Ruby Flynn (21 page)

Tears filled Charles’s eyes. He turned to the marble effigy of his hated father. ‘But you never knew, did you, Father, you never knew that the darkest sin casts the longest shadows.’

The daylight was fading fast and the fall of the light from the brass lamp on the escritoire was contained by its dark burgundy shade. A soft, amber pool illuminated the writing blotter and guided the hand that held the pen. The rain and wind beat ferociously against the tall leaded windows and drowned out the sound of the careful scratch of the gold nib on card as fine as vellum, the hissing of the peat as it gently burnt in the fireplace and the occasional stomach rumble from hungry Rufus, lying next to Mrs McKinnon.

Ruby carefully wrote out each of the invitations to the ball at Lady FitzDeane’s writing desk, while Mrs McKinnon sat beside her in a straight-backed chair, with a list in one hand and her folded reading glasses in the other.

Lady Isobel had begun the task herself, but her concentration had waned and she had made many errors, so she handed the task to Ruby.

‘You have a lovely hand, Ruby, would you mind continuing for me? Mrs McKinnon knows who is who. She will help.’ Lady Isobel rose and offered Ruby her seat and as Ruby settled anxiously in the chair she added, ‘I will take myself to bed for a sleep. I should try and build up my strength ready for the ball.’

Ruby accepted the task willingly, although she was very nervous, having never written anything as formal as an invitation before. Now she lifted the blotting paper away from the last gold-edged card and placing it in the envelope, said, ‘There, done at last, my hand is about to drop off, so it is.’

‘Oh, at last, Ruby,’ Mrs McKinnon exclaimed, collapsing back into her seat with relief. ‘I cannot tell you how relieved I am to have got that job done and so well, too. You made not one mistake. I am near exhausted myself, just from watching you.’

Mrs McKinnon laid her glasses down on the blotter and picked up the tidy pile of embossed envelopes.

‘Right, let’s just go through this list and tick off the envelopes against it. Then no one can accuse us of missing anyone. You do have a beautiful wee hand, Ruby.’

‘It was the only thing the nuns taught me which I enjoyed,’ said Ruby in response.

‘The Lady Lydia Trevelyan, she’s a one, if ever there was.’ Mrs McKinnon sniffed and placed the envelope back on the top of the pile. ‘If I didn’t think it was the wrong thing to do, I would put that one straight on the fire, I would.’

‘Why would you do that?’ Ruby’s eyes opened wide in alarm.

‘Because she’s a trollop, that’s why. She would steal Lord FitzDeane and all he owned right out from under Lady FitzDeane’s nose, if he let her, mind, which he wouldn’t, as he has far more sense than that. But what tricks that woman hasn’t pulled aren’t worth talking about.’

‘Why, what has she done, then?’ Ruby leaned forward towards Mrs McKinnon and lowered her voice, encouraged by the semi-darkness and the glow from the fire.

Mrs McKinnon folded her own arms across her ample chest, then, with a quick glance at the door to check no one had opened it unawares, leaned forward.

‘Well, I can’t even begin to tell you how she dresses, because it would be most inappropriate, but let me just tell you this: what she has she flaunts and straight in Lady FitzDeane’s face, too. And that one you just wrote out there…’ Mrs McKinnon lifted the top invitation and jabbed her finger at the envelope underneath, addressed to another of their neighbours, ‘…he encourages her, so he does. If there was a name for a male equivalent of a trollop, he would wear it well.’

Ruby had no idea what a trollop was and she thought it best not to ask.

Mrs McKinnon continued. ‘I only hope the lady is up to this ball. Oh, I know I encouraged it, on the doctor’s advice, mind, but now I have seen this guest list, I don’t mind telling you, I’m concerned. There are people I would have thought better of inviting. I had hoped Lord FitzDeane would have kept the list to the nice local lords and landowners, the people he grew up with as a boy, but our Lord FitzDeane, he makes friends wherever he goes, so he does.’

Ruby watched the older woman carefully as they went through the list. She had other thoughts on her mind. She was burning to ask Mrs McKinnon about the baby clothes hidden in the box in the linen room, but she realized that once she had spoken she could never take those words back. Something also told Ruby that if she asked that particular question, nothing at the castle would ever be the same again. She sensed a danger in being aware of the note and the contents of the box.

A small tap rattled the door, and Mrs McKinnon said to Ruby, ‘Now, I’m trusting you, as a convent girl and a good Catholic, to understand that conversation you and I have just had, it’s between us two. Not to be repeated.’

