Ruby McBride Read Online Free PDF

Instead, she went on a hunger strike. For dinner that day it was pork and potatoes, followed by sago pudding. Ruby refused, absolutely, to eat so much as a mouthful. She could feel Sister Joseph’s eyes upon her the full length of the dining room.
    Guessing what Ruby was up to, Pearl was so concerned that she broke the no-talking rule and begged her to eat. `Don’t do it, Ruby. You’ll only make things worse.’
    Sister Joseph was approaching, bearing down upon them like a ship in full sail, her boots beneath the flowing skirts of her black robes click-clacking on the polished wooden floor. ‘Were you talking?’ she demanded of Pearl. Girls instantly bent their heads and applied themselves diligently to their food, hoping to avoid trouble themselves. ‘Do not attempt to deny it, 452. A lie is a thousand times more sinful, and I distinctly heard you speak. Stand up. Let everyone see the girl arrogant enough to break rules.’
    Pearl scrambled to her feet, the tears already spilling over and running down her cheeks. As she stood up, the rag doll, which she always carried with her, fell to the floor. Sister Joseph pounced. ‘What is that doll doing in here? Give it to me this minute.’
    ‘ Leave it alone! ’ The words had burst out of Ruby’s mouth before she’d had time to give them any thought. The effrontery of her daring to issue an order to Sister Joseph brought an instant and terrible silence. Not a sound in the long dining hall could be heard as every knife and fork stilled its clatter, every breath was held. Yet even that didn’t stop her. ‘That doll is all our Pearl’s got to remind her of our Mam. Don’t you dare take it away.’
    ‘I beg your pardon?’
    ‘I said, leave her alone. And leave me little brother alone, an’ all. Someone is bullying him. For all I know, it could be you what’s put ‘em up to it, ‘cause you’re the same. A great big bully. Well, you can save yer nastiness for me. I’m big enough to take it, and I’ve no intention of eating another mouthful in this damn’ place until I get to see our Billy. So you can stick yer sago pudding!’ Whereupon she turned the dish upside down and tipped the resulting mess all over the table. A gasp went up, echoing shockingly around the room.
    For a moment Ruby thought Sister Joseph might explode. Her face went from pink to white to a dark red, very like the colour of Auntie Nellie’s best chenille tablecloth, her thin lips almost disappearing in a tightly folded pucker of fury.
    The moment was saved by Sister George, a gentle soul who hated confrontation of any sort. She scurried over, picked up the fallen doll and ordered Pearl to sit down and get on with her dinner. ‘I shall mind Dolly for you until you’ve finished. It isn’t appropriate that you bring her into dinner, 452. Sister Joseph is quite right in that. She will also speak to 451 later about her insubordination, will you not, Sister?’ And, swivelling around, she smartly clapped her hands together so that with one accord hundreds of girls picked up their knives and forks and continued with their meal. All except for Ruby.
    Acutely aware of Pearl weeping silent tears as she struggled to eat the food set before her, and of Sister Joseph standing behind her in a mute, condemning silence, yet she made no move to pick up her own knife and fork.
    When the meal was finished and grace said as usual, the other girls all trooped out to begin their afternoon lessons. Ruby was instructed to stay behind. She sat with the untouched meal in front of her, staring at the slops of sago pudding spilled all over the board table throughout that long afternoon. More plates were set before her at supper and again she was left seated at the table throughout the evening right up to bedtime when, finally, she was sent to bed. The next morning at breakfast, the plates of food were still present at her place, joined by the morning dish of porridge and slice of bread and marg. Ruby didn’t touch a