Blue Moon (12 page)

‘It’s about Mr Bateman, Mrs Bateman,’ said Albert. ‘Some fishermen found his boat with nobody in it. They’ve brought it up on the beach, but there was no sign of Nelson.’

They heard Bea draw in her breath.

‘You never know,’ Albert added quickly, ‘he could have swum ashore or something.’

‘You say the boat is on the beach?’ said Ruby, springing into life.

‘I’m on my way back there,’ said Albert.

‘Wait for me,’ Ruby cried as she raced back up the stairs, passing her mother on the way.

‘Where are you going?’ Bea asked after her receding back.

‘I need to see his boat for myself,’ Ruby said. Part of her knew it was ridiculous and there was little point in going, but the other part of her felt that if she didn’t see the evidence with her own eyes, she would never believe it. Albert wouldn’t have come all the way here to tell a lie, but he was no fisherman and he could easily have made a ghastly mistake.

Back in her bedroom, May was sitting up yawning. Ruby threw off her nightdress and pulled on some warm clothes.

‘Where are you going?’ May asked.

‘I just have to pop out for a bit,’ said Ruby. ‘You lie down and go back to sleep. I’ll be back in no time.’

‘Who was banging on the door?’

‘Albert Longman.’

May grinned. ‘Is he here to ask you out?’

‘Something like that,’ said Ruby, pulling up her stocking.

‘Father said you two suited each other,’ May yawned. ‘He said you were both a couple of numbskulls.’

Ruby faltered, bristling with anger.

‘What does “numbskull” mean?’ said May.

‘I’ll tell you later,’ said Ruby, recovering herself and pushing her feet into her shoes. ‘Now, go back to sleep, there’s a good girl.’

May yawned again and then lay back and rolled onto her side. Ruby stopped only long enough to pull the covers right over her shoulders and then dashed
downstairs. Albert was still by the door, with a large puddle of water forming by his feet. Pulling on her coat and a scarf, Ruby kissed her mother’s cheek. ‘Try not to worry. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

Bea had a handkerchief to her mouth. ‘Oh, Ruby, that water will be so cold.’

‘Don’t give up on him yet,’ Ruby said. ‘And don’t forget, he’s got Percy to help him.’

Her mother leaned heavily on the banister. ‘Percy was there too?’

Ruby could have bitten off her tongue. Of course Percy wasn’t there; she had quite forgotten about the events of last night. ‘Oh no,’ she said, remembering something odd that she had seen last night, ‘but we can’t be absolutely sure, can we? He did tell Father he would do one more night.’

‘Please God,’ said Bea, ‘Percy wasn’t there.’ Her shoulders drooped and it seemed to Ruby that she’d just aged ten years.

Ruby swallowed hard. Her mother was no fool; she knew all too well that the weather was really bad. It was a wonder she didn’t say something like, ‘Listen to that wind howling, Ruby. The boat is seaworthy, but your father is not as strong as he used to be …’ But neither of them wanted to put anything into words. It was as if voicing it out loud might make their worst nightmares come true. So Ruby looked at her mother’s anxious face and did what she always did at such times. Lighting her own face with a bright smile, she said,
‘It’ll be fine. You know Father. He’s as tough as old boots.’

As Ruby ran after Albert to the beach, her mind was in a whirl. What if the empty boat
was
her father’s? What if he was badly hurt? What if he was lost at sea? And should the worst come to the worst, what would become of
them
?

Over the years her mother had made a decent home for the family, but without the income from her father’s fishing, how would they survive? This couldn’t be happening … He had to be safe.

The Great War had interrupted their lives because, right from the start, Nelson had joined Kitchener’s Army. Wounded, he was still in hospital at around the time Ruby had been born. Of course she was far too young to remember anything of it, but her mother had told her it had taken her father a long time to recover. In the years before May was born, Nelson had taken them all along the coast to Eastbourne and Hastings in search of work, but Bea had hated it. When they came back to Worthing, Nelson had taken over his father’s boat and later on, when Grandfather died, the cottage too. That was the one good thing, if this terrible nightmare turned out to be true. They owned the cottage so at least they would always have a roof over their heads. Things were much better now, although in the winter – in keeping with a lot of other families in the country – they spent all their waking hours in one room to save fuel.

