Tiger Ragtime (21 page)

‘Please don’t feel that you have to, Mr James.’

‘I enjoy your company. Don’t you enjoy mine?’ he asked frankly.

‘Of course I do, it’s just that,’ she found the courage to say what was on her mind, ‘I feel dreadfully guilty for taking all those clothes from you.’

‘They’re not clothes, they’re stage costumes,’ he asserted.

‘My grandmother used to say that the only person who should buy a woman’s clothes, besides herself and her parents, is her husband.’

‘I’m not offering to marry you, Miss King.’

Judy blushed crimson. ‘I wasn’t suggesting …’

‘I know you weren’t. I was making a joke – a bad one. And your uncles and Micah Holsten wouldn’t have allowed me to write your stage costumes into your contract if they considered there was something wrong with the idea, now, would they?’

‘No they wouldn’t have,’ she agreed, ‘but there’s nothing in the contract about fur coats and day clothes.’

‘So, you’re going to turn up at the stage door of my club wearing last year’s mac over your stage costumes?’

‘Who’ll see me?’ she challenged.

‘The photographers from the local and national newspapers. This club is only the beginning for me, and you, Miss King. I intend to make you a star, and in the next couple of years open more clubs, in London and other places. And you’ll be headlining in all of them.’

‘London?’ She looked at him in amazement. ‘You never said anything to my uncles about London.’

‘That’s because at the moment my plans are just that – no more than ideas in my head. And, given the size of my investment, I have to get the Tiger Ragtime up and running and turning a profit before I start expanding.’

‘Do you want me to park the car, boss?’ Freddie slowed down as they turned the corner and approached the theatre.

Aled glanced out of the window. ‘I’ll tell you in a minute, Freddie. Are you still getting on with Lennie Lane?’ he asked Judy.

‘Yes,’ Judy said in surprise. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘Because I think I’ll go in and have a word with him. The club needs a comic; he has a history in show business and knows what it’s about. And all the reviews I’ve read of
Peter Pan
have singled out his performance and complimented his comedy skills, timing, and adlibbing.’

‘He comes out with new gags and routines every night.’

‘Really?’

‘They’re not always appreciated by the others on stage with him.’

‘He enjoys winding up Jeremy Dupois?’ Aled guessed.

‘Yes,’ she conceded.

‘As I haven’t much time for the pompous either, I will go in with you and have a word with him. Yes, Freddie, you can park the car.’

Freddie pulled in to the side of the road, switched off the engine and opened the back door. Aled stepped out and offered Judy his hand. She took it.

‘We’ll have no more argument about day clothes and fur coats?’ He handed her the gloves she’d left on the seat.

‘Do you mind if I check with my uncles first?’

‘Frankly, yes. It’s my decision, and now you’ve signed the contract you’re my property.’

‘Your property, Mr James?’ Her eyes blazed in indignation.

‘Only professionally, Miss King, only professionally,’ he reiterated, his smile taking the sting from his words.

Chapter Eleven

Edyth carried a tray up the stairs of Helga’s house, balanced it on her knee, and knocked on Moody’s bedroom door.

‘Come in.’ David’s mumbled reply sounded weak, even through the door. She opened it and peered inside. He was lying in bed, his face as white as the pillowcase beneath his head. He looked at her. ‘Micah said you’d call in to see me.’

‘When he told me you’d been ill I had to see you and, as Helga’s serving high tea, I volunteered to bring this up for you.’ She lifted a cup and plate from the tray and set them on the bedside table next to him.

‘I can’t keep anything down.’

‘Dry toast and Oxo, swallow both and you won’t see them again.’

‘Is that a promise?’ he enquired sceptically.

‘Having helped my mother nurse my three younger sisters and small brother through all their childhood ailments, I guarantee it.’ She pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. ‘Bit of a let-down having to abandon your plans of a seafaring career because of sea-sickness.’

