Having started off so beautifully with warmth and sunshine, May suddenly turned wet at the end of the second week. For all the young people at Freeburns, including Joe, who had finally been persuaded to join the Tennis Club, it was a great disappointment. On several evenings it was obvious by closing time that no play would be possible while there were other evenings when they all went hopefully to the court, only to be rained off later.
There was, however, no possibility whatever of the Annual Tennis Club Dance being rained off, for this key event of the season, a nine to two affair including a sit-down supper, was held in the City Hall, a large building which provided various civic offices as well as a ballroom, reported to have a beautifully sprung floor, and a stage fitted with deep red velvet curtains which swung back just like the ones in the Ritz Cinema.
None of the three girls had ever been to a dance in the City Hall before. Susie was so excited about the prospect of her first grown-up dance she could think of little else. Since the advent of Frank, Daisy had been to many dances, but none as yet in the City Hall. She was almost as excited as Susie, who’d been allowed to go because she’d be accompanied by not only Ellie and Daisy but also her brother Richard, a member of the organising committee.
Ellie herself had not danced since the night she and Sam Hamilton had won the Tennis Tournament the previous September and she had to admit to herself she felt nearly as excited as her two friends. For reasons not clearly known to herself, she did her best not to make it obvious to either of them.
It was Susie who insisted neither Ellie nor Daisy could go cycling home at two o’clock in the morning in their best dresses. She had spoken to her mother and persuaded her brother to go and stay with his older brother and sister-in-law in Abbey Street, thereby leaving an extra spare bedroom at the house in Beresford Row. They would all be able to get ready together, she said, and if it should rain that evening, her father promised he would drive them up the City Hall himself.
The evening of the twenty-sixth of May, however, was warm and pleasant, as perfect a summer evening as one could wish. Although Ellie and Daisy had been given a bedroom each, next door to Susie’s own room, it was only a matter of time before Ellie’s room, which looked out over the trees on the Mall, became their joint dressing room.
Susie’s excuse was that the long mirror on the back of the wardrobe door was the best in the house while Daisy just appeared in her slip when she heard the voices next door. But Ellie wasn’t in the least put out by this invasion, far from it, she found a great comfort in the presence of her two younger friends. After all their talk about the dance in the staff-room at Freeburns it seemed very appropriate for them to be together now, doing each other’s hair, sharing powder, or lipstick, or scent.
Susie’s mother was so kind to them, smiling wistfully when she mentioned her own dancing days, admiring their dresses and ready to provide anything they might need. In a quiet moment she thanked both Ellie and Daisy for all they’d done for Susie, a much happier girl now than when she’d left school labelled a failure. She’d be only too pleased to have them both again, should there be another big dance they all wanted to go to.
‘Chauffeur reporting for duty, ma’am,’ said John Sleator to his wife, as he came into the sitting-room where Ellie and Daisy sat politely and Susie hopped up and down, quite unable to keep still. ‘You’re in luck, there’s a Daimler tonight. Came in this morning and Richard and my best mechanic worked on it all day, so we could drive you in style tonight.’
‘My goodness,’ said Susie, staring down from the first floor window to where the gleaming vehicle was parked outside, ‘Is that it?’
‘That’s it, Susie dear. A 1927 Double Six 30. Not as sensational as the V12, but both King George and Queen Mary ordered one of these when they first came out. Fit for royalty and for three lovely ladies. All thanks to Sam Hamilton who found out what was wrong with it. Now, time to go. Sorry I haven’t got a peaked cap.’
There was a flurry of goodbyes and thanks. Mrs Sleator reminded Susie to make cocoa for her friends when they came in. ‘Have a wonderful time, all of you. Oh, and Susie, don’t forget your alarm clock, you know I can never waken you myself.’
‘Right, Mummy, I promise. Thank you for letting me have Ellie and Daisy to stay, it’s been lovely. They are so good to me,’ she said, kissing her mother briefly and making for the door.
John Sleator drove the long way round to the City Hall and when they arrived within sight of it, he was delighted to see that there were NO PARKING notices outside. Then he laughed to himself. As the event was being run by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, it was hardly surprising they’d thought of controlling the traffic.
He glided to a halt in front of the entrance, jumped out, opened the rear door of the vehicle and handed out his three young ladies. The looks on the faces of the uniformed constables by the main door, clearly impressed by the Daimler and by its contents, was worth all the effort. As he drove home to his wife, he wore a broad grin. It was the sort of story you could be forgiven for telling more than once.
