East End Angel (34 page)

Pearl glanced at her sister. Ruby was nodding her head.

Ruby was in the telephone box and looking agitated.

‘What’s wrong, do you think?’ Amy asked Pearl as she frowned at her daughter through the small panes of glass. ‘Could Ricky have something against them moving here?’

‘Mum, they’ve been married only six months.’ She rocked Cynthia back and forth in the pushchair. She knew that Ruby and Ricky were arguing again. If only Ruby had left him alone.

‘All the more reason to move before the baby. I wish you would encourage your sister.’

‘She’s a big girl now.’

Amy sighed impatiently. ‘You’re the last person I thought would be against them moving. After all, Jim will be home after the war. What will they do then?’

‘I know you want the best for Ruby—’

‘And why shouldn’t I?’ Amy demanded. ‘After all, it’s almost two years since I last saw Cynthia, my only grandchild. I expect it’ll be another two years before I see her again.’ Amy put her hand on Pearl’s. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound selfish, but I can’t help it.’

‘Ruby has her own mind.’

‘Yes, but if they were to move here, your dad and me could keep an eye on them.’ Amy looked at the telephone box again. ‘Ruby’s not as bright as you, Pearl. You’re level-headed, always knew where you were going and what you wanted. But your sister’s always been a bit on the impulsive side.’

Pearl continued to rock Cynthia, who had fallen asleep under the blanket. It was at times like these that Pearl wished she could hide her head under the blanket too. Coming to Abingley had seemed a good idea at the time, but now it was causing more problems.

Ruby burst out of the telephone box, weeping.

Amy folded her daughter in her arms. ‘There, there, what’s wrong, ducks?’

‘Nothing,’ sobbed Ruby.

‘There must be something.’

‘I’m all right.’ Ruby pushed herself away.

‘So what did Ricky say?’

‘I told him about the job in the market and he said how could he do it with two fingers missing? S’pose he’s got a point, but it won’t be that easy in an office, either.’ Ruby blew her nose.

‘Did you tell him your dad was willing to help?’

Ruby nodded. ‘He just shouted at me.’

Amy slid her hand through her daughter’s arm. ‘Give him time to think it over. You can phone again at Patty’s. She won’t mind.’

They walked on. Pearl had a heavy heart. Because of Ricky, they were all in a big mess. Ruby couldn’t tell Amy what Ricky had said about the baby, and Pearl guessed that his opinion hadn’t changed.

After a while, Amy pointed to a block of houses all built in the same clean, neat style. ‘See them? They’re all new, with young families going in them from the Smoke.’

Ruby dried her tears. ‘They’re very nice. And there are trees in the back gardens. It must be wonderful to look out of the window and see all green.’

Pearl strolled on with the pushchair. She knew her mother and sister wanted to be near one another. But she also knew that Ricky, a bully and a coward, would never tolerate an outside influence.

The next day was cold and rainy. Patty from next door sent her little girl, Elizabeth, to play with Cynthia after school. She was five and had just started her first term at St Boniface.

Pearl was sitting with them, when Ruby appeared. She sat down with a big sigh. ‘I phoned Ricky from Patty’s.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He’s going to see a firm of hauliers at Aldgate. They need a clerk in their office and he won’t change his mind about the market job and so we’ll have to stay in the Smoke.’ Ruby looked sorry for herself as she stared out of the window at what their mother called ‘the green’, a large expanse of mowed grass that was bordered by a thick hedge. The top deck of the buses was just visible as they passed by. Unlike London, there were trees all along the road.

‘The Smoke’s not so bad,’ said Pearl with a shrug.

‘But Abingley’s better for a child,’ said Ruby determinedly. ‘When I met Hope and her children, I thought, that’s what I want. I suddenly realized it wasn’t enough to have a pretty face and big smile. They don’t get you what money can buy. I used to be happy at Brewer’s, but it’s just a factory, as Ricky keeps telling me. I’m only a worker on an assembly line.’

‘There’s nothing wrong that.’

‘No, but it’s not for me.’

‘Do you really want to move to Abingley?’

