Maggie

by Marie Maxwell

  ‘I’m not sure, Andy. They’re bound to try and find me.’

  ‘Just get the papers signed somehow, and we can take it from there. It’ll be such fun … We can go out in London.’ Andy laughed and pulled her in close and, as they fell back on to the sofa, he kissed her, and she responded hungrily. Over the past months she had felt so deprived of affection, the real affection her mum and dad had shown her. It was as if the floodgates were suddenly opened, and she clung to him. She was alone with Andy Blythe, the boy she was in love with, he liked her, his father liked her singing, and she was being offered somewhere to live that wasn’t with the Riordans. It was as if a light had been switched on after the months of misery she had suffered since the terrible accident. Suddenly, she could see ahead in her life; she could see a light at the end of the tunnel for the first time since her life had been turned upside down so dramatically.

  ‘Come on,’ Andy suddenly said. ‘We’d better go before Dad comes in and catches us.’

  Maggie smiled to herself as she straightened her clothes. She had been wondering how she could stop things going further than she intended without hurting Andy’s feelings, and then he’d done it for her. She decided she would give Andy the paper with her financial details, after all.

  On the train home Maggie closed her eyes and thought about everything that had happened and wondered if it was just possible she could escape the Riordans and Southend and have a new life in London.

  With Andy Blythe.

  Fourteen

  Maggie was a clever girl, so it hadn’t been hard for her to get both Ruby and Johnnie’s signatures just right. She had simply hung around at the hotel and snooped in the office until she found something recent with them on, and then she’d sat up into the night in her bedroom practising over and over. As soon as she thought it was good enough to at least look genuine and adequate enough for Jack Blythe to accept, she had signed the actual agreement.

  It wasn’t as perfect as she’d have liked, but he would have nothing to compare the signatures to, and Andy had told her he would have no interest in verifying them. He wouldn’t care if they were genuine or not; he just needed the signed piece of paper on file to cover himself.

  The next day she’d posted the signed papers back to Andy so that he could give them to his father, and then she’d crossed her fingers and waited.

  Soon, she hoped, she wouldn’t have to suffer being the outsider in the Riordan household any longer, she would be able to escape and do what she wanted to do, but in the meantime she spent hours in her room singing along with the records Andy had given her and writing down every lyric.

  When she really thought about it, Maggie knew she was sometimes unfair in her behaviour, especially to the boys, but she couldn’t help but keep brooding on what Ruby and Johnnie had done to her.

  Her worst time was always in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep and her life ran back and forth in front of her eyes like a film in the cinema. Her life in Melton with Babs and George had been so right, but now, since that fateful day, it was all wrong, all of it, and the nightmare of that accident, the accident that was her fault, was with her every moment. Sometimes, when she tossed and turned, she wished she could just go to sleep and stay asleep forever; then the nightmares would stop.

  She would lie awake and pick over all the details of her previous life with her mum and dad, trying to find any clues she might have missed, anything that might make sense of it all. It was so overwhelming, and it seemed as if no one except Andy Blythe gave a damn about her.

  ‘So when can I have my money?’ she asked Ruby casually over breakfast. It had been another bad night with recurring nightmares; with everything closing in on her, Maggie was feeling twitchy and irritable and spoiling for another confrontation.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Ruby asked distractedly as she tried to coordinate three young boys for breakfast before school. ‘You’ve had your pocket money and your wages, if I remember rightly.’

  ‘No, I mean all my money. My inheritance … I mean, if you send me back to Melton like Johnnie wants, you’ll have to give it to me, won’t you? If you’re not going to look after me, I should get the lot, shouldn’t I?’

  Ruby sighed and shook her head. ‘Maggie, I don’t know what you’re talking about. No one’s sending you anywhere. Whatever gave you that idea?’

  ‘Johnnie told me.’ Maggie stared at Ruby waiting for a reaction. ‘Off to the vicarage it is for me, he said. Then probably next stop will be a handy convent.’

