Ruby stared at him, amazed at the raw emotion in his voice and the tormented expression in his eyes. ‘But why go through all that pretending that it was because of Joe and his debts?’
‘Would you have come to live in this disreputable house if I hadn’t made it impossible for you to refuse?’
‘Probably not.’
Pushing his chair back, Jonas rose to his feet. ‘You’re free to go whenever you wish, Ruby. I can’t make you stay if you don’t want to, but …’
‘But?’
‘Lily will be coming home soon and the doctors tell me there’s no hope of a recovery. Even if you hate me, it would be a kindness to her if you would consider staying on until – until the end.’
There was no mistaking the pain in his voice or the sincerity of his words. The situation had turned itself about and Ruby’s anger was replaced by sadness.
Jonas poured two glasses of brandy from a decanter on a mahogany chiffonier. ‘Drink this,’ he said, putting a glass in her limp hand. ‘You’ve had a shock. I’m sorry. I’m not used to breaking news gently.’
The fiery liquid burnt Ruby’s throat, making
her eyes water and her head swim. She looked suspiciously at Jonas. ‘This isn’t just another of your fairy tales, is it?’
‘No. I swear it’s the truth,’ Jonas said, sitting down on the chair next to her. ‘Stay on, Ruby. You can name your own terms. You can continue your training at the hospital. Stay on please, for Lily’s sake.’
Lily was dying. The words echoed in Ruby’s head as she struggled to come to terms with the awful truth. Almost immediately, her thoughts turned to Adam. Surely he could do something to save Lily?
‘Adam?’ Jonas’s voice cracked like a whip.
Ruby looked up, startled. Had she really spoken his name out loud? ‘Dr Fairfax. I work with him sometimes. Maybe he could help Lily?’
‘That would be the same young man who came to persuade you to take up your studies at the hospital.’ Jonas smiled grimly. ‘Don’t look so surprised, Ruby. This is my house and I make it my business to know everything that goes on.’
‘I got Adam to thank for the bursary. I bet you didn’t know that.’ Ruby’s head was becoming pleasantly muzzy and, feeling more confident and relaxed, she drank the last drop of brandy.
Jonas refilled her glass. ‘No, I didn’t.’
‘Well, he did and he’s a fine doctor. And he’s getting engaged to Pamela.’
Jonas lit a cigar. ‘Is he now?’
‘I’m invited to their engagement party at Adam’s family home in Highgate, only I can’t go.’ Just why had she blurted that out to Jonas? Almost before the words were out of her mouth, Ruby wished them unsaid. It must be the wine and brandy taking hold of her brain and making her stupid.
‘And why can’t you go?’
Shaking her head, Ruby stared down into the amber liquid in her glass. ‘I’d feel out of place among the toffs, and anyway I got nothing to wear.’
‘Poor Cinderella,’ Jonas said, chuckling.
Jumping to her feet, Ruby felt the room spinning round and she sat down again. ‘I feel a bit dizzy.’
‘Come on,’ Jonas said, getting up and hooking her arm around his shoulders. ‘Let’s get you to your room.’
‘I can manage, ta.’ Pushing him away, Ruby staggered and clutched at the chair back. ‘I’m a bit tipsy, but I don’t need no help.’
‘Of course you don’t,’ Jonas said, hoisting her over his shoulder. Having carried her up the stairs in this undignified manner, he dumped her unceremoniously on the bed in her room. Jonas stood for a moment looking down at her.
Focusing her eyes with difficulty, Ruby wagged her finger at him. ‘No funny business.’
Lifting her skirt a little, Jonas slipped off her
satin shoes and dropped them on the floor. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he unrolled her stockings, peeling them off and holding one of her feet in his hand, he stroked it slowly and sensuously. The warmth of his fingertips and the unexpected thrill of his light touch on her bare foot sent a shiver of excitement through Ruby’s body, but a warning voice in her head made her sit up and pull her foot away.
‘You promised!’
For a moment, Jonas sat quite still, staring at her with a perplexed frown, and then his lips curved in a smile and his eyes darkened with desire as he took her in his arms. ‘I warned you before, Ruby, I’m a bad lot.’
Confused and tormented by her own wicked lust, which would surely see her burn in hell, Ruby struggled against the treacherous response of her body, but the strong masculine scent of him filled her with a wave of desire. It was shocking and disgraceful, but it seemed that she was powerless to resist and Ruby wound her arms around Jonas’s neck. His mouth was so close to hers that she could almost taste him. Closing her eyes, she parted her lips, waiting for his kiss. She felt the muscles of his arms contract and he released her so suddenly that she fell back against the pillows.
