Left alone, Ruby circled the mannequin with a critical eye. Maybe with the right veil and headdress any of these dresses would be suitable…
‘Good afternoon, Miss Taylor.’
Ruby started, her stomach sinking as Hazel Price sauntered in. ‘Miss Price.’ She purposefully turned to the mannequin, feigning an adjustment of the long, ivory skirt. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘I’ve been sent to find you by Mr Carter. He says you need another pair of hands from the workroom to help with your wedding display and here I am.’
Ruby briefly squeezed her eyes shut. Damnation. ‘I see.’
‘So…’ Hazel came to stand beside her. ‘It seems we’ll be working together for the next couple of weeks. Won’t that be fun?’
‘Or torture,’ Ruby mumbled before turning and planting on a wide smile. ‘Well, I’ll be sure to thank Mr Carter when I see him. Why don’t you go to the design department and speak to one of the machinists? They all know what needs doing so you’ll be in good hands.’
‘I think it best I wait for you.’ Hazel ran her narrowed gaze over the mannequin. ‘That dress won’t do at all, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s entirely wrong for a June wedding. Better suited to the autumn, if you ask me.’
‘I didn’t.’
Hazel turned sharply, her gaze darkening with spite. The atmosphere crackled with tension, the dislike on her nemesis’ face undoubtedly mirrored on Ruby’s. Living with Victoria and being away from her mother for the last couple of weeks had bolstered Ruby’s self-belief immeasurably and her self-confidence had bloomed.
She crossed her arms. ‘You will be under my charge, Miss Price. Mine and Miss Pennington’s. If you wish to help with this project, then you will do exactly as I ask, when I ask it. Is that clear?’
Ruby’s pulse beat so loudly in her ears, she was sure Hazel would hear it.
Slowly, Hazel stepped back, her lips pulled into an ugly sneer, her eyes bright with malice. ‘So, it seems sweet little Ruby has picked up some of her lover’s bolshiness. I supposed it was to be expected. Although, I must say, I can’t imagine any of the staff who have been talking about your grotesque affair will have thought it would happen so soon.’
‘Go away, Miss Price. I have no need for you here.’ Ruby’s heart thundered and, to her shame, tears of anger pricked her eyes. ‘You should really be very careful how you speak about people. The world has a way of paying back both good and bad acts towards others.’
‘Do you love her?’
‘Get out.’
‘Do you?’ Hazel raised her eyebrows, her eyes glinting with spite. ‘Only you do know it’s an offense for a woman to be with another that way. Maybe Miss Pennington would be interested to hear the nature of yours and Mrs La—’
‘Miss Price.’ Mrs Woolden appeared by the back curtain separating the room from the department, her cheeks mottled with anger. ‘I suggest you leave right this minute.’
Hazel took another step back and dipped her head, but not before Ruby saw a flash of fear pass through Hazel’s eyes. Mrs Woolden was as close to Miss Pennington as any woman could be in the store. She had their employer’s respect and ear. If Mrs Woolden disapproved of any of the female staff, Miss Pennington would listen to what she had to say.
Sickness rolled through Ruby as Hazel stalked past her to the curtained partition and disappeared. If Mrs Woolden had heard what Hazel had said, it could be Ruby’s head on the block rather than Hazel’s.
The silence that followed heightened Ruby’s stretched nerves to breaking. Mrs Woolden stood before her, her gaze unreadable and her lips pursed.
Ruby swallowed. ‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Woolden. I told Miss Price to leave several times, but she—’
‘Might I give you a piece of advice, Miss Taylor?’ Mrs Woolden laid the wedding dress she carried on a chaise longue and started to unzip the protective bag. ‘Matters of the heart are complicated and often hurtful. Embarking on a relationship you know will be a source of heartbreak, gossip and judgement is a foolish decision. One that is of an illegal nature even more so. Do you understand?’
Shame bore down on Ruby until she thought she would faint, but she held firm. ‘I do.’
‘Good. Then let’s us hear no more about it.’ Mrs Woolden’s hands trembled as she lifted the dress and studied it. ‘Why don’t you go to the bathroom and freshen your face and hands? I’ll be here when you get back.’
