At first she was pleased. Hadn’t this been what she’d dreamed of for so long? But she’d forgotten how much mess her sister created, how she expected to be waited on hand, foot and finger, and never think to help with the cooking or the washing up. Having Pearl live with her was not at all as Ruby had imagined it would be. The house was small, and the tug, where the three of them spent much of the week while they worked on the carrying, was smaller still. For three people it meant a degree of tidiness beyond the norm if everyone was going to get along, and tidiness, along with consideration for others, was a skill Pearl had never acquired despite her years of discipline at Ignatius House and in the reformatory. Though she may have little in the way of clothes and possessions herself, perhaps because of this sad fact she felt free to use other people’s at will. Ruby did her best to be understanding if she found her best dress lying in a crumpled heap on the floor, or her one and only pair of decent boots soaking wet after Pearl had borrowed them for a late-evening stroll.
