Ruby (26 page)

‘I’d like to see Nan. She won’t be around for ever and she was the one who encouraged me to get away else I might still be there, but I’d never be close to the others.’

She thought about telling Gracie what Ray had said about Johnnie Riordan but then decided it was best left. The less she discussed it, the easier it was to forget again.

‘Have you thought about my offer?’ she asked Gracie to change the subject.

‘Sort of, but I’m not sure, Rube. I’ll think about it and let you know. Hey, your mate Tony’ll have a breakdown when he finds out about you having the hotel and him not being involved. He was desperate to give you advice! Are you going to tell him?’

‘Not straight away. You’re right, he’ll want to give me advice and I’d like to keep this separate from my love life. No, let’s keep it between you and me. I’ll just let him think the same as Ray – that I’m managing it for Uncle George.’

Ruby strolled slowly along the seafront until she got to the steps and then walked down onto the beach. The tide was on its way out so just before she reached the soft damp mud she quickly slipped off her sandals and walked barefoot, feeling the mud seep between her toes. She loved the early mornings on the beach, especially when she needed to think in peace. She was wearing her favourite shirt dress with a full skirt, which she gathered up in her hands like a child to avoid getting mud on the hem. It was early morning and hardly anyone was around to notice the tall attractive redhead holding her skirt up around her thighs while she waded up to her ankles in the mud.

She had decided that much as she had loved Leonora she had no intention of following her overly formal dress code to work, so she just wore her normal clothes, albeit the ones that were unobtrusive and looked professional. That morning, knowing the accountant was scheduled for a long, complicated visit, she’d chosen her favourite pale green dress with three-quarter-length sleeves and an open shirt collar that stood up high against the back of her neck and flattered her pinned-up auburn hair. Her stockings and beige court shoes were laid out in the bedroom for when she got back to the hotel.

She loved the beach and the proximity of the sea. Like Leonora before her, she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else now; she would even sit out on the balcony as Leonora had with her beloved binoculars up to her eyes and watch ships and boats sailing by, especially when the tide was up and the fishing boats were making their way either in or out. To her mind it was the perfect place to live. The only difference was that Ruby knew that one day she would sail on one of the cruise liners that headed out to sea via the Thames Estuary, whereas Aunt Leonora had never got the chance.

It had been four months since Leonora Wheaton had died and Ruby had settled into her new working routine far more easily that she had expected. Gracie had dithered for only a few days before agreeing to work for her, and they shared the flat on the top floor. But while the two young women were still close friends and worked well together, each had her own social life. Ruby had very little spare time but most of what she did have she spent with Tony Alfredo, while Gracie still spent time with her old friends from the Palace, especially Sean, to whom she’d started to grow close, against all the odds. He was now the head porter and although he’d had other girlfriends over the years, and Gracie had not been especially nice to him, he still held out for her and it made her think far more kindly towards him.

As she turned to start walking back Ruby saw Tony standing on the steps from the Promenade, watching her. He was dressed casually in slacks and a white V-necked cricket sweater over an open-necked shirt. There wasn’t a hair out of place on his head. Tony Alfredo always looked immaculate.

‘Take your shoes off and come and join me!’ Ruby shouted.

‘Not likely,’ Tony shouted back. ‘It’s too filthy for me.’

‘It’s good for you. Mud is all the rage nowadays. Very healing.’

He smiled as she padded back to the steps where she’d left a small towel and a child’s bright orange beach bucket full of water. She tucked her skirt up so she was sitting on her knickers and carefully rinsed the mud off her feet before drying them and putting her sandals back on.

‘You look like a naughty child sitting there like that, not very ladylike at all,’ Tony said with a smile on his face and just a hint of criticism in his voice.

‘Better than going back covered in mud. Leonora’s ladies would not be amused, I can tell you.’ She smiled. ‘Anyway, what are you doing down the beach this early on a weekday? Haven’t you got a job to go to?’

‘I’ve got a day off and I came looking for you. I promised to do the café books for my father but I thought I’d see if you’d like to come for coffee and cake there before I start. Gracie told me you were over here,’ he said calmly, expertly covering his real feelings about Ruby’s friend. ‘Papà’s been complaining he doesn’t see enough of you now that uncle of yours is working you into the ground.’

