by Dilly Court
As Jonas drew the motor to a halt outside the house in Raven Street, the front door of Lottie’s house opened and she came down the steps, beaming at Ruby. ‘Welcome home, cara. We’ve all been so worried about you.’ Wrapping her arms around Ruby, she brushed her cheek with paper-thin lips.
Amazed by all this attention, Ruby could only nod and smile.
Lottie released her, taking a step backwards as Jonas came round to open the door. ‘She’s as thin as a sparrow, Jonas. You got to take good care of her.’
‘I can get out by myself,’ Ruby protested as Jonas lifted her from her seat.
‘From now on, Nurse Capretti, you’ll do as you’re told.’ Jonas carried her up the steps as easily as if she had been a small child.
Tucker opened the door, his face split in a huge grin. He thrust a bouquet of yellow roses into Ruby’s hands. ‘Welcome home, miss.’
‘Oh, Tucker, how lovely.’ Ruby buried her face in the scented blooms. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘Not at all, miss. It’s good to have you home.’
‘I’ll come and see you later,’ Lottie called from the doorway as Jonas carried Ruby up the stairs with Rosetta following close behind.
‘Please put me down,’ Ruby said, as Jonas mounted the second staircase. ‘I’m not a complete invalid.’
‘Yes you are,’ Rosetta said, slipping past them and hurrying on ahead up the last flight of stairs. ‘Jonas has put me in charge and I’m to look after you until you’re fit and well again.’
Ruby leaned her head against Jonas’s shoulder, closing her eyes. So much seemed to have changed since she left for South Africa. She couldn’t wait to get Rosetta on her own to ask her what had happened between her and Billy. Where was baby Martha? Why was Lottie sober? How long had Rosetta and Jonas been a couple? Why did that thought disturb her so very much?
Dancing on ahead, Rosetta opened the door and Jonas carried Ruby into a room that was bathed in sunlight and filled with the scent of summer flowers.
Setting her down on a chaise longue, Jonas took Tucker’s roses from Ruby and passed them to Rosetta.
‘We’ve filled every vase in the house,’ Rosetta said, chuckling. ‘I think Jonas must have bought up the whole of Covent Garden this morning.’
Ruby managed a weak smile. ‘Thank you, Jonas. That was kind.’
‘I’ll leave you to settle in,’ Jonas said, making for the door. ‘Don’t wear her out, Rosetta. Remember you’re the nurse now and Ruby needs to rest.’
As the door closed on him, Rosetta pulled a face. ‘God, he’s a bossy devil, but then you know that, you’ve lived with him.’
‘And you’re living here now?’
‘I’m here to look after you, Ruby. I’ll make up for how I treated you before, I promise. We won’t never fall out again.’
‘Never?’ Ruby raised an eyebrow. ‘Perhaps. But I’m tired, Rose. This is all lovely but it’s too much. All I wanted to do was to go home and sleep in our old room. Mutton stew for dinner and Granny Mole grumbling by the fireside.’
‘You got to be looked after properly, Ruby.’ Crossing the room, Rosetta opened a door that led into a bedroom. ‘This is yours and I’m just next door. You’ve only to ring the bell and someone will come day or night.’
Ruby stifled a yawn. The sudden change from being on board the hospital ship and the strangeness of her surroundings made everything seem unreal and nothing made sense. ‘I could have had my old room. Why is everything so different?’
‘Jonas said your old room would be too noisy. He’s gone respectable, Ruby. The club is all legal and proper. Jonas is a bony-fidy businessman now – none of that dodgy stuff.’
‘And you live here now?’
‘I work here. I entertain the punters’ wives in the supper room.’
‘And Billy? How does he feel about all this?’
‘Don’t you worry your head about my problems. You just concentrate on getting strong again. Have a nap and I’ll be back later with something to tempt your appetite. I don’t mean to be unkind, Ruby, but skeletons have got more meat on them than you have.’ Covering Ruby with a soft woollen blanket, Rosetta dropped a kiss on her forehead. ‘I’m glad we’re friends again, Ruby.’
