Ruby McBride by Freda Lightfoot Page B

looking for you, which I doubt, they won’t be able to find you since I gave a false address. Your Miss Crombie should’ve paid less attention to her own personal comfort and more to her charges’. As for the Chairman, he was simply relieved to have another reformatory girl successfully placed and off his hands.’  
    Both facts undeniably true, Ruby silently conceded.
    She tried a different approach. ‘Why did you do it? And why me?’
    He was beginning to wonder the very same thing himself, beginning to doubt his own sanity. Perhaps that was the answer. She’d sent him mad with lust. Just to look at her standing on the docks, legs astride, hands at her slender waist and a delectable expression of pouting fury on her lovely face, told him all too clearly why he’d lost his reason. ‘Why not you? Most red blooded males would find you appealing, Ruby McBride, despite your sharp tongue.’
    To her dismay, Ruby found herself blushing. ‘So that’s it. You think reformatory girls are easy meat, like most other chaps with mucky minds.’ She tossed back her hair and met his laughing eyes with defiance. ‘Well, if you think that putting a ring on my finger will get you a bit of what you fancy, you can think again. No one takes advantage of Ruby McBride, I can tell you that for nothing.’
    ‘I’m sure they don’t Ruby. I’m quite certain of it.’
    ‘So there’ll be no wedded bliss.’
    ‘Indeed I didn’t expect any.’
    ‘No wedding night ! ’ She felt the need to make her position clear.
    He seemed not in the least put out by this declaration. ‘Matters of this sort have a way of resolving themselves in due course, I’ve always found.’
    His words confused her. He sounded so calm, so in control, yet speaking in riddles so that his meaning wasn’t entirely clear. Was he saying that he agreed to leave her alone, or that she’d give in to his demands in the end? Ruby tried once more to make her own views on the matter plain. ‘I want no hanky-panky. None at all!’
    He had the temerity to laugh. ‘I wouldn’t dream of it. Hanky-panky, as you call it couldn’t be further from my mind.’
    Now she was even more confused. ‘Then what’s on your mind? What is it you want me for ?’
    ‘You’ll find out what your duties are Ruby, when I see fit to tell you.’
    She watched in dawning disbelief as he calmly took off the white kid gloves, and after carefully tucking them into his pockets began to uncoil ropes and make ready to slip anchor.
    ‘I’m not getting involved in anything illegal.’ The tension between them at these words was palpable. It was as if she had issued a challenge.
    He looked at her out of narrowed eyes. ‘Are you suggesting I’m a crook?’
    ‘You might well be, for all I know. What happened to your first wife, for instance? Was it really her heart what killed her, or was that a lie an’ all?’
    For no reason she could fathom, he seemed to find this funny and laughed out loud, yet little humour showed in his eyes which were a strange, golden shade like rich brandy that matched the colour of his tousled hair. Unusual for a boatman, who were more commonly dark and swarthy. ‘I like a girl with spunk. You remind me very much of myself at your age. But yes, you’re absolutely right. That was a lie too.’ He did not explain in what respect and Ruby shivered on a frisson of fear as he leaned closer, dropping his voice to a low hiss. ‘You’re forgetting one thing - I’m in charge here, not you , so I’ll make the decisions. Right? I think you’ll find it to your advantage not to question me too closely Ruby McBride, nor to dispute my authority too strongly.’
    Leaving her with her mouth hanging open and, for once, at a loss for words, he climbed aboard, strode the length of the two barges and began to check their towing hooks. Back on the tug, he opened the valve to start up the steam engine. Ruby stood rooted to the spot throughout the entire operation, having immense trouble