The real problem had nothing to do with their daily struggle with life. There was something fundamentally wrong with their family. The row Percy had had with her father the night before had been the worst yet. Plenty of things had been said, but Ruby wasn’t stupid. There were many more things left unsaid. Why was her father so hard on Percy? It seemed that no matter how hard Percy tried to please Nelson, he could never measure up. Come to that, her own relationship with her father wasn’t much better. He ignored her nearly all the time and, when he did speak to her, he always seemed to preface everything with a cutting remark. She could never understand why she made him so angry. And then there was their mother. She was his wife, but Nelson hardly had a good word to say about her, either. It was as if she didn’t exist, except when they were in bed. Ruby would often hear them talking in angry whispers, through the thin walls that separated their two bedrooms. Her father continually demanded ‘his rights’ and, although she didn’t understand exactly what was going on, his determined voice and her mother’s pleas made whatever they were doing sound very one-sided, and at times very rough. ‘Shame,’ she had heard her father say once, ‘don’t talk to me of shame. Your shame is much greater …’ and her mother had burst into tears. What sort of a marriage was that? The only person in the family that her father had any time for was May.

As she and Albert came out of the Quashettes, she began telling herself that when it came to making choices, Nelson Bateman was a sensible man. He was
also by nature a careful man. The only reason he had decided to go fishing on such a stormy night was because he was angry.

Walking straight down High Street and on to the Steyne, Ruby was desperate to make sense of everything, but she couldn’t. Percy should be here. Where was Percy anyway? After the row last night, Percy had left with a suitcase, but some time later, when she was getting ready for bed, Ruby had heard a footfall outside her bedroom window. When she’d lifted the curtain, she’d seen Percy scooting along the street. He had obviously come back to the house for something, but what? At the time she’d wondered vaguely what he was up to, but what struck her as really odd was the way he was walking. He kept dodging into dark doorways and looking back over his shoulder, as if he didn’t want anyone to see him. At the end of the road he turned and patted his head, then ran off into the night.

At last they arrived on the beach, where a group of fishermen were standing around her father’s empty boat. Albert was right. Everything was gone: his fishing gear, the nets and his marker flags … everything.

‘Any sign of him?’ she asked. The men couldn’t meet her eyes as they shook their heads. The wind whipped her hair and the rain soaked her clothes. ‘Was my brother Percy with him when he set off?’

‘He was on his own,’ said Bluey. ‘He was cursing Percy to the skies for leaving him in the lurch.’

Ruby heaved a sigh of relief.

Amazingly, Albert seemed more concerned that he’d
got a quote for his newspaper than with taking part in the search for her father. Ruby quickly found out that although some fishermen were out looking for Nelson, the rest of them considered it too dangerous. ‘If he’s to be found,’ Silas Reed said sagely, ‘lifeboat’ll find ’un.’

She stayed with the fishermen for a while, but then decided there was nothing she could do by hanging around the beach. Besides, she was soaking wet and freezing cold. If she caught pneumonia, she wouldn’t be much use to anyone.

‘I’ll take you back,’ said Albert.

‘No!’ said Ruby. Then, seeing his crestfallen expression, she added, ‘Thanks, Albert, but I need to be on my own.’

Miserably she retraced her steps. Back home, as she peeled off her wet things, her mother was silent when Ruby told her that it was true: Father was missing. Bea didn’t react at all. Ruby supposed it was the shock. As the dawn broke, they sat together drinking hot, sweet tea until it was time for Ruby to leave for work.

As she set off for Warnes, the sky was still a strange colour. Ruby shivered, but not from the cold. There was something eerie and strange about the day, yet as she reached Steyne Gardens and shielded her eyes to look out to sea, there was no sign of the lifeboat.
Oh, God
, she prayed inwardly for the umpteenth time,
please bring Father and Percy home safely
.

She changed into her apron, ready to start work in the big dining room. There were several pairs of wet shoes
in the staffroom. Clearly Mrs Fosdyke, Winnie and Edith had got very wet coming to work and must have brought extra pairs of shoes to wear on duty. Ruby only owned one pair of shoes, so she had no choice but to work in her wet ones.

‘How did you get on with Jim?’ said Edith, coming up behind her. She began to move the shoes nearer the radiator and to stuff them with old newspapers to help them dry out.

‘Um?’ Ruby was miles away.

‘Jim Searle,’ said Edith. ‘When are you seeing him again?’

Jim … she’d forgotten all about him for a moment.

‘I wanted to ask you last night,’ Edith ploughed on, ‘but your brother whisked you away, when we came off-duty.’

