Seven Dials (7 page)

‘Oh, Johanna, my dear, you do sound so very old-fashioned! As if anyone these days worried about people marrying money! I was just wondering if Claudia was really happy - not whether she was doing well for herself. Though I suppose it’s something she’s getting married at all, as far as I can tell. Have you heard Barbara Burns going on about her two girls? Both in the
WAAFS
and had the most racketty time imaginable and certainly not intending to settle down now the fun’s over, and Beattie Cowper is saying the same thing about her girl. And yet here’s you sounding just like my darling Mamma used to about me, always going on about marrying well and how much money was there and -’

‘She was right to worry,’ Johanna said a little sharply as they came out into the rain of Endell Street and began to busy themselves with umbrellas. ‘Getting a girl nicely settled is important. Wait till your two are of an age, and you’ll see! You’ll worry just as much as anyone else. Mothers always do.’

‘I dare say you’re right.’ They began to walk, picking their way over the puddles. ‘It’s just that the War seems to have changed so many things - all the things that used to seem right everyone questions now and nothing seems sure any more and black’s white and white’s red and -’

‘It’s only surface change,’ Johanna said sapiently. ‘Just as it was after the last War, when everyone went wild on Armistice
Night and then the girls were a bit rebellious for a few months, and wanted to go on working and so forth, but it all went back to normal soon enough. Don’t you remember?’

‘Not really,’ Lee said, as they stopped on the kerb of Long Acre, waiting till the traffic gave them space to cross to James Street so that they could push their way through Covent Garden to the Strand. Neither of them had even considered the possibility of finding a taxi, rare as gold dust these busy days, and they stood and stared across at the gaps in the buildings across the street, glad of the respite as they waited for the chance to move on. ‘Not really. It seems like a different world, the past. I don’t think I was ever there, not really. It’s like I dreamed it.’ She stopped, staring blank-eyed across the street, and then laughed. ‘It looks the way Sally looks when she smiles.’

‘Mmm?’ Johanna peered at her under the edge of her umbrella. ‘What was that?’

‘The street, with those gaps. Like Sally’s teeth, all blank. Odd really. I can’t remember how that used to be either. It’s as though it was always like this, all battered and ugly -’

‘It won’t stay that way for long,’ Johanna said and pulled on Lee’s arm as a space appeared in the traffic. ‘Jolly never stops talking about what this Government’s going to do, rebuilding and nationalizing and heaven knows what else. To listen to him it’s going to be heaven on earth in no time, and everyone healthy and beautiful and no one needing doctors at all, except to advise them on staying well. He’s quite embarrassing sometimes, he’s such a supporter of that dreary little Attlee man.’ She laughed then as they reached the other side and plunged into the narrow streets that led them towards Covent Garden. ‘He says that people like us will be swept aside once it all happens. No more Boards of Governors, he says, no more lady bountifuls running things. Nellie’s will belong to the patients and we won’t get a look in. Dear Jolly,’ she ended fondly. ‘So silly sometimes! Not far now, thank the Lord. My feet are killing me. Heavens, what a stench of onions!’

‘Apples too,’ Lee said as they rounded the corner and came at last into the marketplace, where a few late porters were still sweeping up and the last fruit and vegetables were being loaded onto the vans. ‘Oh, Johanna, do you remember how it used to be here? Pineapples and bananas and oranges and -’

‘And roses and lilies and all sorts of exotic flowers from France and -’

‘- And you could get all the fish and meat you wanted and butter and cheeses too, and all sorts of goodies and -’

‘And you’re going to make yourself so hungry you’ll burst into tears when you see what the Savoy has to offer you for your five bob’s-worth!’ Johanna said and laughed again. ‘The sooner they put an end to all that nonsense the better. I used to think rationing would end when the War did. Foolish me!’

‘Foolish you indeed,’ Lee said and tucked her hand into her cousin’s arm as they hurried down Southampton Street towards the dryness and comfort of the Savoy, which even in these difficult times managed to produce a semblance of luxury for its beleaguered guests. Even a spartan post-war lunch seemed worth eating when you ate it in the Savoy Grill, and both women felt their spirits rise as they hurried there.

