by Carol Rivers
The car stopped and the chauffeur climbed out, first opening Mr Steadman’s door. Ruby watched as Mr Steadman scuttled off to a side door, and was soon gone from view.
She sat mystified. Where was he? And what was she supposed to do? After a few seconds she found out.
‘Mr Steadman has asked me to show you the way,’ the chauffeur said, opening her door.
Ruby got out, arranging her clothes and looking around. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Up to the third floor.’ He gave her a puzzled look. ‘Can I carry anything for you?’
‘No, thank you. I’ve only got my bag.’ She smiled. It was wonderful to be treated so royally. ‘Has Mr Steadman gone ahead to meet his customer?’ she said to the chauffeur as they took the lift, a very old-fashioned ornate metal cage that clanked and grumbled its way upwards.
‘Er, yes, perhaps,’ the chauffeur replied. He looked straight ahead of him, his hands behind his back.
Eventually the lift stopped with a heavy thud.
They walked out and along a rather gloomy hall. The carpet was well-trodden but thick and muffled their footsteps. Ruby glanced around for the women she had seen. But the hall was deserted. They must have taken their seats, she thought, beginning to feel a little nervous. Would she have enough time to get ready?
Each door they passed was made of dark, polished wood. The decor looked old but expensive.
‘Will there be many here?’ Ruby asked as they came to a halt and the chauffeur knocked on one of the doors.
‘I’ve no idea, miss,’ the driver said, looking surprised.
Ruby felt anxious, sensing something was wrong.
Chapter Nineteen
‘This way,’ said the maid, and Ruby followed. The long hall reminded her of all the old black-and-white films she had seen at the cinema. Leafy green plants stood on glossy marble tables. Large gilt mirrors were hung on the walls. The wooden tiles on the floor were highly polished. At the end of the hall there was a glass door. The maid pushed it open.
Ruby looked out over London. From St Paul’s to the River Thames, the spires of many churches and the flat roofs of the city’s historic buildings. The room she walked into was filled with tasteful furniture, although this too looked rather old-fashioned. She knew nothing about antiques. But when Nick had taken her shopping, they’d strolled through the capital’s many arcades and seen the price tags on this kind of furniture. Whoever owned this must be very rich.
‘Come along,’ said the maid, turning through a set of Venetian doors. Every window in this room was decorated with heavy brocade curtains tied back with knotted tassels.
Ruby’s gaze went to the pair of chandeliers overhead. If she had thought the ones at Dower Street were breathtaking, then these were out of this world. Studded with crystals, tier upon tier, they reflected the daylight flooding in through the windows. Beneath was a sumptuous plum-coloured settee. Every chair in the room was covered in the same rich shade. The smell of a thick, almost sickly perfume drifted in the air.
Ruby thought whoever lived here might be foreign; there were cross-legged, bejewelled Oriental statues and rugs thrown across the floor in exotic reds, ambers and deep greens. In the background, a mystical sort of chant was playing.
‘Well?’ said a voice, and Ruby swung round to find Mr Steadman standing behind her. He wore a long silk belted jacket with an Oriental design of black, gold and deep blue. On his feet was an embroidered pair of slippers. On his head a black fez like she had seen in the film Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
Ruby wanted to giggle. He looked ridiculous.
‘Follow me,’ he said.
Even before she reached the sickly-smelling room with a monster bed in the middle of the floor swamped by silk pillows, she knew this was a mistake.
The heavy door banged behind her.
‘Where are your clothes?’ he demanded suddenly.
‘What clothes?’
He walked slowly around her, looking her up and down. ‘The ones you were told to bring.’
‘I wasn’t told to bring any. I thought I was going to model at the store.’
‘I gave Miss Charnwood-Smythe explicit instructions.’
‘I haven’t seen Anna,’ Ruby said with a shrug. ‘She just left me a note.’
‘This is outrageous.’ Mr Steadman sounded annoyed. His square moustache and his squinting small dark eyes gave him a mean look. ‘I was given an assurance you were prepared to wear the costumes I asked for.’
‘Costumes?’ Ruby repeated, alarmed, glancing around again at the peculiar decor. ‘What kind of costumes?’
