Ruby McBride (43 page)

‘Why did you? Why did you leave? And why didn’t you tell me where you were or ever come to see me?’ Having now started to ask questions, she couldn’t seem able to stop.

‘Why did you take a lover? Why did you betray me?’

‘I didn’t! I told you that at the time.’

‘Oh, Ruby. Don’t lie to me again. Surely I deserve the truth after all this time.’

‘Kit Jarvis was never my lover. Not even after you were dead, or when we thought you were a goner.’

He gave her a quizzical look, eves narrowing in that familiar, assessing way he had. ‘But he told me that you were.’

‘Huh, he’d lie on his own mother’s grave, that one!’

‘You wanted him to be your lover though, didn’t you? Which is almost as bad. Even though you bore my child - my son - at least I assume that he is mine, with such hair? Nothing I said or did could prevent you from loving Kit Jarvis, your childhood sweetheart, rather than me, your husband. It sent me out of my mind with jealousy.’

Ruby gazed up at him, contrite. ‘That was all a bad mistake. I didn’t really love him at all. He was just a silly young girl’s fancy, part of a childhood dream when I’d no one in the world to care for me, not even a mother. Oh, Bart, I realised what a terrible mistake I’d made the minute I lost you. I’ve asked myself a million times since why did I have to lose you before I discovered it was really you that I love.’

He was regarding her with a deep, impenetrable frown and Ruby had a sinking sensation in her heart that told her it was too late. That whatever she said now could never convince him she was sorry, that he was the one she loved.

‘Why did you sell the pendant I gave you then?’

‘It wasn’t me, it was Kit.’

‘At your instigation, no doubt. Once before, I seem to remember, you handed it over to him while stowing away on a ship. Your love for me can’t amount to much if you would give away the one gift I ever gave you to mark the sincerity of my feelings for you. A jewel that in fact belonged to my mother.’

‘So I believe.’ Ruby was filled with remorse and shame. ‘But I didn’t know that at the time, did I? Kit stole it from me in the end, and I couldn’t get it back.’
 

She explained then, how it had all come about. She told how Kit had taken it from its hiding place, about her interview with Pickering and how his father had accused her of being after the family inheritance. ‘I told him it wasn’t true, that I didn’t want your money. I didn’t then, and I don’t now. It was you I wanted, Bart. Only I found that out too late because I was dazzled and hoodwinked by that no-good piece of rubbish.’
 

He was looking at her now with an expression of cautious wonder, alight with fresh hope. ‘Is this true? I must warn you, Ruby, that I’d not take kindly to being betrayed a second time.’
 

She slid on to her knees before him and, reaching up, stroked the firm line of his jaw. ‘I love you, you daft ha’porth. Always have, though I was too stupid to realise it. But then, if you’d talked to me properly about this jealousy of yours instead of just going off in a huff in that overly dramatic way, we might have saved ourselves a lot of bother, don’t you reckon?’

‘Oh, Ruby. I loved you too much to dare risk challenging you about it. I was convinced he was your lover. That’s why we had the fight.’ Then his arms were tight about her, as if he never meant to let her go, not this time.

‘We were both too damned stubborn, eh?’

‘I think we must have been.’

He asked her gently about Pearl, and Ruby said she knew all about what her sister had been up to, but could do nothing about it. ‘In any case, Pearl has gone, and I’ve no idea where.’

‘Oh, Ruby, my love, I did so not want you to find out.’

‘Aye, well, what can’t be cured must be endured, as my mam used to say.’

He smiled sadly. ‘I wish I’d known her, your mam.’

‘I wish you had too. Oh, but she was a lovely mother to us all. Poor though we were, we were never short of love. It would have made all the difference to Pearl if only she’d lived.’

He put a finger to her lips. ‘Don’t. Things are as they are. Your mother did her best for her family, and so did you. Let it rest, Ruby.’

It was much later, as they lay between the sheets in his great bedroom, having reminded themselves of the original source of their attraction to each other, now confirmed and sealed with a deep and lasting love, that he explained why he’d come home, and how he’d agreed to take over the family business.

‘My father set a number of conditions, which was typical of him but nothing I can’t agree to.’ He explained to her what they were.

‘Oh, so you’re ready to admit to everyone who you really are, at last?’

He smiled. ‘I have no reason not to now. I shall keep his conditions, save for the one about no unions. In any case, I believe Asquith will shortly resolve that problem for us all. The strikes will be over soon and the dockers will win their demands for union recognition and better pay, I’m sure of it. Perhaps I can do my part by helping to bring new harmony to the Ship Canal and in particular to Pickering’s Wharf. The only question is, will you stay with me and help me do it?’

‘There’s one other question I’d like you to answer first?’

He smiled at her, his brandy-coloured eyes intoxicating her with their dazzling warmth. ‘Name it.’

‘Can I keep the boats?’

‘Not the pendant?’

‘That too.’

He laughed. ‘You don’t ask for much, do you, Ruby McBride?’

