Queen of the Mersey (47 page)

They kissed. Laura didn’t just sound fed up, she looked it.

‘What’s the matter?’ Queenie asked.

‘Is it that obvious?’

‘Yes. Why do you need someone to talk to when you’ve got Roddy?’ She could have bitten off her tongue the minute the question was out. Perhaps it was Roddy she wanted to talk about.

‘I can’t talk to Roddy, because he’s hardly ever there, nor Gus. It’s all Theo’s fault,’ Laura said sourly. ‘Ever since he got you that boat, Roddy’s been aching for one. He’s bought a day boat, halfway between a dinghy and a yacht. He and Gus virtually live on the damn thing, even sleep there. They disappear every Saturday morning, come home exhausted on Sunday night, have something to eat, then go straight to bed. I’m fed up to the teeth with the pair of them.’

‘Why don’t you go with them?’

‘Because I’d hate it. Wouldn’t you? You were seasick on that great big thing of yours. Not only that, I can’t swim, and I can’t think of a more boring way of spending my time.’

‘Poor Laura!’ Queenie reached for her hand, just as the waitress came for their order.

After they’d ordered and the waitress had gone, Laura continued to complain. ‘It wouldn’t be so bad if Hester were here, but she’s in California and, if her letters are anything to go by, having a wonderful time. The day after tomorrow, she’ll be twenty-one. If everything had gone the way it should have, she would be marrying Duncan. Now she’s not even coming home and there’ll be no party, no wedding.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Do you know if she and Steven Vandos are having an affair?’

‘I don’t know, no. I’ve wondered meself.’

‘Oh, you must think I’m a terrible old misery,’ Laura cried. ‘I’m just feeling unusually down, that’s all. It didn’t help when Vera told me about Mary’s party last Saturday. It sounded a very lively affair. Did you go?’

‘Yes, Theo went too. He loves Vera and the Monaghan lads because they’re so down to earth and uncomplicated. His family are the very opposite.’

‘And was it as lively as Vera said?’

‘Have you ever known a party at the Monaghans’ that wasn’t?’

‘No,’ Laura said gloomily. ‘She invited us, but I said no. I hope she wasn’t hurt, but I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing Mary and Duncan together, and I’d have to have bought the horrible girl a present. Is the baby still as gorgeous?’

Queenie sighed wistfully. ‘She’s absolutely beautiful.’

‘How do Mary and Duncan get along? Oh, please tell me they can’t stand each other. The thought that everything’s worked out all right for them, while Hester, the innocent party, is living halfway across the world, just doesn’t seem fair.’

‘I didn’t see much of them,’ Queenie said evasively. Mary and Duncan had danced quite closely together at the party.

‘Oh, come on, Queenie. You must have noticed something.’

‘They seemed to be getting along OK. Perhaps they’re doing their best for Flora’s sake.’

‘That makes sense – not that I can imagine Mary doing anything sensible.’

‘She’s changed, Laura.’ She looked at the bitter eyes behind the severe glasses.

‘Circumstances can change us all. When Hester and I were in Paris,’ she said slowly, ‘she told me she was determined to put everything behind her, get on with her life. She wasn’t prepared to let Duncan spoil it. And that’s what she’s done. I doubt very much if she wants him and Mary to be unhappy. I reckon she’ll be glad they’re getting on.’

Laura shook her head impatiently. ‘Is there a point to all this?’

‘It seems to me that you’ve taken what happened much harder than Hester. She lost her fiancé, yet all you lost was a rather weak son-in-law.’

‘I can’t begin to explain how it made me feel,’ Laura cried tragically. ‘And it had an effect on Roddy and me. We’ve been very distant with each other since.’

‘Are you sure it’s not you being distant with him? Perhaps that’s why he goes sailing every weekend.’ She smiled, as if she were making a joke, though suspected this was the truth.

The soup arrived. During the meal, they talked about more mundane things.

Queenie mentioned they were expecting some lovely clothes in for autumn. ‘Soft jersey frocks and costumes in rich, muted colours. They’d look smashing on you.’

‘Is that a hint? I know I look a frump, but I can’t be bothered with clothes these days.’

‘You used to love sewing.’

‘I don’t any more.’

‘Shall we join something?’ Queenie suggested over coffee. ‘A tennis club, maybe?

I’ve always wanted to learn to play tennis. We could go evenings and on Sunday afternoons.’

