by Pam Weaver
As they strolled slowly to the High Street Ruby told him a little about the Wheatons and her life with them.
Her time in evacuation had been spent in a small village so she had socialised with a far broader age range than when she had been living in Walthamstow. Her evacuation years, during which she’d had both dancing and tennis lessons, had served her very well, leaving her self-assured, graceful, and as comfortable around boys as she was with girls; but these assets now, in her original city surroundings, made her feel like a fish out of water.
Melton in Cambridgeshire, where Ruby had been sent to stay, was situated between Cambridge and Saffron Walden, and a long bumpy bus ride from either town. In typical village style, there was just one main street, but with narrow lanes and tracks running off, leading to outlying farms and cottages. The High Street was edged with an assortment of shops and houses, with Dr George Wheaton’s surgery and family home at the top of the gently winding hill and the village school at the bottom. It was a slow and easy way of life, even in wartime, and because it was a few miles from the nearest towns, everyone knew everyone else and their business.
At the school, instead of clusters of children of the same age grouped around the playground, as there had been at Ruby’s Walthamstow school, pupils of all ages, including the evacuee children, played together both in and out of school. There had been a natural wariness on both sides when the evacuees first arrived, but after the initial settling-in period, when there were natural divisions, an integration of sorts had happened. Keith and Marian Forger, the children of the local greengrocer, had very quickly become Ruby’s closest friends.
Marian was two years older than Ruby and her brother, Keith, was Ruby’s age. They lived with their parents over the shop in the village itself, and their cousins lived about a mile away in two adjoining cottages tied to an outlying farm where their respective fathers worked. Their family was close and all the cousins played and socialised together.
It was Keith who had held out the hand of friendship to the very scared ten-year-old Ruby on her first day at the village school, and she had had a huge soft spot for him ever since. He was short and wiry, with straw-coloured hair that never quite behaved, a splattering of freckles on his nose and hazel eyes. Ruby had adored him from the very first moment he’d smiled and befriended her, and, despite rapidly outgrowing him in size and maturity, she’d continued to adore him the whole time she was there.
Keith was a rough-and-tumble boy with no academic aspirations, who was happiest helping his father in the shop and with deliveries, while his sister, Marian, was the brains of the family. She was determined to go to university and become a doctor; she was also a brilliant comedienne and imparter of the facts of life as she knew them. The five farm cousins were all experts in animal husbandry so there was nothing Ruby didn’t quickly learn about the birds and the bees and the ways of boys. The related group of children had drawn her in and become like brothers and sisters, and it had been nearly as hard to say goodbye to them as it had been to leave the Wheatons. But she’d promised she would keep in touch and had insisted she would be back as soon as possible.
As she gave Johnnie the description of her life in Melton, Ruby felt her eyes misting and a huge wave of homesickness swept over her.
‘… And I’m going to go back just as I promised, as soon as I can persuade Mum and Ray that they don’t really want me here after all. I mean, they don’t want me, they just hate the idea of me being with the Wheatons and liking it.’
‘Best of luck to you then,’ Johnnie said sympathetically. ‘I hope you manage to talk them round and then I can come and visit you. I’ve been to the seaside at Southend and up west to the city but I’ve never really been to the country apart from getting up to no good in Epping Forest a few times.’
‘Oh, it’s so different to here, all open spaces and everyone knows everyone. It’s just nicer, I suppose. We all had so much freedom. It was just so different and—’
‘OK, OK, that’s enough, I’ll take your word for it.’ Johnnie Riordan grinned as he interrupted her and held his hands up as if in defeat. He and Ruby had got to the queue outside the grocers. ‘I’ve got to see someone, so you go and get started with your shopping and I’ll meet you on the corner by the butcher’s in about an hour and help you with the rest of it. I’d take you for a tea and a bun but we might be seen.’
Ruby smiled to herself as he walked away. There was something about him that cheered her up and made her feel like a grown up. An hour later she stood on the corner and tried not to look too pleased when he came strutting along the pavement towards her.
