Rosie Thomas 2-Book Collection One: Iris and Ruby, Constance. Rosie Thomas

over her.

      As soon as she closed her eyes he was lying there with the black puddle spreading round his head.

      She told Ash briefly about Jas. It wasn’t right, she realised as soon as she had begun, to use it as a way of getting his sympathy. Then she gave him a flat smile. Her tears were drying up, leaving her eyes feeling sticky in the heat.

      ‘Anyway,’ she said, and shrugged. She stood up quickly, pulling at her clothes where they were glued to her skin. After a second he got up too, still looking at her with gentle concern.

      ‘That is very sad. I am sorry,’ he said. ‘What would you like to do now? Do you want to go back to your grandmother’s house?’

      She didn’t want to cry again, for one thing, didn’t even want to think about crying. It was all too dangerous.

      ‘Can we just go on with what we were doing before?’

      They walked on, under the dusty leaves, in and out of patches of shade. Ash waited for what she would do or say next.

      ‘Don’t you have a girlfriend?’

      He considered carefully. ‘Of course, there are some girls I like. But it is not quite the same thing, I think.’

      His solemnity made Ruby laugh. She still wanted to make him like her and the wish surprised her.

      ‘It was only a quick kiss, back there, you know? I just did it, I thought it would be nice. Sorry if it was totally the wrong thing. I get things wrong all the time, it’s the way I am. You’ll have to get used to it if we’re going to be friends. That was one of the good things about Jas. He kind of didn’t mind anything. He’d say things like, we are each the person we are and we should try to be that person to the full, not someone else. I liked that a lot.’

      Ash stopped again. He looked over his shoulder at the traffic and at the passers-by, then he steered Ruby into an angled niche in the river wall where an ornate street lamp sprouted.

      ‘I would like to kiss you, now, please.’

      She leaned back. The stone was hot against her ribs and spine.

      ‘Go on, then.’

      ‘Wait. To me, these things have importance. They are not just a quick this, or for nothing that. Perhaps you think to be this way is funny?’

      ‘No,’ Ruby said humbly. ‘I think it’s lovely.’

      ‘All right.’ He came nearer. Close up, there were all kinds of different textures and colours visible in the dark-brown irises.

      He kissed her, an experimental meeting of mouths that seemed, to Ruby, very tentative. Then he pulled back again.

      ‘Good,’ he said.

      ‘Thank you.’

      Feeling rather pleasingly chaste, she resumed her walk at his side. After a little way they turned aside from the river and wandered through a quiet area of curving streets with enclosed gardens thick with greenery. It was much quieter here. The tall brown and cream buildings looked sleepy and well-protected. Some of the gates had guards in little wooden sentry boxes, or stationed in chairs on the pavement where they could watch everyone who went by. Ash and Ruby let their hands brush more often as they walked.

      ‘This is Garden City. Nice place, for rich people.’

      ‘Where do you live? Is it near here?’

      Ash laughed, a little awkwardly.

      ‘What do you think? It is not like this, my home.’

      ‘I don’t know anything about Cairo.’

      ‘I will show you.’

      Later they came out alongside the river again. An island, separated from the mainland only by a narrow channel, lay directly opposite. Ash told her it was called Rhoda, pointing out the landmarks and telling her little pieces of history. Ruby nodded dutifully. They had been walking for a long time and the sky was already fading from blue to pale grey. There were more feluccas with their sails like birds’ wings on the water.

      ‘It’s time I went back,’ she said.

      They turned north, walking towards the Tahrir Bridge. When they reached the place where Ash had left the bike, lights were beginning to twinkle on the bridges and the buildings across the river. The sunset sky was streaked with gold and pale green.

      ‘It’s beautiful,’ Ruby sighed.

      Ash took her arm. ‘I have an idea. A special, very special Cairo view, just for you. You have to tell a small lie, but I think you can do that?’

      She gave him a warning look. ‘Maybe.’

      He was marching her through the torrent of traffic and through a gateway into some gardens. A huge hotel with hundreds of balconies and lit-up windows loomed over them, and a line of shiny cars snaked up to the doors.

      ‘You stay in places like this?’

      ‘I have done,’ she admitted.

      ‘So you know what to do.’

      As the revolving door disgorged them into a glass-and-marble lobby, a doorman in a tarboosh and white baggy trousers worn with a sash and a red waistcoat stepped in front of them.

      ‘I am staying in the hotel. Room 806,’ Ruby said firmly.

      ‘Good evening,’ he murmured and stepped back again.

      Heads up, they walked past the brocade armchairs and the fountain to the lifts. Ash was chuckling.

      ‘Are we nicking something?’ she demanded as the lift doors closed.

      ‘What is that?’

      ‘Stealing.’

      ‘Of course not. A view is free, belonging to everyone.’

      They swept up to the top floor and stepped out into a mirrored lobby. There was a murmur of voices, tinkling piano music and glasses.

      ‘Please close your eyes,’ Ash ordered.

      He took her hand and led her from carpet to paving. They were outside again, with a breeze fanning Ruby’s face. A little spasm of fear ran down her spine as she wondered how close the edge was.

      ‘You are safe,’ Ash breathed in her ear. He steered her a few more steps, then halted. ‘Now, open.’

      She looked. They were in a garden on the roof of the hotel. Below them, far below, was the dusk-blue higgledy-piggledy mass of Cairo. Lights shone in the crowded tower blocks, chains of traffic lights blinked and neon signs flashed all the way to the western horizon. The sun had set but the sky was blazing gold and orange.

      ‘Do you see?’ Ash murmured. His arm was round her shoulders, she could smell his skin.

      ‘Yes.’ She thought he meant just the view. But then, at the exact point where the dusty glitter of the city met the fiery sky, she saw three sharp triangular cut-outs pasted against the glow. ‘Oh.’

      Ruby leaned forward, hands on the rooftop rail, taking in her first glimpse of the Pyramids. They looked so close, almost part of the city itself. It made her think of how these buildings and domes and streets had crept from the banks of the Nile all the way out into the desert. She had always imagined the Pyramids surrounded by empty seas of sand, but seeing them like this made them seem even stranger and more unreal.

      ‘You like it?’

      ‘Yes. I like it very much.’

      The sky was fading. The pianist in the rooftop bar played more loudly and guests in evening dress drifted out to look at the view.

      ‘We have to go,’ Ash muttered. A man in a black tailcoat headed briskly towards them.

      ‘Hello.’ Ruby grinned at him.

      ‘I am afraid this is a private party, Madam.’