Ruby's Palace

by KERRY BARNES

  He put the kettle on and returned to the living room.

  “Why don’t you get yourself cleaned up and I’ll stick your dress in the washing machine.” He glared at the remnants of the puke, which now stank to high heaven.

  Ruby felt self-conscious again. It was a strange feeling and one she was not used to. He had shown enough interest to take her out again, but he didn’t look at her with admiring eyes or even hint at being intimate. She was baffled to say the least, yet intrigued at the same time.

  She went to the bathroom, peeled off the dress, and wrapped a towel around her body. Ocean, without looking at her, took the garment. With two fingers holding it away from his clothes, and repulsed by the puke, he ran to the kitchen, throwing it into the washing machine. Ruby quickly climbed into the tub. She scrubbed her hair and skin and then remembered she hadn’t any cream, or makeup for that matter. She was completely naked and felt insignificant. She used the comb on the side to untangle the knots and the baby oil to massage into her burning skin. She hadn’t realised how sore her face and body were from the petrol until she began to rub in the oil. When she looked in the mirror, she saw her eye makeup was smudged over her cheeks and her skin was pink and blotchy. She tore off more toilet paper and removed the black from her face. Ocean smiled when she finally emerged. His eyes twinkled and he bit his bottom lip.

  “What are you smiling at?”

  “You look beautiful without that shit on your face.”

  Ruby felt so much better now.

  “Here is a cup of tea.” He handed her a mug.

  She curled up on the sofa, drank the hot drink and began to unwind. He sat next to her, enjoying the view.

  From what he could make out so far, she had a decent body.

  “What are you staring at?” She giggled, hoping he would compliment her again.

  Instead, he kissed her. She knew then he wanted her and she wasn’t going to stop him. He peeled the towel away and looked at her. She was sexy – not as sexy as Kizzy – but she turned him on enough for him to take her to bed.

  Ruby was in her element. He finally gave her what she yearned for.

  He knew the buttons to press, the right words to say, and exactly how to make her feel like the sexiest woman on the planet. She was hooked and had fallen in love; she immediately wanted to marry him, have his babies and spend the rest of her life with him.

  Ocean was, indeed, a good actor, and the more he eased into the role the better he got. By the morning they had planned a future together. They were going to buy more clubs – one for each of their children. They pictured the huge white wedding and the honeymoon in the Maldives and had even thought of names for their babies.

  Ocean had no idea where the Maldives were, but if it sounded good to Ruby, then why not?

  Ruby was so besotted by him that she hung on to his every word. As she lay on her back, with Ocean propped up on one arm, running his fingers over her body, she thought about what her uncle had said.

  “Ocean, how do gypsies get married?”

  He stiffened, not quite knowing how to respond.

  “It’s all right. Like I told my uncle, I don’t care… look, it doesn’t matter where anyone comes from, it’s where you go to that’s important.”

  He smiled. Ruby was so naive. For the first time he felt a twinge of guilt. There he was, caressing the enemy, having just bludgeoned a man to death, and he was now ready to take the Vincents to the cleaners.

  Surely it couldn’t be this easy, he thought. Then he had a sudden suspicion that maybe he was the one being set up.

  “So, Ruby, my little flower, how do you honestly feel about me?”

  She sat upright in the bed. “What do you mean?” she asked shyly.

  “Well, are you serious about us getting married, I mean, really serious, or are you leading me up the garden path?” asked Ocean in a very stark tone.

  Ruby felt her heart pounding with excitement. She had only known this man for a few hours and she was deadly serious.

  She smiled and nodded, hoping he wouldn’t laugh at her.

  With that he got down on one knee and asked for her hand in marriage.

  “Oh yes, Ocean, I will marry you!”

  “Give me time to get you a ring and it will be official, but don’t tell your family yet.”

  “Oh, they are okay really.” She tried to laugh it off, not wanting to ruin the atmosphere.

  “Not what I’ve heard. Didn’t they kill the McManners in that warehouse fifteen years ago?”