Although it was broad daylight outside, the ladies cloakroom was a blaze of light, already crowded with women of all ages, wearing dresses that ranged from the very latest styles in short frocks to long skirted creations in silk and taffeta brought out once again for this yearly occasion.
‘D’you not think we’re a bit early to go in?’ asked Daisy anxiously, ‘We wouldn’t want to be the first.’
‘That’s probably why this cloakroom is so full,’ suggested Ellie, ‘they’re all saying the same thing,’ she went on, as they struggled through the press of bodies to hand over their coats.
‘Oh, do let’s go in,’ said Susie. ‘Even if we are the first.’
Ellie herself was finding the crush, the strong odour of perspiration and scent, the airlessness of the cloakroom, very oppressive and the longing in Susie’s tone was so obvious. The dear girl had waited for months. What did it matter if they did turn out to be the first?
‘Why not,’ replied Ellie, looking into the shining eyes.
They squeezed out through the crowd and breathed again on the cool airy staircase, crossed the landing and stepped into the dimly lit ballroom. The floor was empty, but as they entered, the band struck up the first number of the evening and the three young men standing with their backs to the entrance turned round and came towards them, revealing themselves as Sam Hamilton, Frank Armstrong and Richard Sleator.
Whether they had been waiting together, or whether it was just chance, Ellie never discovered, but as Sam Hamilton held out his arms to her, she had a sudden feeling that the evening was going to be a happy one.
They moved around the floor as if they’d been dancing with each other for years, saying little, taking in the fairy lights and the festooned decorations, the familiar faces of other couples on the still uncrowded floor. The bank of fresh flowers edging the stage gave off a fresh garden perfume. Above them sat the band, lined up in their smart dinner jackets, playing as if they would never tire.
‘Well, that’s number one,’ said Sam smiling down at her at the end of the first sequence. ‘First and last and two for my birthday,’ he added, reminding her of their agreement, ‘and maybe a bonus for fixing the Daimler,’ he added lightly, as he walked her back to Daisy and Susie.
It was almost two hours later before Sam claimed his next dance. Ellie had been partnered for every one in between and had enjoyed all of them. First Harry, then Stanley and Joe, Richard Sleator and Frank Armstrong and, to her great surprise, the Club Secretary, Charles Merrick, the precise little man with the neat moustache who’d apologised to her for failing to find her a tennis partner for the afternoon of the tournament last year.
‘Are ye not tired yet? You’ve danced every dance. How do you do it?’ he asked, as they moved easily into a slow waltz. ‘And you standin’ all day?’
‘And what about you? Don’t you stand all day too?’ she came back at him, ‘and bending over as well.’
‘Sometimes I get a wee lie down,’ he said, his eyes twinkling.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
‘Mind you, the concrete’s pretty hard and John doesn’t provide cushions.’
‘I’ve got plenty of cushions,’ she retorted, laughing, ‘all shapes and sizes, but very little chance to sit on them.’
‘We could go up on the balcony and watch for a wee while. See how Susie is gettin’ on, until they call us for supper.’
She nodded slowly. ‘I hate to admit it, but I am tired but I still don’t want to miss anything.’
‘Well, we can see everythin’ goin’ on from up there, better actually than down here.’
They made their way up the two flights of shallow stairs to the next floor and stepped down the steep aisle between the rows of cushioned seats to the very front of the balcony. Here and there in the dimmer corners behind them entwined couples were quite oblivious of their passing.
They leant over the broad edge and looked down, picked out all their friends as they appeared, said what a great band it was, how beautiful the lights and decorations were, and then sat back comfortably with a sigh in their cushioned seats, the long day catching up on both of them at last.
‘Did your sisters like the wee rose bushes?’ Ellie asked, when the silence between them seemed to have gone on for rather a long time.
‘Aye,’ he beamed at her. ‘That was good luck meetin’ you that day. You were a great help.’
‘Oh Sam, I only encouraged you to choose what you’d have chosen anyway,’ she said dismissively.
He shook his head vigorously. ‘It wasn’t just that, Ellie. I’d had a bit of a shock that day. Ye helped me get over it.’
She looked at him, startled, concerned by a tone she’d not heard in his voice before. She waited to see if he would go on.
‘Last year, I was engaged to be married, Ellie, and the girl broke it off,’ he began, looking down at his large hands. ‘I’d the furniture bought an’ we were just waitin’ for a house we could rent. I was that upset I thought of goin’ to New Zealand. I had the plans made, though my two sisters told me it would do no good. The only way was to face it here.’
