Family Drama 4 E-Book Bundle (105 page)

Ruby raised her voice. ‘Nothing, Nana. Just talking to myself!’

‘First sign of madness, that is, girl, talking to yourself, along with hairs on the palm of your hand,’ the old lady laughed.

‘You’ll not catch me out with that one!’ Ruby said. ‘Are you all right in here or do want me to help you through to the back? Mum’s making a pot of tea.’

‘I’ll stay here. I like watching out the window, seeing as best I can who’s doing what. It’s so long since I was out and about, sometimes I feel I’m in gaol.’

‘I’ll take you for a walk tomorrow, if you like, just to the corner and back.’

‘I don’t know about a walk. What I’d like is to sit in the chair out by the gate, but your mother says that’s common.’ She laughed again. ‘What she means is, she doesn’t want me gossiping to nosy Nora O’Connor next door about any goings-on in here.’

‘Well when Mum goes to work tomorrow we’ll both go and sit out front and be common, and you can chat to nosy Nora and give her something juicy to talk about down the market. How about that?’

‘You’re a good girl, Ruby.’ She smiled affectionately at her granddaughter.

‘I try to be, Nan, but sometimes it’s so hard,’ Ruby sighed. ‘Why are they all so horrible? And I mean Mum as well … I’ve never done anything wrong but still they just want me to be unhappy.’

‘It’s not really like that, they’re just envious. I know it’s not right but that’s how it is. When you were sent away they felt sorry for you, but then you landed on your feet. Your mother thought you preferred Mrs Wheaton to her, and all Ray could see was you living the life of Riley while he was being belted.’

‘But that wasn’t my fault. I didn’t even want to go, and now I find out that they’ve been hiding my letters …’ She stopped and glanced towards the door; the last thing she needed was for her mother to overhear her.

‘Please don’t say anything, will you, Nan? I’ve got to go. Me or Mum’ll be back in a sec with your cuppa.’

Ruby took a deep breath, fixed a smile on her face and went off to do her own manipulating. Johnnie Riordan was teaching her well.

Taking a sip of tea she focused on the cup in her hand. Despite her anger she still didn’t want to have to make eye contact with her mother when she knew that she herself was about to tell lies.

‘Are you working every day this week?’ Ruby asked. ‘You’re working more than ever before.’

‘I can work more because you’re here at home. It was hard doing everything before, but now it’s easier …’ She stopped and shrugged her shoulders, giving Ruby a chance.

‘Mum, you remember Eileen, who I used to go to school with? Well, I met her when I was out just now and she’s going for a job up west next week. She said some of the big department stores in Oxford Street are looking for shop-girls now they’re rebuilding. Can I go with her?’ She paused for a moment and looked at her mother, trying to gauge her reaction. ‘She wasn’t evacuated so I haven’t seen her for ages. I thought maybe I could get a job myself. It’s good money, she said; it’d help me settle back here if I had something proper to do …’

Ruby fiddled with her hair nervously as she turned on the emotional blackmail; she felt surprisingly little guilt at deceiving her mother, the woman who had so blatantly deceived her, and she knew she had to be convincing if she wanted to get away for the day.

The story she told her mother was half true. She had bumped into her old schoolmate Eileen, whom she hadn’t seen for years and who really was going job-hunting, but Ruby had no intention of going with her. She was going to Melton with Johnnie.

‘I really need you here, Ruby, you know that …’ Ruby could hear a hesitation in her mother’s voice and she was aware that it hadn’t been an outright refusal. ‘Three grown sons and a near-blind mother who’s nigh-on a cripple is just too much for me to look after on my own. And I have my job …’

‘If I got a job you could give yours up—’

‘No I couldn’t!’ Sarah interrupted fiercely. ‘That’s the last thing I want to do, girl. It might be hard work at that bloody great place but it’s the only life I have out of this house and that’s when I need you here.’

‘But you’re always complaining how tired you are.’

‘Yes, well, I am, but that doesn’t mean I’m tired of the big house. I’ve got friends with the other help there and it’s nice to have a bit of a natter about different things while we work. No, Ruby, your grandmother needs help all the time. She’s getting worse by the day and I love my job so you have to be here.’

