The Orphanage Girls by Mary Wood

Author:Mary Wood [Wood, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2022-03-10T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

‘Who the bleedin’ hell is that knocking on me door? I ain’t bloomin’ well been home five minutes. If it ain’t important, yer can bugger off!’

Ruth trembled at the sternness of Bett’s voice calling out from the kitchen. She and Robbie stood on the step of Bett’s open door. She looked at Robbie. ‘Let’s go.’

Robbie grinned. ‘No, she’ll be fine. She’s just tired. She gets like this. It’s a hard day for her from early morning and on her feet all the time.’

‘Well, why don’t her sons help her?’

‘They give her anything she wants, but Bett’s Bett. Everyone reckons she’s got a fortune stacked away, but goodness knows what for.’

‘Bett, it’s us. Robbie and Ruth.’

When Bett came into view it was as if she’d stampeded through to them. Ruth cowered towards Robbie as visions of Matron came to her.

‘Well, and what do you two want? I can guess. Come in while I go for a pee. I ain’t been all day.’

When she disappeared out to the small part of the yard that was hers and that held a shared lav with the tenants upstairs, Robbie said, ‘There, I told yer not to be scared.’

Bett strode back in within minutes. ‘Now then, what yer looking like a terrified rabbit for?’

Bett looked at Ruth and put her arms out. ‘Come here, luv.’

Ruth flooded with relief as she went into the soft squidgy cuddle.

‘You’re never to be afraid of me, Ruth, luv. I say it how it is, but I’d never hurt yer, or let anyone else either. Yer know that first hand, girl.’

Ruth felt her troubles leave her as Bett rocked her.

‘Now, tell me, what’s this all about, Robbie? And what’s that yer’ve got in yer hands?’

Robbie explained.

‘What? Me, sell that stinking stuff?!’

‘There’s full profit in it, Bett. Yer’ll get a couple of pans a week for wavering the cut out of Rebekah’s profits and whatever yer sell it for, you’ll keep. Yer know how many of yer customers go to Bardri’s? Well, his curry ain’t a patch on this.’

‘Oh, yer’ve tried his then?’

‘No, the first I tried were Rebekah’s, but I just know.’

‘So, I’m to base a business deal on Robbie know-it-all’s word, then?’

Robbie laughed. ‘Just taste it. What can that hurt, eh?’

‘Hmmm. But whether I do or I don’t, and I ain’t bleedin’ keen I can tell yer, the fact is that you, Ruth, need to toughen up. I had no intention of making you and Rebekah pay straight off. Not until yer began to see a profit. I only thought to take the stall on a quarterly basis for yer, so that way you’d have paid the rent upfront, and if yer not doing any good by then, I’d have pulled out. But I’m taking a risk after that, and that’s when I think I should have a cut to cover that. What you and Rebekah should have done is acted more business-like, Ruth. Yer should have come to see me to tell me that yer can’t pay

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