  Ruby laughed. “No way, they ain’t like that. Yeah, sure, they might give you a good hiding if you piss them off, but kill anyone, no!”

  “I think, Princess of the Palace, that you have been overprotected. Your family are more dangerous than that,” stated Ocean.

  “Well, look at you, clubbing that old geezer, and you’re not exactly a gangster are you!” she laughed.

  Ocean trembled when he thought about Nigel Napper in that pool of thick black blood. Then he looked at Ruby’s face. She was so unperturbed, you would have assumed she was used to seeing guys beaten and dying. He shuddered inside, still watching her laughing and talking. He wasn’t listening now. He had to get away from her and see Kizzy: speak with his real accent, use the words he was used to, and feel the softness of Kizzy’s skin against his hand. He wanted to listen to the stories of wild horses and future plans of buying acres of green pastures. He wasn’t interested in the crap which poured out of Ruby’s mouth. Surely she wasn’t so protected that she had no idea how dangerous her family were? Her immaturity put him off and he had the urge to leave.

  “So, Ruby, do you live far from here?” he asked, trying to stay sweet.

  “Err…” Her face changed, gutted at the thought of going home, and even more that he wanted her to go. It was so sudden: one minute he was proposing and the next wanting her out of the way.

  “No, it’s not too far, Sevenoaks.”

  Ocean knew it well. “Shall we make a move? Only, I need to get to work.”

  Ruby, now confused, wasn’t going to be fobbed off so easily.

  “Ocean, all those things we spoke about…” She paused.

  “How dangerous your family are?” he asked.

  “No, no, not that… our wedding, were you serious?”

  He nodded, but not very convincingly. Ruby, blinded by infatuation, accepted his nod as confirmation.

  She slipped her clean dress back on while Ocean pulled on his jeans and took a T-shirt from Levi’s wardrobe. One thing about Levi was that he did like expensive clothes, and Ocean enjoyed helping himself. He was going to take full advantage. If the O’Connells wanted him to go along with the plan then he would milk it for as much as he could.

  *

  The drive to Sevenoaks was quiet. Ocean almost choked when he pulled into Ruby’s road. The houses were huge and probably an acre apart. Suddenly, the urge to get his hands on serious money was back, and the only way to get it was to keep up the pretence. When he stopped the car she looked nervously at him. She wasn’t sure whether he’d decided to call it a day before it had barely begun. Instead, however, he leaned across and gave her a passionate kiss. “I meant what I said, my Ruby Palace. I do want to marry you!”

  Ruby skipped up the drive, so ecstatic that she hadn’t given the incident in the club a second thought. To her mind, she had suffered enough heartache over the years, and now she decided that, come what may and regardless of anyone else, she was going to be happy. She was owed that much at least. She had met her one true love, albeit only a few days ago, but that didn’t matter. She loved Ocean and no one was going to stand in the way of her relationship.

  As she put the key in the lock, the door opened with such force it nearly pulled her arm out of her socket.

  Sam dragged her into the living room. “What the fucking hell did you think you were playing at?” he shouted, throwing Ruby onto the sofa. “We have been up all night sorting out your mess!”

  Ruby jumped to her feet
. “My mess?” she screamed back. “My mess, how do you fucking work that one out? The Nappers are nothing to do with me, and I nearly died. Or did you conveniently forget that part?”

  “Well, madam, you didn’t seem too bothered when you fucked off with the king of the gypsies!”

  Ruby’s nostrils flared. “At least he was there to save my life but, for some fucking reason, you don’t seem to remember that either!”

  Sam took a deep breath. “You should have stayed with your family until all this mess was sorted. For your information, we have saved your pikey’s bacon.”

  Ruby frowned. “What do you mean?” She lowered her tone.

  “The body… we got rid of it, so he won’t be had up for murder,” he replied, looking somewhat shamefaced.

  “But he wouldn't have been done for anything anyway!” she said, with her hands on her hip and a cocky tone to her voice.

  Sam looked her up and down. For the first time in her life she saw the disappointment on her father’s face.

