The Exciting Life (24 page)

Old
Levine, the pawnbroker examined the locket several times before
tutting and shaking his head.

‘
It’s very dented,’ he said. ‘I can offer you eleven and six
for it.’

‘
Is that all? It’s twenty four carat.’

‘
I can’t do you any more than that.’

With a
sigh she agreed and signed the docket. Making up her mind that once
Annie had paid her what she was owed in wages, she would go back
and get it.

She left
the shop and went onto Oxford Street and caught a taxi to take her
back to Chelsea. When she got to Leo’s house, and he opened the
door. Iris laughed to see he wasn’t even dressed and was wrapped up
in his tatty dressing gown. It was so typical of Leo. But he smiled
warmly on seeing her and that was something she could do with right
now.

‘
Hello my love,’ he said. ‘I thought you’d be at
work.’

‘
I’ve been sacked,’ she said, pushing past him into the flat.
She entered the scruffy front room and went and stood by the fire,
trying hard not to tread soot into the cream carpet.

‘
Did you mean what you said yesterday?’ she asked.

‘
Of course I did,’ he replied, lighting a cigarette with the
ivory lighter that was carved into the shape of a naked woman. ‘We
make a good team you and me.’

‘
In that case I accept,’ she said. ‘As long as you promise me
you’ll stick by me even if the baby’s Patrick’s.’

‘
I don’t care if it’s Patrick’s, mine or the Count of Monte
Christo,’ he said, shoving his fag in his mouth and coming over to
her, and grasping her shoulders. ‘I’m rather keen on you Iris, and
I think we should get married.’

‘
So do I,’ she smiled. ‘We will be happy won’t we?’

‘
Course we will Baby,’ he said, pulling her close to him. She
could feel the heat of the cigarette above her hair and hoped ash
wouldn’t fall onto her head. ‘We’ll have so much fun.’

Chapter Fourteen

Annie
wanted to dismiss what Iris had said about them being sisters, and
put it down to her bitterness over what she’d heard Patrick saying
and so was doing it to get her own back. But it was eating away at
her. Everything was so complicated at the moment. Patrick had
suddenly declared his undying love, saying what a mistake he’d made
in choosing Iris. On top of that she’d had to entertain her family,
and now she had Iris with this absurd claim about them being
sisters. Annie didn’t understand it. If Iris had said they shared
the same father than it would be believable – Annie didn’t even
remember her father. But it was Norma. How could Norma be their
mother when her mother had been called Zena Brady, and what
memories Annie did have, they were of an older woman and Norma
would have been so young back then?

Her
curiosity got the better of her, and that evening she pulled of a
family dinner with Alice, Max, Miriam and Tawny, and instead took
the chance to return Iris’s jacket and handbag to her, along with
her wages. The bus journey from Central London to Streatham was
long and it gave Annie the chance to think. Patrick’s visit had
come like a bolt out of the blue. Relations between them had been
strained since they spent that night together, and then all of a
sudden he turned up, saying he was sick of Iris and wanted to make
a go of it with Annie. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. She
was engaged to Eddie. They had equal shares in the factory in
Barking. She was also planning on telling him - any day soon - that
she was pregnant. Already she was praying the baby wouldn’t come
out with red hair - telling herself that if it did, she would have
to play up the fact that she knew very little about her birth
family, and put it down to it being a throw-back to some distant,
ginger relative.

As she
looked out of the window and the bus crossed Westminster Bridge,
making its way over to grimy South London, Annie thought about her
real family. Who were they? Who were these Bradys of Battersea and
were any of them still there? It was ironic that Iris should come
out with this today, as just lately - being pregnant - Annie had
been thinking about her blood relatives. Her baby would be her only
link to them. Of course it would never know about the Bradys. To
‘Baby Glass’ its family would be the Glasses, Holland’s and
Tanners. Its great Aunt would be the glamorous Alicia Bloom, its
cousins Max and Alana. Eddie had even hinted that he’d like Annie
to convert to Judaism before they married. If she did that, the
baby would be Jewish and she herself would have to adapt to a whole
new way of living. But it was all too much to take in at the
moment.

