Stay as Sweet as You Are (28 page)

Ruby’s lips curled. ‘Don’t worry, Titch, I can hold me drink. Yer’ll never see me rolling home, no matter how many I have.’

Her bragging inflamed Bob. Self, self, self, that’s all she ever thought about. ‘You get drunk and yer can crawl home on yer hands and knees,’ he interjected. ‘I won’t be carrying yer.’

Ruby lit a cigarette before taking her refilled glass. Then she inhaled deeply and blew the smoke in her husband’s direction. ‘Yer’d be the last one I’d want to carry me home.’

The rocking chair was brought to a halt and Aggie sat forward. ‘That’s enough of that. Any families differences yer can air at home, not here. This is supposed to be a friendly gathering, so let’s keep it that way. And I don’t want to hear no more talk of drunken women, ’cos there’s no worse sight
than to see a woman the worse for drink.’

George had had enough. At this rate they’d be coming to blows. ‘When are yer due back at yer ship, Titch?’

‘I’ll go down to the docks on Tuesday, see how things are. We’ll likely be sailing on Wednesday or Thursday. But it’ll be a short trip this time, probably only two or three weeks.’

‘Will yer be glad to get yer sea legs back again?’ Irene asked, glad the conversation had been steered to safer ground. ‘Have yer missed it?’

‘I won’t be sorry to get back, but I can honestly say I haven’t missed it this time. There seems to have been a lot going on to keep me occupied. And of course I’ve enjoyed me ma’s company and good food.’

‘I suppose yer’ve been helping that Olive Fletcher, like soft lad here.’ Ruby drained her glass. ‘I don’t know why yer bother, the house will be filthy again in no time.’

Titch had no intention of going down that road. And he could see his mother’s set face and knew she was ready to explode. ‘Drink up, fellers, there’s a crateful to get through.’

‘I’ll have a whisky this time, mate,’ George said, ‘if it’s all the same to you.’

‘And me.’ Bob was on tenterhooks, afraid of what his wife would come out with next. She didn’t care who she insulted or offended. Never again would he inflict her on his friends.

‘Fill mine up while ye’re at it, Titch.’ Oblivious to the tension in the room, Ruby held her glass out. ‘It’s a nice drop of gin, that.’

‘Yer’ll have to wait until I see to the men. And me ma and Irene.’ Titch’s even temper was beginning to fray. ‘You’re last in the queue.’

Ruby put her glass down at the side of her chair and lit another cigarette. ‘Like I was saying about the Fletchers, ye’re all wasting yer time.’

Irene got to her feet to take her drink off Titch, then she looked down into her neighbour’s face. ‘Listen, Ruby, we’re all friends of the Fletchers in this room, so we’d be grateful if
yer would just keep yer mouth shut. Yer don’t know the first thing about them, so ye’re in no position to discuss their private affairs. So do yerself, and all of us, a favour by keeping yer trap buttoned up tight.’

Ruby was about to let fly with a tirade of abuse, when Titch intervened. ‘A gin again, is it, Ruby?’

By a quarter to nine you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. Ruby never stopped talking, and it was always to pull people down. She’d had too much to drink, her eyes were glazed and her words slurred. Bob was so ashamed he couldn’t take any more.

‘I’ll go and get Lucy – it’s time she was in bed.’ He handed his glass to Titch, his eyes telling of his torment. ‘Come on, Ruby, time to go home.’

‘I’m all right here, you go for her.’

‘I’m not asking yer, I’m telling yer.’ Bob snatched the cigarette from her mouth and threw it in the grate. Then he grasped the top of her arms and jerked her to her feet. ‘Get yer bag and let’s go.’

Ruby struggled as a stream of obscenities left her lips. But too much drink had made her unsteady on her feet and she was no match for her husband. ‘I’ll be back when I’ve seen Lucy to bed, Titch,’ Bob said, ‘if that’s all right with you?’

Aggie got her words out before her son had a chance. ‘Of course it is. Ye’re always welcome in this house, Bob, yer know that.’

‘Thanks.’ Bob literally dragged Ruby into the hall. ‘Needless to say, my wife will not be with me.’

Titch went to the door to make sure Bob could manage the woman who was struggling to get free, even though she would have fallen without her husband’s hands holding her up. And her language was the language of the gutter.

‘Well, did you ever!’ Aggie said when her son came back into the room. ‘Fancy having to live with the likes of that! I don’t know how Bob puts up with it, he must be a saint.’

‘He deserves a medal,’ Irene said, her heart filled with
sympathy for the man who had been humiliated in front of them all. ‘He’s a smashing bloke, far too good for her. What she needs is a man who’ll give her a go-along now and again when she steps out of line.’

