by Pam Weaver
As she stood up Babs Wheaton smiled at Ruby. ‘This is going to be a challenge for you, but I know you’re capable and we’ll be there to help.’
While George, Babs and Ruby had been up in the flat talking through the details of Leonora’s will, Derek Yardley had walked along the seafront, taking in the air and looking for a postbox. When he got back to the hotel he crossed the road, sat on a nearby bench and, almost in a trance, watched the world go by.
He watched the mix of people walking along the promenade, some with dogs on leads, others with babies in prams, elderly couples arm in arm just taking the sea air. Despite a chill in the air there were children and adults alike paddling in the sea, absolutely caught up in the moment and savouring the freedom from everyday life. It was so peaceful, and he leaned back on the bench and imagined himself living there in the comfort of a seafront property with perfect views and the bustling social life of the town just up the road.
A picture-postcard place to live.
And now Miss Ruby Blakeley, the snivelling little evacuee kid, was not only going to live there on Wheaton money, his permanently listening ears told him that she was going to own the whole hotel.
He wondered how long she had been living there and he also wondered why. Something just wasn’t right about the whole situation, but he couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. He sat there and seethed with resentment and anger. The anger was, however, tempered a little by the knowledge that Ruby Blakeley had a couple of shocks in store.
Deep in thought and warmed by the sun, he was annoyed when he saw Babs Wheaton appear on the steps and look across at him. As she waved so he stood up, carefully straightened his uniform, fixed a neutral expression on his face and walked back over the road to the hotel where the car was parked.
Once again he manipulated George Wheaton’s wheelchair into the boot of the car and then followed the directions that took them to the line of shops and offices on Thorpe Bay Broadway. During the short drive he made a point of catching Ruby’s eye in the rear-view mirror as often as he could. His expression was neutral but he made sure she knew he was watching her and he enjoyed the power he could see he had over her.
On the way back he again looked at Ruby and could almost feel her discomfort, her desire to get away from him. That annoyed him, so as she climbed out of the car back at the hotel he caught her eye once again, gave a sly smile and winked. She pretended not to notice but the tiny action was somehow so sinister it took her breath away.
‘Well, we have to go shortly, darling. It’s a long drive, as you know,’ Babs Wheaton smiled as they all went back inside. ‘But I’m pleased Gracie is staying with you. She’s a lovely girl and you’re lucky to have her as a friend. And vice versa, of course.’
‘I know. I love her dearly. I don’t know how I’d get on without her, especially without Aunt Leonora.’ Again the tears filled Ruby’s eyes. ‘I never really thanked her for all she did for me …’
‘She knew how you felt, and she felt the same about you. The best way to thank her is to take care of her hotel from now on in, to look after her gift to you. Now a quick cuppa and then we’ll be off and we’ll see you on funeral day. George will make all the arrangements but if you have any suggestions then ring us.’
As they left, Ruby avoided any more contact with Yardley. She was aware of him trying to catch her eye but she was determined not to let it happen again. She wasn’t going to let him overshadow her mourning of Leonora Wheaton.
Nineteen
When Ruby opened the curtains on the morning of Leonora’s funeral she was relieved to see a perfect sunny day dawning. There wasn’t a cloud in the bright blue sky, the waters of the Thames Estuary were mill-pond calm, and Leonora’s favourite view was as clear as it could be.
Purely by chance the high tide peaked as the funeral cortège pulled away from the hotel. Ruby looked out of the car window as the hearse moved slowly along the seafront and smiled sadly, pleased that it was so perfect as Leonora Wheaton left her beloved hotel for the very last time.
It had been a strange few days as Ruby tried to come to terms with both Leonora’s death and her will. Such extremes of good and bad.
George and Babs had had to go back to Melton because of both the surgery and Maggie, but Gracie had been staying at the flat with Ruby. They had both been rushed off their feet, which stopped Ruby thinking too much, and it had also made it easier for her to sidetrack all conversation about the future of the hotel. She had nearly given in a few times, but in the end she told no-one, as George and Babs had asked. But she was waiting impatiently for the moment after the funeral and the formal reading of the will when she could. She hated having secrets from Gracie.
