by Pam Weaver
Especially Ruby and the child Maggie. The usurpers.
Twenty
Wanstead
Johnnie Riordan frowned as he reread the words on the postcard and then turned it over several times, scrutinising it carefully. He was looking for a clue but he didn’t recognise the handwriting and the Southend postmark meant nothing to him. But there was no denying it was meant for him.
He was bemused, but also grateful to his sister for handing it to him when they were alone. However, he also didn’t want to react to it in front of her.
‘What do you make of it, Johnnie?’ Betty asked as he stood, deep in thought, with the postcard in his hand. ‘Do you think Ruby sent it to you?’
‘No, that’s not what she’d do. If she wanted to contact me after all this time she would have gone to the house.’
‘But you don’t live there any more.’
Johnnie laughed. ‘You know that and I know that, but Ruby doesn’t. No, I know trouble, and this just reeks of someone trying to stir something up. Ray Blakeley maybe? He’d love to drop me in it now I’m his boss,’ he laughed. ‘God, how he hates that.’
‘But in that case he’d be dropping himself in it as well. Is he that dim?’
‘Well, maybe it’s someone trying to drop Ruby in it, then. Oh, I don’t know and I don’t care. Ruby was someone I felt sorry for. She was different, and I liked that, but she must have wanted to disappear off the face of the earth and she did.’ He looked at it again and smiled. ‘At least we know she’s alive. I had wondered if Ray had done her in.’
‘Have you ever asked Ray about her? I mean, you don’t know why she disappeared. Maybe he does.’
Johnnie laughed. He was just about to tell her about talking to Ruby’s grandmother but decided against it. ‘No, I wouldn’t ask him and raise his suspicions. No, Ruby’s of no interest to me any more and I don’t know why anyone would think she would be. I’m certainly not going to do anything about it.’
‘Pleased to hear it!’ Betty said. ‘But I had to give it to you because it’s addressed to you. Best to just tear it into tiny pieces and forget it ever came. You know what Sadie can be like.’
‘Yeah, I know all right. She’d have my guts for garters and a belt before I even finished explaining the whys and wherefores. She’d never believe it was nothing to do with me.’
‘It’s because she loves you. She just goes about it all wrong.’
‘I know, but she doesn’t trust me and that’s damned frustrating.’
‘Well, that’s Sadie! Where is she now? Did you tell her I was coming over?’
‘Taken the kids to the park. You know how she is about you. And Ma. She thinks I love you both more than I love her.’
He shrugged and smiled, as did his sister. Neither said anything but they both knew that actually Sadie was right. He didn’t love his wife as much as he should. In fact, he didn’t love Sadie at all. It was a marriage of convenience on his side. But he didn’t feel guilty about it. He treated her properly and provided well for her and their two small sons so she had no legitimate cause to complain.
Betty had caught the bus from Walthamstow to Wanstead to visit her beloved brother at his house just one street away from where Bill Morgan, his employer, who was now also his landlord, lived. Betty had tried to warn him against putting all his eggs in one basket but Johnnie Riordan’s ambitions and the promise of a promotion at work and a nice house for him and Sadie to start married life in had cancelled out any concerns.
After his last attempt to find Ruby had ended in failure he’d simply put her to the back of his mind. He’d had feelings for her that he’d never had for anyone before or since, but he was sensible enough to bury them and put all his energy into his ambitions to better himself. And he had done that very successfully, though he had had to sacrifice most of his independence and cosy up with Bill Morgan, the owner of the Black Dog and the man who had bought all the businesses in Blacksmiths Lane from his rival David Collins.
Bill Morgan had put Johnnie in charge of overseeing them all, along with collecting the rents on some of his other investments, effectively making him Ray and Bobbie Blakeley’s boss.
Johnnie had enjoyed the irony but at the same time had tried to be fair to them, and as soon as he’d dropped the bombshell that he was going to be in charge he’d increased their wages a little. But he’d also closed off their black-market skulduggery, which he’d had the advantage of knowing all about, and the Blakeley Brothers were caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. If they wanted to keep their jobs they had to be legal.