‘I’ll tell yer what,’ Titch said, ‘if I wasn’t off marriage before, I certainly am now.’

‘Ay, all women are not like Ruby, yer know.’ George reached for his wife’s hand. ‘Take Irene here, she’s a perfect wife and mother. Bob just picked the wrong one.’

‘Yer can’t say that, George.’ Aggie pushed her feet down on the floor to set her chair in motion. ‘If yer think back to the early years of their marriage, Ruby was a different person. She was friendly and easy to get along with.’

‘She wasn’t bad looking, either.’ Titch crossed the room and held his hand out for George’s empty glass. ‘But I believe she let us see what she wanted us to see. People don’t change that much, and the Ruby we saw tonight was the real Ruby.’ He poured a generous measure of whisky and handed it over. ‘If we cast our minds back, we can practically put a date on the time she decided life was too dull and she let her true self come to the fore.’

‘Titch is right,’ Irene said, thinking back. ‘It was just after Lucy started school that she started to bleach her hair. Then gradually the make-up became thicker, as though she’d put it on with a trowel, and her nails were painted a bright red. I know Bob’s had rows with her over it, yer can hear them through the wall. But she takes no notice of him. She’s only interested in herself and couldn’t care less for him or Lucy.’

‘She doesn’t still hit the girl, does she?’ Aggie asked. ‘’Cos if I thought she’d laid a hand on her I wouldn’t be responsible for me actions.’

Irene dropped her eyes for a brief second. Bob had suffered enough, she wasn’t going to add to his suffering. ‘Not as far as I know, Aggie.’

‘Let’s forget about Ruby for now, eh?’ Titch said. ‘She managed to spoil a couple of hours for us, but don’t let her
spoil the whole night. Yer’ve all got full glasses, so drink up and be merry. And for God’s sake, will someone tell a joke to put a smile on our faces?’

‘I know,’ Aggie chuckled, ‘tell them about the parrot and Mrs Gibson.’

‘Oh, aye, that was dead funny, that was.’ Titch related the whole story and it brought not only smiles, but roars of laughter. ‘The funniest part, the one that tickled me most, was that Lucy’s friend believed me when I said Mrs Gibson had kept me talking all through me ten days’ leave. She said, all serious like, “That’s terrible, that is. Yer should have told her. I know I would have done.” And the poor girl had no idea why everyone went in a pleat.’

They were still wiping their eyes when Bob came through the door Titch had left ajar for him. He was smiling, but they could see the strain on his face and in his eyes. ‘I’m glad you lot can still laugh. I thought me wife had blighted the night for yer. I can’t tell yer how sorry I am, but it’s me own fault. I should have known better than to bring her.’

‘Did yer manage to get her home all right?’ Titch asked. ‘I would have given yer a hand but thought I’d better not interfere.’

‘I had to half carry her up the stairs, and she was a dead weight. Then I took her coat off and lifted her onto the bed. I left her there and went for Lucy. And when she was settled in bed, I looked in on the wife. She was just as I’d left her, out like a light and snoring her head off.’

‘She certainly likes her drink,’ George said. ‘She must have gone through half a bottle of gin in that short time.’

‘Perhaps it’s my fault,’ Titch said. ‘I should have refused to give her so much.’

‘Don’t blame yerself,’ Bob told him. ‘Ruby sober is no nicer than Ruby drunk. She’s got a chip on her shoulder as big as a ruddy tree, and nothing yer do or say will please her. I should know, I’ve tried everything under the sun but it doesn’t have the slightest effect.’

‘Forget about it for now,’ Irene said, ‘and sit down and relax. Get a glass in yer hand and drown yer sorrows.’

Titch raised his brows. ‘How about a good stiff whisky, pal?’

‘Just the job, mate.’ Bob sat down and stretched his legs. He was physically and mentally exhausted. ‘Then yer can tell me what yer were laughing about when I came in. I could do with cheering up.’

‘Before that, Bob, will yer tell us how the kids got on in Irene’s?’ Aggie leaned forward in expectation. ‘Did Lucy enjoy herself?’

The mention of his daughter’s name brought a genuine smile to Bob’s face. ‘Enjoy herself! She was full of it – they all were. I couldn’t get a word in edgeways with them all talking at once, saying they’d had the time of their lives. I felt like an ogre breaking the party up. Lucy said it was the best birthday she’d ever had, and young Jack said he’d never forget the day he wore his first pair of long kecks.’ Bob held the glass to his lips and closed his eyes as the liquid warmed and soothed him. ‘I’ll tell yer what – that Steve’s a good ’un. He said he’d stay and help the lads clear up so their mother didn’t have to come back to dirty dishes and crumbs all over the floor. Yer’d not get many boys his age being so thoughtful.’

