The Dollmaker's Daughters (16 page)

‘Oh, it’s you again!’ Tucker leaned against the doorpost, blocking the doorway.

Guessing that he had mistaken her for Rosetta, Ruby didn’t bother to argue. She was not in a mood to exchange words with a cheeky boy and she pushed past him, heading for the staircase.

‘Here, you can’t do that.’

‘Just try and stop me.’ Ruby marched upstairs to the gaming room with Tucker following her, protesting loudly. The gaming room was empty. She stormed out onto the landing, looking up and down the dark corridors, wondering where Jonas had his private rooms – always assuming he slept in a bed like a normal human being. Ruby had visions of him climbing into a coffin at dawn like the vampires in penny dreadfuls.

Tucker barred her way. ‘You got to go, miss, or I’ll be in for it when he gets back.’

Ruby spun round and glared at him; she’d dealt with the Spivey Street kids often enough to know that you had to stand up to bullies. ‘What’s your name, boy?’

‘Tucker, miss, but …’

‘When is Mr Jonas due back, Tucker?’

Tucker’s freckled face lost its belligerent scowl and a look of uncertainty spread across his face, giving him the appearance of a confused hob-goblin. ‘I dunno, and anyway, it ain’t none of your business.’

Before Ruby could put him in his place, a door opened at the far end of the corridor. ‘Tucker, is that you?’

‘Now you’ve been and gone and done it,’ Tucker said, scowling.

‘What is all the noise?’ Lily Lawson came towards them, looking like a wraith in a white silk wrap, with her pale blonde hair hanging loose around her shoulders. She stopped when she saw Ruby. ‘It’s Miss Capretti, isn’t it?’

‘Ruby Capretti.’

Lily shivered and pulled her wrap closer about her body. ‘Come to my sitting room. It’s warmer there and we can talk.’

‘But Miss Lily,’ Tucker said anxiously. ‘You’re supposed to be resting.’

Lily turned to him with a smile. ‘It’s all right, Tucker. Be a good chap and fetch us some tea and toast, will you, please?’

Ruby saw Tucker’s pug face transformed by a look of adoration. Nodding wordlessly, he ambled back down the stairs.

‘He’s not a bad boy,’ Lily said, leading the way. ‘You just have to know how to handle him.’

Lily’s apartment was at the far end of a long corridor and her sitting room, in contrast to the rest of the house, was bright, warm and distinctly feminine. Ruby stared around her, drinking in the sheer luxury of blue-velvet curtains that exactly matched the upholstery on buttoned chairs and an elegant chaise longue. The walls were covered in floral wallpaper and hung with gilt-framed paintings of country scenes and still lifes depicting flowers and fruit. Ruby felt her feet sinking into the thick pile of a Chinese carpet; she could never have imagined that anyone, other than Queen Victoria herself, lived in such fine surroundings.

She came back to reality with a start as Lily sank down onto the chaise longue, racked by a fit of coughing. Covering her mouth with a white linen handkerchief, she motioned Ruby to take a seat. ‘I – I’m sorry,’ Lily gasped, in between spasms. ‘It’s this silly inflammation of the lungs. I suffer it every winter.’

‘Are you all right?’ Ruby asked anxiously as Lily hastily crumpled up the bloodstained hanky and stuffed it behind a cushion.

‘I’ll be fine in a minute.’ Lily reached for a medicine bottle that stood on a side table and spooned some into her mouth. She collapsed against the cushions, her breathing ragged and her face deathly pale.

‘You ought to see a doctor,’ Ruby said,
frowning. Coughing up blood was serious and the most likely diagnosis was consumption; she knew that without having to refer to her medical books.

‘I have, my dear,’ Lily said, with a wan smile. ‘He says I should get away from smoky old London and live in Switzerland or the south of France. But that’s enough about me, tell me about yourself, Ruby. What brings you here today?’

Ruby had no intention of burdening Lily with the truth and she was about to make an excuse to leave when the door opened and Tucker came in carrying a tray of tea, followed by Jonas.

Jonas stared hard at Ruby and his expression relaxed just a fraction. ‘A second visit from the Capretti sisters. I’m honoured.’

‘You needn’t be,’ Ruby replied, jumping to her feet. ‘It ain’t a social call, Mr Crowe.’

‘No? You surprise me!’

Lily raised herself on one elbow. ‘Jonas, what’s going on?’

‘Nothing to bother your head about, Lily. Go back to bed and rest or you’ll not be fit to entertain the punters tonight.’

‘But Jonas …’

‘Good God, woman. Do I have to carry you to your bed?’

