Free Ruby by Marie Maxwell Page B

understand …’
    ‘That’s because you don’t want to.’
    Ruby paused when she saw what looked like genuine hurt on her mother’s face. ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter. Just forget I said anything!’
    Ruby stopped arguing. She could see that her mother would always follow Ray’s lead and support his opinions. It puzzled her that her own mother didn’t want the best possible for her, but she could also see there was no point in arguing about it.
    But she was worried. She’d heard nothing from the Wheatons since their first letter and she couldn’t understand how they could have forgotten about her so quickly. She’d written to them several times telling them how she felt, how she wanted to go back but wasn’t allowed. She had opened up her heart and they hadn’t responded, making her wonder if something was amiss.
    Because her mother allowed Ray to have the upper hand in the household, Ruby’s life was becoming increasingly unbearable. In fact, it was becoming the same as her mother’s: a grind of mind-numbing domesticity. Her hopes of escape were pinned on her grandmother’s support and the hope that the Wheatons still wanted her to live there.
    She grabbed her coat again. ‘I’m going to the phone box. I’m going to telephone them. They wouldn’t have forgotten my birthday last week, I know they wouldn’t. Something must be wrong …’
    ‘Don’t you dare go running off, Ruby. You come back here this minute! Don’t you dare phone them. I’ll send Ray after you …’ her mother shouted after her as she slipped out of the front door without closing it, but Ruby took off down the road regardless.
    She had no idea where she was going until she was halfway down the street and saw the open gate. On the spur of the moment she swerved in and cautiously knocked on the front door.
    ‘Well, if it isn’t Ruby Red!’ Johnnie Riordan smiled as he opened the front door and saw her standing nervously on the step. ‘Long time no see, missy. I thought you might have done a runner. What’s up? You look upset.’
    ‘Just out of breath,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry to ask, I want to make a telephone call but I left in a hurry and my purse is indoors and I don’t have any money for the phone box. I can give it back to you but I don’t want to have to go back for it right now …’ she hesitated. ‘Ray is due home soon and if I go back I might not get out again.’
    ‘Course you can. Come in.’ He stood back. ‘You can come and meet my big sister, Betty Dalton, while you’re here. She’s great, is our Betty. Keeps us all in line.’
    His voice raised at the end of the sentence and he looked over his shoulder.
    ‘I’m not deaf, you know. I can hear you talking about me,’ a voice echoed down the hallway.
    ‘You were meant to,’ Johnnie shouted back. ‘I like to keep on your good side.’ He looked back to Ruby and grinned. ‘Come and meet Ruby Blakeley. She lives up the other end of the road.’
    Betty Dalton came towards them and smiled cautiously. ‘Hello, Ruby, nice to meet you. How are you settling back here? My brother told me all about your evacuation. You were really lucky, from what I’ve heard – so lucky, in fact, you nearly didn’t come back!’
    ‘Nice to meet you too, Mrs Dalton. Yes, I was very lucky,’ Ruby answered nervously.
    ‘Call me Betty. Have you got time for a cuppa?’
    ‘Erm, I was just going to the phone box …’
    ‘A quick one then. Come through to the back room. I’ve baked a cake and it’s still warm. Does that persuade you?’
    ‘That’d be nice, thank you very much,’ Ruby said politely as she stepped into the house and followed Betty Dalton down the hall into the light and airy breakfast room. The houses in this part of the street were larger than those at the top end, with three storeys and inside facilities. The room was light and inviting with long sash windows decorated with pretty lace curtains and a dark red velour cover on the table in the side