Bonny wanted Magnus for ever. For the first time in her life she wasn’t concerned with material things, only the man. Ellie might not fully understand how desperate she felt, but she was right in saying she mustn’t tell Magnus lies.
She got up from the bed and began to tidy up, suddenly aware how much she took Ellie for granted. She had been thoughtful and quiet for some weeks now. Was it because she was fed up with her? Or was she just worried about the future?
‘It’s time you did something for her,’ she murmured as she washed the cups and cleaned the wash-basin. Bonny didn’t like to think about what would happen to her if Ellie did go off and leave her.
It was as she closed the wardrobe door that Bonny thought of that blue dress Ellie liked. ‘Seven guineas!’ she muttered. ‘I haven’t even got seven shillings.’
‘Close your eyes!’ Bonny giggled as she opened the door to Ellie when she arrived home from the matinée, much later in the day. ‘Don’t open them till I say!’
‘What are you up to?’ Bonny’s surprises had a habit of being trouble, but Ellie shut her eyes anyway.
‘Close the door and turn round.’ Bonny’s voice trembled with excitement. ‘Now you can open them!’
For a moment Ellie thought it was a cruel joke. Bonny was holding up the midnight-blue evening dress to her shoulders. ‘You bought it!’ she exclaimed. ‘What for? You’ve got the lovely turquoise one.’
‘I didn’t buy it for me,’ Bonny said indignantly. ‘It’s for you.’
A wide smile spread across Ellie’s face, but it faded again as a thought crossed her mind. ‘Where did you get the money? Did you take it out of my drawer?’
Bonny looked hurt and the corners of her mouth drooped. ‘Of course I didn’t take your money. It’s a present. Though I did nick your clothing coupons. I got the money by selling a couple of bits of jewellery.’
‘Not the bracelet Stan Unsworth gave you?’ Ellie saw Bonny’s wrist was bare.
Bonny grinned. ‘It was a lot more valuable than I expected. I got fifteen pounds for it. Now stop nitpicking and try it on.’
Ellie was shaken. Bonny loved that bracelet; she never tired of showing it to people. For her to sell it, to buy a present for someone else, was the equivalent of shaving off her lovely hair or taking a cleaning job. Ellie was so touched at the unexpected generosity she was speechless.
‘I d-d-don’t know what to say,’ she stuttered, a lump coming up in her throat.
‘That’s not like you!’ Bonny grinned impishly. ‘Now get it on before I lose patience.’
Ellie pulled off her cotton dress in a second and stepped into the long dress. ‘Do me up.’ She lifted her hair out of the way and as Bonny finished fastening the tiny buttons, she turned. ‘So how do I look?’
‘Like my aunt, the countess,’ Bonny laughed. ‘Oh Ellie, it’s so perfect. You look gorgeous.’
Ellie looked at herself in the mirror on the wardrobe and gasped. The deep blue crêpe enhanced her black hair and olive skin in a way no other colour had before. It was strapless, the bodice boned to stay up alone and the skirt cut on the bias so it clung to her hips, then flared out just below her bottom in a fishtail style.
‘It’s so heavenly,’ Ellie whispered reverently. She couldn’t really believe what the dress did for her: her bare shoulders looked so sexy and the boned bodice pushed up her breasts so she looked like a film star. ‘I’ve never had anything so beautiful, or so expensive. Oh Bonny!’ She took a couple of steps towards her friend and hugged her, a tear rolling down her cheek.
‘Now we’ll both be a couple of swells at that do,’ Bonny said in a curiously croaky voice. ‘It’s not much good me saying I’m sorry for things I say and do. I’m just made that way. This is all I could think of instead.’
Ellie held Bonny, no more words being necessary. She could understand why men fell under Bonny’s spell; there was something so magical about her sometimes. Ellie could feel all her anxiety draining away, and excitement and optimism taking its place.
Now at the Gala she could be confident. Sir Miles might not be there, and she might not get an opportunity to speak to him, even if he was. But none of that mattered now. She was going to make the Gala night work for her. This was the big chance.