Ruby sensed that there was something she was missing, something her mother had given away by her tone, but she was too focused on getting her way to give it serious thought. She did, however, tuck the thought away in the back of her mind. She knew at that point that her mother was wavering and she hoped that with a little gentle persuasion she could be home and dry.

‘I know it’s hard for you but could I just go with Eileen to see what’s happening and then talk to you about it? I’d love a day out, and I promise I won’t do anything without talking to you. I’ll just have a look around. I know Nan won’t mind; she managed on her own before I came home.’

Sarah Blakeley took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Ruby knew instantly that she’d won.

‘All right, you can go – it won’t hurt for you to have a bit of a day out – but don’t go telling your brothers. They don’t mean it badly, they just worry about how much I have to do and they worry about you being out on your own. They’re all good boys really …’

Ruby knew that was nonsense but it wasn’t the time to nitpick. She was going to go to Melton with Johnnie one way or another. She wanted to visit the Wheatons, of course, but she also liked the idea of spending the whole day with Johnnie Riordan without them having to look over their shoulders for fear of being spotted together.

‘Oh, thanks, Mum!’ Ruby jumped up and flung her arms around her mother and hugged her.

‘Get off, you silly girl. There’s no need for all that nonsense.’

‘Can I just go round to Eileen’s and tell her it’s OK? I’ll be really quick.’

‘Go on then. If the boys come in I’ll tell them you’re running an errand for me.’ With a sharp intake of breath she jumped from her seat in panic. ‘Oh dear God, just look at the time! Ray and Bobbie are due in any minute. I’d better get the dinner sorted, but you get off and tell that Eileen you can go with her.’

Despite her brusque words Sarah smiled and looked decidedly pleased at the interaction, making Ruby turn away with a tiny tinge of guilt. But she quickly brushed it off. She had been let down by her family once too often, and there was no way she could ever forget that, whatever the reason. There was no going back.

As her mother rushed around preparing dinner, Ruby got out of the house as quickly as she could and ran down the road to Betty Dalton’s house.

‘Can we arrange the day?’ she asked Johnnie excitedly. ‘I’ve told them I’m going up west and Mum agreed.’

‘See? You should always listen to me. I know these things. I’m off to work right now. I’ll see what I can fix for getting us there. Betty says not to use the bike.’

‘I think Aunty Babs’d have a fit as well. Best go by train.’

‘However you like, Red, this is going to be fun and we both need a bit of that.’

Eight

‘You still up for it?’ Johnnie Riordan asked the man who was leaning on one elbow on the other side of the bar skilfully rolling a cigarette.

‘Just waiting for you to give me the go-ahead.’

‘You haven’t been around. Friday afternoon do you? The boss does his business in the morning, those in question are there alone and late to leave; they have other business.’ Johnnie smiled but it wasn’t with humour. ‘I don’t want anyone else involved and no one else to know anything. Got that? Not anything about anything. Just you and them.’ Johnnie didn’t look at the man as he spoke quietly.

‘Yeah, Friday it is, then. Everything else as we said previous?’ the man asked before concentrating on striking a match then lighting the skinny roll-up that was more paper than tobacco. He inhaled deeply as he waited for a reply.

‘Yes, as I said. Nothing too serious, just a good warning, but you may have to persuade them to hand over what I want. They need a lesson.’

The man smirked. ‘Thy will be done.’

‘Don’t take the piss, Eddie. Makes you look like an idiot.’

With a glare and a quick shake of his head Johnnie pushed a bottle of beer across the bar towards him, scooped up a few coins and turned away. He took a few steps sideways towards the elderly man he had spotted out of the corner of his eye waiting impatiently further along the bar for service.

‘And a very good evening to you, Mr Morgan, sir. Sorry I kept you waiting. What’s your poison? Same as usual? But no taking it home for the missus, eh?’ he asked jovially, referring to the man’s ongoing joke about his wife.

