One Snowy Night Read online

  Twice was enough. Ruby remembered the first time she’d seen Daniel Bell. She had gone with Ellie to a cafe in the town to meet him as Mrs Duffy flatly refused to allow a young man over the threshold of her house. She had been all set to like the lad who Ellie seemed clear mad on, and at first sight he was well-dressed, dapper even, and certainly handsome enough, with his blue eyes and blonde hair. He had been sitting at a window table waiting for them and had stood up as they’d entered, smiling and raising his hand. Ruby had noticed then how his teeth marred his good looks. They were discoloured and one or two appeared broken.

  He had bought them both a cup of tea and a sticky bun but within a minute or two of sitting down Ruby had thought, he’s bumptious, cocky even, and he certainly has a big idea of himself. There was no doubt he was silver-tongued and he had set out to charm her, which had the opposite effect, especially when he had let his hand rest on hers a mite too long when he had passed her the sugar, but it was more the way he had looked at her that had unnerved her. The only way she could explain it to herself was that he made her feel as though she didn’t have any clothes on, that he had stripped her naked in his mind.

  By the time she had left them, refusing Daniel’s pleas to accompany them to the Picture Theatre at the junction of Lynwood Terrace and Westgate Road and then later for a meal and drink at a public house, her head was aching and she was acutely disturbed. Bridget had been in when she had got back to Mrs Duffy’s and after knocking on the Irish girl’s door she had asked her what she knew about Daniel Bell. Bridget had told her Daniel wasn’t one of the crowd she and her pals hung about with, and that since meeting him Ellie had had little to do with her and the others, preferring to be with Daniel, and Daniel’s friend Howard and his girlfriend, a lass called Daisy.

  Ruby had suspected Bridget knew more about Daniel than she was saying but no amount of coaxing could get anything more from her, and she’d had to admit defeat. Later that night, when Ellie arrived home the worse for drink, they’d had their first row about Daniel. Since then she had met him again once when he had been waiting outside the workhouse when Ellie had left one evening. He’d been as slick and smooth-talking as before but this time Ruby had detected an edge of hostility beneath the urbane front and had guessed, rightly, that he knew her opinion of him.

  Now, recalling Daniel’s chilling gaze as she had walked away from the pair of them that night to catch the tram, Ruby said quietly, ‘Ellie, however many times Daniel and I met we wouldn’t get on, but that wouldn’t matter an iota if he had your best interests at heart.’

  ‘He does.’

  ‘Not if he’s suggesting you live with him.’

  Ellie’s face tightened. ‘I’m not like you, Ruby, and frankly I don’t want to be. All your reading at the library and taking night courses to better yourself and designing and making your clothes and that would bore me stiff, and I can’t see how you care so much about the suffrage movement either. All those meetings you go to and them talking on and on – I mean, who cares that there’s a couple of women MPs in Parliament now? And they’re both “Lady”s, not ordinary women like us. The upper class couldn’t give a monkey’s about the working class, be they men or women, that’s the truth of it. Life’s passing you by and I don’t intend to let it pass me by.’

  ‘Ellie—’

  ‘No, I mean it. I love Daniel and he loves me, whatever you say. I know he does. And we will get married soon. He’s said so. When – when he’s got time.’

  Time? For two pins Ruby could have shaken her. Daniel had nothing but time as far as she could make out. For ages Ellie had parried the question of what Daniel did for a living, before admitting diffidently one night that he did ‘this and that’ and had a finger in various pies ‘here and there’. He always seemed to have money in his pocket and clearly wasn’t short of a bob or two, but Ruby had realized Ellie really didn’t know what her beau did or where the money came from and, moreover, didn’t care.

  ‘Ellie, don’t do this. Please.’

  ‘It’s too late. I’ve said I would.’

  ‘Well, unsay it.’

  ‘I can’t. He’d – he’d be mad.’

  ‘If he loves you—’

  ‘Don’t keep saying that,’ Ellie interrupted a trifle wildly.

  Undeterred, Ruby continued, ‘If he loves you he’ll understand what a big step this is and wait.’ This wasn’t the first time she had detected an element of fear when Ellie had talked about Daniel, and now she took the bull by the horns, saying softly, ‘Are you frightened of him, Ellie? Is that it? You can’t let him bully you.’ As Ellie stared at her Ruby knew she’d hit the nail on the head. Her voice even softer, she said gently, ‘You are, aren’t you? You’re scared. Ellie, this is all wrong.’