‘Of the torso-articulation type.’
Ruby laughed. ‘What?’
‘To someone like you, the common term would be belly dancer.’
Ruby’s mouth fell open. ‘I ain’t a bloody belly dancer!’
‘I wasn’t expecting you to dance,’ Mr Steadman replied crisply. ‘You just happen to have the well-rounded proportions that interest me. Now take off your clothes and put on those behind the screen over there. They will have to do.’
Ruby’s eyes darted to the lacquered screen. It was beside the bed. Mr Steadman was sliding off his jacket. To her amazement he had nothing on underneath. His skinny, naked and repulsive body seemed to twitch as he spoke. ‘Well, hurry up!’
Ruby wanted to tell him that he was a disgraceful old man. Instead she turned on her heel and fled.
Ruby stood outside the apartment block. She hadn’t bothered to take the slow, grumbling lift. She’d run all the way downstairs.
How could she have been so daft? It was common knowledge Mr Steadman lived in a big house with his wife and family. She should have realized something was amiss from the start.
She gazed up at the impressive, respectable-looking old building. Anna must have known. This was her revenge.
Ruby got a taxi back to Dower Street. As she sat on the back seat, she thought of her last words to the maid. ‘Tell your employer to look out for his name in the newspapers. I’d like to know what his wife and customers will say when they know what he gets up to!’
The girl had quickly opened the door.
Her threat was idle of course. But she hoped it would give the old lecher an uncomfortable hour or two. Was he proud of his bony chest and what hung limply beneath? If so, no one had ever told him how foolish he looked, standing naked but for a black hat.
Then she thought again of Anna and what she had done. She didn’t have an excuse this time.
But when Ruby arrived back at Dower Street, the house was empty. She went up to her room and sat on the bed. The tears brimmed on her eyelids. What was it Nick had said? Anna was a forceful businesswoman. But did she always have to have her way?
Hugging herself, Ruby paced the floor. She had been deliberately misled. Not just today, but from the start, when Anna first engaged her. Perhaps even from the moment she had first sat with Anna in the Powder Room at the Manor.
Ruby gazed about her at the luxurious trappings she had enjoyed for the past few months. Salty tears filled her eyes.
She couldn’t let Anna win!
An hour later, Ruby had packed her case. There was nothing much in it; the clothes she had arrived in, Pete’s diary and Nick’s gift of the pearls. She would go downstairs and tell Anna she was leaving. Anna wouldn’t expect that. Paula had said Anna hated to lose an income. She would probably try to say that it was all a mistake. But Ruby wasn’t going to listen this time.
She was going to call Anna’s bluff.
A noise downstairs made her start. Someone had come in!
Was it Anna?
Ruby walked sedately into the lemon room, her case in hand. Anna was seated at her desk and slowly turned round.
Ruby lifted her chin. Anna’s green eyes held no expression at all. ‘So, you’re back,’ she said, crossing her long stockinged legs and reaching for her cigarette case. ‘What? No tears of self-pity?’
‘Why should I cry?’ Ruby said defia
ntly.
Anna’s eyebrows rose. ‘Did you really think you were indispensable to me?’
Ruby fought back her tears. ‘Is dressing up for a dirty old man what you call business?’
Anna stood up, drawing the smoke into her lungs and folding an arm across her chest. She narrowed her eyes, studying Ruby as if she was a lifeless mannequin in a shop window. ‘As a matter of fact, it’s very good business.’
‘You knew what he wanted, didn’t you?’
‘I had an idea.’
‘You deliberately tricked me.’
Her sharp laugh echoed around the room. ‘You should be flattered. He wanted you and no one else.’
‘To dress up as a belly dancer?’
‘I suppose you’d rather be sashaying down the catwalk?’ Anna said with a sneer.
Ruby nodded. ‘Yes, why not?’
‘Then you’ll have to look elsewhere for your fairy godmother, my dear. This one has had enough of your unreasonable demands.’
Ruby sucked in a breath. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Have you looked in the mirror recently?’
Ruby felt sick and faint.
