A Shop Girl at Sea

by Rachel Brimble

  ‘Very.’ Longing rose inside Ruby as she laid her book down on the table next to her. ‘You?’

  ‘Yes.’

  The atmosphere between them crackled as much as the fire and Ruby’s heart beat faster as Victoria also put her book to the side and inched closer. Night after night, they had spent sitting quietly in front of the fire after Tommy was in bed, their conversation easy as they spoke of the store, the weather and everything else but each other.

  Their kisses had been snatched and brief, their caresses even more so, and Ruby’s impatience to make love to Victoria gathered strength with every evening they were alone.

  She touched Victoria’s cheek and looked deep into her love’s dark hazel eyes. ‘You have changed mine and Tommy’s lives. You do know that? I have no idea how I’ll ever repay you.’

  Victoria smiled and eased Ruby’s hand from her face before pressing a soft kiss to her palm. ‘There’s no need to repay me. Having you both here feels right, Ruby. As though you and Tommy living here was what was meant for me all along.’ She shook her head, tears seeping into her eyes. ‘I was happy enough with John and I would never say or hear a word against him, but…’ She briefly closed her eyes. ‘It never felt like this. I never felt like this.’

  Ruby leaned closer and kissed Victoria’s smooth lips, her heart aching with an abundance of love and desire that was as fulfilling as it was terrifying. They kissed deeper, Victoria’s hand clutching at Ruby’s waist and as she gently moved her hand to Victoria’s breast. Their tongues tangled, their breaths coming faster as Ruby’s body burned with raw longing.

  To feel Victoria’s naked body against her own would be heavenly; bring her more satisfaction than anything else possibly could…

  Crack!

  Something hard struck the window and Ruby snatched her hands and mouth from Victoria, her gaze shooting to the closed drapes.

  ‘Get out here, Ruby Taylor. I know you’re in there!’

  Ruby leapt to her feet, her heart thundering as her hands shook. ‘My mother.’

  ‘Oh my God.’ Victoria stood and clasped Ruby’s elbow. ‘What shall we do? Do we open the door?’

  Her mother continued to screech, igniting Ruby’s anger and resentment. She curled her hands into fists. ‘I can’t leave her to shout on the street. The whole neighbourhood will know what kind of woman I have for a mother. You stay here. I’ll be right back.’

  She marched to the drawing room door and pulled it open, striding towards the front door with violence and hatred burning hot in her heart. I’ll bloody kill her. How dare she come here…

  ‘Ruby? Is that Ma?’

  Ruby ground to a halt and faced the stairs.

  Tommy stood in his pyjamas about halfway down, his hair mussed and his eyes sleepy, his beloved teddy bear dangling by its ear from his fingers.

  ‘It’s all right, Tommy.’ Victoria brushed past Ruby and hurried up the stairs pulling Tommy into her lap as she sat. ‘You stay with me while your sister speaks to your mother. Everything is all right.’

  Gratitude mixed with humiliation that Victoria had been dragged into such a situation, spiralling Ruby’s resentment deeper into her heart.

  Her eyes momentarily locked with Victoria’s before Ruby’s mother started hammering on the front door.

  ‘Open up! I mean it, Ruby. I’ll smash this door down if I have to.’

  Barely able to see through the red mist that blurred her vision, Ruby marched to the door, unlocked it and swung it wide open. She glared at her mother before whipping out her hand and flinging her bodily inside.

  She slammed the door, her heart racing. ‘You should not have come here, Ma.’

  Her mother sneered, gin fumes hovering around her on an invisible cloud. ‘I’ve told you before, my girl, I can do what I want, when I want. How do you think it feels to learn your disgusting, filthy daughter is shacked up with another woman? Worse than that, she has the nerve to make her little brother privy to it.’

  Ruby glared, not trusting herself to speak the vile words battling on her tongue in front of Victoria. Her pulse beat hard in her ears as she stepped closer to her mother, her pungent smell assaulting her nostrils and turning her stomach. ‘You are leaving and will never, ever come back here. Do you hear me?’

  A movement from the corner of her eye turned Ruby’s head.