  ‘You must have misunderstood him, because that isn’t going to happen; now, I have to get the boys ready for school and myself to work.’

  Ruby’s tone was measured, but Maggie could sense an underlying anger in her voice and realized she might have hit a nerve. It made her feel minimally better to know that maybe Ruby didn’t share Johnnie’s views on sending her away but she still couldn’t stop herself from sniping, ‘That’s not what Johnnie said. In fact, he said—’

  ‘Oh, do stop it!’ Ruby interrupted her wearily. ‘Look, if you want an adult discussion about all of this then that’s fine, but we’ll have it at the hotel in private. You’re doing a shift today, aren’t you?’

  Maggie shrugged. ‘Supposed to be, but I don’t know why. There’s nothing to do, and there’s no one there. It’s so boring …’

  ‘Out of season is always a difficult time for hotels,’ Ruby said as she carried on clearing the breakfast table. ‘It usually means more work for the rest of us when the seasonal workers aren’t around and the decorators are in making a mess. Come to the office around eleven, and we can talk properly. I’d say we could use the flat, but Gracie and Edward are staying there until they leave for Africa. I don’t know if they’re in or out today.’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Riordan, ma’am. Eleven o’clock in your office, ma’am. Anything you say, ma’am.’ Maggie clicked her heels and saluted.

  ‘Instead of being so childish you could help me with clearing the table,’ Ruby said calmly.

  ‘I’ve got to get ready for work myself, ma’am.’

  The boys, who were all at the table having breakfast, sniggered in unison.

  Maggie bowed theatrically in front of Ruby, before backing out of the kitchen tugging at her forelock. Feeling a little guilty, she paused at the bottom of the stairs for a moment and wondered about going back in, but instead she went up to her bedroom to get ready for work at the hotel.

  In a detached way, Maggie had grown to quite like the boys. It continued to irk her that they were all related and she had never known, but there was a certain innocence in their acceptance of the situation that she rather liked. They all simply accepted that she was their sister, just another member of the family, and she wished she could do likewise instead of picking on them, especially Russell, her brother by blood. She always felt mean when she upset him, but she just couldn’t help it. Her resentment was too great, and the words were always out before she could stop them.

  As she went up the stairs she could still hear their giggling, and she promised herself she would try not to be mean to them any more. As Andy had sensibly said, none of it was their fault either. However, even though Maggie could feel herself mellowing slightly towards the boys, she couldn’t do the same with Ruby and Johnnie; she just couldn’t rise above their betrayal of her. She also hated the hotel with a passion because it was a constant reminder that Ruby and Johnnie had everything while she had nothing. As she saw it, because Ruby had effectively sold her to the Wheatons, Ruby now had the hotel which had belonged to Leonora Wheaton and half of the inheritance that should all have been Maggie’s.

  She’d lost her parents, her old life and her future in a split second in time, and no one except Andy understood. It rankled constantly, especially when he reminded her she was an heiress living like a pauper in a strange family and being treated like a naughty schoolgirl. But although Maggie had confided her thoughts and fears to him, she had left something crucial out. When he sympathized and told
her he understood how she felt, she wondered if he’d be that understanding if he knew the accident was all her fault.

  Once she was ready, she went downstairs and slipped quietly out of the back door, trying to bypass everyone, including Isobel who was ready to take the boys to school; instead of waiting to go with Ruby, she walked round to the hotel on her own. She paused as she passed the phone box and thought for a moment about ringing Andy, but she decided against it. She’d posted the signed forms back; she would have to wait until he contacted her again.

  At eleven o’clock on the dot, Maggie knocked loudly on the office door and waited, despite the fact that the door was open and she could easily see Ruby sitting behind the desk, which faced the door.

  ‘You know you don’t have to knock if the door’s open,’ Ruby said, resisting the urge to sigh in frustration. ‘Come in and let’s talk. Do you want a drink or a sandwich? Or we could walk along to the cafe and see if it’s open? It’s a nice day.’

