Family Drama 4 E-Book Bundle (109 page)

‘Last time I came I wasn’t welcome here, and when Ray said you wouldn’t want me any more I thought perhaps he was right: that I was just your good turn for the war …’

‘That’s a lot of piffle and you know it. Now I’m going to make a pot of tea and you can tell me what’s happened. I can see it’s serious.’ Her expression was troubled as she looked closely at Ruby, who wasn’t making any eye contact. ‘Is it Ray? Has he done something to you again? What’s been going on?’

Ruby didn’t answer. She was so scared and embarrassed she just couldn’t think of the words she needed. Instead she sat motionless with her knees together, her hands clenched in her lap, and looked at her feet.

‘All right, you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to – I can see you’re distressed. I’ll do you something to eat and make up the bed in your room and we can talk in the morning.’

Ruby took a deep breath. ‘No, I’ll do it now. It’s nothing Ray’s done – this isn’t his fault – but I’m scared of what he’ll do if he finds out. I’m in such big trouble, Aunty Babs – really, really big trouble – and I don’t know what to do. You’re the only person who can help me.’ She hugged herself even tighter as if for protection, then started to sob quietly.

‘It surely can’t be that bad, dear, and even if it is there’s nothing we can’t deal with, is there? Tell me what’s wrong.’

‘I’m sorry. You’re going to hate me …’ She chewed her lip and looked everywhere except at Babs Wheaton.

‘Go on.’

‘I’m sorry … I think I’m having a baby. I think I’m pregnant and I don’t know what I’m going to do.’

Walking over to the kitchen table, Babs Wheaton leaned on it with both hands and then lowered herself onto a chair. Her eyes opened wide with shock as the words slowly sunk in.

‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t know where else to go. Ray will kill me if he finds out. I’ve left for good, I can’t go back there, and if they find out they won’t want me anyway.’

‘Are you sure about this? Have you been to the doctor yet?’

‘I think I’m sure, but I haven’t been to the doctor. I went to the library and looked it up, and I’ve got the symptoms, and I did … you know, I did do …
IT
. I know how it happens, I just never thought it’d happen the first time, the only time. I promise, it was only once, and when I was at school they said …’

Her words were mumbled and trailed off, and her face was scarlet with embarrassment at having to talk about things like that to the person she loved most, the person whose approval was so vital to her.

‘But you’re only just sixteen. Who is it? Is it that one who brought you up here? Johnnie? Did he take advantage of you?’

Ruby paused. She wondered about lying, about shifting the blame so that she wouldn’t be such a disappointment, but she couldn’t do it. She didn’t want to lie to the woman she truly wished was her mother.

‘It was Johnnie, but he didn’t take advantage of me. He didn’t make me. I really liked him and it just sort of went too far. It was after we left here last time, I was upset and—’ she stopped and searched frantically for the right words. ‘And things happened.’

‘Well, things shouldn’t have happened, and if you’re having a baby then he’s going to have to marry you whether he likes it or not. There’s absolutely no alternative,’ Babs stated angrily. ‘Honestly, he should have known better. You’re just a child. I dread to think what Uncle George will have to say about this.’

‘He’s only nineteen, he just looks older.’

‘That’s still too old even to be courting you, let alone … let alone …’ She couldn’t get the words out. ‘I knew my instincts were right about him. Well, if you’re pregnant he has to marry you!’

Babs Wheaton flitted nervously back and forth across the kitchen as she spoke, her distress evident in her movements.

‘But I don’t want to marry him, I don’t want to marry anyone,’ Ruby said. ‘And I don’t want him to know because then he’ll think he has to.’

‘He
does
have to. An illegitimate baby? It can’t happen. It will ruin your life.’

‘Can I just stay here and then have it adopted after it’s born?’