‘He’s not working me into the ground, I’m doing it myself. I really want this to be a success and I’ve got lots of ideas.’

‘Well, come over to the café and you can tell me all about them. I’m interested.’

Ruby still hadn’t told Tony about her true role at the hotel. She hadn’t lied, she just hadn’t elaborated on her previous generalisation that she was going to carry on working there. She wanted to be honest and open with him but was aware that his personality would make it impossible for him not to interfere so she continued to let him think that George Wheaton owned the hotel and she was managing it for him. It was just easier that way.

Ruby stuffed the towel into the bucket and they walked along the promenade together to the café.

‘Oh, Ruby, Ruby, where have you been, my beautiful one? It’s been so long …’ Mr Alfredo ran over to her with his arms outstretched. ‘Tony tells me you are working too hard, too hard for a beautiful young woman. You should have a man to take care of you.’

‘I’m very well, thank you. I am working hard but I enjoy it. Just like you and Mrs Aldredo enjoy your café.’

‘But Mrs Alfredo has me to work beside her. You are all alone in that hotel with so many women. There’s no one to appreciate you. You must let my boy help you.’

‘That’s enough flattery, Papà,’ Tony said firmly. ‘We’re here to have morning coffee, not to have a lecture on the joys of working together.’ He looked at Ruby. ‘Shall we have the table in the window?’ he asked, but the decision was already taken.

‘I shall bring your order over. You two go and sit, talk, enjoy …’

Ruby was never sure exactly how much of Mr Alfredo’s Italian lilt was exaggerated but he always made her smile with his extravagant compliments and hand waving. She envied Tony his besotted parents, but sometimes, when he was being mean, she wondered at how they had overindulged him. In their eyes he could do no wrong, and he had grown up thinking exactly the same. He was supremely confident in himself and his abilities, to the extent that it never occurred to him he could be wrong or that someone could disagree with him. But it was also that confidence that made him so good at his job.

Tony Alfredo was always the perfect companion when they went out together and Ruby enjoyed his company. He would take her to nice restaurants and dances, and sometimes to the theatre in London. He was charming and intelligent, and always immaculately turned out; the perfect gentleman who could always make her laugh and feel special. However, just occasionally, when she disagreed with him, he could turn in a flash from being a suave and sophisticated young man into a sulky and spoiled child with a bad temper.

‘You were going to tell me about your plans,’ Tony said.

‘I have to talk it through with Uncle George but I want to change the hotel. I don’t want it to be ladies only any more. That’s so old-fashioned now. I think we should open it up for couples. It’d earn more if there were two people in every room, and if we didn’t do dinners—’

‘I suppose Gracie’s behind this,’ he interrupted.

‘It’s nothing to do with Gracie. Surely you don’t think I’m so silly that I’d do something I didn’t agree with on the say-so of someone else?’ She smiled as she spoke because she could see Mr Alfredo looking over at them, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

‘I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Ruby. Thamesview is well known. It has a good reputation and many of the guests come back year after year. I bet Leonora Wheaton had to struggle to build it up again after the war. You’d lose all that. You’ll end up like every other seaside boarding house along this stretch of the esplanade.’

Ruby took a sip from her drink, unsure where the conversation was going. She’d expected Tony to be all for modernising the hotel.

‘But it’s just so sedate,’ she said, feeling irked that he didn’t agree with her.

‘Is that wrong, then? I think it makes it different. And Thorpe Bay isn’t in the centre of town, not the best place if you want a family seaside holiday.’

‘Well, what would you suggest then, to bring it into the twentieth century?’ Ruby asked curtly.

‘That you get your uncle George to invest some cash into the property. It needs decorating inside and out, and the furnishings all need replacing. The armchairs in the lounge look as if they might collapse, the carpets are falling apart and the curtains are out of the ark—’

‘I can’t believe you’re saying that.’ Ruby interrupted. ‘I love the hotel—’

‘I know you do, but George has to be realistic about his investment. He has to either invest in it or sell it. The clientele will move on if it’s not renovated to reflect the prices.’