Laura laughed. ‘Queenie, dear, I know darn well Sunday is the only day you and Theo have together. Don’t pander to me. I’ll sort this out my own way. All I wanted was a good moan.’

‘Do you feel better for the moan?’

‘I haven’t finished yet. I’ve kept the worst till last. I’m pregnant,’ she said in a hard voice. ‘Thirty-seven and pregnant. I’ve just missed my second period.

Next year, I was due to be promoted to assistant head, but by then I’ll have a baby. Except if I get rid of it. What do you think, Queenie?’

She can’t have been all that distant with Roddy, Queenie thought as she stirred her coffee, hearing the spoon scrape against the bottom of the cup. She stirred it the other way and it made a slightly different sound. First Mary, now Laura.

How could God be so unfair? Why had these women, who didn’t want a baby, conceived, when she, who wanted one more than anything on earth, had failed after almost a year of trying? Theo had left it entirely up to her. He didn’t know she’d stopped using her cap.

‘I could never get rid of a baby,’ she said slowly. ‘It’s a decision only you can take. Does Roddy know? What does he think?’

‘Roddy doesn’t know,’ Laura said brusquely. ‘I’ve no idea what he’d think ifhe did. Anyway, I only care about me. All I’ve got left is my career, school. My family have deserted me.’

‘Aren’t you exaggerating a bit?’ For the first time since she’d known her, Laura was getting on her nerves. ‘Hester won’t stay away for ever, and Roddy and Gus can’t go sailing in the winter – it might even be just a five-minute wonder and they’ll get fed up with it soon.’

‘No, they won’t. When winter comes, they’ll be out painting the damn thing, and Hester mightn’t be home for years.’ She finished the coffee with a flamboyant gesture, throwing back her head until the muscles showed in her neck, swallowing it in a single gulp. ‘Actually, Queenie, you’re beginning to irritate me. All you’ve done is criticise since we met. I was expecting sympathy, not a lecture.’

‘I’m afraid I can’t feel sympathy for someone who wants to get rid of a baby.’

‘I was considering it. I hadn’t made up my mind.’

‘It amounts to the same thing.’

Laura picked up her bag and got to her feet. ‘I’ll pay on the way out. Thanks for the company, Queenie, though I can’t say I’ve enjoyed it.’

Queenie felt sick as she watched her friend walk away. ‘I’ll ring in a few days, see how you are,’ she called.

‘I’d prefer it if you didn’t bother,’ Laura called back.

Chapter 16

People were starting to leave, much to Hester’s relief. It hadn’t been a very enjoyable party. The apartment was too small for so many guests, particularly on such a hot night. The noise was deafening. She’d pretended to be invisible, drifting from the edge of one crowd to another, hoping no one would notice and speak to her because she couldn’t hear a word being said. She didn’t even know whose party it was, or why it was being held – not that in Hollywood anyone needed a reason. Though she was glad she’d come. Anything was better than spending the night in her hotel room, alone. She was equally glad when Steven Vandos approached and asked if she’d like to go. It was nearly midnight and she could go to bed and hopefully sleep.

‘Haven’t you clicked with a girl?’ she asked. Steven had loads of friends. He was asked to parties two or three times a week and nearly always took her with him, though she insisted on going as just another friend, not as a couple. ‘I’d feel awful if I stopped you from meeting a woman,’ she’d told him. Once they had arrived, she insisted he ignore her. On the times he did meet someone, Hester would go back to the hotel by herself, but Steven always made sure she was safely in a taxi before he left.

‘Clicked?’ He laughed. ‘Is that a Liverpool expression?’

‘I’m not sure. Mary used to say “copped off” – “copped off with some feller’.”

She could mention Mary’s name now without feeling any emotion at all.

‘Back home, I didn’t mix with the common people like you. I’ve never heard of either expression.’ He sighed and looked mournful. ‘I didn’t click with a soul, which means we can have coffee together in Dave’s.’

They strolled arm in arm along La Cienego Boulevard, still brightly lit and full of people at such a late hour – Los Angeles was a city that never slept. She and Steven got on well, ‘strangers in a strange land’, as he’d said once. He’d been there over a year, having had a small part in a film, and then a slightly bigger one. Now he’d landed a part big enough to have his name on the screen. ‘It’ll probably be at the very bottom of the cast list, but I don’t care. I’m gradually getting there.’

Hester wasn’t surprised. He was thirty-one and terribly attractive, with a languorous charm and old-fashioned manners, rare in such a crazy, hectic place, where people were usually too busy or too rude to say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’.

