Harry waylaid a waiter, ordered a round of drinks for the table he, Micah, and Edyth were sharing with the King family, Helga, and Moody, then looked around for David. Edyth saw him turn his head.
‘David’s upstairs.’ She glanced up at the mezzanine that ran around all four sides of the room. ‘What’s he doing up there?’
‘The gaming machines and tables are there. David’s been telling people that he’s working the roulette table, but he’s a kind of apprentice. Watching and learning.’ Micah slipped his hand inside his collar and adjusted it.
Edyth saw the gesture and smiled. Despite the electric ceiling fans attached to the chandeliers it was even warmer inside the club than outside and all the men looked distinctly uncomfortable in their starched collars.
Harry rose to his feet. ‘I think I’ll have a quick walk round before the show starts.’
Micah rose alongside him. ‘I’ll come with you.’
‘I’m happy on my own,’ Harry said.
‘I don’t doubt you are, but I’m a pastor. It’s my duty to see if any of my flock are here.’
‘So you can hold an impromptu service?’ Harry joked.
‘I have my prayer book in my pocket.’ Micah patted his dinner jacket.
‘I take it Edyth told you about the threat Aled made,’ Harry said as they walked up one of the staircases to the second floor.
‘Yes,’ Micah replied shortly.
‘And that’s why you’re playing bodyguard?’ Harry challenged him.
‘Hardly. Aled wouldn’t dare try to hurt you or David in here. It’s his home territory and far too public. The man’s arrogant, knows who to bribe and operates on both sides of the law, but one thing he isn’t is stupid.’
‘As he’s my half-brother, I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or not,’ Harry said doubtfully.
‘Good heavens above.’ Micah stopped at the head of the stairs and stared at the array of mechanical and electric gaming machines Aled had installed on the second floor. ‘I heard Aled had imported machines from America. I had no idea he’d brought in this many or that they’d be so …’ He blinked at the flickering coloured electric lights.
‘Pretty?’ Harry suggested.
‘I suppose some people will think they are.’
‘People who can afford to lose money, maybe,’ Harry said doubtfully. ‘But I can’t imagine who they might be in this day and age.’
‘People gamble, whether they can afford to or not,’ Micah said flatly. ‘Some idiot or other proves that adage every day on the Bay. There’s David, over by the roulette table in the far corner. See him?’
‘Yes.’
‘And the Catholic priest is playing at the blackjack table. I’ll remind him that he’ll have to add gambling to his list of sins at his next confession.’
‘See you downstairs.’ Harry apologised to a group crowding around one of the electric machines, pushed his way past them and made a beeline for David.
David saw Harry coming. As soon as his brother-inlaw drew close enough for conversation, he snapped, ‘I’m working, Harry.’
‘So I see,’ Harry said. ‘I wish I could get a job where I could stand and watch people.’
‘I could be operating this table next Tuesday.’
Not wanting to antagonise David, Harry said, ‘You must get a break some time. Can we talk then?’
‘I’m on duty all evening.’
‘Afterwards?’
‘The club doesn’t close until two o’clock, and then there’s a staff party. I probably won’t get away until three or four in the morning.’
‘I’m staying the night with Edyth. Perhaps we could have breakfast together tomorrow in her rooms?’ Harry persisted.
‘I’ll want a lie-in.’
‘I’m not in a hurry to leave. The trains will be on Sunday service and won’t start running regularly until the afternoon. You have to eat, so why don’t you come to Edyth’s for a late breakfast and lunch combined?’
‘I may be busy.’ David moved closer to the table and away from Harry but Harry refused to be deterred.
‘If you won’t meet me in Edyth’s I’ll get up early and camp outside your bedroom door. I’m sure Mrs Brown will let me into her house if I ask her. And I’ll stay there for days if I have to.’
‘You only want to lecture me.’
‘I want to talk to you, not lecture you,’ Harry countered. ‘And you can’t avoid me for ever. The more you try the more determined I’ll become.’
‘All right,’ David conceded sullenly. ‘I’ll be at Edyth’s tomorrow.’
‘What time?’
‘Around midday.’
‘I’ll be waiting. And I warn you now, if you’re not there by one o’clock, I’ll come and find you.’
‘Success?’ Micah asked when Harry rejoined the others downstairs.
‘David’s agreed to talk to me tomorrow.’
‘I wish you better luck than Edyth and I had.’
‘I remember what it felt like to be David’s age.’ Harry sat at the table.
Micah laughed. ‘You sound a hundred years old. Yet Edyth told me you’re only twenty-five.’