‘Oh, Jonas, don’t fuss,’ Lily said, getting wearily to her feet. ‘I will have a lie down.
Goodbye, Ruby, it was nice to meet you. I see so few people other than punters in the club and I’d really love to have a friend close to my own age. You will come again, won’t you?’

Ruby nodded. ‘Of course, if you want me to.’ She watched as Lily wandered into the adjoining room and, as the door closed behind her, Ruby turned on Jonas. ‘You’re a proper bully, you are. Can’t you see she’s really ill?’

Jonas stared at Ruby, eyebrows raised, eyes cold. ‘Not that it’s any of your business but yes, I do know, and how I take care of what’s mine is my business.’

‘What’s yours?’ Ruby almost choked on her indignation. ‘You can’t own a human being.’

‘That’s where you’re wrong, but I don’t have to explain myself to you or anyone.’

‘You – you arrogant, hard-hearted brute! Can’t you see you’re killing her? Lily should be in a sanatorium, not singing her heart out in a smoke-filled room just to entertain your punters.’

‘And you’re a medical expert, are you, Ruby?’

‘I’m doing me best to study and one day I’ll get into nursing school, but it don’t take a doctor to see the trouble here.’

‘So that’s your ambition, is it?’ Jonas sat down, making the chaise longue look like a piece of doll’s house furniture. ‘You’re so different from your sister. It’s hard to believe you’re twins.’

Ruby drew back, startled by the sudden
change in the conversation. ‘You don’t know Rosetta. You only met her at the funeral.’

‘She came to me for a job. I’m surprised you didn’t know that, being so close to your sister.’

There was no mistaking the irony in his tone and Ruby felt a stab of alarm. ‘I don’t believe you. Rosetta wouldn’t do that.’

‘Don’t worry, I turned her down. I won’t be corrupting her morals in my illegal gambling den.’

‘You leave Rosetta out of this. You done enough harm to my family.’

‘I suppose you’re talking about your brother?’

‘Yes, I’m talking about Joe. He’s young and he’s reckless and he’s got hisself into debt by gambling right here in this building. I don’t say it was your fault, but there’s no cause for you to frighten him half to death with your threats and bullying. He’s a good bloke deep down; he’s just gone off the rails a bit and you’re taking advantage of him.’

‘Well,’ Jonas said, leaning back against the cushions, a smile of genuine amusement playing on his lips. ‘You are a spirited little thing after all. I took you for a bluestocking the first time we met. It seems you’ve got hidden depths, Ruby Capretti.’

Ruby stamped her foot. ‘We’re not talking about me, or Rosetta, who for some reason thinks that the sun shines out of your arse, we’re talking
about a young man whose life you’re ruining just for the sake of a few bob.’

‘A few bob?’ Jonas pulled a face. ‘My dear Ruby, your brother owes me two hundred pounds. I don’t call that a few bob.’

Ruby swallowed hard and she sat down suddenly as her knees gave way beneath her. Two hundred pounds was a fortune; it would take her years to earn that much money working at Bronski’s.

‘He didn’t tell you? I’m not surprised.’

Feeling as though the breath had been sucked out of her lungs, Ruby shook her head. ‘We’ll pay you back somehow or other. Just don’t hurt him; I’m begging you, Mr Crowe, please don’t hurt my brother.’

Staring at her for a moment, Jonas got up and taking Ruby by the hand, he pulled her to her feet. ‘Maybe there’s a way, but I’m not promising anything.’

Looking into the depths of his eyes, Ruby shuddered. ‘I’ll do what you want.’

‘Anything?’ Jonas fingered Ruby’s thin shawl. ‘Would you work for me to pay off your brother’s debts?’

‘What would you want of me?’ Ruby met his eyes steadily; she wasn’t a fool and she hadn’t come down in the last shower of rain.

‘I haven’t quite decided, but surely anything would be better than working in that sweatshop.’

‘I don’t mind hard work, but I’m a respectable girl.’

‘And your brother is well on the road to perdition. I can ruin him with one snap of my fingers. Do you want to break your mother’s heart, Ruby? Do you want her to lose her only son, so soon after losing her husband?’

‘You wouldn’t!’

‘Wouldn’t I?’ Jonas’s eyes were chips of blue ice. ‘I’m used to getting my own way. Don’t go against me, Ruby.’

Licking her dry lips, Ruby felt suddenly quite faint. Joe had said he was in fear of his life and she had not really believed him. Now she did. ‘What do you want me to do?’

‘First things first. Did you walk here dressed like that?’

‘What?’ Startled, Ruby could only stare up into his impassive face.

Suddenly businesslike, Jonas grabbed her by the hand. ‘Right, then. Now you’re in my employ, the first thing you can do for me, Miss Ruby Capretti, is to let me buy you a proper damn overcoat.’

‘What?’