As the door closed behind Rosetta, Ruby lay for a moment gazing round the newly decorated room and admiring the delicate, flower-patterned wallpaper. The swagged curtains and thick-pile Chinese carpet sculpted in pink and pastel green could have been taken straight from an illustration in The Lady’s Pictorial. Jonas, she thought sleepily, must have done all this with Rosetta in mind. It had been a shock to see them so obviously together but Rose seemed a different person from the unhappy, heavily pregnant girl she had been before Ruby had left for South Africa. She knew that she should have been happy to see Rosetta with the man she loved, but the idea of Jonas and Rose together was deeply disturbing. Ruby had tried hard to hate Jonas just as she had tried to forget him, and she had failed on both counts. The memory of the night when he had forced himself upon her was imprinted on her body as well as in her mind, and his physical nearness aroused her senses to fever pitch. Being close to Adam had never affected Ruby in that way. Her love for Adam had been in her head like a beautiful dream; Jonas had command of her darker side and Ruby knew well what Father Brennan would have said about that. As soon as she was strong enough, she would go home to Tobacco Court and, when she was completely recovered, she would ask to be sent back to South Africa. Ruby closed her eyes and the chaise longue seemed to rise and fall with the swell of the waves as she drifted off to sleep.
There was an emotionally charged visit next day, when Mum and Granny Mole came all the way from Whitechapel in a hansom cab, which for them was an adventure in itself. Having been refreshed with endless cups of tea, they settled down to listen to Ruby’s account of Joe’s last hours. Leaving out the goriest of the details and emphasising that he had died a hero’s death, Ruby told them as much as she thought they could bear. Sarah wept openly and Granny sat tight-lipped, but with tears in her eyes.
‘At least you was with him at the end,’ Sarah said, mopping her eyes on a very soggy hanky. ‘That’s a comfort. I couldn’t bear to think of my boy dying all alone in a foreign country.’
‘Well, he wouldn’t have gone into the army if he hadn’t gone and got hisself into so much debt,’ Granny said darkly. ‘I blame that Carlottie for leading him astray.’
Ruby opened her mouth to tell them that it had been fear of Jonas that had made Joe join the army, but somehow the words would not come. In her heart she knew that it had been the fatal weakness in Joe’s character that had led him into such desperate straits. She could never forgive Jonas for involving Joe in his street gang, but she also knew that Jonas had let Joe get away with unpaid debts of honour, a crime for which any other man would have ended up wearing lead boots at the bottom of the Thames.
‘Have another cake, Granny,’ Rosetta said, offering the plate of cakes to Granny Mole, whose beady eyes lit up as she selected a chocolate éclair.
‘Hmm,’ Sarah said, biting into a slice of Madeira cake, ‘we’d soon lose all our customers in Spivey Street if we served up dry-as-dust cake like this.’
Rosetta bristled like an angry hedgehog. ‘We got a damn good cook, Mum. Our suppers are very well received.’
‘Watch your language, young lady,’ Granny said, licking cream off her fingers. ‘You may think you come up in the world by leaving your Billy, but you’re no better than a kept woman.’
Rosetta went very red in the face. ‘I ain’t no kept woman. I’m a chanteuse if you must know.’
‘You’re living with a gang leader and that makes you a moll,’ Granny said, snagging another éclair from the plate.
‘That’s enough, Ma,’ Sarah said, frowning. ‘Keep your opinions to yourself. You’re upsetting Ruby and you know she’s got to be kept quiet.’
Scowling, Granny slurped her tea, swallowing noisily.
‘It’s all right, Mum,’ Ruby said. ‘It�
��s Rose who should be upset, not me. I don’t think Gran is being fair to her.’
‘You don’t know the half of it, Ruby,’ Sarah said, pushing her plate away. ‘You been away for months and you ain’t seen poor Billy suffering like I have.’
‘Give over, Mum,’ Rosetta protested. ‘Don’t drag all that up again.’
‘He’s a good man, Rose. And how you could abandon your baby, I just don’t know.’
‘Don’t start on me,’ Rosetta cried, tears springing to her eyes. ‘I’ll live my life as I see fit and what goes on between me and Billy is our business.’
Ruby could stand it no longer. ‘Stop it, all of you. You’re making my head ache with your constant bickering.’
Rosetta jumped to her feet. ‘There, see what you’ve done. You’ve upset Ruby and I’m supposed to be looking after her.’
‘Sit down, Rose,’ Sarah said. ‘You’re making things worse.’
‘You can’t tell me what to do in my house.’
