Ruby could have screamed. She wished he’d carry on saying what he’d really got to say. Rumour was rife amongst the workers that the explosives went off to other factories. Old man Gilbert wouldn’t stay poor, she thought to herself. ‘Yes, sir,’ she repeated.
‘We’ll have another intake of young staff after Christmas. It means setting up another section, and we need another foreman. I’d like to offer you the position, Mrs Caselton.’
Ruby was flabbergasted: a promotion, and more money! And there she was thinking she’s got the sack. ‘That’s very generous of you, sir, thank you.’
‘There will be a small increase to your pay packet because of the responsibilities involved. As you have much to learn, I intend to place another foreman with you until you’ve learnt the ropes. Do you know Herbie Wilcox?’
‘Only in passing, sir. We’ve not spoken much,’ she said. Herbie was a quiet man. She knew he was a widower and a few years younger than herself. He didn’t mix with most of the staff – but then, why would he want to mix with a group of cackling females?
The manager passed a sheet of paper over the desk to Ruby. ‘This will be your new contract,’ he said, as she quickly read the words on the page and blinked at the amount of money she would be paid each week.
‘Thank you, sir,’ was all she could say as she signed at the bottom of the contract, politely wished both men a merry Christmas, and left the office. As she walked across the yard to the shed where she was working, she smiled to herself. Life was certainly looking good. The girls would be pleased for her, although she was grateful she wouldn’t be supervising her own mates; that would have been hard. After all, Doreen and Jean had started at Gilbert’s long before she had. With a spring in her step, she walked across the yard to the shed, and as she opened the door she bumped into Herbie Wilcox.
‘Hello, Ruby – I was hoping to catch you. I take it you’ve just come back from the manager’s office?’ he said politely. Herbie was of slimmer build than Eddie and had darker hair and green eyes. He was well spoken, and she liked his manners.
‘Yes, I’m rather pleased to be given the opportunity. I will enjoy the work,’ she smiled as he shook her hand.
‘I look forward to working with you,’ he said as he went on his way.
As she got back to her worktable, Doreen and Jean grinned at her. ‘It’s not what you think,’ she said, smiling back at them. ‘I’ve got a lot to tell you once we leave work.’
At Cissie’s house, she told them about her promotion. ‘I did think that one of you two would have been offered the job first, though,’ she was quick to say.
‘Blow me, I don’t want to be in charge of a load of kids,’ Doreen said. ‘I’m thinking of giving up working at the factory. I’m going to work at the Co-op, it’s closer to home. I’m fed up working in draughty old sheds. The excitement is gone now the war is over. Chances are they picked you because you’re older than everybody else,’ she added, making Ruby feel ancient.
‘I’m not that old,’ she laughed. ‘Why, I’m only forty-one.’
‘That’s older than all of us,’ Cissie laughed as she rocked her son in her arms.
Promising to treat her friends to tea in the New Year to celebrate her promotion, Ruby wished them all a merry Christmas and headed down from South Road back to the town, where she picked up a few extra bits and pieces for Christmas Day. She stopped by the bookshop to see Frank and Stephen. The shop looked beautiful, decorated with ivy and a few sprigs of holly; it felt warm and welcoming.
‘Stop and have a cup of tea,’ Stephen said. ‘I’ll just serve this customer, then I’ll be with you. Frank wants a word with you – feel free to pop upstairs and see him.’
Ruby very rarely went upstairs to the men’s private quarters, so as she climbed the steep staircase, she called out ahead of her to let Frank know she was coming.
‘Coo-ee, Frank – Stephen told me you wanted me?’ she said as she found herself in a cosy living room with large windows that overlooked Pier Road. ‘You’ve got this looking awfully nice,’ she said. ‘Do I smell fresh paint?’
‘Yes, we’ve decorated the whole flat now. You know how long I’ve been waiting to do this, ever since I moved in,’ he laughed. ‘I got sick of Stephen nagging. What do you think?’
‘It’s very attractive,’ she said, looking at the old paintings on the walls and the leather settee and chairs set around a large fireplace. ‘You’ve made it so cosy and welcoming.’