  Victoria walked slowly down the stairs, still holding Tommy’s hand. Her skin was pale, but her face was so set in anger, it looked carved from marble. She suddenly seemed inches taller than she had before. More imposing. More threatening. ‘Mrs Taylor…’

  Her mother visibly flinched and took a step back.

  Ruby couldn’t contain her satisfaction and smiled. ‘Ma, meet Mrs Victoria Lark. My… friend.’

  Her mother’s cheeks mottled as she struggled to recover her composure. She made a pathetic attempt to pull back her shoulders before she lifted her chin. ‘You give me my son and I’ll leave. I won’t be going anywhere without my beautiful Tommy.’

  Victoria smiled, her eyes icy-cold. ‘Why don’t we ask Tommy whether he’d like to leave with you or stay here with us?’ With her eyes still on Ruby’s mother, Victoria addressed Tommy. ‘What would you like to do, my love? Stay here with me and Ruby? Or go with your mother?’

  Ruby’s heart pounded as she slowly walked forward and looked at her brother, her heart breaking for the predicament his mother was making him face. ‘Tommy,’ she asked, gently. ‘Don’t be afraid. Tell Ma what you’d like to do.’

  Love for her brother threatened to overwhelm her as tears stung Ruby’s eyes. She had never considered that her hatred towards her mother could get any deeper but, in that moment, it sank to the darkest place Ruby could imagine.

  Slowly, Tommy looked from Ruby, to Victoria, to his mother. Easing his hand from Victoria’s, he stepped forward and held his mother’s glare. Ruby’s throat dried as she resisted lunging forward and pulling him tight to her so she could hold and protect him.

  Then something changed. Something that filled Ruby with pride and love that made her want to weep and punch the air at the same time.

  Tommy’s face contorted with anger, his brilliant blue eyes flashing with loathing. ‘I never want to see you again, Ma. I love Ruby and I’ve started to love Victoria. You won’t make me leave. Not ever. This is my home now. Go away.’

  ‘Why, you—’

  The instant their mother lunged for Tommy, Ruby veered in front of her while Victoria took Tommy by the shoulders and pulled him behind her. ‘Get out of my house, Mrs Taylor. Now.’

  ‘You heard her, Ma.’ Ruby grabbed her mother’s arm and hitched it behind her back as she had before and would again. She manhandled her, kicking and screaming towards the door. ‘You come back here again, and you won’t walk out, you’ll be carried out.’

  ‘Take your filthy, tit-loving hands off me!’

  Ruby pushed her towards the door as Victoria rushed ahead of her to open it. They stared at each other for a moment before smiling and, together, they shoved her mother out of the door where she landed in a heap on the pavement.

  ‘Good riddance, Ma.’ Ruby laughed. ‘Have a good life.’

  ‘I’ll be back, you good for nothing bit—’

  Ruby slammed the door and collapsed against it, her heart thundering but her smile wide.

  She looked at Victoria and then Tommy who burst out laughing and the three of them huddled together in an embrace.

  Kissing Tommy’s hair, Ruby met Victoria’s eyes above his head and her heart burst with the knowledge that, from now on, everything would be different. Everything would be perfect.

  Always.

  Forty-Eight

  Amelia sat forward on the settee in Elizabeth’s office and clasped her hands together. New York suddenly felt incredibly far away but, now she had returned to Pennington’s, she had no wish to be anywhere else but here. She hadn’t even gone home first but came straight to the store from the train station.

  ‘So…’ Elizabet
h looked almost pained as she looked intensely at Amelia. ‘How are you feeling?’

  Despite Amelia knowing it was inevitable her wellbeing would be the initial topic of conversation, the sinking and her state of mind about everything that had happened was too raw to discuss. Yet, how was she to avoid it forever?

  She swallowed and forced a smile. ‘As well as I can be… I don’t suppose you’ve had news of Mr Weir?’

  Deep in her heart, Amelia knew he had gone, but still, she purposefully held onto her hope that Mr Weir would be safe. Elizabeth’s silence confirmed he was dead.

  ‘Elizabeth?’

  ‘He’s dead, Amelia. I really can’t believe it.’ Elizabeth’s voice quivered. ‘I’ve spoken regularly with his family. They are understandably distraught but coping.’

