The Exciting Life (21 page)

‘
I need to go alone,’ she insisted. ‘I want to spend some time
with Aunt Nesta. You and I can have a fancy holiday when we go on
honeymoon.’

‘
Okay. As long as you promise to let me organise a big
engagement bash for us on your return?’

‘
Yes of course,’ she smiled weakly. ‘It’s the least I
expect.’

Chapter Thirteen

September
1959

Iris
couldn’t believe she actually wanted to go to Annie’s engagement
party. She hated her sister and had no desire to celebrate the fact
that she was getting married (except of course that it would get
her away from Patrick once and for all), but it was going to be
full of Eddie’s showbiz chums and it was in her best interests to
mix with these people to draw up trade for the business. Ralf had
designed an amazing Spring Summer collection for 1960 and they
needed some big names to wear their gowns in order to get really
noticed. They couldn’t all be lucky like Annie and have famous
friends like the Duchess of Loxborough. They were going to have to
work their way up from the bottom.

Eddie
had managed to secure the ballroom of The Villiers Marble Arch for
the party. Bruno’s wasn’t good enough for his engagement party and
Iris was glad in a way. Bruno’s was Annie’s territory and she
always liked to lord it over people when she was there. Away from
her comfort zone, she would be on edge, and wouldn’t object to Iris
taking some of her limelight. Which is exactly what she planned to
do that evening.

As she
stood in her bedroom, trying to get into her silver and white gown,
Iris realised she was putting on weight. And it wasn’t just on her
belly. Her usually big breasts were even fuller and rounder and she
was worried that if this was how big she looked at two months gone,
how huge would she get if she went full-term? She still hadn’t told
anyone except Ralf about her pregnancy, as she hadn’t decided what
she wanted to do about it. She didn’t know if Patrick would marry
her if she told him, or how he’d react if the baby came out looking
like Leo. It was a horrible situation and she knew she couldn’t
bury her head in the sand forever; but once her dress was done up
and she’d wrapped her fur stole around herself, it hid it all, and
did all she could to put it to the back of her mind.

The
phone rang and Iris ran up into the front room to answer it. She
still got a thrill from answering her own phone. She’d only had it
installed a couple of weeks ago. Ralf had paid for it as he figured
he might need to contact her about the business. It was a small
thing to some people, but to Iris it really felt as though she was
moving up in the world.

‘
Streatham 294910,’ she said in her poshest voice.

‘
Doll it’s me,’ Patrick said. ‘I’m not going to be able to make
it tonight.’

‘
Why not?’ she snapped.

‘
I think it’s going to be a busy one at Bruno’s. Paulo
Spiteri’s been released from the nick and I’ve a feeling he’s going
to start causing trouble for us club-owners. I’d rather be around
in case anything happens. Dave’s here with me to keep an eye on
things too.’

‘
That’s what you employ Eric and Jim for,’ she said, swallowing
down her tears of disappointment. ‘I’m going to look stupid going
on my own.’

‘
Can’t Ralf go with you?’

‘
I don’t know. I doubt it. He’s busy.’

‘
Give him a ring and see. I’ll call you tomorrow. See how it
went.’

‘
Please yourself,’ she snapped and she slammed the phone down.
She sat fuming, knowing full well why he didn’t want to go to the
party. It had nothing to do with the threat of Maltese gangsters.
It was because he couldn’t bear to see his precious Annie getting
engaged to another man. Iris felt so let down by him that she made
up her mind there and then that she was going to see Leo the next
day to ask him to lend her the money for an abortion. She didn’t
want to marry Patrick knowing he was in love with another woman.
She had some pride. And she certainly didn’t want to bring a kid up
on her own. Her own mother had made enough of a mess of that, she
didn’t want to follow suit.

Picking
the phone back up, she called Ralf’s flat. He shared with two
actors in a grotty place in Islington, and like Iris, dreamed of
the day he could afford somewhere grand to live.

‘
Yes?’ a camp, male voice sounded at the other end.

‘
Can I speak to Ralf please?’ Iris asked.

