‘He had no choice,’ Eddie said as he put down his knife and fork, not speaking until he’d swallowed what was in his mouth. For all his shortcomings, Ruby did admire his manners when eating his food. The decent side of Eddie was still there and surfaced sometimes. ‘The bloke is a builder, and he owned six houses in the road. This one was handed over to settle his gambling debts. Cedric wants to hang on to it and knowing we’ve got a second nipper on the way, he asked if I’d be interested. Mind you, you’ll have to clean yourself up a bit when we live down there. It’s not quite as posh as the Avenue where the nobs live, but it’s up in the world a bit from this doss-hole.’
Ruby bristled. ‘I’ve been out doing my cleaning job. I’ll not wear my best bib and tucker to get on my hands and knees to scrub the floors of the Red Lion,’ she threw back at him. ‘So how much rent do we have to pay to Cedric?’ She was wary of the amount being outside of their earnings, and with her not being able to work as much while the baby was dependent on her, she didn’t want to get into debt with Cedric Mulligan and be out on their ears with nowhere to live.
‘He wants more than we pay for this place, but I thought your mother could have the small bedroom and chip in a bit. She could also look after the kids while you worked.’
‘That’s bloody good of you,’ Ruby sniffed as she turned her back on her husband and started scrubbing the saucepan she’d left to soak in the chipped china sink. There again, if it meant moving up in the world she could put up with her mother’s ways for a bit longer and perhaps, once things were better and they could live without Milly Tomkins’ contribution, she could have one of her sisters take on the responsibility. It was time Fanny and Janie did more to help their mother. Older than Ruby, both women worked for their husbands, who were in the wholesale business, doing well for themselves up in Bexleyheath. Yes, she thought, nodding her head to confirm her decision, that was a plan and she’d stick to it. ‘I think we should consider taking the house, Eddie. Once I’ve finished here I’ll get myself tidied up and go down there and give the place the once over. There might be time to pick up a few bits and bobs down the market to make it more homely,’ she said, thinking of the money she’d hidden away under a loose floorboard inside a battered tobacco tin.
‘There’s nothing to look at. I’ve given notice here and we move on Saturday,’ he said, before tucking back in to the remains of his pie.
Ruby winced as the baby kicked in protest, as if complaining at Eddie Caselton’s announcement. ‘I know just how you feel,’ she whispered as she gently rubbed her swelling stomach, protected beneath a voluminous apron. In the past, she’d questioned Eddie’s grand ideas if she’d thought they were not right for their family. However, on this occasion she was in agreement, although it would have been nice to have a little more time to plan ahead.
‘Now doesn’t that feel better?’ Stella said as she tucked clean bed linen around Ruby’s exhausted body and brushed a few stray hairs from her pale face. ‘I know it must have been a strain to be carried across the road by my Frank, but at least now you’re in your own home and can sleep in your own bed. We’ll soon have you as right as rain. Now, I’m going to leave you to sleep, and I’ll be back in a few hours with some broth I have simmering on the stove.’
Ruby licked her dry lips. In the few days since she’d lost her baby, she’d hardly been able to face a morsel of food. The delirium following the shock of the birth had her new neighbour, along with her mother, fearing the worst. At the height of her illness as she tossed and turned, her body wracked with fever, she recalled hearing her mother say: ‘If she dies, I won’t look after the boy. He’s too much of a handful, and what with my dodgy ticker it’s best he goes into a home.’ Ruby had tried to call out to tell them she wanted George by her side and needed to know about her baby, but as hard as she tried, no one took any notice. Something deep inside told her to fight whatever was keeping her away from her beloved son. By the following morning the fever had started to subside, but then grief took over when Stella explained her baby had not survived the traumatic birth and had been taken away. As much as Ruby begged to see the baby, her constant requests were ignored. Her mother told her it was for the best, and that Eddie had agreed. Of her husband there was no sign. Stella informed her, between pursed lips, that men grieved in different ways.
Alone at last, Ruby tried not to dwell on the past days, instead forcing herself to concentrate on her new home and the future. She was glad that her mother had thought to put new sheets on her bed rather than the much-boiled patched ones that she kept for daily use. She could smell a faint perfume of lavender, which reminded her of the dainty lace lavender bags she’d purchased on a whim when she spotted a young girl selling them in Woolwich market. An extravagance she could barely afford,
