6 Emmerdale Spoilers for Next Week – 2nd to 6th December

Next week on Emmerdale, history threatens to repeat itself for Ross as April is kidnapped, Eric is forced to come clean to Brenda, and Ruby struggles to forgive.

1. April is abducted

There’s terror for 15-year-old April (Amelia Flanagan) on the way, when she’s inadvertently caught up in boxing promoter Jade’s (Twinnie Lee-Moore) vendetta against Ross (Michael Parr) and finds herself taken captive!

Jade is gunning for Ross in the belief that he stole £10,000 from her, when a bag went missing during his last underground fight with Billy (Jay Kontzle). In reality, amongst all the chaos as people raced out of the barn to avoid the police, Mackenzie (Lawrence Boyd) had hidden the bag amongst some bales of straw.

Whilst Mack was able to retrieve the bag once the coast was clear, and is now enjoying the extra cash, Ross has already been beaten by Jade’s heavies once, and she’s now turning her attention to his loved ones as promised.

After a further encounter with Jade next week, Ross begs Charity (Emma Atkins) to take their young son Moses (Arthur Cockroft) away for a while to avoid any possible danger, but is frustrated when she refuses.

Jade has made it clear that she also has April in her radar however, having clearly done her research and discovering that she is the daughter of Ross’s late girlfriend Donna Windsor (Verity Rushworth), who he watched die back in 2014.

Having returned to the village earlier that year suffering from terminal lung cancer, police officer Donna had turned to the dark side, becoming a bent cop in order to secure money for April’s future. But she underestimated local gangster Gary North when she targeted him, and as she confronted Gary at the top of a multi-storey car park, Donna realised she was in too deep after discovering he’d brought backup.

Knowing that her days were already numbered, and that her own crimes would also be uncovered when her fellow officers arrived, Donna handcuffed herself to Gary and plummeted from the roof of the car park, killing them both.

After dad Marlon (Mark Charnock) refuses to let her head into town after school, April is buoyed when the apparently kindly Jade offers her a lift. But things take a dark twist when Ross later receives a call from Jade revealing that she’s kidnapped April.

2. Ross is haunted by Donna’s death

Borrowing Billy’s car, Ross races to April’s rescue, knowing full well that he doesn’t have the cash that Jade is demanding. But as she sends him a map of where to meet, Ross is horrified to find that he’s heading right back to that same multi-storey car park.

Ross is haunted by flashbacks to Donna’s death, as he heads up to the roof and finds April being held near the edge by one of Jade’s cronies.

As Jade orders Ross to hand over the £10k, will Ross be able to save April from meeting the same fate as her mother?

“Ross knows that she’s a dangerous, sinister character,” Michael Parr told EverySoap at a recent press event. “I think he just doesn’t realise how deep the rabbit hole goes with her, and what she is willing to do to make sure that she wins and she gets her money back.”

For our extended coverage on this story, plus further chat with Michael Parr, see here.

3. Will Ross be run out of the village?

Later in the week, Ross must face the consequences of his actions. Marlon, Charity and Caleb (Will Ash) are all equally infuriated by what has gone down, and the danger that Ross is bringing to those around him.

Together, the three make a pact to make Ross disappear from the village for good…

4. Eric and Brenda’s world comes crashing down

Elsewhere in the village, Eric (Chris Chittell) and Brenda’s world comes crashing down as the reality of his recent financial gambles set in.

The pair have been swept up in the excitement of their upcoming nuptials, after Eric spontaneously popped the question a couple of weeks ago. The proposal came after a particularly stressful few days where Eric had suffered with side effects of not having access to his usual Parkinson’s medication.

Eric has taken charge of proceedings, and after splashing out on an antique ring for Brenda, he surprised Brenda at their engagement party with the news that he’d bought two first-class tickets on a round-the-world cruise for their honeymoon, with a stop in Canada so Brenda can see granddaughter Molly.

The source of Eric’s newfound ‘wealth’ was later discovered when Eric made his excuses and left the party hastily after checking his phone. A concerned Leyla (Roxy Shahidi) followed Eric home where she found him fretting over a cryptocurrency account he had set up. Leyla warned Eric that it could well be a scam, as it transpired that Eric had poured his entire savings into the account, which was now sitting empty.

