by Téa Cooper
‘Not even with you, Jack?’
‘Not even me.’
‘That’s no good then, besides I’d have to put Dolly straight.’
Warning sirens screeched through Jack’s head at the words, shattering the sense of peace and calm he’d enjoyed since they’d left Dolly and Ted together. ‘Put Dolly straight? What do you mean?’
‘I might have overstepped the mark a bit.’ A flush tinged Cynthia’s already rouged cheeks.
Jack clenched his teeth against the wash of impending doom and leant closer. ‘Spill it, Cynthia. Now.’
‘I…um…I spoke to Dolly the other night.’
‘Yes.’ An icy calm settled in Jack’s veins as he waited to hear what Cynthia had to say.
‘I told her to keep her hands off you. I said we were…’
‘We were what?’
‘We were…you were my boyfriend and she couldn’t have you.’
Jack fingered the throbbing pulse in his forehead. ‘And when exactly did this happen?’
‘The first night she sang.’
Just after he’d lost control and kissed her. The all-too-familiar scorch of heat raced through Jack as he relived the touch of Dolly’s pliant body and her willing lips. ‘Brilliant timing, Cynthia.’ No wonder Dolly had gone back downstairs to sing. Thumbing her nose at Cynthia. He had to hand it to her, she was a determined little thing. Most girls would find Cynthia a frightening opponent — not Dolly. She’d come out fighting, said she wanted to be his girl. ‘I don’t think you better say anything else to Dolly, or to Ted for that matter, until I’ve had a chance to sort this mess out.’
Jack blew out a long breath. Dolly deserved more than to be saddled with the lush he’d become, a man who took his pleasure where and when the mood took him, left his best friend for dead. There was one thing he could do for her though. He could make her dreams of becoming a singer come true. If Dolly had got over the initial shock of seeing Ted they’d be catching up, filling in the blanks, and Ted would see Number Fifty-Four as a safe haven and perhaps he’d encourage Dolly to stay.
Maybe there’d be a chance he could set the record straight and make up for the pain he’d caused Dolly and her family. He rubbed his hands together. ‘I think I can sort this out, Cynthia. Leave it to me.’
Receiving no response he stepped across the room and peered down at Cynthia. Her eyes were closed and her mouth slightly open, fast asleep. Slipping his arm under her knees he picked her up, carried her into the spare room and settled her gently on the bed, smiling at the thought of the pleasant surprise for Ted when he got home.
The next morning dawned bright and shiny, in keeping with Jack’s optimistic mood. He whistled as he brewed a pot of tea in the tiny kitchen and set out the cups. He hadn’t heard Ted come in last night. The fact that the door to the spare room had been pulled shut boded well. He had no intention of disturbing Cynthia and Ted. Let them find their own tea when they were ready. As soon as he dressed he’d go around to Millie’s and see Dolly. The memory of her wide smile and sparkling eyes put a spring in his step. Spending the rest of the day with her would be a delight. He’d also have a word with Millie and tell her he wanted Dolly to have one of the upstairs rooms. She deserved somewhere better than the pokey room down the back she shared with Alice and Rosa. If Millie tried to pull rank and tell him she ran the joint he’d put her straight. It was about time.
Looking down onto the street Jack sipped his tea, musing on Ted and how best to broach the subject of his feelings for Dolly. Time he did things properly. He’d ask Ted’s permission to court Dolly. He put the cup back in the saucer and smiled at his reflection in the window — such an old-fashioned word. Courting. He wanted to court Dolly, take her out, spoil her, spend money on her and let her enjoy the life he now took for granted. And then there was Ted — how to help him without him thinking he was receiving a handout? No doubt Dolly and Ted were brother and sister, as alike as two halves of a coin — proud, determined and independent.
Jack peered down into the street and caught sight of a Model T screeching to a halt, narrowly missing an overloaded dray pulled by two Clydesdales. The driver leapt out and rushed to the front of his car. A crowd gathered in a circle blocking the tramlines. Jack craned his neck trying to see past the tangle of overhead cables criss-crossing the road and work out what the fuss was all about. In the centre of the nosey group of onlookers a man stood gesticulating wildly, his arms flashing like windmills as he abused the Model T driver. The crowd parted and the black-clad man strode across the road dismissing the assistance of a well-meaning passerby. Jack turned from the window and took two paces back to the kitchen then stopped in his tracks. He rushed back to the window. Pressing his nose to the glass he stared down into the street below his apartment. His heart sank.