The moving service in the local church and the burial in the pretty churchyard outside passed in a blur, but the saddest moment for Ruby was travelling back to the hotel without Leonora. It didn’t seem right.
Gracie McCabe had stayed behind and laid out the funeral tea in the dining room at the back of the hotel and, dressed from head to toe in respectful black, was standing waiting at the door as the mourners arrived back, pointing everyone in the right direction. There had been a good turnout at the church and everyone who attended had been invited back to the reception.
As Ruby went in, Gracie took her hand. ‘How are you?’ she whispered.
‘I don’t know really. I need to talk to you after all this. The solicitor will be here soon and then I can tell you everything …’
‘So you know what’s going to happen then?’
‘Yes, but I can’t say anything until after the formal stuff. I’ll tell you later, I promise!’
Gracie was doing a good job of co-ordinating the food and also managing the reception desk, while Ruby and the Wheatons circulated amid the sea of black clothes and sad faces. Many were members of the church where Leonora had been a regular on Sundays, along with any of the hotel guests who had wanted to attend the service.
It was over an hour later, and most of the mourners were still there when Gracie came into the room and whispered to Ruby, ‘There’s a bloke in the lobby asking for you, Ruby. He says he’s—’
‘That’ll be the solicitor,’ Ruby interrupted. ‘He’s here for the formal reading of the will.’
‘No it isn’t. I think it’s your brother Ray out there. Well, he said he is! What do you want me to do with him?’
Ruby nearly passed out on the spot.
‘Oh dear God! Ray? How do you know it’s Ray? What did he say?’
‘Just that his name’s Ray and that he’s your brother. He’s insisting on seeing you. I told him there was a funeral reception going on but he just laughed.’
Tony had been watching the interchange and, sensing something was up, came straight across the room to stand beside Ruby. Although he hadn’t been at the funeral he had walked along to the reception to pay his respects.
‘Problem?’ he asked as he placed a hand in the centre of Ruby’s back protectively.
‘Nothing we can’t handle,’ Gracie smiled.
‘My brother has turned up out of the blue. He’s in the lobby waiting for me,’ Ruby said.
‘I didn’t know you were in contact with your family. Do you want me to turf him out?’ Tony asked.
‘I don’t know what to do. How did he find me?’
‘You tell me …’ he asked, looking at her suspiciously.
But as he spoke, so the familiar figure of Ray appeared in the doorway with his hands in his pockets and a huge grin on his face. He was slightly more rounded and his face was puffy and pasty, but there was no denying it was him.
‘Hello, Rube. What’s holding you up? Ain’t you pleased to see your big brother?’
As Ruby looked at him her heart started to beat faster. Ray Blakeley, her brother. So much flashed through her mind in a few seconds that she couldn’t keep track. She guessed that was what it must be like to have your life flash past your eyes.
His voice was loud enough to stop all conversation in
the dining room, but as everyone turned in the direction of the loud voice George wheeled himself over with Babs by his side and a confident smile on his face.
‘Well, I never.’ Ray laughed out loud. ‘Uncle George and Aunty Babs, the child stealers! I knew you were behind our Rube disappearing, you lying bastards.’ He shook his head and laughed. ‘Still, I love a family party. Is there a drink for me? I mean, I’m family, aren’t I?’
‘This is a private reception. We’ve just come from my sister’s funeral so, I’m sorry, but I have to tell you you’re not welcome.’
‘OK, I’ll wait out there in that fancy great armchair and cause a bit of a rumpus. I can always talk to some of the posh bints I’ve seen hanging around looking a bit lost.’
‘You have no right to be here, Ray. Now please show some respect. I’ve told you, this is my sister’s funeral.’ George said quietly.
‘And I just want to speak to my sister,’ Ray said.
