All That Glitters, page 32
‘That’s if you have a choice. But they won’t give you one, will they?’
‘No one can answer that. Not yet.’
‘I know you.’ There was an edge of bitterness in her voice. ‘You’ll do the “right thing”, as you see it. You may not be as anxious to go as William and Eddie, but you’ll still go.’
‘You haven’t mentioned Haydn or your father.’
‘Dad’s too old. And Haydn has enough sense to know that even those who come back won’t be the same men who marched away. He has his career. He’ll try to stay out of it.’
‘Beth, tonight no one knows anything other than we’re at war. Tomorrow the whole country will be sitting down and thinking out exactly what that means, but I don’t want to have to do that now. It’s a wonderful night, we have each other, we have something very special to look forward to, and I promise you it will be all right this time.’ He laid his hand lightly on her abdomen. ‘Let’s enjoy what we have, while we can, and make some memories that will see both of us through whatever lies ahead.’
Chapter Nineteen
‘That didn’t go too badly,’ Eddie commented as he and Jenny parted company from Charlie and Alma at the foot of Graig Avenue.
‘No, Diana and Phyllis were nice about our engagement.’
‘Meaning the others weren’t?’
‘No, silly. Meaning that women are more romantic than men.’
She slipped her hand into his pocket and tickled the top of his thigh through the thin cloth.
‘Can I come in for a while when we get to your place?’
‘My father’ll still be in the Morning Star, and my mother will be looking out for us. She was none too pleased at our news.’
‘So I gathered.’
She slowed her steps as they passed a shop that had been closed and shuttered for years. On the left was the lane opening that led to Shoni’s pond. ‘We could go for a walk.’
‘To Shoni’s, in the dark?’
‘There’s a moon. And I don’t want to say goodnight yet.’ There was a huskiness in her voice that was all the persuading he needed. Once around the corner he wrapped his arm around her, cupping her breast with his hand.
‘The quicker we walk, the sooner we’ll be at the lake,’ she teased provocatively.
‘I just hope I don’t fall in the dark. Not in these clothes. They’re almost new.’
‘If you take them off, they won’t get spoiled.’
‘How about you taking yours off first?’
‘If you want me to. How about nude swimming?’
‘Now?’
‘Where’s your sense of adventure?’ She stripped off her dress and shoes as the lake shimmered into view.
He stood and watched as she folded and piled her clothes neatly on the ground. Turning her back on him she waded into the water. He leaned against a tree, breathing in the fragrance of pond water and dry grass, studying the long, slim lines of her legs, the soft, luscious swell of her buttocks, her narrow waist, her back, half-covered by a mass of pale gold hair. Her body gleamed like polished silver in the thick, dusty twilight. She hesitated as the water brushed the top of her thighs.
‘Aren’t you coming?’ She turned to look at him, trailing her fingers sensuously over the surface of the lake. She’d spoken in a whisper, but the sound carried, echoing over the water to the bank. He removed his clothes but kept on his underpants as he followed. She ducked; swimming underwater she emerged behind him, playfully splashing him with water that flowed over his skin like warm silk. He tried to seize her, but she slipped from his grasp.
‘Isn’t this wonderful. I feel marvellous and incredibly alive.’ She kissed his neck, rubbing the full length of her body against his back.
‘It’s wonderful, but I’m not a fish. How about we get out and finish what you’ve started on firm ground.’
‘Eddie, you’re the most unromantic man I know.’
‘I’d rather not drown if it’s all the same to you.’
Confident of his arousal and his need for her, she swam around him, moving her hands lightly over the contours of his body.
‘How about we get married?’
‘I’ve asked you.’ He grabbed her wrists, successfully holding on to them this time.
‘I mean sooner, rather than later. I’m tired of all this sneaking around. I want to sleep beside you all night, every night, wake up next to you in the morning.’ She couldn’t see his face. Darkness had fallen, suddenly and totally, transforming the outlines of the trees and bushes into black shadows. She didn’t even have to close her eyes to imagine him as Haydn.
‘All right.’
