A Rare Ruby (22 page)

‘Tom, can you take this upstairs when I’ve finished his bits?’

‘I don’t like going up there.’

‘Why not? You just said he gave you tuppence.’

‘That was in the yard.’

‘I heard him go out a while ago.’

‘I don’t care. I don’t like going up there.’

Ruby finished the ironing and took it up herself. She pushed open the door and put his ironing on the table. She looked around. Every Saturday afternoon after she had been to the market, she had to come up here and clean this place. She was pleased he didn’t have a lot of furniture to polish and was out of there as quick as she could be. She was also on her guard every time she went up. She told her father to ask him down for a chat. Her excuse was that she didn’t want him getting in her way, and so far it had worked.

Ruby couldn’t rest all evening and kept looking at the clock. She knew the pub closed at eleven and it should take him about twenty minutes to walk home. She knew if she went to bed she wouldn’t be able to sleep, so she decided to go and meet him. As she was putting on her hat and coat, Tom asked, ‘You going out?’

‘I’m just going to meet Dad. I’m not happy about him walking home on his own.’

‘He ain’t gonner thank you. He reckons all his demons have gone now.’

Ruby looked shocked. ‘Is that what he told you?’

Tom nodded. ‘We was sitting here one day after Mum died and he blamed the Kaiser for Mum and he reckoned he shouldn’t let him stop him any more.’

‘Well, I must admit he has changed. I only wish he’d helped Mum out.’

‘He said he’d never forgive himself.’

Ruby was overjoyed that her mother’s death hadn’t had the opposite reaction that she had been dreading, and he had not gone deeper into his shell. ‘I’m glad you and Dad can sit and talk.’

‘He had a terrible time in that war, you know.’

‘I gathered that.’ She looked at the clock. She wanted to hear more, but she had to go. ‘You must tell me about it sometime.’

‘He don’t say much, but some of the things he saw must have been nasty.’ Tom stopped.

Ruby hoped her father hadn’t been too graphic; Tom was young and at an impressionable age. ‘Now off to bed.’

‘You still going out?’

‘Yes.’

‘Dad won’t like it.’

‘He don’t know what it’s really like down there now. I’ll just tell him I fancied a stroll.’

Tom laughed. ‘What, at this time of night?’

She kissed the top of his head. ‘Off to bed. Now.’

Ruby left the house at once. She was truly concerned. Everybody - except probably Thomas - knew it was very rough round that way, especially when some of the foreign ships were in dock. And just what had the previous pot man died of? She pulled her coat round her and hurried along just as a spring shower started.

By the time Ruby arrived at the Green Man the rain was falling steadily and men were spilling out of the door. She stood on the far side of the road and well back in the shadows; she didn’t want to be seen. The laughter and shouting was very loud and filled the air. She saw some enormous men with bushy beards wearing navy blue jackets. A couple of men were holding up another, very drunk, whose boots dragged along the ground as they moved on. When he started to be sick they let him go and he fell to his knees. Ruby realised that the shouting was in a foreign language and it was getting louder and more aggressive. One man pushed the other and suddenly they were fighting and rolling on the ground. Ruby squeezed herself into a dark doorway. She was very frightened. She hoped her father was busy and wouldn’t come out till this was all over. As more men spilt out of the pub they formed a jeering crowd round the men who were fighting, egging them on. Suddenly, in the light from the pub, Ruby saw the flash of a knife. A man slipped to the ground holding his stomach. The crowd disappeared at once, leaving the man groaning in the wet gutter.

She put her hand to her mouth to suppress her scream. What should she do? Why had she let her father come and work here? For a few moments she stood and watched the man writhing on the ground. Should she help him? Had his attacker gone? The rain was coming down more heavily now, she could feel it trickling down her neck then on down inside her coat. She heard the bolts going on the door of the pub and realised she had to go in there. She had to get help. She ran across the road and banged hard on the door.

‘Bugger off, we’re closed,’ came a voice from inside.

She banged harder this time, hurting her hands. ‘Dad. Dad. It’s me, Ruby. Please open up.’

The bolts were pulled and the door was swiftly opened and Ruby fell in. She looked up at the man who was holding onto the door. He was a tall, thickset man with wild salt-and-pepper-coloured hair and a bushy moustache to match.

‘Ruby?’ said her father.

She looked over at her father, he was standing next to the bar. He put the glass he was wiping on the bar and hurried over to his daughter. ‘What’re you doing here?’ he asked, helping her to her feet. ‘You’re soaking wet.’

‘Dad. Dad.’ She held on to her father.

‘What’s happened? You all right?’

She shook her head. ‘I come to see if
you
was all right,’ she sobbed, brushing sawdust from her coat. ‘There’s a man out there.’

‘I’ll kill him. What’s he done?’

She pointed to the door. ‘The man out there. Someone’s stuck a knife in him. He’s lying in the gutter.’

‘Is he dead?’ asked the man who had opened the door.

Ruby shook her head. ‘No, he’s groaning.’

‘Get this wet thing off,’ said her father as he helped her remove her coat. ‘This is George, my boss.’ He nodded towards the big man.

Ruby brushed her tears from her eyes and gave him a weak smile. She could see that he wouldn’t stand any nonsense from his customers.

George went outside and half carried, half dragged the man back inside the pub. He sat him on a seat then quickly locked and bolted the door. ‘I’ll see how bad he is.’

‘Do you want a doctor?’ asked Thomas.

‘No. If he ain’t too bad I’ll get someone to take him back to his ship.’

Ruby sat on the rough wooden bench that ran round the wall of the bar and looked about her. She was shaking with cold and shock. The pub was very stark. The air was smoky and the smell of tobacco very strong. The long wooden bar had a brass rail running round the bottom; it hadn’t been polished in years and was black with scuffmarks. The wooden floor was wet with beer and the tables covered with burn marks and beer stains.