She’d
found Iris’s address in a little notebook she kept in her handbag.
Annie wasn’t very familiar with Streatham, and whilst it wasn’t
exactly shabby. It was very working-class and pedestrian. The
houses all looked the same on Iris’s street. It was hard to equate
someone who craved glamour being content with such drab
surroundings. She reached the tall, terraced house in which Iris
lived, and rang the bell for flat C. She waited and listened to the
dull thud of steps down the stairs.

The door
opened and Iris stood there, that miserable and bitter expression
on her face.

‘
What is it?’ she asked.

‘
I’ve brought these for you,’ Annie said, holding out the
jacket and handbag. ‘And I think we need to talk.’

‘
Come in.’

Iris
turned and walked up the stairs that was covered in tatty carpet.
Annie followed behind, and by the time she got to the top, she was
quite tired. Three flights of stairs certainly wouldn’t have
exhausted her before she was pregnant. She was quite shocked when
she noticed that Iris also had gone puce and was clinging onto a
chair for support. Surely she wasn’t pregnant as well….

‘
Do you want a drink?’ Iris asked.

‘
A cup of tea would be nice.’

‘
Sit down.’

Annie
chose to sit in the armchair by the door – the settee on the other
side of the room looked as though it had too many springs sticking
out of it. Iris went off to the kitchen and as Annie looked around
the shabby room, it reminded her of that horrible flat in Fulham.
There were no family photos or anything that looked remotely
valuable. This was a different side of Iris. A part of her that she
liked to keep hidden. In truth, Annie knew very little about her.
She’d just thought her another glamour puss on the make.

Iris
returned with two cups of tea and sat on the settee. From the front
room door, Annie could see into the little bedroom next to it, and
saw there was an open suitcase on the bed.

‘
You going somewhere?’ she asked.

‘
I’m moving out,’ Iris said. ‘I’m moving in with my
fiancé.’

‘
What?’

Iris
held out her left hand, and upon her ring finger was a rather
old-fashioned emerald ring on a gold band. It looked too tight and
was making her finger swell up.

‘
Who on earth are you marrying?’ Annie asked.

‘
He’s called Leo Andersson,’ Iris smiled smugly. ‘I’ve been
seeing him for a while now.’

‘
But you were seeing Patrick.’

‘
Maybe I had to hedge my bets because Patrick always had his
eye on the main prize. After all, Patrick wants to be a top film
producer. Who better to chase after than the niece of Alicia Bloom?
You’re rich and you’ve got connections. As you can see, I’m as poor
as a church mouse.’

‘
I’m not rich,’ Annie protested. ‘You know how much debt Mario
left me in. I’ve ploughed all of my money into Holland’s. How am I
rich?’

‘
Your family’s rich. They’d never see you go
without.’

‘
Well according to you, my family are your family
too.’

‘
Don’t sound so unconvinced. I’ve known about you and Kenneth
all my life.’

‘
I don’t understand. Why on earth do you think you’re my
sister?’

‘
My real name is Iris Brady. My mother’s name when I was born
was Norma Brady. Before she married Samuel Brady…’

‘
My father…’

‘
Yes, your father. Before she married him, she was called Norma
Higgins. Daughter of Desmond Higgins. Niece of Alice Higgins. Or
should I say Alicia Bloom.’

‘
You’ve gone too far now,’ Annie laughed. ‘This is just getting
silly.’

‘
Go and speak to Norma tomorrow morning,’ Iris said excitedly,
sitting forward. ‘Don’t you think it’s ironic? All those years you
called Alice ‘Aunt’ and she really was, and you didn’t know
it.’

‘
But my mother’s dead. I have vague memories of
her.’

‘
An older woman called Zena Brady?’

‘
Yes.’

‘
She wasn’t your mother. Zena was the woman your father moved
in after he kicked our mother out, when he found her in bed with
another man.’