‘It’s put an end to any thoughts I had of following Francis Drake and Captain Cook’s voyages around the world,’ he agreed. ‘You and Harry have every right to say, “We told you so, Davy, now get back to the farm where you belong.”’

‘I won’t say it, and knowing Harry as I do, he won’t either.’

‘Why not? I’ve made a right piggy mess of everything.’

‘No, you haven’t,’ she contradicted. ‘You wanted to go to sea, you went and you found out that a sailor’s life isn’t for you. That sounds like progress to me. Now all you have to do is find out what you are good at.’

‘It wasn’t just the sea. I had hoped that with Peter gone we –’

‘I didn’t intend to fall in love with Micah, especially when I’m still legally married to Peter,’ she interrupted, ‘but I couldn’t help myself any more than Micah could.’

‘Or I could, the first time I looked at you,’ he said sadly.

She wanted to tell him that what he felt for her wasn’t love. She knew it wasn’t because he didn’t know her, any more than she had known Peter before she had married him. The day she realised she didn’t love Peter was the day she’d understood the meaning of the phrase ‘falling in love with love’. But at the time it had all seemed so perfect. She’d been eighteen, Peter had been handsome and she’d just been chief bridesmaid at her eldest sister Bella’s wedding. And she’d so wanted a man to love and adore her, the way Toby loved Bella. She suspected that when David had first met her, he was ready to fall in love just as she had been at Bella’s wedding. And David had fitted her into his image of what an ideal wife should be just as she had fitted Peter into her image of ideal husband.

‘When Peter left Cardiff I decided to concentrate on making a life for myself, which was why I bought the bakery. I certainly wasn’t looking for another man. But then Micah and I met, and after we got to know one another –’

‘He proposed and you accepted,’ he interrupted.

‘No, not yet, and possibly not ever. As I have no idea how long I’ll remain married to Peter, I’m in no position to make plans to marry again. I simply live each day as it comes.’

‘With Micah?’

‘We try to spend some of our free time together,’ she replied, reining in her irritation with David for pursuing the argument. ‘And I do love you, too, just not in the way you want me to.’

‘Like a brother.’

‘Like a brother,’ she echoed, refusing to rise to his bait. ‘And like a good sister, I’m on your side. I haven’t spent more than a few days on your farm but when I did it struck me as a lonely place. Even more so, now I’m living on the Bay surrounded by people.’

‘The farm’s all right.’ He felt he had to say something in defence of the place where he had spent the first twenty years of his life. ‘Provided you prefer sheep, cows, and chickens to people.’

‘And you do?’

‘I haven’t had time to find out yet. Up until now I felt that I haven’t had any choice about the way I’ve lived.’

‘Born on a farm and into farming you haven’t. But the world’s changing, people are no longer bound by what their fathers and mothers did.’

This time, he was the one who changed the subject. ‘That Oxo smells good.’

‘If I plump up your pillows you can sit up and drink it.’

He leaned forward while she arranged the pillows behind his back. ‘Micah told me there are building jobs going in Bute Street.’

‘Did he?’ She had taken such a dislike to Aled James she didn’t want David going anywhere near the man. She didn’t like the thought of Judy working for him either, although she had been forced to admit that it was a good entry into show business for her.

‘I hope I get one of them.’ He sat back and she handed him the cup.

‘If you do, you won’t be working there long. The conversion should be finished next month.’

‘All the more reason for me to get on my feet tomorrow.’ He sipped the Oxo.

‘I suppose it will be a stop gap, that’s if you do get a job there,’ she qualified. ‘Have you given any thought to what you want to do long term?’

‘I thought about nothing else all the time I was on that damned ship …sorry,’ he apologised. Harry had tried to curb his cursing, especially around women, but he hadn’t managed to stop it completely.

‘Living on Bute Street has taught me to put up with the odd “damn”. Moody’s training two of Judy’s cousins as apprentices. I couldn’t afford to employ you for more than a few weeks or pay you very much while you trained …’

‘Come on, Edyth,’ he stretched out his hands, roughened by years of farm work, ‘can you honestly see me baking bread and making cakes?’