Doing the shopping with Johnnie alongside relieved some of the monotony of standing in the various queues to get everything on her mother’s list. It was a relaxing and light-hearted few hours away from the house, but as she neared home she knew there was going to be trouble the moment she saw Ray waiting on the pavement outside. He was leaning against the gate jamb, his arms crossed and his face screwed up in anger. Ruby was relieved that she and Johnnie had parted company way before they reached their street.
Ray had one of those faces that would have been handsome if his nature had been different, but he exuded a thin-lipped violence that twisted his features and made him look unattractive and nasty.
As she looked at him she was suddenly scared, but there was no way she was going to let him see.
‘Where the fuck have you been?’ he snarled as he unfolded his arms. ‘Mum said you’ve been gone hours.’
‘Getting the shopping like Mum asked me, but what’s it got to do with you? And anyway, shouldn’t you be at work?’ Ruby asked with a smile and a lot more bravado in her voice than she felt in her heart.
‘It’s got plenty to do with me. What have you been up to all this time?’
‘Mind your own. You can’t tell me what to do or when to do it.’
He moved closer to her. ‘I’m the man of this house, head of the household, and you answer to me. Those retarded bumpkins out in the middle of nowhere might have let you roam the streets doing what you want but I won’t. Your job is to help Ma and Nan. If you have to get shopping you go and then come straight back.’
Ruby gasped as she took in his words. ‘Man of the house? Oh, do shut up. Do you know how daft you sound? This isn’t the cinema, it’s real life. You’re my brother, that’s all you are – just a brother. An equal, not a bloody overseer.’
Ruby laughed in astonishment as she went to push past him. She couldn’t believe that her brother would speak to her like that.
‘You’re a kid, you’re underage and you do as I say or else.’ He moved in front of her, blocking her way with his body.
‘Or else what? No, I do what I like and it’s none of your business. I’m not your daughter or your wife. Now get out of my way if you want supper tonight, else I’ll tip this lot out in the street and you’ll have bugger all.’
For a moment Ray looked quite shocked. He hadn’t expected her to challenge him.
‘You dare talk to me like that, you little cow! Now get into your room and stay there until I say you can come out!’
Ruby stared hard at Ray and slowly shook her head. ‘Not bloody likely. Get away from me …’
His hand flicked out and he grabbed her forcefully by the arm, dragged her down the path to the front door, then pulled her round until they were nose to nose.
‘Get indoors and get into your room or I’ll get Dad’s belt to you.’
‘You just try it, you lay one finger on me and I’ll be out of that door for good. Don’t forget, I’ve got somewhere to go.’
As soon as the words were out she regretted them. In the heat of the moment she had given Ray an insight into her thoughts.
‘That’s what you think,’ he snarled. ‘You ain’t going nowhere, never in a million years. Nowhere!’ His face was so close to hers she could feel the spittle on her cheek as he spat the words at her.
She tried to pull away from him but he just tightened his g
rip around the top of her arm and walked her over the doorstep into the hall before pulling his other hand back and slapping her across the face. As she reeled away he snatched the shopping basket from her before shoving her so forcefully into her bedroom she tumbled straight onto her bed. Then, before she could stand up, he took the key from the inside, slammed the door shut and locked it.
‘Now you can stay there until I say you can come out.’
She rattled the handle with one hand and massaged her face with the other. She could feel her cheek swelling and her eye starting to close.
‘Open this door,’ she screamed as loud as she could. ‘Open the door!’
But there was just silence from the other side.
Four
‘Oh, Ruby, you silly girl, what have you done to upset Ray? He’s got a fearsome temper, that lad. He’s not one to be crossed.’
Ruby looked round and realised for the first time that her grandmother was also in the room and sitting quietly in her chair by the window.
‘I haven’t done anything. He’s just being a pig because he is a pig. I hate him,’ Ruby said, fighting hard not to cry. Not because she was upset or even because she was hurt, but because she was so angry and frustrated. How dare he do that to her? Hitting her was bad enough, but locking her in her bedroom like a child? She rattled the handle loudly and kicked out at the door, hoping that her mother would come and let her out.