Pleased not to have to work behind the bar at the Black Dog any longer, Johnnie Riordan threw himself into his new job with gusto. He loved it but the downside was that, as a condition of employment and a higher-than-average wage, he had to accept Bill’s rule of iron. Not only did he have to work extra-long hours, he also had to bow to Bill Morgan’s matchmaking skills and, against his better judgement and his sister’s advice, marry Sadie Scully, whom Bill adored in a paternal way.
Nine months later she’d given birth to his first son, Martin, and less than a year after to his second, Paul. Johnnie adored his little sons, but he knew they’d come along so quickly because Sadie wanted to ensure he was totally tied to her.
‘So, do I get a cuppa from my little brother then? Or do you want me gone before Sadie gets back and throws another pink fit?’ Betty ruffled her brother’s hair affectionately.
‘Get off,’ he laughed. ‘I’ll put the kettle on. And I want you to stay and see the boys, whatever Sadie says. Silly cow that she is …’
‘I don’t want to cause a fight but I would like to see my nephews. We all want to see them so you must bring them over. How about tea on Sunday? Ma’s coming to stay for a few days so she’ll be there to see them as well.’
‘That sounds nice. Tea on Sunday. I’ll tell Sadie. We both know she’ll say no but she can like it or lump it.’
Betty laughed lightly and looked at her brother for a few seconds before speaking.
‘Johnnie, I know things are different now, and I really hate to ask, but is there any chance of some work for Roger? He’s driving me mad, under my feet all day doing nothing. Money is really tight.’
‘I’ll see what I can do. How do you think he’d feel about helping in the pub as a potman? I know he gets touchy but it’d bring in a bit.’ He took his sister’s hand. ‘You know I’ll always help out, always. You just have to ask …’
‘No, Johnnie. If you can find something for Roger that’s wonderful, but I don’t want handouts, really.’
At that moment they heard the front door open. Johnnie went out to the hall to help Sadie with the double Silver Cross pram, a present from Bill Morgan when the second baby was born. It was Sadie’s pride and joy.
‘Shouldn’t you be working?’ she said angrily as she pushed the pram down the hallway without looking at him.
‘Not yet. Betty’s here. I told you she was coming over this morning.’
He gave her a warning look but it made no difference. It worried him that Sadie was always so angry but he just didn’t have time to pander to her jealousies. Every day it was something different. He’d been accused of having affairs with every woman he came into contact with, even the old woman who helped out cleaning the pub.
‘Well, my boys are sound asleep and I’m not going to let her wake them, the interfering old cow.’
With that she pushed the pram into the room and sharply pulled the door shut.
‘Our boys, thank you very much, but that’s OK, we’re all going over there for tea on Sunday so she can see them then. And their cousins want to see them as well. Ma’s going to be there,’ Johnnie smiled, keeping his voice calm. He didn’t want Sadie having a go at his sister, but at the same time he wasn’t going to let Sadie undermine him.
‘No we’re not.’
‘We are. Now get in there and be civil to Betty.’
His tone meant Sadie did exactly as she was told, albei
t with bad grace.
Two years older than Johnnie Riordan, Sadie was big in size and personality with masses of platinum-blonde hair. She was only five foot three, but she always wore high heels, pinned her thick hair up high with combs, and wore full make-up every single day. It was all of this, combined with her favourite fitted outfits, that had made her the perfect barmaid and Bill Morgan’s favourite. In his eyes she could do no wrong, a situation of which she took full advantage and of which Johnnie was wary. But Bill Morgan had never really seen the demanding, selfish side of Sadie, the same side that was jealous and volatile. Johnnie had never seen that side either until after they’d tied the knot and he had no way of backing out.
She always controlled herself in public; she was the epitome of the jolly bubbly blonde barmaid and was like an affectionate puppy in front of Bill, but one wrong word at the wrong moment from Johnnie in private and she could fly like a banshee, attacking him verbally and physically.
