Ruby's Palace Read online

  Francesca adored them and so she paid for their private education, their trips abroad, and their holidays with her in the States. Jack was sixteen now and Ruby fifteen. They looked very much like the Vincents, particularly Ruby, who was the image of her aunt when she had been her age yet, unbeknown to Francesca, her character was very different. As a child she had been adorable, sweet and loved by everyone. Not now, though.

  Francesca had been a very kind-hearted young woman when she was fifteen and she hadn’t lost her sparkling and well-rounded personality. She was still very attractive, with jet black hair tumbling down her back and the brightest steel-blue eyes.

  Ruby had the same eyes, but they weren’t as open and honest-looking as her aunt’s.

  Sam poured his sister a coffee and they returned to the living room.

  “Tell me to mind my own business, but is your cleaner on strike or what?”

  He laughed. “I never had a cleaner, never needed one. Sis, I have always kept this house clean and tidy. The kids picked up after themselves, and we mucked in together, but now it’s like I’ve asked for the earth. If I ask Ruby to empty the dishwasher, she huffs and fucking puffs, then storms out.”

  He paused, lighting up a fag. “She’s a different kid and I don’t know her anymore.”

  No sooner had he spoken than she walked into the room. “All right, Fran?” Her voice was flat and ugly.

  “’Ere, madam, it’s Aunty Fran to you, young lady!” snapped Sam.

  Ruby stood in the doorway, rolling her eyes. She was wearing a crop top and baggy sweatpants.

  “Hello, Rubes,” replied Francesca, who was surprised to find her niece looking so grown-up. “Have you had your belly button pierced, or is it a stick-on one?”

  Her niece tutted.

  “Don’t be silly, it’s real. As if I’d have a stick-on belly bar!” With that, she flicked her long fringe out of her face and walked into the kitchen.

  Francesca looked at Sam in disbelief. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say, ‘I told you’.

  “I guess it’s hormones and the dreaded teenage years.” She tried to laugh it off but she could tell Ruby had developed a nasty attitude, along with big tits and a fake tan.

  “I bought Jack those trainers they are all raving about. They came out in the States first, and you know what he’s like with the latest fashion. He put his order in. I couldn’t remember which ones he wanted so I got all three colours.”

  “You spoil those kids. I hope he is grateful.” Sam knew his son would be. He was no trouble: he was so helpful, polite and kind.

  “Don’t worry, Jack appreciates everything, and I love to see his face light up.”

  Ruby could hear talk of trainers and remembered her aunt always brought her a present. She entered the living room, expecting to be handed a gift. Instead, she got nothing.

  “So, Aunty Fran, did you get me trainers?” asked Ruby, full of fake smiles.

  She stared for a moment at her niece. “You didn’t ask for any.” An uncomfortable silence lingered between them.

  “Oh, I see, so I have to ask now, do I? Jack just gets it all then, does he?” She stood with her hands on her hips.

  “Ruby, Jack calls me at least twice a week for a chat. You haven’t called me in a month, and I look around the room and notice all your messy shit. Then, I listen to your mouth and how you speak to me and your father.” She got to her feet. “Now then, my girl, you can change your attitude for a start and show the people that love you some respect.” Her sinister glare unnerved Ruby and she shuffled uncomfortably. Francesca was never nasty, quite the opposite in fact. She was kind and caring, but there was an edge to her. Ruby was aware her uncles and dad treated her aunt with paramount regard. There was always a nagging feeling that, outside the comfort of her family, she was a dangerous woman.

  In a flash, Ruby ran out of the room and back upstairs.

  Sam shook his head and puffed on his cigarette.

  Francesca pulled out a box. “When she behaves herself she can have this, but only when she changes her shitty attitude.”

  Sam took the small parcel and smiled. “What is it?”

  “Open it,” she whispered.

  He opened the black box to find a shiny silver watch.

  “Gucci is all the rage with the teenagers.”

  Sam laughed. “Sis, this watch is too much, she’s only fifteen!”

  “So? I want her to have it. I bet her posh friends have all the latest gear.”

  He adored his sister. She had been the one who rescued his children from the clutches of their mother and gave them back their dignity. She had taken responsibility for their future and made sure they had the best.

