Ambitious Love

by Rosie Harris

‘Dancing, of course. You’ve been telling me that at the moment people are depressed – either because they are out of work or short of money or both. It won’t last for long. Things will get better; they usually do, given time. It’s a new year, so there’s bound to be a feeling of hope in the air; there always is at the start of a new year. Well, we can cash in on that.’

  ‘I really don’t understand what you are talking about,’ Rhodri said, shaking his head.

  ‘We’ll open a dance studio; somewhere where people can come to learn to dance. We’ll use the money Maria left and as a tribute to her from both of us we’ll call it Maria’s Dance Studio.

  ‘A dance studio?’ Rhodri looked completely bemused. ‘Are you completely crazy?’

  ‘Of course I’m not,’ Fern defended. ‘We’ll make it a joint effort and teach them to dance. You can be the manager and deal with all the bookings and the money side of things and I’ll teach them to dance. You can also sell sheet music, instruments of every kind under the sun, as well as gramophone records.’

  Rhodri looked at Fern in astonishment. ‘You mean you intend risking the money Maria left you on starting up a dance studio and you want me to be part of it all?’

  ‘There’s no risk,’ Fern enthused. ‘I was a professional dancer at the Folies Bergère and when people hear that they will want to see me dance. We’ll invite them to see me perform in our own studio and then get them to sign up for lessons.’

  ‘How many people are there in Cardiff who will want to be professional dancers?’ Rhodri laughed.

  ‘We’re not going to try and make them professionals, simply teach them how to dance.’

  ‘Most people know already,’ Rhodri argued.

  ‘No, they don’t. Look how many men won’t get on the floor until they’ve had two or three drinks to give them courage. And when they do they simply shuffle around because they don’t know the steps.’

  ‘You’ll never get men agreeing to come to a dance studio. Even if they would like to learn to dance they’d never openly admit that they needed to take lessons.’

  ‘Don’t be too sure about that; our grand opening will tempt them and they’ll be eager to learn.’

  ‘Yes? How do you make that out?’

  ‘We will tempt them to come along by advertising that I will be doing some of the exotic dances that I did at the Folies Bergère.’

  ‘Do I get a private preview so that I can judge whether you are any good or not?’ Rhodri teased.

  ‘The very mention of the Folies Bergère will tempt them,’ Fern went on, ignoring his quip. ‘They will want to see me dance and then we’ll also give them a demonstration of ballroom dancing. If they bring their wives or girlfriends they will want to be able to dance like us.’

  ‘Dance like us? You don’t mean that you expect me to partner you in a performance, do you?’

  ‘Of course. You always wanted to take me dancing. So this is your chance to do so.’

  ‘Yes, but that was to Saturday night hops and you always turned me down. Anyway, neither of us knows how to teach.’

  ‘I know how the instructors go about it; I should do, after training for the Folies Bergère,’ Fern reminded him.

  ‘Yes, but you were the one who was being taught, you weren’t doing the teaching.’

  ‘They won’t know that and if anyone goes to the trouble to find out, by that time we’ll be so good at it and so well established that people won’t mind.’

  ‘The way you are describing it all makes it sound a possibility but there are so many pitfalls,’ Rhodri said dubiously. ‘We would need to find the right sort of premises, for a start.’

  ‘I agree; we certainly couldn’t stage it in the middle of the Hayes market,’ Fern admitted.

  ‘Renting a property, especially if we had to put down three months’ rent in advance, would eat up a lot of your money,’ Rhodri pointed out. ‘We’d probably have to decorate it as well and that would take both time and money.’

  ‘We could probably save a great deal by doing that ourselves,’ Fern told him.

  ‘You are a real little optimist, aren’t you?’ Rhodri smiled. ‘If enthusiasm has anything to do with success then we should be OK,’ he added with a grin.

  ‘So you will join forces with me? I know we’ll make a success of it. We’ve always got on well, so we’ll make perfect business partners,’ Fern assured him.