Mortified, Ruby fled the room and almost ran down the grand staircase, through the atrium to the staff bathrooms. She burst inside and immediately locked herself in a stall and sat down on the closed toilet seat. Her tears came fast and hot, running down her cheeks in rivulets that felt never-ending.
Her heart ached and her mind raced with what Mrs Woolden might do with the information Hazel had so cruelly imparted. Ruby closed her eyes. Oh, to see the disappointment or shock in Miss Pennington’s eyes would be more than she could bear.
‘Ruby?’ There was a sharp rap on the toilet door. ‘Are you in there? I saw you running through the store like a madwoman. Has something happened?’
Ruby stilled as Victoria knocked a second time. ‘You must go, Victoria. We can’t be seen together.’
‘Why not?’
‘It’s Hazel. She… she said something about us in front of Mrs Woolden. You need to leave.’
‘Open the door. Right now. You should know by now that I won’t be hidden from view any more than you should. Open the door.’
Ruby covered her face with her hands before sliding them into her lap and pushing heavily to her feet. The moment she’d opened the door, Victoria pushed her back inside and locked it.
‘What are you doing?’ Ruby’s heart raced as she stood so close to the woman she loved, the woman she wanted. ‘We can’t stay in here like this. What if someone—’
Victoria’s lips crushed Ruby’s, her hands on her shoulders pushing her back against the toilet wall. Desire swept through Ruby on an intoxicating wave to pulse deep in her core. She gripped Victoria’s waist and pulled her tight to her body, their breasts crushing, their legs linking thigh to thigh. After months and months of wanting this, of wondering what it would be like to kiss Victoria, an almost animalistic lust overcame Ruby as she tangled her tongue with Victoria’s, her lips so hungry they ached.
When Victoria stepped abruptly back, her cheeks were red and her eyes alight with an erotic fire that had Ruby reaching for her again.
Victoria smiled and held up her hand. ‘No, no more. At least no more for now. I’ve been wanting to do that for so long, but I just wasn’t sure I could.’ Tears glistened in her eyes. ‘I like you, Ruby. More than like you. I’ve lived a life that was neither true, nor fulfilling, and as much as I loved my husband, it was women I truly wanted to be with, but I have always been so afraid… until you.’
Ruby stared in disbelief, her heart rejoicing yet scared to really believe all she had dreamed of might be reciprocated. ‘You want me, too?’
Victoria laughed. ‘Look at you. How could anyone not want you?’ She smoothed her hands over her hair and the front of her dress. ‘Now, tidy yourself up and go back to work. We’ll talk tonight after Tommy is asleep. This our time, Ruby. No one will pull us apart. Do you understand, no one. If that’s what you want?’
‘It is.’ Tears blurred Ruby’s vision. ‘It really, really is.’
‘Good.’
With a final smile, Victoria left the stall and it was only when the bathroom door closed behind her, that Ruby took another breath.
Forty-Six
Samuel stood on the doorstep of his family home and stared at the brass knocker. His mind whirled with possible scenarios of what would greet him from behind the closed door; of what his mother and sisters would say about his unannounced return.
He purposely hadn’t sent word ahead about his return on the Adriatic, having no wish to receive his mother’s beseeching, Katherine’s demands and Fiona’s whining in return. Now, all of those things would be unavoid
able.
He raised the knocker and let it drop.
Yelling sounded behind the door as his sisters screamed a reason why each shouldn’t answer the door. Hanging his head, he closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten until the screaming raised to a crescendo and the door was pulled open.
‘Hello, Ma.’
‘Samuel…’ She pressed her hand to her chest, her blue eyes wide with shock. ‘Oh, my darling son. You’re back.’
Samuel smiled to hide his immediate concern at the weight his mother had lost and the sadness in her dark blue eyes. ‘How are you, Ma?’
His mother gave a dismissive wave of her hand. ‘There’s no need to talk about me. How are you? Come in, come in.’