At the mention of Percy’s name, Ruby felt her eyes smart. If Edith said much more, she’d start to howl and that wouldn’t do. She took the Vactric out of the cupboard and plugged it in. Was it really only yesterday when she’d last seen Jim? After all that had happened since then, it seemed like a lifetime ago.

‘Are you all right, Roob?’ Edith asked anxiously. ‘You’re very quiet.’

‘Not really,’ said Ruby miserably. ‘My father is missing at sea.’

Edith and the other girls were wonderful. They were not only sympathetic, but also kept an eye on Ruby and covered her back by picking up on the things she’d missed. Winnie gave her a sympathetic wave in the
corridor. ‘I heard about your poor father,’ she said. ‘If there is anything I can do …’

Ruby thanked her and, somehow or other, she got through the shift. Because no one had been sent to fetch her, she felt a little better by the time she was ready to go home. If anything was really wrong, surely someone would have come to the hotel. Oddly enough, Mrs Fosdyke didn’t check up on anybody that day. Edith said it was because she and Mr Payne were planning the mayor’s forthcoming banquet, but one of the other girls said Mrs Fosdyke had taken the rest of the day off. Whatever the reason, Ruby was glad.

‘Do you want me to come home with you, Roob?’ Edith asked as they walked down the stairs. She had the newspaper that Ruby had used to stuff the shoes with in her hand, ready to throw it in the bin downstairs.

‘Thanks, Edith,’ said Ruby, ‘but I’ll be fine.’

Edith lobbed the newspaper into the bin and wiped her hands down her coat. ‘Ugh,’ she said, ‘there was something gritty all over that.’

Ruby walked home with a leaden heart, consumed with the desire to be back at home and in the know, but dreading it at the same time. As she turned the corner into Newlands Road, a few of their neighbours were gathered in the street. She waved as she walked towards them, but no one returned her greeting. Instead the small group of women huddled closer together, whispering and secretive. Then Albert Longman came out of the front door, looking very smart in a dark suit
with a black tie. A sliver of fear gripped at Ruby’s throat.

‘I’m so sorry, Ruby,’ he was saying as he shook his head.

‘Father?’ she asked.

Albert nodded. ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’

The other neighbours echoed his sentiments. ‘Deepest condolences.’ ‘So sorry, Ruby.’ ‘If there is anything we can do …’

Ruby stared at them all in shocked surprise. Then she felt angry. It seemed they all knew what had happened to her father, but not one person had thought to come to Warnes and fetch her!

‘They found his body along the coast, dear,’ said Mrs Marley, their next-door neighbour. Her voice was barely above a whisper. ‘He’s …’ She glanced around at the others. ‘Oh, Ruby, he’s been drown-ded. Drown-ded dead.’

Ruby didn’t respond, but pushed open the door and went inside. ‘Mother?’

Bea was sitting bolt upright in the chair by the empty fireside, her face completely expressionless. Ruby touched her hand; it was icy cold. She knelt in front of her and laid her head in Bea’s lap. After a couple of minutes, her mother placed her hand on Ruby’s head, but then she gripped the arms of her chair as her body juddered. Ruby stayed perfectly still. She knew Bea was a proud woman and wouldn’t want anyone making a fuss about her grief. Neither of them spoke. Someone – Ruby
supposed it was Albert – had closed the door to give them some privacy.

‘Has Percy come back, Mother?’ she asked eventually.

Bea shook her head. ‘They say your father was fishing on his own,’ she said, still stroking Ruby’s head in her lap. ‘But of course we knew that, didn’t we?’

Ruby nodded, but the relief she felt in knowing that Percy wasn’t drowned at sea was enormous. It washed over her in waves, but then she felt terrible again. Shouldn’t she feel some sort of grief for her father?

‘We should get news to him,’ said Bea.

‘But we don’t know where Percy is,’ said Ruby. ‘Have they any idea what happened?’

Bea blew her nose. ‘No. Nobody can understand why he didn’t shout out.’

‘Who would have heard him, over the sound of the storm?’ asked Ruby.

‘The weather only got worse later on,’ her mother went on. ‘There were other boats nearby. They launched the lifeboat, but it was too late.’

Albert put his head back round the door. ‘I’ll get over to the doctor’s surgery now, Mrs Bateman, if that’s all right. We’ll bring Mr Bateman back home as soon as possible. No need for you to worry about young May. Susan Marley says she’ll keep her at her place for a bit.’