After stripping Billy of the charred remnants of his shirt, Ruby bathed him and put a cold compress on his forehead. When he seemed to be quieter, she took what was left of the money in the drawer and ran down the street to the nearest chemist to buy quinine and a pennyworth of laudanum. Back in Billy’s room, she dosed him with quinine mixed with a little water and gave him enough laudanum to ensure that he slept while she went to the hospital.
Ruby was relieved to find that Pamela was on duty in the vestibule, collecting patients and taking them to the treatment rooms, just as she had been on the previous day. As soon as she had a free moment, Pamela took Ruby to a treatment room and gave her gauze, lint and
bandages and some salve to put on Billy’s burns, with instructions on how to cut away the soiled dressings and a quick demonstration of how to bandage a hand.
‘Can you remember all that, Ruby?’ she asked, making a parcel of the dressings.
‘I think so. I’ll have a go, but I’m a bit worried about him.’
‘I get off duty at eight o’clock. If you meet me outside the hospital you can take me to Billy’s house and I’ll have a look at him, although he really should be seen by a doctor.’
‘I’d be ever so grateful.’
‘Then that’s settled.’ Pamela handed Ruby the parcel of dressings. ‘Put that under your shawl so that old fish-face doesn’t see you taking anything out of the hospital. The way that woman carries on you’d think it all came out of her wages.’
‘I can pay for the bandages.’
‘Never mind that, you get back to Billy and I’ll see you later.’
As she changed the dressings on Billy’s hands, Ruby tried to remember all Pamela’s instructions. He was still too feverish and drugged with laudanum to understand what she was saying, but Ruby kept up a one-sided stream of conversation while she worked, realising that the mere sound of her voice had a quietening effect
upon him. Once or twice he called her Rosetta and she did not correct him. When she was done, she made him as comfortable as possible, lighting the paraffin lamp on the table before she left for home and telling him that she would be back soon and not to worry. There was no way of knowing whether or not he had understood and Ruby worried about him all the way to Tobacco Court.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ demanded Sarah. ‘And don’t tell me you was at work because that Vinegar Lil come round checking up on you.’
‘Oh, no!’ Ruby pressed her hands to her cold cheeks. ‘That’s put the kibosh on it.’
‘Well, it would have if I hadn’t been too quick for the old cow,’ Sarah said, puffing out her chest. ‘Now if it was Rosetta what had gone missing I wouldn’t have been surprised, but when you miss an afternoon’s work then I know there’s something up, so I told Vinegar Lil that you was sick in bed.’
Granny Mole, sitting by the fire snoozing, opened one eye. ‘You’ll never go to heaven, Sal.’
‘Maybe not, but it sorted that woman out good and proper. So come on, Ruby, out with it or there’s no supper for you, my girl.’
Slipping off her shawl, Ruby moved closer to the fire. Her hands were numbed with cold and
began to tingle painfully as she held them close to the flames; she couldn’t even feel her feet. A pan of vegetable soup simmered on the hob and her stomach growled with hunger. There was nothing for it: she would have to tell Mum everything.
Ruby began by admitting that she had not gone to Mass on Sunday, explaining that Jonas Crowe had offered to take her in his motor car to visit Rosetta. She ended by telling them of Billy’s heroic actions in the fire and of the injuries he had suffered.
‘Well I never! The poor man!’ Sarah said, ladling soup into a bowl. ‘You oughtn’t to have left him on his own. Ain’t he got no one to care for him?’
Granny Mole choked on her soup. ‘Don’t you bring him here. I ain’t giving up my bed for no one.’
‘No one’s asking you to, Ma. But all the same, I don’t like to think of the poor bloke sick and all on his ownsome. He done us a good turn selling them dolls so close to Christmas.’
‘Bah! I expect he made a bob or two for hisself. He’s a chancer is Billy Noakes.’
‘That ain’t fair, Granny,’ Ruby said, frowning. ‘Billy’s all right, he is.’
Sarah shot her a curious look. ‘So what is he to you, Miss? It’s Rosetta he’s sweet on.’
‘I know that, Mum, but we owe Billy. I found the dolls that he said the warehouse took under
his bed. It was his own money what he give us at Christmas.’
‘Well, I never did! And you say he’s sick with no one to look after him?’
‘No one. He’s living in a stable loft, with no heat and not even a cold tap in his room. His horse is stabled better than what he is.’
‘Then that settles it. You got to get him here one way or another. It’s cold enough for snow and he’ll catch lung fever if he ain’t looked after.’
‘I said he can’t have my bed,’ repeated Granny Mole. ‘I need me sleep.’