‘Twenty-six, but being married and having two children ages a man. There’s nothing like responsibility to make you take life more seriously.’
‘I can’t wait to find out.’ Micah saw Edyth’s hand resting on the table and laid his over it. She saw him looking at her and turned away.
The curtain on the small stage rose. Lennie Lane walked on to an orchestral fanfare. Micah wondered if it was his imagination or if Edyth really was avoiding meeting his steady gaze.
While Judy was singing ‘What is This Thing Called Love’, Edyth looked around the nightclub. People who had been in the old Sea Breeze before and after the conversion had told her that the place was unrecognisable in its present guise. Given the Victorian layout of the other buildings she had visited in Bute Street, she could believe it. Aled James had ordered George Powell to rip out the centre of the building to create a ceiling that soared four storeys to a new glass done that had been placed over the centre of the roof. Four enormous, glittering electric chandeliers hung from the perimeter, shedding diamonds of light that illuminated the furthest corners of every floor.
Judy’s voice soared upwards, past the gamblers on the first- and second-floor mezzanines, who were leaning, games and gaming machines abandoned behind them, as they listened, rapt, to her singing, to the revellers who had walked to the topmost floor to view the interior of the club from the highest vantage point. If Aled was concerned that Judy’s performance was affecting business, he gave no indication of it. He was standing on the ground floor close to the stage, his back to the bar, facing Judy and the orchestra behind her, as absorbed as everyone else in the club.
Every one of the tables was full of meticulously groomed and expensively dressed revellers. And, although Edyth didn’t know many people outside of Tiger Bay, she believed Harry’s assurance that Aled James had attracted the cream of Cardiff society and those who lived in the suburbs beyond.
Judy sang the last note. The orchestra died into the silence that occasionally follows an exceptional performance, then Micah and Jed rose simultaneously to their feet and began applauding. Within seconds every person in the club was doing the same.
Lennie Lane walked on-stage, short, rotund, and comic in contrast to Judy’s slender elegantce and classical figure. ‘The Tiger Ragtime’s headliner, ladies and gentlemen, Miss Judy King.’ He held out his arm. The applause escalated to deafening proportions when some of the younger men began stamping their feet and whistling.
Judy took another bow and one of the chorus girls came on-stage with a massive bouquet of white roses. Judy took them and, overcome with emotion, fled from the stage.
‘I apologise in advance on behalf of the management, ladies, gentlemen, and gamblers,’ Lennie pursed his tiny button mouth, which was almost lost between his chipmunk cheeks, ‘but you will have to make do with me for the next ten minutes.’ He cracked a dozen or so jokes before ending with a rousing rendition of ‘Tiger Ragtime’; the audience joining in with him.
‘Where’s that Tiger …?’
‘Who’s that Tiger …?’
‘Judy was a success.’ Tony tried to refill everyone’s glass from the bottle of champagne Aled James had sent to their table, but Harry and Edyth clamped their hands over the tops of theirs to prevent him.
‘Did you doubt she would be?’ Micah asked. ‘She always was too good for the Bute Street Blues.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ Tony reprimanded with mock seriousness. ‘I’m a consummate musician. It’s not been easy all these years making allowances for you lot.’
‘You wouldn’t have had to make allowances if you’d been playing the same tunes as the rest of us,’ Jed bit back.
Lennie finished his song. ‘Our headliner, Miss Judy King,’ he waited for the applause to die down, ‘will return in one hour. Until then, please go upstairs and take a look at the machines and gaming tables – but I warn you, anything more than a look will cost you. For some lucky people that money will be repaid hundreds of times over and when it is, a crate of champagne to be marked “for the attention of mine host Lennie” and sent backstage will be very welcome. If you want a drink, please alert our waiting staff and they will be with you. If you want to dance, grab the prettiest lady next to you because if you don’t,’ he waggled his eyebrows suggestively, ‘I will.’
Tony left his chair. ‘Which of you gentlemen would like to take a tour of the upstairs with me to admire my carpentry?’
‘None of them,’ Tony’s wife May answered for all the men at the table. ‘Because they all know it’s not your carpentry you want to admire, it’s the gaming machines Mr James has had installed.’
‘Are you accusing me of lying?’ Tony asked blandly.
‘Yes,’ May replied bluntly.
‘And you call yourself a Christian woman, May.’
‘What has that got to do with anything?’ May asked.
‘Suspicion, suspicion,’ he repeated, ‘and me an honest man.’