‘I want you, Ruby,’ Jonas said gruffly, ‘but not like this.’
Ruby awakened next morning suffering from a thumping headache, a parched throat and mouth and toe-curling embarrassment as she remembered the events of last night. She had always known that Jonas was a dangerous man, but the real danger lay in her passionate response to his lovemaking; she was confused and bitterly ashamed of her wanton behaviour. How could you hate a man, as she most definitely hated Jonas, and yet respond to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world? And how could she bring herself to reveal all this to Father Brennan in the confessional? She could not understand why Jonas had left her so suddenly, but she was painfully aware that she had behaved like a common tart and she felt her cheeks burning with mortification and self-loathing. Ruby slipped out of the house before anyone else had stirred and she set off for the hospital.
No matter how many excuses Ruby thought up, Pamela always countered with a good reason why she must come to her engagement party. As the days slipped by, Ruby was running out of ideas, and had just decided to simply tell Pamela the truth when Adam cornered her in the sluice.
‘Pam is really worried that you won’t come to the party, Ruby.’
‘I’m not sure if I can get the time off.’
Taking the bedpan out of her hands, Adam dropped it into the sink. ‘We both want you to come. If there’s a problem, I’m sure it can be overcome.’
Struggling to come up with a convincing lie, Ruby felt herself floundering. ‘I – it’s a long way to Highgate.’
A frown puckered Adam’s high forehead. ‘And a cab is expensive. How thoughtless of us, Ruby. I’ll send a hansom cab for you and make sure that there is one to take you home. Please say you’ll come. Pam is so fond of you, and so am I.’
Unable to resist his smile, Ruby nodded. She would walk barefoot from Shoreditch to Highgate just to hear Adam say he cared for her. She had nothing special to wear and no idea how a lady would dress to attend a fashionable garden party. But, as Granny Mole had always said to her, ‘Who’s going to look at you anyway?’ She would just wear her print frock and hope she did not look too out of place.
Taking advantage of the spell of fine summer weather, the party was going to be held in the Fairfaxes’ garden. Pamela had been chattering excitedly about the fact that fresh salmon and venison were being sent down from Scotland for the lunch, together with dozens of punnets of raspberries. There was to be a marquee, just in
case it rained, and an orchestra had been hired to play all day and into the evening when there would be dancing. Caught up in all this, Ruby was in a state wavering between joy and despair. What good was it that Adam cared for her, if she was about to witness him getting engaged to someone else?
The evening before the engagement party, praying that by some divine intervention she would have a valid excuse for not going, Ruby went home to Raven Street. Matron, who for some reason was being unusually beneficent, had agreed to Ruby having the next day off, dashing her last hope of a reprieve. As she let herself into the house, she could hear music and laughter coming from the large dining room downstairs where the women were being entertained, and the low droning of men’s voices as Ruby passed the gaming room on the first floor. Wearily, Ruby climbed the stairs to her own room. Switching on the lights, she blinked to make sure she was not imagining things. The entire surface of her bed was covered in bandboxes and a large hatbox from Peter Robinson’s emporium. For a wild moment, she thought that the gifts might have come from Adam and she rummaged amongst the boxes looking for a card. She found one, tucked inside a deckle-edged envelope.
Jonas! He had teased her, calling her Cinderella, and no one else would have known that her measurements were listed in Peter Robinson’s order book. Disappointment clouded her mind. How stupid could she be, imagining that Adam might have made such a generous gesture? As for Jonas, his motive was far from clear; it could have been guilt or perhaps he wanted her to make a fool of herself at the party. Ruby ran her fingers over one of the satin-smooth cardboard boxes, torn between curiosity to see what was inside and the desire to fling them all back in his face. In the end, curiosity won. Tearing at satin bows, Ruby opened box after box, until her bed was covered in a froth of undergarments made of silk and lace, an exquisite dress that was finer than anything she could ever have imagined, shoes to match, gloves, a parasol and a wide-brimmed hat that was a confection of tulle and silk flowers. Of course she couldn’t accept such an extravagant gift, but who could resist just trying them on to see the effect?