‘If I find a place we can move into, you’ll marry me right away?’
‘Tomorrow.’ He picked her up and carried her to the bank.
‘You mean it?’ He set her down on a grassy slope. The sharp edges of twigs and coarse-leaved weeds dug into her back, but she was unaware of the discomfort. Uppermost in her mind was Haydn’s rejection, Will’s mocking offer of a trip to the pictures, and the need to make Eddie hers before he, or someone else, changed his mind.
‘I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.’
She rose to her knees and buried her face between his thighs. A man was so different, so very different from a woman.
‘I’d marry you right now, Jenny.’
‘Tomorrow will do, Eddie.’ She moved back and slid her hands down the inside of his legs.
‘It can’t come soon enough for me.’
Those were all the words she wanted to hear. She lay on her back and prepared to receive his embrace.
‘Take me out to supper after the show.’
‘Everyone’s going out, Babs,’ Haydn said. ‘Together.’
‘But not everyone’s sitting next to you.’ She snaked her fingers along his shoulders and into his collar.
‘Babs …’
‘The Revue girls have gone. You’re left with little old me. But that’s not so bad. You do remember the good times we had in Brighton, don’t you?’
‘Yes. But as I’ve told you, this isn’t Brighton. I live here. This is my home town.’
‘All the more reason for us to have fun. Rusty and I compared notes, and we both agreed, when it comes to lover boys, you’re the best.’
‘You talked to Rusty about me?’
‘We talked to one another about you. Rusty admitted that she was lucky to entice you between the sheets. After all, she is almost old enough to be your mother, and …’ Babs pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows, ‘a lot more experienced. But then she did say what you lacked in practice you more than made up for in enthusiasm. She also said no one can fondle a woman’s nipple the way you can.’
The one thing Haydn had always been squeamish about was the chorus girls’ habit of publicly discussing their sexual adventures in frank, and often crude terms. He’d learned to forget the mores drummed into him during his puritanical, chapel-going Welsh upbringing and listen in silence. But Babs’s revelation that she and Rusty had compared his sexual prowess left a bad taste in his mouth. Suddenly he saw himself through their eyes. A young man with a body they could take pleasure in and make use of, the way some men used whores.
‘Babs, do me a favour?’
‘Anything,’ she purred seductively.
‘Go now, before I’m tempted to say or do something we’ll both regret.’
‘If I go, you’ll be left without a woman in your life.’
‘That’s the way I want it.’
‘Not you, Haydn. You’re not cut out to be a monk.’
‘I think you’ve just given me reason to join their ranks.’
‘Not you, sweetie,’ She reached out but he dodged, avoiding her touch. ‘It’s no good setting your sights on Helen. She’s engaged. And he’s richer than you.’
‘I know. I worked a London Empire with him. Good comic, nice chap.’
‘Haydn …’ she made another grab for his crotch but he was too quick for her. Opening the door he bundled her out into the corridor.
‘You bastard, Haydn Powell. Think you can use people and drop them just like that! Well I’m not just anybody, you know. I’m special. I’m going places, I’m …’ she stormed into her dressing room and slammed the door.
‘What the bloody hell is going on back here?’ Chuckles stood in the main corridor looking down towards the dressing rooms. He saw Haydn standing in his open doorway and guessed. ‘Damn and blast it, man, do you have to go upsetting the girls ten minutes before the curtain goes up?’
‘Not me,’ Haydn asserted innocently. ‘Just a bad dose of pre-performance nerves.’
‘And I’m a monkey’s uncle.’ Max Monty poked his head out of his dressing room, scratched at his armpits and hopped about like an ape.
Haydn went into his dressing room, closed the door, and took out the bottle of brandy he kept in his bag. He’d had the same bottle for months. Wary of hard liquor he usually only opened it on the rare occasions visitors called in after the show. He’d seen too many performers take a ‘tot’ to steady their nerves, only to come a cropper on stage afterwards. But just this once he needed a boost. Pulling the cork with his teeth he poured a small measure into a metal beaker.
‘I smell brandy.’ The door opened and Max came in.