‘Most of the bits and pieces I’ve picked up from house sales when we are buying books there. It looks expensive and only costs a few pounds.’
‘I’ll have to get you to look out for some of these bits for me,’ she said, ‘especially as I’ve been promoted now and got a bit more money to spend. I’m going to be a foreman in the New Year.’
Frank was pleased for her. ‘You’ve worked hard down there, Ruby. You deserve the promotion – well done.’
‘So what was it you wanted to see me about?’ she asked.
Frank went to a side table and picked up a letter. ‘I’ve heard from our Derek. Did you know there is another child on the way?’
‘I did – Susannah wrote to me. I’m thrilled for them. Your dad seems to be settling in as well. The last time I visited, Wilf looked ten years younger. It must be all that fresh air and Susannah’s cooking.’
Frank nodded in agreement. ‘I’m pleased for Dad. I don’t know what he would have been like living on his own at number fourteen into his old age. I know you’d have been over the road to help him, but you know what I mean.’
‘I do, although it would have been nice to have his company now that George and Irene have moved away.’
‘Don’t be too sad,’ Frank said. ‘Your George is going to go far in the business world, but he will never forget his roots.’
‘So was that what you wanted to talk to me about? Could you not have saved it until Christmas Day?’
‘No, there’s something else. I thought it best to tell you without Pat around your feet. She picks up on anything that’s being discussed.’
Ruby chuckled in agreement as she sat down in one of the armchairs. ‘Come on, then, tell me. What is it?’
‘I don’t want you getting excited, but Derek’s found out something about Eddie. He wanted me to speak to you first, so that I could break it to you face to face.’
Ruby felt lightheaded and breathless as she gripped the arm of the chair. Taking a deep breath, she blurted out, ‘Come on, I can take it, whether it’s good or bad news.’
Frank sat down opposite her. ‘He’s not dead, Ruby. He is very much alive.’
Ruby felt anger wash over her suddenly. ‘You mean all these years he’s been alive, and he’s never bothered getting in touch with me? I’m not sure I want to see him now,’ she spat out, her happiness at her new job and Christmas forgotten.
‘It’s not like that,’ Frank said. ‘Eddie did sustain injuries at the same time that Derek was hurt, but for some reason, he was given the name of another soldier. I don’t know the ins and outs of it,’ he said, as Ruby opened her mouth to fire questions at him.
‘But where has he been all this time?’
Frank looked her straight in the eye. ‘Eddie’s in prison.’
Ruby sat rigid-backed, a handbag resting on her knees. Never in a million years would she have thought she’d find herself sitting in the waiting room of a prison. When Frank had told her of Eddie’s situation, she hadn’t believed it. How could he be fighting in France one minute, and then back to England and in prison, without us knowing anything about it? she’d asked Frank.
‘He’s been locked up for over three years now, and has another three years to go.’
‘Oh my goodness, whatever has he done? This sounds serious, even for Eddie. He’s never had a squeaky-clean life, but to go to prison for six years? Why, and how come he never let me know he was there? It’s so cruel of him. I want to see him, Frank. I need to get to the bottom of this.’
�
��I wish I hadn’t told you,’ Frank had said. ‘He’s going to spoil your Christmas.’
Ruby had sighed. ‘Don’t think I wouldn’t know you had a secret. You’ve never been able to keep a secret, I’d see through you in minutes. Tell me all you know.’
It had taken Frank three weeks to obtain a visiting order for Ruby to see Eddie. He’d taken the day off from the bookshop and driven her to Wandsworth Prison himself. This was not something Ruby should have to face on her own. Granted he couldn’t go inside with her, but he could wait in his motor car. He had a book with him, so he was comfortable for as long as it took, although his eyes kept straying to the high walls of the prison and the locked door.
When Ruby was called through to the room where she could meet Eddie, she gasped in shock. He seemed so downhearted, and had aged terribly.
‘What have you done, Eddie?’ she snapped. ‘And what have you done to my family? I bet you don’t even know you are a grandfather, and you wouldn’t recognize our Pat if you walked past her in the street – you are like a stranger to us. I don’t even know why I’ve come to see you.’
