Page 104 of Save Us
“I really like him, Ruby. I have the feeling that he gets me. We kind of…clicked.”
“Mm,” she says. “Maybe he has changed.”
“I’m being careful. But this is something I have to experience for myself. You can’t protect me from it.”
For a moment, Ruby says nothing, running her index finger over an imaginary line on her mattress, apparently lost in thought. In the end, she sighs and then says, more to herself than me: “No, that’s true.”
“Would you like to talk about what happened between you and James?” I ask cautiously.
Ruby swallows hard. Her eyes roam around the room and then catch on her desk. “He’s going back to his dad. And back to Beaufort’s.”
I hold my breath. “What?”
Ruby doesn’t say any more. Minutes pass as she just stares straight ahead. She looks like she’s not really here, and her eyes are so blank I get goose bumps up my arms.
“On the way home, Wren said he wouldn’t be surprised if James’s dad wasn’t playing fair in getting him to knuckle down,” I suggest. “Do you think that’s what happened today?”
That snaps Ruby out of it. Her eyes are sparking with rage as she looks at me.
“The bastard is blackmailing him.”
I exhale jerkily. So Wren was right.
“What with?” I ask.
Ruby gulps. She opens her mouth and shuts it again. Then she clears her throat and starts again. “He…he said he’d destroy our family.”
My eyes widen. “Excuse me?”
“That’s all James would say, but it’s all he needed to. We both know that Mortimer Beaufort doesn’t mess around.” She rubs her hand over her eyes, which are full of tears again. “Just the thought of exactly what he might have said to James makes me so angry.”
My mind is whirling with what Ruby just told me and wondering if there’s anything that could justify James’s dad acting like that. But however hard I try, I can’t think of a single thing. Our dad would never hurt us like that, whatever situation he found himself in.
“I don’t get how you can do a thing like that to your kids,” I say.
Ruby grabs a pillow and pulls it into her lap. She hugs it tight, like she’s clinging on for dear life.
“He’s got it into his head that he only wants to go on running Beaufort’s with James. All he cares about is his reputation—the effect it will have on other people if James is there at his side in meetings and negotiations. I feel sick when I think that James will have to do whatever he tells him again. I’d so like to help him, but I don’t know what I can do.” Her voice fades away, and she coughs again.
I reach out and grab the arm that’s wrapped around the pillow. “You are helping him, Ruby.”
“How? By sitting here and letting him just go?” she retorts.
I shake my head and squeeze her arm gently. “You’re there for him. And I think that’s exactly what James needs from you at the moment.”
Ruby gulps hard and sniffs. I realized that there’s no way I can leave her at the moment. Suddenly, I have an idea.
“How about I sleep over in your room tonight?” I ask cautiously.
Ruby thinks my question over for a moment. The next second, she shifts over and sinks back. She hands me the pillow from her lap, and I place it on the half of the bed she’s freed up. Then I lie down, turn toward Ruby, and look at her.
“Thank you for being here, Ember,” she whispers.
I reach for her hand. “Always.”
27
Ruby
