Despite her tiredness and anger, Ruby had to laugh at the thought of Eddie messing with the garden. The previous owner had made a job of laying out rows for a vegetable garden and another for flowers, but from what she could tell it hadn’t had much attention for a while. She’d thought it would be good to have a go herself, but hadn’t yet found the time. A shed at the end of the long, thin garden still housed a few garden tools that had been left behind in the man’s haste to leave the property. ‘I’d best go down and see what he’s up to,’ she said with a sigh. ‘Had you done anything for our tea yet?’
‘I’d started some liver and onions before he kicked off. It won’t take long to finish. Do you want a cup of tea first?’
‘No, ta, I’m swimming in the stuff. I had a couple of cups over at Stella’s house. I’ll go and see him first.’ Ruby heaved herself out of the chair, wishing she could just settle back and have a snooze.
‘Hello, love. I thought it was about time I made a start out here,’ Eddie said, not making eye contact with Ruby.
‘A bit pointless if you want us to move away, isn’t it?’ She sat down on an upturned wooden box and made a show of straightening the skirts of her shabby navy-blue work dress. The hem was frayed from dragging on the ground; it had been too long when she picked it up cheap on the second-hand stall up Woolwich market before they moved away. There’d never been time to take it up and then, as her tummy grew, there’d been no real need. Perhaps she could use some of her savings to pick up another dress. She’d seen a shop that sold cast-offs; a dress from there would do her for work, once she’d given it a wash.
‘Perhaps I was a bit hasty,’ Eddie said.
Ruby noticed how his hands shook as he bent over the spade and guided it into the hard earth with his foot. ‘Maybe you were, but think how I felt when I saw you the worse for drink. You still look rough now. It’s not good for you, Eddie. We’ve not long buried our daughter. I don’t want to be standing over your grave in my widow’s weeds. We could have a good life here, if you just knuckled down and thought of us rather than where the next drink’s coming from.’
‘I still say it wasn’t my fault I lost the job,’ he muttered. ‘I was miserable and wanted to drown my sorrows. What else could I do?’
‘You could have come home and talked it over with me. Am I that bad a wife, that you can’t speak to me and share your problems?’
Eddie lifted his head and looked at Ruby. He could see her eyes brimming with tears, just as he felt his were. ‘I’m just a silly old bugger. I don’t know why you put up with me,’ he said, lowering his head.
‘Less of the old,’ Ruby smiled, attempting to lighten the atmosphere. ‘Just remember, I’m your wife – we should be able to face anything together. I know me mum can be a pain in the backside, but if we’d chatted through this the day you lost your job . . . why, we could have done something without her finding out and having her two penn’orth.’
‘I don’t deserve you, Ruby Caselton,’ Eddie said. ‘What you said to me about leaving you really hit home. I knew you meant what you said, and I could so easily have lost me family. Not only will I get looking for a job first thing on Monday, but I promise to dig over this garden tomorrow and have it ready to grow you some beautiful flowers.’
Ruby reached out and took his hand. There must be something behind the way he drank, and it worried her so. He needed to knock it on the head, and she was determined to help him do just that. ‘If you don’t mind, I need to hang the washing out tomorrow, as I’m going in to work on Monday. I don’t want dirt flying over the sheets.’
Eddie slung his arm over her shoulders and they started to walk to the back door when the head of their elderly neighbour popped up from the other side of the fence. ‘Tomorrow is a day of rest, when we read our bible and attend church. No decent woman hangs out her washing on the Sabbath,’ she said in a stern voice. ‘You, young woman, have a lot to learn if you wish to live in a respectable road like this.’
Ruby sighed and muttered under her breath before smiling to her neighbour. ‘Good evening, Miss Hunter. We didn’t see you there. Do you often eavesdrop on private conversations?’
‘I was merely in my garden, Mrs Caselton. If you and your drunken husband must insist on discussing your lives so loudly, then you must expect others to comment.’
Ruby shrugged off Eddie’s arm and nodded to him to go indoors. He didn’t need a second bidding. Two women falling out was of no interest to him. ‘Miss Hunter, making oneself known is more neighbourly than hiding and listening to a husband and wife’s conversation.’
The older woman sniffed her disapproval. ‘The man who lived in this house before you was a true gentleman. He never had children who played like ragamuffins in the street, he never argued and fell about drunk, or dragged sacks of coal down the back pathway and left behind a mess. As for wishing to hang out washing on a Sunday, I fear the Reverend Grayson will have something to say