  ‘You don’t understand. I’ve let him—’ Ellie shook her head helplessly. ‘I can’t lose him now. No one else would want me.’

  ‘Of course they would. Did he say that? Well, it’s a lie. You’re young, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you, and we can move away from here if that’s what you want, go somewhere else and start again. We’ve done it once, we can do it again.’

  For a moment Ellie wavered. And then she bent down and picked up the big cloth bag at her feet holding all her belongings. ‘He’s waiting outside,’ she said dully. ‘I’ve got to go.’

  ‘No, wait.’

  As Ellie opened the door Ruby followed her onto the landing and then down the stairs into the hall. Daniel was standing on the pavement when Ellie opened the front door, and as Ruby caught at her friend’s arm, saying again, ‘Wait,’ he straightened, squaring his shoulders and narrowing his eyes.

  ‘Well, look who it is. Little Miss Holier-than-thou,’ he drawled softly, moving towards Ellie who was still standing on the step, and taking the cloth bag from her but with his eyes on Ruby. ‘Bin saying your two penn’orth then? Aye, course you have.’

  Ruby stared at him and said stiffly, ‘If by that you mean I’m not in favour of Ellie ruining her reputation by living with you then you’re right.’

  He laughed. ‘You have airs and graces coming out of those pretty little ears, don’t you, and what are you but a jumped-up laundry worker. You might look down your nose at the rest of us but them that aim highest fall furthest, remember that. As for me an’ Ellie, I’ll thank you to mind your own business.’

  ‘Ellie’s well-being is my business.’

  ‘Not any more, sweetheart.’

  ‘She needs someone to look after her.’

  He didn’t answer her for a moment, instead saying to Ellie, ‘You satisfied I’m going to look after you, love?’ and when Ellie nodded, he raised his eyebrows at Ruby. ‘From the horse’s mouth, or as near as dammit.’ Then the mocking persona vanished and he took Ellie’s arm, pulling her down off the step onto the pavement whereupon he moved into the doorway so that Ruby was forced backwards along the hall. Bending over her so close she could smell his tobacco breath, he murmured, ‘You interfere in my affairs again and I’ll make sure you regret it, got that? I don’t want to see hide nor hair of you, m’lady, and I’m telling Ellie to have nowt to do with you from now on. She won’t be coming back to work so your paths won’t cross again.’

  ‘You can’t do that.’ In spite of herself, her voice trembled. She had been right about him; he was unprincipled, bad. Oh, Ellie, Ellie, what have you done?

  ‘Don’t fool yourself.’ He smiled a smile that wasn’t a smile. ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you, with your fancy meetings with them other men haters. Oh, aye, Ellie’s told me all about it. But what you don’t realize is that you can’t win, none of you. It’d only take one dark night and you on your own for you to be brought down a peg and know who’s boss. That’s what you women were made for, to serve men.’

  For a moment she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He was threatening her. He was actually threatening her with rape? If he had thought to intimidate her, it had the opposite effect. Now it was Daniel who retreated in surprise
and nearly fell down the step as she all but sprang at him, her eyes flashing as she pushed him as hard as she could. ‘Get out of here, you filthy-minded swine,’ she hissed.

  As he joined Ellie on the pavement, it was Ellie who said, ‘What’s wrong, what’s the matter?’

  Knowing Daniel had spoken so softly that her friend had been unable to hear, Ruby tried to speak, dragging in a long gasp of air through the shock that had gripped her before she could say, ‘He threatened me.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Daniel took Ellie’s arm, turning her to face him as he said, ‘I merely told her it would be better if she stayed away from us, disliking me as she does. I don’t want you upset. We’ve our own life now, Ellie. Ruby’s made it very plain that it’s me or her, and I’ve told her you’ve chosen me. That’s right, isn’t it?’

  Ellie looked from Daniel’s face to Ruby’s. For a moment she hesitated and Ruby said quietly, ‘I never said it was me or him, Ellie. I would never make you choose.’

  ‘Your whole attitude is making her choose.’ Again Daniel brought Ellie’s gaze to him as he turned her chin, looking into her eyes. ‘Listen to me, Ellie, and get this into your head. I’m not prepared to have her coming between us, all right? And that’s what will happen. It’s already happening. At the bottom of her she doesn’t like men – none of them feminists do. They’re not normal women, everyone knows that.’