He paused for so long, Ellie wondered if he’d be able to continue.
‘You said you’d given your sisters a bad time,’ she prompted gently.
He nodded again. ‘I blamed myself for what had happened. I thought it was me had done somethin’ amiss and I couldn’t face thinkin’ about it every day, comin’ and goin’ to work, aye an’ at work too. I never knew when it was goin’ to come over me. I just wanted to get away from the thoughts of it. That day I met you in the market I’d found out it wasn’t me at all. It was somethin’ she’d done.’
He paused and laid his hand on hers as if to underline the point he was about to make.
Ellie didn’t move her hand away. She just waited, anxious for him to finish the tale, for it had taken away the ease from his body and the sparkle from his eyes.
‘Ellie, the worst of it was I nearly made a terrible mistake.’
‘What was that, Sam?’
‘I nearly let that woman drive me away from here. From this place I love and my home and my family. If it hadn’t been for Da and Rosie and Emily, I’d a’ been away months ago.’
‘Oh Sam, that would have been so sad. You’ve a good job and you’ve friends and sisters here. You might have been very lonely away on the other side of the world.’
‘Aye, that’s what Emily and Rosie said.’
‘I’m a bit envious of you, Sam. My sister’s are all away,’ she said suddenly. ‘When things go wrong for me, I so wish I had Polly round the corner.’
‘I can imagine that all right after this last year. Where is your Polly?’
‘Peterborough, Ontario.’
‘An’ does she like it there?’
‘That’s the trouble, Sam. You can’t always tell. Her husband Jimmy is with Quaker Oats. It’s only maintenance work, all he could get when his company in Toronto went down. She has three wee boys and they’ve not much money. I know she makes the best of things, but I often wonder if she wishes she was home.’
Ellie watched as he nodded vigorously. He seemed quite restored to his good spirits again after the tension and distress of telling her about what had happened to him. She was touched by his concern for Polly and the way he listened so carefully to all she’d said about her.
‘My granny always says you hear so much about those who go and make a great success, but you hear less about those who fail, an’ hardly anythin’ at all about those who come home, or those who spend their life wishing they could come home.’
‘That sounds like a very sensible granny,’ replied Ellie, smiling at him. ‘I haven’t got a granny either,’ she went on matter-of-factly. ‘Does yours live near you?’ she asked, thinking how fortunate he seemed to be with his family.
‘No. I wish she did,’ he said sadly, ‘she lives in Belfast now with my Uncle James. She used to live over Banbridge way, a place called Ballydown, but then Granda died and she lost her great friends, Richard and Elisabeth Stewart, so Uncle James asked her to come and live with him …’
‘In Cranmore Park, off the Lisburn Road?’
Sam stared at her, eyes wide in astonishment.
‘How d’ye know that?’
So Ellie told him how she had spoken to a woman feeding birds in the park and how they had become friends.
‘I can hardly believe it,’ he said, shaking his head yet again. ‘And did you not tell her you knew a Sam Hamilton?’
‘No, it never occurred to me. There are so many Hamiltons around Armagh I never thought of you,’ she said, laughing herself. ‘She told me a lot about her family, but she said even her grandchildren were getting middle-aged these days. That could hardly include you. She did mention a Sam Hamilton, but that was her son. She said he always wanted to drive road-engines. I’m not quite sure what a road engine is, but it must be a long time ago. James, Sam, Hannah and Sarah. Four of them. She told me a lot about each of them, but she didn’t get as far as grandchildren.’
He brought his other hand over to join the one already resting lightly on hers, took her hands firmly between his and squeezed them.
‘Just wait till I tell her,’ he said beaming at her, ‘that I know her wee friend Ellie Scott. I’m going up for her birthday in a fortnight. She’s going to be eighty. Did she tell you that? She’ll never believe me that I know you.’
Ellie looked at his smiling face and laughed.
‘I can always tell her myself, Sam. She’s invited me to her birthday party, so I’ll be going too.’
Before Sam had quite taken this in, the Master of Ceremonies announced that the First Supper would be served in the basement. They consulted their tickets, were pleased to find that First Supper included them, and five minutes later they were sitting down at a small table where Susie and Joe had kept seats for them.
The talk was lively, but did not interfere with the consumption of a generous supper of cold meats and salads, fresh rolls with butter, fruit trifle with cream, and coffee or tea.
