‘You don’t have to do that!’
‘It’s no bother.’ She wondered if Lisa Ritter had registered the strange set to her face. She could make it upstairs, she thought. She could run into the bedroom, fetch the earring, stuff it into her pocket and shove Nathalie into the car before she could say anything, and Mrs Ritter would never know. They would decide what to do about it later.
But even as she hurled herself through the back door some part of her already knew what would happen.
‘So did Jess tell you?’
She was halfway up the stairs. Nathalie’s voice carried, as clear as a bell, through the open window.
‘We found one of your earrings. We thought you might have the other one put by.’
‘Earrings?’ said Mrs Ritter.
‘Diamond. I think it’s a platinum setting. Fell out of the bed linen. You’re lucky we didn’t vacuum it up.’
There was a short silence.
Jess closed her eyes, stood very still on the stairs and waited as the inevitable words floated up to her.
‘How was I supposed to know Mrs Ritter doesn’t have pierced ears?’
They sat in the cleaning van, slumped in their seats. Nathalie was smoking. She had given up six weeks ago. For the fourth time.
‘I don’t look at people’s ears. Do you look at people’s ears?’
‘I think you must have been mistaken,’ Lisa Ritter had said, her voice quivering slightly with the effort, as she held it in her hand. ‘It’s probably my daughter’s, from when she came home last time. She’s got a pair just like it.’
‘Of course,’ Jess said. ‘It probably got kicked in here. Or carried in on someone’s shoe. We knew it would be something like that.’ And she knew right then, when Mrs Ritter turned away from her, that that would be it. Nobody thanked you for bringing bad news to their door.
Nobody wanted a cleaner knowing their bad business.
‘Eighty pounds a week, guaranteed. And holiday pay.’ Nathalie let out a sudden scream. ‘Bloody hell. I actually want to find the tart who owns that bloody earring and thump her for losing us our best job.’
‘Maybe she didn’t know he was married.’
‘Oh, she knew.’ Before she’d met Dean, Nathalie had spent two years with a man who turned out to have not one but two families on the other side of Southampton. ‘No single man keeps colour-coordinated scatter cushions on his bed.’
‘Neil Brewster does,’ Jess said.
‘Neil Brewster’s music collection is sixty-seven per cent Judy Garland, thirty-three per cent Pet Shop Boys.’
At the end of the road a padded toddler toppled gently onto the ground like a felled tree and, after a brief silence, let out a thin wail. Its mother, her two armloads of shopping bags perfectly balanced, stood and stared in mute dismay.
‘Look, you heard what she said the other week – she’d get rid of her hairdresser before she’d get rid of us.’
‘Before she got rid of “the cleaners”. That’s different. She won’t care whether it’s us or Speedicleanz or Maids With Mops.’ Nathalie shook her head. ‘Nope. To her, from now on, we’ll always be the cleaners who know the truth about her husband. It matters to women like her. They’re all about appearances, aren’t they?’
The mother put down her bags and stooped to pick up the toddler. A few houses away, Terry Blackstone emerged from under the bonnet of his Ford Focus, a car that had not run in eighteen months, and peered out to see what was making all the noise.
Jess put her bare feet up on the dashboard and let her face fall into her hands. ‘Bugger it. How are we going to make up the money, Nat? That was our best job.’
‘The house was immaculate. It was basically a twice a week polishing job.’ Nathalie stared out of the window.
‘And she always paid on time.’
‘And she used to give us stuff.’
Jess kept seeing that diamond earring. Why hadn’t they just ignored it? It would have been better if one of them had stolen it. ‘Okay, so she’s going to cancel us. Let’s change the subject, Nat. I can’t afford to cry before my pub shift.’
‘So, did Marty ring this week?’
‘I didn’t mean change the subject to that.’
‘Well, did he?’
Jess sighed. ‘Yup.’
‘Did he say why he didn’t ring the week before?’ Nathalie shoved Jess’s feet off the dashboard.
‘Nope.’ Jess could feel her staring. ‘And no, he didn’t send any money.’
‘Oh, come on. You’ve got to get the Child Support Agency onto him. You can’t carry on like this. He should send money for his own kids.’
It was an old argument. ‘He’s … he’s still not right,’ Jess said. ‘I can’t put more pressure on him. He hasn’t got a job yet.’
‘Well, you’re going to need that money now. Until we get another job like Lisa Ritter’s. How’s Nicky?’
‘Oh, I went round to Jason Fisher’s house to talk to his mum.’
‘You’re joking. She scares the pants off me. Did she say she’d get him to leave Nicky alone?’
‘Something like that.’
Nathalie kept her eyes on Jess and dropped her chin two inches.
‘She told me if I set foot on her doorstep once more she’d batter me halfway to next Wednesday. Me and my … what was it? … me and my “freakazoid kids”.’ Jess pulled down the passenger mirror and checked her hair, pulling it back into a ponytail. ‘Oh, and then she told me her Jason wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
‘Typical.’
‘It’s fine. I had Norman with me. And, bless him, he took an enormous dump next to their Toyota and somehow I forgot I had a plastic bag in my pocket.’
Jess put her feet back up.
Nathalie pushed them down again and mopped the dashboard with a wet wipe. ‘Seriously, though, Jess. How long has Marty been gone? Two years? You’ve got to get back on the horse. You’re young. You can’t wait around for him to sort himself out,’ she said, with a grimace.
‘Get back on the horse. Nice.’
‘Liam Stubbs fancies you. You could totally ride that.’
‘Any certified pair of X chromosomes could ride Liam Stubbs.’ Jess closed the window. ‘I’m better off reading a book. Besides, I think the kids have had enough upheaval in their lives without playing Meet Your New Uncle. Right.’ She looked up, wrinkled her nose at the sky. ‘I’ve got to get the tea on and then I’ve got to get ready for the pub. I’ll do a quick ring-round before I go, see if any of the clients want any extras doing. And, you never know, she might not cancel us.’