  Was this the sort of poison he’d been feeding into Ellie about her? Ruby glared at him. ‘That’s rubbish but then you’d say anything to further your own ends.’

  ‘We’re going.’ Daniel took hold of Ellie’s arm. ‘And just remember what I’ve said. I won’t have anyone interfering in my life. You’ll keep your distance if you know what’s good for you.’

  Ruby watched Ellie give her one despairing glance as Daniel manhandled her down the street. It wasn’t until they had turned the corner and were lost to view that she became aware that Mrs Duffy was standing a few feet behind her. Wondering how long the landlady had been there, Ruby said weakly, ‘Ellie’s moved out, Mrs Duffy.’

  ‘Aye, I heard.’ The ominous sniff followed. ‘And I have to say she’s picked herself a rum ’un there. I’ve seen his type before. He’ll lead her a hell of a life, you mark my words.’

  It wasn’t helpful. Ruby bit hard on her bottom lip to quell the tears Ellie’s sudden and unexpected departure had caused, and then her eyes widened in surprise as Mrs Duffy added, ‘You look like you need a cup of tea, lass. Come into the kitchen, I was just making a brew.’

  To Ruby’s knowledge it was the first time anyone in the house had been invited into Mrs Duffy’s private domain, which Bridget had irreverently named ‘The Holy of Holies’, and she was so taken aback she found herself following the landlady without a word.

  Once in the kitchen, Mrs Duffy pointed to one of the four chairs set under a scrubbed wooden table. ‘Sit yourself down and take a breath,’ she said briskly but not unkindly. ‘Bit of a shock, was it, Ellie going off like that? She didn’t give you any warning then?’

  Ruby shook her head, gazing about her covertly. The kitchen wasn’t what she had expected, not with Mrs Duffy being the way she appeared. Certainly when she and Ellie had moved into their room it had been in a poor state, and the hall was always grubby, the lino rarely scrubbed and the brown walls dismal. But the kitchen was clean enough and had an air of comfort to it, a big rocking chair with padded cushions set to one side of the blackleaded range and the thick nets at the window white and starched into stiff folds. A small potted plant stood in the middle of the table with shiny green leaves and little white flowers, and all one wall was covered in paintings, one or two of them framed but mostly fixed with drawing pins. Ruby stared at one picture of a young girl in a meadow full of daisies and buttercups; it was alive with colour and warmth and involuntarily she said, ‘Oh, that’s beautiful. The picture, Mrs Duffy, it’s lovely. They all are.’

  ‘Aye, grand, aren’t they.’

  ‘Who painted them, if you don’t mind me asking?’

  ‘I don’t mind, lass. It was me son, Michael. He had a gift that way.’ Mrs Duffy paused in making the tea and gazed at the pictures with her. ‘He was a good boy, none better. If he had lived he would have been a fine painter.’

  ‘He – he died?’

  ‘On his sixteenth birthday, two days after me husband passed. It was the influenza that took them, nearly thirty years ago now. I’d had a job to fall for our Michael and there were no more after him but me and me husband were content with him, he was one in a million.’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Duffy.’ For the last two years she had thought her landlady cold and unfeeling, and all the time she’d had this great sorrow to bear.

  Mrs Duffy looked at her. ‘Nearly went barmy for a time,’ she said quietly, ‘but you bear what has to be borne, don’t you. The good book says, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord,” but it was a long time before I could bless Him again, I don’t mind saying. Still have me black days even now.’

  ‘Oh, Mrs Duffy.’ It just showed you never really knew anyone else.

  ‘Aye, well, there you are. I’d appreciate you keeping it to yourself, lass. I don’t like others knowing me business but, well, you’re a different kettle of fish to Bridget and Anne. Known your own sadness I dare say. But as for Ellie, you can’t do nowt there. I’ve seen it all before, I’m sorry to say. He’s got his hooks into her and that type don’t let go easily.’

  ‘He’s played on her weaknesses.’

  Mrs Duffy went back to mashing the tea, saying over her shoulder, ‘Be that as it may, you have to let her find out herself now. There’s only so much you can do. She’s made her bed and she’ll have to lie on it. But if she comes back wanting to live with you again, that’s all right by me.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Now come on and drink your tea.’ Mrs Duffy placed a steaming mug in front of her. ‘And I’ve got a slice of bilberry tart to go with it.’

