The Grafton Girls - Annie Groves [117]
‘Here, take this and go buy yourself something pretty,’ he told her. ‘Ask the doorman. He’ll know where you can get what you want.’
Forty pounds. Nick had given her forty pounds – an absolute fortune. Her dislike of the sexual intimacies he had demanded was already almost forgotten.
TWENTY-THREE
‘Are you all right, Ruthie, only you’ve hardly said a word, and what with you and your Glen going to see the vicar on Saturday I thought you’d have bin chattering nineteen to the dozen, telling us all about it,’ Jess teased Ruthie, her expression changing as she looked at her properly and saw her red-rimmed eyes. ‘Oh, you and Glen haven’t had a fall-out, have you?’
The bus taking them to work swung round a corner, causing Ruthie to fall heavily against Jess.
‘No, it’s nothing like that,’ she told her miserably as she straightened up.
‘So what is it then?’
‘It’s just…Oh, Jess,’ tears flooded from her eyes, ‘the most dreadful thing’s happened. An awful fight…Poor Walter’s been badly hurt and…’ As quickly as she could, Ruthie explained what had happened.
‘You mean that GI that Myra’s walking out with beat poor Walter up for no reason at all?’
Ruthie could hear the shocked indignation in Jess’s voice.
‘Glen said it was because Nick has a grudge against Walter because he’d seen him cheating at cards. There’s a group of them in the platoon, apparently, that all play cards together, and they bet and drink heavily. Glen says that it’s always leading to trouble and fights. But I still haven’t told you the worst thing.’
‘What “worst thing”?’
Ruthie bit her lip and said wearily, ‘When the police came, Nick told them that it was Glen who had been hitting Walter, and she – that Myra -backed him up. By the time the MPs got there they’d gone. This Nick with Myra had told the police that they’d got a train to catch. I tried to tell the police that it wasn’t true what they’d said about my Glen being the one to hurt Walter, but they wouldn’t listen. Glen said it didn’t matter because Walter would be able to tell them what happened once he was well enough. The policeman asked me if they’d been drinking because he could smell it on their breath, but it was only a bit of something Mr Brown, our neighbour, had given them after we got back from seeing the vicar…’ Tears welled in Ruthie’s eyes. ‘Glen said he’d be in touch with me as soon as he could, but I haven’t heard anything yet.’
‘Well, it’s only been a few hours, hasn’t it?’ Jess pointed out practically. ‘Seeing as it were only yesterday dinner and we’re on an early shift today. Oh, but poor Walter. I wish I’d bin with you. I’d have had something to say to that Myra, telling lies like that,’ she announced robustly. ‘She’s a fool if she keeps on seeing that Nick now. If it was me I’d have bin off like a shot the first time he showed me that he had a nasty temper.’
Ruthie gave a small shudder. ‘It was so frightening Jess. Glen tried to stop him but he just kept on kicking Walter and he hit Glen too.’
‘Now don’t you go getting yourself upset about it all over again. If your Glen told you not to worry then that’s what you must do. You look like you haven’t slept a wink.’
‘I haven’t,’ Ruthie admitted.
‘You shouldn’t have come in this morning.’
Ruthie gazed at her wide-eyed. ‘I…I couldn’t stay off. After all, there isn’t anything wrong with me, and it wouldn’t be right, would it?’
‘Well, it won’t be right either if you fall asleep in the middle of filling one of them shells and end up with TNT all over you, will it?’ Jess told her firmly, as the bus pulled up at the factory gates.
She was feeling doubly guilty for not going with Ruthie and the two men to see the vicar now, Jess admitted as they all stood up to get off the bus. Poor Ruthie was so gentle and unworldly that she simply wasn’t up to coping with something like this. The poor kid would probably have nightmares about it for weeks, Jess thought compassionately. And as for poor Walter, it was just as well that his girl back home didn’t know what had happened to him. She’d be worrying herself sick, just as