‘Suppose that’s not an option? Suppose Uncle George doesn’t agree?’

‘Then it’s his problem isn’t it? He shouldn’t be in the business if he can’t think ahead constructively,’ Tony said with a dismissive shrug.

As they talked further Ruby was distracted; she knew she was doing the wrong thing by talking about it but not telling him the whole story. She decided to change the subject to avoid saying the wrong thing.

‘I’m thinking about going to visit my mother. Ray will have told her about his visit so it might be a good time to break the ice. I feel happier with the thought than I did at the time, when Aunty Leonora had just died.’

‘Is that a good idea? You said you never wanted to see any of them. Why the change of heart?’

‘Because seeing Ray and talking to him, I’ve realised that I have nothing to be scared of any more. And I’d like to see my grandmother again before it’s too late.’

‘So you’re not just being nosy about your mother’s new husband? Your stepfather?’

‘Oh Lord.’ Ruby sat up in her chair and gasped. ‘I hadn’t even thought of that. A stepfather …’

‘Someone else to come and scrounge off you now they know where you are. You’re doing well for yourself, you don’t need those people in your life.’

Ruby suddenly felt irrationally defensive. First he’d told her the hotel was a dump and now he was criticising her family. But she said nothing; she knew it was her own fault. He only knew what she had told him about her family, and none of it had been good. She wanted to say that things had changed, that she’d been sixteen when she’d run off and now she was older and knew better. She wasn’t scared of anyone any more.

‘Anyway, time marches on and I’ve got to get back now. I’ll think about what you said and talk to Uncle George.’ Ruby stood up and kissed Tony on the cheek. ‘Good luck with the book-keeping. I’ll see you tomorrow evening still?’

‘Of course. Cinema and dinner. I’ll call for you at seven.’

‘That’ll be nice.’

Ruby slid out quickly while Mr Alfredo’s back was turned. She couldn’t face another round of compliments and hugs from him or his wife.

She turned right and meandered back past the line of shops, looking closely as she walked. She realised that they looked as decrepit as the hotel did from the outside, and she was ashamed she hadn’t noticed it before.

She’d arrived down in Southend after the war when the town was slowly returning to normality and trying to encourage the visitors back. Leonora had told her a little about the trials and tribulations of the town in the wartime lockdown but Ruby hadn’t been interested; she had been too wrapped up in her own misery to care. But now she was looking around and noticing how the townspeople must have suffered. Especially those with small hotels like the Thamesview.

She crossed the road so she was opposite the hotel and stood looking up, really studying it for the first time. Suddenly she was shocked at how neglected it looked. Tony was right.The paint was peeling off the woodwork, the railings needed attention and there was a general air of grubbiness about it. She could see that Leonora had made the right decision in continuing to focus on widows and single woman, and many of them returned year after year, but there weren’t many new guests. She would have to talk to George and see what he thought.

‘Tony the Great was here looking for you,’ Gracie said as Ruby went back into the hotel.

‘I know. He found me on the beach paddling in the mud like a five-year-old. We went to the café. It wasn’t open but the parents let us in anyhow. Tony’s spending the day doing their books for them. He’s good at things like that. He has a very organised mind.’

‘You seem bright and happy. Do I sense wedding bells in the air?’ Gracie laughed. ‘Oh dear God, I don’t think I could have him as a boss. Makes me feel like Little Orphan Annie when he looks me up and down.’

‘Oh, he’s all right in his way,’ Ruby replied. ‘He’s just been spoiled. Anyway, I could ask the same of you. Are you going to marry Sean? You’re getting on a bit, you know. You’re older than me, you’ll be up there swinging your legs on the old maids’ shelf soon.’

When Gracie didn’t answer immediately Ruby opened her eyes wide and stared. ‘No … Has he asked you? Why didn’t you tell me, you secretive cow?’

‘He’s not asked outright but I know what he’s thinking.’

‘And? If he does ask?’

‘I don’t know. He’s hard-working, not bad-looking and he loves me. What more do I want? I was head over heels once and look where that got me. As soon as I told him I was expecting he was off and I ended up in that bloody awful place. Sean wouldn’t do that to me …’