Family Drama 4 E-Book Bundle (125 page)

She knew then that there was no coincidence.

‘Gracie, can I ask you something?’ she said when she had calmed down.

‘Of course you can. Is this to do with earlier when you had a funny turn on the beach?’

‘Sort of, but not really. Who can you think of who’d want to cause me some upset?’

‘No one that I know of. You don’t go round upsetting people like I do,’ Gracie said, looking sideways at her friend. ‘What makes you think that?’

‘I was wondering who could have told Ray where I was. He wouldn’t say how he knew.’

‘I can’t think of anyone. You’re not an enemy-gathering person.’

Ruby frowned and went over to the kitchen sink. ‘Have you done all the vegetables? You shouldn’t have, I said I wouldn’t be long.’

‘Oh, bugger the vegetables, there’s something you’re not telling me. Come on, Ruby, we’re friends – thick and thin – who know each other’s darkest secrets.’

Ruby took a deep breath. ‘You know that family on the beach, the brassy woman who was chuntering on like an old granny about us?’

‘I knew it was something to do with her, but we did carry on just to annoy her even more, show-offs that we are,’ Gracie laughed. ‘Daft bint.’

‘It’s not to do with her, it’s to do with the man who was with her. Did you look at him?’

‘Yeah, hen-pecked and scared. He didn’t move a muscle while she carried on, just pretended not to notice. Yellow belly—’

‘It was Johnnie Riordan,’ Ruby said. ‘There, I’ve told you. It was Johnnie Riordan.’

‘Johnnie who?’ Gracie said, and then it dawned.
‘Noooo.
Are you sure? How can you be sure? He didn’t look like the spivvy jack-of-all-trades you’d described. That bloke looked more like a well-trained dog.’

‘Of course I’m sure. I had his baby, didn’t I?’ Ruby said calmly.

‘Sorry. Just wondering when it happened …’

‘You know when it happened. You and me both,’ Ruby glared.

‘No, not that. I mean his castration! Bet he can sing bloody good soprano now.’ Gracie starting singing high.

‘He did look a bit scared of her, I must admit,’ Ruby said with a slight smile. ‘But that’s all by the by. I’ve got a puzzle for you. After all these years what do you think are the chances of him just happening to turn up on the beach out front? I mean, first Ray shows up and now Johnnie.’

‘Maybe they’re the fortune-hunters George and Babs warned you about.’

‘Don’t be daft. For a start, they don’t even know I’ve inherited. No one does.’

‘As far as we know no-one knows. Word can get out, although I promise you I’ve not said a single word to anyone.’

‘I know,’ Ruby said. ‘But I think I’m going to go back to Walthamstow for a visit. To see Ma and Nan, make some peace. It’s time. And if I can find out from Ray how he knew where to find me that’ll be a bonus.’

‘And Johnnie?’

‘That door is shut. Looks like he’s made himself a nasty little bed to lie in.’

‘Are you going to tell Tony about Johnnie and Maggie?’

Ruby looked at her friend and shook her head. ‘Never in a million years. He’s not the sort of man to be that understanding, is he?’

‘No, I guess not.’ Gracie smiled but her tone was sad. ‘Mind you, I haven’t told Sean either.’

‘Some secrets are best left where they are, buried in the past.’

‘How would you feel about not living at the hotel any more?’ Tony Alfredo asked Ruby.

‘What a strange question. I have to live at the hotel: it’s my home and my job.’

Ruby looked across the table at him. They’d been for a walk to the nearby Southchurch Park and then gone back to the café. It was packed out with mostly holidaymakers so they were tucked away at a tiny table right next to the kitchen. Ruby was relieved it was so hectic because it meant Mamma and Papà Alfredo hadn’t got time to take any notice of them.

‘Papà has said I can live in the flat upstairs here. He wants to let it out, so who better than his son? And it’s fully furnished, a perfect first home.’

‘Why would you want to do that when you’ve got a mother who does everything for you and desperately wants to keep you tucked safely under her wing?’ Ruby laughed. ‘Everything you could ever want is in that house. I bet you’ve never so much as picked up a saucepan!’

