Joyce twisted onto her belly, an ardent look slanting from beneath her lashes. ‘Sure you don’t want to stay another night? I’ll show you I’m not decent at all.’
‘Got business to get to.’ Nick shrugged into his suit jacket. ‘Look lively, Joyce,’ he added briskly, ‘or you’ll be catching the bus back to Whitechapel.’ He smiled but Joyce didn’t. She’d been seeing him for a few weeks now and knew he wasn’t joking. He’d walked out on her before when she’d angled to keep his company for longer than he was prepared to allow her to have it.
In a short while, Joyce had learned that Nick Raven could be a cold man, despite the fire in his loins. And if he were not so generous in bed and out of it, she’d think he really didn’t like women very much.
‘Let’s see how the little fellow’s doing,’ Kathy said, picking up the wrapped bundle and looking into small closed features. Ruby’s baby was now a fortnight old and had not yet put on any weight. His complexion was smoother and it was clear he was a handsome child, despite his frailty. He had a mop of neat black hair and long ebony eyelashes.
When Kathy had arrived at the Potters’, she was relieved to find Charlie was out. The last time she’d come on a postnatal visit, he’d been home and had sat in the chair watching her from beneath his brows with a mean expression. This afternoon, little Pansy had opened the door to her and nodded solemnly in answer to Kathy’s question about whether she was helping her mum to look after her new little brother.
‘Have you named him yet, Mrs Potter?’ Kathy asked, laying the boy down so she could unwrap the swaddling layers of threadbare sheeting and examine him. He was wet but, that apart, seemed clean and cared for as he had on her previous visits.
‘Might call him Paul … I like names beginning with P so they go with Potter,’ Ruby mumbled.
Kathy smiled, thinking Charlie probably held no such fondness for that theory this time round.
‘Have you clean nappies? He needs changing.’ Kathy glanced about the messy room.
Without her mother instructing her to do so, Pansy got up and fetched a scrap of towelling from a chair back where it had been hanging to air.
Thankfully, it was dry, and Kathy cleaned the child’s bottom and powdered it, then fastened the square of cloth around his hips.
‘Have you had any help from family?’ Kathy asked. She knew that Ruby’s own mother had passed on as Mrs Mason had brought up the subject on the day the little boy had been born. But Kathy recalled that Ruby had once mentioned her mother-in-law lived in the locality.
‘Nobody’s been over,’ Ruby said sourly.
Kathy nibbled her lower lip. She guessed people were shunning Ruby because she’d been caught out committing adultery. ‘Perhaps in a few months’ time, when things settle down,’ she said kindly.
‘Things ain’t gonna settle down, are they?’ Ruby laughed bitterly, nodding at the baby. ‘Let’s face it, he ain’t gonna look any different in a week, or a year, is he?’
‘And how have you been?’ Kathy changed the subject, sticking to routine, although she was feeling frustrated at being unable to help Ruby in her predicament. ‘Are you breast-feeding without trouble?’
‘Got an abscess, I think,’ Ruby muttered. ‘It feels hot and painful. I’ll bind meself up to stop the milk.’
‘Let me see …’ Kathy gently examined the inflamed skin Ruby had exposed. ‘There’s no need to stop feeding. We can sort that out with—’
‘Don’t want nuthin’. Gonna put him on the bottle.’
Kathy glanced at the woman’s averted face and guessed she was repeating what her husband had told her to say.
‘Perhaps you should tell your husband how much formula milk costs,’ Kathy said briskly. The mean wretch wouldn’t want his wife spending on anything she could get free from her own body.
‘Get yer bike back, did yer?’ Ruby asked, quickly buttoning up her blouse.
‘Doubt I’ll see that again. I came on the bus today. But I hope my boss will sort something out for me.’ Kathy had got a ticking-off over losing the vehicle, so she wasn’t feeling optimistic about a replacement bike being soon forthcoming from Dr Worth.
‘Trouble all round that night, weren’t it? And it ain’t done yet,’ Ruby said gloomily. She glanced at the baby, sleeping soundly. ‘Poor little mite don’t know what he’s in for …’
‘Still knocking about with that Yid copper, are you?’
Eddie Finch barked the question at his daughter before she’d even got her coat off. He knew that Kathy had been at school with David Goldstein, but since he’d found out from his wife a few months back that they’d become romantically involved, Eddie had taken violently against David.
‘I’ve told you, Dad, we’re just good friends,’ Kathy answered wearily, shrugging out of her mac. To shut him up constantly harping on over it, Kathy had decided to make out that her relationship with David was platonic. She wished now she’d kept the news to herself when her mother had asked if she’d yet found herself a nice young man to take her out when she got time off from the surgery.
‘You make sure it stays “just friends”.’ Eddie folded the paper he’d pinned beneath his elbows while studying the football results at the parlour table. ‘’Cos I don’t want no rozzers in my family, and I don’t want no Jews either.’
‘Well, I doubt you’ll have any because David’s parents aren’t any keener on me than you are on him,’ Kathy announced, tempted to add that Eddie’s chosen career handling stolen goods wouldn’t improve their attitude towards her, if ever they – or David, for that matter – found out about it.
Eddie’s jaw dropped and the chair he’d rocked onto its back legs thumped down. It had never occurred to him that his daughter – the one he was proud of – might be unwelcome anywhere. ‘They’d be fucking lucky to have you!’ he snapped, outraged. ‘Who’d they think they are? Bleedin’ royalty?’
Despite herself, Kathy was touched by her father’s championship, so she gave him a rueful smile. She had often felt like saying something similar to her boyfriend about his bigoted parents. Of course, hers – her father especially – were equally prejudiced, but still, Kathy felt miffed that Mr and Mrs Goldstein didn’t want their son seeing her.
She was also annoyed with David for making out they had split up. He seemed eager to keep on the right side of his wealthy parents, although he insisted he was only resorting to fibs for an easy life. Kathy was equally fed up with the nagging she got, but he was telling a dirty big lie, whereas she was using little white ones to deflect her folks’ criticism.
He’d told Kathy he’d stuck to his guns and joined the police force rather than let his father browbeat him into studying accountancy to deal with the family firm’s books. In Kathy’s eyes, it begged the question why he’d not felt so passionately about stopping his mum and dad dictating his love life.
‘Give the girl a chance to sit down and have a cup of tea before you start on her, will you?’ Winifred Finch glared over her bony shoulder at her husband while putting the kettle on the gas stove. She beckoned Kathy into the kitchen, away from Eddie, who had now gone to mooch about in the front parlour.
Winnie would sooner Kathy settled down with a nice Christian boy so they