  “You amaze me sometimes, Ruby, you really do. I thought you were clever.”

  She shuffled nervously and her curiosity got the better of her. “So tell me, why would he have been nicked, if he saved my life?”

  “He left the scene of a serious crime, he didn’t bother to report it, and you didn’t hang around to give a statement. The Ol’ Bill would have taken one look at the state you were in, and concluded that what happened didn’t. You both fucked off and left it for us to clean up. So that makes him guilty, and the least that would have happened would be you remaining in custody until the case came up in court. So, Miss fucking clever clogs, think over that one!”

  Ruby went to her room to get changed and dreamt about the wedding plans, totally ignorant of her father’s concerns.

  *

  Dan and Fred arrived at Sam’s, looking the worse for wear. Little Palace had been burned to the ground and Celia was still missing.

  Sam took the boys to the kitchen.

  “What a fucking night!” said Fred, exhausted and not a little angry with the night’s events.

  “That fucking Napper made sure Little Palace would not survive. Not a damn thing left, except the four fucking walls,” added Dan.

  Sam handed them a cup and poured freshly brewed coffee.

  “We are insured, ain’t we?” asked Sam.

  Dan nodded. He looked up at his brother. “Is Ruby back yet?”

  “Yes, the fucking madam is in her room.”

  “Is she all right, though? It must have been a shock for her. Perhaps her going off with that pikey might have been the best thing. Getting away, know what I mean?” suggested Dan, who had worried about the effect all this would have on his niece.

  “Oh yeah, she is fine, just the same Ruby. Only like going back five years when she was a cocky teenager!” spat Sam, who was glad she was home safe and sound but livid that the only thing worrying her was her new-found fella.

  “I can’t imagine it, our Rubes being burnt to death. Well, it ain’t gonna happen now. The old fucker’s well and truly gone,” stated Dan.

  Sam wasn’t present when they disposed of the body.

  “So where did you bury him?” asked Sam casually.

  Fred laughed and his eyes lit up. “Well, put it this way. By tonight he will be under the new builds in Hackney Wick. Harry, the concrete pump man, is filling the base of the block as we speak.”

  Sam smiled. “Shame about Little Palace… but Celia can’t have gone down in the flames or they would have found a body!”

  Dan took a deep breath and sighed. “As long as that nutty bastard didn’t take her away to kill her.”

  Sam frowned. “Nah. Wait a minute. If I remember rightly, he said to Ruby, a life for a life.” He scratched his head. “That must mean he would have murdered our Rubes for the sake of his brother Kenneth. The mad prick… I don’t know why he thought we killed him. He died of natural causes, by all accounts.”

  Dan nodded again. “Well, word has it, if Kenneth hadn’t been so badly beaten, he could have saved himself from the burning bed. So I guess he blames us, the cranky cunt. Anyway, I hope Celia’s all right. I’m fond of the ol’ girl. Works fucking hard, she does.”

  Whilst Ruby’s uncles discussed the night’s events, Ruby was going over what Ocean had said. At first she thought about the loving words he used. Then, like an electric shock surging through her veins, she remembered how he had described the incident in the warehouse with the McManners, and her body went cold. All those years, her uncles had lied to her. They had led her to believe she imagined it all: her aunt holding that gun – the famous jewelled lighter.

  She stared in the mirror and looked at her Vincent face, the face which connected her to her family. She tried to recall that day. Although her memory was hazy, she could picture herself in a warehouse. Her uncles and aunt were there, it was snowing, and she remembered feeling cold, yet safe in her Uncle Joe’s arms. It was a weird sensation. She recalled the men covered in blood, tipped back on their seats and tied up with rope. The man who she was so frightened of – the boogie man – sat in front of her aunt with her gun pointing at him.

  It wasn’t a mad dream, not if Ocean had heard about it.

  She hated the secrets her family had. Finding out about her mother was bad enough, but to think that they were real gangsters, shooting people. She shuddered. She was old enough to know the truth and that was exactly what she was going to get.

  She heard them talking as she came down the stairs. They stopped the minute she entered the kitchen.