‘This is you, Tony King, we’re talking about?’
‘I’ve given you a month’s wages. I’m heading out to Argentina in two days. A man’s entitled to a little relaxation.’
‘Relaxation, yes. Gambling no.’ May looked at the stage. The orchestra had struck up ‘Putting on the Ritz’ in foxtrot time. ‘I can’t think of a better way to relax than by dancing. Husband,’ she extended her arm, ‘the floor, please.’
‘Good job I’m not a boxer or that request would have a different meaning.’ Tony grimaced but followed her to the polished wooden floor in front of the stage where a few couples were already dancing.
‘The star of the evening.’ Jed rose to his feet as Judy approached and kissed her cheek. She had covered her dress with a white silk shawl. Her eyes were sparkling, but her hand shook when she took the glass of champagne Jed handed her.
‘You were a triumph,’ Edyth complimented sincerely. ‘In a few years, people will be wanting to know us because we know you.’
‘That will be the day,’ Judy answered. ‘I still can’t believe we pulled it off. You should have heard the mistakes the orchestra and I made this afternoon. I don’t know who hit the most wrong notes.’ She sipped her champagne. ‘I’m on again twice more this evening, but I only have two songs to sing after twelve o’clock and as they’re the last of the evening and won’t start until twenty minutes to two, I don’t expect you to stay.’
‘We wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ Edyth assured her.
I won’t be home much before dawn. Aled’s organised a staff party, but he’s such a perfectionist I’ve a feeling it won’t be all congratulations. The last time I saw him he was talking to Aiden Collins about taking the rough edges off the table service and the entertainment.’
‘I haven’t noticed any rough edges on either!’ Jed protested.
‘That’s because you don’t own the club,’ Judy replied.
‘Lennie told me backstage that Aled’s written a list of complaints three pages long to the orchestra leader. But as it’s the first time they’ve performed together they’re bound to get better.’
‘It must be wonderful to only see the good side of everything,’ Micah commented. ‘I swear if the undertaker buried someone alive you’d say he was only practising and he’d get it right next time.’
‘I would not,’ Judy said indignantly.
‘You were magnificent tonight; a credit to the Kings. Pearl King would have burst with pride if she had been here.’ Jed slipped his arm around Judy’s shoulders.
‘Thank you, Uncle Jed.’ Tears started into Judy’s eyes at the mention of her late grandmother.
‘And absolutely no sign of nerves,’ Edyth added, knowing just how jittery Judy had been before she had left the house.
‘It feels as though my whole life has been building up to this moment.’ Judy’s eyes shone, suspiciously damp. ‘I still can’t quite believe that it’s actually happened.’
‘Judy?’ Aled walked up to their table. ‘I’m sorry to break in on you when you’re with your family and friends but a reporter from the Western Mail would like to a word with you.’ He turned to the table, and managed to speak to Judy’s uncles and aunts without apparently noticing Harry. ‘I do apologise for taking her away.’
‘We understand,’ Jed said. ‘Show business first.’
‘Second, and third,’ Aled added. He signalled to a waiter. ‘A round of drinks for this table.’
‘You don’t have to do that,’ Harry and Micah objected at the same time.
‘My pleasure and penance for monopolising the star. And don’t worry about Judy getting home, Jed. Aiden and Freddie will take her and Mandy in the car.’
‘Some mothers would worry about those two bruisers taking young girls home,’ Jed’s wife Bessie commented after Aled had whisked Judy away.
‘Not with Aled James breathing down their necks and watching every move they make, they wouldn’t.’ Jed finished the champagne in his glass. ‘Anyone else want a beer?’ He looked around for a waiter.
‘Two here, please, and I’m paying, seeing as how you got me in here for free.’ Harry held his hand up and a waiter came running, Harry gave him an order and the man disappeared. The band finished the foxtrot and paused for a few seconds before sailing into the Charleston, which brought a crush of people on to the dance floor. ‘If Aled James keeps people coming in at this rate, he’s going to make a fortune,’ Harry observed.
‘He’s certainly spent one to bring them in.’ Micah glanced up at the glass dome and chandeliers. ‘As for Judy, she’s going places after tonight. No more Bute Street Blues Band for her, Jed, or probably us.’
‘It couldn’t have lasted, Micah. Tony and Ron are off to Argentina the day after tomorrow.’
‘Not you?’
‘No.’ Jed looked at his wife. ‘The captain didn’t want any crew over forty on his boat.’
‘That’s tough,’ Micah sympathised.
