Ruby McBride (12 page)

Barthram Stobbs’s expression would have given weaker spirits pause for thought before tackling him head on about the situation, but Ruby stubbornly stood her ground. `You can’t get away with this. The Board of Guardians will want to know how
I’m doing as your “good wife and helpmeet” in a proper house. not on a flippin’ boat.’

‘Then they’re going to be disappointed, as are you. And even if they come looking for you, which I doubt, they won’t be able to find you since I gave a false address. Your Miss Crombie should’ve paid less attention to her own personal comfort and more to her charges’. As for the Chairman, he was simply relieved to have another reformatory girl successfully placed and off his hands.’
 

Both facts undeniably true, Ruby silently conceded.

She tried a different approach. ‘Why did you do it? And why me?’

He was beginning to wonder the very same thing himself, beginning to doubt his own sanity. Perhaps that was the answer. She’d sent him mad with lust. Just to look at her standing on the docks, legs astride, hands at her slender waist and a delectable expression of pouting fury on her lovely face, told him all too clearly why he’d lost his reason. ‘Why not you? Most red blooded males would find you appealing, Ruby McBride, despite your sharp tongue.’

To her dismay, Ruby found herself blushing. ‘So that’s it. You think reformatory girls are easy meat, like most other chaps with mucky minds.’ She tossed back her hair and met his laughing eyes with defiance. ‘Well, if you think that putting a ring on my finger will get you a bit of what you fancy, you can think again. No one takes advantage of Ruby McBride, I can tell you that for nothing.’

‘I’m sure they don’t Ruby. I’m quite certain of it.’

‘So there’ll be no wedded bliss.’

‘Indeed I didn’t expect any.’

‘No wedding
night
!
’
She felt the need to make her position clear.

He seemed not in the least put out by this declaration. ‘Matters of this sort have a way of resolving themselves in due course, I’ve always found.’

His words confused her. He sounded so calm, so in control, yet speaking in riddles so that his meaning wasn’t entirely clear. Was he saying that he agreed to leave her alone, or that she’d give in to his demands in the end? Ruby tried once more to make her own views on the matter plain. ‘I want no hanky-panky. None at all!’

He had the temerity to laugh. ‘I wouldn’t dream of it. Hanky-panky, as you call it couldn’t be further from my mind.’

Now she was even more confused. ‘Then what’s on your mind? What is it you want me
for
?’

‘You’ll find out what your duties are Ruby, when I see fit to tell you.’

She watched in dawning disbelief as he calmly took off the white kid gloves, and after carefully tucking them into his pockets began to uncoil ropes and make ready to slip anchor.

‘I’m not getting involved in anything illegal.’ The tension between them at these words was palpable. It was as if she had issued a challenge.

He looked at her out of narrowed eyes. ‘Are you suggesting I’m a crook?’

‘You might well be, for all I know. What happened to your first wife, for instance?
Was
it really her heart what killed her, or was that a lie an’ all?’

For no reason she could fathom, he seemed to find this funny and laughed out loud, yet little humour showed in his eyes which were a strange, golden shade like rich brandy that matched the colour of his tousled hair. Unusual for a boatman, who were more commonly dark and swarthy. ‘I like a girl with spunk. You remind me very much of myself at your age. But yes, you’re absolutely right. That was a lie too.’ He did not explain in what respect and Ruby shivered on a frisson of fear as he leaned closer, dropping his voice to a low hiss. ‘You’re forgetting one thing -
I’m
in charge here, not
you
, so
I’ll
make the decisions. Right? I think you’ll find it to your advantage not to question me too closely Ruby McBride, nor to dispute my authority too strongly.’

Leaving her with her mouth hanging open and, for once, at a loss for words, he climbed aboard, strode the length of the two barges and began to check their towing hooks. Back on the tug, he opened the valve to start up the steam engine. Ruby stood rooted to the spot throughout the entire operation, having immense trouble accepting the reality of her situation since it was so totally unexpected. She felt as if she were living some sort of nightmare, one from which she kept vainly hoping she might wake.

