Her gasp of dismay on seeing him had been involuntary. She knew he was called Rob and was one of the brothers working on the renovating for both St Saviour’s and the nurses’ accommodation, and he had every right to be there, but she’d felt his eyes on her and his slow smile had embarrassed her, the appreciation in his eyes as they settled on her long hair hanging down over her shoulders. Nancy’s hair was thick and shone like pale silk and she hadn’t had it cut for years, twisting it up on top of her head so that it was held neatly in a sort of top knot for work.
‘Sorry if I startled you, miss …’
‘I’m the head carer Nancy Johnson,’ she’d replied primly. ‘I wasn’t aware that you were starting here this morning …’
‘Actually, it was you I wanted to speak to about the decoration up here,’ he’d said, a note of apology in his eyes. ‘I saw the kids going into breakfast and I thought I’d just nip in, have a check to see what needed doing most and then ask if you had a preference for the colour scheme?’
‘I can’t talk to you like this,’ Nancy frowned at him. ‘Excuse me while I dress. I was up late last night with some new arrivals. Make sure you knock before you enter any of the rooms, some of which may be locked – and then come and see me in the main building. My office is next door to Sister’s …’
‘Yes, Miss Johnson,’ he’d answered meekly, but there had been a spark of interest in his eyes that made her shiver inside. Nancy knew Sister Beatrice wouldn’t have given this man and his brother the run of the place unless she trusted them, and he had a pleasant friendly look about him – but there was something inside Nancy that wouldn’t let her trust any man.
Their interview later had been formal and she’d given him a list of colours that the individual members of staff had asked to have in their own rooms, stressing that it had been decided on a pale cream colour everywhere else.
‘We asked the children and no one could agree on a colour scheme, but we suggested that one wall could be done in a medium blue in the boys’ dorms and notice boards fixed so that they can pin their pictures up. The girls don’t want pink but suggested a pale greenish blue with somewhere to display their treasures. Do you think you could manage that, Mr Thompson?’
‘Yes, Miss Johnson,’ he’d answered, a twinkle lurking deep in his own bluish green eyes. ‘And your own room – do you have a preference?’
Nancy hesitated, then, ‘Pale green please,’ she said and stood up. ‘If there’s nothing else, Mr Thompson, I am rather busy …’
‘Yes, of course you are, and we need to get on,’ he’d said, then, ‘Most people call me Rob – and I do apologise for upsetting you this morning. I should’ve checked it was all right for me to go upstairs …’
Nancy had felt herself blushing and knew she was making too much of the incident. Decorators had to go everywhere they needed, to move about without hindrance, and any other morning she would already have been at work.
‘I was just surprised,’ she said. ‘You have nothing to apologise for Mr – Rob …’
He gave her a breathtaking smile that made her heart jerk suddenly and beat faster than normal. ‘Thank you, Miss Johnson. I shall ask everyone when it is convenient to do their rooms … I should like to make a start on the boys’ landing today, if that suits you?’
‘Of course,’ Nancy said relaxing, because it was ridiculous to sulk. ‘You have your work to do. I’ll let Hannah know you’ll be about. She’s in charge of the boys’ dorms this week …’
She got up to leave, but as she passed him, he touched her arm. His touch was light and she knew she could break from it with the slightest movement but it sent a frisson of something like fear down her spine, which she knew was stupid. After all these years she ought to have been able to put the past behind her, and she had, but it came back in moments like these.
‘Please do not touch me,’ she said frostily and saw the disbelief and puzzlement in his eyes, because after all it had been meant only as a delaying tactic, not an intention of force. ‘Forgive me, that was rude – did you wish to say something more?’
‘Just …’ He shook his head. ‘No, it would have no point. Forgive me …’
He’d given her another puzzled look, as if asking what he’d done to make her dislike him so much, and Nancy had felt foolish, because of course he’d done nothing that any normal woman could object to. The trouble was that she wasn’t normal where physical contact was concerned; she just didn’t like to be touched by a man – any man – and that Nancy knew was a very sad thing, because it meant she could never be married and have children of her own …
Ruby’s head ached as she looked at herself with dislike in the mirror on the wall of the cloakroom. By no stretch of the imagination did she look herself that morning – she felt like a dead rat the cat had dragged in off the streets – and it was her own fault.
She had no idea what had made her call in at an off-licence and pick up that bottle of white wine on her way home the previous night. It had been a bad day, of course, with two of her girls caught trying to steal sweets from the shop on the corner of Commercial Road, and Sergeant Sallis warning her that if this kind of thing continued, he would be forced to charge the thieves.
‘I’m sorry, Miss Saunders,’ he’d told her sternly. ‘I know you have a difficult job with these kids, but unless you can keep control of them I’ll be making a formal complaint to my chief constable and that could result in serious trouble for them – and you.’
‘I’m sorry you’ve had this bother,’ Ruby replied stiffly. ‘I’ll do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again – but I think some of these girls do not deserve a second chance. They would have been better placed in a house of correction in the first place.’
He’d given her an odd look and then left her to it. Ruby had had the girls into her office – a sullen girl of fourteen named Doris and a younger girl with a frightened air who was nicknamed Mouse but whose real name was Emmeline.
‘Well, I hope you’re properly ashamed of yourselves?’ she asked and saw a flicker of fear in Emmeline’s eyes but sheer defiance in the older girl’s face. ‘You’re here because you’re being punished for making nuisances of yourselves at the home you were placed in, and because the court decided to be lenient with you – but there are other places you could go, unpleasant places that I should be loath to send you to – either of you. Now what have you to say to me?’
‘I’m sorry, miss,’ Emmeline whispered. ‘I didn’t mean to do it – but I’m partial to sweets and me dad alus bought me sixpence worth on a Saturday till the day he died …’
Ruby felt a flicker of sympathy. It was rotten having no parents and both these girls had come to her from council-run orphanages. They’d been classed as rebellious and ungovernable, and had caused several pounds’ worth of damage to their school. Because of that the courts had removed them from the home and placed them here in her care.
‘It ain’t fair,’ Doris muttered. ‘Why can’t we ’ave a few pence for sweets once a week? Anybody would think we was bloody murderers … even the orphans next door ’ave that much …’
Looking from one to the other, Ruby knew instantly that Doris was the ringleader and had no doubt led