  Ruby came back in the room with a sweatshirt on and a sweeter smile.

  “Sorry, Aunt Sisco.” Sisco was short for Francisco. Both Jack and Ruby couldn’t say ‘Francesca’ in their younger years so they had called her Sisco and the name seemed to have stuck.

  “Right then, love. I have something for you.” Ruby’s eyes lit up. Her aunt never gave them shit presents.

  “But it’s yours only when your dad thinks you have earned it!”

  Ruby bit her lip.

  “So, my girl, buck your ideas up, or you won’t be wearing a Gucci watch on your wrist.”

  Ruby squealed with delight. “A Gucci watch?” She clapped her hands together.

  Francesca waved her finger. “Not yet, madam – when you prove you can be more helpful.”

  As she smiled, her dimples appeared and she looked more like the little three-year-old who Francesca found twelve years ago.

  Minutes later, Jack arrived. He was tall – like his dad – but his face was the double of her twin brother, Fred. He rushed over to his aunt and kissed her on the cheek.

  She smiled with pride as she looked her nephew over.

  “Look at you! You must have grown a foot since I last saw you!”

  He laughed. “Yep, another growth spurt. I’m just trying to bulk-up now, I’ve got my big fight next week.”

  Francesca never liked the boxing club. She hated violence for fun, or as a sport, and their history contained more than most.

  Jack opened his boxes with a huge smile. He never asked for much but he loved a pair of fresh trainers.

  Eager to please, Jack straightaway offered to make tea. Next, he presented his school report and his latest boxing pictures. Francesca was so proud. He was well liked by his teachers and his grades were good.

  “Where’s your school report, Rubes?” she asked, peering over Jack’s photos.

  Ruby glanced over at her father who, without a word, gestured for her to tell her aunt.

  Instead, she stared at the floor. Jack jumped in. “Rubes, your mate Jenny’s outside. I forgot to tell you.”

  It was a quick way to get Ruby out because he guessed she would be so embarrassed if she had to tell their aunt about her exclusion.

  “Oh yeah, sorry Sisco, I’ve got to rush.” With that, she left.

  Sam looked at his son and decided not to tell his sister now that the headmistress had excluded Ruby for fighting. He admired the way his son protected her. It had always been the same. Ever since they were small he would run to Ruby’s defence and vice versa.

  Francesca wasn’t stupid. In fact, she was extremely intelligent, and fathomed straight away that Jack was defending his sister. So she waited for him to have his bath before she tackled the situation.

  “What’s going on, Sam?”

  “I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to worry,” said Sam with a flat, resigned tone. “Our Ruby has got herself excluded from school for a week because she gave one kid a black eye.”

  Francesca cocked her head to the side in disbelief. “What did the girl do to her?”

  “By all accounts it was just a bit of verbal and Ruby landed her one. I’ve gotta say, it ain’t the first time. That little prat is quick with her fists.”

  Francesca was astounded. The last time she sa
w her niece had been in America, and she was a perfect little angel. What could have changed so much?

  “How long has she been acting like this, Sam?”

  “It’s been getting worse over a period of about six months, sis. I don’t know what to do…” He stopped to light up another fag. Francesca looked closely at her brother and he had definitely aged. She could see the silver streaks in his hair and he was looking a touch haggard.

  “Sis, I’ve stopped her training at the gym. At first I thought it was okay for her to get fit and learn to defend herself, but she punches harder than Jack and, when she loses it, well, fuck me, sis, she can fight.”

  She listened intently. She was dumbfounded to think her sweet, little Ruby was a street rucker with a bad attitude.

  “Why is she like it, Sam?”

  He stood up to go to the kitchen. “I have absolutely no idea.”

  *

  Francesca left the house, hugging her brother. “Listen, Sam, I will be back in the week to have a chat with Ruby and, if she gets too much, I’ll take her home with me for a while, just to give you breathing space.” He nodded, but in his heart he knew his daughter was on the long road to self-destruction. He prayed she wouldn’t turn out like her mother.