‘
Who is it?’

‘
Iris.’

‘
Hold on.’

She
heard the receiver be put down on the telephone table and a shout
of;

‘
Oi Ralf! Blondie’s on the phone!’

Soon it
was picked up by Ralf.

‘
You alright Iris?’ he asked.

‘
No. Patrick can’t make it tonight. He reckons there’s some
Maltese gangster on the scene, but I know it’s because he can’t
bear to see Annie getting engaged. Silly sod. Are you
free?’

‘
To go to the engagement party?’

‘
Yes.’

‘
Course I am darling. Give me half an hour to tart myself
up.’

The
party was in full swing by the time they arrived. The massive
ballroom had been subtly lit and a band was playing light jazz, but
the sound of Eddie’s loud, Jewish relatives could be heard above
everything else. Iris got the feeling he thought he was marrying
into the aristocracy – even though he knew Annie’s true history.
But it was easy for him to have his head turned by the fact that
Alicia Bloom was her ‘adopted’ aunt, and that she was Alana’s
cousin and that she’d grown up in a big house in Oxfordshire. Would
he feel the same if he knew the depths to which some members of her
birth family had stooped?

The
‘happy’ couple stood in the middle of the proceedings. Annie looked
stunning in a black, sleeveless dress with a Mandarin collar, her
hair up in a chignon, making her look even more like Audrey
Hepburn. She appeared to be drinking orange juice and Iris wondered
why she was avoiding alcohol. Was she pregnant as well?

A waiter
approached them with a tray with glasses of champagne on and they
both took one - although Iris only sipped hers as alcohol was still
making her queasy. To her dismay, the only person who approached
them was Belle, the young girl who worked behind the bar at
Bruno’s.

‘
Hello,’ she smiled sunnily. ‘Where’s Patrick?’

‘
Busy,’ Iris replied. ‘He sends his apologies.’

‘
Why don’t you both come and join us? Mr Glass was so nice and
invited all the staff. It’s a shame Eric and Jim have to work
tonight.’

‘
Isn’t it just?’ Iris said, trying to appear uninterested, but
knowing that no one else seemed to want to include them in their
social group.

They
followed Belle over to the corner of the room, where most of the
staff were gathered. As they went, they passed famous faces - the
people her and Ralf needed to be talking to. The sorts of starlets
and established actresses who would be able to do wonderful things
for Ralf’s designs. Iris’s heart sank even lower when when they
reached the various staff members gathered like a bunch of
outsiders and she spotted Norma in the middle of it all. What was
Eddie doing inviting the cleaner to his swanky engagement
bash?

‘
You look lovely Iris,’ said Sylvio, stepping forward. ‘Is that
one of your gowns Ralf?’

‘
It certainly is. Doesn't she look a million
dollars?’

Iris
cringed when she looked up and saw Norma heading towards them? Her
mother scrubbed up well, she had to concede that. Iris recognised
the green dress as a Hartnell and concluded that Norma must have
either got it in a more upmarket second-hand shop, or else she'd
nicked it off someone she cleaned for.

‘
Hello Iris,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think you’d want to mix with
the likes of us.’

‘
Well I’m here on Patrick’s behalf, so it’s my job to talk to
everyone.’

‘
Where is Patrick?’ Sylvio asked.

‘
He’s staying at the club,’ she said quickly. ‘Apparently
there’s been threats from some Maltese gangsters, so he’s holding
the fort.’

‘
I thought Vice Squad had locked most of them up,’ Sylvio
frowned, making it clear that he didn’t believe her. ‘Still, one
can never be too sure.’

There
was a gasp all around the room, and everyone looked to the door, as
Alicia Bloom entered the room. It shocked Iris to finally see her
great aunt in the flesh. She’d watched so many of her films as a
child – Norma loved going to the cinema and would drag Iris along,
crowing on about her Aunt Alice and how it was just an accident of
fate that she wasn’t a big star too.