‘Vic the beer, who runs the pub in our street, hasn’t been too well lately and I do the odd shift to cover for him.’
‘Not that the odd shift pays the rent but a little is better than nothing,’ Bessie broke in. ‘And word’s got out that Jed is a passable barman. Once trade picks up in the dockside pubs more landlords might send work Jed’s way.’
‘It could be a while before the pub trade gets back to what it was a couple of years ago,’ Micah said cautiously.
‘We’ll just have to tighten our belts a bit more. It’s been easier since our Kristina has started working for you full-time along with our Jamie, Edyth. And it’s not all bad news. The boys are growing up into quite a handful. They’re steady enough compared to some but they’re at an age where it helps to have their father around to keep an eye on them. And that goes double for our Jamie,’ Bessie said emphatically.
‘He’s a good delivery boy.’ Edyth felt duty-bound to come to Jamie’s defence.
‘And an argumentative son,’ Bessie added.
‘When push comes to shove, family is everything, even when everyone’s quarrelling.’ Jed cleared some of the champagne glasses so the waiter could set the beer on the table.
‘It certainly is,’ Harry agreed.
‘And if you don’t go to sea with Tony and Ron you’ll be on hand to keep an eye on Judy as well as your own children,’ Micah reminded.
‘She’s nineteen. I had been married three years and had three children when I was her age,’ Bessie said tartly.
‘I was married at eighteen,’ Edyth said. ‘And after the disaster that was my marriage, perhaps it’s just as well that Judy’s uncle is staying around to keep an eye on her.’
When Freddie hauled the third crate of champagne on to the table in the staff rest room, Judy and Mandy slipped away.
‘I must be getting old,’ Mandy yawned when she followed Judy into her dressing room. ‘Only four in the morning and I’m ready to leave a party.’
‘You and me both.’ Judy closed the door.
‘You have an excuse for being tired; you’ve been rehearsing all hours this week.’
‘And you’ve been arranging my clothes.’
‘As they were delivered in pristine condition and covered with calico, all I had to do was make a note of which was which on the covers, hang them on rails and set out your make-up.’ Mandy opened a drawer in the dressing table, removed a sheet and shook it out on the floor. ‘In the middle, please.’
Judy obediently kicked off her heeled shoes and stood in the centre. Mandy took a large paper bag from the dressing-table drawer. ‘This is just in case. We don’t want to get greasepaint on the frock.’ She slid the bag over Judy’s head, unbuttoned the back of the frock and slipped the sleeves from Judy’s arms. Judy wriggled out of the gown and stepped clear of it. While Mandy checked the frock for perfume and make-up stains Judy reached for her plain black cotton button-through dress. ‘All this gown needs is an airing and a pressing before it’s hung away. I’ll do both on Tuesday.’ Mandy hung the dress on a rail inside the door of the walk-in wardrobe. ‘You should take some of these flowers home. The club won’t be open again for two days and they’ll soon die in this heat.’
Judy looked around the room. ‘I’ll take the red roses, the violets and the white roses. You take the mixed roses and lilies.’
‘I didn’t earn them.’
‘Edyth’s living room is very small. As it is I’ll have to break up the roses and divide them between my aunts.’
‘If you’re sure.’ Mandy buried her head in a bouquet and inhaled the scent.
‘Miss King.’
‘Come in, Freddie.’ Judy had made friends with Freddie during the last week when she had spent every day rehearsing with the orchestra. She had discovered that beneath his rough exterior he could be a kind and gentle man.
‘Boss sent me to drive Miss Mandy home to Grangetown.’
‘Thank you, Freddie,’ Mandy said gratefully. ‘I couldn’t walk a step.’
‘You could drop me off on the way, Freddie,’ Judy suggested.
‘The boss is coming to see you, Miss Judy. He’s talking to a man who has a radio show. They want you to go on it.’
‘What did I tell you?’ Mandy picked up her handbag. ‘You’re on your way to the top, kiddo.’
‘Thanks, Mandy, and not just for saying that.’ Judy gave her a hug.
‘Then for what?’
‘Calming me down and getting me on-stage in one piece.’ Judy pushed the largest bouquet into her arms. Mandy winked at her. ‘Be nice to the radio producer. See you on Tuesday.’
Hoping Aled wouldn’t be long, Judy looked at her flowers again and re-read David’s card. Replacing it in the envelope, she pushed it into her handbag and opened the door of her walk-in wardrobe. The rows of evening gowns, day frocks, and fur coats hung shrouded like ghosts on the rail. On a shelf was the jewellery box that Aled had packed with expensive, well-designed pieces of glittering paste.