She rose from the chair and pulled and fastened the shutters. She knew she really had no need to ask for assurances of discretion. Ruby wasn’t like the other servants and not only because she had been educated at the convent with the best reputation in Ireland. She carried a maturity like an invisible shawl wrapped around her and it made her appear so much older than her years.

Ruby smiled at Mrs McKinnon and the thought crossed Mrs McKinnon’s mind that even Ruby’s smiles appeared weary at times.

‘Of course, it’s our secret, although I have to say, I’m rather excited now about the trollop. It will be an education in itself to see how she behaves.’

Mrs McKinnon grinned. ‘Aye, well that’s as may be, just as long as she doesn’t upset Lady FitzDeane.’

Ruby inclined her head towards the door. ‘That’ll be Jane,’ she said.

‘Aye, jealous, no doubt, that she isn’t sat in here with us.’ Then Mrs McKinnon shouted, ‘Yes, come in,’ and Jane immediately popped her head around the door.

‘Come in, girl, what’s up with you, has the cat got your tongue, or what?’ Mrs McKinnon smiled kindly at Jane, she intended no rebuff knowing that Jane always appeared either cross or half scared to death.

Jane shot Ruby a look which only Ruby understood. It said,
Have you told her? Have you? Because if you have, I will hate you forever, Ruby Flynn
.

Jane had her story ready. She wasn’t there. Ruby was a liar. She cannot read.

‘Amy is calling for you, Mrs McKinnon and the nursery fire is nearly out, Ruby.’

‘Run along Jane and tell Amy I am coming.’

‘I am very grateful to you for this, Ruby,’ Mrs McKinnon said, placing an elastic band around the invitations. ‘We shall have to get these into the post tomorrow and then it’s all systems go. We have to turn the luck of the castle. That’s what it means to me and everyone here, Ruby – a night to turn our luck around and hope things will be sunnier from the morning after.’

Ruby said goodbye and then flew down the corridor after Jane.

‘Don’t run,’ Mrs McKinnon shouted after them, but no one heard her.

Ruby turned the corner towards the nursery and Jane was waiting for her on the other side.

‘God, you made me jump so you did,’ said Ruby. ‘And before you ask me, no, I didn’t ask or tell her anything.’

‘You are getting mighty cosy with Mrs McKinnon, though. The two of you together in there, writing out the fancy letters. Are ye after her place, Ruby? Do you think you want to be the next Mrs McKinnon?’ Jane hissed.

‘No, Jane, I am not, I was just doing what I was told, now stand out of my way while I see to the fire.’

‘Well, just remember this, ’twas you what found it, you what read the note, not me. I wasn’t there, I know nothing about it, I never wanted you to get that box down. Do you understand, Ruby?’

Ruby gave Jane a long, exasperated look.

‘Jane I will never get you into trouble. Let’s just forget I ever pulled the box down, shall we and I promise, I shan’t ever ask anyone about it.’

Jane looked as if she would faint with relief. ‘Thank God, Ruby, because Amy, she would kill me so she would and me mammy, she would take what was left and kill me again and I haven’t even dared to think what me da would do to me, if I lost this job.’

‘Well, think yerself lucky ye have a mammy and a da to worry about,’ said Ruby, her voice softening slightly, as she brushed the ashes up from the fire.

*

Across on the other side of the landing, Lady Isobel sat on the edge of her bed. She took the letter Ruby had collected for her out of her bedside drawer and read it again, then she extracted a handwritten note from the back of the drawer, carefully concealed. The letter was from a private detective agency in Scotland Road, Liverpool, and it confirmed all of her worst fears. She had driven him away with her anger and her grief and she knew in her heart that was exactly what she had wanted to do. It had been her intention all along. She read the name and address.
Stella Manning, hairdresser, County Road, Liverpool
. She felt a slight pang of guilt. She had pushed him to live another life so far away from the one he had loved at Ballyford.

She wished he had told her himself. But why the unsigned note left on her bedside table? She knew who had put it there. The words written in poison had stood guard as she slept. It had been the first thing she saw when she woke, propped up against her water glass. Mrs McKinnon didn’t know, of that she was sure. Had he put her up to it? Was she as evil as the curse of Ballyford? Unable to help herself. Going about her business thinking nobody knew?

