Ruby (35 page)

He let himself in the house. ‘Sadie? Sadie? Where are you?’

He thought he heard a noise upstairs and guessed Sadie was up there with the children; he went into their bedroom and they were both asleep, but there was no sign of Sadie. He ran downstairs and checked everywhere before realising that Sadie had gone out and left the children alone.

He looked out in the back garden and then went out the front to check the road, but there was no sign of her anywhere.

‘Hello Johnnie,’ his neighbour said as he saw him looking around. ‘What’s up mate?’

‘I’m looking for Sadie. The kids are in bed but I can’t find her.’

The man looked down at the ground. ‘I didn’t know she left the kids on their own. That’s not on. You’ll find her at number forty-eight. She’ll be in there with the Greek bloke. Sorry …’

‘What do you mean?’

‘She’s always in there, but I didn’t know she left the kids in the house.’

Johnnie focused for a few seconds. ‘Do me a favour, just stand by my front door and listen for the boys. I won’t be long.’

He marched over the road and banged on the door of number forty-eight. When there was no answer he simply kicked the door in and ran straight up the stairs. He was confronted by a man wearing just a vest and socks. Without pause he grabbed him in a stranglehold round the neck.

‘Where’s Sadie? Quick, or you’re going headfirst down those stairs.’

‘In there …’

But then Sadie appeared on the landing, her hair in a mess and her blouse buttoned up wrong. Johnnie could see she’d tried to get dressed quickly.

‘Do you know what you’ve done?’ he shouted at her, his anger bubbling away.

‘Exactly the same as what you’ve been doing,’ Sadie smiled. ‘But it’s all right for you, out all day whoring, but not me.’

Johnnie looked at her and his temper evaporated down into cold fury. ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, I don’t care who you fuck, but I do care that you’ve left the boys on their own while you do it. Anything could happen to them, you stupid, stupid bitch. The whole house could have burned down with them in it.’

As Sadie stood on the landing looking bewildered, so the man, whose name Johnnie didn’t even know, backed up against the wall.

‘I’m sorry, mate. She just comes over here … what’s a man to do when it’s on a plate?’

Johnnie pulled his arm back and punched the man clean on the jaw.

‘Wait for me, Johnnie,’ Sadie said meekly in her silly girly voice that grated on him at the best of times.

‘I’m taking the boys to Betty. You can do whatever you like to earn enough to pay the rent on your own.’

‘Johnnie, Johnnie, I didn’t mean it, Johnnie. Don’t leave me. You were doing it as well.
Johnnie
…’

‘I was not doing it, Sadie. I’ve never been unfaithful to you. Never.’

As he crossed the road he could still hear her shouting, ‘I’m gonna tell Bill. You can’t do this to me …’

‘So you’re not into adultery, then?’ Gracie laughed, trying to cheer Ruby up. ‘He’s a bit of all right though your bloke.’

‘He’s not my bloke, so give over. I’m all alone and single again, and tomorrow I’m going to get a Pekingese. That’s all I need in my life. I’ve got the hotel, I’ve got the genteel lady guests, what more do I need?’

‘Johnnie Riordan!’ Gracie did a little dance in front of her friend.

It was a few days after Johnnie’s visit, and Ruby was still feeling fragile from both the emotion of their conversation and the aching of her slowly healing injuries. She had managed to get down the stairs and was sitting in the kitchen, out of sight and away from guests’ questions.

‘Just out of interest, have you seen Tony at all? I’m really worried about him being so close by, especially once I start going out.’

‘Mamma and Papà Alfredo told Henry he’d gone to live in London. They were also talking about his new girlfriend … Don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. They idolise him and will cover up for him whatever. They’re firmly stuck with the idea that you fell down their stairs drunk. That’s why Tony called the engagement off.’

‘That’s what parents do, though, isn’t it? Unconditional love. But if he’s gone to London …’

‘How unconditional is unconditional?’ Gracie asked.

‘Blimey, missus, that’s a bit deep …’

‘I’m learning, I’m learning. Oh, it’s the phone. I’ll get it.’ She went out into the lobby and then put her head back around the door. ‘Ruby, it’s Johnnie. He says it’s urgent.’