Babs’ eyes widened. ‘Heavens above, Ruby, that’s a question from out of the blue. This isn’t something I can deal with just like that. But apart from that, I don’t have the authority. You’re under twenty-one and I’m not your mother or even your guardian.’ She smiled sadly. ‘I’ll have to tell George. He needs to know and he’ll know what to do. He’s used to dealing with this sort of thing. He’s going to be so disappointed with you.’

‘I knew you’d help me,’ Ruby said, looking up at Babs.

‘I’m promising nothing, Ruby. This is serious and not something to be dealt with over a mug of cocoa. And anyway, we don’t even know if you are pregnant. So, first things first. Where does your mother think you are?’

Ruby dropped her eyes and didn’t answer so Babs continued, only thinly disguising her concern. ‘You know this is the first place they’ll look. We’ll soon have your brother on the doorstep creating merry hell just for the fun of it. What if they call the police? You’ll have to go home then.’

‘They won’t. I left a note. I said I was going to Manchester with a friend, that I wanted to get away from being a drudge. It was a good letter.’ For the first time Ruby smiled.

‘Ruby, this isn’t funny. I can’t deny I’m disappointed. You’re a clever girl, with everything going for you.’

‘I know, I’m sorry.’ Ruby said.

‘It’s not me you have to apologise to, it’s yourself.’ Babs paused and shook her head. ‘But what’s done is done. I’ll talk to Uncle George later tonight and we’ll go from there. He’s out on a call at the moment so it’s you and me and a big bowl of soup. Just by chance I made your favourite this morning.’

She touched Ruby’s face gently and then ruffled her hair. ‘We’ll sort this out. I don’t know how yet, but we will. I just wish you’d never had to leave here in the first place.’

It was all that was needed for Ruby to jump up and throw herself crying into Babs’ arms. The woman hugged her close, in exactly the same way she had when Ruby had been a ten-year-old scared and lonely evacuee.

Later that night, as she snuggled down in the familiar bedroom, which was exactly the same as the day she had left it all those months before, she thought about what had happened.

Aunty Babs was right; she had let herself down and she should have known better. After five years living in the country and spending time on farms, she knew only too well how babies were conceived, and yet still she’d let it happen. Not only that, she’d given away her virginity on the spur of the moment to someone she didn’t even know very well, and it didn’t matter one iota that she loved him.

For the first time since she was a child she put her hands together and prayed. She prayed the Wheatons would help her, she prayed that she wouldn’t have to tell her mother and she also prayed that they wouldn’t insist on telling Johnnie Riordan.

Ruby had been so absorbed with Johnnie Riordan and her feelings for him that it had taken a long time for her to realise that she might be pregnant. She knew what she had done, and in the back of her mind she knew what the consequences of that could be, but she was sure it couldn’t happen the first time. Her biggest concern was that Johnnie would think she was cheap, that he would despise her for giving in so easily, so she had labelled it a mistake and was determined that it wouldn’t happen again.

There was also the distraction of the atmosphere at home, and Ruby had put her feeling of nausea down to the underlying sense of misery throughout the household after the incident with Ray and Bobbie. She guessed they were both in some sort of trouble and that it was probably to do with Johnnie, but she didn’t know and didn’t want to know. She didn’t want anything to spoil her feelings for him.

She was head over heels in love.

It was only when the waistband of her fitted skirt was distinctly tight and she realised her lack of monthlies that she put two and two together and it hit her like a hammerblow to the head.

‘What’s wrong, Ruby? You know you can tell your old nan,’ Elsie Saunders said to her granddaughter when she realised the girl was crying into her pillow. Her eyesight wasn’t what it should be but there was nothing wrong with her hearing. ‘Come on, I don’t like to hear you all upset. Tell your nana what’s wrong.’

Ruby had felt panic soaring in her throat; she desperately wanted someone to confide in but she knew it couldn’t be anyone who lived in the house in Elsmere Road. Even if her grandmother was sympathetic, she knew that she’d feel obliged to tell her mother.

‘It’s Ray and Bobbie …’ Ruby lied. ‘They’re both so vile to me, I can’t stay here any longer. I really tried to help them when they were beaten but they don’t care. I want to go away from here, to do my nursing. I don’t want to be here.’