‘
But Norma’s so young, and Kenneth’s twenty-seven.’

‘
They married when Norma was sixteen and pregnant for Kenneth.
When Samuel kicked her out, she was too ashamed to go home, so she
went to live in a bedsit in Hammersmith. Stupid cow ended up on the
game. Then she had me and that was my life. Moving from pillar to
post with my whore of a mother. Being molested by the filthy
punters she brought home, or else having to stand outside at one in
the morning, ready to call up to her if the police were coming
along. Then when I was thirteen, we were living in Cricklewood and
she was involved with this pimp called Maurice. She started seeing
another pimp behind his back and he came after her. She ran off and
left me alone. Maurice didn’t care. He just got me to pay her debt
off by whoring myself.’

‘
Did you ever see her again?’

‘
Not until she reappeared the other month. She saw me in the
papers and thought she’d come and see what money she could get out
of me. I’ve been trying to get rid of her. That was why Pat and I
fell out. I tried to frame her for stealing money out of the club.
I didn’t realise he’d given her the morning off.’

‘
I’m still so confused. How did you know about me and
Kenneth?’

‘
Because she used to crow about you,’ Iris hissed spitefully.
‘It was always her little golden-haired Kenneth and her beautiful
baby Annie. She went back to Battersea one day after the war and
was told by an old neighbour that Zena had died and Kenneth and
Annie had been adopted by a Sir and Lady Holland and were now
living in Oxfordshire. Mum would get pissed and go on about you
both. Imagining what a posh little pair you’d be by then. Nothing I
ever did was good enough. I know if she could have swapped me for
you two she would have.’

Iris
paused to regain her composure and Annie felt the room around her
start to swim. Only this time it wasn’t her pregnancy causing it -
it was shock. Iris was so convincing it was hard to doubt her. And
the strange thing was, she’d always felt akin to Norma – like she
could talk to her about anything. Now she just felt horror. Who
were these people….?

‘
Did you come into my life deliberately?’ she uttered. ‘Did you
do it on purpose?’

‘
Of course I did. I got Arthur Hatfield to take me to Bruno’s
that night. I wanted some of what you and Kenneth had. I’m your
sister at the end of the day. Don’t I deserve some
happiness?’

‘
But you’ve gone out of your way to be nasty to me.’

‘
I hate you. I always have. I hate both of you. But you more
so. Kenneth is at least grateful for what he’s been given, but you
swan around as though you were born to it. And you get it all
handed to you on a plate. The handsome husband. The family. The
hotel. Another handsome, rich fiancé. Finally, my
boyfriend.’

‘
You’ve been seeing someone else behind his back.’

‘
Only because I’m second best to Patrick. It’s always been you.
See, trouble is, Pat may have been to public school and have money.
But he’s like me, he’s from the gutter and he’s always been
convinced he’s too good for you. Whereas I know I’m not good enough
for him. Leo’s like me – carefree and without morals.’

‘
How can you hate me that much?’ Annie uttered. ‘It wasn’t my
fault Nesta and Michael took me in. I was five years
old.’

‘
Because you’ve been like a spectre in my life. I’d hear Mum at
night when she’d come home pissed, after selling herself, lying in
bed, wailing. Begging God to bring her back her Kenneth and Annie.
Never any prayers for me. She never did anything to make my life
more bearable.’

‘
And I’m sorry about that, but it’s still not our
fault.’

‘
How can you be so arrogant? Even Kenneth has no time for you.
He thinks you’re a spoilt brat. I get on quite well with Kenneth as
it happens.’ She smiled smugly. ‘We have a mutual
enemy.’

‘
Kenneth isn’t my enemy,’ Annie sighed. ‘He just doesn’t
understand me. He’ll always take my side at the end of the
day.’

‘
Why do you think he lent me the money to invest in Ralf’s
company? It was to have a dig at you. He’s still angry with you for
not signing the hotel over to him. He would have done good with it.
Kenneth would have made it into flats for people with nowhere to
live. Not a fancy salon selling horrible shoes.’