Leaving the comparative security of the hansom cab, Ruby trod the path up to the imposing red-brick Georgian house owned by Adam’s parents. Sick with nerves, wishing that she were anywhere but here, she took a deep breath and raised the gleaming brass lion’s head knocker.
A parlourmaid opened the door and led her through the house and out into the back garden. Left alone on the paved terrace, Ruby clutched the handle of the lace parasol that exactly matched the lavish trimming of her turquoise silk gown, and peering beneath the wide brim of her hat, she searched for a familiar face in the crowd. Strolling in the sunshine on green-velvet lawns, the elegantly dressed ladies, leaning on the arms of gentlemen in tailcoats and top hats, appeared delicate and colourful as butterflies. Aware that her presence was attracting curious stares, Ruby could only think that it was her lone state that was causing such interest. Everyone seemed to be in pairs or family groups and she prayed for the ground to open up and swallow her. Miss Luckes, almost unrecognisable out of her starched uniform, was sipping champagne and chatting to a distinguished-looking man. Ruby recognised him immediately as Lord Knutsford, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the London Hospital. Overcome with nerves, Ruby was about to retreat through the French windows into the drawing room when Pamela came rushing towards her, arms outstretched, cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling with happiness.
‘Ruby! I’m so glad you came. You look absolutely beautiful. Come and say hello to Adam.’ Without waiting for an answer, Pamela slipped her arm through Ruby’s and dragged her down
the steps onto the lawn. ‘Adam, darling! Look who’s just arrived.’
Breaking away from a group of men, some of whom Ruby recognised as consultants from the London, Adam came towards them, a genuine smile of pleasure lighting his face. ‘Ruby, how good of you to come and how absolutely stunning you look.’
Ruby managed a smile. ‘Congratulations to you both.’
‘See my ring; isn’t it just too gorgeous for words?’ Pamela waved her left hand in front of Ruby’s face so that the sunlight caught the solitaire diamond, turning it into a ball of white fire.
‘I never seen nothing like it,’ Ruby said, blinking.
‘It is rather splendid, isn’t it,’ Pamela said, gazing fondly at Adam. ‘I’m so lucky.’
Adam bent down to drop a kiss on her forehead. ‘No, I’m the fortunate one. Don’t you think so, Ruby?’
Swallowing an egg-sized lump in her throat, Ruby could only nod.
‘Darling, we’re neglecting poor Ruby,’ Pamela said, slapping him playfully on the hand. ‘Fetch her a glass of champagne, will you, please?’
‘Of course,’ Adam said, flashing a smile at Ruby. ‘Why don’t you introduce her to our parents, Pam?’
Watching Adam stroll off in the direction of the marquee, Ruby felt as though her heart was being ripped out of her body with a pair of surgical forceps. She had always known there was no hope for her but this was truly the end of her dreams. Adam and Pamela officially belonged together now and this was their world, a world in which she felt totally alien.
Bubbling over with happiness, Pamela did not seem to notice Ruby’s discomfort, guiding her from group to group of people, making introductions until the faces and names registered nothing but a blur in Ruby’s mind. She was aware of stretched smiles and penetrating looks from the ladies, as though they were mentally totting up the cost of her outfit and wondering how a common girl from the East End could afford such luxuries. The gentlemen were less severe, most of them openly admiring and some of them downright saucy; one of Pamela’s uncles, who appeared to have drunk a bit too much whisky, actually pinched her bottom. Ruby got away from him as quickly as possible.
When Pamela made for the group around Miss Luckes, Ruby drew back. ‘No, really. I’d rather not, Pam.’
‘Good heavens, why ever not?’ Pamela’s delicate eyebrows formed arcs of surprise.
‘It’s Matron.’
‘Of course it’s Matron, silly. And that’s Lord
Knutsford and Sir Frederick Treves but they won’t eat you. They’re all friends of the family.’
‘Sir Frederick Treves, the surgeon what took care of the Elephant Man?’ Ruby couldn’t help staring at him, amazed that he looked so ordinary when he was considered little short of God at the London where, until recently, he had been such an eminent surgeon.
‘Yes, of course. He’s a dear and terribly funny,’ Pamela said, chuckling. ‘Adam used to attend his lectures and said he was always making risqué jokes. You simply must meet him.’
‘Ah, there you are. I’ve been looking for you both,’ Adam said, weaving his way through the throng with two glasses of champagne in his hands. ‘Ruby, you must be exhausted with all this how-do-you-doing.’