The Bow Wow Club by Nicola May

you!’ She was slurring by now.
    Michael knew he couldn’t rise to this, but just to hear those words come out of his beautiful lover’s mouth, even in jest, made him feel warm inside.
    So warm inside, that tomorrow he would tell her.

– Chapter Thirty-One –
    ‘AITCHOO!’ Everything about Simon Dye was loud, even his sneeze.
    ‘Bless you,’ Ruby offered as she came through the church-hall door. ‘So now you can’t blame poor little Fanny for your allergy, can you? She’s not even here.’
    ‘Susie?’
    ‘Ruby.’
    ‘Ruby, her dirty little hairs are obviously now embedded into the wooden floor.’
    ‘Maybe you’re allergic to me?’
    ‘More likely the moaners who come here every Tuesday.’
    ‘Harsh. But true.’ Laughing, she walked through to the small kitchen at the back of the hall.
    ‘Diet Coke?’
    ‘Yep, lovely.’
    Ruby didn’t dare say she knew that in his mug at the front he had already poured his vodka. Mind you, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. She was finding helping out here a lot harder than she’d anticipated. It had made her assess her own loss in ways she wouldn’t have thought possible.
    ‘So are you seeing anyone again, after your husband passing?’
    ‘Sort of.’
    ‘Ah, shagging someone then?’
    ‘Simon!’ Ruby turned her head to the side. ‘I think it’s more than that.’
    ‘Think?’ Ever the counsellor, he wouldn’t drop it.
    ‘Simon, stop it. It’s like I can’t give my all to someone because I still love George. We have just been away for Valentine’s, actually.’
    ‘So, it is more than that.’
    ‘He told me that he loved me.’ Ruby welled up.
    Simon ran to her side. Here.’ Pulling two chairs up facing each other, he handed her a tissue and gently held her small pale hands in his great big black ones.
    ‘Is he a good, kind man?’ His Scottish accent seemed to get stronger with emotion.
    Ruby nodded.
    ‘Do you feel he always puts you as number one?’
    She carried on nodding and sniffed.
    ‘Just take it slow then, Ruby. Love is the great redeemer. If it is real you will know. I have no doubt about that. Death; bereavement - it’s a horrible business. But it will make you stronger - and you are strong, I can tell. It will be all right. That fella up there.’ He pointed to the picture of Jesus at the door. ‘He will make sure of it.’ Kneeling down to her level, he gave her a massive bear hug.
    She felt a rush of guilt, as she thought back to the moment when Michael had lain his heart on his sleeve and she had brushed it down onto his cuff and right onto the floor.
    He had been so excited when he had pulled her up the steps of Dartmouth Castle. It was a freezing day, and the sea hundreds of metres below was glistening in the winter sun. The view was magnificent and Ruby felt happier than she had done in months.
    He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into a little tiny room within the gun tower. It was big enough for two with a little ledge to sit on. The seagulls shouted their approval at his romantic gesture. The wind whistled through the viewing gaps.
    ‘This place!’ Ruby was swept away by its beauty.
    ‘I know. All the history too. This castle was evidently built during Henry VIII’s reign, but there is proof there was a castle here in Saxon times too.’
    ‘Imagine what’s it’s seen and heard.’ Michael could hear the excitement in Ruby’s voice. ‘I’d love to go back and just be an observer. I feel like that about a lot of history, don’t you?’
    ‘Ruby?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Be quiet a moment.’ He shuffled closer to her on the little ledge, lifted her chin gently and kissed her deeply and passionately. She felt a rush of warmth flow through her and wanted to make love to him there and then.
    ‘I love you, Ruby,’ Michael whispered as he pulled away.
    ‘No, no. Don’t ruin it, not now.’ Ruby suddenly shot up and began to run as fast as the tiny winding castle stairs would allow.
    He found her sitting on a rock on the