She slipped the letter and the note back into the drawer and then laid her head on the pillow and stared at the picture of them both in front of the fire, holding their firstborn. If the staff were conspiring against her, there was no one left to trust. ‘It is over,’ she whispered. ‘It is all over and done.’

She had no tears left. They had all long since been spent.

It was Sunday and Mrs McKinnon had given Ruby the day off as a reward for writing out the invitations.

‘You won’t get another now, until after we have cleared up from the ball, so make the most of it,’ she said.

Ruby felt the eyes of the other staff members fix on her and felt the resentment rolling towards her in rising waves.

Ruby waited to see if Mrs McKinnon mentioned the bike, but it seemed that Lord FitzDeane had reneged on his promise. If he had ever remembered it at all. Mr or Mrs McKinnon would have mentioned it to her if he had and there had been nothing said. Even with the bike, Ruby had no idea how to reach Doohoma from the castle. She had memorized the road from the convent to the castle, so she knew enough to know that the convent was in entirely the wrong direction.

The previous evening, she had studied Amy and the McKinnons closely as they ate their supper around the large, scrubbed kitchen table. She was hoping that one of the stable boys would ask if she needed a horse, or that Amy might mention that Jack was stopping by and would offer her a lift on the cart to Belmullet, but no one spoke about her surprise day off and that was odd in itself. Mrs McKinnon had done Ruby no favours amongst her peers as Ruby, for the first time, felt their unspoken resentment.

‘Don’t mind them,’ said Betsy as they undressed for bed. ‘You are different from us, Ruby. You can read and write, you have had an education and none of us have. Oh sure, Amy and the McKinnons can read and write, but they aren’t one of us, so it doesn’t count. They are all just jealous.’

Ruby knew Betsy was trying her best, but none of what she had said made her feel any better. ‘I almost wish I hadn’t been given the day off, they were all so quiet and no one spoke a word to me.

‘Come here while I tell ye,’ said Betsy, pulling the blanket up to her neck and wriggling down under the cool covers. Despite the fire in the grate being lit before they went to supper, the damp penetrated any room in the castle that spent the day without a fire. ‘Jimmy said to me that he had a feeling about you and not only Jimmy, Amy’s mammy said you had something about your nature and that you wouldn’t be anyone’s servant for long.

Now Ruby was interested. She poked the fire and with one leap from the grate, jumped into her own bed. ‘Go on then, what else did she say.’

‘Well, she wouldn’t tell me anything else, but she did say you had a wicked temper and that there was a man who was in your head and we would all know about it soon enough.’ Ruby pushed her pillow into Betsy’s face and the girls giggled. ‘Did she have anything to say about Jimmy by any chance? Anyone would think you worked in the stables, not on the first floor, you spend so much time slipping out the back.’ Their laughter could be heard along the staff corridor, but gradually the giggles subsided and minutes later both were fast asleep.

Now, it was the morning of her day off and feeling strangely deflated, Ruby was the first up to eat breakfast. As soon as she had finished she stood on the step and looked out into the courtyard from the back door. The rain of the previous day had finally stopped and a bright morning greeted her. She blinked up towards the scudding clouds; their progression across the bright blue sky lifted her spirits and blew away her low mood. Today, Ruby was a cloud. She might not have the bike she was promised, but she could roam the fields. She could be wild and random. Today, she was free.

As Ruby stepped out of the porch and into the courtyard, Amy placed her hand on her shoulder.

‘Here you go,’ she said. ‘You won’t be here for lunch, so you’ll need food.’ No one, from a tradesman to a beggar, left Amy’s kitchen door without a drink and a bite.

The sun shone brightly and Ruby shaded her eyes with her hand in order to see Amy clearly. Her heart melted a little at her kindness. ‘Amy, that’s really kind.’ Despite herself, a lump formed in Ruby’s throat.

‘Lord FitzDeane came into the kitchen at six and told me to make sure you were well provided for.’

‘Did he?’ Ruby was taken aback.

‘Aye, shhh, keep your words in, make your way to the stables, Danny is waiting for ye. It was Lord FitzDeane who told Mrs McKinnon to give you the day off today, he said you needed to do something private.’

Amy grinned as Ruby gave her a hug. ‘Stop, ye’ll have me going soft. I’ll be wanting to know, mind, why all the secrecy. I want to know where it is ye are off to, but that can wait till your business is done and never mind about Jane and the others, they are all as thick as pig shite and will have forgotten what irked them by the time ye get back.’