One Summer Night At the Ritz by Jenny Oliver Page A

and brought food and stocked the freezer and the fridge with meals labelled for the week, she swallowed her pride and her fears of being a burden and asked Enid to pop in every day. But then this Jane had to drop out of college because, one night, her mum set sail. Just disappeared with the boat and was found drifting ten miles upstream.
    ‘‘I saw him.’ Was all she could say when asked why she went. ‘Who?’ this Jane had asked. ‘Your father.’
    ‘Mum, he’s dead.’
    ‘He’s not dead.’
    This scrap, this snippet, had this Jane round to Enid’s bombarding her with questions. Going on and on about her father. What did she know? What was her mother not telling her? Accusing Enid of hiding her mum’s secret with her, getting so angry. Pleading with her to tell her everything she knew. And in response Enid had walked to the kitchen and opened a drawer. This Jane had been momentarily taken aback, thinking that finally, after a life-time of asking, she was going to find out something about her father, something that was in that drawer. But instead Enid had taken out a new packet of cigarettes, lit one from the stove and said,
‘She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She can’t live on that boat alone, Jane.’
    Will’s hand brushed down her hair. ‘What did you do?’ he asked.
    Jane swallowed. Aware that she’d been talking for a really long time, it was almost a shock to hear someone else’s voice. ‘I, er– I moved back,’ she said, sitting upright again, moving away from the warmth and smell of him, retying her hair. ‘She was really sick after that. And, well, there was just me and I was never going to let her be on her own.’ She leant forward and took a sip of Coke. Will stayed in exactly the same position, watching her. ‘So really it was just me,’ she said, glancing at him with a half-smile, ‘Me, Enid and my mum. Two houseboats. Enid sort of looked after me, I looked after Mum and watched out for Enid as she got older.’ She had started to ramble, nervous. ‘Quite hard to have order in a life like that,’ she said and then picked up a handful of now-cold chips and ate them to stop herself talking any more.
    Will nodded. ‘I see now why my offer of money was er – not quite called for,’ he said, stretching out his arms with a yawn and then leaning forward to look at the half-eaten food.
    ‘No.’oShe shook her head.
    ‘No.’oTheir eyes met and she had to look away.
    Across the room his phone started to ring.
    ‘Hang on, let me get that.’ Will stood up and went across the room to search through his jacket pocket and find his phone. ‘Oh god,’ he sighed before pressing Answer.

Chapter Fifteen
    ‘Dude, I’m right where you are,’ his brother said on the other end of the line.
    ‘How?’ Will frowned.
    ‘Find My Friends,’iZeph laughed. ‘What are you doing in The Ritz anyway?’
    Will scratched his forehead. Why had he ever downloaded that app? ‘I’m just, er, having dinner.’
    ‘OK, well I’m gonna swing by cos I’m in the area and I really need some cash.’
    Will glanced down at his robe. ‘I’m not actually in the, er, restaurant.’
    ‘Where are you then?’ asked his brother, then he laughed. ‘Oh I get it. I’m walking up the steps now, god it’s so anal here. The guy’s got a top hat on. Jesus. OK, what room?’
    ‘Zeph. Just wait down there and I’ll come and meet you.’
    ‘No chance,’ his brother laughed again. ‘Come on, what room?’
    Will put his hand over his eyes and tried to think.
    ‘I’m waiting,’ said his brother. ‘Hey!’ He heard him say to someone else down in the lobby, ‘Have you seen William Blackwell in here?’
    ‘OK, Zeph, just tell them you’re seeing Jane Williams. Jane…’ He turned to look at Jane, who was sitting defensively upright again in her seat, eyes wide trying to gauge the situation. Her feelings were unreadable; like the whole previous hour or so hadn’t happened. ‘What’s the room