Dirty Game

around her waist and walked her up and down beside the bed, with Ruthie all the while pouring curses in her ear.

‘Call me a whore, call me what you like, just keep walking,’ said Annie.

Ruthie staggered at first. Annie had to use all her strength to hold her up. But after a few steps Ruthie seemed to regain her equilibrium, and that was when the cursing really kicked in. When Ruthie could stand alone, Annie let go and poured out more coffee and thrust it at her sister.

‘I hate you, Annie Bailey,’ said Ruthie.

‘Hate away,’ said Annie. ‘Drink the bloody coffee and tell me what the fuck you were trying to do. Were you trying to kill yourself?’

‘Oh you’d like that, wouldn’t you,’ said Ruthie. ‘Me out of the way and you left with Max.’

‘I told you. It’s over, me and Max. Drink that fucking coffee or I mean it, I’ll force it down you.’

Ruthie pulled a face but drank the coffee.

‘It’s over,’ reiterated Annie.

‘Sure it is,’ mocked Ruthie. ‘It’ll never be over, you and him. I’ve seen the way he reacts to the sight of you. I saw it at poor Eddie’s funeral. Oh yes, I saw you. It’ll only be over when they shovel him into the ground, don’t you know that?’

‘Don’t say that.’

‘Ah, you don’t like the thought of that?’ Ruthie crowed. ‘And you said it was over? Tell me another.’

‘You know, I think you were nicer when you were spark out on the bed,’ said Annie. ‘You finished that coffee?’

‘There.’ Ruthie presented the empty mug like a triumphant child. ‘Pleased now, you bossy bitch?’

Annie went to the window and opened it, letting in an icy wind to blow away the stink. She gathered up the remaining pill and vodka bottles then put the empty mug on the tray with the sodden cloths and the bowl.

‘Get yourself washed and changed,’ said Annie. ‘I’m going to clear this lot away. I’ll see you down in the drawing room. Get a move on.’

Annie was almost surprised when half an hour later Ruthie appeared in a clean dress, with her face washed and her hair neatly combed. She looked pale, but okay.

Annie sat on the couch and Ruthie sat opposite. Annie saw Ruthie’s eyes go to the drinks cabinet, but she didn’t get herself a drink or offer Annie one.

‘Why’d you do it, Ruthie?’ asked Annie urgently. ‘Were you trying to top yourself?’

Ruthie dropped her head into her hands. Suddenly she looked haggard and ten years older than she actually was. ‘I was just trying to get some sleep last night, that’s all. I don’t sleep well. I took some pills of Eddie’s, then I wondered if I had taken enough to make me sleep so I took a few more, and I drank a bit, then I don’t remember anything else until you started slapping me about this morning. I wasn’t trying to top myself, I really wasn’t. But I hate this place, it’s so lonely. Since Eddie’s gone it’s got even worse. There’s no one here to talk to and I’m forever in the shadow of the sainted Queenie. Max is never here. When he is, he never talks to me.’

Max hated drunks, Annie knew that. To see his own wife smashed out of her face every day would drive him up the wall. But she couldn’t get over the fact that it was Max and herself who had done this to Ruthie. Would she have become a bloody drunk if Max was a better husband, and if she had been a better sister to the poor cow? Annie doubted it.

‘Ruthie,’ said Annie carefully, ‘there must still be something between you?’

For a moment Ruthie’s eyes showed only raw pain.

‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘We don’t have sex. We don’t even talk.’

And I shouldn’t feel happy about that, thought Annie. But she did and she hated herself for still feeling that tug of attraction to such a bastard. Now here was her chance to make amends for the hurt she had inflicted on the sister she loved, and she was determined to take it.

‘Ruthie … I promise you it’s all over. I never wanted this to happen. Let me help you, please.’

Ruthie stared at her with hostile eyes.

‘What, are you going to show me your whoring tricks? Show me what you and my bloody husband have been up to?’

‘No! I didn’t mean that and you know it.’

‘Well I don’t need any help from a whore like you, Annie.’

Annie jumped to her feet and stood there glaring down at Ruthie. ‘Stop calling me that! ’

‘What? Whore? Why not? It’s what you are, after all.’ Ruthie stood up too and stood nose to nose with her sister. ‘Whore!’

Annie slapped her hard across the face.

Ruthie reeled back and fell on to the couch, clutching at her cheek.

‘Oh God.’ Annie was instantly contrite. ‘I didn’t mean to do that, I’m sorry.’

‘Just get out,’ said Ruthie, her eyes full of tears. ‘Get out!’

Annie’s shoulders slumped. ‘All right. I’ll go. You know, you’ll only get so many chances with me, Ruthie. I can’t just go on and on apologizing for ever. It wasn’t my idea to come here anyway, it was Max who sent me. He was worried because you weren’t answering the phone to Kath.’

Ruthie stiffened.

‘I thought you said it was over, you lying cow,’ said Ruthie.

‘It is.’ Annie threw her arms wide in frustration. God, she just couldn’t seem to get through to Ruthie, no matter how hard she tried.

‘What, having cosy little chats about me? When did he talk to you, when you were tucked up in bed together, was that it? Just get out of my house!’

43

It was dark by the time Annie got back to Limehouse, and the instant she walked in she knew there was trouble. Dolly was hovering in the front-room doorway looking fraught. Chris was missing. Aretha was leaning against the stairwell with a taut expression on her face. Darren, standing beside her, was chewing a hangnail, his eyes darting to and fro. Ellie was sitting halfway up the stairs.

The place was quiet. No music, no clink of glasses. No clients. Except Pat Delaney, Annie noted through the open doorway, sitting in the front room alone and clearly drunk. He raised his glass to her.

‘Trouble?’ she asked Dolly.

‘Not yet.’

‘What, has he been on the uppers again?’

‘Yeah. Bold as brass. He’s been popping Dexedrine tablets like Smarties.’

‘Where’s Chris?’

‘Somewhere well away from here,’ said Dolly unhappily. ‘He’s no fool. He don’t want to get into a fight with Pat. One of the clients nearly floored the bastard, but I stepped in.’

‘Given him plenty to drink?’

‘Yeah. He must have a lead-lined belly to take all that whisky and still be conscious.’

They looked gloomily in at Pat, who was still swigging it back. He raised his glass to them again. Both Annie and Dolly pasted smiles on their faces, which dropped the instant they turned away.

‘He’s a horrible, fat, Irish turd,’ said Darren with a shudder.

‘Just keep pouring the drink down him,’ advised Annie. ‘I’m off upstairs to clean up, okay?’

They nodded. Annie stepped past Ellie and at last reached the sanctuary of her room. She felt drained. Seeing Ruthie again had done nothing for her self-esteem. Too much had happened, too much time had gone by for her to even begin to set things straight again. She had to just keep away from Max. That was a start. And she had to keep