‘Tell me it ain’t true about Ruby and Joe. There must have been a mix-up somewhere along the line.’ Rosetta looked to her mother, desperate for a denial.
Sarah shook her head with fresh tears spurting from her eyes. ‘It’s true. Ruby was nursing the troops; she was with Joe at the end. She wrote me a letter saying that he didn’t know nothing about it and went real peaceful. Then she come down with typhoid.’
‘But how do you know? It could be a terrible mistake.’
Sarah pulled a crumpled telegram from her apron pocket, handing it to Rosetta. ‘It’s from that doctor friend of hers. He says she’s being sent home on a hospital ship.’
‘This is dated weeks ago. Why didn’t you let me know? Why didn’t I know anyway?’ Rosetta buried her face in her hands. ‘Me and Ruby used to be so close. I should have known there was something wrong.’
Sarah laid her hand on Rosetta’s shoulder. ‘You ain’t kids now, Rose. You got your own life to lead and so has Ruby.’
Brushing the tears from her eyes, Rosetta lifted her head. ‘This says the ship will be arriving soon. I’ll make it up to her, Mum. I’ve been wrong about so many things and I’ve been
hateful to everyone who loves me, but I’m going to change. I swear on Poppa’s grave that I’m going to be a better person. I’ll see that Ruby gets the best treatment that money can buy.’
‘Oh, Rosetta, my little Rose, you always had big ideas. We’ll manage somehow, but we just ain’t got the money for doctors and fancy convalescent homes.’
‘We haven’t, but I know someone who has. Ruby deserves the best and by God, I’m going to see that she gets it.’
The journey home had seemed to go on for ever, the days drifting endlessly through a fogbank of laudanum-induced sleep. Ruby knew that she had been very ill and was lucky to have survived but, as her mind became clearer and memory returned, so did the pain and grief of losing Joe and then Pamela. In the first days of her illness she had only been dimly aware of her surroundings. Adam had been at her bedside, holding her hand, offering words of comfort and encouragement that sometimes she understood but, when the fever was at its peak, it was just the sound of his voice that she had heard. It was only when she had begun to recover that Ruby realised she had lost three weeks of her life. By that time they were at sea and she was lying in a bunk on a hospital ship, out of danger but too ill to do anything but sleep the days away.
She was still weak and listless and even the news that they were nearing England had done little to raise her spirits. She had left Adam behind in Africa, coping alone with his grief, and she was powerless to help him through his lonely ordeal.
It would be winter now, adding to the dangers and discomforts of life on the front line. On deck, reclining on a steamer chair and muffled in blankets, Ruby watched the grey-green waters of the English Channel roll and break against the side of the ship, sending plumes of spray and spume onto the decking. Long before they reached the quiet waters of the Thames estuary, she had made up her mind to return to Africa as soon as she had regained her strength.
They docked in London early in the morning. Ruby was not expecting anyone to meet her; she had vaguely thought she would take a cab home but it was difficult to think clearly. She had managed to dress herself but it had taken a long time, with short rests in between struggling with buttons and laces. She had lost so much weight that her clothes hung off her and when she was done she had to lie down on her bunk as the cabin spun round her in dizzying circles. Of the three other nurses who had shared the cabin with her during the voyage, two had gone up on deck to watch the ship dock and the other girl was too sick to leave her bunk. It was not much of a surprise when two orderlies entered the cabin carrying a stretcher. When she realised that they meant to lift her onto it, Ruby protested that she was fit enough to walk off the ship. The orderlies disagreed and she had to suffer the indignity of being stretchered ashore.
‘There she is. Ruby, Ruby, over here.’
Lifting her head, Ruby could see Rosetta waving frantically from the quayside. Dazzled by the bright sunlight, she shaded her eyes with her hand. For a moment she thought she was hallucinating and the fever had returned. Smartly dressed and smiling, Rosetta and Jonas stood in front of his motor car, looking for all the world like a prosperous City merchant and his wife. Too weak to hold her head up, Ruby lay back on the stretcher. So Rosetta had got her wish and captivated Jonas with her charming ways. She ought not to have been surprised, but the sight of them together was more of a shock than she could ever have anticipated.
‘Ruby, how thin you are,’ Rosetta said, a worried frown puckering her smooth brow. ‘You mustn’t worry about a thing, dear. We’re going to look after you, aren’t we, Jonas?’
The orderlies set the stretcher down on the ground and Jonas thanked them, pressing what had to be a generous tip into their palms, judging by the way they grinned and touched their caps.