  Francesca had driven herself to Sam’s. Dominic, her driver as well as her minder, was enjoying the Sunday rest. As she turned the corner, she spotted her niece sitting on a bench with four other teenagers. She was punching the air and laughing as if she was re-enacting a fight. The other kids looked on intently. She was the centre of attention and she was loving it. Then Francesca noticed her dragging on a cigarette. She pulled up across the road and watched for a while, disappointed that Ruby had taken her sweatshirt off, revealing her midriff.

  She decided to leave Ruby for now. Besides, it was just a cocky phase she was going through. After all, she had grown up with a brother who was a boxer and four uncles, all as tough as old boots. So having a brassy attitude was, no doubt, high on the agenda. But her smile soon turned to horror when she observed Ruby take a small bag from one younger man and roll a joint. Not a clumsy affair either. Ruby rolled that spliff with accuracy, as if she was an old hand at it. And Francesca would bet her last dollar she was!

  Without thinking, she jumped from the car and, before Ruby could look up from her tobacco, Francesca had grabbed the lot. The others stepped aside.

  “Fuck off, lady, and give me my gear back!” spat one spotty little teenager.

  Ruby gripped her seat with her mouth wide open in horror. She stared at her aunt, who looked like the devil herself.

  “It’s not mine, Sisco, I was just rolling it for him,” she said in a panic.

  The spotty teenager realised that Ruby knew the woman and then agreed. “Yeah, Misses. It’s my gear!” He held his hand out, assuming Francesca would give it back, but instead he got the shock of his life. Francesca, still clutching the skunk, gave the boy a nasty back-hander which, to her own surprise, sent him on his arse.

  “Fuck off, you little prick, or I’ll ‘ave ya nicked!” She spoke in a language he understood. In a flash, he was on his feet and running down the road, followed by the rest. Ruby, still in shock, didn’t know whether to defend her statement that it wasn’t her skunk or to say sorry and that it wouldn’t happen again. Before she could do anything, Francesca grabbed her by the arm and marched her to the car.

  “Get in there, you little cow,” she screamed as she threw her onto the back seat.

  Ruby had never heard her aunt speak like that before. She had always been so sophisticated and graceful, full of nice posh words.

  She felt angry that Francesca had damaged her street cred and humiliated her.

  The house was only around the corner but Francesca would not risk Ruby running away.

  After they pulled up, she dragged her from the car and frog-marched her through the front door.

  “What the fuck is going on?” said Sam.

  Francesca pushed Ruby into the living room and handed Sam the bag of skunk.

  Sam’s eyes widened. The one thing he hated more than anything was drugs. He had served time over drugs and his children had been neglected by their mother because of them. Both his children were well aware of his feelings.

  Sam looked at his daughter, who sat with an expression of spite, staring at the wall, with no remorse whatsoever. He waved the bag in front of her nose. “What the fucking ‘ell do you think you are doing, my girl?” he shouted at the top of his voice – an inch away from her face.

  She didn’t even flinch. “Like I told her,” Ruby pointed to her aunt with venom in her eyes, “that gear ain’t mine, it’s Craig’s. I was just rolling a joint for him, that’s all!” Ruby’s temper increased. “She has just gone and shown me right up…” Before she could finish her words, Sam, in a fit of rage, slapped her across the face. He never hit his children, but she had gone too far this time.

  Ruby stood up, holding her stinging cheek, and stared into Francesca’s eyes. “See what you’ve done. Happy now, are ya?” She pushed past Francesca to go upstairs.

  “Oh no you don’t, my girl. Get down here now or I’ll fucking give you another slap!” yelled Sam.

  Ruby stopped at the foot of the stairs. Her face was throbbing but she didn’t care. Her anger was bubbling up and she turned on her aunt.

  “Look at you! Coming in here as if you own the place, acting like you’re my mother, just ‘cos you can’t ‘ave kids of your own, fucking thinking you know best. Paying for us don’t mean you can control me!”

  Francesca was mortified. It was hard to believe those words had left the mouth of the girl she had given everything to. She thought she had done the right thing by the kids but those cutting remarks absolutely shattered her.

  Jack, hearing the commotion, ran down the stairs, near to tears. “Ruby, stop it. Don’t be so nasty, you love our aunt. Why did you say those wicked things?”