‘You’re incorrigible.’
‘And don’t you just love me for it?’ Max said, deliberately camping it up.
‘Sometimes.’
‘Ooh, good. Now batty Babs has gone, does this mean I’m in with a chance?’
‘No, you idiot.’
‘Shame, you would be a welcome addition to our ranks.’
‘Thanks, but no thanks. Mind you,’ Haydn downed his measure and poured out another for Max, ‘with all the woman trouble I’ve had lately, I’m seriously considering taking up another hobby. Something harmless like fishing.’
‘You poor soul’ Max held out the empty cup. ‘More?’
‘Don’t you ever buy your own?’
‘No, because I’d drink it, and I know it’s bad for me before a show. Besides I don’t want to end up a drunk, and other people’s meanness is my way of checking my weakness.’
Haydn refilled the beaker, but stoppered and stowed away the bottle afterwards.
‘Missing Rusty?’ Max asked as Haydn checked his make-up in the mirror.
‘Not really. It couldn’t have lasted.’
‘Not with her husband waiting in the wings. I’ve heard he’s an absolute brute. But I know you Welsh boyos, for all this talk of fishing you’ve got to have at least one female around, otherwise vital parts will shrivel and die. Who’s going to be the lucky lady this time? The gorgeous Helen?’
‘She’s engaged.’
‘Rusty was married.’
‘We’re just friends.’
‘Uh-oh, I’ve heard that one before.’
‘This time we really are.’ Haydn dipped his comb into Vaseline and ran it through his hair.
‘I know – it’s Jane, isn’t it?’
‘Don’t be silly, she’s only a child,’ Haydn said irritably.
‘A child who has the most horrendous crush on you. If you weren’t so wrapped up in chorus girls, you’d have seen it already.’
‘She’s my father’s lodger.’
‘And plain, and nice, unlike your last half a dozen lady loves, or at least the half a dozen I know about. Probably a bit too skinny for your taste too. You always have rather tended to run to voluptuous -’
‘Five-minute call for Mr Powell – five-minute call for Mr Haydn Powell. Five-minute call for Miss Bradley – five-minute call for Miss Babs Bradley.’
‘There you have it, old son. The top of the bill. The most important cog in the wheel, or is that the other way round?’
‘You shouldn’t have had that second brandy.’ Haydn left his chair, straightened his open-necked shirt and the garish garland of artificial flowers around his neck. ‘I look bloody ridiculous in this get-up.’
‘Don’t we all sunshine, but you know Chuckles. He always has gone a bundle on all things Hawaiian.’
‘I’m too tired to teach anyone anything right now.’
‘I didn’t expect it, Haydn. Not on your first night. I just wondered if you wanted anything from the kiosk. I’m getting the girls’ ice creams.’
‘And no doubt you’ll be doing their mending, and running their errands just as you did for the Revue girls.’
‘If they want me to.’
‘And charging them too?’
‘Only for mending. The manager’s made my pay up to what the other usherettes are getting, so things aren’t quite so desperate as they were. Is there anything I can get you?’ she repeated, uneasy with his mood. He’d often been short with her, but never downright aggressive.
He stared at her and she coloured, conscious that she was wearing a new black dress. One that fitted her better because it hadn’t come off Wilf Horton’s stall, but new out of Leslie’s Stores. She’d bought it that morning along with two more sets of underclothes, stockings and leather shoes. She’d also bought a green sprigged summer dress and straw hat like the ones she’d borrowed from Diana, because everyone had said they’d suited her, and a bottle of lavender water for Daisy who worked in the toilets by the fountain. It had meant taking three pounds out of the Post Office, but she’d paid Phyllis a final week’s rent with the last of her sewing money, and Wilf Horton with her wages. It was a good feeling not owing anyone anything. She had money in the bank, wages coming at the end of the week, and all the clothes she needed. She didn’t have to put up with anything from anyone, especially moodiness from Haydn.
‘I won’t be able to walk home with you tonight either,’ the cast are going out for a drink after the show.’
‘That’s all right, I didn’t expect you to.’