‘We’ve come to take you home, Ruby,’ Jonas said, bending over her.
To protest meant using her last scrap of energy; Ruby hooked her arm around his broad shoulders as he lifted her into the passenger seat of his motor car.
Ruby had expected to be taken home to
Tobacco Court but she soon realised that they were heading towards Shoreditch. ‘Jonas, where are you taking me?’
‘Home, my dear,’ Jonas said, turning his head and smiling. ‘Rosetta and I have it all worked out between us. We’ll have you fit and well again in no time.’
‘Yes, and Mum and Granny will visit tomorrow, after you’ve had time to rest,’ Rosetta said, leaning over the front seat and almost smothering Ruby in a cloud of expensive perfume. ‘Jonas and me have worked so hard getting your room ready. Just wait until you see it.’
As Jonas drew the motor to a halt outside the house in Raven Street, the front door of Lottie’s house opened and she came down the steps, beaming at Ruby. ‘Welcome home, cara. We’ve all been so worried about you.’ Wrapping her arms around Ruby, she brushed her cheek with paper-thin lips.
Amazed by all this attention, Ruby could only nod and smile.
Lottie released her, taking a step backwards as Jonas came round to open the door. ‘She’s as thin as a sparrow, Jonas. You got to take good care of her.’
‘I can get out by myself,’ Ruby protested as Jonas lifted her from her seat.
‘From now on, Nurse Capretti, you’ll do as
you’re told.’ Jonas carried her up the steps as easily as if she had been a small child.
Tucker opened the door, his face split in a huge grin. He thrust a bouquet of yellow roses into Ruby’s hands. ‘Welcome home, miss.’
‘Oh, Tucker, how lovely.’ Ruby buried her face in the scented blooms. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘Not at all, miss. It’s good to have you home.’
‘I’ll come and see you later,’ Lottie called from the doorway as Jonas carried Ruby up the stairs with Rosetta following close behind.
‘Please put me down,’ Ruby said, as Jonas mounted the second staircase. ‘I’m not a complete invalid.’
‘Yes you are,’ Rosetta said, slipping past them and hurrying on ahead up the last flight of stairs. ‘Jonas has put me in charge and I’m to look after you until you’re fit and well again.’
Ruby leaned her head against Jonas’s shoulder, closing her eyes. So much seemed to have changed since she left for South Africa. She couldn’t wait to get Rosetta on her own to ask her what had happened between her and Billy. Where was baby Martha? Why was Lottie sober? How long had Rosetta and Jonas been a couple? Why did that thought disturb her so very much?
Dancing on ahead, Rosetta opened the door and Jonas carried Ruby into a room that was bathed in sunlight and filled with the scent of summer flowers.
Setting her down on a chaise longue, Jonas took Tucker’s roses from Ruby and passed them to Rosetta.
‘We’ve filled every vase in the house,’ Rosetta said, chuckling. ‘I think Jonas must have bought up the whole of Covent Garden this morning.’
Ruby managed a weak smile. ‘Thank you, Jonas. That was kind.’
‘I’ll leave you to settle in,’ Jonas said, making for the door. ‘Don’t wear her out, Rosetta. Remember you’re the nurse now and Ruby needs to rest.’
As the door closed on him, Rosetta pulled a face. ‘God, he’s a bossy devil, but then you know that, you’ve lived with him.’
‘And you’re living here now?’
‘I’m here to look after you, Ruby. I’ll make up for how I treated you before, I promise. We won’t never fall out again.’
‘Never?’ Ruby raised an eyebrow. ‘Perhaps. But I’m tired, Rose. This is all lovely but it’s too much. All I wanted to do was to go home and sleep in our old room. Mutton stew for dinner and Granny Mole grumbling by the fireside.’
‘You got to be looked after properly, Ruby.’ Crossing the room, Rosetta opened a door that led into a bedroom. ‘This is yours and I’m just next door. You’ve only to ring the bell and someone will come day or night.’
Ruby stifled a yawn. The sudden change from
being on board the hospital ship and the strangeness of her surroundings made everything seem unreal and nothing made sense. ‘I could have had my old room. Why is everything so different?’
‘Jonas said your old room would be too noisy. He’s gone respectable, Ruby. The club is all legal and proper. Jonas is a bony-fidy businessman now – none of that dodgy stuff.’
‘And you live here now?’
‘I work here. I entertain the punters’ wives in the supper room.’
‘And Billy? How does he feel about all this?’