She had everything a rising singer could want and more. But she felt most peculiar. Flat – and somehow empty.
‘Freddie and Mandy left the door open so I guessed you’d already changed.’
She turned. Aled was standing in the doorway behind her. ‘Freddie said you were with someone from radio.’
‘He’s gone off with one of the chorus girls. I’ve arranged for us to have lunch with him on Monday – tomorrow.’
‘I suppose it is, although Sunday hasn’t dawned yet.’
‘There was another reason I wanted to keep you here.’
Aled removed a small box from his pocket and handed it her. ‘Go on, open it.’
She lifted the lid on an exquisite pair of glittering gold and diamond drop earrings.
‘They’re not paste. That’s real gold and real diamonds. I thought you’d like to have something more permanent than flowers to remind you of tonight.’
‘Thank you seems inadequate. I was just looking at all the clothes and –’ She stopped mid-sentence and brushed her cheek. She couldn’t believe it when she lifted her hand away. It was wet. ‘I have nothing to cry about.’
‘Except sheer bloody weariness,’ he said. ‘Sorry, that just slipped out. I’ve spent too much time around builders lately.’
‘It did go all right tonight, didn’t it?’
‘You’re asking me, after three standing ovations, each of which lasted a full five minutes?’
‘We’re in Tiger Bay. My home territory. That’s just my neighbours being kind.’
‘Not many of your neighbours could afford the few tickets that were sold after the invitations went out. The standing ovations came from the crache, not the natives.’
‘What if I never give another performance like that again? What if my voice goes and I …’
‘What if you turn into a frog overnight? What if the sea rises and drowns Butetown? What if the world ends?’ He laughed. ‘Want a final glass of champagne? It might help you sleep.’
‘No, thank you, I’ve had enough champagne. I’m too tired to think, yet I know that once I lie down I won’t be able to sleep. I feel … restless …edgy …’
‘You don’t have to wait for Freddie to drive you home. I could walk you.’
‘I’d like that,’ she said gratefully. ‘Just what I need. Fresh air and the smell of the sea.’
‘It’s the wrong way, but I could walk you down to the docks before you go back to the baker’s.’
‘Please.’ She looked again at the earrings nestling on their bed of dark blue velvet. ‘They’re too grand for this frock.’
‘They are,’ he agreed. ‘Put them in your handbag and wear them to lunch on Monday. You’ve got the key I gave you to the club safe?’
‘Yes.’
‘Wear one of the smart day frocks – the black one might be best, and the fur cape. You don’t want the radio producer to think you don’t know how to dress.’
‘In case he thinks he can get me cheap. One of Mandy’s maxims,’ she explained when he looked puzzled.
‘Mandy’s right.’
‘She knows everything there is to know about show business.’ She lifted her old mac from the back of the door.
‘If you took the fur cape you wouldn’t have to come back for it.’
‘I’d still have to come back for the frock. And it’s a warm night. Too warm for furs. Besides, the cape is worth more than a year’s wages to most people down here. I wouldn’t blame someone for hitting us over the head to steal it. The pawn money would keep a family of twelve for six months.’
‘So you’re not going to enjoy wearing the furs?’
‘To the right place perhaps, like the Windsor on Monday.’
‘If you’re that concerned about wearing them around the Bay I’d better send Freddie to pick you up.’
‘If you do, people will think I’m flaunting your car as well as the cape.’
‘So, you can’t win with your neighbours. Is that what you’re saying?’
‘I doubt many of the women will consider the clothes you’ve bought for me as being of more benefit to the club than me.’
‘But you’ll wear them?’
‘When it’s appropriate and I’m on club business,’ she said, remembering her conversation with Micah.
‘Some women would enjoy showing off fine clothes and fur coats in front of their friends and neighbours.’
‘I’m not “some women”.’
‘So I’ve discovered.’ He took his cigar case from his pocket and lit one as they left the club. ‘Last chance: home, or to the sea?’ he checked.
‘The sea.’ She looked up at the sky, the soft grey light of dawn heralded a new day, but the ghost of the full moon still hung low overhead, silvery pale and misty although the stars had faded.
They walked on down Bute Street in silence, passing sailors, Chinese gamblers, and tarts clinging to the arms of the last customers of their night as they steered them back to their rooms. When they reached the end of the street they turned left towards the Pier Head and West Dock.
Judy folded up the collar of her coat against the breeze blowing in from the sea.