  Amelia stilled as sadness gripped her heart. ‘He was married?’

  ‘Yes, with two grown children. You can be forgiven for not knowing. Theoretically, he was married to Pennington’s. Mostly to my father, when he was here, then me. I fear that even when Mr Weir was home, his mind was at the store. We shall miss him. He was much changed from how he was when he worked for my father. More human, I suppose.’

  Unsure what to say when she hadn’t really known Mr Weir very well at all before their trip, Amelia stood and walked to the side of the room where she’d left her bag. Reaching into one of the pockets, she extracted the watch Mr Weir had given her the last time she’d seen him.

  Tears blurred her vision and she blinked them back, forcibly lifting her chin as she returned to Elizabeth in the seating area. ‘Here. His family should have this. Can you give it to them for me?’

  ‘His watch? He gave this to you?’

  Amelia nodded. ‘And I gave him a comb from my hair. It… was as if he knew.’

  ‘Oh, Amelia.’

  ‘He was very kind to me when we sailed.’ Amelia managed a small smile. ‘Even if I suspect I stretched his nerves from time to time.’

  Elizabeth placed the watch on the low table in front of them. ‘Oh?’

  ‘I was very insistent that I experience how things were in each of the class areas. Mr Weir seemed overly concerned that something might happen to me. I thought he had no reason to worry. Now I know I was wrong. If it hadn’t been for Samuel…’

  ‘Samuel?’

  Amelia sighed as her heart filled with longing to see the man she’d fallen for. ‘He’s a seaman. He rowed me and many others to safety. Not to mention those he helped before we were ordered to leave.’

  ‘My goodness. He sounds the most marvellous of men.’

  Amelia swallowed. ‘He is. Yes.’

  ‘Well, when you are ready, however long that might be, I want to hear everything and anything you wish to tell me. It’s important that you share as much as you can. The last thing you should do is keep the horror inside. That would be too much for anyone to bear and I don’t want you suffering any more than you already are.’

  Not wanting to break a promise she could not keep, Amelia changed the subject. ‘Let me tell you more about what I learned in New York.’ She lifted her notebook from the table and handed it to Elizabeth. ‘Everything is in there, but my main feeling throughout my trip was that America is focused on creating an almost maniacal feverishness among its shoppers. The department stores want customers to shop without thinking, to grab what they want and forget about whether or not they really should buy that dress, that parasol, that brooch.’

  ‘Isn’t that a little boorish?’ Elizabeth frowned, her focus clearly back on work as she glanced over Amelia’s notes. ‘Don’t misunderstand me, I couldn’t abide the way my father wanted everything kept at arm’s length from the customers but, still, I don’t like the idea of people not thinking about their purchasing.’ She met Amelia’s gaze. ‘Wouldn’t such a way of shopping almost certainly result in returned items and refunds? Occasionally, that’s inevitable, but not considering how to avoid it from happening at all is not good business. No matter New York’s retail success.’

  ‘That’s just it, I didn’t see any evidence of regretful customers or purchases being returned. These customers were happy, Elizabeth. Almost heady with their pleasure and excitement. Pennington’s reputation could still be one of elegance and opportunity, but I think we need to adopt ways of building fun, too. I saw jugglers in RH Macy’s atrium and a brand new, top-of-the-range motorcar in the atrium of another store. People were agog with excitement.’ Amelia smiled, excitement growing inside of her. ‘Such things are meant to fuel people’s imaginations and encourage them to have a good time as well as shop. The atmosphere was addictive. Isn’t that what we want for Pennington’s, too? Customers who feel compelled to come back to the store time and time again?’

  Elizabeth put Amelia’s notebook on the table in front of them, her green eyes amused. ‘You really do like this idea, don’t you?’

  ‘I do. After…’ Amelia sighed, sadness clouding her enthusiasm. ‘After all the suffering I witnessed during and after the sinking, I know the right thing to do is offer something that will help people grieving to get through this tragedy. Help the world to come to terms with such a devastating catastrophe. If Pennington’s can make people laugh and smile for just an hour or two of their day, is that so wrong? Neither you, me or Mr Carter can make people buy what they don’t want, but Pennington’s could be responsible for making people cast aside their worries and reservations, even for a while.’