‘I know everything about your life, Ruby. I know where you work, I know that George has moved away with his wife and child, and I know our Pat is thriving. The only thing I’ve not been able to do is hold you in my arms and kiss you,’ he said, searching her face desperately for a sign of forgiveness.
Ruby was aware there was a prison warden standing in the corner of the room. He could hear everything that was said. ‘Please don’t,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t talk about us like this. Why didn’t you get in touch with me, Eddie? That’s all I want to know. I thought you’d died when Derek was so badly injured. I was confused when no one could tell me anything about you. You could at least give me the answers to what I’ve been wondering all these years?’
Eddie continued to look at the face of the woman he’d loved for so long and couldn’t bear to disappoint. He spotted a couple of silver hairs and minute lines around her eyes, but deep down, she was still the feisty young woman he’d married. ‘I’m no good for you, Ruby. You’re better off without me.’
‘Just tell me what happened,’ she pleaded.
‘I was injured at the same time as Derek. I thought he’d died. To look at him lying there, his body twisted, his face covered in blood . . . I thought he was a goner. Ernie Minchin lay lifeless nearby; all my mates were wiped out in one blow. I was concussed, in a lot of pain, with injuries to my shoulder and leg. Like a coward, I got up and I ran. There was heavy gunfire and so much commotion. If I’d run in the other direction, I’d have been taken out by snipers. I ran blindly until I fell into a trench and lay there for a while, close to a couple of lads. They could see how bad I was. You’ve got no idea what it was like there, Ruby, with the persistent bombing, not much to eat. I was going out of my mind with fear.’
‘But Eddie, so many men were in the same boat as you. They haven’t ended up in prison. So what did you do to get here?’
‘It was wet. It was cold. The two lads in the trench took my jacket off me, wrapped up my wound and gave me a cleaner trench coat that had belonged to one of their comrades. I worked my way blindly through the trenches before collapsing. When I came to, I was being carried back to a medical unit behind the lines. They quizzed me to find out who I was, but I was completely out of my mind. They searched my pockets and found the paperwork of a Corporal Daniel Gordon. After a few days, as my memory came back to me, I could see this was a way out. It could give me a fresh start – away from you, and your lies.’
Ruby was astonished. ‘What are you talking about – lies? What has this got to do with me?’ she asked. And then the penny dropped. ‘It was those letters Stella sent to Derek, wasn’t it?’
Eddie gave her a hard stare and shrugged his shoulders.
‘If only you’d written to me to ask. Stella wasn’t the woman you remember. After Donald was killed, and she found out Pat was your daughter and not Frank’s, she turned very bitter towards me. It was only when I saw Derek and we gradually pieced together what happened that we realized, as awful as it sounds, Stella had been deliberately causing trouble between me and you. Do you know that when she heard Derek had been injured, around about the same time that Donald was killed, she turned on me and said Derek had let her know that you’d been killed? When I didn’t receive notification from the army of your death, I hung on to the hope that it was a big mistake and you were alive, and that one day you’d find me and come back. Eddie – I never for one moment expected you to turn up in prison. And how do you know so much about my life? Has someone been watching me? Why didn’t they make themselves known?’
‘It was the daughter of the person I used to lodge with when I worked in the brickfields. She used to work down the munitions factory, and spotted you. She told her mum and dad. I’d corresponded with them for quite a while, wanting to know what was going on in the old town, and they promised not to let you know where I was.’
Ruby shook her head. ‘What a bloody mess,’ she said. ‘I should turn my back on you and walk away once and for all.’
‘But you won’t, will you?’ he pleaded, knowing that now he’d seen her he couldn’t let her walk out of his life. ‘Because you love me.’
Ruby trembled. Being this close to Eddie, she could feel the magnetism between them. ‘You’ve pushed my love too far at times.’
Eddie said, ‘You know me and my temper. When I’d been brought back to Blighty and discharged because of my injuries – they were nothing serious,’ he added, noticing her startled look, ‘I moved back over Erith way. I got a job down the brickyard during the summer, and even took up with my old lodgings for a while.’