She stepped back, her tearful gaze scrutinising his face as Samuel brushed past her into the hallway. The mass of discarded clothes, shoes and God only knew what else strewn around the small space was the first thing that hit him. That, and the screaming of his squabbling sisters in the parlour. He dropped his bag on the floor and slowly took off his jacket before hanging it on the post at the bottom of the stairs.
‘I see the cleaner you wanted didn’t turn up in my absence,’ he said, wryly, looking at the underwear, shoes and discarded scraps of paper lining the staircase. ‘Those sisters of mine too busy at their places of work to help you clean up?’
‘What you talking about?’ His mother planted her hands on her ample hips, her brow furrowed. ‘You know I can’t afford to employ help. Especially with you disappearing across the water while me and your sisters have had to fend for ourselves these past weeks.’
‘Disappearing?’ Samuel swiped his hand over his face. ‘God, Ma, you do know the Titanic sank, don’t you? After what I and a thousand others have been through—’
‘I don’t want to talk about that. It’s too upsetting. You survived and there’s nothing more to talk about. My nerves can’t take any more of it.’ She stepped forward and pulled him firmly into her arms, pressing a lingering kiss to his temple. ‘Now, go and see your sisters.’
Samuel hugged her and then stepped back, holding her at arm’s length, seeing the fear for him clear in her eyes. ‘I’m all right, Ma.’
‘As I knew you would be.’ She brushed a tear from her cheek. ‘Into the parlour with you. Go on.’
As he entered the parlour, his sisters’ shouts and screams at one another jabbed through his brain like sharpened knife blades.
‘Well, that’s the sort of homecoming a brother likes to receive from his beloved sisters.’
They stopped fighting immediately. Each releasing the other’s hair before staring at Samuel, their eyes agog and their mouths open. Then they launched themselves at him and he was caught up in a tangle of arms as Katherine and Fiona embraced him.
‘Thank God you’re back!’
‘We’re finally saved from starvation!’
Samuel extracted himself from their not-so-loving embrace and pinned his sisters with a glare. ‘Is fighting the norm in this house now? For crying out loud, this is not what I wanted to see when I stepped through the damn door. Don’t you think the things that have happened over the last few weeks should be enough to pull our minds from petty squabbles?’ He dragged his gaze from his sisters’ faces to stare around the small, dark parlour, his stomach knotting with revulsion at the sight of the filthy cushions and stained carpet. ‘It’s a bloody tip in here. Haven’t any of you lifted a finger without me here to keep on to you? It’s a disgrace.’
Fiona flounced to the settee and sat down, the front of her dress patched and dirty, her hair a mess. She morosely stared at him through narrowed eyes, her arms crossed.
Shaking his head, Samuel turned to Katherine, the older and more responsible of his siblings. ‘What in God’s name has been going on here?’
She briefly closed her eyes before opening them and planting her hands on her hips, her gaze burning with frustration. ‘Well, let’s see. Fiona is with child and her bloke is nowhere to be found. Whereas I have been out every single day since you’ve been gone trying to find some decent work. I come home every night to find she—’ she pointed a finger at her sister ‘—hasn’t done a thing to help Ma about the house and Ma…’ Her voice softened as she glanced at their mother. ‘Ma has been waiting day after day for you to walk up the front path alive and well. Apart from that, Samuel, not much.’
Guilt swept over him as he struggled not to crumble under the rare tears glinting in Katherine’s eyes. ‘I’m sorry.’
The skin at her throat moved as she swallowed before hastily swiping her fingers under her eyes. ‘Well, you’re back now. Maybe things can get back to normal.’
‘Normal?’ Samuel sighed and walked to the armchair, lifting some old newspapers from the seat, he sat. ‘Nothing will ever be normal again.’
His mother came closer and laid her hand on his shoulder. ‘Of course it will. We just need a man about the house, that’s all. We’re no different than every other woman in this world.’
Amelia filled Samuel’s mind. He doubted she needed a man to make a success of her life… he certainly doubted she needed him.
How in God’s name he’d managed to separate himself from her to come back to this, he had no idea. Well, there was no time like the present to share his intentions with his cherished family.