‘I’m going to give Betty a lift home and then I’ve got to go straight to see Bill at the pub. I’ll be late tonight so put my dinner in the oven and kiss the boys good night from me.’
Sadie ignored Betty completely and glared at her husband, her face enveloped in a sulk.
‘Late again? Surprise, surprise. Anything rather than come home to your family. Who is it going to be tonight?’
‘Don’t be stupid. You know what Bill’s like: business has to be done in the Dog. He thinks that’s his office and it’s open until closing time.’ He kissed her on the cheek. ‘See you later, I’ll try not to wake you.’
He ushered Betty out of the door before Sadie could respond, but they both heard the bang as something she’d thrown down the hallway hit the front door.
‘I don’t envy you going home tonight!’ Betty grinned as they got into the car that was also owned by Bill Morgan.
After he dropped his sister off at her home Johnnie started to head back to Blacksmiths Lane to check on the units, but on the spur of the moment he decided to take a detour. He turned and drove into Walthamstow High Street, parked the car and walked straight to the park where he and Ruby had gone after they had got back from Melton.
The park where he’d made love to Ruby Blakeley the one and only time.
He walked over to an empty bench and sat down plumb in the middle to try to avoid anyone coming to sit next to him. Leaning back he closed his eyes.
He counted back and guessed it would have been about six years before … six years, and such a lot had happened since then, but sitting there it seemed as if it was only the day before.
He knew the minute they’d both stood up and straightened their clothes that he’d done the wrong thing. He hadn’t planned or expected it, but at the time he’d been carried away by both Ruby and the circumstances. He could see he’d taken advantage of her but it hadn’t seemed like that at the time.
The visit to Melton had opened Johnnie’s eyes to life away from the London he’d lived in all his life and it had also shown him Ruby in different surroundings. It had all been so exciting that, for the first time in his ruthless young life, he’d let his heart rule his head. She was a sixteen-year-old virgin and he was three years older, and already well experienced, courtesy of Sadie Scully. It was wrong and he knew his sister would have been horrified if she’d ever found out.
The train journey home that had seemed so romantic, the smell of her shiny clean hair when she leaned on his shoulder, walking in through the park gates holding hands, the first kiss, the anticipation … he could remember it all so clearly. But then not long afterwards, just as he’d started to think they could have a future together, just as she’d started to intrude into his thoughts all the time, she’d disappeared. But at the same time so had his guilt, because he had no constant reminder of his foolhardy behaviour.
Ruby Blakeley had become a pleasant memory.
He pulled the postcard out of his pocket and studied it. He had no intention of following up on this information – he had a wife and two children and a good job with Bill Morgan – but he still couldn’t help wondering again about her. What she looked like, what she was doing, and what had gone wrong. He wondered why she was apparently living in a hotel when she’d gone off to be a nurse, whether she was married, if she had any children. He smiled nostalgically as he remembered the young girl who had fascinated him from the first moment he’d seen her sitting on her suitcase at the bottom of the street, and then disappeared just as he was falling in love with her.
Suddenly fearful of the feelings that one simple card had reawakened in him, he tore it into several pieces and almost ceremoniously dropped it in a nearby rubbish bin. Then he went back to his car and drove away.
Johnnie Riordan was living a good life, and as long as he stayed on the right side of Bill Morgan and did his bidding without question it could only get better.
Now all he had to do was forget what he’d read and stay away from Ruby Blakeley.
Twenty-One
‘You own the bleeding hotel? She’s left it all to you? Oh, dear God in Heaven, what a shock! Not that you don’t deserve it, but blimey, that’s some inheritance. I thought you were going to say she’d given you the car or her fur coat or something, but the whole fucking hotel?’
Gracie was happily incredulous as Ruby finally shared the news with her. The solicitor had headed off back to his office and the Wheatons had left for Melton, so Ruby and Gracie were alone for the first time. It had been prearranged that there would be no dinner provision that evening and the few guests that were there had either gone out or to their rooms after the funeral tea, giving the two women time to sit down and discuss the turn of events.