Katy had been sitting in the lobby for half an hour when she saw them arrive. She had been nursing her sherry for as long as she could, not wanting to have another before lunch if she could help it. Even in these days of shortages of food and drink you had to be careful of your shape; she’d noticed a most distressing tendency to thicken around the jawline and the middle these past few months, which was appalling for a girl of only thirty-two, and she had no intention of letting anything of that sort creep up on her unawares, even if it did mean having to be boring and dreary over how many drinks you had. And she took another sip from her almost empty glass and set it down again on the table beside her with a small sigh. Surely someone she knew who was fun would come pushing in through the doors soon? It was too absurd to be known all over the world as a leading film star and yet to be at so loose an end that all you could think of doing was sitting at the Savoy hoping someone agreeable would wander in. Too absurd -

And then she saw Lee and Johanna and sat very still, thinking fast. To acknowledge them or not? To attach herself to them for lunch or not? Which was worse? To be alone or to be one of a party of three women? God, how dreary
that
would be. But the decision was taken from her, as Lee glanced across in her direction and after a moment smiled in recognition.

It was a thin smile and less than spontaneous but a smile all the same, and Katy lifted one languorous hand in acknowledgement and watched as Lee said something to Johanna and the two women made their way across the crowded lobby towards her.

‘My dear Lee, how good to see you, and how unexpected! I had no idea you ever frittered away your time in such gaudy spots as this!’

At once Lee felt she had been consigned to the ranks of the boring and the dull and the little spurt of anger that rose in her to add to that she had felt when she had first seen Katy sitting there, resplendent in green barathea and fox furs, made her want to turn on her heel and go. But that would have amused Katy hugely, as she well knew. So she offered instead a thin-lipped smile and said, ‘I come here occasionally, when there’s nothing more important to do’, knowing it was a cheap little gibe that would have no effect against Katy’s experience-toughened hide. After her years on the stage and in films, it would take more than Lee’s rather feeble remarks to hurt that lady. And knowing that fact made Lee loathe her even more than she did, if that were possible.

‘Oh, my dear, important!’ Katy said and laughed, a tinkling practised sound that made people near by look round at her with interest. ‘I promised myself years ago that I would pay no attention whatsoever to anything important, in my whole life, but concentrate only on what was delicious and amusing. And the Savoy is in that category. Or used to be.’

She made a little face then. ‘It’s threatening to become as tedious here as everywhere else, mind you. The people one sees in the place these days! Orderly-room sergeants and
ATS
lance-corporals, I swear, and dressed in the most ghastly clothes. You’d think people would have some decent items left from before the War, wouldn’t you? One doesn’t have to be a
complete
drab, if one tries.’ And she glanced briefly at Johanna’s heavy black dress and coat in a way that made it clear that her opinion of it was very low indeed.

‘I had quite a lot of rather nice things from Schiaparelli, and some lovely Mary Bee clothes, but they were all lost when we were bombed,’ Lee said, and couldn’t resist the note of triumph in her voice. It was the first time that talking about the night her pretty house in St John’s Wood had disappeared, in a
crump of high-explosive bombs that had left little more than a rubble-filled crater where London Pride and Rose Bay Willow-herb now grew, had given her any pleasure, and she revelled in it. ‘
So
difficult, getting clothes right, isn’t it? You look delightful as always of course. American, is it? A lovely costume.’

‘Yes, I brought it over from California when I came last year.’ Katy had the grace to look discomfited. ‘Are you lunching? Perhaps we could -’

‘I’m not sure,’ Johanna said firmly. ‘My daughter said she’d try to join us - if she can get away. So we’ll have a drink and wait for her. Don’t let us hold you up, though.
Do
go and have your lunch - I’d hate us to be the cause of your missing whatever they’ve managed to provide today -’ And she smiled in a vague sort of way and nodded at Katy, and taking Lee’s elbow in a tight grip led her away to the other side of the lobby.