‘Well?’ He stared across at her from the tug, clearly impatient for her to make up her mind. ‘What’s it to be? Marriage or jail? The choice is yours.’

Fury and fear warred for supremacy, making her limbs twitch so badly Ruby could barely keep still. Yet if she dashed off into the wide blue yonder, what good would that do her? He could have her brought back, as if she were an errant, foolish young bride. She belonged to him now, almost as if she were his property. Besides, where would she run to? She couldn’t return to the reformatory, since it was unlikely the Board of Guardians would allow her back in view of the fact they considered her well placed; a success story. More likely they’d send her to the workhouse, or, as they’d already threatened, to prison for inciting a riot. She’d also be adding absconding while out on licence to her crimes. Oh, she was in a right pickle.

Neither did Ruby have any wish to end up living rough on the streets where she’d no doubt either starve to death or be picked up again by the police; her only crime that of destitution. If only their Billy had never been bullied and they’d never run away from the unfeeling nuns and Ignatius House. If only their mam had never fallen ill. No, she’d been down that road once too often. She had to live with whatever cards life dealt her. Billy was in Canada. Pearl was confined in a padded cell, and Ruby herself must somehow survive until the day they could all be together again. Which meant exercising her wits, not giving way to self pity.

At the back of her mind, ideas and plans for this long dreamed of future began to take shape. Barthram Stobbs had said he might be prepared to offer Pearl a position. Perhaps, in time, she could hold him to that, with or without a house. In the meantime, some matters couldn’t be ignored and must be made clear from the start. Nor dare she risk doing anything which might spoil her chances. It was a fine line she must tread with care.

Ruby smiled at him, soft brown hair falling seductively over her cheeks as she gave a careless shrug, as if she’d had her say and was content to go along with his scheme. Her tone of voice was calm, even sweet, yet somehow uncompromising. ‘You lay one finger on me without my say so, wife or no, and I’ll kill you with my own fair hands. D’you hear me, Barthram Stobbs? I don’t care if I do swing for it, I’d see you dead first.’

A moment of thoughtful silence and then came that now familiar answering chuckle. ‘I knew I’d chosen well. Get on board. I’m a patient man, Ruby McBride. You’re young and I’m willing to wait to enjoy the fruits you have on offer, delectable though they undoubtedly are. In the interim, I shall make good use of your clever mind and fiery spirit. I’m hoping such an irresistible combination will make me a deal of money.’

Several hours, and numerous locks later they reached the Bridgewater Viaduct. Ruby was surprised by this. She’d expected them to head for the main docks where the big ships discharged their cargoes and took on fresh loads and supplies. Having tied up the tug for the night, Barthram explained to Ruby over a supper of pie and peas, how he was known locally as “the baron”. She assumed this was because of his superior skills as a carrier, transporting coal, cotton and other goods the length of the canal, often as far as Liverpool and back. He did not disabuse her of that assumption.

‘But you can call me Bart.’

Ruby couldn’t imagine ever being so familiar. ‘Right, Mr Stobbs,’ she said, with deliberate insolence.

He didn’t rise to her challenge, his smile mocking, eyes shrewdly assessing. ‘I have many attributes, which you’ll learn about all in good time. Perhaps you’ll warm to me, in the end.’

Despite a show of stubborn persistence on Ruby’s part, he refused, absolutely, to give any indication what these so-called attributes might be. Nor did he offer any further explanation of her duties, claiming there would be time enough the next day. ‘You can have a trial run. See how you shape up.’

‘Trial run? What sort of trial run?’

He stood up and wiped a dribble of gravy from his chin, a sardonic smile twisting full, sensual lips. ‘It’s time to turn in. When you’ve finished washing up, you can bunk down for’ard, where the cabin boy usually sleeps. As I said Ruby, I’m a patient man. The marriage will not be consummated until you’re good and ready.’

