‘I said you were of dual heritage, like me, and proud of it. And that I’d rather be… becuddlylike you are, Mum, than anorexic, thin and bony like she is.’
‘Good for you,’ I said, instantly regretting the words. Ruby was just a kid, a poor little rich kid who appeared to have been sent from pillar to post; caught in the middle of adult goings-on by Henry Cavendish-Brown. Or was heDarren Singleton? I itched to google both names, to find out more. And where the hell was Joel in all this? I was responsible for him, but I didn’t want to tell the police he’d disappeared; that he was obviously involved. Back to his old ways again. I reached for my phone once more to see if there was a message from Dean or Joel. There wasn’t. Sighing, I dropped a kiss onto Lola’s dark head. ‘And what did Ruby say to that then?’ I now asked. ‘About her being anorexic and bony? Not really a nice thing to say to her, you know, Lola.’
‘She deserved it! Anyway, she said nothing – she didn’t get the chance. All we heard was the bashing down of doors and people shouting and racing up the stairs towards us.’
‘Must have been very, very frightening for you,’ I apologised. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Well,’ she said, almost cheerfully. ‘Something to talk about in PSHE next term.’
‘No way you should be talking about this, Lola. Not at school anyway.’
‘Where then?’ She looked up with interest, obviously dying to relate the events of the evening to someone at some point.
‘Nowhere at the moment,’ I said firmly. ‘Look, Lola, are you sure you’re OK? It’s a horrible thing for a child to go through.’
‘I think I am,’ she said seriously. ‘But who knows? Maybe I’ll need to talk to someone. Counselling maybe? Mrs Gateshead says if we have a problem at home, we must always tell someone at school. Put it into the worry box on her desk.’
‘Right?’ Goodness, I hated the idea of Lola offloading her problems to anyone else rather than me. To be honest, I hated the idea of an eleven-year-old having problems to begin with.
‘Ruby wanted you to go on holiday with her,’ I reminded her.
‘Only because she thinks her dad’s new girlfriend is going to go with them as well…’
‘Ruby’s dad’s got a new girlfriend?’ I sat up at that, my jaw well and truly dropped. Hadn’t the man’s fingers been inching upmyknee just a few hours earlier. ‘Already?’ I managed to get out. ‘I thought the woman who Ruby calledMumhad only just left? You know, the woman with the three daft shouty Pomerwotsits?’
‘Pomeranians,’ Lola corrected me. ‘Ruby saidthat mum, who wasn’t herreal mum– Jasmine, she was called – had gone back to London. She didn’t like living up north. Said it was cold and people talked funny. And she’d come back for her dogs when she knew where she was going to be living in London. Canwego to London, Mum? Go and see Sorrel? I really miss her. Sheislike my big sister, you know.’
I didn’t think I’d acknowledged that Lola’s bad behaviour recently was possibly due partly to Sorrel and Mum leaving.
‘Of course we can,’ I said. ‘And soon too.’ I’d get Dean to cough up for train fares and a hotel, my bank account being very much in the red with all the entertaining, as well as the baking and cooking I’d been doing recently in preparation for The White House. I needed to be up front and ask Kamran for reimbursement.
‘Does Ruby miss her?’ I asked.
‘Her mum that wasn’t really her mum?’ Lola lowered her voice as she offered up this confidence. ‘No! No, she didn’t like Jasmine.’
‘Does Ruby likeanyone?’ I asked, feeling sorry for the little girl.
‘She loves her dad. And she really liked me. Well, to begin with, anyway. She said I was her best friend and we’dalwaysbe friends. She wanted us to cut our wrists…’
‘What!’ I exploded, staring at Lola. ‘What?’
‘Oh, don’t panic. Not in a cutting sort of way. You know, just pin pricks to mix our blood in a show of friendship…’
‘Don’t you ever, ever…’
‘I wouldn’t, I won’t! I absolutely promise. Daft idea!’ Lola patted my hand in reassurance. ‘And she wanted me to go on holiday with her. I think, really, she wanted me there so she wouldn’t be left by herself at the villa again.’
‘Left by herself?’ I was horrified.
‘Well, no, not left totally byherself.’ Lola tutted. ‘Left with Kateryna, I mean. And Kateryna, she says, just wants to go round art galleries and “places of interest”.’ Lola air mimed quotations marks and, despite the awfulness of it all for poor, sad little Ruby, I wanted to laugh. ‘IfIwent with them,’ Lola continued, ‘I could share her room in the villa in Spain her dad owns and…’ She stopped talking. ‘Mum, I don’t have to go, do I? I don’t want to. I don’t want to leave you and Dad and Arthur and Granny…’
‘You’re not going anywhere, sweetheart,’ I said, hugging her fiercely. ‘You’re staying right here with me.’
Lola’s eyes began to droop and her hand in mine loosened. It was well after midnight and, although pitch black outside, I moved back to the window, trying to work out what to do about Joel. I’d messaged him a couple of times since we’d arrived back home but there’d been no response. Should I be ringing Andy? Joel was no longer on an electronic tag, so at least I wouldn’t have the monitoring people ringing me.
And then there was George. George, who, I realised, I’d definitely changed my mind about recently. George, who, so Robyn had intimated, was often asking about me; who’d got me into the gym and back into hockey. George, who’d invited me round to the barn he was so excited about, wanting my advice and opinion. And who now, it all came out, was one of Henry’s gang.
As I stood at the window, another car, unmarked this time, but with blue light rolling and lighting up my garden like a horizontal Christmas tree, careened into the drive and two burly men – both in plain clothes – jumped from the vehicle and started hammering on my kitchen door.