‘But I don’t want to live at home any more. The time has come to move on and settle down away from home.’ He paused and fumbled in his pocket. ‘With you. I want to live with you.’

‘But I live with Gracie.’ Ruby frowned, not quite sure of what he meant.

‘I want you to come and live with me in the flat upstairs.’ He pulled out a box, opened it and stood it in front of her. ‘I want you to marry me!’ He put his hand to his mouth. ‘Sorry, I mean … please, please, Ruby Blakeley, will you be my wife?’

Shocked into silence, Ruby picked up the box and looked at the diamond ring tucked into the velvet. There were five diamonds in a row, the biggest in the middle and two smaller ones on each side. It was neat and pretty but not ostentatious, and Ruby was mesmerised, not by the ring but by everything it meant. She was dumbstruck by the proposal, which the last thing she’d expected.

Tony Alfredo was not a man who showed his emotions. Although Ruby knew he liked her and liked being with her, he had never even said that he loved her, never talked about the future other than in the loosest terms. There was no doubt that they got on well together, but marriage …? Ruby’s brain was in overdrive.

As she looked at the ring she thought of Johnnie Riordan with a wife and two children, a Ford Consul and a day out at the seaside. She could see him in her mind, slumped down in the deck chair, terrified of what his mad wife would do if she said so much as hello. This was the man whom she was sure had ordered the attack on her two brothers that left them both battered and bloodied and in need of medical attention. He may have been the father of her baby, but Maggie now belonged to the Wheatons and Johnnie belonged to his wife.

The door was closed and she wanted it to stay that way. She didn’t want temptation, and being married to Tony would make sure she didn’t succumb.

‘Well?’ Tony asked. ‘What do you say?’

‘Yes, Tony. Yes, I will marry you,’ she whispered. She smiled as he took her hand across the table and slid the ring onto her third finger, enjoying the delight on his face. The fact that she could still see Johnnie Riordan in her mind’s eye was irrelevant. Marrying Tony Alfredo would be a good way of ensuring he was out of her head.

‘Can I tell the parents?’

‘Ssh, not now. They’re rushed off their feet. We can tell them later.’

‘I love you. You’ll enjoy being a solicitor’s wife; you’ll love having lots of babies.’

The dark eyes that she always found hard to read gazed into hers possessively and she panicked, instantly regretting her answer to his proposal.

‘And I love you too,’ she said uneasily. ‘And I love the ring, but I’ll have to put my hand in my pocket as we leave. Your dad has a very eagle eye.’

‘We have to make decisions now. First thing will be that George has to find someone else to manage his hotel. You can’t do that and be a solicitor’s wife. Maybe dim Gracie could take the reins in the short term.’

Ruby didn’t answer. Not because of how he’d referred to Gracie, but because she had temporarily forgotten that Tony didn’t know she actually owned the hotel. She owned the hotel, the business, absolutely everything connected to the hotel, yet the man she’d just agreed to marry didn’t have a clue.

‘I can’t give up Thamesview, I really can’t, because –’ she started to say, but he leaned forward and placed a finger on her lips.

‘Ssh. Your loyalty is fantastic but it’ll be my job to look after you. Not the Wheatons’. You’re not their little pet evacuee any more, you know. And then we have to arrange the wedding and sort out the flat as we want it.’

Ruby smiled at him and listened as he carried on planning their lives together. She let it all waft over her; she would tell him all about it the very next day.

‘You what?’ Gracie shouted when Ruby told her later that night. ‘You’re out of your mind. You don’t love Tony. It’s all that business with Johnnie-the-ex that’s brought this on.’

‘No it isn’t. He’ll be a good husband. I don’t want to be like Leonora, with just the hotel in my life. I want a husband and children, same as you do. Sean isn’t the love of your life but you’re thinking about settling down with him. You’re just waiting for him to ask and then you’ll be off down the aisle.’

‘That’s different. I actually really like him as a person, and he likes me,’ Gracie laughed.

‘Oh, come on, be happy for me. You can be chief bridesmaid.’