‘No,’ she replied truthfully, ‘but there’s delivery work.’

‘You have a driver.’

‘At present, but Jamie wants to go to sea eventually like his father.’

‘By which time I hope to have long since found a job. No family handouts, Edyth,’ he refused firmly. ‘Not from Harry and certainly not from you.’

‘Unlike Harry, I haven’t much to hand out.’ She gave him the plate of toast. ‘Try a bite.’

He obediently nibbled the crust. ‘It must be great to be rich and never have to worry about money.’

‘If you’re thinking about Harry, he might not have money worries but he has plenty of the other kind to occupy himself with. Like business and family. I remember what he was like before Will was born. He couldn’t eat or sleep because he was convinced that either Mary or the baby was going to be taken ill during the birth.’

‘I suppose you’re right.’ He took a larger bite of toast.

‘I know you’re happy living here with Helga but if ever you need somewhere to live I have four bedrooms and only two are being used at the moment.’

He eyed her over the edge of the toast. ‘Can you see us living under the same roof?’

‘If it’s gossip you’re worried about, Bute Street isn’t like Pontypridd. In fact, it’s not much like anywhere I’ve ever been to or heard of. The people who live here are broadminded. Given the number of nationalities and the differences in their customs they have to be. They think no more of an Imam calling the Muslims to prayer in the early hours than they do of the Catholic boys clattering round the street in their hobnail boots at six o’clock on a Sunday morning on their way to early mass.’

‘And they wouldn’t say a word about two young people who weren’t married living together?’

‘It wouldn’t be two, it would be three. Judy might not be working for me any more, but she’s still living with me. Besides, you’re my brother’s brother-in-law. We’re practically related.’

‘I have enough money to last me for a while and I want to do things on my own terms, and that includes living here.’

‘I understand.’ What Edyth understood was that David wanted to be independent and, after all the arguments she’d had with her parents in order to gain her own freedom, she sympathised with him.

They were both relieved when there was a knock at the door and Micah walked in. ‘I heard you two talking, I hoped it would be a good sign but you really do look better than you did this morning, David.’

‘I feel better.’ David waved the toast in the air. ‘Eating and drinking.’

‘I have some good news for you. I spoke to George Powell and told him about you.’

‘Who’s George Powell?’ David asked.

‘The builder I mentioned who’s converting the Sea Breeze Hotel into a club. He’s desperate for carpenters and he said he’ll start you as soon as you can drag yourself over to Bute Street. If you’re reasonably proficient he’ll pay you five shillings for a twelve-hour shift, if you’re only fit for labouring he’ll drop it to three.’

‘Bute Street – I could walk there in the morning.’

‘Give yourself a day or two to get your strength back.’

Edyth left the chair and returned it to the corner of the room.

‘And if you feel strong enough at the end of the week you could come with us to see Judy in
Peter Pan
on Saturday,’ Micah suggested. ‘Helga was so taken with the play the first time she saw it, she wants to see it again. She’s booked a box and we’re going with her and Moody but we could easily squeeze in an extra chair.’

‘Please don’t feel that you have to mollycoddle or entertain me,’ David said guiltily, realising just how much trouble he’d caused Edyth and her friends.

‘We’re not. We want to see Judy perform again and there aren’t that many tickets left. Judy said the last two weeks of the run are fully booked.’

‘It wouldn’t hurt you to say, “Thank you, Micah, I’d love to come and see
Peter Pan
with you,”’ Edyth teased gently.

David looked up at Edyth and she braced herself for one of his caustic retorts. Instead he smiled, and said, ‘Thank you, Micah, I’d love to come and see
Peter Pan
with you.’

‘I don’t like the idea of David working for Aled James,’ Edyth said when Micah walked her home from Helga’s. They passed the old Sea Breeze, and although it was after ten o’clock, the sound of hammering and sawing echoed from inside the building.