‘Your house?’ Lottie’s voice from the doorway made everyone jump. She sailed into the room in a flurry of black ostrich feathers. ‘Jonas went and married you, did he?’
‘I’m still married to Billy.’
‘Yes, cara, and you do good to remember that.’ Lottie swept over to Ruby, bending over her so that the ostrich feathers tickled her nose, making her sneeze. ‘You look tired, Ruby.’
‘She can do without you adding your tuppence-worth,’ Granny Mole said, curling her lip. ‘What d’you want, Carlottie?’
Fending off another tiff, Ruby smiled up at Lottie. ‘Why don’t you sit down, Auntie, and have a cup of tea?’
‘I won’t stay where I’m not wanted.’
‘Give over with the play-acting,’ Sarah said, frowning. ‘Sit down and spit it out. You’ve obviously got something to say.’
Lottie collapsed on the end of the chaise longue, narrowly missing Ruby’s feet. ‘All right, I’ll tell you. I’ve lost everything and I’m going to be thrown out on the street. Not that you’d care, Sal. You never liked me.’
Ruby shifted her feet as Lottie made herself comfortable. ‘Why would you be thrown out on the street?’
‘It’s Silas. He’s done a bunk, took all me cash and left me with a pile of bills. I’m ruined.’
‘Serve you right, you gin-swigging, Eyetie trollop,’ Granny said, sniffing.
Rosetta clasped her hands together, her eyes wide with dismay. ‘That’s not fair. Poor Aunt Lottie. I never did like that Sly.’
‘I’m so sorry.’ Ruby reached out to pat Lottie’s hand.
Sarah put her head on one side, considering. ‘But the house belongs to you, don’t it?’
Lottie shook her head. ‘I already borrowed on the house. Don’t look at me like that, Sal. I know I got a weakness for the horses but some of it was to stake Joe. Poor boy, he inherited the Capretti gambling streak and now he’s dead. It won’t be long before I join him.’ Burying her face in her hands, Lottie broke down and sobbed.
‘Bah! Theatrical balderdash,’ snorted Granny. ‘Give her a glass of gin, Rosetta, that’ll shut her up.’
‘How can you be so cruel, Granny?’ Rosetta put her arm around Lottie’s shoulders and began to cry.
Everyone started speaking at once and, looking from one to the other, Ruby realised that not one of them was capable of doing anything useful. Struggling to her feet, she managed to get as far as the side table where Jonas had thoughtfully provided a decanter of brandy and one of sherry, but then dizziness overtook her. Clutching the edge of the table, she closed her eyes as the room and everything in it spun around her like a merry-go-round. Suddenly she was back in the ward surrounded by sickness and the dying. The overpowering smell of carbolic and the sickly sweet odour of chloroform filled her nostrils, mingling with the putrefying stench of death. Swaying on her feet, she would have fallen if Jonas had not come into the room at that moment and caught her in his arms.
‘What the hell is going on? You are all supposed to be looking after Ruby.’ Settling Ruby in an armchair he poured brandy into a glass and handed it to her. ‘Sip this slowly.’
The brandy made her cough, but Jonas’s presence was reassuring and Ruby managed a smile. ‘I’m all right now, really I am. Lottie’s had some bad news and I was trying to get a drink for her.’
Silenced, Rosetta, Sarah and Lottie looked mutely up at Jonas.
As usual, Granny Mole found her tongue first. ‘Her bloke’s run off with all her money. I always said that Sly was no good.’
‘I’m ruined, Jonas. He took the lot,’ Lottie wailed.
‘He should be strung up,’ Sarah said. ‘I’m sure you could do something, Mr Crowe.’
‘Yes, you must help her,’ Rosetta added.
Jonas held up his hand for silence. He bent down to whisper in Ruby’s ear. ‘Would you like me to send them away?’
Feeling as though his mere presence had lifted a huge weight from her shoulders, Ruby slipped her hand into his. ‘No, I’m all right. But you must do something to help Aunt Lottie.’
‘I will, if that’s what you want.’ With a reassuring squeeze, Jonas disengaged Ruby’s clutching fingers. He went to the chiffonier and picked up a decanter. ‘Tell me exactly what happened,’ he said, pouring brandy into a glass and placing it in Lottie’s outstretched hand.
‘I could do with a drop of brandy,’ Granny Mole said, clasping her chest. ‘Me heart, you know, it’s weak.’
