Winterberry Spark: A Silver Foxes of Westminster Novella (The Silver Foxes of Westminster #2.5)(12)

She glanced up at him at last, defeated. “So do I, but they aren’t. It’s all right.”

It wasn’t all right. Not a bit. But there was nothing Gil could do about it but turn and leave the room to get on with things.





Chapter 4





“Come along, Master James. We’ll be late for your rehearsal if we stop to say hello to every squirrel in every shrub.”

Ruby held her mittened hand out for James, who trailed along behind her on the frosty walk into Lanhill. Part of her was convinced James was too young to partake in the activities of Mr. Turnbridge’s school—not to mention how wary she was of the whole enterprise after Miss Goode had convinced her she worked for the school last year—but James loved spending time with other children. He was active and adventurous, and in Ruby’s opinion, exceptionally bright for a boy of almost four.

“Why don’t squirrels get cold?” he asked, crouching and peering into a snow-covered shrub. “They don’t have mittens.”

“God made them special,” she answered, marching back to grab his hand. “Just like He made you special and Faith special and all the birds and trees special.”

James took her hand and stepped away from the shrub to peer at the lump in Ruby’s coat where Faith was nestled in her sling. “Did God make you special too?”

Ruby’s smile faded. She shouldn’t hesitate to answer yes. It was important for James’s moral education to believe God made everything just as it should be. But the more tragedy she experienced, the more twisted the path of her life became, the less certain she was that God was even there to begin with.

“Oh, look. The school’s just up ahead,” she said instead. “We should run.”

“No thank you,” James said, swinging her arm and taking his time kicking through the light snow blanketing the ground. “I like walking.”

“Just as long as you don’t walk too slowly,” Ruby said, trying to smile again.

It was hard. Every smile and every laugh she’d managed since Mrs. Musgrave announced her intention to have her dismissed was hard-won and faint at best. It’d been three days, but the Croydons hadn’t come to her with news of whatever new position they were trying to find for her. Which told Ruby that no one wanted her. She was already bracing herself for the inevitability of being back on the streets, in the same situation she’d been in when Gil found her.

Gil. She couldn’t suppress a sigh of regret. There was no point in denying that she’d fallen in love with him over the summer. She’d adored him since that first night a year ago. But the real Gil was even better than the Gil of her imagination. And she’d let him down. No matter how hard she tried to make things up to him, it was futile. James could have been killed, and it was her fault. Some sins were unforgivable.

“Ruby?” James asked in a small voice as they crossed the street, heading to the schoolyard.

“Yes, Master James?” She tried to smile at him.

James smiled back, as bright as the summer sun. “I love you.”

His words hit her like an arrow in the heart, and her eyes filled with tears. “I love you too, Master James,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

James stopped walking to hug her waist, then let go and skipped ahead, humming, without a care in the world.

Ruby’s throat closed up, and she had to blink back tears. Along with the startling joy that James brought her was the agony of knowing within days, she’d never see him again. The angelic boy was the only person left in the world who loved her, and they were about to be parted forever.

She swallowed her misery and walked on, following James through the gate and into the schoolyard. Faith began to stir against Ruby’s chest, reminding her that she had one more ray of hope to light her life, one that she prayed she’d always have with her. But if her luck ran out and she was faced with the choice between starving or giving Faith up, she wouldn’t hesitate. She rested a hand on Faith’s back and glanced up, attempting to bolster her sagging spirits by keeping an eye on James as he climbed the stairs to the school.

“Where do you think you’re going, missy?”

She was stopped by someone shoving her shoulder, causing her to stumble. Startled, Ruby turned to find a red-headed woman scowling at her. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Murphy.” She ducked her head and moved on.

But a second woman, Mrs. Jones, stepped into her path, bringing Ruby up short. “She asked you a question.”

“I beg your pardon?” Anxiety crept up from Ruby’s stomach to her throat.

Two other women circled around Ruby with Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Jones. They glared at her as if she were a slug on their cabbages.

“This is a respectable place,” Mrs. Murphy said. “A school.”

“There’s children here,” one of the other two, Mrs. Martin, said.

“It’s indecent for you to show your face here,” Mrs. Jones added.

Ruby swallowed hard. The rumors about her past must have leaked past Winterberry Park and into town. Not one of these women had given her so much as a second glance in the months that she’d been bringing James to school to participate in concerts and plays.

“I’m just here to drop Master James off,” she said meekly. “I’ll sit quietly in the back once I’m sure he’s in safe hands.”