Free Guilty Pleasures by Tasmina Perry Page A

boarding school. Ruby had her own room at Cassandra’s Knightsbridge apartment, although it was rarely used. Cassandra had fought hard to hold onto her career, but now she was glad she had Ruby. Unlike thousands of career women her age she didn’t have to worry about the ticking biological clock or finding the right man because she
had
a child, one that was becoming more self-sufficient by the day. They climbed into the back seat of the Mercedes and Cassandra ordered the driver to take them into Rye.
    ‘Here. Some of the older girls asked me to give you these.’ Ruby thrust her hand into her Marni tote bag and pulled out ahandful of CVs. ‘You’ve made me very popular with the upper sixth.’
    They drove out of the school gates and made the twenty-minute journey into Rye. Andrew dropped them outside the Mermaid Inn, the best restaurant in Rye. It had a slightly run-down rickety feel, with uneven floors and low beams, the sort of place you could imagine well-heeled smugglers frequenting. Sitting by the window, Cassandra could see up towards the medieval church and the half-timbered houses. There was an undeniably eerie beauty to the town.
Not quite Nobu,
thought Cassandra,
but charming nonetheless.
    ‘Isn’t it great?’ said Ruby, bouncing in her window seat, ‘Johnny Depp stayed here once.’
    ‘Did he?’ said Cassandra, slightly mollified. ‘I’m not at all surprised.’
    ‘So how was the funeral?’ asked Ruby, her young mind already on other things. ‘I still don’t understand why I couldn’t have gone. I saw Uncle Saul more than you did and I really wanted to go and say my goodbyes.’
    ‘Roger thought it best if there were no children and for once I agreed with him.’
    ‘Mother, I’m not a child,’ said Ruby, affronted. ‘I’m thirteen years of age.’
    ‘By the way,’ said Cassandra crisply, ‘Saul left you £10,000 in his will.’
    ‘Wow! Brilliant!’ squealed Ruby slurping her drink. ‘Can I have it now?’
    ‘Of course not,’ said Cassandra fiercely.
    ‘And did you get the company?’ she replied playfully.
    Cassandra almost smiled at her daughter.
Straight to the point, just like her mother.
    ‘No. Saul, in his infinite wisdom, gave it to my cousin Emma.’
    ‘Ah, so that’s why you’re in a really shitty mood,’ she smiled cheekily.
    ‘Ruby!’ said Cassandra. ‘I don’t pay £25,000 a year for your education to hear you swear.’
    Ruby leant forward and held her mother’s hand.
    ‘What did you want that boring company for anyway?’
    ‘I wanted it for us, darling,’ said Cassandra, squeezing her daughter’s fingers with a warmth that surprised her.
    ‘But why?’ asked Ruby. ‘You have a cool job. We have money.If you’d got the company, we’d have had to move back to the village. Uncle Saul used to tell me that it was a perk of owning the company living in that house. Some perk! It’s so creepy! I bet it’s got ghosts.’
    Cassandra moved her hand from her daughter’s grip, smarting at her daughter’s casual dismissal of her ambitions. What did that ungrateful wretch think she did this all for? How did she think she got such an expensive education? A few ghosts was the least of it. Cassandra took a deep breath, trying to get her emotions under control. Only Ruby could make her shake like this, she thought.
    ‘So … what did you think of the March issue?’ she asked, trying to change the subject.
    ‘It was great. Although I think you do too much modern art.’
    ‘Darling, lots of our readers are collectors or fancy themselves as collectors.’
    ‘But it’s all a bit rubbish, isn’t it?’ laughed Ruby. ‘I mean the way you called that painter who does the orange circles a genius. How is he a genius compared to say Leonardo da Vinci? Did you know Da Vinci was probably one of the most all-round talented people ever? He designed helicopters, solar heating, rockets, everything.’
    Cassandra smiled.
    ‘Am I to assume you’re studying the Renaissance