He looked at his mother. She looked tired and thin, her gaze so sad, it damn near broke his heart. Turning away to look at Fiona, he glared, searching for his inner strength. ‘So, how much time have you given to thinking about the Titanic and the hundreds who died?’ Dragging his gaze from her glare, he glanced at his mother and then Katherine who both seemed suddenly and intensely interested in the grime-covered window. ‘I thought as much. You should be ashamed of yourselves. What we went through is a thousand times harder than a bit of hunger and a baby with an absent father and now I’m back, things are going to change because I don’t intend staying here very long.’
‘What?’
‘You have to.’
‘We need your wages!’
Their voices raised like nails down a chalkboard, drilling through Samuel’s brain. He squeezed his eyes shut. ‘Enough!’
Silence fell and he opened his eyes. ‘You,’ he said, pointing at Fiona, ‘are going to leave this house every morning and not come back until you found the man you liked well enough to lie with. Try speaking to him with a little sincerity and love and maybe, just maybe, you can convince him to do the right thing by you. You—’ he faced Katherine ‘—will find work wherever you can before the end of next week. No picking and choosing. A job is a job. And you—’ he looked at his mother and softened his voice ‘—are going to spend the time cleaning this house while your daughters are out all day. I’ve never known you let it get this way. I can only assume worry for me was the cause and, for that, I’m sorry.’
Samuel swallowed, trying his best to keep his face impassive and not show his inner turmoil. How the hell was he was supposed to leave them with a baby on the way and his Ma so obviously struggling? Entrapment enveloped him making it hard to breathe, his dreams drifting like floating clouds out of his imagination, evaporating into dust.
He had to remain strong in his words. For his family’s sake, even more than his own.
‘Nothing will change my mind about returning to New York as soon as possible.’ He focused on his mother, ignoring the guilt weighing heavy on his conscience. ‘I found work on the railway station while I was there, the money is good and I can regularly send money home, but I’m not staying here. Not anymore. It’s time I started living for myself instead of for everyone else in this house.’ He looked at his sisters, trying his hardest not to show how much Fiona being with child had affected him. ‘I’ll see you’re all right with money, but I’m not staying. You find the father of your babe and persuade him to take responsibility. If he doesn’t…’
There was no need for Samuel to finish the sentence, they all knew he wouldn’t leave without tracking the coward down himself.
>
‘So, I’ll leave you to think on that while I go and get something for our supper. I expect a cleared table and chairs by the time I get back.’ He headed for the door. ‘Oh, and some clean knives, forks and plates would be appreciated, too.’
Leaving the house, Samuel had a desperate need to see Amelia but, as that wasn’t possible, he headed to the centre of Bath and Pennington’s. There was little hope of her being at work when they’d only returned that morning, but to be close to her in some way was better than no way at all. He had enough to feel guilty about surviving the Titanic, enough to bear knowing all too soon an enquiry would begin into the whys and hows of the disaster and how those escaped managed to do so. The situation at home had only burdened him further.
How could he possibly leave his family in such conditions and circumstances?
He walked the slope of Milsom Street until he stood outside Pennington’s. It was indeed a fine store. One of the best in England. Entering the atrium, Samuel stared around in wonder, immediately understanding Amelia’s passion for her workplace and the employers who had given her unprecedented opportunity when she had been brought so low by the monster who’d attacked her.
Slowly, he strolled, absorbing the store’s atmosphere, the plethora of glittering merchandise and smiling staff and customers. Pennington’s magic effortlessly seeped under his skin and, in that moment, Samuel was certain he had little hope of Amelia returning to America with him.
And with that certainty, came the question of what he did next. Did he flee from England’s shores as soon as humanly possible? Or stay here, fight for his family… and Amelia’s love?
Forty-Seven
Ruby lifted her gaze over the edge of the novel she was reading and studied Victoria sitting at the other end of the settee. The woman she loved had never looked more beautiful. The soft lamplight cast an amber glow over the room that turned Victoria’s skin iridescent, the flames from the fire flickering over her relaxed features.
Slowly, Victoria raised her eyes and met Ruby’s stare. She softly smiled. ‘Happy?’
A Shop Girl at Sea Page 22