Ellie looked across the table at Susie to see if she was enjoying herself. To her surprise, she found that the girl who was always talking, joking and laughing was eating her trifle very slowly and listening with close attention to something Joe was saying.
‘My goodness,’ she thought to herself, ‘how little we know of people if we always see them in the same situation.’ She’d seen these two talking to each over and over again in the last months, but there was something she saw now she’d quite missed. Susie wasn’t just ensuring that Joe, wasn’t left out of things, she was quite absorbed in what he was telling her. For his part, Joe was talking to her with a quite new confidence. A moment later, he stopped and she laughed. An easy, happy laugh which clearly delighted him, a laugh that spoke of something more than friendship. Susie wouldn’t be sixteen till November. But then, Ellie thought, she’d been younger than Susie when she and George first went out together.
‘Could you manage another wee dance, d’you think, Ellie, now we’ve got a bit more energy?’ Sam asked, as they rose from the supper table.
‘That would be lovely,’ she said, taking his hand as they wove their way through the next instalment of hungry people waiting expectantly outside the supper room.
The dance floor was emptier, the band reduced in number, the lights dimmed somewhat further. They said little to each other but when the dance sequence ended, they made no move to separate and when the Master of Ceremonies announced the Last Supper they laughed with everyone else.
Moments later, they moved into a vigorous quick-step as the band got their second wind, much refreshed by their supper and the encouragement of the dancers.
‘You’re a lovely dancer, Ellie,’ he said, as they paused once again, stood side by side, clapping the band.
‘You’re not so bad yourself,’ she said lightly.
The moment she spoke a wave of sadness swept over her just as it had in the supper room when she’d looked at Susie and Joe and heard them laugh together. It was so unexpected, she nearly missed her step as the band struck up again.
In the relative quiet after the applause when the dance ended, they noticed the Master of Ceremonies bend down to the dance-floor and take a note from a member of the committee. He came forward to the microphone, his face inscrutable. He waited and waited, till he had all their attention.
Ellie wondered what on earth could have created such a solemn face and began to feel uneasy. Sam fidgeted at her side, then suggested it might be the winner of the raffle.
‘Ladies and gentlemen. It has been suggested to me by your committee that you might like to make requests for particular numbers. I cannot promise that we will be able to play them all, but we shall try. I have already received the first request. I have it here.’
He paused yet again, then his face broke into a broad smile.
‘We will be delighted to play ‘If you were the only girl in the world,’ for Sergeant Frank Armstrong and his partner Miss Daisy Hutchinson who have just become engaged.’
There was a riot of cheering and stamping and clapping. Without any previous signal, all the dancers moved to the sides of the ballroom, leaving Daisy and Frank quite alone. Daisy looked rather pink, but Frank was perfectly at ease. He put his arms round her and they circled the ballroom twice to the continuing shouts and cheers of Frank’s colleagues and the clapping of all their friends in the Tennis Club.
Ellie clapped as hard as everyone else but she had no idea at all what she was going to do if Sam should look down at her and noticed the tears streaming down her face and splashing on the soft blue fabric of her best dress.
‘I’ll walk over to Sleators with you, Ellie,’ Sam said quietly as the last strains of God Save the King faded away. ‘What about wee Susie? I can’t see her anywhere, can you?’
Ellie looked around. Moments ago the members of the Constabulary had been so obvious by the set of their squared shoulders and the solemn look on their faces as they sang the National Anthem. Now they relaxed, moved, became again just young men at a dance. She scanned the faces that streamed past and spotted Daisy and Frank but there was no sign of Susie.
‘I’ll probably find her in the cloakroom.’
‘Most likely. I’ll wait for the pair of you outside. I don’t think Daisy will need us to see her home,’ he said nodding back over his shoulder.
But Susie had no more need of a companion than Daisy. As Ellie retrieved her coat, she saw her meet Joe on the staircase.
‘No Susie?’ asked Sam, a hint of anxiety in his tone.
‘I don’t think we need worry. I saw her go off with Joe.’
‘Ah well, she safe’s enough with him. I always thought he was a desperate quiet lad, but there’s a big improvement there. He seemed to be enjoyin’ himself tonight. And so did Susie.’
He put an arm round her, drew her through the crowd milling through the double doors and out on to the pavement, waiting for friends, or getting into the few motors that had drawn up outside.
There was no moon and the only lamplight was the single gas lamp outside the Post Office, but the sky was perfectly clear and there was a mass of stars. Their pale light gleamed on slate roofs and was reflected back from the glass in the dark shop windows.
