A Mother Forever

and they’ll have that lot shifted,’ she continued, in a voice Ruby knew she wasn’t meant to argue with. At that moment she didn’t even have the power to speak as yet another pain, like she’d never known when having her George, swept over her. She leant against the woman for support.
After being almost dragged up a steep flight of stairs, Ruby was gently helped onto a large brass bed. ‘I’m just going to put some newspaper and old sheets down and then we can make you comfortable. Will you be all right on your own, just for a couple of minutes?’
Still unable to speak, Ruby nodded as she took deep breaths until her body stopped complaining.
‘By the way, I’m Stella,’ the woman said. ‘Stella Green. And although I say it myself, you’re in good hands now – so don’t you worry, hear me?’
She stepped out into the hallway – which was no more than a small space at the top of the stairs, with another door opposite the bedroom they were in – and bellowed: ‘Donald, get your nose out of that book and down to Mrs Leighton’s. Tell her there’s a baby wanting to be born. After that, get down to the corner and look out for your brothers. Tell them I want ’em home now, and they aren’t to dawdle. Do you hear me?’
‘Yes, Mum,’ a young voice shouted back, followed by the front door slamming shut.
Stella bustled back into the room, her arms full of linen. ‘Now, I’m going to have you stand up for a minute while I put these sheets over the mattress. Do you think you can start removing your clothes? I have a nightgown for you to wear.’ She shook out a white, high-necked voluminous gown and laid it over a nearby chest of drawers. ‘Once we’ve settled you, I’ll get the fire lit.’ She nodded towards a blackleaded iron grate.
‘I can’t thank you enough,’ Ruby whispered as she unbuttoned her shabby brown coat. She wished she wasn’t wearing her oldest clothes underneath, although her best clothes were not much better.
‘That’s it, lovey, get every stitch off. We women don’t have any secrets from each other,’ Stella smiled, trying not to looked shocked at the threadbare undergarments Ruby passed to her. ‘Now, let’s get you settled, and I’ll make us a nice cup of tea. There’s no knowing how long this’ll take, although I’d lay money on the child being with us today rather than tomorrow. I’ll just pop down to the kitchen and put the kettle on the hob, then I’ll be back. Will you be all right?’
Ruby nodded her head. ‘I can’t thank you enough. I was fine not half an hour ago and now . . .’
‘And now you’re about to be a mother.’
‘I am already,’ Ruby winced. ‘George is over the road with my mum. He’s five,’ she added with a sharp intake of breath. ‘Can you let them know where I am, please?’
‘I’ll take care of everything. You just rest,’ Stella said, hurrying from the room.
Ruby closed her eyes, trying to take stock of her situation between waves of excruciating pain and a heat shooting through her body that made her feel faint.
When Eddie had come home the week before and thrown a set of keys onto the kitchen table, she hadn’t known what to think. ‘What are these for?’
‘You wanted your own home, didn’t you?’
‘It has been my dream ever since we married,’ she’d answered, unsure of what he was getting at. She knew not to antagonize her husband when he’d had a drink, and by the smell on his breath, he’d visited the pub on his way home. He’d changed so much in recent times.
‘I’ve been doing a bit of debt collecting for Cedric Mulligan and someone who owed him money settled his debt with the deeds to his house, along with the contents. The only problem is, it’s down in Erith. What’s for dinner?’ he asked, as Ruby started to feel giddy with delight. Eddie didn’t seem to understand that her dream was to get away from the slum area where they lived and to bring their son up in a better neighbourhood. With their baby due in September, she wanted nothing more than to have a lovely home with a bit of a garden and nice neighbours. Here in the part of Woolwich where they lived, she was frightened to step outside their door, and on more than one occasion she’d come home to find it open and someone ransacking their rooms. Her mother, Milly – who lived with them, much to Eddie’s consternation – had taken to barricading herself in her room each evening in case of unwanted visitors. They lived close to the Thames, where at low tide the stench from the river reached every nook and cranny of the place they called home.
‘Where in Erith is it?’ she asked as she pulled a mutton pie from the oven and put it in front of him. ‘I’ve eaten,’ she added, in case he asked why she wasn’t sitting down to join him. He never did ask. Of late she’d gone off her food, and anyway, there was little to put on the table from the meagre money Eddie gave her to keep the family. Before they’d moved to these rooms, she’d taken in washing and cleaned at a local pub; but when Eddie got behind with the rent on their last place and they had to do a moonlight flit, she’d given up doing the laundry work. There wasn’t any space for such things in their new rooms.
‘Alexandra Road. Not far from the river and the town. The houses have only been built a short while.’
A new home, she thought to herself. Was her dream coming true already? But there was usually a catch with anything Eddie was involved with. ‘So why is the person giving up his home?’ she asked. She knew that if she had a proper house, rather than renting a