‘Give your daughter a drink,’ said the owner over his shoulder as he removed the man’s jacket.

‘She’s under age, George.’

‘That don’t matter. The poor girl’s in shock.’

‘What are you doing here anyway? You should be at home, not running after me,’ said her father in a loud angry whisper.

‘I was worried about you.’

‘I ain’t a child,’ he said, giving her a withering look. He went behind the bar and poured out a drink and with a steady hand silently held out the glass.

Ruby looked up at her father. ‘Thanks.’ She knew now that he was in control.

Ruby sat watching George remove the sailor’s jacket. His shirt was covered with blood. Thomas gave out a gasp.

George looked up. ‘Don’t just stand there looking, give us a hand - get some water, then I can see how bad he is. You, girl, go through his coat pockets and see what ship he’s on.’ He threw the coat to Ruby.

She looked at the blood then looked at her father. He had turned very pale.

The man was still groaning.

Ruby frantically went through the pockets. She brought out a pipe, a tobacco pouch. And a wallet. ‘Shall I look in his wallet?’

‘That’s the way to find out the name of his ship. This ain’t too bad. Just a flesh wound.’

‘I am from Russia,’ said the man in very broken English. He tried to struggle to his feet.

‘Thought as much,’ said George, looking down on him. ‘He’s on one of the ships that brings in timber. That’s one of the
Surrey
’s main cargoes. Is there any English money in that wallet?’

Ruby gasped. ‘A ten-bob note.’

Thomas was holding on to the bar. His head hurt. The noise in his head was pounding. Blood was all around him. He couldn’t see.

‘Dad. Dad.’ His daughter’s voice was coming through the mist. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes, love.’ He gave her a smile.

‘You’ve gone ever so white.’

‘I’ll be all right.’

‘Thomas, give this bloke a drink and take the money for it and for your daughter’s out of that ten bob - oh, and get me and yourself one while you’re at it. I’ll put the change back in his pocket.’

Ruby was amazed that this man would take money for a drink that could be called medicinal. There was a photo of a very young man and a woman; was this the man in the photo? The woman was pretty and laughing.

George washed and tied a cloth from behind the bar around the man’s wound. The cloth didn’t look very clean. ‘That’ll do you for now. It ain’t deep, and you won’t bleed to death. D’yer think you’ll be all right to get back to yer ship?’

The man nodded. ‘Thank you so much.’

‘Don’t thank me, thank this girl here. If she hadn’t seen you, you would have stayed there all night.’

The sailor gave Ruby a beaming smile.

‘Right, on your feet.’ George put his arm under the man and helped him to his feet. He got him to the door and after removing all the bolts sent him on his way.

‘Does that sort of thing happen very often?’ asked Thomas.

‘Yer, at least once a month. It’s mostly the toms they fight over. You get used to it. He’s a lot luckier than some. I’ve come out on a couple of Sunday mornings to find a stiff in the gutter. But that’s mostly in winter,’ he said, completely unruffled.

Ruby sat with her eyes wide open. Did she want her father working in such a place?

George must have sensed her anxiety. ‘You don’t have to worry about your dad, you know. By the time he’s finished they’ve long gone.’

Thomas Jenkins put his arm round Ruby. ‘This is my little Ruby. She’s a rare little gem and can’t help looking after her dad, can you, love?’

Ruby shook her head. What could she say?

As they walked home it pleased Ruby to see her father was more like the man she remembered before that terrible war. She wanted to know what had happened to him. She had so many questions to ask him, but knew she had to take it one step at a time.

‘Do you think you’ll be happy working there, Dad?’

‘Yes. That George seems a decent enough bloke.’

‘Pity you couldn’t work in the day.’

‘His wife gives him a hand then.’

‘Where was she tonight?’

‘She sits with her mother. Her mother don’t like to be on her own at night.’

‘That’s a shame. It would be nice if you could do something in the day.’

‘You never know, when I get known someone might want a bit doing. George reckons there’s a few widder women round that way that sometimes want a shelf put up, so that would be a bit extra.’

Ruby laughed. ‘Don’t you go getting yourself mixed up with any widder women!’

Thomas stopped, his expression suddenly serious. ‘Ruby, I’ve got to look after you and Tom as much as I can. I’ve been a terrible father. I’m responsible for your mother’s death.’

‘No you wasn’t, Dad.’

‘Yes I was. I should have tried to pull myself together, not rely on your mother all the time. The trouble was she let me sit around so long that I got so I didn’t want to get out. But I mustn’t blame her, she was a good woman.’ He began to move on slowly.

‘But we know you had a bad time in the war.’

‘Yes I did, but so did a lot of other men. I was just very weak.’

Ruby tucked her arm through her father’s. ‘Come on. Let’s get home.’

He grinned. ‘Yes, let’s. It’s been a long evening.’

But Thomas Jenkins was putting on a brave face. When he had seen the blood on that man tonight he’d almost gone to pieces. Blood seemed to fill him with terror. Yet he had to keep his demons at bay. He must never let them rule him again.

Tom was out of the bedroom as soon as he heard his father and Ruby come in.

‘Thought you wasn’t gonner come home.’

‘And where else would we go then, young man?’

‘It’s about time you was asleep,’ said Ruby.

‘I’ll be able to now.’ He left the room.

‘He’s a good lad,’ said Thomas Jenkins.

‘Yes, I know.’ Ruby had a lot of affection for her brother. ‘He’s trying so hard to help out.’

‘I know, and that only makes me feel worse. I am doing my best, you know.’

‘Course I do, Dad.’ She watched him as he sat wearily in his chair. This must be very hard for him after all these years.

 

The following week Ruby couldn’t believe Elsie was waiting for her again.