Gracie (38 page)

Although he was half-smiling there was an anger in his words that made Ruby pull herself up. She suddenly realised what a snob she sounded.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, I really didn’t. I meant the size of the houses and the gardens and everything – it’s all so much smaller here, and overcrowded. It’s so different from where I was out in the country with open fields, fresh air and no bomb damage, I’m still getting used to it back here.’

‘Apology accepted. I didn’t really think you’d be such a duchess, despite what your brothers say.’

Johnnie resumed walking and Ruby strode alongside him.

‘Good,’ she smiled. ‘I’m not like that at all! And yes, I did ask about you. I wanted to know who you were before I spoke to you again. But I have to say that I didn’t ask Ray – as if I’d do that – I asked Mum, and she went and told Ray.’

‘And am I all right to talk to?’ he asked.

‘No you’re not. Ray went nuts and has forbidden me to even look at you, never mind have a conversation. You are the villainous enemy, a spiv who he hates, who hates him, a really nasty piece of work and far too old. And you think you own the place.’

‘Bloody hell, Ruby, far too old? I’m only nineteen! Though, thinking about it, I suppose the rest is true enough.’

Ruby kept her expression serious for a few moments before bursting into laughter.

Johnnie joined in as they quickly turned the corner, out of sight of the street, neither of them wanting to be seen with the other by their immediate neighbours, although for different reasons.

Despite the age difference they looked good together. Ruby was tall, at five foot seven, and certainly looked older than her years in the classy tailored clothes that she had brought back with her. Despite her slenderness she was shapely, with a tiny waist, neat breasts and wavy auburn hair, which was fixed back from her face with large grips and sugar water. Johnnie meanwhile was just under six foot, with broad shoulders. His fair hair was a little too long at the front, his features were even, and he had a natural loping grace that emphasised his long legs. They made an attractive couple as they walked along together, and Ruby felt comfortable with him alongside her, albeit with a large shopping basket looped over her arm between them just to be sure.

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 grip 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.

‘Gracie … telephone …’ Ruby shouted from the office.

‘Coming …’

Gracie ran through from the kitchen and took the receiver. ‘Hello?’

‘Hello, is that Gracie? It’s Louisa here. Edward Woodfield’s sister-in-law?’

Gracie was surprised and cautious. She had had no dealings with Lousia at all and she could think of no reason for her to phone.

‘Yes, this is Gracie,’ she said, sounding confused.

‘I’m thinking you might not have heard from him with the postal system in Africa not really being up to scratch so I’m phoning to tell you that Edward’s being flown home. He managed to contract malaria and he’s been so poorly. He’s been in hospital out there but now he’s slightly better he’s coming home. I thought you should know. Gracie, it’s serious; because he was still slightly weakened from the accident, when he caught the malaria he went down like a ton of bricks …’

‘Oh, I see. I’m sorry to hear that. But why are you phoning me?’ Gracie asked cautiously. She could feel her heart thumping as she tried to keep her voice calm.

‘Darling, I know how Edward feels about you, and I’m sure he would want me to tell you. He’s a bit incommunicado himself in hospital in bloody Africa. We didn’t find out for a couple of weeks and by then he was over the worst. Honestly, you’d think head office would have had the savvy to telephone us, wouldn’t you?’

‘How did you know where I was?’ Gracie asked. She knew she was sounding stupid but she couldn’t think what else to say.

‘Oh Gracie, Edward talked about you of course.’ Her laugh tinkled down the phone line. ‘He told me all about you and his feelings for you, and it’s taken me all my willpower not to pop down and look you up.’

‘He shouldn’t have told you, there’s nothing to tell …’

‘Well, he did. Anyway, he’s still poorly but he’s coming home and I can’t see him being able to go back for a while. Are you pleased? I know we are. Not that he’s sick, of course, but that he’s coming home. I’ll let you know when he’s back here in our clutches; you might want to visit …’

Gracie couldn’t think of anything to say so she let Louisa chatter on for a while.

She was bemused by the phone call because it felt as if she was being included in the family situation even though there was nothing of substance between her and Edward. She felt nervous as she thought about him being taken ill so soon into his tour but most of all she felt a wave of elation at the thought that he was coming back and she was going to see him again far sooner than she had expected.

‘Ruby?’ she shouted at the top of her voice after she’d put the phone down. ‘Guess what? Edward is coming home. I don’t have to wait three bloody long years! He’s coming home.’

Marie Maxwell was born in London and, after living here, there and everywhere, now lives happily by the sea in Essex.

She has written seven other books under the name Bernardine Kennedy and information on Marie and Bernardine is available at:
www.bernardinekennedy.com