‘If he gets a job – and that’s a big if – David wouldn’t be working for Aled James, he’d be working for George Powell,’ Micah pointed out. ‘And it’s a big if because much as George is under pressure from Aled James to finish the conversion, there’s only so many semi-skilled labourers he can take on. Word’s got around. While I was talking to George this afternoon, half a dozen unemployed miners turned up. They’d walked down from Maerdy and Tonypandy and were prepared to take a shilling a day. They thought they’d landed in heaven when George said he’d pay them three. George warned them he wouldn’t be able to keep them on after the conversion is finished but that didn’t stop them from signing up. He told me that other than the Sea Breeze he has nothing lined up except his annual painting and maintenance contracts with the banks. And that will mean going back to his usual half-a-dozen tradesmen. It will be a big drop from the two hundred who are working for him now. That’s bad news for the docks.’

‘And the bakery. It’s not just the loss of the workmen’s trade from the Sea Breeze I’m worried about, but the cutbacks families will make when the men are thrown out of work.’

‘We’ll survive. Not just us – everyone,’ Micah said optimistically. ‘It’s what people do in hard times.’

‘You sound like a Dickens happy ending. I thought Scandinavians were supposed to be miserable.’

‘Not this Scandinavian. Although, as I can’t even remember Norway I’m not sure I qualify as one.’

‘I’m not only worried about David,’ Edyth blurted uneasily. ‘He may be working for George Powell, but Judy will be working directly for Aled James and –’

‘You can’t stand the man.’

‘How do you know?’ She stopped walking.

‘Because it’s written all over your face every time you look at him.’

‘It’s really that obvious?’

‘Perhaps not to someone who doesn’t know you,’ Micah said. ‘But it is to me.’

She shivered. ‘I know I’m probably being ridiculous, but I think he’s evil.’

Micah took her arm, tucked it into his elbow and they carried on walking. ‘That’s a bit strong. I know Aled looks like Harry and acts as though he owns the world, but he’s never been anything other than polite to Judy, or, come to that, you, me, and the Kings.’ A sudden thought occurred to him. ‘Judy hasn’t complained to you about him, has she?’

‘No. He’s taken her to the Windsor for lunch a few times, and sorted out some song scores for her, but that’s all. When I asked, she said that he’s always behaved like a perfect gentleman towards her.’

‘But you had to ask?’

‘Yes, because I have a funny feeling about him.’

‘I’m not saying you should ignore your funny feelings. If you did, I’d suffer, because one of your funniest feelings is towards me.’

‘I love you …’ she began absently, still thinking about Aled James.

‘And you love Aled James?’ he broke in.

‘Don’t joke, Micah, he really frightens me.’

‘He’s just a poor boy made good who likes to throw his money around and exercise the power it’s given him,’ he dismissed. ‘As for you loving me, I sometimes have difficulty believing it, especially when you tell me that you won’t marry me.’ He walked her down the side of the shop and through the yard to the back door.

‘Not that again, Micah,’ she pleaded.

‘Absolutely not – until the day Peter sends those papers and then I’ll nag you until you capitulate.’

‘Are you coming in?’ she asked.

He shook his head. ‘I have to get back to the mission. The crew of the
Vidda
were there when I left, opening bottles of aquavit, ordering waffles and settling in for the night. I can’t expect Moody to stay up until the early hours cooking for them.’ He slipped his fingers beneath her chin and lifted her face to his. ‘Sleep tight, my love, see you tomorrow.’

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her and she rested her head against his chest.

‘I hate saying goodnight to you, Edyth,’ he murmured, reluctant to tear himself away.

‘I don’t like it any more than you do.’

‘Then …’

She summoned all her will power. ‘I won’t move into the mission, Micah, and that’s my final word on the subject.’

‘Goodnight, my love.’ He dropped a kiss on top of her head. ‘And sweet dreams.’