing down the last of the cold pie with a glass of beer. Leaning back in his chair, he glanced round the elegantly furnished sitting room, nodding in approval. ‘You got a comfy billet here all right, Ruby. Seems I needn’t have worried about you.’
‘I’m all right,’ Ruby said, smiling. Any lingering resentment that she had felt melted away at the sight of seeing Joe looking tanned and fit, all traces of his past corrupt lifestyle honed away by hard training and discipline.
‘And you’re a proper nurse, like you always wanted to be,’ Joe said, lighting a cigarette. ‘You’ve done well, even better than Rose. How is she, by the way? Did she get that bastard theatre bloke to make an honest woman of her?’
‘She’s married, but not to Alf Ricketts.’
Joe listened in silence while Ruby told him what had happened since he left, carefully omitting the part about Rosetta’s hopeless infatuation with Jonas. She had barely finished when the sound of approaching footsteps made her break off in alarm. There should not be anyone in this part of the house at this time of night.
The door flew open and Jonas strode in. He stopped, glaring at Joe. ‘What the hell is he doing here? The maid told me you were entertaining a gentleman, Ruby, but I didn’t think
he’d
have the gall to turn up here.’
‘I can explain,’ Ruby said, jumping to her feet. ‘I didn’t think you would be back so soon.’
Joe stood up, smoothing down his tunic, a belligerent look in his eyes. ‘Don’t blame her. It was my fault.’
‘You don’t have to tell me that.’ Jonas snatched up Joe’s cap, flinging it at him. ‘Get out.’
‘Jonas, have a heart,’ Ruby said, making a superhuman effort to control her rising anger. ‘Joe is my only brother and he’s leaving in the morning for South Africa and the war.’