‘D’ye mind the day you brought the parcel for Wee Johnny?’ he said as they moved quietly past the front of Sleators.
‘I do. I didn’t know what to make of you that day,’ she said easily. ‘You gave me such a strange look, but then you weren’t expecting to see anyone …’
They paused, crossed the empty street and slowed their steps. Ahead of them, Susie and Joe were walking very slowly, their arms entwined.
‘Dear be good to them,’ Sam said unexpectedly. ‘If that’s a match, it’ll hardly suit the Sleators. Sure what prospects has Joe as a shop assistant?’
‘He’s a clever boy,’ said Ellie, ‘if he weren’t from a big family, he might have gone to college and become a teacher or something like that, but he certainly won’t be able to marry on what he’ll ever earn as an assistant at Freeburns. Just like George and his ten shillings a week, clothes and his keep. That’s why he went to Canada.’
Ellie stopped abruptly, amazed she had spoken so freely. But then, why shouldn’t she? Sam was just as open with her. If they were going to be friends, then that’s the way it should be.
‘And does he like it out there?’
‘I don’t think he’s terribly keen on the lumber camp, but it’s a stepping-stone. His uncle is a partner in a big lumber business in Peterborough, but he wants George to get experience in the camps before he comes down to the mills.’
‘And the money would be good there, wouldn’t it?’
‘Oh yes, when he first told me he was going, I couldn’t believe how much he’d earn.’
Sam smiled and nodded. ‘Aye, I know all about that. Emily went and got a job in Macy’s.’
‘But I thought Emily was married and lived at Stonebridge.’
‘Oh yes, she does. She met her husband out there. But he’s from here, just outside Monaghan, and the two of them saved up to come home. He has a wee business now making car bodies, specialist work. Emily keeps the books. She’s always been great with money.’
‘Like Daisy,’ she said, laughing. ‘She can do a sum in her head while Susie and I are still looking for a piece of paper.’
They paused at the steps leading down to the broad walk crossing The Mall, the short way home to Sleators house on the other side.
There was no one anywhere in sight. The green space with its surrounding trees at the heart of the city, lay absolutely still in deep shadow. Ahead of them, the marble slabs laid edge to edge all the way across to the matching steps on the other side shone like a bridge through the darkness.
‘Wonderful night, isn’t it?’ he said, stopping and scanning the sky.
‘It’s a long time since I’ve seen so many stars,’ she said wistfully, ‘but then I’m not often out at two o’clock in the morning.’
‘Ach it’s a pity that. Do you think George would be annoyed if you went out with your friends now and again?’
‘I don’t know, Sam. You know how people talk,’ she began thoughtfully. ‘The Club is great. I must say I’m grateful to Daisy, I’d never have thought of joining if she hadn’t kept on at me.’
‘Aye, she’s good at that. Sure that’s why I joined as well.’
‘Aren’t we lucky, Sam, we have such good friends?’
‘We’re lucky all right. We’ve an awful lot to be thankful for, the way things are these days. There’s a lot worse off than we are.’
They walked together across the shining path, up the steps and turned along the pavement under the trees. They could see a light in the bedroom that was Ellie’s. As they watched a light came on next door.
‘That’s Susie,’ she said quietly.
‘It might be a while before Daisy appears,’ he said lightly.
She nodded, suddenly feeling sad that the evening was over, that he would turn away into the darkness, walk back up to Sleators and ride home. In the deep silence, she would probably hear the roar of his motorbike as he headed out the Portadown Road.
‘Ellie, I want to ask you somethin’. I don’t want you to take it amiss.’
She looked up at his face, now visible in the spill of light from the windows above.
‘If you and George hadn’t grown up side by side and you hadn’t been spoken for long ago, an’ if you’d met me, like Frank met Daisy, or Joe met Susie, d’you think I might have been in with a chance.’
For a moment she felt overwhelmed with anxiety. What could she say? Then it came to her. There was no question about what to say. He’d been truthful with her. She could only be as truthful with him. She nodded.
‘Oh yes, Sam. You’d have been in with a chance.’
‘Good,’ he said firmly. ‘I’m glad about that,’ he added as they crossed to Sleators front door. ‘I hope you’re not tired out in the mornin’.’
‘If I am, it’ll have been worth it,’ she said, putting her key in the door.
He stepped back, watched till he saw the door swing open.
‘Goodnight, Sam. Thank you for a lovely evening.’
‘Goodnight, Ellie. It was great.’