‘You scrub up pretty well,’ he continued. Ruby rolled her eyes. Even if she did feel a little flattered, she was never going to let him pick up on it.
‘You’re surprised, are you? Think I’ve never been to a party before?’
‘Not one like this … Surely?’ Johan was trying to provoke her, she knew that, and yet it was still working. She eyed him from head to toe. It was galling to admit that he looked right at home. Somehow the tail coat that looked a tad ridiculous on Noah made sense on Johan.
‘Oh and you have? Go to balls every weekend in Hackney do you?’ Ruby retorted.
To her surprise Johan blushed. ‘No, of course not,’ he said quickly, his eyes not meeting hers. She had that distinct feeling again that he was hiding something but just as she opened her mouth to try and probe further, Gareth appeared beside her, a glass of champagne in each hand.
‘Have I interrupted something?’ he asked Johan, who didn’t respond, but reached instead for a flute. ‘Uh-uh, this is for the lady. Where are your manners, Johan!’
Gareth passed the glass to Ruby, who in that moment decided that maybe she could come around to Gareth after all. She smiled at him.
‘Might I say, darling, that you look quite stunning. When Opal described the dress she’d picked out for you I wasn’t sure, but I see now that she was quite right; the colour is magnificent on you.’ Gareth was definitely a little tipsy already, but Ruby was still touched by his effusiveness.
It was nice to have her suspicions confirmed: that she did in fact look great.
‘Thanks, Gareth, you don’t look too bad yourself.’ They cheersed. Only then did Ruby notice that Johan had slunk away.
They stood side by side as they observed the room around them.
‘Good Lord, I really didn’t think she’d have the nerve to show up,’ Gareth exclaimed, not so surreptitiously, under his breath.
Ruby followed his gaze and landed on a young woman who had just walked into the ballroom. She was arm in arm withthat friend of Opal’s who had been at dinner the previous week.
She was slim and tall. Her limbs seemed to make up most of her frame and if there was a colour scheme dress code, she had ignored it.
The dress was silver, extremely short, high necked and tied in a halter, leaving most of her back exposed. The golden waves of her hair flowed over her shoulders in a voluminous cascade. Her long pale legs tapered into strikingly hot-pink stilettos. The patent leather glinting under the spray of the chandeliers’ light. Suffice to say, she had dressed to be noticed.
‘Who is that?’ Ruby and Gareth were far from the only ones whose eyes had drifted in the women’s direction.
‘That … is Agnes,’ Gareth said pointedly with a single eyebrow raised. Ruby understood from his tone that she was, for some reason or another, a persona non grata. It took Ruby only another few seconds to realise why.
Martin couldn’t seem to help himself. Ruby watched as he craned his neck to watch the woman, even as he pretended to listen to whatever boring conversation he was currently standing in. Soon enough he had made his excuses and strode over to her, his hand lingering a moment too long on her lower back as he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.
‘So she’s who he’s fucking then …’ Ruby said flatly, taking another sip.
Next to her Gareth choked on his mouthful of fizz. ‘Christ, yes well you’ve hit the nail on the head there. I can only hope it’s not that obvious to everyone else in the room. Poor Opal.’
‘And does the mother know?’ Ruby gestured towards Deborah. The family resemblance was striking now shethought about it. Apart from their colouring, their doll-like features were almost identical.
‘I have no idea,’ Gareth mused. ‘I don’t know Debbie well, but I’d be surprised if she was OK with the arrangement. She’s quite … straitlaced shall we say?’
Ruby’s eyes drifted over to Deborah, whose gaze was in turn trained on her daughter. Ruby watched as Deborah brought a perfectly manicured fingernail to her teeth and began to gnaw at it.
At a certain moment Martin began to laugh too loudly and Deborah suddenly turned and scurried from the ballroom. Agnes seemed none the wiser to the fallout of her entrance. Perhaps she was simply used to it, accustomed to walking into any space and immediately being the centre of the room’s attention.
At that moment Ruby felt sorry for Opal.
‘If she didn’t know, I would wager that she does now,’ Ruby observed, and Gareth nodded in agreement. They looked on.
‘And might I askyoua personal question?’ Gareth didn’t turn to her as he spoke. Ruby braced herself, but it seemed only fair that she not immediately shut Gareth down.
‘And what’s that?’
‘What’s going on with you and Johan? He seems desperately smitten, which I might say is very unusual for him.’
Ruby smiled. It was validating above all else to know thatshewashisexception, while he was her rule.