Alice
was still beautiful, despite being almost seventy. She was tall
like Norma and whippet thin. She wore a floaty, ivory-coloured gown
with a necklace of huge diamonds. Her greying dark hair was rolled
up and decorated with diamond clips. Alongside her was a much
younger man in a dinner suit, and Iris had no idea who he was. It
was amazing how this room was filled with celebrities of varying
degrees of fame, and yet none of them compared to this superstar.
Alicia Bloom had been famous since the 1920s. Her first films had
been silent, and now she was a doyenne of Broadway. It ate away at
Iris that she wasn’t included when Alice went up to Annie and
Eddie, and grasped her niece’s hands and kissed her on both
cheeks.

‘
I think I’ve died and gone to heaven,’ Ralf uttered. ‘Alicia
Bloom. Is that really Alicia Bloom?’

‘
Of course it is,’ Iris snapped. ‘She’s her aunt isn’t
she?’

‘
She’s so lucky. Imagine being related to her.’ He looked round
at Iris and smiled mischievously. ‘Let’s try and get
introduced.’

‘
We won’t be allowed within six feet of her.’

‘
Watch me,’ he giggled and he minced off. Iris dare not follow
him, too scared of being turned away. Sylvio went back to the bar,
and she found herself alone with Norma.

‘
Beautiful isn’t she?’ Norma lamented. ‘I wonder how she’d
react if I went and told her that I’m her niece.’

‘
Don’t you dare,’ Iris hissed. ‘You’ll ruin everything if you
tell her who you are.’

‘
Why? What have you got planned?’

‘
Nothing in particular. I just want to make Annie’s life a
misery. I’ll tell her I’m her sister when I’m good and
ready.’

‘
You’ve always been the same,’ Norma hissed. ‘You’ve never
liked anyone to be happy and you’ve always thought the world owes
you a living. Maybe if you’d have been a bit more contented with
what I could give you, I wouldn’t have felt the need to go out on
the game.’

Iris dug
her nails into her palm, fighting the urge to slap her mother. She
turned and looked at her, face on; hoping none of the other members
of Bruno’s staff noticed the tension between them.

‘
Why don’t you get lost?’ she spat. ‘Just go away. I don’t want
you around. And Annie wouldn’t want you around if she knew the
truth. Just crawl back under your stone and stop causing
trouble.’

‘
Annie and me get on very well. If she’s in the club on one of
my mornings, she’ll make me a cup of tea and we’ll have a chat.
She’s confided in me on a number of occasions. To her I’m just the
cleaner, so my opinion doesn’t matter. But it gives her the chance
to talk to someone.’

‘
You disgust me and I don’t want to look at you any longer. I’m
going to tell Patrick to sack you.’

‘
Annie took me on.’

‘
Oh just fuck off Mother.’

She took
a chance and walked off, joining Ralf, who was on the perimeter of
the people around Annie and Alicia Bloom. The actress was holding
court with everyone and Iris could see Annie standing looking on in
awed pride. How it ate away at her - she should be part of it too
and yet she was treated like a nobody.

‘
She’s not going to speak to you,’ she said to Ralf. ‘Shall we
just go? We could go back to Bruno’s, see what Patrick’s up
to.’

‘
Are you joking?’ Ralf whispered, glancing round at her. ‘This
is my once in a lifetime chance to meet Alicia Bloom. I’m not going
anywhere. Go and talk to Annie. Tell her you’re sorry Patrick isn’t
able to make it.’

‘
No!’

‘
Go on.’

With a
disgruntled sigh, Iris pushed through the people and stepped up to
Annie and Eddie, who were still listening to what Alice had to say.
When Annie glanced over and saw it was Iris, she looked away
quickly.

‘
Where’s Patrick?’ she asked out the corner of her
mouth.

‘
At the club,’ Iris replied. ‘There’s trouble brewing
apparently.’

Annie
finally looked at her.

‘
What sort of trouble?’

‘
Maltese gangsters. Patrick thought it was more important to
keep an eye on things than to come here.’

‘
You look beautiful tonight Annie,’ Ralf suddenly said. ‘Is
that a Devonte dress?’

‘
It is, yes.’