‘I couldn’t tell you until after the formal reading of the will. I wanted to but … anyway, I’ve also got a reserve fund in case it all goes wrong. I suppose she knew I wouldn’t be able to cope …’
The tears started to well up again as she thought about Leonora, the woman who didn’t like the dark, spending her first night all alone in the churchyard. Ruby had thought about putting her precious binoculars in the coffin, but she couldn’t bring herself to part with them so instead she’d placed inside the ragdoll that Leonora had kept on her bed and a postcard of a cruise liner that one of her lady guests had sent her from India several years before.
‘I know I should be pleased about the hotel,’ Ruby sniffed, ‘but I feel so bad that this is all because she died. And I’m so scared. It’s all beyond me, really. I don’t know if I can manage it. I wish George and Babs were nearer.’
‘Of course you can manage. You’ve been doing it for years already,’ Gracie tried to reassure her.
‘Yes but with Aunt Leonora watching over me like a hawk and jumping when I did something wrong. Doing it on my own is going to be a different kettle of fish, that’s certain.’
She looked at Gracie sitting beside her in the cramped office that had always been such an oasis of calm, but had seen so much action in the past couple of weeks. It wasn’t a small room but it was full to capacity. The desk was old and creaky, and at an angle, with a chair either side, placed so that Leonora could see the view from the window and also into the lobby when the door was open. A floor-to-ceiling bookcase was crammed into an alcove and weighed down with folders and files and everything to do with the hotel. Aside from a couple of extra chairs tucked in the corner there was nothing else. It was Leonora’s little kingdom and Ruby felt uncomfortable being in there without her, even though she had been many times before.
‘I know I’ve been helping here, but there’s so much to learn. I mean, look at all those files and things. I don’t know what’s in most of them.’
‘Easy-peasy! You already know it all, even if you don’t think you do. One step at time …’ Gracie smiled. ‘You’ve got a solicitor and an accountant to help you, as well as Babs and George.’
‘Can I ask you something? Uncle George agrees that I need someone to help me so I was wondering, would you come and work here properly? If yo
u did my old job then I might muddle through doing the rest. But I can understand if you don’t want to,’ Ruby added quickly, not wanting to put Gracie on the spot. ‘I know the Palace is big and lively, and you’ve got lots of friends there. It can be as dead as a dodo here out of season. In season too, sometimes.’ She laughed nervously, desperately wanting Gracie to say yes.
Gracie didn’t answer straight away. Instead she started chewing around the edge of her fingers, the way she always did when she was nervous. ‘I’ll have to think about that one. I love helping out here but I don’t know if I’d go nuts being here all the time. It’s a bit sort of grim sometimes when Leonora’s ladies are demanding stuff and nonsense.’
‘Listen, Gracie, don’t worry about it. I don’t want my question to make you feel put on the spot,’ Ruby said quickly, panicking that she might push Gracie away completely, ‘but some ideas might help me. There are some things I want to change. I suggested some changes to Aunt Leonora ages ago but she was having none of it. But I can’t do anything just yet. It would be disrespectful.’
‘I know what you mean, but do you know what I think?’ Gracie jumped up and marched on the spot. ‘I think we should go for a walk and talk about it; we both need some fresh air. You look dead on your feet.’
‘I can’t in case Ray comes back.’
‘I thought you didn’t want anything to do with any of them.’
‘I didn’t, I don’t … Oh, I don’t know. I suppose it’s because Aunt Leonora died so suddenly it made me think about my mother and grandmother. It would be nice just to know how everyone is, even if I never go back there.’
‘Are you going to tell him about the hotel?’
‘Not a bloody chance. The boys’ll be on the doorstep in a flash, looking for free holidays!’
As they both laughed so Henry, the occasional night porter, who’d come in early to help out, knocked on the door.
‘Someone here for you.’