‘I don’t want to speak to him.’

‘He says it’s really urgent.’

‘No. I can’t speak to him, I can’t. Tell him another time. If it’s urgent he can tell you.’

She could hear Gracie talking to him but she couldn’t hear the words. Then Gracie came back into the room.

‘I don’t want to hear it, Gracie.’

‘Oh, you do, you really do.’

‘I don’t. I have to shut him off.’

Gracie smiled. ‘When he left here the other day he went home and found the babies on their own and his missus over the road having it away with a neighbour, a Greek waiter from Soho … though I don’t know why he told me that.’

‘
Nooo
, I don’t believe you, Gracie McCabe. You’re lying to me.’

‘Cross my heart and hope to die. He said he can’t see you for a while because he’s got the boys with him at his sister’s and he doesn’t want Sadie finding out anything and dragging you into it. Now there’s a fine kettle of fish for you.’

Ruby leaned forward. She felt sick and faint. In a few moments everything had changed.

‘He wants you to phone him on this number.’ Gracie handed her a piece of paper. ‘Shall I cancel the Pekingese?’

Ruby smiled. ‘We’ll see. At the moment I really need a brandy.’

That evening, after she’d spoken to Johnnie, Ruby sat out on the balcony thinking about everything that had happened and wondering how it might all pan out in the future. In a few short weeks her life had roller-coastered up and down so much she was scared to think about anything positively for fear of it all whooshing back down again.

Johnnie Riordan. Could it happen? She didn’t know … His life was so tied up with Sadie and Bill Morgan. Despite what Sadie had done, the threat from Morgan was there. If he divorced Sadie then he lost everything: his home, his job, his car; but he would keep his boys, which was the most important thing to him.

But would he go that far? She wasn’t sure. Only time would tell. But the thought that maybe she and Johnnie Riordan, the love of her life, could be together one day was enough for the moment.

She picked up the binoculars and looked out across the water. It was damp and misty, but she could knew Leonora was out there somewhere, keeping an eye on her hotel and her protégée.

She was so far away she jumped when Gracie came up behind her.

‘Babs rang. They’ve found Derek Yardley’s body. He hanged himself with his belt in the place he’d called his den, so Maggie was right about that. Really spooky place, a proper hut in the woods, which was only found by chance by a farmer shooting rabbits and following his dog into the undergrowth. The police never found him.’

Ruby put her fingers in her ears. ‘I don’t want to hear about it, not now. I can’t think about him because I feel sorry for him and I don’t want to, he took Maggie.’

‘That he did, but he brought her back and he didn’t do anything bad to her. That’s the main thing. There’s good and bad in all of this, that’s for sure.’

‘I suppose you’re right … Do you think we could both take a day off?’ Ruby suddenly asked Gracie. ‘Just one day. I really want to go and see my mother but I can’t drive with my arm like this. I was thinking, it’ll soon be a new year … a new year, a new start. I want to get everything cleared in my head and start afresh.’

‘Sounds good to me.’

Gracie and Ruby stood together looking over the balcony.

‘Are you watching, Lady Leonora?’ Gracie shouted. ‘We love you!’

Johnnie Riordan turned the car into the drive and pulled up in front of the garage.

‘I’m dreading this, you know.’

‘Well, don’t. Just think of it as an extended family get-together. It happens all the time – aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces. Maggie is just like that.’

‘It doesn’t feel right.’

‘I know, but you have to pretend it is. You’ll get used to it. I have.’

‘I know.’ Although the engine was turned off his hands were still gripping the steering wheel.

Ruby smiled reassuringly. ‘How’s Betty coping with two babies in the house?’

‘She’s grumbling but she’s loving it. It’s a bit cramped, though, with me as well. Poor Betty …’

‘So Bill hasn’t put a hit out on you then?’

‘No. Just sacked me, took the car, chucked me out of the house and threatened to break my legs if I ever showed my face in Wanstead again, that’s all.’