‘Are you sure he’s not just after your money?’ Gracie asked, suddenly sombre.

‘Hardly. He doesn’t even know I own this place. He thinks I’m just the manager.’

‘Whaaat? Oh, Ruby, what is wrong with you? He will go mad when you tell him.’

‘Why?’ Ruby asked, as if she didn’t know the answer.

Gracie threw her hands up in the air. ‘Because it’s going to look as if you don’t bleeding trust him,’ she shouted. ‘You know what he’ll do, don’t you? He’ll throw a sulk first and then he’ll want to take it over. You’ll lose everything if you marry him.’

‘I’ll tell him, I promise, and I’ll discuss it with Uncle George.’ She pulled a face. ‘The biggest problem is he wants me to move into Mamma and Papà Alfredo’s flat with him, the one over the café. It’s only up the road but—’

‘Oh, you are priceless, Ruby Blakeley,’ Gracie interrupted with a huge exaggerated sigh. ‘Priceless. I’m going to go to my room, get down on my knees and say a prayer for your sanity and your safety, you daft ha’porth. You’re going to need all the help you can get from the Good Lord above to get out of this mess!’

Twenty-Five

Melton

Derek Yardley was up in his flat looking out of the window at the scene of domesticity in the Wheatons’ garden below. It was a cold autumn day but still George and Babs Wheaton were out in the garden with Maggie. George was in the summerhouse with a blanket over his legs, his wife was gardening and Maggie was running around excitedly with her new lurcher puppy, a stray that Babs Wheaton had brought home after finding it freezing cold and shivering in the field out the back.

Yet another stray.

They’d given it a home because they felt sorry for it; much in the way they had taken in Yardley himself all those years before, except that even the puppy really was part of the family. Looking down at them, all he could see was a perfect family unit and Yardley resented that he wasn’t part of it, that he was even lower in the pecking order than an abandoned flea-ridden gypsy puppy.

He wanted to be a part of it somehow, so he pulled on his well-worn donkey jacket and went down the wooden stairs and through the open gate to the garden. He walked around the edge of the lawn towards where they were at the far corner.

‘Good afternoon, Mrs Wheaton, Mr Wheaton,’ he said respectfully as he approached.

Babs looked up from her weeding and smiled. ‘Good afternoon, Yardley. What can we do for you?’

‘I saw you from my window and thought you might like me to help you with the wheelbarrow.’

‘That’s thoughtful of you but it’s your day off.’

‘I haven’t got anything else to do. I like to be busy.’

‘In that case, yes, some help would be nice. I’m trying to sort the vegetable garden out but it’s so time-consuming and it’s getting a bit chilly. See that pile of leaves there? If you could rake them that would be such a help.’ Again she smiled. ‘And if you gather up the windfalls, I’ll bake you an apple pie in appreciation.’

As they worked side by side he started to relax. He felt that he was part of the family again, the way he had been in the days before Ruby and Maggie, when it had just been the three of them. He always blamed Ruby because she was the one who made the Wheatons feel dissatisfied with the way things were. It was because of Ruby that they adopted orphan Maggie, as he liked to call her. It was because of Ruby he was no longer the only one. He hated her.

It wasn’t that he was all that much younger than either of the Wheatons in years, but he was in intellect. His reading and writing skills were poor after minimal schooling, and his social skills were even worse. Babs Wheaton had spent time with him, teaching him the basics he’d missed and, despite his own disability, George had taught him to drive, but Derek Yardley had remained socially inept.

Derek Yardley had been a sickly child born prematurely to farming parents who lived on the breadline and who had no time to compensate for his lack of schooling. Lung congestion, they had called it, when he had wheezed and coughed and had been too ill to get out of his bed. His mother would boil some water, pour it into a bowl and then place him and the steaming bowl under a towel. Much of his childhood had been spent either in the kitchen under the towel or alone in the bedroom he shared with two healthy brothers, who were always either at school or working on the Cambridgeshire farm. No one had ever had any time for Derek Yardley.

As a result he was not only small for his age, and socially inept, but also inherently resentful of life.