‘It’s OK,’ Ruby said quickly, aware of the potential for trouble, ‘I’ll talk to him. I don’t want a scene in front of everyone.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Tony said with a wide fake smile and a very slight flexing of his shoulders that he knew Ray Blakeley would understand. ‘Just to support you.’
‘No, Tony, I don’t need any help. I can deal with Ray – he’s my brother.’
Ruby was in shock but she had no intention of letting anyone know how she was feeling, especially Ray. She couldn’t believe that he had found her, let alone turned up on the day of the funeral, and just before the formal reading of the will. She had to get rid of him before Leonora’s solicitor arrived with all the documents. She could only imagine what would happen if her family found out about her inheritance.
‘Come on then, come through to the office,’ she said to Ray. Then she leaned over George’s wheelchair as if to push him. Hardly moving her mouth she whispered, ‘When the solicitor comes take him straight through to the lounge and shut the door. I won’t be long.’
High heels clacking sharply on the tiled floor, she marched straight across the small lobby to the office, with Ray right behind her, but despite his inimitable swagger he looked unsettled out of his own environment and in his sister’s. The last time they’d been together she had been young, scared, secretly pregnant and about to run away. As she looked at him she realised that for the first time ever she had the upper hand over her brother. She was on home ground whereas he was on unfamiliar territory and among total strangers.
‘Take a seat.’ She pointed to a bucket chair near the door and, needing the security of a barrier between them, walked round and sat behind the desk.
‘Very important, Rube. I’m impressed,’ Ray smiled.
‘What do you want, Ray? I’m not really sure why you’re here.’
‘Because you’re my sister. Because you ran off without a word and left Ma and Nan worried sick, not to mention Robbie and Art. Ma thought you’d probably been done in up north; me and the boys thought you were probably on the game somewhere.’ He laughed but she didn’t react. Ruby knew he was only baiting her.
‘Not a thought for any of us, had you? And as for Mr and Mrs High and Mighty declaring with a straight face they didn’t have a clue …’
Ruby smiled. ‘They were helping me, being kind to me. They really cared about me, which is more than can be said for my real family. What a sorry tale you’re telling, but none of you had any thought for me when you were treating me worse than a stray alley cat. Still, that’s in the past. Done. Forgotten. So why are you really here? I don’t understand. How did you know where I was?’
Ray Blakeley crossed his legs, folded his arms and smiled.
‘A little bird told me!’ he said. ‘Now I’m asking how you came to be here. I thought you ran off to be Florence Nightingale and tend to the sick. Now, as far as I can see, you’re a waitress to Lord and Lady Muck out there.’
Ruby ignored his dig, happy to realise that he no longer had any power or control over her. ‘Are any of the family with you? Is everyone OK?’ Ruby asked.
‘Bit late to be asking that, Rube, after all this time not bothering.’ He frowned. ‘But you’re not telling me what all the bloody Wheatons are doing here. What are you doing here? They told Ma they didn’t know where you were and now it’s all happy families beside the seaside.’
‘It’s their hotel and I work here.’ Ruby lied easily. ‘But now I have to get back to the funeral, so if you’re done …’
‘Any messages for anyone?’ he grinned.
‘No. I’m sure you’ll tell them everything.’ She stopped. ‘Just remember me to them. I missed Ma and Nan. Is Nan still OK?’
‘Same as she was, but older and deafer.’
As she stood up so did Ray, but the angry attitude she knew so well just wasn’t there in the same way now; he was all bluster. She walked beside him to the doors and then out onto the steps.
‘I’ll be back, you know. You don’t escape us that easily.’
His words were thrown angrily at her, but as he turned away she noticed something in his expression, something she’d never seen before. Ray Blakeley looked vulnerable. She looked at him closely and noticed that his clothes were very well worn, and there was a sad, dishevelled air about him. He looked like a chubby neglected version of the Ray she remembered so well.
Something had happened to change him.
She suddenly remembered him sitting on the side of his bed, beaten to a pulp and scared witless by Johnnie Riordan.
Something was wrong with her brother. He’d given in far too easily. As she watched him make his way down the steps she noticed for the first time that he had a limp.
