Free A Promise Between Friends by Carol Rivers Page A

agency’s policy to supply their staff with a comprehensive new wardrobe. After all, you will be representing the
firm.’
    Ruby’s pulse raced. Was she dreaming? This was everything she had ever wanted – and more.
    Anna smiled, raising a slender finger. ‘One warning. Modelling may sound glamorous but it’s also exacting. Clients can be demanding and often difficult. You will be expected to
humour them and use tact. The hours are long and can be unsocial. You may well find you have little time to yourself. However, you will be given a good wage. A flat basic of £10 a week and
you will often receive tips. I don’t want to paint a perfect picture. But I think you would enjoy the challenge.’
    Ruby caught her breath. In just a couple of months she would earn more than she did in a year.
    ‘Take your time and think about it. We’ll talk again on the 19th,’ Anna promised.
    Just then, a slender figure walked towards them from the far room. Dressed in an exquisite powder-blue suit, the redhead smiled. ‘Hello, Ruby.’
    Anna rose to her feet. ‘Paula, do take Ruby in to meet the other girls.’
    ‘Nice to see you again, Ruby.’ Paula extended her hand. ‘Do come along.’
    ‘I’ll join you shortly,’ Anna called, but Ruby had no time to reply as she was shown into a large, perfume-filled room where two young women reclining on lemon sofas gazed up
at her and smiled.
    Enlivened by her afternoon at Anna’s, Ruby made her way home in what was turning out to be a pea-souper. As the fog engulfed her she began to wish that she had accepted
Anna’s offer to stay the night. But she had been worried about Kath – as usual. What would she have told her? This time she couldn’t use her mum as an excuse.
    Now she had missed her bus, one of the few in service. All hope of getting home quickly had vanished as the bus’s lights disappeared in the eerie yellow mists. She stood, cold and
confused, having almost walked under the wheels of an oncoming car.
    The driver pulled into the kerb and wound down his window. ‘You were lucky I missed you back there,’ he called.
    Ruby peered through the fog. ‘Sorry, I didn’t see you. I wanted to catch my bus.’
    ‘That’s Ruby, isn’t it?’ the familiar voice said and he waved her closer.
    Ruby was startled when she saw his face. ‘Oh, it’s you!’
    ‘Yes, now that is a coincidence. Where are you off to?’
    ‘I live in Poplar, near the Bricklayer’s.’
    He pushed open the door. ‘Jump in. I’ll save you the bus fare.’
    Ruby hesitated. She remembered Anna’s warning. Was he to be trusted?
    ‘Come on,’ he coaxed, grinning. ‘I assure you I won’t bite.’
    She climbed in and sat stiffly on the comfortable leather seat. ‘What are you doing round here?’
    ‘I was on my way to the Jester. Do you know it?’
    ‘No. Is it a club?’
    He chuckled as he drove away from the kerb. ‘Yes. Nothing to get excited about though. And what brings you out in this pea-souper?’
    ‘I’ve been to visit a friend,’ she said after a brief hesitation. Perhaps it wasn’t wise to mention Anna.
    ‘Sit back and relax,’ he said, swerving the car around a large truck. ‘Let’s get away from the river and this damned weather.’
    A remark that immediately worried her. As he drove, she looked out of the window for familiar landmarks, but could recognize none. This didn’t look like the direction to Poplar. Where was
he taking her? Anna’s warning came back to mind. Who would ever know that she’d accepted a lift in the fog from a stranger?
    Then another thought came; it wasn’t just Nick’s voice she recognized but the car too. The vehicle’s shiny black paint, its ornate chromium grille and heavy-duty bumper bar.
She’d seen the car before and now she remembered where.
    Ruby sat up. ‘Please stop.’
    ‘Why? What’s wrong?’
    ‘I’d like to get out.’
    ‘What, here?’
    ‘Yes, I’ll go back to my friend’s.’
    ‘Ruby, you’re not making