‘Obviously not. When next you do, ask yourself who you see. In fact, I’ll save you the trouble.’ Anna walked slowly towards her, pointing with her lit cigarette. ‘You are a self-absorbed, unrealistic and deluded little prude. After all I’ve shown you and tried to explain, you still think you are in with a chance at becoming a top model, for which, I must add, a totally different body image is required. Because I gave you fabulous clothes to wear and encouraged you to learn something of London’s high life, you weren’t even bright enough to understand that professions like this all demand a trade-off. No one is exempt. No one escapes playing the game. That is, if you are in it to win it.’
As Ruby’s tears formed again on her lids at the cruel honesty of Anna’s words, Anna stepped closer. Her beautiful skin, flawless make-up and fragrant scent still had the power to hypnotize Ruby. She felt the sobs trapped in her chest bursting to be free, but somehow she stifled them.
‘I trusted you,’ Ruby bleated, knowing how pathetic she sounded.
‘I didn’t ask you for your trust. I asked you to honour your contract.’
‘I . . . I didn’t know what I’d have to do—’
At this, Anna seemed to swell, her pale cheeks flushing a deep angry red. ‘Of course you knew! It was all there in black and white. Any idiot would understand.’
‘I’m not an idiot! You conned me!’ was all Ruby could think to shout. ‘You and everyone here, the lot of you, making out you are what you’re not! Mutton done up as lamb, that’s what you are. And I pity the poor cow you next take on, giving her what she’s not used to. And telling her she can be London’s top model if only she’ll sleep with a few randy old geezers.’
Anna’s green eyes filled with contempt as though revolted by what she saw. Her full and expressive lips parted, her finely pencilled eyebrows rose. ‘So that’s who you really are, Ruby Payne! A miserable little whinger. You have, at no cost to yourself, lived off my generosity here in the heart of one of the world’s most fabulous cities. You are not only ill-bred and ignorant but very foolish too. You have all the personal traits of a first-class failure and I’m relieved to wash my hands of you.’
It was then the tears really fell, like piercing splinters down Ruby’s hot face. They burned her skin, just as effectively as if Anna had thrown acid over her. They trickled into her mouth and fell sourly onto her tongue, causing it to burn and swell. The same tongue that had let her down so badly as her anger and self-righteousness had poured out in retaliation for what Anna had done to her.
‘The door’s open,’ Anna said, turning away. ‘You are released from your contract.’
Ruby stared miserably at Anna’s straight back under her expensive black costume. An unrelenting, frozen back that shouted the life that Ruby had lived at Dower Street was now over.
Ruby’s knees buckled, a faint, swimmy feeling washing over her, causing her to blink hard. This is the end, a voice shrieked in her head. It’s over. All that you’ve ever wanted. Over.
She barely had enough strength to put one foot in front of her. But it was not the excited, adventurous young woman who had entered 10 Dower Street’s front door over three months ago. But the lost and lonely child who stood on the pavement outside with her battered suitcase.
Chapter Twenty
‘Here, drink this.’
Ruby took a sip of the brandy. ‘Oh Kath, I’ve been such a fool.’
‘Tell me all about it.’
‘There’s a lot to tell.’ Ruby knew she had to explain everything, back to the very start when she had first met Anna at the Manor. ‘I have a confession to make. I never went home on your birthday. Instead I went to a club called the Manor.’ Slowly she told her friend her woeful story. ‘It was one small lie that grew into lots of others.’
‘You’ve fallen foul of some very nasty people,’ Kath replied, her expression disappointed.
‘Oh Kath, I’m sorry. I deceived you.’
Kath hesitated, then sighed softly. ‘I’m glad you had the courage to tell me everything in the end. But you can’t go back to Dower Street.’
‘I’ve left my whole life behind me in that room. And it was such a lovely room.’
‘Yes, but you paid a heavy price.’
Ruby nodded. She touched her friend’s long shining dark hair and sighed. ‘Just look at you. The ugly duckling is now a beautiful swan.’
Kath chuckled. ‘I won’t have all me feathers till I go on stage.’
