Winter on the Mersey(79)

‘Break a leg,’ said Nancy as brightly as she could. She hated it when Gloria left her behind. ‘And I’ll be careful, course I will.’ She gave her one last hug and then left the little room, making her way to the stage door and out into the sharp winter air. She’d hurry back and rescue Georgie from his detested Granny Kerrigan, because she really needed her family to do her a favour at New Year’s Eve, which she planned to spend with Gary. Her mind flew again to the wonderful hours they’d spent together in the discreet hotel. In fact they’d had such a marvellous time that for once they had forgotten to be quite as careful as usual. But she wasn’t going to worry about that now. Gary would look after her, no matter what, of that she was completely convinced.

Rita stood at the sink in the kitchen behind the shop and rinsed out her cup. She had dearly wanted to spend New Year’s Eve with all her children, but she’d been called in to do a night shift and she couldn’t let the hospital down. At least Maeve would be on duty too, and so they could spend the time cheering up the patients, saying goodbye to 1944 and welcoming in 1945. She couldn’t begin to guess what this year would bring.

Ruby came into the room behind her, a big ledger under her arm. Rita turned and smiled.

‘Don’t tell me you’re going to see in the new year by doing the accounts, Ruby,’ she said. ‘Let them go for once.’

Ruby shook her heard, her pale blonde hair bobbing as she did so. ‘No, they are all up to date now. Everything tallies.’ She put the ledger down proudly. ‘We made a profit this year, Rita. You don’t have to worry like you used to.’

Rita let out a breath she hadn’t even realised she’d been holding, but the very sight of the ledger always made her anxious, ever since that awful time when the shop had nearly gone bust. They’d have lost their main source of income and maybe the roof over their heads as well. Now, even though she knew she didn’t have to panic – Jack’s wages would always provide for them – the deep instinct was still there. ‘Ruby, you are a marvel,’ she said with real feeling. ‘I can’t begin to think how we managed without you.’ Badly, she recalled. It was Ruby’s unexpected gift for reading columns of figures that had set them on the right road. ‘So, if you aren’t balancing the books, how are you spending the evening? Are you going over to Mam’s with the children?’

Ruby’s face took on a bashful expression. ‘She’s very kind. She asked me.’

‘Of course,’ said Rita. ‘You’re part of the family and Michael and Megan would love you to be there.’

Ruby nodded. ‘I know. They asked me. It’s been so lovely spending Christmas with them, they’ve grown so big. All the same …’ She looked away.

‘You don’t have to say, I’m only teasing,’ Rita assured her, wondering what could be so important that Ruby would turn down the chance to spend the last evening with the children before Joan and Seth arrived tomorrow to take them back to the farm. She hoped Ruby wasn’t intending to go out and return late, unlikely though it seemed. The children would have to sleep upstairs, as there would be no room with Dolly and Pop, especially as they had agreed yet again to have Georgie to stay.

Ruby bit her lip and looked at the ceiling. ‘I’m having a visitor.’

‘A visitor?’ Rita asked with interest.

‘Yes.’ Ruby’s voice grew a little more confident. ‘Mr James asked me to spend this evening with him and I said no, I can’t go out because I’m looking after Michael and Megan later. That’s right, isn’t it?’

‘Well, yes, that’s what I’d hoped,’ said Rita.

‘So I asked him to come round for the evening,’ Ruby went on, ‘and he said yes. He’s going to teach me to play chess. He promised ages ago, but his father was sick and he couldn’t come before now. Old Mr James is better now so Reggie can come after all.’ Her face glowed with excitement.

‘Chess?’ Rita echoed in astonishment. If only Winnie could see the young woman now, she thought. Her late mother-in-law had treated Ruby with nothing but meanness. She’d been horrible to Rita too, but Rita had had the support of her family to fall back on. Ruby had had nobody, no reason to disbelieve the common opinion that she was soft in the head and good for nothing. Maybe Winnie could indeed see her, from wherever she had been consigned to in the afterlife. Rita remonstrated with herself – Winnie must have had her good points once, she supposed; it was just by the time Rita had met her, they’d been well hidden. For years Rita had blamed herself for the failure of her own first marriage, but the cruelty Winnie had shown Ruby, never admitting that she was her daughter, palming her off to endure being raised by spiteful Elsie Lowe, then putting it about that Ruby was simple once she had come back into her life, never ceased to amaze Rita every time she thought about it. She could not understand how a mother could treat her own child like that – Michael, Megan and Ellen were worth more than life itself to her.

Even so, how would Ruby take to chess? The only person Rita knew who could play was Danny, and he’d taken it up only recently. You had to have a certain sort of mind, people said. Yet perhaps Ruby did. While she still struggled with plenty of everyday activities, she was strangely talented in many other ways, and so perhaps this would be another one of them.