Chapter Twenty-Four
September 1946
‘Whoever would’ve believed a kid from Alder Street would end up here!’ Ellie whispered to Bonny. They were standing by the window of the Savoy Ballroom watching the guests arrive, trying very hard to look as if they usually came to such posh places. ‘Just look at all those jewels! And did you see the furs they’ve left in the cloakroom? If I had a coat like that I’d be sitting on it, afraid someone would nick it!’
The summer had ended abruptly as they packed their cases to come to London three days earlier, even though it was only mid-September. Tonight it had mercifully stopped raining, but the view of the River Thames from the window was obscured by fog and they could see nothing beyond the lights on the Embankment.
The Savoy was even more grand and intimidating than they had expected. One of the doormen had said it was looking shabby compared with before the war, but Ellie thought it was all too wonderful.
All the guest wore their dinner-jackets and evening dresses with a nonchalance that suggested a gala evening such as this was an ordinary event in their lives. Ellie was aware now that the glass beads at her neck would never fool anyone here into thinking they were diamonds. She could see the real thing everywhere, flashing and sparkling from throats, ears and fingers with a brilliance no fake could match. All the women had dainty beaded evening bags and long gloves. Ellie wished she had too, if only to give her something to hold on to.
‘Don’t speak like that!’ Bonny said sharply. ‘Someone will hear you and think we’re a couple of –’ she stopped short, unable to think of an appropriate word.
‘Imposters?’ Ellie grinned. ‘That’s what I feel like, or as my mum used to say, “Like a ham sandwich in a synagogue.”’
Bonny looked like a film star in her turquoise chiffon, the colour matching her eyes and enhancing her golden suntan. Ellie thought perhaps it was easier for blondes to look expensive. She herself had felt she looked fabulous before they arrived here tonight, but now she wasn’t so sure. Black hair, bare shoulders and so much cleavage above the midnight-blue dress was dramatic, but was it too revealing? What if she just looked cheap?
‘I feel perfectly at home,’ Bonny said, smiling at a short fat man who glanced her way. ‘And if you’re going to embarrass me I’ll find someone else to chat to.’
‘Okay, won’t mention it again,’ Ellie agreed good-naturedly. ‘So what do we chat about? Am I allowed to mention that woman is too fat for that dress?’
Bonny giggled, despite her efforts to be dignified.
The woman in question was perhaps fifty and maybe sixteen stone. Her rose-pink taffeta dress had a tight fitted bodice and a full gathered skirt. Not only did the bodice look as if the seams were straining, but she had bulges of puckered flesh breaking out over the top of the low neck and another huge roll at her waist.
‘I can’t actually see anyone as pretty as us two,’ Bonny said immodestly. They had put a lot of effort into their appearance tonight: face masks, manicures, to say nothing of sleeping in curlers and spending a couple of hours on arranging the artful waves and curls which cascaded over their bare shoulders. ‘I suppose you’ve got to be old and ugly to be rich. Maybe you can’t have it all.’
The girls lapsed into silence, just observing. The air was rich with scents, French perfume, cigars and flowers. A pianist was playing softly in the background, but he was almost drowned by a buzz of conversation. Gleaming polished wood floor, velvet drapes at the sparkling windows, silver trays clinking with fluted champagne glasses carried by waiters in tailcoats – it was all so luxurious.
Ellie looked up at the huge chandeliers and saw they acted like a kaleidoscope, each sparkling crystal picking up the vivid colours of the women
’s dresses beneath it. She wondered whether they’d left it there during the war; it must have made such a noise jingling when the doodle-bugs came over. She wondered too who cleaned it and for a moment she imagined herself back in the lawyers’ offices in the Temple scrubbing stairs. That seemed like a lifetime ago.
Bonny was right – everyone was old, hardly anyone less than thirty. The men wore their age better than their wives, a few wrinkles and grey hair seemed to give them more character. Yet she wondered, if they were stripped of their dinner-jackets and bow-ties and put into ordinary working men’s clothes, whether they’d still manage to look so distinguished.
Ellie thought Magnus looked splendid. He was at the far end of the ballroom, talking animatedly to a small group of men who’d broken away from their wives. She could understand exactly why Bonny was so crazy about him. His height, broad shoulders, bronzed skin and sun-bleached hair were at odds with their anaemic faces and puny physiques. She wondered which of the women was his wife. She could see a tall blonde woman with a bony face looking across at him: if that was Ruth, it was hardly surprising he had a mistress!
