The stand went together on the first try.
Ruby stood back to look at it, almost suspicious. She had practised twice last night. This morning her hands had remembered what to do even while her stomach insisted she should be somewhere else.
She put the blue bowls on the lower shelf, the darker pieces beside them and the green jug where it would catch the light. There was room for less stock than she'd planned. The rest stayed packed underneath, ready to come out if anyone bought anything.
She attached her sign to the front of the table.
Ruby Ellis. The small red line beneath it.
Across the hall Jonah was fixing a frame to his display board. He looked over, raised his eyebrows at the stand and held up one thumb. Ruby smiled before she could help it.
He went back to his work. She went back to hers.
The doors opened at ten. At first people seemed to come in too slowly. Then three stopped at her table at once and she couldn't think which one to speak to.
‘You're welcome to pick them up,’ she said.
Nobody did. One woman turned to the stall beside her. Another asked whether the bowls could go in a dishwasher. Ruby answered, then forgot what she'd been about to say to the third.
By half past ten, nothing had sold.
She moved the green jug, moved it back and put her hands at her sides. On Jonah's stall someone was holding one of the little mixed frames. He was talking with the unhurried concentration he used at the bench. Ruby wished she could borrow that for half an hour.
Then the woman in the yellow raincoat came through the doors.
Ruby recognised her before she recognised Ruby. She lifted a hand and smiled, genuinely pleased.
‘You got my message,’ the woman said, coming over. ‘It's lovely to see you doing this.’
‘I did. I've got a date now for the class.’
Before she could show the card, Dan came in behind the woman with two bakery trays and a long sign under his arm.
Ruby saw the red line first. Then her name beside his bakery's.
‘These need to go over there,’ Bev said from the entrance, pointing to the refreshments table.
‘I know. One second.’
He put the trays at the end of the refreshments table, came back and leaned the sign against the front of Ruby's stand. Then he turned to the woman in yellow.
‘You used to come to the pottery nights, didn't you? We'll get those going again at the bakery. Nice to have you back.’
The woman brightened. ‘Oh, good. That's what I was hoping. I can come after work if it's the same evening.’
Ruby's hand closed round the class card.
‘It isn't at the bakery,’ she said.
Dan turned towards her. ‘She came here asking for the old class. I thought if you heard it from a customer, you'd see it wasn't just me.’
‘No. I've booked the small room here. Thursday the fifth, six till eight. That's the class I'm offering.’
The woman looked from Ruby to the sign.
Ruby bent to lift it. Dan put a hand on the top edge.
‘I've just brought it so people can see—’
‘It's not the stall I've booked.’
She pulled the sign clear. It caught on the crate. The green jug rocked once, and Ruby caught it with her free hand, her heart giving a hard thump.
‘Careful,’ Dan said.
She looked at him. He let go.
Ruby set the jug down and held the sign out to Dan.
‘Take it back.’
Mae appeared beside Ruby. She stayed there while Dan took it.
‘Mae—’
‘I told you,’ Mae said. ‘She's got her own.’
Ruby checked the rubber pad beneath the jug and turned back to the woman. Her face felt hot. She didn't want this woman to have to manage it for her.
‘Here are the details,’ she said, offering the card. ‘It's beginners again, six places. You and your friend would be welcome.’
The woman read it. ‘Oh. I can't do Thursdays. We were hoping for the bakery because it's near work. And later, really.’
‘I understand.’
‘Perhaps another time.’
She put the card back on the table. It had been a real enquiry, and now it wasn't a booking. Ruby felt the loss of two places she hadn't quite let herself count.
‘You can keep the card,’ she said.
The woman smiled kindly, but didn't pick it up again. She moved on towards the cards and prints at the end of the row.
Bev came over. She took one look at the sign in Dan's hands.
‘That isn't on the plan. Bakery things at the refreshments table, please. You know where that is.’
Dan looked at Ruby. For a second she thought he might try to say something personal in front of all these people.
He didn't. He put the sign under his arm and went with Bev to the refreshments. Mae stayed at Ruby's end of the table until he was there, then moved towards the doors.
Ruby straightened the class cards. Her hands weren't steady. Nobody applauded; most people hadn't noticed. The woman at the next stall smiled briefly, then turned back to someone asking about a scarf.
Ruby pushed the box farther under the table and put the green jug back where she'd first placed it.
An older man stopped a few minutes later. He picked up a dark blue bowl, turned it over and checked the stamp.
‘You made this?’
‘Yes.’
‘It's a nice weight.’
She told him the price. Twenty-eight pounds, without “or less”.
He carried on holding it. Ruby waited. The waiting felt like ten minutes and couldn't have been more than twenty seconds.
‘I'll have it,’ he said.
She reached beneath the table for paper. The piece she pulled out was too small; she put it aside and took a larger one. She wrapped the bowl, told him how to look after it and gave him the bag.
The money arrived in her account. A small chime from the payment app, ordinary and wonderful.
He thanked her and moved away.
Ruby looked at the space the bowl had left. She got another from the box and put it there, then stood up straight.
Jonah caught her eye across the hall. She held up one finger. He smiled, broad enough that she could see it clearly.
A woman came towards her table and asked about the red dishes. Ruby turned to answer.
By lunchtime three of the dishes had gone, along with the first bowl and one small jug. She had received one genuine class enquiry and one suggestion that the prices ought to be lower. Dan had left after delivering the refreshments. The sign had gone with him.
Mae came to the end of the table while Ruby was filling a gap in the display.
‘I'm going to leave you to it,’ she said.
Ruby looked up. Mae's face was strained. She wasn't waiting to be thanked for a thing she'd helped make necessary.
‘All right,’ Ruby said. Then, ‘Thank you for standing beside me.’
Mae nodded. Her hand moved towards Ruby's arm, stopped and returned to her side.
She went out. Ruby watched her through the doors until someone asked whether the green jug was for sale.
‘Yes,’ she said, turning back. ‘It is.’