‘Let me out of here,’ she screamed as loudly as she could. ‘Mum? Arthur? Are you there? Someone unlock this bloody door. Ray locked me in and Nan’s inside. Mum?’
‘They won’t open the door, Ruby, not if Ray’s locked it. They’ll never cross Ray, none of them. They’re all scared of him, even your mother; and anyway, he’ll have the key in his pocket, like as not. No one’ll dare ask for it.’ Her grandmother’s tone was wearily matter-of-fact.
‘But why’s Mum scared of him? He’s her son, he should respect her, shouldn’t he?’ Ruby asked.
‘Because that Ray’s just like his father – your father – and she knows it. He doesn’t respect anyone. He’s nothing but a bullyboy and your grandfather would turn in his grave if he could see the way that boy carries on. My Ernie never liked your father right from the first day your mother brought him home, and he wouldn’t like Ray, I know that for a fact. Truly like father like son. Peas in a pod, those two.’ Pulling her shawl tighter round her shoulders she shook her head sadly. ‘The others aren’t really bad boys. Bobbie looks up to Ray, God help him, so he does as he’s told, and poor Arthur doesn’t really understand it all. But that Ray, he’s bad through and through and no one can do anything about it.’ She sighed, her whole chest heaving as if it was an effort. ‘But it’s your mother I feel for. My poor Sarah. A thug for a husband and now a thug for a son. Your mother is my only living child, even though we had three, so it hurts all the more to see her treated like that by one of her own children.’
Ruby sat on the edge of her bed and studied her grandmother, whom she knew could probably see only her outline across the room. For the first time since her return to London she was seeing her as a person; as Elsie Saunders, wife and mother, not just Nan who now lived with them all and with whom she grudgingly shared a bedroom.
Ruby had been so busy feeling sorry for herself that she hadn’t realised how hard it must be for a woman of Nan’s age to go from having her own home, where she had lived all her married life with her husband and where she had raised a family, to owning nothing and having to share a bedroom with a fifteen-year-old, eating her meals when she was told and being ordered around like a child by her own grandson.
It was too much for Ruby and she felt the tears of guilt break through and roll down her cheek. Standing up she went over the woman, leaned forward and hugged her tightly.
‘Well, I never – what was that for?’
‘Because I’m a selfish cow, Nan, and I’m sorry.’
Elsie Saunders’ eyes also filled up. ‘You’re a good girl, Ruby, and it’s a crying shame they made you come back here. Your mother shouldn’t have done that and I told her so when Ray went to get you. She should have let you get away from this, even if she can’t.’
‘I want to go back there, Nana, I want to go back so badly, and they want me back. I could finish school and get qualifications. I want to train to be a nurse. It wouldn’t mean I’d be gone for ever. Aunty Babs was teaching me how to sew my own clothes and grow fruit and vegetables, and I had real friends. But how can I go back now I know what’s going on here? I can’t leave you and Mum with Ray.’
Ruby started to cry. She didn’t want to; she didn’t want there to be any possibility of Ray finding out she was upset, but she couldn’t help it.
‘Don’t you cry, Ruby love. Listen to me: you have to go back. You can’t stop Ray being as he is, as your mother let him be, so don’t sacrifice yourself. I saw what he did – my eyes are bad, but not that bad – and anyhow, I know that sound. He’s his father’s son all right.’ She reached her hand up and gently touched her granddaughter’s swelling face. ‘Now, as we’re locked in together, why don’t you tell me all about your time away? We haven’t had time for more than a few words since you’ve been back and it would be so nice to hear all about it.’
It was Sarah who opened the door a couple of hours later. ‘Your dinner’s ready and the boys have gone out. I told Ray he shouldn’t have locked you in. He gave me the key.’