Katy watched them go and made no attempt to join them. Miserable bitches! she thought, so sniffy and so boring. No wonder Harry had been so willing to have that fling the year before the War, just before she went to California; and her lips curved as she thought about that. Had Lee ever found out? Was that why she had been so sharp? They’d met once or twice since she’d come over last year to make that film for Letty, at dreary family affairs, but she hadn’t been so edgy then. Perhaps if Harry had been there she would have shown a spark of spite then? But he never had, and now Katy let her eyes glaze as she thought about Harry.

It would serve Madam Lee right if she went to find him again after all this time; they’d been very close, the two of them, after all, and it could be fun. She had thought that perhaps he had been avoiding her, and had been amused by that, but not unduly perturbed. With a film to make and all sorts of new people to meet, she had had no need to rekindle old flames like Harry. But now the shooting was over, and the film out in the cinemas and the fun had stopped. So maybe she would, after all -

The thought of the film galvanized her into movement, and she got to her feet, pulling her fox furs around her shoulders and tucking her bag under one arm. That bloody film. Letty had promised her the moon and the stars to make the lousy
thing, leading lady, top billing, special privileges, massive publicity, the lot, and look what had happened. The film had had rave notices, and was doing excellent business - which was nice, considering she had a percentage of the box office receipts included in her contract - but she personally had been raked by the critics and that was far from nice. Supercilious bastards, she thought now as she made her way across the lobby towards the entrance to the Grill Room. Supercilious
English
bastards. No American critic would have dared to be so waspish about her performance. None of them would have dreamed of hauling her over the coals in that hateful fashion. But here they had, and she still stung as she thought of all they had said.

If only she hadn’t signed that goddamned two-year contract! If only she could have gone straight back to Hollywood to set up a better deal the minute this fiasco was over, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But as it was, here she was, stuck in bloody London where the rain never stopped and there wasn’t a decent thing to eat or drink, let alone any people she could be bothered with, and another year to get through. She was making money all right; there was no shortage of that, with Letty in charge of the operation, but there was more to life than money, for God’s sake. Like having the chance to spend it, and she marched into the Grill Room to eat her solitary lunch in a raging temper. But beneath her bad temper there lingered another thought. Harry Lackland. She really must winkle him out of wherever he was hiding and see what games there were to be played with him. He used to be quite good fun -

‘I know,’ Johanna said in a low voice as Lee faltered in what she had been saying about talking to Letty regarding the Benefit, as she watched Katy’s narrow hips go swinging away, with the eyes of every man in the place following her too. ‘It’s maddening. Women like that ought to be - to be locked away. But never let them see they’ve hurt you, because when you do they only set out to hurt you more.’

Lee reddened. ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said, and Johanna shook her head at her.

‘I used to be just like you, blaming the women, blaming myself, blaming everyone but him. But it isn’t anyone else’s
fault, you know. Even if you did lock them away, it’d all be the same. Some men are like that - like Jonty was -’

She stopped talking and bent her head to look down at her hands and Lee looked at her and then leaned forwards and touched her wrist, impulsively.

‘I know, Jo darling. Please don’t let’s fret about it. Men are men and - well, there it is. Not much we can do about it. Let’s go to the restaurant instead of the Grill Room, and we’ll plan how we’re going to make money for dear old Nellie’s and to blazes with everything and everybody else. What do you say?’

Johanna lifted her chin and smiled, a rather watery little grimace, but she nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Let’s do just that. We’ll go and raise some money for the hospital. That’s more important than anything - and it’ll be fun to do it.’ And together the two women went to eat a rather leathery dried egg omelette filled with a few rare mushrooms, cocooned and safe in the fragile protection of their friendship. Just for a little while.

‘Well?’ Charlie jumped to her feet and then, realizing how unprofessional such excitement must seem, sat down again, perching on the edge of Sister’s desk, and said again in as cool a voice as she could muster, ‘Well?’

‘
Very
well,’ Max said, and went past her to sit in the chair behind the desk and reach for a report sheet from the rack in its corner. ‘Very well indeed, in a psychiatric sense. I made no effort to judge his physical condition, of course, but at a cursory glance I’d say that was pretty good too.’