‘Well, dear, if that’s what you really want then you have to tell your mother and see if she’ll change her mind.’

Ruby pulled her eiderdown further up under her chin and shivered. ‘She’ll never let me. I’ll have to run away.’

‘Then you have to make the decision, don’t you?’ Elsie said before turning over in her bed and facing away from Ruby. ‘I don’t want you to go anywhere, lovey, but I can see what those boys are doing to you. Your mother should have left you where you were and I’ve told her that.’

Ruby didn’t answer and within a few minutes the woman was snoring and she was wide awake, thinking about what she’d said. If she was pregnant, as she suspected, then there was no alternative but to run away.

‘Ruby? We need to talk to you. Ruby?’ The gentle knock was followed by the door opening an inch.

Curled up in the chair in the corner of her room, the room she’d missed so much and longed to go back to, Ruby rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffed.

‘Do you want me to come downstairs?’

Babs pushed the door right back and stood in the doorway.

‘Yes, come on downstairs. We need to have a talk.’

‘Are you going to tell Mum?’

‘Come on downstairs, Ruby, and we’ll talk about it all.’

It had been two days since Ruby had turned up on their doorstep and uttered those immortal words, ‘I think I’m pregnant’. Two days of uncertainty and disappointment for everyone, although after the initial embarrassment of having to first tell Babs and then talk about it clinically with George, Ruby was just relieved that she wasn’t having to deal with it alone. She knew George and Babs were talking about it when she was in her room and, because Babs had disapproved of her visiting behind her mother’s back earlier, Ruby had constantly worried that they would try to send her home. But she had already made up her mind that she wasn’t going back, whatever they said. If she had to run away from everyone then she would. Nothing would make her go back.

At least the Wheatons had agreed on the first night that Ruby could stay while they decided what to do for the best, but there were strict ground rules. No one was to know she was back in the village, not even her friends, and she was going to have to stay indoors just in case her family, specifically Ray, came looking for her. If no one knew she was there then no one could let anything slip.

The next day Dr Wheaton had checked her over in his surgery in private after hours and confirmed that she was indeed expecting a baby, but that she was also fit and healthy.

‘Sit down, Ruby. Uncle George and I have come to a decision. You can’t stay here and keep your pregnancy a secret – it’s just not possible – so we’ve spoken to Uncle George’s sister, Leonora, who lives near Southend down in Essex. Remember, she came to visit us? We think you should go and live there with her until the baby is born and then we can arrange for it to be adopted.’

‘But I don’t know anyone there.’

‘That’s why it’s for the best. We have to consider your future and this is best, unless you’d sooner go into a mother-and-baby home?’

Ruby didn’t answer. She knew she was backed into a corner of her own making.

‘Leonora owns a small hotel so you can also work there to pay your way. Then you can come back either to here or to Walthamstow, and get on with your life. No one need ever know if you don’t want them to. It’ll be best for everyone, especially you. It will give you choices you won’t have if anyone finds out about a baby.’

‘Why would she help me?’ Ruby asked, feeling increasingly nervous at the thought of going to live somewhere strange. Again.

‘Because she’s a very nice lady. She’s family and so are you.’

‘I’m sorry, I’m really sorry …’

‘Well, what’s done is done, and we’re pleased you felt you could come to us.’

‘I was so scared. I’m still scared. What if Ray comes looking for me? He’ll kill me stone dead, that’s for sure.’

‘No, he won’t. Not even Ray—’

‘He will. He and Bobbie were beaten and robbed at the place where they work and they’ve both been even worse since then. Ray is just angry all the time.’

‘That’s awful. What happened?’

‘I don’t know but they were hurt badly and now Ray is quite fearsome. He’s always shouting and swearing, and everyone’s scared of him. He even lashed out at Mum and blacked her eye. It was Arthur who pulled him off. Bobbie is just quiet, not really there at all.’