Ruby McBride (38 page)

‘This is no trinket.’ Very tenderly, as if half afraid to touch it, Pickering reached for the pendant and held it tenderly in his hand. It might have been Dresden from the delicate way he handled it. He considered it worth dealing with a common thief, just to have it in his possession at last, after all these years. He turned it this way and that, allowing the light to catch the fire in the ruby. ‘She has a child you say?’

‘Aye, a boy.’

‘Name?’

‘Tommy, just a babby he is.’

‘I meant the woman.’

‘Oh, Ruby McBride, at least that was her name afore they wed.’

Pickering was still examining the pendant. ‘That must be hard for her, having to cope with a child so young. And you say her husband is dead. When did he die? How? Does she have regular employment or other assets to help maintain her? I would be interested to know...’

Growing impatient with all the questions, Kit interrupted, ‘There’s others I could take it to if you’re not interested.’

A soft chuckle came by way of response. ‘But you chose to come to me. I wonder why?’

‘I thought as how you would be the sort to appreciate classy goods.’

‘How right you are.’ Then he looked Kit full in the eye. ‘How much are you wanting for it?’

Kit couldn’t resist a smirk of satisfaction. His mate had been right. This was the chap to make things happen round here. ‘As much as it’s worth.’

Pickering gave a brittle laugh, as if Kit had said something amusing. ‘Some items are beyond value. Name your price.’
 

Kit drew a deep breath, inwardly warning himself that this was his best chance yet, possibly his only one since no one else would touch it. ‘Enough to set me up with me own pair of barges,’ he said, rather breathlessly.

‘Done!’

Minutes later he was outside of the office door with the money in his hand, in a state of numb disbelief. His only regret was that he hadn’t asked for more.

It was a day or two later and they were back in the house on Quay Street for their day off. Kit and Pearl had gone off for the evening, as usual, and again, as usual, Ruby had stayed behind. She was no nearer to making a decision. Ruby had half decided to do nothing at all about the information she’d gleaned from Sparky. Where was the point in raking up old grievances? Bart was dead. She’d no wish to lose Pearl too, even if Kit hadn’t turned out quite so well as she’d hoped.

She would found solace in working the boats, and of course she had her child - Bart’s child. Tommy was growing into a sturdy, delightful little toddler. She also found comfort in her memories and each night would lift the piece of broken floorboard, pull out the pendant from its hiding place, and go to bed with it about her neck. She lifted the board now, her heart aching with need. How she missed him. More than she would ever have imagined possible. No matter how hard she tried to adjust to her new life, she couldn’t seem to fill the dark, gaping hole left by his absence.

Ruby slid out the piece of flannel in which she kept her treasure safely wrapped and to her utter shock and disbelief, found it empty. The pendant had gone. So stunned was she that she frantically examined every crevasse, every crack it might have slipped through, unwilling to believe the evidence of her own eyes. It was nowhere to be found. Kit wouldn’t have taken it, surely? Not without her permission. But then, if he could keep quiet about Pearl’s existence, the sister she’d been seeking for years, how could she be sure of anything?

Perhaps she’d forgotten to put it safely away, though this seemed unlikely. She was always most careful with it.

Ruby searched the house from top to bottom, including going through Pearl’s things, just in case her sister had decided to borrow it. Of course, she might be wearing it even now. She felt sick at the thought of her careless sister wearing her beautiful ruby pendant in a pub in Rochdale. Who knew what might happen to it in such nefarious company? No matter how Bart had acquired it, whether it were a genuine gem or not, it held a very special meaning for her and the prospect of losing it made her feel ill. But there was not a sign of it anywhere in the house.

If what she suspected were true, then the moment had come to have it out with them both. They really had no right to borrow her personal things without permission. It was long past time to settle the matter.

Ruby sat in her chair by the fire, her son safely asleep upstairs, and waited impatiently for Kit and Pearl to return. She had gone over and over it in her mind, and could find no other explanation. The pendant was gone and who else but Kit could have taken it? Hadn’t he demanded it off her once before? And hadn’t she denied the truth long enough? She’d been a fool to trust him.
 

As Ruby waited, her frustration and anger mounted with each passing hour. It was not until the clock struck one o’clock in the morning that the pair finally came rolling through the door, smelling strongly of beer and propping each other up as they listed to starboard. Kit was surprised to find her still awake.

‘What’s this? Waiting up with the rolling pin now, are we?’

‘Where is it?’ Ruby came straight to the point.

‘Where’s what?’

‘You know full well what I’m talking about: my pendant. What’s happened to it? It isn’t in its hidey-hole under the floorboards where I keep it safe while I’m working. It’s gone.’

There was a small, stunned silence, mainly because Kit hadn’t expected her to realise it was missing quite yet, but he soon rallied. Pearl dropped into a chair and held her head in her hands as if it were aching.

Kit snarled, ‘
Your
pendant!
Your
hidey hole! While
you
are working! There are three of us here. Why does it always have to be about you?’

‘For goodness’ sake, you’re sounding like an echo of our Pearl, picking up all her bad habits.’

Kit sniggered. ‘Not quite all of them. There’s a few I wouldn’t care to pick up, thanks very much.’

‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’

Pearl lifted her head at this point and regarded Ruby with unfocussed, bloodshot eyes, very much the worse for the gin she’d consumed that evening. ‘Get off yer high horse. You’re the one what’s disposed of her husband, so’s you can sleep with another man. Only it didn’t quite work out hat way, did it, since he’s
m
y
man, actually.’

Ruby jerked as if she’d been slapped while Kit gave a mocking laugh. ‘Oh, dear, Pearl love, now look where your big trap has taken you.’