  ‘I don’t like the idea that you’ll be spending Maria’s money to help me out,’ Rhodri protested.

  ‘I’m not! You needn’t think that for one minute,’ Fern told him quickly.

  ‘That’s not the way I see it,’ he told her dryly.

  ‘Well, I’m not,’ Fern replied. ‘I have to find work of some kind and I also need somewhere to live. I was even thinking that perhaps it might be possible to combine both.’

  Rhodri looked puzzled. ‘Sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean by that.’

  ‘Well, I thought that if we could find some shop premises with a flat up above them then I could live in the flat,’ she pointed out. ‘In fact,’ she went on, ‘if the flat was big enough, you might be able to live there as well.’

  ‘If we rented a shop, surely we would have to put in a special floor, a polished parquet one, if people were going to dance on it?’ Rhodri frowned.

  ‘Yes . . .’

  ‘And that would take a great deal of money,’ he pointed out. ‘I think’, he went on, ‘we ought to sit down with pencil and paper and list all the alterations we would have to carry out and try and work out what all this would cost before we start looking for a place.’

  ‘If you say so; after all, you are the manager,’ Fern told him with a cheeky smile. ‘Look,’ she laid a hand on his arm, ‘I am well aware that planning everything is going to be a lot of hard work but I am positive it will turn out well in the end and that we’ll make perfect partners.’

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Rhodri spent almost two hours writing down all the expenses they were likely to incur if they decided to go ahead with Fern’s idea of a dance studio. Each time he thought the list was complete, either he or Fern remembered something else that needed to be included.

  ‘I think we should stop before you run out of money,’ he said at last.

  ‘We’re doing this together.’ Fern frowned. ‘Think of it as our money, not just mine.’

  ‘Then in that case I’ll go through the list again and see what we can cut back on.’ Rhodri smiled.

  The expenditure was quite formidable but the project wasn’t completely impossible. So much depended on finding the right sort of premises, what rental they would have to pay and how much the landlord demanded in advance.

  It was agreed that Fern should stay on in Loudon Place with Rhodri rather than waste any of their precious money renting a room of her own somewhere else.

  ‘It’s going to be a bit of a squash but I don’t mind if you don’t,’ he told her cheerfully.

  ‘If we have any luck in finding suitable premises then it will only be for a short time,’ Fern agreed optimistically.

  ‘In that case, we’d better start looking right away,’ Rhodri suggested.

  ‘On a Sunday?’

  ‘It won’t hurt to look around. We haven’t even decided whether we want to be in the centre of Cardiff or here in Tiger Bay. We could also look and see if there are any vacant premises in Grangetown or Canton.

  ‘Come on, it’s cold out but the sun is shining and if we go right away we might be able to decide the best place to look for a shop or perhaps even a hall.’

  ‘I prefer the idea of a shop,’ Fern insisted. ‘Remember, we are hoping to live up over it,’ she added as he helped her into her coat and she reached for her hat and scarf.

  They took the tram to St Mary Street but by the time they reached it they’d both agreed that the properties close to the centre of Cardiff would be far too expensive to rent, even if they managed to find a suitable place that was empty.

  ‘I suppose we
really ought to think about the sort of people who will want to learn to dance,’ Rhodri mused.

  ‘Youngish, in their early twenties; men as well as girls,’ Fern said thoughtfully.

  ‘Most girls seem to know how to dance, so I suppose we should concentrate on youngish men,’ Rhodri said.

  ‘Yes, that’s true,’ Fern agreed. ‘Girls certainly want their boyfriends to be able to dance and not step on their toes all evening.’

  ‘So we are aiming at youngish men who have just started taking girls out and want to impress them.’

  ‘Yes, but remember, a lot of girls have only picked up dance steps from one another or from someone in their family. The majority of them are keen to be able to dance properly.’

  ‘Let’s walk down Wood Street and then along the Taff Embankment towards Grangetown and see what sort of properties are empty there,’ she suggested.