‘Yes, I do. I’ve made up my mind that’s what I want. There’s the baby to consider, and its future. Although Ricky is against it at the moment, I’m sure he’ll come round.’

Elizabeth looked up and they smiled at the pretty child with silky brown hair, neatly clipped back with a slide. She had large, intelligent brown eyes and a clean face, as opposed to Cynthia’s grubby one.

‘The children are so well behaved in the country,’ said Ruby thoughtfully. ‘There’s no swearing or putting out their tongues and making faces like the little horrors around where we live.’

‘They’re not all like that,’ said Pearl, wishing she’d taken time to run a flannel round Cynthia’s mouth. ‘They haven’t got fields and woods to play in and have to make do with the bombed sites.’

‘That’s why I’d like to live here. It will take years to clean up the East End. But if we were here we could have that house I’ve always dreamed of, and you and Jim could come to stay. And our children will all speak properly and be well mannered, like Elizabeth.’

Cynthia laughed loudly. Even at her tender age, her broad cockney accent set her apart. But that was the way islanders were, Pearl reflected. You had to shout louder than the next ten kids to be heard.

‘I’m sure if Ricky came to visit,’ Ruby mused as she rested her chin on her hands, ‘he’d change his mind and see that we could have a good standard of living here.’

‘You’ve only just got married,’ Pearl replied cautiously. ‘There’s plenty of time to build a new life.’

‘I’ve given him time,’ Ruby insisted. ‘He’s just being stubborn. This is the chance of a lifetime. We would be classed as evacuees if we moved now and given priority. Like Mum says, when the war ends it will be every man for himself, and all the nice places will be taken.’

Pearl didn’t have the answers to Ruby’s problems. She was struggling with her own. If Ricky was determined to turn all their lives upside down, he would. But only she knew it.

The next day was Saturday and, after being very sick, Ruby clearly wasn’t well enough to go out.

‘Sit down and put your feet up,’ said Amy as Ruby appeared with a white face.

‘I thought I was getting better.’

‘You should eat something,’ Pearl said as she had so many times before.

‘Even a biscuit would help.’

‘I’ve got some plain arrowroot from the aerodrome canteen.’ Amy hurried off.

Ruby was sick again before she returned and Amy persuaded her to go back to bed. It was much later when Pearl heard a shout. She rushed into the bedroom and found Ruby doubled up. A red stain was on the sheet. She knew that she had to get help quickly. Opening the window she waved at Amy and Cynthia in the garden. ‘Mum! Come in quick!’

Memories were flooding back of her miscarriage. Could this be happening to Ruby?

Pearl was staring from the window across the green to the path where the ambulance had been. She was wondering if she should walk up to the aerodrome with Cynthia and tell their dad what had happened. Amy’s last words as she’d thrown on her coat and snatched up her bag before accompanying Ruby to hospital were that she’d phone Patty as soon as there was news.

‘Aunty Ruby gone.’ Cynthia wriggled in Pearl’s arms. She had watched wide-eyed as the two ambulance men had carefully wrapped Ruby in a blanket and laid her on a stretcher. Patty had offered to have Cynthia, so that Pearl could also go in the ambulance, but Amy was worried about Syd.

‘Granny will let us know how she is,’ Pearl said as she led Cynthia to the kitchen. ‘Let’s make a sandwich for Granddad.’

‘You all right, Pearl?’ It was Patty, ten minutes later, poking her head round the back door. She was a slim, dark-haired woman in her mid-thirties, who had lived all her life in Abingley. Amy had said that Patty’s husband, Dennis, was manager of the local cinema and his job entitled him to have a telephone. This, from Amy’s point of view, had been a real boon.

‘Yes, have you heard from Mum?’ Pearl asked hopefully.

‘No. Is there’s anything I can do?’

‘Don’t think so.’

‘Does her husband know?’

Pearl shook her head. ‘No.’

‘Do you want to phone him?’

‘Not yet.’ Pearl had no intention of speaking to Ricky, but she couldn’t say that to Patty.

‘Try not to worry.’ Patty closed the door but opened it again. ‘Send Cynthia in this afternoon, if you like, to play with Elizabeth.’