‘I sense the first chill of autumn.’ Aled drew on his cigar for the last time and tossed it into the water.
‘The cold will be welcome after the heat of this summer.’
‘I’ll remind you that you said that next January. And I guarantee you’ll have no qualms about wearing your fur coat then, if we decide to take an early-morning walk to the sea.’
She stood and stared at the giant hulls of the ships berthed in the Bay. ‘When I was small I used to spend hours down here, wondering where the ships had been, where they were going, and trying to imagine all the things they had seen.’
‘After spending time in various ports of the world, I think perhaps it’s just as well that you couldn’t imagine half of the things they’d seen,’ he said dryly.
‘Like that.’ She indicated a group of sailors lying slumped on the pavement with their backs to the wall of the building behind them, empty bottles strewn round their feet.
‘There are drunks and poverty in every port in the world; they attract the dross from miles around. Anyone capable of walking to one will, in the hope of making money, either working on board a ship or,’ he glanced at an underdressed, over-painted woman who would never see middle age again, ‘on the sailors.’
‘My grandmother tried to teach me to ignore the seedy side.’ Judy looked towards the West Dock and the Norwegian Church. Even at that hour, the sound of singing emanated from the building.
‘Micah Holsten must be holding a service.’
‘That’s an alcohol-fuelled sea shanty, not a hymn.’ She smiled. ‘Micah never refuses admittance to anyone, especially not to those who haven’t the price of a bed in a doss house. His chairs aren’t that comfortable, but they’re under a roof and cleaner than the pavement.’
‘Ready for bed now?’
She took one last look at the ships and realised that she was suddenly and desperately tired. ‘No matter what problems I had when I was growing up, I believed that if I could get on one of those and sail away, I would leave all my worries behind. I remember telling Uncle Jed how I felt and he said that no matter how far someone sails, they take their troubles with them.’
‘He was right,’ Aled agreed.
‘Did you take your troubles with you when you left here?’
‘Who told you that I used to live on the Bay?’
‘Everyone knows. I didn’t realise it was a secret.’
‘It’s not. I left when I was a boy because my mother died. As I didn’t have any other relatives my only problem was poverty. I thought the cure for that lay in the colonies, or so I must have been told on one of the rare days I attended school.’
‘You made a fortune.’
‘Not in the colonies.’ He looked back up Bute Street. ‘I never thought when I left that I’d be able to come back and book a suite in the Windsor.’
‘You never went into the hotel when you lived here?’
‘Did you before I took you?’ he asked.
She laughed. ‘I couldn’t have afforded a cup of coffee in there. And that’s supposing they would have served me.’
‘The closest I got to the Windsor when I was a boy was to stand outside and offer to shine the porter’s shoes. Nine times out of ten he chased me off.’
‘Is the same man on the door now?’ she asked curiously.
‘He’s old enough, but if he is, he doesn’t remember me, and I certainly don’t recall him.’ He offered her his arm and they began to walk back up Bute Street. ‘It’s odd coming back here after so many years.’ He looked around. ‘Large and imposing as the buildings are, they look smaller than when I left. Perhaps I should have just taken a look at the place and moved on.’
‘Do you regret investing all your money in the club?’
‘No, and I didn’t invest it all,’ he corrected her. ‘Walking down here at this time of day reminds me of the times I used to crawl out of bed and go to Penniless Point to look for work in the hope of earning enough money to buy breakfast. It makes me feel twelve years old again.’
‘You can’t mean that after tonight.’
‘Yes, I can.’
‘After the club opening and everything else?’
‘How grown-up do you feel?’ he asked her.
‘Not very,’ she admitted. ‘After Mandy helped me dress, did my hair and make-up, I looked in the mirror and felt as though I was playing dressing up.’
‘And how old were you when you last played that game?’
‘About twelve,’ she said with a smile.
‘So we’re not that different after all.’ They drew near Edyth’s baker’s shop and he followed her through the yard to the back door. ‘You have two days off. What are you going to do until Monday lunchtime. Sleep?’
‘Probably.’
‘I’ll send Freddie with the car at eleven o’clock on Monday morning. He’ll take you to the club, wait while you change and bring you on to the Windsor. Lunch will be in my suite, but Lennie Lane and a few other people will be there. I take it that will be all right.’
‘Yes.’ She cringed. It was as though he had known about the warning her uncles had given her, never to go alone to his suite.
‘Goodnight, my lucky star.’ He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. And that time she was left in no doubt as to its intensity – or his passion.