Ruby knew she had to remain strong, and time to make it clear she knew everything. ‘I didn’t know at first, as I certainly do now, that you and Kit were a couple. I never planned on anything terrible happening to Bart. I’ve grieved for him every single day since. I wanted only to find you, Pearl, and our Billy, to find a new life for the three of us, in Canada. A foolish dream, as it turned out.’

Kit laughed. ‘Poor little innocent Ruby. So naive and trusting that in order to achieve that ‘foolish dream’, you believe every damn’ thing we told you.’

‘Is there any reason why I wouldn’t?’

‘There happen is where your Pearl is concerned.’
 

Ruby ignored him, took a deep breath. It was now or never. ‘Sparky has told me that you knew all along where Pearl was, that in fact the pair of you had been living together for a year or more. Is that true?’

Kit put back his head and laughed. ‘Good old Sparky. Well now, why not ask your loving sister how long we’d been together before we pretended to find her? Go on, she’ll no doubt sing like a flamin’ canary, given half a chance. And while yer about it, ask her what it is she really does in Rochdale. Go on, ask her.’

‘Shurrup, you! You were happy enough to spend me ill-gotten gains, so don’t put all the blame on me,’ Pearl protested, swaying drunkenly on her feet.

‘Don’t I deserve decent recompense, considering the number of clients I find for you. You’d be lifting your skirts at the end of the tunnel with the other working girls, if you didn’t have me to look after you.’

Ruby went cold. She could feel herself start to shake inside, though she did her best to disguise it. ‘Lifting your skirts? Clients?’ The conversation had taken an unexpected, not to say unpleasant turn, not at all in the direction she had expected. And if these words meant what she thought they meant, then her worries over a single pendant were as nothing by comparison. ‘Pearl, what is he saying? Tell me it’s not true.’

‘Mind yer own business.’

‘I believe it
is
my business. I promised Mam I’d look after you.’

Pearl flopped back in the chair with a loud groan. ‘Not that old chestnut again.’

‘Oh, Pearl, I don’t know what to say, I really don’t.’

‘Then don’t say anything. I’m me own boss, not beholden to anybody.’ She hiccupped gently and lolled back, eyes drooping.

‘But is it true? Pearl, wake up.’ Ruby shook her , trying to keep her awake. ‘What have you done, for goodness’ sake? You aren’t really a…’ Ruby couldn’t bring herself to use the word. The very idea of her little sister selling her body for money, or worse, some perverted sort of pleasure, was foul beyond belief.
 

Instead, firmly closing her mind even to the possibility that this might be true, she switched tracks. ‘Were you deliberately hiding from me? If so, I’d like to understand why. I’ve dreamed of little else but us getting back together again, as a family, finding our Billy and starting afresh, to make up for the troubles of our past. Now I hear that you knew where I was for ages, and did nothing about it. Can you imagine how much it hurts me to learn that?’

Pearl regarded Ruby with an almost clownish expression of surprise on her face. ‘Canada was
your
dream, Ruby, not
mine
. We never had a cat-in-hell’s chance of finding our Billy. Everyone knew that but you, though we’d’ve been happy enough to give Canada a try, see where it got us. Nor are you responsible for me. You’re the one living in the past. So what if I do spread me favours a bit? I earn myself a crust off me own wits, without being bossed about or bullied by anyone.’

‘On your back, you mean.’

‘So what if I do?’ Pearl giggled. ‘I’m me own boss, just as much as you are. And I’ll thank you to keep your nose out of my affairs. Affairs ... eeh, that’s rich, that is!’ She began to giggle, a raucous, drunken sound far louder than the pun warranted.

Ruby, on the other hand, found that her eyes were awash with tears. She felt as if she’d failed, that she’d let their mother down. She must not have looked after Pearl properly, though Lord help her, she’d done her best. What more could she have done? ‘Have you thought what you’re doing? Have you ever considered the consequences?’

‘If you mean a babby, I did for all that years ago when I had an abortion.’

Ruby felt sick, and knew in that moment that all was lost with Pearl. The silly girl was her own worst enemy and no one could save her unless she wanted to be saved. Perhaps the reason was that a certain person had far greater influence over her than a nagging sister could ever hope to have.
 

She turned again to Kit, remembering
the reason why she’d started on this conversation in the first place. ‘So where is my pendant? Have you taken it?’

‘What if I have? If you insist on treating me and Pearl like we come off the muck heap, don’t we deserve to look after our own needs once in a while?’

‘If you’ve borrowed or pawned it, I’ll…’

‘What will you do, eh
^?
What will you bleedin’ do? If you must know, I sold it. Got a good price for it. In a day or two I’ll buy me own train of barges and take you over, or put you out of business, whether you like it or not.’

She ignored this last threat. ‘Who did you sell it to? One of your mates in the pub, I suppose?’

‘S’matter of fact, yer wrong. It went to a good home. I sold it to Giles Pickering, would you believe? Since he has plenty of dosh. That’s a laugh, eh?’ He was highly amused to see all the colour wash from her face, so stunned was she by this revelation.

‘Giles Pickering?’ Ruby could hardly believe it. It seemed cruelly ironic to sell her precious pendant, the only memento she had left of him, to Bart’s own father. Not that Kit was aware of the true nature of their relationship. Nobody was, so far as she was aware. Bart had taken great care to keep this fact quiet. And who would ever suspect any connection between the baron, content to live on his tug, and one of the most powerful, wealthiest men in the city? But then he’d been an eccentric had Barthram Stobbs, a one-off. Ruby certainly had no intention of revealing his secret.