Bev asked whether Ruby had spoken to Jonah since he decided to pull out.
Ruby was standing in the hall store with a box against her hip. She shifted it to both hands.
‘Pull out of what?’
‘The market.’
‘He hasn't.’
Bev looked up from her notebook. ‘Mae said he'd asked you to cancel.’
Ruby put the box on the floor. ‘When?’
‘This morning. She said he'd asked you, and you'd asked her to pass it on. The way she passed the table sizes.’
‘I didn't ask her.’
Bev took her phone out. Ruby watched her search the exchange, then turn the screen towards her.
Jonah's asked Ruby to cancel his stall. She asked me to let you know. Sorry about this. She's worried about the extra stress and they've decided it's better.
Bev's reply confirmed she would use the space for the person next on the waiting list. Mae had answered, Thanks for sorting it.
The whole thing looked calm and finished. Ruby read it again, waiting for a word that could mean something else.
‘I saw him last night,’ she said. ‘He was making stock.’
Bev lowered the phone. ‘Then I need to ring him.’
‘I'll ring him now.’
He answered on the second try. Ruby heard a machine stop behind him.
‘Did you cancel your stall?’ she asked.
‘No.’
‘Bev's been told you asked me to cancel. Mae told her I'd asked her to pass it on.’
Silence.
Ruby looked at the box on the floor. The green jug was inside, wrapped by Mae in two layers of paper.
‘Jonah?’
‘I heard you.’ His voice sounded different. ‘No. I didn't ask either of you to do that.’
‘I know. I'm finding out what happened.’
‘Put Bev on.’
Ruby handed over the phone. She couldn't hear his words, only the hard rise and fall of them. Bev listened, said she understood, and then said she had already offered the space to someone else.
Ruby looked at her sharply.
‘They've paid,’ Bev said into the phone. ‘I'll refund your fee today. I'm sorry. I thought I was acting on your instruction.’
She handed it back. Jonah was still there.
‘I'm going home to speak to her,’ Ruby said.
‘Do that.’
‘I'll call you after.’
‘All right.’
He ended the call. Ruby stayed with the phone in her hand.
Bev shut her notebook. ‘I'll see what I can do. But I can't throw someone else out. They're bringing work too.’
‘I understand.’
Ruby didn't understand why she had said it so quickly, when every part of her wanted Bev to undo it. She picked up the box and carried it out.
At home Mae was washing clay smears off the edge of Ruby's table. She stopped as Ruby came through the door.
‘You've brought that back?’
‘Why did you cancel Jonah's stall?’
Mae put the cloth down.
For a moment Ruby hoped she'd look astonished. That there would be a different message, a wrong name, anything other than her friend's face going still.
‘I thought it would make things easier,’ Mae said.
Ruby set the box down harder than she should have. Something knocked inside.
‘He didn't ask me to cancel. I didn't ask you. You told Bev two things that weren't true.’
‘I know.’
‘Why?’
Mae leaned against the table. ‘You were going to be watching him all day. Wondering what I was thinking, what Dan was going to do. It's your first proper thing on your own. I didn't want him standing there making it about him.’
‘He was going to sell frames.’
‘You say that now.’
‘I say it because that's what he was doing.’
Mae opened her mouth, then shut it. Ruby couldn't bear the pause.
‘Did Dan ask you to do this?’
‘No.’
‘Does he know?’
‘I haven't told him.’
Ruby stared at her. Mae looked back, without the tears Ruby had expected.
‘You think I've gone too far,’ Mae said.
‘You've cancelled someone else's work. You used my name to do it.’
‘I was trying to protect your day.’
‘I didn't give you my day.’
The words came out loud enough that Mae stepped back. Ruby stopped speaking. She didn't want to start shouting and have the volume become what they argued about.
She opened the box, checked the jug and found it whole. Her hands shook as she replaced the paper.
‘You can't send anything else to Bev for me,’ she said. ‘No messages, no measurements, no changes. I'll tell her myself.’
‘Ruby—’
‘Have you changed anything else?’
‘No.’
‘Asked anyone to do anything I haven't agreed to?’
Mae shook her head. ‘Not since the meeting.’
Ruby rang Bev in front of her. She said Mae would no longer be passing on any setup information. Bev should ask Ruby directly about her stall and Jonah directly about his. Bev agreed.
When Ruby ended the call, Mae was looking at the wet cloth.
‘I can ring him,’ she said. ‘Explain.’
‘Don't.’
‘I can't just stand here while you look at me like that.’
‘Then do something else. But don't ring him.’
Ruby picked up her coat. She had brought a box home so she could ask one question. Now the box was back on the table, Mae's cloth was beside it, and Jonah didn't have a stall.
Mae said her name as she opened the door.
Ruby turned. ‘I need to try to get his place back.’
She went downstairs before Mae could tell her that wasn't what she'd meant to happen.