A Virtuous Ruby by Piper Huguley Page B

what Mags would want. Where would she go to give her sister some peace?
    She felt a familiar hand on her shoulder, urging her back to the edge of the porch. Mags slid her long, graceful body next to Ruby’s. Ruby’s short legs swung, but Mags’s narrow feet were firmly placed on the ground. Naturally, Ruby slid an arm around Mags’s shoulder and hugged her hard. “I’m so sorry, Mags. Please forgive me.”
    Mags laid her head on top of Ruby’s. “What for?”
    “Like Reverend Dodge said. If he hadn’t been trying to make things better in the mill with me, he wouldn’t be dead. He would be alive and you could get married.”
    A tear fell on her face from above. “That’s the problem. I did poor Travis wrong.”
    “What you mean?”
    “He was older than me, and I just…well, I didn’t want to be married yet.”
    Ruby gripped her sister’s hand as she looked at her. “You what?”
    “I’m only sixteen. I want to go to high school. Like you. Travis wouldn’t have wanted that for me and I…well, I liked him well enough.”
    Ruby embraced her sister. “I thought you was mad at me. For killing him. With all of my activities.”
    “That’s what Uncle Arlo was trying to do. Him and Trav were friends and they was going to make things better. Now they both dead.”
    “Hard to believe isn’t it.”
    “They both dead and you, you got hurt. Ruby, please, don’t do nothing no more, okay?”
    “Mags, what you saying?”
    “I’m saying, you got to stop this. Things won’t change in that mill. Paul Winslow going to have things there the way they going to be.”
    “And then what?”
    “I don’t know. I’m going down in the morning and take up Travis’s job.”
    “No. Please, Mags. Don’t do that.” Ruby’s heart thudded hard.
    “Someone will be applying for that job after the funeral. I’ll go in the morning, so Paul Winslow will see I’m serious.”
    “I don’t want any of you down in that mill.”
    Mags’ smile crawled across her face, but her eyes were sad. “One of us was bound to be in there after a time, Ruby. There’s too many of us. Might as well be me.”
    “What about high school?”
    “You keep studying and share with me what you know at night. I’ll get there. Just like you been doing. And with both of us doing, then maybe Net and Em and Delie won’t have to go in that mill. But now, somebody got to. I’ma do it. For Travis.”
    Ruby bowed her head and covered her face in her hands. “I’ve failed. I meant to save you all.”
    “You can’t do everything alone, Ruby. You got Solomon now. What about him? He got to be taken care of. You got to get him out of the mill.”
    Ruby’s head snapped up at Mags’s words. She had not even thought of that. In a few years’ time, Solomon could end up in his grandfather’s cotton mill, dodging between the machines to pick up bobbins.
    Unless she did something but what?
    She would figure it out. It would take some time.
    And that doctor better stay out of her way. Or she would kick him again. The warm blood rose high in her veins at recalling her earlier behavior to him. She hoped to become a better person.
    When Adam came around the corner, the sight of Ruby murmuring words of comfort to Mags and wiping her sister’s salty tears away with her bare hand struck a deep chord in him. He was a full-fledged intruder and turned away to the corner. Then, Ruby opened her eyes and glared at him. Her gaze made him want to shrink away, but then he stopped himself. He had come upon an intimate moment between sisters for sure, but he had done nothing wrong.
    “I’m sorry,” he offered by way of apology.
    “Thank you,” Mags took up a sodden handkerchief. “I know you done what you could, Doctor.”
    “Did.” Ruby corrected.
    “Did. Travis was just a soldier in this cruel world. I tell—told—Ruby I’m going to that mill to start working and then Travis would be proud of me.”
    “I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do.” Adam