Ted!
He dumped his cup down on the table and tightened the belt on his silk smoking jacket then flung through the front door into the lift. Ted was meant to be asleep, curled up with Cynthia in the spare room. What was he doing lurching around in the street at seven o’clock in the morning?
The lift took an eternity to reach the ground floor and by the time Jack reefed back the ornate metal gate Ted had pushed the heavy glass doors open with his shoulder.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ Jack shouted at him, panic tingeing his voice with aggression. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Coming back to give you your clothes and find Dolly.’
‘What do you mean find Dolly? I left her with you, having the great reunion.’
‘Yeah. Well, we did, until she lost it because neither of us had told her I wasn’t dead. She accused me of sending Pa to an early grave.’ Ted sniffed and wiped the back of his hand across his nose. ‘I told you it would be a mistake,’ he said in a hoarse voice.
‘Get in the lift. I need to go upstairs, get dressed and get around to Millie’s.’
‘Not much point, Dolly’s not there. I checked before I came back here.’
The sinking sensation in the pit of Jack’s gut sparked a flash of fear. Every hair on his arms stood to attention as he waited for the lift to reach the fourth floor. He stared at Ted’s face, the scar red and angry against the pallor of his skin and his eyes staring vacantly. ‘Where is she?’
Ted shook his head and shrugged. ‘I’ve got absolutely no idea and before you ask, neither has Millie.’
Jack forced the metal gate open, spun on his heel and barged out of the lift not caring if Ted followed. He dragged on some clothes and shoes, grabbed his coat and hat and threw himself back into the lift.
Racing through the early morning activity he crossed William Street and took the rabbit warren of back streets to Number Fifty-Four. His lungs burnt as he vaulted the metal gate, charged up the steps, flung open the red front door and barrelled into the hallway. ‘Millie! Where the hell are you?’
When Millie appeared before he had time to stagger into her office Jack’s stomach sank. ‘Where’s Dolly?’ His breath came in ragged gasps as he slouched against the wall sending one of the gold-framed pictures crashing to the floor.
‘I don’t know, Jack.’ I spoke to her last night after she’d seen Ted and she was pretty upset. I sent her upstairs to talk to Alice. According to her, Dolly packed her suitcase and then got into bed. This morning she, and the suitcase, had gone.’
Jack bent double, sucking in great gasps of air, his throat constricted by a toxic mix of dread and exertion. ‘Where’s Alice?’
Millie flicked her thumb over her shoulder and Jack took off into the inner sanctum, ignoring her mumbled protestations. He hammered on each door as he raced through the maze of rooms. ‘Alice?’ he bellowed.
Finally the door below the stairs swung open.
‘Alice!’
‘I’m sorry, I fell asleep.’ She blew her nose loudly on a soiled handkerchief. ‘We said we’d talk about it more in the morning. When I woke she’d gone.’
‘Gone where?’
‘I don’t know. She didn
’t want to take Mrs Mack up on her offer of a job.’
‘Job offer — what job offer?’
Millie cleared her throat and Jack spun around to face her. ‘Okay, let’s have it, Millie. What did you do?’ An image of Dolly lying spread on one of the sumptuous beds upstairs reignited his anger. If one of those bald-headed coots with their greasy hands and fat guts had laid a hand on her…
‘Let’s go and sit down and discuss this rationally.’ Millie’s hand patted his arm.
He shrugged it off. ‘Millie, so help me, if you sent her off with one of the patrons I’m going to tear you limb from fucking limb and feed you to the bloody sharks in the harbour.’
Unfazed by his threats Millie latched her fingers around his sleeve and pulled him down the corridor. ‘Come and sit down. You too, Alice.’ She pushed the door open and led the way into the overheated kitchen. ‘Annie, can we have some tea, please.’ She dropped her grasp on his arm and settled into her usual spot at the head of the scrubbed table.