  Elizabeth nodded, her brow furrowed. ‘It’s certainly something to think about. Why don’t you leave your notes with me and I’ll speak to Mr Carter?’

  ‘Of course.’ Amelia stood. ‘I look forward to hearing his thoughts.’

  ‘Good. Now, please, get yourself home, you must be exhausted. The last thing I expected was to see you the day you returned.’

  Amelia picked up her purse and coat. ‘I couldn’t wait. I suspected you and Mr Carter would want to see my notes and discuss my ideas, so I wanted you to have them as soon as possible.’

  They walked to the door and Amelia left the executive floor to take the lift to the ground level. As she walked through the store, she breathed deep, absorbing Pennington’s and all it meant to her. Her time in New York had been exhilarating, but now she’d was back, and she’d seen Elizabeth, she wanted to stay. Stepping back inside Pennington’s had been like coming home.

  Forty-Nine

  Samuel stood in a bleak, beige and brown office at Bath train station and took the station master’s offered hand. ‘Pleased to meet you, sir.’

  ‘And you, Mr Murphy, and you.’ The officer took a seat behind his desk and folded his hands over his ample belly, his bushy brown eyebrows lifted. ‘So, you’d like a job at the station. I have to be honest with you, I’m struggling to understand why a seaman of your experience would want to work at a railway station.’

  ‘It’s time for a change.’

  ‘From?’

  ‘Life has a way of making a person realise what matters and what doesn’t.’

  The station master’s wily gaze bored into Samuel’s, his brow furrowed. ‘You weren’t caught up in the Titanic disaster, were you?’

  Samuel shifted in his chair. He hadn’t seen or spoken to Amelia in days, their different schedules or catching up with people since their return meaning neither had managed to contact the other. Or, at least, that’s what he hoped her explanation would be when he finally came to see her.

  And during that separated time, Samuel had mostly been on tenterhooks waiting for news of a Titanic investigation. Considering the height of his agitation, the last thing Samuel wanted to do was talk about was his experiences with, what he hoped, would be his new boss. He had to take this job. The dreams he’d had in New York just felt too damn selfish now that he was home.

  ‘I…’ He swiped his hand over his face. What choice did he have but watch yet another person’s demeanour change when he told them he’d survived the disaster? Unless he avoided the station master’s question altogether… ‘I spent so
me time in New York, working on the building of Grand Central station. You could say the railway got under my skin.’

  The station master frowned. ‘New York? Well, that’s quite a change from Bath. Can I ask how you ended up there?’

  Samuel briefly closed his eyes before opening them again and holding the officer’s interested stare. ‘All right, I admit. I was on the Titanic, sir.’

  The station master studied him, a deep sympathy slowly filling his eyes. He stood and came around the desk, his hand outstretched a second time. ‘How many did you bring to safety?’

  Relief swept through Samuel as he stood and gratefully clasped his hand.

  For the first time since he’d been home, someone hadn’t immediately leapt to the conclusion he was a coward when they learned of his survival. ‘There were thirty-eight women and children in the boat I rowed, sir.’

  He nodded, his hand clasped to Samuel’s shoulder, his jaw tight. ‘I lost my brother on that ship. My uncle, too.’

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that, sir. You have my sincere condolences.’

  ‘No need to apologise, Mr Murphy. I’m sure you did all you could to save as many souls as possible. Heads will roll sooner or later, but it won’t be yours. Rowing that boat across the ocean was a heroic feat. Promise me you’ll not forget that.’

  Desperate, terrifying screams and cries, followed by the horrible, devastating and momentary silence as the ship sank echoed in Samuel’s ears. He looked into the other man’s sincere gaze, sickness rolling through him. Samuel stepped back, afraid the trembling that had come and gone in waves for weeks would once again wrack his body.

  ‘I hazard that a small station like Bath isn’t going to keep you interested for long,’ the station master mused. ‘Considering all you have done and seen, I’m not so sure working here is the right thing for you.’

  ‘But I need this job, sir. I have to stay in Bath.’

  The station master frowned. ‘Take a seat.’ He leaned forward in his chair and laced his fingers. ‘How long did you spend in New York, son?’