Aggie sat back feeling contented. As long as the children enjoyed themselves, that was the main thing. At least Ruby hadn’t been able to spoil their party. ‘They’re all good kids. I don’t know Lucy’s friend, Rhoda, as well as I know the others, but she seems a nice enough girl.’

Titch chuckled. ‘She’s an exceptional girl is Rhoda, with a very unusual sense of humour. Which brings me to what we were laughing at when yer came in, Bob.’ Leaning back against the sideboard with a glass in his hand and a twinkle in his eye, he started with Jack telling his brother he talked like a parrot that had lived with Mrs Gibson for years. And he ended with Rhoda’s serious reaction to a story that had been made up for a laugh.

If Titch had told the tale once again in the hope of cheering
his neighbour up, then he’d been very successful. For Bob, with a warm glow inside him, and feeling relaxed, roared with laughter as he pictured the scene in his mind. ‘I wish I’d been here to see it. I bet our Lucy saw the funny side.’ He shook his head. ‘Rhoda didn’t really believe Mrs Gibson kept yer talking for ten days, did she? No, she couldn’t have. She was having yer on.’

‘If I never move from this spot, she fell for it, hook, line and sinker.’ Titch looked to his mother for confirmation. ‘Isn’t that the truth, Ma?’

Aggie chuckled. ‘It is, son. And I bet she’ll lie in bed tonight wondering how yer could stand on yer feet for ten days without going to the lavvy.’

‘She either believed it, or is a ruddy good actress,’ Irene said. ‘But either way she’s done us a favour. Especially you, Bob. Yer look heaps better than yer did half an hour ago.’

‘That’s the whisky, sweetheart,’ George said. ‘It’s amazing what a drop of the hard stuff will do.’

‘No, George, it’s not the whisky,’ Bob said. ‘It’s being with me friends. I was all wound up before, me nerves shattered. But now I feel nice and relaxed. In fact, I feel so full of goodwill to all men, I wouldn’t mind if Mrs Gibson walked through that door right now and talked the head off me all through the night.’

George let out a loud guffaw. ‘I told yer it was amazing what a drop of the hard stuff will do. But even I didn’t think it was powerful enough for anyone to brave Mrs Gibson’s company for a whole night. Give him another one, Titch.’

‘All in good time, mate,’ Titch said. ‘The last thing I want is for him to get legless and me have to carry him up the stairs and throw him down next to Ruby.’

Mellowed by the drink and good company, Bob chuckled. ‘Yer need have no fears on that score, ’cos I’m kipping down on the couch. I’m at ease with meself now, as happy as a pig in you-know-what. And I’m not about to let the sight and sound of me drunken wife spoil things for me. Time enough
tomorrow for rows and recriminations.’

‘Take the advice of an old woman, Bob,’ Aggie said, ‘and forget about it. It’s over and done with now and yer can’t change things. What’s the good of getting all het-up when nothing will come of it? ’Cos I’ll tell yer now, lad, no matter how hard yer shout, yer’ll never change Ruby.’

‘Aggie’s right, Bob, yer’d get yerself all worked up for nothing,’ Irene said. ‘Put it out of yer head and pretend it never happened.’

Bob was thoughtful as he swirled the whisky around in his glass. And when he looked up, he nodded. ‘The ladies are right, as usual. I won’t forget about it, I can’t. But kicking up a stink won’t get me anywhere, so to all intents and purposes, it never happened.’

‘It’s very sensible of yer to take me ma’s advice when she becomes an old woman,’ Titch said, trying to control his laughter. ‘I took her advice, that’s why I never married. She told me there wasn’t a girl in the world good enough for her son, so I never bothered looking.’

Aggie gaped. ‘That is a bleedin’ lie, Titch McBride. I never said no such thing.’

‘Yes, yer did. I was about twenty-two at the time.’

‘Yer must have been hearing things, ’cos if I never move from this chair I never said no such thing.’

Titch slapped a hand on his forehead. ‘Well, blow me down! Here I am, forty years of age and unmarried. All because I’ve gone through life thinking there wasn’t a girl good enough for me. And now I find out I must have dreamt yer said it.’

Irene looked at the smiling faces and thought, this was more like it. Mother and son were just getting into their stride and there was a lot of laughter on the way. It was a bit late for it, thanks to Ruby, but better late than never. The disastrous start to the evening had been pushed to the back of their minds and merriment was taking its place. Which was as it should be when friends got together.