‘For Christ’s sake, Millie, this isn’t a social call.’ Jack dragged his hands through his hair. ‘Cut to the chase. What happened?’ In the time it took Millie to settle down at the table Dolly could be on the other side of the harbour being dragged off to God-only-knew where, or worse, be lying in some gutter doped up to her eyeballs.
‘Dolly was pretty upset when she’d spoken to Ted and we had a chat. And don’t go thinking it’s all Ted’s fault. You’re equally to blame.’ Millie pinned him with the stare she reserved for uncooperative clients.
‘Me? What the hell did I do other than leave her with her brother after he’d forced a meeting?’ Christ Almighty! From the moment he’d clapped eyes on Ted the situation had gone from bad to worse. He should have taken Dolly and put her on the train straight back to Wollombi.
‘She’s got it in her head everyone knew about Ted except for her and you don’t care because you’re in love with Cynthia.’
Jack wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a shuddering sigh. Once Dolly got an idea in her head there was no stopping her. ‘And what about the job offer?’
‘I thought it might make her feel better if I suggested she stopped cleaning and combined her singing with a bit of entertaining.’ Millie had the grace to blush.
Exactly what she’d suggested to Dolly didn’t need any further explanation. ‘I told you she wasn’t to get involved in anything like that.’
‘I hadn’t got any intention of following through. I just wanted her to feel she had more to offer, more control and wasn’t being treated like a child.’
‘Ooooh!’
Jack flinched as Alice’s long drawn-out cry silenced Millie.
‘Alice?’ he asked, gritting his teeth as he tried to control the anger he knew was plastered across his face. Too many people interfering. First Cynthia, then Millie, and now Alice.
‘I think I made everything worse.’ Alice sniffed and clamped her soggy handkerchief to her nose as tears dribbled down her cheeks. ‘I told Dolly she hadn’t got any option. If you…Mrs Mack…’ — she bobbed her head at her employer and sniffed — ‘…said something it wasn’t a suggestion, it was a fact, and she’d be out on her ear if she didn’t do what she was told.’
The sound of Alice blowing her nose drowned out his groan. So Dolly had come to the conclusion that everyone had kept her in the dark about Ted and if she stayed at Number Fifty-Four she’d been working as one of the girls and that he and Cynthia were an item. Not bloody surprising she’d taken off.
‘The important question is, where’s she gone?’ All business-like Millie stood and fixed him with a steely stare. ‘We can sort the rest later.’
Jack shrugged his shoulders. ‘She’s not at my place. Least she wasn’t when I left and unless Ted told her the address I don’t think she even knows where my apartment is.’
The scraping sound of a chair interrupted Jack and he glanced up at Alice ringing her handkerchief and chewing her bottom lip. ‘I might know,’ she stammered. ‘I don’t want to break a confidence.’
‘Spit it out now!’ Jack thumped his fist on the table sending the lid of the sugar bowl skittering across the top.
‘Lawrence.’ Alice sniffed.
‘Lawrence?’
‘The piano player.’ Alice’s voice, barely more than a whisper, quavered. ‘She’d got some card from him about a jazz club. She might have gone there.’
‘Where?’ Jack leapt to his feet toppling the chair behind him.
‘The Barbary Coast.’
‘Surry Hills? Shit. That’s no place for her to be.’ He made for the door.
‘Slow down,’ Millie said. ‘There’s no point in you going anywhere. It’s eight o’clock in the morning. Any place like that will be locked and barred until evening. You’ll get nowhere until after the six o’clock swill.’
‘Least I can do is go and find the wretched place.’ And take Lawrence limb from bloody limb if I lay eyes on him. Jack bunched his fists in anticipation.
‘Leave it with me, Jack. I’ll put the word out we’re looking for Dolly. If you go it’ll be like looking for a virgin on Palmer Street. Lawrence is a good bloke, with any luck he’ll have found her somewhere to spend the day until this club opens.’