‘Rosetta, give your mum and granny a drink,’ Jonas said, perching on the arm of Ruby’s chair. ‘I’m listening, Lottie.’
Rosetta opened her mouth, as if to protest, but she did as Jonas asked, handing the drinks to Sarah and Granny Mole, and then she sat down primly on the edge of the sofa.
Drinking the brandy down in one gulp, Lottie blew her nose loudly and tucked the hanky back up her sleeve. ‘There’s nothing more to tell. Sly must have been pocketing money for a long time. He just took off with every penny I had.’
‘It ain’t the first time you’ve been dumped,’ Granny said, grinning. ‘You’ll get over it.’
‘At least I had a good life,’ Lottie shot back at her. ‘I was the toast of London. I had princes at my feet.’
‘In yer bed you mean, you hussy.’
‘That’s enough,’ Jonas said. ‘That sort of talk won’t get us anywhere.’
Lottie threw him an appealing glance. ‘I’m ruined, Jonas. What shall I do?’
‘Everything will be all right. Just leave it to me.’
Although it was Rosetta who was supposed to be attending to her needs, Ruby was hardly surprised when it was Tucker who brought her meals to her room and answered the summons of the bell if she needed anything. It was Tucker who sat with her, making her laugh with his sharp cockney wit, and Tucker who kept her informed of the gossip below stairs. Rosetta wandered in at some point every day, usually when she was dressed up for her evening performance in the supper room. When questioned about Lottie, Rosetta said she didn’t know what was happening; Jonas was handling everything. She was obviously bursting to tell Ruby something and it didn’t take much persuasion for her to blurt out that a theatre manager had seen her performance and she was sure he was going to make her an offer. What did Jonas think of that? Rosetta admitted that she hadn’t told him, not yet. She would tell him when the offer was confirmed and not before. She danced off, bubbling with excitement, obviously determined to give the performance of her life. Ruby lay back against her pillows, wondering what Jonas would say when he knew that Rosetta was about to desert him as well as poor Billy, who was so far in the background as to be almost invisible. When she was well enough, Ruby made up her mind to visit Billy in his bakery and to see, for the first time, her baby niece, little Martha. How Rosetta could leave her child was something that Ruby would never understand; if Martha had been her baby then nothing and no one could have separated them.
Ruby closed the textbook that she had been reading, or rather trying to read, but the print had blurred
out of focus and she found she could not concentrate on the medical terms. Outside the window, she could see the evening sunlight glinting off the top floor windows on the houses across the street. A thin stripe of azure sky streaked with sunset red and gold was just visible above the chimney tops, reminding her of the sea voyage to Africa and the evening strolls on deck with Adam. He had never seemed so far away or so unreachable. Trying to picture his face, Ruby felt a surge of panic; all she could conjure up was a blurred image. He had not written to her, but then there was no real reason why he should. They were separated not only by several thousand miles of land and sea, but also by the rigid barriers of social class.
‘Good God, what are you doing sitting in the dark?’
She had not heard Jonas come into the room and Ruby opened her eyes, realising that twilight had turned into purple dusk.
He strode about the room, switching on lamps. ‘I’ll have a word with Rosetta. She’s so wrapped up in this new admirer of hers that she’s been neglecting you.’
‘You know about the theatre manager?’
‘Of course I do. Rosetta is a born performer, she’s never happier than when she’s the centre of attention. I daresay he’ll make her an offer she can’t refuse.’
‘And you don’t mind?’
Turning his head, Jonas stared at Ruby, eyebrows raised. ‘Why would I mind?’
‘I – I thought that you two were …’ Ruby stared down at her hands resting on the blanket that covered her legs.
‘You thought wrong then.’ Jonas’s voice had a sharp edge that made Ruby look up. ‘There’s nothing between your sister and me,’ he said more gently. ‘Don’t get me wrong, Ruby, I’m fond of Rose, but any man who falls in love with her is in for a rough time.’
‘That’s not fair and it’s not true.’
Pulling up a chair, Jonas sat close to Ruby, his eyes searching her face. ‘I know you love Rose, but she’s a beautiful bundle of selfishness. She’ll go far but she’ll walk over any man who lets her get away with it. You know that’s true.’
‘Rose does love someone and I thought he loved her.’