‘I don’t want the boats for myself. I’d like to give them to Sparky and Aggie and Jackdaw. I don’t know how I’d’ve managed without them. They’ve been like family to me. Oh, and there’s one more thing.’

He was smiling at her in a way that told her he knew
already what she was going to say. ‘If I can supply it, it is yours.’

‘My name in future, just so as you don’t forget I’m your proper legal wife, is Ruby Stobbs, or should that be Pickering? Stobbs was your mother’s maiden name, I dare say.’

‘You’ll always be Ruby McBride to me.’

Three years later, just a month after Britain declared war on Germany following their invasion of Belgium, Ruby was down at Salford docks seeing Sparky and Aggie off in the tug, pulling two pairs of barges behind them. Being six months pregnant with her third child, she’d been banned from accompanying them on this trip, which she still loved to do from time to time, given half a chance.

‘You’ll be welcome to come with us some time, once this babby is born, like always Ruby,’ Aggie told her, and added, as she did times without number. ‘Where would we be today without your generosity?’

‘Where would I have been without you?’ And the two women hugged each other.

Sparky interrupted. ‘Come on you two, we’ve a living to earn.’ And they all laughed at his grinning face. He certainly suited his name better, now that he was captain of his own tug. There were never any unexplained accidents these days. Jackdaw, captain of a second train of barges, would by now be on his way back from Liverpool, fit and well and quite his old self again.

Ruby had heard some time ago that Kit Jarvis had sold his boats, having found himself in a tight spot owing money to the bookies. It didn’t surprise her. He hadn’t been seen in the area since, which was a great relief. She certainly had no wish to be reminded of her youthful foolishness by seeing his face popping up again.

The day was cool, a weak sun peeping out only occasionally from behind a blanket of grey cloud. It reminded her very much of the day she’d stood at this very spot to celebrate the opening of the Ship Canal by Queen Victoria. Ruby well recalled the excitement of that day, her mam in her Sunday best, Billy with his sailor hat on, and Pearl with her doll.

Out on the wide expanse of water, ships were lining up, not for the Queen on this occasion, but in preparation for war. No hawkers plied their wares, sold toffee apples, monkeys on sticks or little flags today, as they had done all those years ago. But Ruby felt the same warm sense of pride at such a fine sight, coupled with a flicker of fear at what the future might hold for them all.

Posters adorned walls everywhere, calling on young men to join up as their country needed them. There was just such a man now, a young soldier dressed in his smart new uniform, the peaked cap tugged well down over his face. He was standing talking earnestly to a young woman, no doubt his sweetheart. They had their heads close together and were deep in conversation, oblivious to the world around them. Ruby’s soft heart went out to them. How dreadful to be saying goodbye to your young man, to stand on the docks and see him go off to war, perhaps never to return.

Bart had assured her that he wouldn’t have to go as he had an important job to do here in the Ship Canal. She trusted implicitly that he was right. In the three years since he’d come back into her life, he’d never let her down once. Ruby had found a happiness she’d never believed possible, marred only by her continuing concern for Pearl and Billy. Yet despite the uncertainty of what the future might bring, Ruby felt sure that they, at least, would win through. She just knew it in her heart.

She waved to Sparky and Aggie as they drew out into midstream and then started for home, banishing all worries from her mind. Wasn’t she the most fortunate of women to be so well blessed? They had a little sister for Tommy now, their
precious Opal, and a proper little madam she was turning out to be, though where she got it from Ruby couldn’t imagine.
 

Ever since the strike, things had gone smoothly for them. Bart had been right about that. The dockers had won their demands, thanks to the support of Asquith who’d tackled the bosses on their behalf; not only winning recognition of their union and decent pay, but also the promise of disappointment money on days when they’d been taken on and were then not used. Since then, Bart himself had indeed brought new harmony to Pickering’s Wharf. It was one of the happiest places to work in the entire canal basin.

Ruby smiled as she saw the young woman take her soldier boy’s hand and begin to pull him along the Quay. They were heading in Ruby’s direction, walking quicker and quicker, as if suddenly in a tearing hurry.

The girl had yellow hair, with a tiny hat perched on top of her curls. She was dressed quite plainly in a sensible grey dress and Ruby guessed that she might work in a shop or office. She scolded herself for being so curious and looked away to carry on walking. If this was their last day together, they didn’t want nosy strangers staring at them.

And then she heard the trill of the girl’s laughter, and something in the sound of it made Ruby turn her head.

It couldn’t be, could it?

The young man suddenly took off his cap and waved to her. ‘It’s me, our Ruby. Don’t you recognise me? I’m back from Canada, come to fight.’

There was a roaring in her ears, and her heart seemed to burst with pride and joy. ‘Billy? Oh, my God, it is you. Our Billy, if I live and breathe. And Pearl.’ Then Ruby began to run towards them, her arms open wide, eager to hold her little brother and sister close. For weren’t they her beloved family and all together at last?

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