Read Online The Dollmaker's Daughters by Dilly Court - Free Book Online Page A

Joe was Mum’s pride and joy in spite of his weaknesses. Between them, Ruby thought, swallowing a lump in her throat, Joe and Rosetta would break Mum’s heart. It would be bad enough when Mum discovered that Rosetta was about to join the chorus, but she must never find out what had really happened tonight in Bronski’s sweatshop.
    Having banked the fire with damp cinders, Sarah scrambled to her feet. ‘At least we’ll have a good blaze to see us through Christmas Day. I never thought as how I’d say it, but thank God for Billy Noakes. He may be a bit of a villain but he come through with enough money to keep us going until you get paid again, Ruby.’
    ‘Mum, I can’t go back to Bronski’s,’ Rosetta said, staring at her in horror. ‘They’ll find out I ain’t Rosetta and I’ll get moved from the machines because I’m not skilled at it like she was. If I can’t work the machines I won’t earn hardly nothing.’
    ‘Well, something is better than nothing at all. You only got to do it until Aldo gets well again, then you can go back to the arches. We’re all relying on you, Ruby.’ Sarah took a saucepan off the trivet and lowered it into a haybox by the side of the fireplace, giving the porridge a final stir before clamping on the lid. ‘There, that’ll beready for breakfast and, with a bit of luck, Joe will be here to share it with us. He’s bound to come and visit his family on Christmas Day. My Joe never lets me down.’
    Upstairs, in the tiny back bedroom, Granny Mole lay on her back in her narrow iron bed, her chin sagging onto her flat chest and her mouth open wide. Through blackened stumps of teeth, like a row of tumbledown cottages, Granny Mole’s snoring rattled and wheezed, echoing off the whitewashed walls. Ruby huddled beneath a blanket on the mattress that she had always shared with Rosetta. In the flickering light of a candle stub, she slid her hand between the mattress and the bare floorboards and pulled out two medical books. Straining her eyes to read and missing the familiar warmth of Rosetta’s body, Ruby absorbed everything she could find on the symptoms and treatment of lead poisoning. After a while, the words began to wriggle around in front of her eyes like dozens of tiny tadpoles and her eyelids were too heavy to keep them open. She blew out the candle and curled up in a ball, falling asleep to the rhythm of Granny Mole’s pig-squealing snores.
    Next morning, Ruby came downstairs to find Mum and Granny Mole seated at the table with steaming bowls of porridge in front of them. The room was warm and, after smouldering all night,the fire had been coaxed back to life, sending blue-tipped, orange flames licking up the chimney. Helping herself to some porridge, Ruby went to sit at the table.
    Granny Mole scraped her plate clean and licked her spoon. ‘That were a breakfast fit for a queen, Sal. I could manage a bit more.’
    ‘What about Poppa?’ Ruby demanded, glancing anxiously at Sarah.
    ‘Your dad’s sleeping so sound I didn’t want to wake him,’ Sarah said, heaving herself off her chair and picking up Granny’s empty plate. ‘I’ll make him some bread and milk when he wakes.’
    Ruby reached for the sugar bowl but Granny Mole grabbed it first and clung to it, glaring at her.
    ‘Ma, let Ruby have the sugar,’ Sarah said, holding the bowl of porridge just out of Granny’s reach.
    ‘She don’t need it. I’m a feeble old woman; I needs me nourishment.’
    A loud banging on the front door startled them all into silence. The handle rattled and the chair moved an inch or two but held firm.
    ‘It’s the gang,’ muttered Granny, snatching the plate of porridge from Sarah.
    ‘Mum, let me in.’
    ‘Joe!’ Sarah ran to the door, pulled the chair away and turned the key in the lock.
    Joe burst into the room and flung his armsaround his mother, lifting her clean off her feet. ‘Merry Christmas.’
    Ruby leapt to her feet. ‘Joe!’
    Setting Sarah down with a smacking