‘Don’t you worry your head about my problems. You just concentrate on getting strong again. Have a nap and I’ll be back later with something to tempt your appetite. I don’t mean to be unkind, Ruby, but skeletons have got more meat on them than you have.’ Covering Ruby with a soft woollen blanket, Rosetta dropped a kiss on her forehead. ‘I’m glad we’re friends again, Ruby.’
As the door closed behind Rosetta, Ruby lay for a moment gazing round the newly decorated room and admiring the delicate, flower-patterned wallpaper. The swagged curtains and thick-pile Chinese carpet sculpted in pink and pastel green could have been taken straight from an illustration in
The Lady’s Pictorial
. Jonas, she thought sleepily, must have done all this with Rosetta in mind. It had been a shock to see them
so obviously together but Rose seemed a different person from the unhappy, heavily pregnant girl she had been before Ruby had left for South Africa. She knew that she should have been happy to see Rosetta with the man she loved, but the idea of Jonas and Rose together was deeply disturbing. Ruby had tried hard to hate Jonas just as she had tried to forget him, and she had failed on both counts. The memory of the night when he had forced himself upon her was imprinted on her body as well as in her mind, and his physical nearness aroused her senses to fever pitch. Being close to Adam had never affected Ruby in that way. Her love for Adam had been in her head like a beautiful dream; Jonas had command of her darker side and Ruby knew well what Father Brennan would have said about that. As soon as she was strong enough, she would go home to Tobacco Court and, when she was completely recovered, she would ask to be sent back to South Africa. Ruby closed her eyes and the chaise longue seemed to rise and fall with the swell of the waves as she drifted off to sleep.
There was an emotionally charged visit next day, when Mum and Granny Mole came all the way from Whitechapel in a hansom cab, which for them was an adventure in itself. Having been refreshed with endless cups of tea, they settled down to listen to Ruby’s account of Joe’s last
hours. Leaving out the goriest of the details and emphasising that he had died a hero’s death, Ruby told them as much as she thought they could bear. Sarah wept openly and Granny sat tight-lipped, but with tears in her eyes.
‘At least you was with him at the end,’ Sarah said, mopping her eyes on a very soggy hanky. ‘That’s a comfort. I couldn’t bear to think of my boy dying all alone in a foreign country.’
‘Well, he wouldn’t have gone into the army if he hadn’t gone and got hisself into so much debt,’ Granny said darkly. ‘I blame that Carlottie for leading him astray.’
Ruby opened her mouth to tell them that it had been fear of Jonas that had made Joe join the army, but somehow the words would not come. In her heart she knew that it had been the fatal weakness in Joe’s character that had led him into such desperate straits. She could never forgive Jonas for involving Joe in his street gang, but she also knew that Jonas had let Joe get away with unpaid debts of honour, a crime for which any other man would have ended up wearing lead boots at the bottom of the Thames.
‘Have another cake, Granny,’ Rosetta said, offering the plate of cakes to Granny Mole, whose beady eyes lit up as she selected a chocolate éclair.
‘Hmm,’ Sarah said, biting into a slice of Madeira cake, ‘we’d soon lose all our customers
in Spivey Street if we served up dry-as-dust cake like this.’
Rosetta bristled like an angry hedgehog. ‘We got a damn good cook, Mum. Our suppers are very well received.’
‘Watch your language, young lady,’ Granny said, licking cream off her fingers. ‘You may think you come up in the world by leaving your Billy, but you’re no better than a kept woman.’
Rosetta went very red in the face. ‘I ain’t no kept woman. I’m a chanteuse if you must know.’
‘You’re living with a gang leader and that makes you a moll,’ Granny said, snagging another éclair from the plate.
‘That’s enough, Ma,’ Sarah said, frowning. ‘Keep your opinions to yourself. You’re upsetting Ruby and you know she’s got to be kept quiet.’
Scowling, Granny slurped her tea, swallowing noisily.
‘It’s all right, Mum,’ Ruby said. ‘It’s Rose who should be upset, not me. I don’t think Gran is being fair to her.’
‘You don’t know the half of it, Ruby,’ Sarah said, pushing her plate away. ‘You been away for months and you ain’t seen poor Billy suffering like I have.’
‘Give over, Mum,’ Rosetta protested. ‘Don’t drag all that up again.’
‘He’s a good man, Rose. And how you could abandon your baby, I just don’t know.’
‘Don’t start on me,’ Rosetta cried, tears springing to her eyes. ‘I’ll live my life as I see fit and what goes on between me and Billy is our business.’