‘Don’t keep saying that; you sound like an idiot and I know you’re far from that.’ Jonas opened the door and, pulling her along behind him, he went down the stairs and out through the back of the house into the yard where his shiny black
motor was parked. ‘Hop in, Ruby. We’re going shopping.’

‘I can’t let you buy me clothes,’ Ruby said, climbing reluctantly into the passenger seat. ‘It ain’t decent, it ain’t respectable. My mum will kill me.’

‘And I’ll kill Joe if you don’t,’ Jonas replied amicably. ‘You’re no good to me or anyone else if you die of pneumonia, so sit tight and shut up. You’re going to have a new coat and that’s that.’

‘I won’t let you do this,’ Ruby said, hanging onto the seat as Jonas drove out of the yard at a speed that made jumping out hazardous, if not impossible, and tooting the horn, he sped down the service alley that led into Raven Street.

‘You said you’d do anything to get Joe out of trouble,’ Jonas said, with a sardonic smile. ‘I don’t think being bought a new coat will send you tumbling into the fiery furnace. Seems to me that most girls would be delighted at the prospect of being treated to new clothes.’

‘Then I ain’t like most girls.’

‘And that’s your chief charm, Ruby. You aren’t like most girls.’

Turning her head away, Ruby stared fixedly at the familiar streets flashing past. It seemed impossible that she was allowing Jonas to take her on a shopping trip and all because Joe had come to her last night, scared out of his wits and begging for help. She stole a surreptitious glance
at Jonas’s profile; somehow it was hard to believe that he would cause Joe actual bodily harm. Despite her loathing for him, Ruby could not convince herself that he was a killer. She really did not know what to make of him; sometimes he appeared brutal, and at other times he seemed quite human and even generous, as he had been when he returned the women’s wages.

Seeming to sense her glance, Jonas turned his head to give her a quizzical stare and Ruby looked away. What had she got herself into, and all because of Joe. When he had turned up last night in a terrible state, Ruby had tried to calm Joe down, promising to help if she could, but he had been so distressed that he had gone off apparently unconvinced. She suspected that he would go straight to Rosetta, knowing that she was sweet on Jonas Crowe, hoping that she would intervene on his behalf. Maybe she ought to have left it to Rosetta after all, Ruby thought, clasping her hands tightly together in her lap. Rose was better with men. She knew how to flirt and she would have known exactly how to handle this situation.

‘Bloomsbury,’ Jonas said, steering the motor expertly between a stationary wagon and a brewer’s dray. ‘And on to Oxford Street when I can get through the traffic.’

Tempted to jump out and walk home, Ruby thought of her mother’s distress if she
discovered that Joe had got himself into a desperate situation, and she abandoned the idea.

‘You know, Ruby,’ Jonas said, as they came to a halt while a costermonger dragged his barrow across the street. ‘You’re the most silent woman I’ve ever met.’

‘I got nothing to say to you.’

‘Well, it makes a change from constant chatter about nothing in particular.’ Jonas urged the motor forward, honking the horn.

‘You don’t like women much, do you?’

‘Wrong again. I love women.’

‘But not in the right way.’

‘And what’s the right way?’

‘Not your way, that’s for certain.’ Hunching up into as small a space as she could, Ruby stared steadfastly at the now unfamiliar streets, but try as she might she could not quite crush the excitement of riding in a motor car. There were so few of them on the road and heads turned to stare at them all along their route. In spite of everything, she felt important and grand, just like the queen in her golden coach. Realising that they had stopped outside the imposing façade of a huge emporium that dwarfed anything Ruby had ever seen in the East End, she allowed the doorman to help her out of her seat and she followed Jonas into Peter Robinson’s store without a murmur.

One look at Jonas in his expensive clothes and the shop assistants did treat them like royalty.
Completely overawed and not wanting to draw attention to herself by making a fuss, Ruby tried on coats, hats and kid gloves as soft as a baby’s skin. Not satisfied with just the purchase of a pure merino winter coat, a matching hat and a pair of kid gloves, Jonas insisted on buying three ready-made dresses, one in dove-grey worsted, one in floral-print cretonne and, despite her protests that it was too fine and she would never wear it, a lavender silk afternoon gown. Ruby suffered in silence as the shop assistants laced her into whalebone stays and pushed and prodded her into the tightly fitting gowns, smooth across the stomach in the latest fashion and puffed out over pads to form a bustle at the back. Despite the deference shown by the staff, Ruby saw them glancing at her ring-free left hand and knew they were thinking the worst. Having to parade the new garments in front of Jonas for his approval made her blush with shame, but she held her head up high; whatever they thought, she was not his mistress, nor ever would be if there was any other way to save Joe from his vengeance.