‘But
she
was in the wrong …’

‘Does it matter? Nope. Bill Morgan always had a soft spot for her so he was automatically going to believe her. She’s even working in the Black Dog again!’ Johnnie shook his head and grinned. ‘Life, eh? So, shall we go in? I’m scared, if I’m honest.’

‘It’ll be OK. I’m her sister Ruby, and you’re my friend Johnnie.’

‘Sounds like a storybook’.

‘It is a bit like a fairytale, and all’s well that ends well. Right, here we go. Come and meet Maggie.’

‘I can’t believe we have a daughter.’

‘You must never ever say that out loud.’

‘What about us?’

‘You know about us. We were meant to be.’

They both stopped when they heard voices.

‘Mummy, it’s Ruby!’

Ruby looked at Johnnie’s face as his daughter ran towards them.

‘One day,’ she said to him quietly, ‘one day she’ll know. Hello, Maggie. Say hello to my friend Johnnie.’

What items couldn’t you live without?

My iPad (I’m in love with it!); tinted moisturiser and waterproof mascara; cordless hot-brush (even though it’s old fashioned technology); beautiful thick-papered notebooks; coloured gel pens; central heating and my gorgeous cashmere wrist warmers for when I’m typing! Oh and books, stacks of books. And a cat. Must have a cat.

Which authors inspire you?

Jilly Cooper, Harold Robbins, Jackie Collins, Barbara Taylor Bradford. All brilliant story-tellers of the blockbuster variety, and the one and only Agatha Christie who was never lost for a plot!

Do you spend a lot of time researching your novels?

With Ruby I had to do far more research than I ever had before. I was out of my comfort zone in a different era so I had to keep checking. Thank Heaven for Google and all the people who put information up on the internet. It was time-consuming but very interesting and sometimes I was so absorbed I fell way behind with the book itself!

What is a typical working day like for you?

I like to start work early and then have a siesta in the afternoon before carrying on into the evening. If I’m up against the clock (as I often am) then I’ll get up at 3 or 4 am and start but I can’t work into the night anymore, my brain shuts at 10pm.

If I’m ‘Home Alone’ then I usually work in the conservatory which is an office at one end. I also have a fully-equipped shed-office halfway down the garden which is a real bolt-hole away from everything. I love my shed!

Have you ever had writer’s block? If so, how did you cope with it?

I do sometimes sit and stare at the screen and wonder if I’ll ever be able to string a sentence together again so that’s when I go and make a cup of coffee and read a magazine. Other times I’ll just move ahead of the story and start a whole new section before going back to where I was. Or I go shopping for handbags …

Do your characters ever surprise you?

Oh yes! They often take on a life of their own when the story gets going. Sometimes minor characters will push the main ones aside and put themselves centre stage, nice characters suddenly turn mean and occasionally just have to be banished or killed and new ones appear from nowhere. A writer’s brain can work in very strange ways sometimes, especially in the middle of the night. I often wake up and think AHA, and a new plotline evolves.

Which give people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party?

BILL CLINTON he’s such a charmer.

BEAR GRYLLS he could teach me how to make a meal from a shrub.

KEITH RICHARDS because he must have some rock’n’roll secrets to tell.

VIRGINIA MCKENNA I so admire her work with Born Free. Fab Lady.

CHERIE BLAIR I think she gets a rough deal from the media, I’d like to hear her side.

What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?

When I lived in Lagos, Nigeria, I worked for a short while as a receptionist for the father of a friend, a Lebanese importer and exporter of fabrics and clothing. Only he wasn’t. The business was a front and he was a smooth con-man who fled the country one night with his family and a small fortune of other people’s money. I never had a clue and I never got paid.

And what can you tell us about your next novel?

It’s the story of GRACIE, a young woman who features in RUBY as her friend. Gracie’s a lively young woman, full of personality and ambition whose life is full of both good and bad twists and turns. I really like her and I hope the readers will too.

Marie Maxwell was born in London and, after living here, there and everywhere, now lives happily by the sea in Essex.

She has written seven other books under the name Bernardine Kennedy and information on Marie and Bernardine is available at:
www.bernardinekennedy.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

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