Nameless by Jessie Keane

Author:Jessie Keane
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, General
ISBN: 9780230765092
Publisher: Pan
Published: 2012-08-29T23:00:00+00:00

72

1968

‘More flowers? God, that man just don’t know the meaning of the word quit,’ complained Ruby.

Jane, her PA, brought the huge bouquet of creamy-white roses into Ruby’s office over the flagship store. It was the third bouquet she’d received from Michael Ward.

‘Don’t knock it,’ said Jane with a wry smile. She was a plump, immaculate and silver-haired matron, extremely efficient, long-married and merry-eyed. ‘Mine don’t even know what flowers are for.’

Ruby stood up and took the bouquet from her. ‘Is there a note . . . ?’

‘Yeah, it’s here, look.’

Ruby read it.

Roses for a Ruby. Call me.

His number was written underneath.

Ruby gazed at it, and wondered. Mr Ward was a very handsome man with his iron-grey hair and his steely grey eyes. He oozed a brutal confidence. He scared her. All right, he attracted her too. She had to admit that.

But . . .

She’d already done the whole love thing once, in her youth, with Cornelius. It had been painful beyond belief. To start over again, try again with another man . . . she didn’t want to do it. It would hurt too much when it all went wrong. And it would; she knew it would.

‘I’ll put them in water then . . . ?’ suggested Jane, while Ruby stood there, staring at the note.

Ruby shook herself. ‘Yeah. Thanks, Jane.’

No, it was safer to cling to her business. They were launching a new wine department to run alongside the food halls, and it had taken up most of her time to debate with her team the merits of the various wines and choose which wines to select. They had settled on eighteen wines, plus vermouth, sherry, beers and cider.

‘Liebfraumilch at ninety-five pence a bottle, that’s a good deal,’ had been Jane’s input. ‘Us ladies do love a sweet wine.’

So the Liebfraumilch had been included, along with a good selection of other whites and reds.

What remained of Ruby’s time was taken up with wondering if she could get up the nerve to meet with Cornelius and ask if she could see her daughter. She quailed at asking him, though. She knew he’d be angry at the very idea. And she hadn’t seen him face-to-face in years.

She saw him often in the press: Lord Bray was a very influential man now, chairman of many charities and active in politics in the upper house. It always shocked her when she saw his photo. He was still her Cornelius, more white than blond now, with crinkling lines around his eyes when the camera caught him smiling.

Yes, he was older, but he was still the devastatingly attractive charmer she had known. If she saw him in the flesh, would she turn back into the star-struck idiot youngster she had once been, falling out of the Windmill Theatre straight into his arms?

‘You gonna put this man out of his misery soon?’ asked Jane, pausing at the door with the bouquet in her arms.

‘Mr Ward? I don’t think so,’ said Ruby, sitting down behind her desk and reaching for last month’s figures.

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