‘I don’t want to go and see the Disney movie. I want to go and see that thing you’re going to tonight.’
‘Darling. It’s a premiere, a work thing.’
‘Johnny Brinton is in it, isn’t he? He’s gorgeous. Surely you can get me a ticket.’
‘But it’s a 15 certificate,’ said Cassandra, her patience running out.
‘Loads of people say I look 18.’
‘You can’t come.’
‘Why not?’ said Ruby, her voice now raised considerably. ‘I want to see Johnny’s film and I know there’s a party afterwards. I want to go!’
‘Stop it!’ screamed Cassandra, smacking her hand on her desk. Her yell seemed to hang in the air, then she heard the sound of gentle sobbing from her daughter. Softening, Cassandra reached for her, but Ruby shook her head violently away.
‘Sweetheart I didn’t mean to shout. Come here.’
She pulled Ruby over to the soft leather sofa. Cassandra was not a demonstrative woman beyond the thousands of air-kisses she distributed each season, but she sat close to her daughter and rested her hand gently on Ruby’s knee.
‘You never want to spend any time with me,’ sniffed Ruby, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her cotton dress.
‘Now you know that’s not true,’ said Cassandra firmly. ‘We had a wonderful trip together during the Easter holidays, didn’t we?’
A travel PR had arranged for Cassandra and Ruby to go to the latest luxury resort in the Maldives. Although Cassandra could barely afford the time out of the office, they’d spent five days in a deluxe water villa where she had topped up her tan and edited the manuscript of Cassandra Grand: On Style.
‘No!’ pouted Ruby, ‘it was just where you wanted to go, just like you want to go to the premiere without me.’
‘Sweetheart, I work very hard. When I go to a party it’s not to have fun. I stay thirty minutes, talk to the most important people in the room, people who can help me, help us, and then I leave. I’m not trying to stop you from having fun when I say you can’t go tonight but you have to understand what I do and why I do it. I don’t have any choice.’
‘You do have a choice,’ said Ruby, sobbing, ‘You always have choices. Like you choose not to see me most weekends when half the girls at school go home. You choose to give me presents instead of your time. You even have the choice whether to work so hard. What would happen that’s so bad if you didn’t stay at the office so late or go to all these parties? What would happen if you didn’t have so great a job? Would we starve?’
‘Ruby, stop it.’
‘You say everything is to help us,’ she said, her eyes blazing in hurt and anger. ‘But how does it help me having a mother I never see? Did you stop to think about where I woul
d like to go on holiday? Or whether I like going to a boarding school? Milly Steele goes to a day school.’
‘Oh, and I suppose you’d prefer to be one of those sad media children like Milly Steele growing up in the Groucho or round a campfire at Glastonbury?’ replied Cassandra tartly.
‘At least her parents want her with them,’ wailed Ruby, the tears flowing swiftly now. ‘You just don’t want me around. You buy me off and farm me out. What’s wrong with me? Am I not pretty enough? Not enough of a perfect accessory? Don’t you love me? Or maybe you just don’t love me as much as you love your job!’
Ruby stared at her mother, a brave, challenging look that was part courage and part disappointment and Cassandra felt a strange mixture of both pride and sadness.
‘Darling, it’s not like that at all. You know I love you very, very much.’
‘Do you?’
Cassandra stood up and strode over to her desk, picking up the phone.
‘Giles? Could you step through please?’
Ruby bowed her head, shaking it gently.
‘Giles,’ said Cassandra as he walked into the office, ‘there’s been a change of plan.’
Ruby spun round and looked at her mother.
‘I want you to take Ruby round to the fashion cupboard and sort her out with dress, bag and shoes.’