‘No one’s asking you to give up your bed, Ma. I’ll move in with Ruby and Billy can have my bed just until he’s well enough to go home.’
Ruby stood outside the London Hospital stamping her feet and shivering as lacy white snowflakes fell from a black velvet sky. Every time the doors opened she peered through the swirling snow looking for Pamela, only to be disappointed. Finally, when she had almost given up hope, Ruby saw Pamela come out of the hospital followed closely by a tall young man. They were laughing at some shared joke and Ruby could tell by the way Pamela angled her head to look up at him that he was someone special to her. Embarrassed and thinking that she must have been forgotten, Ruby was about to walk away when Pamela called out to her and
came hurrying over, dragging the young man by the hand.
‘Ruby, Ruby, it’s me. Do stop.’
Ruby hesitated, suddenly very conscious of her bedraggled appearance.
‘Ruby, I want you to meet my friend, Adam Fairfax,’ Pamela said, tucking her hand through his arm with a proprietorial gesture. ‘Adam, this is Ruby Capretti.’
‘How do you do, Miss Capretti?’ Adam doffed his hat and bowed. In the soft glow of the gaslight, snowflakes glistened like a halo on his guinea-gold hair.
Ruby swallowed hard and bobbed a curtsey. ‘Pleased to meet you, Sir.’
‘No, please, Miss Capretti. My friends call me Adam.’
His expensive clothes and manner of speaking set him apart as a gentleman, but Adam’s charming smile made Ruby feel quite dizzy and her heart turned a somersault inside her chest. She barely heard what Pamela was saying.
‘Adam is a doctor and he’ll be happy to take a look at Billy’s hands.’
‘Hold on, Pam,’ Adam said chuckling. ‘I’m not a doctor yet. I’ve another year to go before I qualify.’
‘Don’t be such a tease.’ Pamela tossed her head, pouting. ‘You promised you’d help.’
‘And I will, of course. I’d be happy to take a
look at your friend’s injuries, Ruby, if you agree.’
Ruby nodded, shivering and staring mutely into his eyes that appeared to be the deepest chocolate brown, that is until he smiled, when they danced with golden glints.
‘My dear girl, you’re frozen stiff,’ Adam said, his voice full of concern. ‘And you’re soaked to the skin. I’ll call a cab.’ Shrugging off his black cashmere overcoat, he wrapped it around Ruby and strode off into Whitechapel Road to hail a cab.
Ruby huddled into the folds of his coat that was still warm from his body. The satin lining touched her cheek like a soft caress and she closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of bay rum and freshly washed linen. No man had ever shown her such consideration and she had never before met anyone remotely like Adam Fairfax; he was a golden, god-like young man, socially out of her class and undoubtedly in love with Pamela. But her heart was beating a tattoo inside her chest and she felt weak at the knees; if this was love then it was a dangerous and impossible passion. Adam was utterly wonderful and completely unattainable.
‘He’s such a dear,’ Pamela said happily. ‘And Adam is a wonderful doctor. You mustn’t worry about Billy. We’ll have him up and well in no time.’
They found Billy as Ruby had left him, feverish and barely conscious. Having checked the dressings on Billy’s hands and congratulated Ruby on her efforts, Adam gave him a thorough examination. When he had done, he folded his stethoscope and put it back in his pocket, looking thoughtful.
‘Is he worse?’ Ruby couldn’t keep quiet a moment longer. ‘He is worse, I know it.’
Adam shook his head. ‘Billy must have inhaled a lot of smoke when he went into the burning building, which has affected his lungs, quite apart from the burns on his hands. He has a fever and I’m afraid it might turn to pneumonia. He needs proper care.’
‘We can help you with medicine and dressings, can’t we Adam?’ Pamela cast him a pleading look. ‘Can’t we?’
Adam shook his head. ‘He really ought to be in hospital.’
‘Mum said I was to bring him home,’ Ruby said quickly. Hospital treatment cost money; there were paupers’ wards but they were grim places and she didn’t fancy Billy’s chances in one of them. ‘I got medical books. I can take care of him.’
Adam stared at her thoughtfully and a slow smile lit his eyes. ‘Ruby, I believe you could do anything you put your mind to, but this man is really sick. I don’t think you realise just what an undertaking it would be.’
‘I only know he ain’t going into the hospital,’
Ruby said, standing her ground. ‘Not in one of them paupers’ beds.’
Pamela laid her hand on Ruby’s shoulder. ‘You must care an awful lot for Billy.’