‘Yes, I will.’

With a brief smile she left, and Pearl set out the cold meat and pickles for her father’s lunch. No sooner than she’d finished, he walked in the door.

‘Hello, love.’ He took off his navy-blue greatcoat and bicycle clip. ‘That’s a big hug,’ he grinned as Cynthia ran into his arms.

‘Aunty Ruby gone.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Dad, Ruby wasn’t well this morning. She had to go to hospital.’

His face went grey. ‘What’s wrong with her?’

‘It might be to do with the baby.’

Syd looked bewildered. ‘She won’t lose it, will she?’

Pearl shrugged. ‘Mum will ring us from the hospital.’

He sank down on the chair. ‘Soon as I get me breath back I’ll cycle over there.’

‘Have something to eat first.’ She put his meal in front of him. It wasn’t any use telling him to stay home. Ruby and the baby meant the world to him, much more than they did to Ricky.

That afternoon, when Syd had left, Cynthia went to play with Elizabeth. Pearl washed out Ruby’s sheets and hung them on the line to dry. Was she losing the baby? She had been in pain but luckily the ambulance had come quickly after Patty had made the 999 call.

Pearl busied herself with housework and, after putting Cynthia to bed, she peeled the vegetables for supper. She would make a hot meal, though she didn’t know if anyone would want to eat it. What had happened at the hospital?

Pulling the blackout curtains together she thought of home. Of the dirty roofs and smoking chimney pots, the sounds of the river that she always took for granted. The hoots and horns and whistles and the smells of the oil and tar and wood, and the flotsam that washed up with the tide and dried out on the mossy stone wharfs. And as always she thought of Jim and their little love nest. When would it be their own again? Would they ever be free of Ricky?

The sound of the back door opening made her jump. She rushed into the kitchen and saw her mother.

‘Hello, love,’ Amy said tiredly. ‘Sorry we’re late. Your dad had his bike and we walked back from the hospital.’

‘How’s Ruby?’ Pearl asked as Syd came in.

‘They think the baby’s all right. Ruby could be short of iron and will have to stay in hospital for a while. She don’t like it much, but it’s for the best.’

‘They’ll look after her,’ said her father, hanging their coats up in the porch cupboard outside the door.

‘It was a fright this morning,’ said Amy fretfully as they all sat by the fire. ‘The doctor said she won’t be fit to travel for some while so your dad phoned Ricky from the hospital. Ruby gave us the telephone number of the Disabled Servicemen’s Centre.’

Her father’s expression gave nothing away. ‘He’ll be here tomorrow.’

Pearl felt quite sick. Ricky was coming here. It was the worst thing that could happen.

‘We’ll put him up for a few days,’ said her mother cheerfully. ‘I’ll have a nice roast in the oven. Your dad brought home a chicken from the farm and some veg from the allotment. And although I wish Ruby was with us, it will be lovely to see our son-in-law at last.’

Pearl stood up and went quickly to the kitchen to make the tea. She couldn’t let her parents see how distressed she was. She couldn’t escape Ricky and had no choice but to face him.

That night Pearl lay awake, staring at Ruby’s bed. The sound of Cynthia’s breathing was a comfort, but the thought of seeing Ricky made Pearl feel distraught.

She hadn’t drawn the blackout as the moon was a round silver ball shining in the sky. It reminded her of her honeymoon in Margate. If only she had listened to Jim. If only she hadn’t agreed to go to Brawton Manor.

So many ‘if onlys’ . . .

Pearl wondered what would happen tomorrow. Were Ricky’s feelings towards Ruby and the baby still the same?

She closed her eyes and said a prayer. She knew she was being selfish when she prayed that Ricky wouldn’t come.

But she knew he would. And she dreaded tomorrow.

Amy washed the last dinner plate and carefully set it on the draining board. She had used her best china, hoping to impress their son-in-law, along with the roast chicken that had turned out a real treat.

The soft hum of voices came from the front room as she turned to meet her elder daughter’s gaze. ‘You all right, ducks?’