‘I AM a blackboard in a schoolroom,’ Ruby said, reading from her essay book, ‘and this is the story of a week in my life. On Monday I am roused from a sound sleep by a teacher drawing maps on me with a piece of white chalk. Sometimes she makes mistakes and rubs them out with a soft duster . . .’

Ruby hated reading her essays aloud, especially when the subject was as boring as ‘The Story of a Blackboard’.Who could possibly imagine what it would be like to be a blackboard? Who would want to?

‘This is quite warming on a cold morning,’ she continued, ‘and I look forward to it.’

Miss Muir head, the English teacher, listened with half-closed eyes, a faint smile on her face.

‘Wednesday is my favourite day, for then the drawing teacher draws pretty designs and pictures on me . . .’ Ruby hesitated, distracted by the faint but unmistakable sound of somebody giggling.

Miss Muirhead opened her eyes. ‘Stop, please, Ruby.’ Ruby lowered her essay book. ‘Lizzie Spotswood and Sally O’Day,’ Miss Muirhead said loudly. ‘Lizzie, I see that you have just given something to Sally. May I ask what it is?’

‘It’s just a note, Miss Muirhead,’ mumbled Lizzie.

‘A note.’ Miss Muirhead turned to Sally. ‘Please share this fascinating note with all of us,’ she said. ‘If it’s more important than Ruby’s essay, it must be very important indeed.’

The blood drained from Sally’s face. ‘Please don’t make me, Miss Muirhead.’

‘If you don’t read it aloud, and immediately, I shall give you a debit mark. It goes without saying that Lizzie, as the writer of the note, has a debit mark already.’

Sally held up the little piece of paper. ‘Ruby thinks she’s so smart,’ she said in a trembling voice. ‘Wait till she hears what Brenda knows about her father.’ She glanced at Ruby. ‘I’m really, really sorry, Ruby Q.’

Miss Muirhead looked shocked, but soon recovered herself. ‘The classroom is no place for idle gossip. Lizzie, see me after class. Ruby, please ignore what has been said and continue with your reading.’

Ruby started again, but now the words seemed to be jumping up and down on the page. What did Brenda know about Dad? Was it something to do with his work? Was something terrible about to happen?

English was the last lesson for the day. When Miss Fraser came in to dismiss the class, Ruby packed away her books as quickly as she could and left the classroom without speaking to anybody. She could see that Marjorie and the twins were looking at her with curious, sympathetic faces, and she stayed well away from them. Especially she stayed away from Brenda. If something was happening to her family, she didn’t want to hear about it from Brenda Walker.

Ruby walked down the long shadowy driveway, past the oval with its hissing sprinklers, through the big stone gateway. Her hat was on straight, and she was wearing her new gloves. The prefect on duty smiled as she went past. ‘Good to see you sticking to the dress code, Ruby!’ she called.

Ruby tried to smile back. In spite of the heat of the afternoon, her hands inside her gloves were freezing cold.

She found her mother in the kitchen, making pastry. The dough looked too wet, and Mother was trying to scrape the gluey mass off her fingers. A pie dish filled with sliced apples stood on the table.

‘Your father loves an apple pie,’ Mother said. She smiled tiredly. ‘How was school? I hope your day was better than mine.’

Ruby sat down. To take her mind off what she was about to say, she picked up an apple and began to throw it from one hand to the other.

‘For heaven’s sake, Ruby, do stop fiddling with things,’ Mother said. ‘You’ll drive me mad, and I have enough to worry about already.’

Ruby put the apple back on the table and brushed some flour off her skirt. She wanted Mother to tell her that Brenda didn’t know anything about Dad – it was just gossip, as Miss Muirhead had said. She wanted Mother to be shocked and angry. But suppose it was true?

She took a deep breath. ‘Mother, today in our English lesson Lizzie passed Sally a note in class. Miss Muirhead made Sally read it aloud, and it was about Dad. It said Brenda knew something about him, and it sounded like something bad. But how could she know anything about Dad? She’s making it up, isn’t she?’

Ruby waited for her mother to say that it was all nonsense: of course it wasn’t possible for Brenda to know anything, because there wasn’t anything to know. But Mother said nothing, and her silence made Ruby feel the way she’d felt when she’d heard that Hilary wasn’t coming back to school.

Mother turned away, rinsed her hands at the sink, and dried them very slowly on a tea-towel. Finally she sat down in a chair, facing Ruby. ‘Brenda may not be making it up,’ she said. ‘It’s possible that Uncle Donald said something, and she overheard him.’

‘Uncle Donald?’

‘Your father and I wanted to keep this from you as long as possible,’ Mother continued, ‘but the time has come. You already know that things are not going well with your father’s business, don’t you?’

Ruby nodded.

‘Well, things are actually going very badly indeed. Much worse than we first thought. Your father has lost a great deal of money, and he has had to declare himself bankrupt. Do you know what that means?’

Ruby licked her dry lips. ‘Not really.’

‘It means that we can’t pay people what we owe them. We are thousands of pounds in debt, and the court has agreed that we are incapable of paying. We have no money.’

‘But how can we have no money? Dad is still building houses, isn’t he?’

‘Yes, he is. He hoped that if he kept building, things might improve. Now some of his clients have become bankrupt themselves, and can’t pay what they owe him. It’s quite a mess.’ Mother leaned forward and took Ruby’s hand. ‘It means that we will have to take you out of school. Your father and I have already spoken to Miss Macdonald. She will allow you to stay for two more weeks –’

‘Two more weeks!’ Ruby exploded. ‘How can I –’

‘Two more weeks,’ repeated Mother, ‘while we work out what we must do. Miss Macdonald will refund the money we have already paid for the full term. It is extremely kind of her.’

Ruby felt as if she and her head were not properly connected. ‘But if I have to leave school, where will I go? You wouldn’t send me to a state school, would you?’

‘We haven’t yet made a decision about that.’ Mother looked down at her lap. Ruby saw that she was twisting the tea-towel, twisting and twisting it. ‘And darling, there’s another thing –’

Ruby began to shiver. Mother never called her ‘darling’, or hardly ever. Only when she was about to say something very serious indeed. But what could be more serious than having to leave school?

‘If you are declared bankrupt you have to raise every bit of money you can, because you must pay off as much of your debt as possible. And that means, Ruby, that we shall have to sell this house.’

At first Ruby was furious with Dad for having done this terrible thing to them all, but when he came through the front door that evening, looking so tired and unhappy, she just couldn’t feel angry. This was her father, the person she loved most in all the world, and what had happened wasn’t his fault. Bad things were happening everywhere. So she ran straight up to him and hugged him as hard as she could, before he had even taken his hat off.

‘Your mother has told you, then,’ Dad said. ‘Well, that’s the worst of it over, I suppose. We both felt dreadful keeping it from you. I’m so sorry you’ll have to leave your school, sweetheart. And this house – I can’t tell you how I wish –’ He passed his hand across his eyes.

‘Don’t worry, Dad,’ Ruby said. ‘We’ll manage.’

Dad kissed her on the cheek. ‘That’s my brave girl,’ he said. And then he walked very quickly down the hall to his study.

But Ruby didn’t feel brave at all.

We’re going to be poor, she thought. Oh my hat, we’re going to be poor.