  “So what’s up now, more secrets!” she spat spitefully.

  The men frowned and looked at Sam.

  “What’s your fucking problem, coming in here speaking to your family like that?” Sam had taken all he could from Ruby right now and was ready to give her a back-handed slap if she carried on.

  “I ain’t the one with the problem. It seems to me that you lot have enough problems.” Before she could carefully select her words, they fell out of her mouth. “Killing the McManners in the warehouse wasn’t my vivid imagination, now was it?”

  All three men were wide-eyed and dumbstruck.

  “I knew it. All those years you have lied to me, led me to believe I was a fucking cuckoo. Well, I know what my family really thinks of me.”

  Fred jumped to his feet and lurched forward to grab Ruby’s arm. “Now, sit your arse on that seat and shut your loud mouth!”

  Ruby had never been spoken to like that by any of her uncles and so she instantly did as she was told. “You, young lady, are getting too big for your boots, and you think the world owes you. Well, let me tell you something. You can get the whole McManners’ incident out of your head right now. If I hear another fucking word about it then you will kiss Ruby’s Palace goodbye,” growled Dan.

  Ruby was near to tears. She had only ever been spoilt by her uncles and now she felt a huge distance between them.

  “But I was there! I remember! I still have nightmares!” She tried to win the sympathy vote.

  Fred got up to leave. As he passed his niece, he whispered in a slow, menacing voice, “We were protecting you…” He walked away, followed by Dan, who shook his head.

  Sam didn’t speak until he heard the front door close. Then he gazed in amazement at his cherished daughter. “I don’t know you anymore, Ruby… We give you everything you could imagine, even a fucking nightclub, and you’re hell-bent on defying us.”

  There was silence for a while and Sam realised that, for the first time in ages, Ruby was actually listening.

  “I do find it hard to forgive you sometimes. I mean, take last night. You just fucked off, leaving us to deal with the mess. It’s as if you really do believe we owe you a big favour.”

  He swirled the remains of his coffee staring into the dregs.

  “Ruby, the warehouse…”

  She lifted her head, desperate to learn the truth.

  “There was an incident.”

  Ruby
jumped from her seat. “I fucking knew it, all those years you lot lied to me. You are what they say you are. Fucking murderers!”

  After years of protecting the kids, both Jack and Ruby, living his life to care for them, giving them all they wanted and so much more, it grieved him to hear his daughter’s words.

  He leapt from his seat, lunged forward, and slapped Ruby around the face so hard she fell to the floor.

  “You selfish, nasty piece of work! Those men, in the warehouse, had fucking kidnapped you. They had left you for dead. If it weren’t for your own flesh and blood, you would have been buried in a six foot pit now.” He grabbed her arm, pulled her to her feet, and shoved her heavily onto the kitchen chair.

  “Those fucking men hunted your aunt like a wild animal for all her childhood. Then, my girl, they came for you. With no mercy, they hit you and threw you in a pit. The snow left you blue and hanging onto life. You were three years old. Now tell me we are fucking murderers!”

  His chest heaved in and out with anger. Foam had gathered around his mouth and Ruby could see the veins rising in his forehead. “My God, girl, you have no idea how we work as a family, or you choose to ignore it. My sister saved you from a miserable existence; she saved you from the clutches of a madman, putting her life on the line. The fucking McManners terrorised your grandfather, hung your nan from a hook, dragged Fred away at gun point to burn him alive, and you call us murderers? No, my girl, we are not murderers, but we will never ever let another living soul hurt our family again… got it, ave ya? Fucking understand now, do ya?”

  “I’m sorry, Dad, I didn’t know.” She trembled from the words, which were so cold and hard.

  “You disgust me, Ruby. The way you go on – as if you have the God damn right to question us, as if you have the right to make demands. You just do as you please, whether it hurts our family or not.” He sat back down on the seat and glared at her. “’Ere, every time you get into trouble, we have been there for you, but you choose not to remember that, and now you are a woman you can get on with it. I wash my hands of you!”