‘So!’ said Vi brightly, sitting opposite. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure? You sounded a bit grim on the phone.’
Ruby eyed her friend steadily. ‘I felt a bit grim.’
‘Oh dear. Troubles?’
‘Some, yes.’
‘Come on then, what’s up? That’s what I’m here for.’
That’s what I’m here for. It was so ironic, that statement, that it made Ruby want to laugh. Or cry. She reached into her bag, drew out the record sleeve.
‘What’s this?’ asked Vi, leaning forward, all interest.
‘Here. Have a look,’ said Ruby, and handed it over to her.
Vi kept her face amazingly straight as she looked at the writing on the sleeve: I’m Still in Love with You.
Then she looked up at her dearest, oldest friend, her face puzzled. ‘So? What are you showing me this for?’
‘Because I’d like the truth,’ said Ruby. ‘Also, because that’s your handwriting.’
120
‘What…?’ Vi was looking from the writing on the sleeve to Ruby’s face. ‘I don’t know what you mean, Rubes.’
‘At first I thought it was Betsy’s. You went to the same school as her and me, but you were a couple of years above us. And they were very keen on us all having that uniform super-neat writing in those days, weren’t they? There was a left-handed girl in our class and they used to tie her hand behind her back to force her to write with her other hand. So everyone came out of class with this same neat, well-formed writing. Although I believe that left-handed girl came out with a nervous stutter too. My writing’s similar to yours, to Betsy’s. But not quite the same; my loops are bigger. Yours and Betsy’s are very alike, I think that’s a family thing. That’s what confused me at first. But now I can see it. That’s not Betsy’s writing at all. It’s yours.’
Vi’s smile had vanished. ‘I don’t know-’
‘It is your writing, isn’t it, Vi?’ asked Ruby, her voice hard.
Vi looked up at Ruby’s face. She swallowed, then nodded.
‘That was in Michael’s record collection.’
‘Rubes…’ Vi was shaking her head.
‘You gave it to him.’ Ruby was staring at Vi as if she had never seen her before.
Vi was notorious – and it had always struck Ruby as amusing, a friend’s foible – for chasing men, for being seen out on the town with her young, handsome ‘walkers’ while her elderly husband stayed here on his estate. It didn’t strike her as funny any more.
‘Rubes, please…’
‘You gave it to him,’ said Ruby forcefully, cutting across Vi’s feeble words.
Now Vi’s face became set, mutinous. ‘All right. OK. I did give it to him.’
Ruby took a breath. Vi might as well have stabbed her in the heart.
‘Why?’ she asked quietly. ‘Why would you do that?’
Vi’s eyes slipped away from Ruby’s. She shrugged. ‘Michael was… well, I found him very attractive. You did, why shouldn’t I? And I suggested to him that he and I… well, just a fling, you know? A little bit of fun.’
‘Oh God.’ Ruby stared at Vi’s face. ‘You’re not even his type,’ she said dazedly.
Michael’s taste in women had always been for the dark, the exotic. Like his Italian-born wife Sheila; like Ruby herself. He hadn’t cared for blondes, or redheads.
‘Don’t look at me like that. You’ve no idea what it’s like, married to…’ Her voice trailed away.
‘He was with me, Vi.’
‘Weren’t you the lucky one,’ she snapped. Her eyes, still beautiful, emerald green, flashed into Ruby’s. ‘He was absolutely bloody devoted to you, of course.’
‘I thought so,’ said Ruby. She leaned over and snatched the record sleeve back off Vi.
‘It started out as a bit of fun, Ruby,’ said Vi almost pleadingly, spreading her hands as if in supplication. ‘I wish I could tell you that he chased me. That would salve my conscience quite a lot. But the truth? The truth is I pursued him. I had to know: could I get him? I could usually get any man I wanted, but could I get him when he already had you?’
‘You bitch,’ muttered Ruby.
‘You know I’m a bitch. You’ve always known it.’ Vi swallowed and then went on more calmly: ‘But the game soon got serious. I wanted him. I fell in love with him. Michael wasn’t a toy like my usual boys. You’ve seen them: pretty little things, thick as pigshit. But Michael was a man, a real man, he was dangerous and alluring. I wanted him so much. Showered him with gifts – like that.’ She nodded at the record sleeve.
‘Go on,’ said Ruby numbly.
Vi gave an awkward laugh. ‘I suppose you think it’s all a bit sordid, don’t you? I gave him bigger things too. Expensive things.’
‘The Krugerrand ring, inscribed I’m Still in Love with You. That was you too?’
‘Oh, you saw that?’
‘He had it with him on the day he died.’
Vi’s mouth twisted. ‘I’d given it to him a couple of days earlier. And no doubt he would have returned that, too, if he’d had the time. I wonder why he didn’t return the record? Not that it matters, not any more. Because his time ran out, didn’t it.’
Ruby said nothing.
‘He wouldn’t cave in. He sent so many of my gifts back. Rejected them, and me. I became desperate. What can I tell you? I’m a bored, rich woman with too much time on my hands and I started to pursue him like my life depended on it. Then I followed him one night when he was getting into his car. I was wearing a fur coat, nothing underneath it. I was desperate, Ruby. That writing on the record sleeve? That inscription on the ring? It was the absolute truth. I was still in love with him. And… I wanted to prove I could have him.’
Ruby’s face looked as if it had turned to stone.
‘And did you?’ she asked.
Vi nodded, biting her lip, eyes downcast. ‘Just that once. One night! And the minute it was over, he said, Enough. Never again. Keep out of my way.’
Ruby was listening, taking it all in. Michael had betrayed her. Thomas had been telling her the truth. Someone had seen Vi, in the priceless blue mink Anthony had given her for their first wedding anniversary, follow Michael to his car.
Just once and under extreme provocation, she thought.
But once was enough. Once was still a betrayal. And with her friend, of all people.
‘You know me, Rubes.’ Now Vi was smiling again, but the smile was sad and tired. ‘Never could follow the rules, could I? Having had a taste, I wanted more. I kept running after him, he kept pushing me away. He really loved you, Rubes. Really and truly. He didn’t want me. He never did. And that’s why he died, in the end. Poor Michael.’
121
Ruby was very still, watching her friend – her friend! – as she talked about Michael’s death.
‘Oh, Rubes, please don’t look at me like that. I adored him. I loved him so much,’ Vi moaned.
Ruby was startled to see that Vi’s eyes were full of tears.
‘And I wanted to know I could still do it, Rubes, do you see? That I still had it, like I had it back at the Windmill all those years ago, that I could call any man to my side with nothing more than a glance…’
Ruby felt faintly sick, sitting here looking at Vi now. A woman who had everything in the world, and still wanted that little bit more. Even her friend’s man. Just to prove that she could.
Ruby took a breath. It was cold in here, but she felt hot, almost dizzy with the shock of what Vi was telling her. All the way here she had been hoping, praying, that she’d got it wrong, that she was mistaken. But now she knew she hadn’t, and it killed her. Vi was her best friend in all the world. And she had betrayed her.