‘Then why didn’t you let us out? He locked Nan in here as well, and he hit me you know; hit me around the face. Look.’ Ruby pointed to her swollen cheek.
Her mother glanced at her. ‘That’s going to really bruise up. I’ll find the witch hazel. But you shouldn’t have upset him. He told me what you said. You wouldn’t have spoken to your father like that, would you?’ The woman pursed her lips and shook her head slowly. ‘Anyway, what’s done is done. Just remember next time, Ray can get carried away but he doesn’t mean it badly; he’s just trying to look after everyone the best he can.’
‘He is not my father. He locked the door with Nana in here. You should have let us out straight away.’ Ruby was incensed and so was her tone but her mother simply shrugged.
‘But there’s no harm done, is there? And you’ll know for next time. He is the man of the house now.’
‘Oh, stop using that expression. There’s nothing manly about him. He’s just a thug and a bully. I hate him.’
Her mother didn’t answer straight away; she simply frowned and looked from her daughter to her mother in bemusement, as if she really didn’t understand what Ruby was so upset about.
‘I don’t think you understand, Ruby. Your brothers, especially Ray, work hard to keep this family going now your father’s gone. Without them I’d probably end up in the workhouse. It’s not asking much of you to help me look after them and your nan. Don’t forget while you were living the life of Riley with the la-di-dah Wheatons, the boys were here working, I was working, and we were all trying to survive the Blitz.’
‘But you sent me away. I didn’t ask to go,’ Ruby shouted.
‘Yes we did. We sent you for your own safety, but you were meant to come back!’
Ruby stared at her mother. Sarah Blakeley was an attractive woman who had kept her looks despite everything she’d been through. There were lines across her forehead and around her eyes, and her lips were pinched, but she still retained her shapely figure and feminine legs that suited high heels. However, she rarely smiled spontaneously, her eyes were constantly unhappy and when she spoke her voice was a monotone. She wasn’t enjoying her life, she was just going through the motions.
After her long chat with her grandmother when they were locked in the bedroom, Ruby had promised that she would try to be understanding of her mother, and at that moment she could see why the woman gave in to Ray on everything. It was the route to an easier life with fewer arguments. Arguments she knew she couldn’t win. She had been bullied and ground down by her own husband all her married life so it had become
part of her nature to accept it as her lot in life. Ray had simply stepped straight into his father’s vacant shoes and she had let him. The treadmill for Sarah Blakeley just carried on with no end in sight and although Ruby felt for her she had no intention of getting on it herself.
In bed that night, with Elsie on the other side of the room snoring and snuffling and keeping her awake, Ruby pulled her eiderdown up to her chin and thought about her afternoon with Johnnie from down the street. Those had been the most carefree hours she’d had since her return. He’d made her laugh as she stood in the queues, bought her an icecream and then helped her carry the shopping. He was blatantly experienced in the ways of the world, maybe overly confident, and from what she’d heard was certainly involved in a great many dodgy dealings, but that added an element of danger that attracted her.
On the other side of the coin he spoke lovingly of his family and had a kindly streak that had been obvious the first time she’d met him. As she thought about Johnnie Riordan she couldn’t help but focus on the resentment that existed between him and Ray and wonder if there was some way she could use her newfound friendship with Johnnie to get her own back on her brother.
It was easy for her mother to shrug off Ray’s behaviour, but she couldn’t. Ray had hit her and treated her as a child – her own brother had acted as if she was his child instead of a sibling – and she had no intention of letting that go without taking some sort of revenge that would punish him and, at the same time, distract him enough to allow her to make her escape back to Melton.
She knew that although Johnnie Riordan worked legitimately in a public house he was also a wheeler-dealer with a finger in many pies, some legal, some not. He bought and sold anything that might earn him a few bob, including the things that the ordinary man in the street had no access to in times of rationing and shortages. It had taken her a while to figure out why Ray hated Johnnie so much. Now she knew: it was because he was jealous; because he really wanted to be a part of those activities himself but he didn’t have a quick enough brain to think things up for himself.