‘You mean you were less than a mile away, all the time I was worrying?’
‘Like before, I couldn’t keep away from you, but I was too much of a coward to make my presence known.’
‘So how the hell did you end up in here?’ she asked, her head still full of questions.
‘I got into a fight, and the other bloke almost died. It wasn’t my fault – he had started laying into somebody I worked with.’
‘But it’s never your fault, is it, Eddie? There’s always excuses. Well, I’ve had enough of it. I don’t want to live wondering what’s going to happen to you, and if there will be trouble again. I’ve got a lovely life now. I’ve got a job, I’m a grandmother, our Pat is a beautiful girl . . . I don’t need you in my life, Eddie. You broke my heart far too often, and now it’s me that’s going to say goodbye. I’ll always love you, Eddie, but I can’t live this way any longer.’ Ruby stood up and walked from the room as he called out to her.
If she’d looked back, she would have seen the tears in her husband’s eyes and his arms reaching out to her beseechingly, and she would have changed her mind. Instead, she walked away from Eddie Caselton for the last time.
19
18th February 1924
‘It’s not fair, it’s really not fair. George has one, and he talks about it all the time,’ Pat pouted.
‘Come on, Pat, you know that’s not true. George mentioned his wireless set once in his letter, and when he last brought Sarah to visit I never heard the word mentioned once. It’s probably a fancy of Irene’s – you know what she’s like when she gets something like that into her head. Why don’t you use your gramophone player Frank and Stephen bought for you for Christmas? Not many girls of your age have one. You should be grateful.’
‘If my dad lived here, he would buy me one,’ Pat said, giving her mum a sharp look.
Ruby rolled her eyes; this was Pat’s stock answer. Anytime she didn’t get her own way, she mentioned Eddie. Not that the girl had ever met him.
‘I’ll be glad when you’re old enough to start work. You’ll be thirteen next week and it’s time you acted your age. This time next year you’ll be looking for employment.’
Pat thought for a moment. ‘If I put more hours in at the bookshop, do you think the new owner would pay me more money? That
way I could save up for my own wireless.’
‘Don’t pester the poor man. He pays you more than the going rate for helping out when you aren’t at school because Frank asked him to keep you on. Now come along, what are you doing? I’m going to be late for work if you stand about here pestering me. Are you walking down the road with me or not, and what are you going to do after school?’
‘I might take a walk down the farm to see if they need a hand with anything.’
Ruby shook her head. Pat had been obsessed with farming ever since she’d saved up to buy a calf as a little girl. Thankfully, by the time she had enough money she’d changed her mind. ‘Can you be back in time for your tea? I thought we might go down the picture house tonight. There’s a film I’d like to see.’
Pat grinned. ‘Can we go and see The Monkey’s Paw? Daphne at school said it was great fun.’
‘I’m not paying good money to be frightened out of my skin,’ Ruby tutted. ‘We’re going to see Bonnie Prince Charlie. That handsome Ivor Novello is in it,’ she said, giving an exaggerated sigh just to embarrass her daughter.
‘Oh, Mum, why can’t you act your age?’
Ruby chuckled. ‘Are you coming or not? Only I don’t want to be late. It doesn’t set a good example to the workers.’
‘I’m not ready. I’ll see you tonight for tea. Please do think about The Monkey’s Paw – you can always put your hands in front of your face at the really scary parts.’
Ruby looked at herself in the large mirror hanging over the mantelpiece. Her hat was straight and her hair tidy. ‘Remember to close the door properly when you go out. Last time you left it open and next door’s cat got in.’
Pat gave an exaggerated sigh. ‘Oh, Mum, just go, or you’ll be in trouble with your boss. He may be sweet on you, but he won’t like you being late,’ she smirked.
Ruby gave her daughter a quick kiss on the cheek, ignoring the comment about Herbie Wilcox, who was now her manager. ‘God help any man who marries you,’ she muttered before she headed off.
A Mother Forever Page 29