  ‘No, thanks, and anyway, it’s not open. It’s not open again until after Christmas.’ Maggie folded her arms and feigned looking out of the window.

  ‘That’s a shame. Well, close the door and let’s talk. I’ve sorted out our work so we can sit here all day if we want. No one will come in, and if they do knock I’ll ignore them.’ Ruby smiled as she stood up and went round to the other side of the desk and sat on one of the upright chairs in the room. ‘I’m pleased you came to talk to me, Maggie. I wasn’t sure if you would.’

  Since the previously tiny office had been extended, there was more room to move around, but it was still a compact space on the ground floor at the front of the hotel with a view out over the promenade and the sea. Johnnie had suggested moving it to the back of the hotel, but Ruby had been adamant. It had been Leonora Wheaton’s office in the original Thamesview Hotel, and she wanted it to stay that way.

  Although the hotel had been expanded from one building to three, which were all interconnected, the heart of the building remained at the original Thamesview. Ruby and Johnnie had turned the property from a small ladies only establishment, which appealed to a niche market, into a family hotel, although the original rooms remained ‘ladies only’ to cater for the long-standing regulars.

  The fact that Ruby loved it so much made Maggie hate it even more.

  With her back upright and her arms still folded in the way Ruby had come to recognize and expect, Maggie perched on the very edge of the chair that was furthest from her, deliberately avoiding any contact. ‘I’m here, but I don’t want to talk all day. I just want my money, then I can go and get on with my life and you can go back to how you were before you were lumbered with me.’

  ‘We’re not lumbered with you, we want you. But hypothetically, if you had the money, where would you go?’ Ruby reasoned, deliberately keeping her tone even. ‘You’re clever and beautiful, but you’ve never had to fend for yourself. How would you do that?’

  ‘Easily, if you hand over my bloody money. For a start, you could chuck the doctor out of my house and I could live there.’

  ‘But you’ve just said you don’t want to go back to Melton, and you’d still have to earn a living as a sixteen year old with no qualifications.’

  ‘No, I didn’t say I didn’t want to go back to Melton. I said I didn’t want to be sent back in disgrace to live like an orphan in the vicarage!’

  Ruby looked sideways at her daughter and, as had happened so often over the previous few months, did her best not to react. She understood Maggie, the girl who was her flesh and blood. She understood her anger, and she ached for her, but she didn’t know how to get through the safety barrier that Maggie had constructed around herself. It seemed that whatever she said or did was wrong. ‘We’ve explained it to you so many times, Maggie. That can’t happen because of the law. The wills were specific, everything is as they wanted, and it’s impossible to change any of it. They’re legal documents—’

  ‘Oh, it’s always the wills,’ Maggie interrupted rudely. ‘But you said yourself that Mum and Dad didn’t really mean it. They were being careful, just in case.’

  ‘Yes, but just in case happened, and that’s how it is. We can talk till the cows come home, and it won’t change. But as I’ve said over and over, if there’s anything you need, you’re our daughter. I know you can’t accept it, and I can see why, but we have to deal with everything as it is, not how we wish it was.’

  As Maggie shook her head and looked down, Ruby could feel the same old helplessness washing over her. She wanted to do the right thing, she wanted help her daughter, but Maggie was as unyielding as a brick wall.

  ‘OK, you can tell me why you think Johnnie wants to send you away, because I find it hard to believe that he’d say that.’

  ‘Are you saying I’m lying?’ Maggie asked.

  ‘No, of course I’m not, but I do know you’re so het up that you could have got the wrong end of the stick.’

  ‘I haven’t got the wrong end of the stick, and I know because he said so to my face … I told you, he wants me to go and live in the vicarage like a homeless orphan. Probably only one step up from Edgar the tramp, who the Hobarts give their leftovers to.’

