One Summer Night At the Ritz by Jenny Oliver Read Free Book Online

November 1944
    Today the wedding of James Blackwell and Miss Prudence Reese had two lines in the newspaper.
    I’m shattered.
    For the second time that day Will had thought of that summer with his grandmother, Prudence. The dark, bleak house that James Blackwell had almost escaped. The life his grandfather had lost with this Enid who made him laugh.
    ‘Your three minutes is up, mate,’ the barman had said with a nod at the clock.
    ‘Shit.’ Will had folded up the paper and tucked it into his top pocket, then searched for his wallet and handed the barman his credit card.
    Minutes later, he was in the cab that had now pulled over on Piccadilly pissing off the passing traffic as it blocked one lane.
    Every day of Will’s iPhone diary had a dot on it to mark it busy. Every single day. He was looking at it as the taxi driver was asking him what he should do. There were too many images in his head. His father so disappointed in his office. Prudence’s cold stare from the window. Heidi laughing as she drank champagne and ate lobster rolls. Jane leaning back and forcing him to read the pages, telling him what to do – that hadn’t happened for a while. Nor, for that matter, had being walked out on in a bar.
    He watched her disappearing up the street, a carefree bounce in her step. How was she suddenly so happy?
    He looked back down at the dots on his phone.
    ‘Mate, I’m going to have to move on,’ the cabbie said.
    ‘OK.’ Will nodded and put his phone in his pocket.
    He was jealous he realised then, turning back around for one last glimpse of Jane bobbing through the crowds. He was jealous of her freedom.
    ‘Actually no, pull over again,’cWill said and the taxi driver did a big show of raising his hands and sighing but cut back across to the kerb.
    Jealous. He hadn’t been jealous for a while.
    He’d also strangely enjoyed their back and forth banter. She’d amused him, which happened very rarely nowadays, and he did feel slightly guilty for misjudging the situation. The least he could do, he supposed, was show her around London – impress her with his hidden gem knowledge of the city – make her trip up here worthwhile.
    His rational side said
don’t be so ridiculous
, his voice said, ‘Do you know what? I’m actually going to get out here. Sorry. Here’s a tenner and my card. If you get a ticket for stopping here, forward it to my office. Thanks. Sorry again.’
    It was like the thoughts of being trapped, of losing something that might be interesting, overtook him and suddenly Will was back on the street outside The Ritz, but now he was jogging because he needed to catch up with Jane and she was already almost at Fortnum and Mason.

Chapter Nine
    ‘Wait!’ the voice was out of breath. ‘Wait! Just one second, wait!’
    Jane didn’t turn around. That was what they wanted you to do, wasn’t it? Get caught off-guard and then they forced you to a cash machine to withdraw all your money.
    ‘Wait.’ She felt a hand on her shoulder.
    She jumped. ‘Please don’t—lOh, it’s you.’
    ‘Who did you think it was?’
    ‘No one.’
    Will laughed. ‘Did you think I was about to rob you?’
    ‘Maybe.’
    ‘It’s practically broad daylight.’
    ‘People get robbed in broad daylight. What do you want, why are you following me?’
    Will waved his hand, getting his breath back. ‘I’m not following you, I promise. Well technically I am, but in a good way.’
    Jane gave him a look.
    ‘OK fine, admittedly you might not think it’s in a good way, but I just sort of hoped maybe…’ He paused, like he was unused to saying anything similar to this. ‘You might give me another chance.’
    ‘What about your next appointment?’ Jane asked.
    ‘Oh shit, Heidi. Hang on, can you wait while I just call her?’
    ‘You want me to wait while you stand someone else up? You really aren’t my kind of person, you know that?’
    ‘No seriously, seriously I am.’ Will held up a hand for her to wait as he got his