Women loved him, enamoured by his courtesy, his lovely, deep voice, his perfect diction. He was the epitome of an English gentleman.

‘Be careful with Steven,’ Queenie had warned before she left England. ‘When we first met, he flirted like mad, kept asking me out, but wasn’t the least bothered when I turned him down. He makes women feel very special, as if they’re the only one in the world for him, but inside he’s very shallow. I hasten to say he’s also very nice, incredibly nice, in fact. I like him very much.’

So did Hester. Steven hadn’t said anything that could be remotely considered flirtatious. Instead, he’d looked after her, got her a room in his hotel, the Wellington, not far from the Dodgers’ stadium. It was a nice hotel and a bit expensive, but she lived in one of the small rooms on the top floor that were let at a reduced rate, which she could just about afford out of her wages. He’d also found her a job as a typist with an agent, Elfreda Hicks, who was probably the most unscrupulous, untrustworthy and cynical person who’d ever lived. But Hester didn’t mind. The job was fascinating. She mostly typed contracts for actors for whom Elfreda had found parts in films, taking a huge cut of the fee for herself.

For all its faults, and there were many, Hester loved Hollywood. There was so much to do, so many films to see, so many parties to go to, even if some were tedious, like tonight’s. She’d been to Mann’s Chinese Theatre where there were hand and footprints of famous stars, the Hollywood History Museum, Sunset Strip, which was a bit tawdry, and loads of other famous places. It left her with little time to think, to dwell on things like Duncan’s betrayal. It was funny, but once the baby, Flora, had arrived, it seemed as if a final line had been drawn, and she could actually think of him and Mary without wanting to weep until there was no tomorrow. But the betrayal! She would never get over that.

She would never trust a man again.

They had reached Dave’s, a diner only a few doors along from the Wellington.

Dave’s never closed. When she first came, in the middle of the night, when she couldn’t sleep, Hester had often gone there for a malted milk. The night waitress, Jo, was very friendly, as well as breathtakingly pretty. Jo wanted to become a film star, but had had no luck so far – there were an awful lot of breathtakingly pretty girls around who wanted the same thing. She worked nights, so she could be free during the day to attend auditions. Virtually every person Hester met wanted to be a film star, a screen writer, a director – anything to do with the movies. She wondered if she was the only person who had no ambition to be anything except happy. And, like Steven, she was gradually getting there.

‘Coffee?’ Steven asked when they went into the half-full diner. Jo waved to them from behind the counter and came to take their order.

‘No, it keeps me awake. I’d like a malt, please.’

‘Have you two been somewhere exciting?’ Jo enquired.

‘Some guy’s just had a script accepted by Warner and his pals threw a party to celebrate.’

‘Is that what it was for?’ Hester exclaimed. ‘If I’d known, I’d have congratulated him.’

‘I didn’t know until I was leaving, by which time the guy had left himself.

Black coffee and a malt, please, Jo.’

‘Coming up in just a minute.’ She left.

‘I had a phone call from Queenie today.’ Steven lit his hundredth cigarette of the day. ‘It was to tell me that next Monday you’ll be twenty-one. Were you just going to let the most significant birthday of your life pass without telling a soul?’

‘Yes,’ Hester conceded. ‘It was the day I was going to marry Duncan and I’d sooner not be reminded.’

‘What tosh! Duncan sounds a prick. Why spoil your birthday on account of him?

Thanks, Jo. Sit down, join us. I’m just giving Hester a severe telling off.’

‘I don’t like intruding on a private conversation,’ Jo said, sitting down all the same.

‘This young lady’s twenty-one next week and she doesn’t want a party.’

‘Everyone has a party on their twenty-first.’

‘Tell her that.’

‘They do, you know, hon,’ Jo said earnestly. ‘In Hollywood, anyways. It’d be a sin not to.’

‘A mortal sin,’ Steven added. ‘What were you going to do, sit in your room and sulk?’

‘Why should she want to sulk?’

‘Because she expected to be doing something else on her birthday, like getting married. Now she’s not, and she’s going to sulk instead.’

‘I never said anything about sulking!’

‘What were you going to do then?’

‘I don’t know,’ Hester said sulkily. She’d had no intention of staying in, but hadn’t made up her mind where to go; lose herself in a movie maybe, though not a romantic one.

‘OK then, a party it is. But where?’ Steven raised his perfect eyebrows. ‘Not the Wellington, the manager would go crazy.’