‘Ray, wait!’ she called. He turned on the pavement outside. ‘How did you get here?’
‘On the train.’
‘Just to come and see me? I’m flattered,’ she smiled.
‘Don’t kid yourself. I came with someone else. I’m meeting ’em back in the pub up the road.’
‘I have to finish with the funeral, but come back later if you want.’ She looked at her watch. ‘At five o’clock, for some tea before you go home.’
His eyes narrowed with suspicion. ‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe because a funeral focuses the mind, maybe because you’re family – I don’t know – maybe because I’d like you to. But it’s up to you.’
Overwhelmed with guilt she walked back into the hotel, feeling so very unhappy. It was all too much for one day.
‘You have to go through,’ George said as she went back in. ‘Babs has taken Mr Wallington to the lounge but time’s getting on and we have to get back. I’m sorry Ray turned up today of all days. How did he find you?’
‘He said someone told him, but I can’t imagine who.’ She walked back to the door and looked out. There was no sign of him.
‘I know it’s distressing having Ray appear out of the blue like that, but we’ll talk about it properly later: first we must do the legalities.’
‘What legalities are those?’ Tony asked. Ruby had forgotten he was there.
‘I’ll tell you later.’
‘Do you need me there for you?’
‘No, I bloody don’t!’ she snapped. ‘I’m perfectly capable. Now just let me do what I have to do … please.’
Tony stared at her for a few seconds, his frown so fierce his eyebrows were nearly touching, and for a split second Ruby felt nervous, but then he just turned on his heel and walked out of the hotel.
‘Now you’ve done it,’ Gracie said.
‘Oh, I don’t care right now. But don’t you go, will you? I have to talk to you as soon as I come down from this meeting. Can you keep an eye out for Ray? I don’t want him to know what’s going on.’ She pulled a face. ‘I told him to come back in two hours for his tea …’
‘Well, he is family, I suppose,’ Gracie said. ‘I can understand it, but I don’t think Tony-me-laddo will if he gets wind of it!’
Leaning against the wall outside, D
erek Yardley was trying hard not to react. With his arms folded across his chest and with one foot crossed over the other he watched as best he could as the events unfolded. He’d never expected to be lucky enough to be a spectator when it all hit the fan, and it amused him especially that Ray Blakeley had unwittingly timed his entrance to perfection.
He couldn’t hear everything that was being said so he moved a little closer and tried to read the various faces as everyone stood in the lobby.
When he’d driven George and Babs down to Southend earlier in the week Derek Yardley had been his usual invisible self in the driver’s seat as they talked discreetly about the situation, but it didn’t matter. For once he had felt strong and powerful and that was because he knew what he had in his jacket.
He’d kept his old feelings of inadequacy and rejection under control for so long, but the confrontation with Ruby and then the news of her inheritance had brought it all back. Once again he was the sickly worthless child no one cared for or noticed.
He’d parked the car and gone for a walk around the block until he’d found a pillar box. He pulled two already written plain postcards out of his pocket and kissed them happily before posting them in the box with a flourish. That would teach her.
‘You’ll find RUBY BLAKELEY at: The Thamesview Hotel, Eastern Esplanade, Thorpe Bay, Essex.’
One postcard was addressed to Ray Blakeley and the other to Johnnie Riordan.
Ray walked out of the hotel and Yardley had just moved to follow him when Babs Wheaton called to him, ‘Don’t go anywhere, Yardley. We’ve got to leave very shortly. Come through to the kitchen, there’s a plate for you.’
Yardley cursed under his breath but turned back obediently. Firstly, he really wanted to talk to Ray Blakeley, and secondly, he hated being sent to the kitchen while Madam Ruby flounced round importantly having meetings with solicitors.
A plate for you. How he hated those words. They summed up everything that he hated about his treatment.
He loved both George and Babs Wheaton, who had done so much for him during his many years with them. He loved them so much he would gladly kill for them, but he hated everyone else in their lives.