Ruby laughed too. Even though she was humiliated, shocked and embarrassed at being called common and uncouth, not to mention well-rounded, ignorant and ill-bred, the humour that she and Kath had always shared was comforting.
‘Fancy him thinking I was a bloody belly dancer!’ Ruby spluttered. ‘And I didn’t even know what he meant when he called me some fancy name.’
‘Belly dancers are very respected in the East.’
‘Yes, but I’m in England. And “well-rounded”! What does that mean?’
Kath giggled again. ‘It means you’ve got a womanly figure. Now, cheer up, Anna’s isn’t the only agency in London.’
‘But what do I do in the meantime?’
‘Penny’s away until Wednesday at her parents’. You can use her bed till then.’
Ruby sniffed back her tears. ‘You’re such a good friend.’
‘Don’t have regrets,’ Kath said gently. ‘Life’s too short.’
Ruby nodded, but how could she have believed she was a match for Anna? She had even boasted to Nick that she was. How could she ever face him again?
‘Now, I’ll find you a nightie to wear. Then run a bath,’ Kath said, jumping to her feet. ‘I have to be up early in the morning for practice, but you can have a lie-in. In the afternoon we’ll visit the agencies.’
When Kath was gone, Ruby looked down at her case. All her lovely clothes were at Dower Street. Her make-up and creams, shoes and bags – the list was endless. She had never imagined Anna would insult her so viciously and cut her off without a second’s thought.
What was she to do for money? She hadn’t been given any wages. How long would the £5 in her purse last?
The next day Ruby felt a little better as she and Kath made the rounds. But one by one she was turned down. Some agencies had closed doors, others said they were full. One said she was not the right height for inclusion on their books. By tea-time they had exhausted all avenues.
‘Cheer up, we’ll try again tomorrow,’ Kath said as they ate beans on toast that night.
‘I don’t think so,’ Ruby said as she thought of Janet’s home-cooked steak and kidney pies.
‘But why not?’ Kath said in surprise.
‘I’ve decided to go home.’
Kath put down her knife and fork. ‘You’re welcome here, Ruby.’
‘Yes, but you’ve got to get on with your life.’
Kath frowned. ‘Remember, your mum ain’t the easiest to live with.’
‘I know. But I can’t stay in the city centre. It’s too expensive.’
‘You could always go back to work for Larry.’
‘I’d rather not.’ Ruby dropped her chin in her hands. ‘And listen to Debbie in me ear every day? Don’t think so.’
‘No, I wouldn’t like that either,’ Kath agreed.
They fell into thoughtful silence until suddenly there was a knock at the door.
‘It’s probably Bernie.’
Ruby sighed. No doubt he, too, would think she only had herself to blame when he heard her news.
Bernie sat in the armchair, feeling awkward. He didn’t dislike the flat she shared with Penny Webber, but it wasn’t very homely. More like a place to practise dancing with its scrubbed bare boards and rail screwed on the wall.
To see Ruby sitting on the couch was a bit of a belter. He hadn’t expected to bump into her again. Not with that charmer from Fortuno’s hanging around. He had taken an instant dislike to the creep and from what he’d heard lately from Kath, he now liked him even less.
One thing was clear, the geezer could spin a good line. The birds seemed to fall for it an’ all. Even Kath was taken in, him saying how much he genuinely thought of Ruby. But why should I give a damn? Bernie thought to himself. I’m doing all right with little Tina Shutler from the works canteen. I haven’t looked at anyone else in months!
Bernie tried to bring Tina’s sweet face to mind, but the bugger of it was, he could barely remember her smile. Or the colour of her eyes. Or even her voice. Pulling back his shoulders, he tried to ignore the powerlessness he felt when it came to his own emotions.
At last, he said awkwardly, ‘Fancy meeting you here, then.’
Ruby just stared at him. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her hair a mess. She was wearing his sister’s pyjamas with little ballerina figures all over them. And Kath was fussing round her like an old mother hen.
He wanted to tell Kath to sit down. Relax. She was giving him the heebie-jeebies. But instead he plastered a smile on his face. ‘What’s up then, Doc?’ he mimicked, trying to draw a laugh from the two girls, but none was forthcoming.
