‘Cathy? CATHY?’ She stopped again. The sound of weeping filtered through Cathy’s closed bedroom door.
Ruby’s heart almost stopped. It wasn’t childish upset, it was raw, choking sobs.
‘Oh, darlin’, what’s the matter?’ Ruby said, pushing open the door.
At first she couldn’t make out her daughter’s shape, but as her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she saw her, curled up on the bed. Ruby felt a rush of icy shivers go through her. She felt cold to her bones.
‘Darlin’,’ she said again, softly, approaching the bed. ‘What is it? What’s happened? Oh, Cathy!’
At once Ruby saw the state of her daughter. There was blood smeared across her face and an ugly red mark forming across her cheek. Her T-shirt was ripped and her jeans open at the top but pulled up haphazardly.
‘Who did this to you?’ Ruby cried, reaching her arms around her sobbing child. Eventually, Cathy’s sobs subsided enough for her to speak. She wiped her hand across her face, moving the blood up into her hair.
‘Where’s George? Is he OK?’ Ruby was breathing fast now. ‘Tell me, Cathy. What happened? Who did this?’
She stared into her daughter’s swollen red eyes, her blood pounding in her ears. It was as if her heart knew the answer, knew with every beat.
‘It was . . . it was . . . Please don’t be angry with him, Mum. He didn’t know what he was doin’. He was actin’ all weird and drugged. He was off his head. I was tryin’ to comfort him but he got it all wrong and then he just grabbed me, wouldn’t let me go, and then he . . . he . . . raped me.’
The words were sharp in Ruby’s ears as if made of steel blades that slashed into her mind. It couldn’t be . . .
‘Tell me, Cathy.’ Her voice was low. She felt like a tiger in the long grasses, waiting to pounce.
‘It was . . .’
‘Go on, love.’
‘George,’ Cathy whispered.
But Ruby had known already.
And now Archie and Alfie did too.
Both men were standing in the doorway, their eyes wild, their faces twisted with rage and grief.
‘I’ll tear him to pieces. I’ll rip his dick off. I’ll feed him to the pigs while there’s still breath in him!’ Archie looked half demented. His fists were bunched tight. The shock of Cathy’s revelation filled the room. Waves of disbelief and horror lapped at the walls.
‘Stop, Archie.’ Ruby turned to look at her husband and brother-in-law. Archie stared at her from the doorway, holding back while she tended to their daughter, his eyes dark in the evening light. She felt his need for revenge, the need for blood to be spilled, as a visceral force.
She nodded, acknowledging his savagery, accepting it completely.
Something had to be done – and fast. This unthinkable crime against their beautiful girl could not go unpunished. There would be no police called, no trust placed in the authorities. They’d handle this themselves.
Ruby’s gaze was steady, her decision made.
‘Find him,’ she said.
CHAPTER 38
‘Come on, darlin’, I’m takin’ you to Uncle Bobby’s. You’ll be safe there.’ Ruby held her daughter tightly, knowing she had to protect her from whatever was coming next.
There was a slight pause. ‘From what, Mum?’ Cathy had stopped crying, and instead she turned to face her mother, looking directly into her eyes.
Ruby stopped and stared back. She couldn’t tell Cathy what she instinctively knew inside. She couldn’t tell her that George, when he was found, was a dead man walking, yet Cathy sensed enough to even ask the question.
‘I don’t want you around when they find him. You’ve had enough trauma for one night,’ Ruby said eventually.
It was enough to satisfy her daughter.
Cathy nodded. ‘OK, Mum, I don’t really want to see him anyway. I’ll go to Bobby and Belle’s, just promise me one thing . . .’
‘What’s that, darlin’?’
‘Don’t let him suffer,’ Cathy said, tears welling up in her eyes again. Ruby’s heart broke again at the sight of her, looking so young and forlorn, her innocence ripped from her so brutally.
She pulled Cathy into her arms again. ‘I promise, darlin’, I won’t let that happen.’ Ruby felt a thud of guilt, which she quickly dismissed. She knew that George would not survive the night. Her brother would be hunted down like prey. His life was worthless now. Archie would not let him live after raping their daughter. It was the way of the underworld, the law of survival. George had transgressed the line that separated man from beast, and he would pay the ultimate price. Ruby couldn’t begin to understand her own shock, her own desperation.
There was nothing Ruby could do to protect him, no matter how torn she was. On the one hand George was the baby brother she loved with all her heart, on the other hand he’d brutalised her daughter, the other innocent who Ruby had sworn to protect.
She went to her daughter’s wardrobe and pulled out a thick fluffy dressing gown and soft underwear for her to change into. She watched as her daughter winced with pain as she gently pulled off her jeans and knickers, revealing scratched skin and yet more blood from George’s violent attack.
The sight was almost enough to make Ruby break down. Stay strong for Cathy, stay strong, you can fall apart later, she chanted in her mind, gritting her teeth to stop the tears and shock coming.
‘We’ll put you in a nice, warm bath and Belle will stay with you day and night. You’re safe now, Cathy,’ Ruby murmured as she worked, dressing her daughter with the tenderest care, all the while trying to hold in the emotions that seized her.
Maternal love is as fierce as it is caring, and Ruby felt a swirling torrent of grief, rage and sadness inside her, yet no one would’ve guessed. The years of keeping a poker-straight face in business deals were so