‘Not a chance, Johnnie boy. She’s poisonous enough as it is; don’t need no more dripping off that tongue of hers.’ The man laughed and Johnnie joined in. ‘And where’s young Sadie tonight? You’re all right in your way but I like to see a pretty face when I’m supping.’

‘She’s out with some flash bloke who wants her to work in his club up west. She’s got her eye on improving herself, has Sadie, and she sees one of the swanky clubs as the way to do it.’

‘I’d better have a word with her then about swanky clubs and the scum that hang around in them, give her a bit of advice before she gets herself in trouble. She’s a good girl but a bit daft. Be a shame if she was taken advantage of.’

Johnnie shrugged, unsure if he’d dropped Sadie in it but not really caring; keeping in with the boss was far more important. Sadie had a bit of a thing about him but although he quite liked her it was never going to go any further than a bit of fun.

Bill Morgan was always impeccably dressed to the point of sometimes being mistaken for a dandy, but those that dismissed him did so at their peril. He looked like everyone’s favourite dotty uncle, but he was a ruthless career villain who was always treated with wary respect by those who knew him. He owned the Black Dog pub where they were, but had very little to do with the everyday running of it. Instead he treated it as his private office.

Into his seventies he was still fit in his body and sharp in his mind, albeit with some arthritis in his knees and hands. Apart from always wearing a cravat, his biggest affectation was using an ornate walking cane with a solid silver handle moulded in the shape of a running lurcher, a nod to his lowly origins in a gypsy caravan in Yorkshire. Bill Morgan used the cane when walking but it was also the perfect weapon to make a painful point if anyone disrespected him, and many had received a nasty slice across their cheek from the razor-sharp point on the innocuous-looking handle.

Although mostly retired from the physical involvement of his trade, he still kept a finger in most of the dubious pies across a wide area of East London, and as a result lived in considerable luxury with his wife of fifty years in a vast detached house in Wanstead, overlooking the open spaces of Wanstead Flats and just a short car drive from the Black Dog.

‘You setting up something I should know about?’ He nodded his head in the direction of Eddie Stone as Johnnie set his usual Whisky Mac down in front of him.

‘Nothing relevant, Mr Morgan. Eddie’s helping me out imparting some advice to a couple of upstarts from down my way who think they can just take what I’ve worked hard for.’

‘Some of the young pups need a bit of a kicking now and then to keep them in line …’ Morgan paused and looked at Johnnie carefully. ‘Mind, you’re a bit of a pup yourself, so you’d best be careful whose toes you tread on.’

‘Just protecting my interests. I’m not treading on anything. These are just fly-boys trying to be cut corners.
My
hard-earned corners, as it happens, on
my
patch,’ he said defensively, not enjoying the implied criticism from his mentor.

‘A word of advice, Johnnie boy,’ the man said quietly. ‘I like you; you’re ambitious and you’re bright with a bit of education behind, but you’re still young and a bit too keen to flex muscles you haven’t grown yet. It won’t do you any good to get ahead of yourself and get in bother.’ He paused for effect before continuing, ‘Don’t run before you can walk and, more importantly, remember him over there,’ he nodded his head to where Eddie Stone was still standing, ‘he can’t always control himself. Not his fault, mind, but this game is all about being in control.’

Johnnie shrugged and smiled, but his smile wasn’t as wide or as self-assured as before. He tried to decide if Bill Morgan was advising him or warning him. The man was a big name in London, equally admired and feared, and the last thing Johnnie wanted to do was upset him.

‘I’ve got to take care of my business. I can’t let them think they can do whatever they like.’

The older man shook his head. ‘Ways and means, lad, ways and means. So take heed. I can help you in the long run same as I can help young Sadie, but I need to know you’re sensible. I like you both, as it happens. You’d make a good couple’. He stared at Johnnie eyeball to eyeball for a couple of seconds before turning away. ‘Anyways, I’m expecting company, so think on. If anyone asks I’ll be in the snug.’

Bill Morgan picked up his drink in one hand, his cane in the other and walked across to the door in the corner of the public bar. Before he even got there someone had jumped up and pulled the door open for him, and as he disappeared into the small bar Johnnie knew he’d spend the evening there, along with a select few, equally important companions.