Jack slumped back down in the chair. As usual Millie was right. With her connections she’d find Dolly much faster than he could. He exhaled, his jaw aching with the effort of controlling his temper. Millie had found Ted when he couldn’t, and she’d find Dolly. Meanwhile he could deal with Ted. Keeping things quiet had proved disastrous. He intended to front Ted, level with him and tell him how he felt about Dolly. If Ted chose to clock him one then so be it. He probably deserved it.
Chapter 19
The dirty curtains hung like dying leaves on the rusted rail, failing to block out the bright afternoon sunlight. Dolly didn’t dare touch them; they’d disintegrate at the slightest tweak. Lawrence had brought her to his room from Mrs Mack’s with the best intention in the world and he had been more than kind. She was aware now of just how lucky she’d been to end up at Number Fifty-Four. Even the walk to Surry Hills with Lawrence had been an eye-opener. Women openly plied their trade on every street corner, some not even bothering to duck into a dark alleyway for their encounter. If not for her incessant burn of anger over Jack’s lies she might well have given up and gone back, taken Millie up on her offer, because Number Fifty-Four was far safer than these streets swirling with insidious violence.
Lawrence had brought her to the pub and left her upstairs in his room, saying he had somewhere else to bunk down. He’d promised to come back and pick her up at six and take her to find something to eat before they went to the club. Somehow the shine had gone off the whole idea now she’d spent all day locked away alone, although she’d had time to think. Think about Ted and Jack and wonder if she hadn’t over-reacted. Back in Wollombi everything had seemed so simple. Take a job and make her way in the world, be independent. Coming to Sydney had been a dream come true. Now her dreams had soured.
Her adventure had started out so well. Her first sight of Jack, so welcoming and so utterly handsome in his evening suit still made her heart flutter. Then the excitement of her new life and the accolades she’d received for simply singing — doing something she loved to do. She’d been entranced, and then foolish. Foolish to imagine someone like Jack would see her as anything except the little girl who’d tagged behind him suffering a severe case of hero worship.
No good harping on what might have been. She still intended to make her own way, not ride on someone else’s coat-tails. If she had to start afresh in a different part of town, so be it. She could make an audience happy and that was what she would do.
Dolly rolled off the sagging mattress and straightened her crumpled clothes, then swung her suitcase up onto the bed and searched for her blue frock. It might not be such a showstopper as Alice’s velvet creation and she had no pearls, but it wasn’t shabby. She filled the chipped bowl with water and stripped of
f, scrubbing every inch of her body until she’d removed the misery of the previous evening.
After something to eat she would be prepared. Her last debut had been a success and this would be too. Once she’d established herself and found somewhere to live she would track down Ted and find out what his plans were. Until then he, and Jack, could suffer a taste of the dark cupboard under the stairs they’d pushed her into. She’d find them when she was good and ready.
The knock on the door startled her and she pressed her ear against the peeling paint.
‘Dolly. It’s Lawrence. Open the door.’
Pulling the chain free she turned the heavy key in the lock. The knob swivelled and the door swung open.
‘All ready to go?’ Lawrence said. ‘Leave your belongings here. I’ll bring you back after the gig.’
The sight of his smiling face lifted Dolly’s spirits. The day alone had been more than enough to make her understand how much her life had changed. With the constant companionship and hustle and bustle at Number Fifty-Four she’d come out of her shell, and instead of shunning companionship she now craved it. ‘More than ready, Lawrence, and I could eat a horse.’
‘I hadn’t got a horse in mind. I thought a bowl of Ah Tom’s noodles might set us both up for the evening.’
‘Ah Tom? Noodles?’
‘Yes. Chinese food. Nothing like it. My grandfather introduced me when I was a nipper. He’d got to like the stuff when he was working in the goldfields.’ Lawrence took the key from the inside lock. ‘Let’s go.’ He ushered Dolly out, then locked the door behind him and gave the knob a rattle to make sure it was secure. ‘Can’t be too careful around here.’
With a full stomach and Lawrence’s cheerful company Dolly’s spirits lifted further and her enthusiasm returned. As they stepped out into the darkened street she took Lawrence’s arm. All the pubs had closed and it was comforting to have someone by her side to guide her through the thronging masses roaming the streets in search of a night’s entertainment.