  Ruby sat drinking the tea and eating the tart in a kind of daze. If anyone had told her this morning when she had woken up that Ellie would walk out of her life and Mrs Duffy would walk in, she would have said they were mad. But grief-stricken as she was about Ellie, she felt Mrs Duffy was going to become a friend.

  Life was strange.

  Chapter Eight

  Over the next few weeks when it became clear Ellie wasn’t going to return, Ruby was forced to take stock and acknowledge that yet another new chapter of her life was unfolding. The loss of Ellie was hard to bear, especially considering the circumstances in which her friend had left. Although in latter months Ellie had been out with Daniel every night, she had still been around first thing in the morning when they had eaten breakfast together and then gone to work. There was no denying Ellie had changed since she had been seeing Daniel, becoming quiet and withdrawn as time had gone on, which in Ruby’s opinion was the opposite to how love should make you feel, but there had still been occasions where the two of them had talked and laughed together. But Mrs Duffy – or Mabel, as her landlady now insisted Ruby called her – was right in that Ellie had made the decision to burn her boats and live with Daniel, and she had to accept it. There was nothing else she could do. But it didn’t stop Ruby worrying or having moments when she was on the brink of trying to find the house where Daniel lived. Ellie had been somewhat secretive about its location in the past, but she had let slip it was in Lombard Street, which was situated close to the docks.

  One result of Ruby’s introspection and self-analysis over this period was that her aim for the future became crystal clear. During the last two years when Ellie had been spending every penny she earned on enjoying herself, she had done the opposite. She had opened a savings account at the post office and the only money she had withdrawn from this apart from necessities like paying the rent and buying food and so on, had been to enrol in several night courses, one being elocution lessons, another advanced bookkeeping, yet another
business management and a fourth in high-fashion dressmaking where she first heard the term ‘haute couture’. The teacher on this eighteen-month course, a small Frenchwoman called Madame Poiret, was a perfectionist with an acid tongue who suffered fools badly. She had begun the first evening by stating that the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing was in the same realm as painting a masterpiece; it could only be accomplished by an artist who was prepared to sacrifice themselves for their art. High-end fashion demands high-quality, expensive and often unusual fabric sewn with extreme attention to detail, she had informed them, her ebony eyes sweeping over the nervous faces in front of her, and only the most gifted and capable dressmakers had any chance of succeeding. It was time-consuming, difficult, frustrating and not for the faint-hearted. They were to forget everything they thought they knew about dressmaking, she had continued, because inevitably it would be wrong.

  Ruby hadn’t been the only one who had finished that first evening regretting enrolling on the course, but unlike several others, she had returned the next week. And the next. She had practised what she had learned making her own clothes and those of Ellie at home, for a fraction of the price they’d have cost to buy, and all the time at the back of her mind thoughts of her own dress shop selling exclusive clothes copied from the London and Paris fashion houses were simmering.

  She realized now it had been Mrs Walton revealing the plans she’d made to pass over her dress shop that had first seeded the idea in her mind, and although that was impossible, as she would never countenance returning to Sunderland, it didn’t mean she couldn’t do something herself. She had been promoted to assistant laundress at the workhouse after twelve months when the current one had left her job in a huff after falling foul of Matron Henderson, and this had meant a substantial rise in her pay packet. She now had a healthy little nest egg in her savings account, and she added to this week by week with unfailing determination. Her hours were long but the work was not physically arduous and the workhouse inmates who helped in the laundry did any unpleasant jobs, like sorting and counting the linen for the wash, some of which came down from the infirm wards stinking with filth. The worst part of her duties, as far as Ruby was concerned, were the Saturdays when it was her turn to supervise the afternoon visiting in the workhouse hall. In much the same way as criminals in prison, the workhouse inmates were allowed no private visitors, and the officer on duty was forced to witness the misery and heartache that ensued. Elderly parents visiting a grown handicapped daughter they could no longer care for; married couples who lived in separate wards after a lifetime together now unable to kiss or touch each other; young unmarried pregnant girls begging to be taken home – the list was endless. Ruby felt that all the grief and sorrow in the world was contained each week within the workhouse hall and it affected her deeply.