‘He done us a good turn and round here we pay our debts,’ Ruby said, tossing her head. ‘He comes home with me or I stays here and that’s that.’
‘I see there’s no arguing with you when your mind’s made up, Ruby,’ Adam said, his frown melting into a boyish grin. ‘The cabby will help me get Billy into the hackney. It was lucky that I told him to wait.’
Having settled Billy in Sarah’s bed, Ruby sat with him throughout the first night, putting cold compresses on his brow and watching anxiously while he lapsed in and out of a fevered state, sometimes raving and at other times in a deep sleep induced by generous doses of laudanum. She did not go to work the next day and it was only when Sarah forcibly ejected her from Billy’s bedside that she went to her own room and snatched a few hours’ sleep. Firm footsteps coming up the stairs and the deep tones of a man’s voice awakened her with a start. Half awake, Ruby thought at first that she was dreaming but she could still hear the voices and her eyes were wide open. Tumbling out of bed, she opened her bedroom door and came face to face with Adam.
‘I’m sorry, Ruby. I didn’t mean to disturb you.’
Realising that her hair hung loose about her shoulders and that her blouse and skirt were creased and crumpled, Ruby felt the blood rush to her cheeks. ‘You didn’t. I mean, it’s very good of you to come.’
‘Don’t keep the doctor talking, Ruby,’ Sarah shouted up the stairs. ‘I’ve put the kettle on. I’m sure the young man could do with a nice hot cup of tea.’
‘I could murder a cup of tea.’ Granny’s voice rose to a plaintive wail.
Ruby looked aghast at Adam and saw that his lips were twitching and his eyes were full of laughter. Suddenly she was giggling too and the feeling of embarrassment had gone.
‘Let’s have a look at the patient, shall we, Nurse?’ Adam said, holding the door open to allow her to pass.
Ruby watched as Adam examined Billy, her admiration for him growing minute by minute. He was so cool and so professional, so capable and so thorough. No wonder Pamela adored him. Thinking of Pamela brought Ruby back to earth with a bump. Adam was spoken for, that was quite obvious, and she must be mad to let her thoughts run away with her.
Packing his instruments back in the black leather Gladstone bag, Adam stood up. ‘You’ve done a good job, Ruby. His fever is down and he’s making good progress.’
‘He’s not going to die?’
Adam shook his head, smiling. ‘Not for a very long time. He’s young and he’s strong and it would take more than a lungful of smoke and some third degree burns to finish off this man. But I’ll come again tomorrow.’
Adam came the next day and the next. When he arrived on the third day, Billy was downstairs in the living room, fully dressed and standing in the middle of the floor, arguing with Ruby. ‘Don’t think I ain’t grateful to you, Ruby, nor you, Mrs Capretti, but I got to get back to my place and see to my horse.’
‘I been every day,’ Ruby protested. ‘I fed and watered him like you showed me and he’s fine. You can’t look after yourself, Billy. Not with your hands still bandaged like one of them Egyptian mummies.’
‘You’ll get lung fever again if you goes back to that cold stable loft with no proper food,’ Sarah said, turning to Adam. ‘You tell him, Doctor.’
Adam shook his head. ‘If Billy feels he’s fit enough to go home, then we must leave it up to him. But you’ll need to have your dressings changed every day, Billy.’
‘That’s all right, doc. Ruby will do it, won’t you, love?’
‘Of course,’ Ruby said, fighting a bitter disappointment that Adam would no longer have
an excuse to call at the house. ‘Of course I will.’
‘She’s a good nurse,’ Billy said, hooking his arm around Ruby’s shoulders. ‘She’s wasted working at old Bronski’s sweatshop.’
‘I doubt if I’ve got a job now.’ Seeing the dismayed expression on all their faces, Ruby regretted the words the moment she had spoken them.
Adam’s smooth brow crinkled in a frown. ‘Ruby, I had no idea that you might lose your job. I could have made different arrangements if I’d known.’
‘Young man, do we look as how we can afford a private nurse?’ demanded Sarah.
Adam flashed her his most charming smile. ‘I’m sure I could have persuaded one of the probationers to help out now and again.’
‘Pity you never thought of that before,’ Granny Mole said. ‘Any more tea in the pot, Sal?’
Adam shrugged on his elegant cashmere coat. ‘Billy is right about one thing, Ruby. You’d make a fine nurse.’
‘Oh, I dunno about that,’ Ruby said, crossing her fingers behind her back, praying that Mum wouldn’t put in her tuppence-worth about the impossibility of a girl from Tobacco Court being accepted as a probationer nurse.