Last night, when he called round to the borrowed flat in Pimlico, he’d given them a lecture, warning them Ruth would be there and telling them both to stay well away from her. She had no idea it was he who’d put their names forward for the cabaret, and if anyone else should question them about it, they were to be vague and say they thought it was Mr Dyson in Brighton who had arranged their booking.
Ellie overheard him giving Bonny a further warning later.
‘Please just think of it as just a job,’ he said. ‘I got you it, not to have you close to me, but in the hopes you might get spotted by someone in the entertainment business. So forget me, Bonny, dazzle everyone else and make the most of the opportunity. Don’t make me regret it.’
The evening was intended to raise funds to help refugees and people displaced by the war. Earlier the girls had looked at a collection of photographs pinned to a screen of camps set up in Germany by the Red Cross for these people. Ellie had been quite disturbed by the scenes. Somehow until now she’d imagined the people in Germany were no worse off than they were here in England. Now she felt a little guilty that she and Bonny were getting paid for tonight.
‘Tables and chairs had been set up around the stage, though as yet most people were just standing in groups chatting. The auction of donated goods would start soon, followed by the cabaret. The girls had taken part in a dress rehearsal in the afternoon. They were to open the cabaret with ‘Keep Young and Beautiful’. The comedian would follow them, then the magician, before the girls did their second number.
Maria Dolenze was the star act, a singer who had appeared in many West End musicals, and she was to go on last. Finally, before the tables were moved back for dancing, there was to be a tombola.
Ellie wasn’t particularly nervous about their numbers, for they knew them inside out and the band was excellent. But she was growing ever more nervous about Sir Miles Hamilton. She had no idea which of these many middle-aged men he might be, or even how she could find out. Now that she was here, intimidated by posh voices, expensive clothes and the glossy aura these people exuded, she wasn’t sure if she had the courage to speak to anyone.
‘I thought it would be exciting,’ Bonny said indignantly as they made their way off to change. ‘But no one took the least interest in us!’
‘It will be different after the show,’ Ellie said hopefully. She was just as disappointed as Bonny. The only person who’d spoken to them was a waiter and he’d only asked if they’d like a glass of champagne.
‘I couldn’t work out which was Ruth either,’ Bonny said, a flicker of anxiety in her eyes.
‘Nor me,’ Ellie agreed. ‘But stop thinking about her or Magnus. It will just put you off.’
The room they’d been given as a dressing-room was tiny, but grand by their standards, with a washbasin and a well-lit dressing-table. The ballroom was only down the corridor and as they changed they could hear the auctioneer calling out the bids.
‘Have I got ten pounds?’ they heard. ‘Ten over there. Any advance on ten pounds? Ten guineas. Eleven pounds. Any more bids for this lovely bracelet? Surely it’s worth more than eleven pounds?’
‘I can’t imagine anyone bidding for that rubbish,’ Bonny said churlishly, sticking out her lip. ‘Horrid old paintings, jewellery that looks as if it’s from Woolworth’s. Who wants that?’
‘I don’t think any of it’s rubbish.’ Ellie shrugged her shoulders, guessing her friend was only being spiteful because she was disappointed and worried about Ruth. ‘Anyway it’s for a really good cause. Imagine if we had to live in one of those camps.’
‘Don’t get any ideas about refusing our five pounds,’ Bonny sniffed. ‘We’re displaced too. We won’t have a job or a home next week.’
‘Don’t remind me.’ Ellie turned her back towards Bonny so she could zip up her costume.
‘I look like Shirley Temple.’ Bonny stood beside Ellie at the mirror, pulling a silly face at herself. Their costumes were short white tennis dresses with matching knickers. They both had ribbons in their hair and white tap shoes and they looked very young. ‘Mum would be proud of me. I’m wearing two pairs of knickers at last.’
Magnus wished he could clap as loudly as everyone else when Bonny and Ellie smilingly curtsied to their audience at the end of their first number. But he didn’t dare draw attention to himself with Ruth beside him.