  “Cos she ain’t our muvver, all right! She took us away from her and now I don’t even know who she is. Thanks to her!” Ruby was still angry and it was obvious to Francesca that this wasn’t just a spur of the moment, spiteful few words. No, it was much more than that.

  They stared at each other, long enough for Ruby to see the hurt she had caused, and for Francesca to recognise the hate her niece felt.

  Sam, stunned by his daughter’s outrageous outburst, looked at his sister, hoping she’d laugh it off or shout back, but she didn’t. It cut him deep to see the first sign of a tear in Francesca’s eyes. If it hadn’t been for her, his children would have been living in squalor with their mother.

  Trying to stay calm, he grabbed Ruby’s arm and marched her upstairs.

  Jack was crying, which looked so out of place – a strapping lad, bawling into cupped hands. Francesca put her arm around his shoulders and whispered, “It’s okay, Jack, she is just a hormonal teenager.”

  He gazed up at his aunt and shook his head. “She’s more than that, the fucking nasty bitch.” He wiped his nose on his sleeve, between sobs. “She is getting right out of hand.” Francesca admired her nephew for the way he was at such a young age. Most brothers would have let their wayward sisters get on with it, but Jack showed real concern.

  They both heard a door slam shut and Sam storm back down the stairs. His expression was one of sheer anger. His face was white and his lips were tight. Francesca had seen her brother get annoyed but he never looked angry. It was a shock to her. In fact, the whole Ruby tantrum was alarming. Her supposed near-perfect family were far from perfect. The issues here were more than teenage tantrums. She could see that Ruby had a problem and that she herself had been part of it. Ruby was angry her mother wasn’t in her life and maybe, since she had been responsible for that, she should be the one to put matters right.

  Sam was embarrassed by his daughter’s behaviour and found it hard to deal with, so he went to the kitchen and lit a cigarette. Francesca joined him, ushering Jack to stay in the living room so she could speak with his father
alone. She put her arm around his waist; he was too tall to put it around his shoulders. “Listen, Sam, I’m thinking that maybe she could meet with her mother.” Before she could continue, Sam stopped her.

  “Are you mad?” He stubbed out the fag. “No fucking way is she going anywhere near that junkie. I know she has said horrible things to you and, trust me, I couldn’t feel more hurt, listening to the venom coming from my own daughter’s gob, but, sis, there’s no way she’s gonna have anything to do with her!”

  Francesca was used to people agreeing with her, but now she understood her brother had the right to call the shots. If he was adamant that Ruby was to stay away from her mother, then so be it.

  “Sis, even if she met up with her, not that she even knows where she lives —”

  “I do,” interrupted Francesca.

  Sam frowned. “How do you know?”

  Francesca looked at the floor. “I should have been straight with you – years ago.”

  Sam never got annoyed with his sister. The respect ran too deep. He waited for an explanation.

  “When she was released from prison, I paid her a visit.”

  She sat at the kitchen table, followed by Sam, who was intrigued to know more.

  Francesca had made it her business to find out the date of Jesse’s release. That was easy back then, since her days as a lawyer gave her a good insight into the loopholes where you could get hold of this kind of information.

  *

  It had been nine years ago when Francesca waited at the prison gates. The air was cool for September, so she had sat in the comfort of her limousine. Dominic, her driver-come-bodyguard, was in the front, reading the newspaper. Francesca remained in the back, wrapped in her long cashmere sweater. The gates opened and out walked a skinny, bedraggled-looking woman, wearing the same clothes she wore the last time Francesca had clapped eyes on her. That was a meeting both women would never forget.

  Jesse was the mother of both Jack and Ruby and had just served three years for drug offences.

  She looked over at the black limo and guessed it was Francesca’s. She waited for her to step out of the car, hoping that the six months spent in the prison gym had given her enough strength to give Sam’s sister the hiding she deserved. When she gazed in the mirror, she saw a skinny runt, but when she stared into her own eyes, she saw strength. The day Francesca had set her up with cocaine on a prison visit had haunted her for three solid years. She fell asleep in the dark cell every night, reliving the horror of being found with Class A drugs in her bag and that sadistic grin on Francesca’s face as she had slipped away with her two children.