A Mother Forever by Elaine Everest (free children's online books txt) 📕

He watched Ruby as she laughed and chatted with her customer before they went back into the bookshop together. Full of rage and self-pity, he turned his back on the woman he loved with all his heart and headed away through the town to his lodgings.

He would continue working in Erith; he could see no point in leaving the brickfields. His lodging house was clean and comfortable, so he’d remain, but he’d make no effort to contact Ruby or George ever again. They were lost to him forever.

11

August 1914

Ruby leant back in her armchair and tried to breathe slowly and deeply. The country had been on tenterhooks for the past few weeks ever since Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been killed alongside his wife. Rumours of war had been rife and the thought of what the future held was all anyone could talk about. However, it was not that which was playing her on her mind, but the fact that George didn’t appear to be settling into his apprenticeship at Vickers.

Mrs Grant had been as good as her word, as the month approached when George was due to leave school. Thanks to her influence, he’d attended several interviews at the large, sprawling factory on the other side of Erith. She’d put in a good word with her husband, who was a senior manager and well thought of. Ruby, usually the brave one in the family, had been so nervous; this was her son’s future at stake, everything she’d dreamt about since that day back in 1905 when she’d first met Mrs Grant at Brook Street cemetery. The woman’s interest in George had never wavered, and over the years the two of them had formed a tight bond.

After the first interview, Ruby had felt unable to return to the offices connected to the busy factory, as her nerves got the better of her. The size and the number of people working there were daunting. Instead it had been Frank who went with George and sat waiting while he undertook test after test, checking his intelligence and his ability with numbers. Without good marks he could not be trained as an engineer. George enjoyed his first experience of visiting the company; he was polite and courteous to the managers he met and showed great interest, asking questions during the tour of the factory. It was no wonder that only a week later a letter arrived informing him that he was to be offered an apprenticeship. His working day would be long, and during his training he would progress from department to department learning all the skills required to make him a proficient engineer.

When the day came for him to start work he was up early, keen to walk to the factory. Ruby had made sandwiches, wrapping them in greaseproof paper before packing them into a tin box; she’d not see him go hungry during the long day. As George’s wage would be very small, he had asked if he could still help out at the bookshop occasionally. Frank had agreed, although Ruby felt it would be too much hard work for the lad, who also had to study in order to learn his trade. She promised that the sales from the baskets of books would still be his. Every little would help.

George was keen to work hard. What Ruby hadn’t accounted for was the fact that as the youngest lad he would be the butt of many of the men’s jokes, and pranks were often dished out to new apprentices. He took it all with good grace, telling his mum about the pranks as well as his work. But yesterday he had come home with his bottom lip trembling as he explained how the latest trick had thrown him to begin with. He’d been given the important job of going to the stores department to collect some paint, and felt proud that the workmen trusted him. It was only when the storeman laughed loudly before kindly explaining that there was no such thing as ‘tartan paint’ that George understood he’d been duped. Fortunately, the storeman was kind and sent him back to the engineering workshop with the task of telling the main joker that his order for a glass hammer had just come in. Ruby smiled when George explained he’d played along with the trick, gaining some friends amongst the older workers. She could see that the transition from schoolboy to worker was proving hard for George. She hoped and prayed that today would be easier for her boy.

Looking at the clock on the mantelpiece, she went to collect her coat and her daughter who was playing in the garden. It was time to open up the bookshop. Frank was out attending a house sale, where he hoped to pick up a selection of titles for the antiquarian side of the business. At least, being Tuesday, it would be quiet in the town, she thought to herself.

Ruby had put out the book displays and settled Pat on the floor in the back room with her rag doll. She was just thinking about putting the kettle on when a breathless Stella burst into the shop.

‘You’ll never guess what those silly buggers have done?’ she said, leaning against a bookshelf gasping for breath. ‘After being up in London most of yesterday afternoon, wanting to be part of the crowds waiting for news about us possibly going to war, and celebrating like there’s no tomorrow, they rolled up indoors asking for their breakfast. Now they reckon they’re going up to Woolwich to sign up for king and country and fight the Hun!’

Ruby frowned as she pushed a seat forward for Stella to sit down. ‘What do you mean – are Derek and Donald joining up? Why?’

Stella looked confused. ‘You mean you’ve not heard? By all accounts it was announced at eleven o’clock last night. That’s why the boys and their mates were outside Buckingham Palace