She looked very nice tonight in a green taffeta dress, even though she’d laughingly said she looked like a country mouse compared with these smart Londoners. Green gave her pale skin a luminous quality and he liked the sophisticated chignon the hairdresser had given her; at home she always wore her hair loose. She was thirty-seven now, but to Magnus she had a timeless quality. She would probably look just the same at sixty.
The evening was going very well so far. Ruth knew a few of the other women and she’d found the confidence to leave his side and chat to them. He just hoped Bonny would stick to her side of the bargain after the cabaret.
But Magnus felt very proud of both Bonny and Ellie. They had worked on the act he remembered from Oxford: the choreography was vastly improved and they were slicker, even more self-assured. Bonny’s tap-dancing and gymnastics were faultless, Ellie’s voice more powerful.
‘They were really good.’ Ruth tucked her hand through Magnus’s arm, her soft brown eyes twinkling with pleasure. ‘I thought we’d see stuffy acts tonight, not something like that.’
Magnus gulped hard. One of the things which had attracted him to Ruth when they first met was her lack of guile and her delight in the sort of things his pompous family found ‘vulgar’. Over the years it was this quality in her which endeared her to him more than anything. She laughed a great deal, she sang while she worked about the house, she found time for everyone, regardless how busy she was. She was a truly happy person and he loved her; yet he still couldn’t help hoping she’d want to go home to Yorkshire on the first train tomorrow morning, so he could have a couple of days in London with Bonny.
The girls swept off their battered top hats, letting their hair tumble down, and bowed deeply at the rapturous applause for ‘We’re a Couple of Swells’.
‘You are a couple of swells!’ a hearty male voice called out. ‘Bravo!’
The girls grinned at this voluble admirer, hitched up their ragged tramps’ trousers and bowed again.
‘We were sensational,’ Bonny said as they skipped off through the wings to change.
‘Utterly sensational,’ Ellie agreed. ‘Bravo!’ she added in the upper-crust tones of the male admirer.
‘I feel all sweaty,’ Bonny giggled as they got inside the dressing-room. ‘I hope there’s some hot water to wash. I don’t fancy dancing with anyone smelling like this.’
‘You don’t smell too bad to me.’ Ellie grinned. ‘But then I’ve got no intention of sniffing round you. Anyway, there must be hot water here, we’re n
ot exactly in the pits.’
As Bonny washed they could hear Maria Dolenze singing ‘We’ll Gather Lilacs’. Ellie began to join her in an exaggerated falsetto.
‘Stop it,’ Bonny laughed, one foot in the washbasin. ‘I can’t bear it.’
‘Magnus looked proud of you.’ Ellie broke off from removing her stage make-up and tweaked Bonny’s hair playfully. She felt exhilarated by their performance, quite giddy and silly. ‘I noticed you were a good girl and kept your eyes off him. I hope you can keep it up?’
‘The only person I looked at was the tall, dark man by the stage,’ Bonny said, drying her feet. ‘Did you see him? I like men with moustaches, I might flirt with him later and make Magnus jealous. I think he’s on his own.’
‘I saw him,’ Ellie groaned, remembering the dark, rather serious-faced man who hadn’t taken his eyes off them. ‘You are incorrigible, Bonny. You’d find a man in a nunnery.’
‘I just wish Magnus could creep in here to say hello,’ Bonny sighed, her face instantly forlorn. ‘It’s only his approval I want.’
‘You’ll get it tomorrow.’ Ellie patted her shoulder. ‘I think I’ll clear off for a couple of days. I don’t think I can bear to hear you two at it again!!’
The tombola was over, the chairs and tables moved aside for dancing, and the band playing a foxtrot as the girls swept back into the ballroom.
Two elderly couples had taken to the dance floor, but aside from a few of the older ladies who sat on the sidelines watching, almost everyone else was at the far end of the room where a bar had been opened.
The tall, dark man Bonny had spoken of strode across the empty expanse of dance floor towards them. His purposeful manner suggested he’d been watching for them to emerge.
‘Let me get you both a drink?’ He smiled at them both but Ellie knew he was only interested in Bonny. ‘I did enjoy your performance. Do tell me which show you are from?’
Ellie Page 51