  ‘I have to admit that it was an option which was talked about because we were desperately trying to find a way of making you happy. You had wanted to stay in Melton, but we thought it’d be best for you to be here with your family … No, don’t interrupt,’ she said quickly as Maggie opened her mouth. ‘We couldn’t all go and live there with you, so it was just an idea. We thought you might want to go back, but it’s not what I want. We are your family, and we always will be, whether you like us or not. I want you here, and so does Johnnie, but we also want you to be happy – and you’re not, are you?’

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t be, would I? What did you expect? If Johnnie didn’t want me to go to the Hobarts, then how come I know about it? He told me all about it.’

  ‘I didn’t expect anything. I never even thought about a situation like this, so we’re all as confused as each other. But as Johnnie and I are the adults in the eyes of the law, we had to do what the law says and abide by Babs’ and George’s wills.’ Ruby paused and looked at her daughter. ‘I’m sorry. All I want is for you to be happy, and for us all to get along together, I really do.’

  Maggie didn’t answer. She simply looked across to the window feigning uninterest, but Ruby knew she was fighting tears. She knew exactly what it was like to be an angry and frustrated sixteen year old in a difficult situation with no way out in sight.

  ‘Maggie, when I was your age I was as unhappy as you are now, so I know how you’re feeling and I’d do anything to make that better, but I can’t turn the clock back and do things differently. I just can’t …’ Ruby resisted the urge to reach out and hug her daughter to her. Instead, she lightly touched her arm and waited, giving Maggie time to hold back her tears and be able to speak.

  ‘You should have told me, they should have told me,’ she said angrily. ‘I’m not me any more, and it’s not bloody fair.’

  ‘I’ve got a suggestion for you. Don’t answer now. Think about it and let me know. I’d like you to come over to Walthamstow with me and meet my mother, your grandmother. I know you said no before, and you were right, it was too soon, but now? You could also meet Betty, Johnnie’s sister. She’s the one in Hornchurch where the boys go and stay sometimes; she used to live just down the road to my family home. It’s where Johnnie lived also.’

  ‘Not a chance! They don’t even know I exist.’

  ‘They didn’t at the time, of course they didn’t, but as we told you, they do now. Think about it. My brothers and their children are best left out of it for the moment; they’d be a bit too much all at once, but just those two. Please?’

  ‘I’ll think about it, but it’ll still be no,’ Maggie said as she stood up. ‘I’m going back to work; you and Johnnie can have another conflab about me and my money.’

  As she walked out, Ruby went over to the window and lo
oked out as she always did when she wanted to think. She thought she may have got through to Maggie just a little, she hoped she had, but she was all too aware that it was going to be a long hard slog for them to get anywhere near the normality they’d all had before the accident.

  After several minutes’ thought, Ruby went out into the hotel lobby. ‘Is Mr Riordan around?’ she asked the decorator, who was stood atop a ladder carefully painting the elaborate coving that stretched through the original areas of the hotel on all floors.

  ‘I saw him out in the garden earlier. He was giving Ed a right old telling off for leaving his ladders and things on the flower bed.’

  ‘I’ll go and find him. If anyone needs me I’ve gone that way, and Ed had better hope the ladders are gone from my precious beds before I get there!’ Ruby laughed.

  The painting was a huge job, and it all had to be done when the hotel was empty of guests, so they had closed the original hotel off completely from the two extensions for the winter.

  Ruby and Johnnie had stretched themselves to their financial limit when they had bought the third adjoining property the previous year, and the house where they all lived was fully mortgaged, but the business was doing well and they were looking to the future rather than the present. Ruby was determined not to use anything that the Wheatons had left her until the day Maggie could access hers, which was another bone of contention between her and Johnnie. He wanted her to invest it in the hotel, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it – not while things were as they were with Maggie. Ruby was starting to think that life was once again conspiring against her.

  She walked out through the main building to the garden and found Johnnie standing with his hands on his hips, looking through the arch in the wall that led to another part of the garden.

  ‘Hello darling,’ she said as she walked up behind him and put her hands on his waist. ‘I hear you’ve been having a go at Ed … Poor bloke, he’s a good painter, but not that sharp. I hope you weren’t too hard on him.’