‘Damn you! Don’t you expect anything from anyone?’
‘No.’
‘What is the matter with you?’
‘Haydn.’ She stepped into his dressing room and closed the door behind her. Knowing how thin the walls were, she lowered her voice. ‘I know there’s something wrong …’
‘And you’re going to tell me not to take it out on you?’
‘No, not to let it affect your performance. I overheard Chuckles apologising to someone in the auditorium for the opening number. There’s a man no one’s ever seen before sitting next to him. One of the girls said she thought it was an impresario from London.’
‘And Chuckles didn’t tell me?’
‘Perhaps he was afraid of rattling you more than you already are. You’ve been odd since you came in tonight.’
‘In what way?’
‘All sorts. Sometimes it helps to talk things out, then if you’re lucky you can see them more clearly. When I was small and had no one to talk to I used to sneak into a big room that had a mirror in it and talk to the mirror.’
‘You suggesting I should talk to myself?’
‘No, but William perhaps, or your father. He and Phyllis were really good to me when I went to them with my problems.’
‘And you think I have problems?’
‘It’s obvious, Haydn. Yesterday you couldn’t stop looking at your brother and Jenny. Not that I blame you. She is very beautiful with all that long golden hair, and …’
‘And you think I’m in love with my brother’s future wife?’ He made a resolution to watch his movements carefully the next time he found himself in Jenny’s company. If Eddie could hear Jane now, he’d lay both of them out.
‘I heard that you two were inseparable before you went to London.’
‘Did you?’
‘I know it’s none of my business …’
‘No, it isn’t. But I’ll tell you something for nothing. If I was going to fall in love, Jenny Griffiths would be the last person on my list. I happen to think she’s bad for Eddie, that’s all. And he won’t listen to me, and -’ he realised he’d said far more than he’d intended – ‘and the whole thing is a bloody awful mess.’ He finished miserably.
‘Not necessarily. If Eddie really loves her perhaps it will be all right between them,’ Jane said, wondering what Haydn had meant by ‘bad for him’.
‘You think she’ll change because Eddie loves her?’
‘Yes. Not that I know very much about it, but if anyone loved me I’d try very hard to become whatever they wanted me to.’
‘I’ll give you a piece of sound advice. Don’t change for any man. None of us are worth it, and you’re just fine the way you are.’
‘No I’m not. I’m skinny and ugly, and an orphan and no one will ever want me,’ she said seriously, neither soliciting nor receiving sympathy for what she saw as a plain statement of fact.
‘We want you. In fact I heard my father say this morning after you left the house that he didn’t know what we were going to do without you. I think he has it in mind to ask Diana if she’d mind you moving into her room so Brian can have his back. That way you can stay until I leave, then you can have the lodger’s room.’
‘Your father really said that?’
‘Yes, but don’t go letting on that I told you.’
‘I promise I won’t.’
‘I’m sorry I was foul to you when you came in.’
‘Sometimes it helps to shout at someone.’
‘You never do it.’
‘No,’ she smiled grimly. ‘But I’ve often been the one shouted at. You get used to it after a while.’
‘You did have a rough time before you came here, didn’t you?’
‘Not that bad. If it will help, I could ask Des to make you a cup of tea or coffee.’
‘You really going to get the girls ice cream?’
‘Yes.’ She jumped to her feet, realising they would probably have given up on her by now.
‘I’d like a cold orange juice. Do you think you could manage that?’
‘Yes.’
‘Get yourself one while you’re at it, and come back here and drink it with me?’
‘If there’s time.’
‘I wanted you to be the first to know.’
Haydn struggled to focus in the strong light of the back kitchen after the darkness that had shrouded the hill.
‘The first to know what, Eddie?’ he slurred, staggering on his feet. Two shows, not much in the way of food, plus a long discussion with a visiting producer who worked for the BBC, and who thanks to Jane’s warning was leaving Pontypridd reasonably impressed with Haydn’s talents, plus several beers followed by brandy chasers and a long warm walk up the hill didn’t make for coherent thinking.