A shaken Eric made a quick phone call to a man named Matthew, the apparent head of the investment hub, who assured him that everything was fine and it was just a case of the fluctuating market.

Leyla was understandably dubious as Eric went on to explain his balance would soon go back up again, and that Matthew had offered him a preferential rate reserved only for their best customers.

Leyla was horrified that Eric had gambled everything, and that Brenda wasn’t aware of the full situation, but Eric assured her that he knew what he was doing. Convinced he was still onto a winner, Eric was later seen logging into Brenda’s bank account…

Despite his balance remaining zero, Eric later had assurances from Matthew that the upturn in the market would be reflected in his account the following day. As a result, Eric impulsively went on to arrange a large loan, with their property as collateral, in order to invest further.

Next week, Eric’s confused when the promised uplift is still not showing in his account, certain that he should be rolling in it by now.

Meanwhile, Brenda is out shopping for a wedding dress, and having found the perfect one she is concerned when she’s unable to pay for it, her bank balance seemingly having disappeared overnight.

Eric covers as he tells Brenda that it must be down to a glitch, but finds himself facing more questions when Liam (Jonny Cavanagh) spots him preparing to place a bet on the horses using money taken from the shop!

Concerned about his behaviour, Liam does his best to dissuade a determined Eric. When Eric refuses to back down, Liam is forced to block his exit from the shop.

Eric realises that he has no choice but to face the music, and Brenda is furious when Eric reveals what he’s done with their money.

Eric does his best to placate Brenda, but as he points out that his impulsive actions may be down to his medication, Brenda’s heart sinks.

When she asks Eric whether his proposal had been genuine, or if it was something else that could have been influenced by his medication, Eric is unable to answer, leaving Brenda in despair.

As Eric struggles to come to terms with the heartbreak his actions have caused, will there be anyway back for the pair now that they’ve seemingly lost everything?

5. Ruby struggles to forgive

Recently forced to come face-to-face with the father she’s been estranged from for three decades, Ruby (Beth Cordingly) was lost for words to hear that Anthony (Nicholas Day) had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, though no doubt also a little dubious given their history.

Ruby had barely had time to process the fact that equally estranged daughter Steph (Georgia Jay) had arrived in the village when Anthony subsequently turned up, and whilst Ruby has been desperate to repair things with Steph, the same cannot be said for her relationship with her father.

Feeling that she wouldn’t put it past Anthony to make it up, Ruby is taken aback next week when she realises that Anthony is telling the truth about his diagnosis.

Steph manages to convince dad Caleb that Ruby and Anthony need to put their past behind them if they’ve any chance of being a proper family again. Whilst Ruby initially attempts to extend an olive branch to Anthony, for Steph and Caleb’s sake if nothing else, she soon finds herself struggling with her conflicting emotions and retreating from the family.

Anthony soon tells Steph that it’s looking increasingly unlikely that he and Ruby will be able to reconcile anytime soon, and goes on to suggest that maybe Steph could leave the village in order to support him.

Realising that they could soon lose their daughter all over again, Caleb pleads with Ruby to try and find a way to work through things with her dad. Will she be convinced?

6. Cain’s guilt torments him

Meanwhile, Ruby is also inadvertently causing grief for Cain (Jeff Hordley), as he struggles with his guilt over sleeping with her whilst wife Moira (Natalie J Robb) was having brain surgery.

Cain had not been able to stay at the hospital and wait for news on Moira, and instead holed himself up in the garage with a bottle of whisky. When Ruby later let herself into the garage, hoping to avoid Anthony outside, she and Cain began bickering before things unexpectedly escalated and the two started kissing.

“No one finds out about this,” Cain said afterwards as he got dressed.

“You’re damn right they don’t,” an equally mortified Ruby replied.

With Moira now back at Butlers as she recuperates, Cain’s conscience is eating away at him as he cares for her. Is Cain’s secret safe, or will Moira begin to realise that something is up?