‘Which will be never.’

He gave a lazy smile. ‘I’m sure that after a good night’s rest, you’ll feel much more amenable in the morning.’

He then removed the check jacket and trousers and, standing before her in his long-johns, folded the suit with care and laid it away in a large battered trunk, together with the cravat, watch and chain, and the crisp white shirt. Finally, he removed a layer of padding from around his stomach, shedding years from his age in the process and becoming, upon the instant, a different man entirely. His body suddenly appeared lithe and lean and firmly muscled. He pulled on a silk dressing gown and tied the cord about his slim waist before giving her a wry, crooked smile and withdrawing to his spacious cabin aft. Ruby had watched the entire performance in enthralled silence, astonished and utterly captivated by the transformation.

Who and what was this man? He was her husband.

Lying in her cramped quarters, Ruby tried the word out in her mind, over and over, attempting to accustom herself to the unaccustomed sound of it as well as the reality. It all seemed unreal, as if this marriage had no connection with her. Again she considered making a run for it, even got so far as trying the door, only to find it locked and bolted. She was a prisoner, which made her feel sick with fear and filled her with a new surge of anger.

Ruby wondered if she would ever be free to make her own way in the world. Oh, but she meant to be one day, of that she would make certain. Then she’d do as she pleased. Wouldn’t she just!
 

But even if she had been able to escape tonight, where could she have gone? Who knew what terrors lurked in the shadows beneath the railway arches of Castlefield. The last time she’d been in this area was that fateful night when they’d been taken back into custody, just as if they were criminals.
 

In her head, Ruby could still hear the whistles and the shouts, smell the panic and the fear of the running boys, and feel Pearl and Billy’s shuddering sobs as the three of them were dragged apart. She could recall all too clearly the gnawing hunger of life on the streets, the bitter cold, the damp seeping into her bones, the constant fear of attack.

And the warm, exciting pressure of a young boy’s body as he consoled her for failing to survive without his help.

Chapter Nine

The next morning, when breakfast and chores were out of the way, Ruby was confronted with yet another Barthram Stobbs, one dressed in the uniform of a police constable on the beat. She blinked, startled by this unexpected sight. Despite smelling oddly of mothballs, he again looked completely different from the suave, lean man in the dressing gown of the night before, and remarkably convincing. Ruby recalled having glimpsed the brass buttons of uniforms and other items of apparel inside the chest, including a clerical collar. All of which seemed strange, and Ruby didn’t care to imagine how he had come by them.

She opened her mouth to ask why he was thus attired but, on seeing the harsh set of his jaw, thought better of it and closed it again. Ruby had already learned that Barthram Stobbs was not a man to cross.

He checked that all was secure on both tug and barges, no work having been done overnight on any of the vessels so far as she could tell. He then ushered her out on to the canal tow path and made them all secure.

‘Do as you’re told and you’ll come to no harm,’ he tartly informed her, reading the questions in her hazel-eyed gaze. Ruby could only hope this was true. She’d hardly slept a wink the night before, her mind turning over ways to get out of this muddle. No solution had presented itself but now, after seeing his box of tricks which looked for all the world like disguises, it didn’t take a genius to work out that whatever he was up
to wasn’t within the law. After her time in the reformatory Ruby was left with the constant fear that the least step in the wrong direction and she could be sent down for years, married or no.

Minutes later, they were just two anonymous faces in the lower reaches of Deansgate. Barthram Stobbs strolled the length of the street, making his leisurely way through the shoppers and then back again. Ruby trailed close behind as instructed. He made a most convincing police constable, even to giving directions when one woman stopped him to ask the way to somewhere, and picking up and dusting off a child who had fallen in the gutter. What would he do if there were a real emergency? she wondered, and almost wished one would occur, just to test him. However, all remained quiet and at length he drew her up a side street and told her to listen carefully to his instructions.