Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) is set on finishing the job husband Caleb (William Ash) started on Emmerdale by destroying Kim Tate (Claire King). And while Caleb had his son Nicky (Lewis Cope) posing as a nanny at Home Farm so he had someone on the inside, Ruby has her own mole – Rose Jackson (Christine Tremarco).
Rose is Will Taylor (Dean Andrews)’s ex, and the mother of his daughter Dawn (Olivia Bromley). She also owes Ruby a lot of money after Ruby bailed her out of significant debts. Ruby keeps reminding her of this fact whenever Rose tries to back out of their arrangement.
The situation is complicated for Rose because she has grown close to Dawn, the daughter she abandoned when she was a little girl. Since her arrival Dawn has needed her support because her son Evan is seriously ill with leukaemia. Rose has also become fond of her other grandchildren, Clemmie (Mabel Addison) and Lucas (Noah Ryan Aspinall).
In Monday (July 15)’s episode, Ruby was again nagging Rose to achieve some results for the time she’s spending at Home Farm – and Rose spotted an opportunity.
Prior to that, she’d been eavesdropping when Will and Kim had been discussing the fact that Kim had covered for Billy (Jay Kontzle) getting drunk and for Nate (Jurell Carter) having to help him home – possibly bringing in an infection that ended up making Evan ill. Kim had told Dawn that she must have brought in the germs after having a business meeting at a hotel. Will reluctantly agreed to keep the truth from Dawn.
Rose spoke to them both later and thanked Kim for stepping up and covering for Billy. She told Kim that Dawn was lucky to have her in her life. ‘I wish I’d been a bit more Kim back in the day,’ she admitted. She also said she was quitting drinking. Will was impressed but Kim looked like she didn’t trust her for a second. ‘At least the brandy bill will go down,’ she told Will.
Following the phone call with Ruby, Rose found herself alone with Will and as he walked in she pretended to be upset. She told him she’d become emotional thinking about the previous day when he said he was glad she was there. She felt like she’d been given a second chance with them all, she added.
As Will stood up to leave she also stood up, talking about how nice it was that she was there with him and Dawn, and that whatever happened with Evan they would get through it. She was clearly positioning herself as part of the family unit, and as Will said he was glad she was making amends, she leaned forward to kiss him.
The reaction was not what she’d hoped. ‘What is wrong with you?’ Will wanted to know, and walked out of the room.
Trying to talk to him later, Rose found Will in an angry mood, saying he’d done nothing to encourage her. She told him she’d been feeling there was something between them.
‘You have to understand I love my wife and nothing – nothing – is going to get in the way of that,’ he insisted. Rose had to do some quick damage limitation, trying to convince him not to tell Kim by suggesting that it could make her feel ‘insecure’ and ‘send Dawn spiralling.’
While she might be right about Dawn, ‘insecure’ is not a word you would readily associate with Kim Tate. ‘Vengeful’ would be more likely – and now that Rose has shown her hand, she should be very worried indeed about Kim finding out about her latest ploy.