  As they passed street after street of newly built semi-detached houses that ran from the Embankment into Corporation Road it was obvious they were in the wrong area.

  ‘If we are looking for a shop, then we should cut through into Corporation Road,’ Rhodri suggested when they reached Aber Street.

  ‘I don’t think we’ll find any there,’ Fern murmured. ‘We could catch a tram, though, as far as Clarence Road Bridge and start looking around there.’

  ‘A tram?’ Rhodri looked at her in surprise. ‘Are your feet aching already?’ he laughed.

  ‘They are a bit,’ Fern admitted. ‘I was really thinking of saving time because all around here there are houses, not shops. If we could find a place near Clarence Road where it joins James Street, then we would probably attract people from both Tiger Bay and Grangetown.’

  ‘I see what you mean,’ Rhodri agreed. ‘This is certainly a good working-class area but would people living here be interested in the idea of learning to dance?’

  ‘I think they would, especially if we put on a show one night a week so that they can see how enjoyable dancing can be.’

  ‘What sort of a show?’

  ‘Like I said before, I could give a display of the sorts of dances I was doing at the Folies Bergère and then the two of us could demonstrate ballroom dancing. We’d do the more popular dances like the waltz, the foxtrot and the quickstep; the sorts of dances they would do if they went to a dance themselves.’

  ‘You think they would pay to come to see something like that?’

  ‘I’m sure they would once the word got round, especially if they knew that at the end of the display there would be an opportunity for them to get up and dance themselves. We’d probably have to do a couple of special free nights at first to get ourselves known.’

  ‘We’d need to get some posters printed to advertise these shows and our studio,’ Rhodri said thoughtfully. ‘That’s something we overlooked and haven’t included in our list of expenses.’

  By this time they had reached the tram terminal at Clarence Road Bridge and as they started walking Fern paused for a moment to look down into the River Taff. Flowing water always made her think of Glanmor and her heart ached with loneliness knowing she would never see him again.

  ‘Well, here we are, St James Street, and there’s an empty shop just a few doors down the road,’ Rhodri pointed out.

  They crossed to the other side of the road to get a better view of it. The building was three storeys high and sandwiched between a furniture shop and a hairdresser’s. The other shops in the parade included a newsagent and tobacconist, a greengrocer and a general store as well as a pawnbroker.

  ‘I wonder what sort of business went on here?’ Fern mused as they peered into the empty window.

  ‘It’s very clean inside and there are a lot of shelves behind the counters so it might have been a chemist, or even a bookshop,’ Rhodri observed.

  They looked at each other hopefully. ‘Perhaps we should come back first thing tomorrow morning and find out who owns it and at the same time what it used to be,’ Rhodri stated.

  ‘That doesn’t matter as much as what the rent is and whether or not we can afford it,’ Fern said, stepping back into the roadway and looking up at the rooms above.

  ‘There’s so much space up there that we could have the dance studio on the first floor and possibly live in the rooms up above,’ she said.

  ‘If we did that, then what would we do with the shop itself? I suppose we could let it and that would help pay the rent.’

  ‘I’ve got a better idea.’ Fern smiled. ‘We could use the shop to sell musical instruments, gramophone records and all the other things you used to sell on your stall. We could also stock special dancing shoes and things like that.’

  ‘Hold it; you really are getting carried away.’ Rhodri grinned. ‘We don’t even know for sure that it is vacant yet.’

  ‘It’s empty!’

  ‘Yes, but it might already be taken. It’s so clean inside that someone may already be getting it ready so that they can move their business in.’

  As they made their way back to Loudon Place they could talk of nothing else.

  ‘We would attract people from Grangetown and Tiger Bay if we took those premises,’ Fern enthused.

  ‘Yes, and because all the other shops are closed at night there wouldn’t be anyone complaining about noise.’

  ‘Not unless there are people living above the other shops on either side.’

  While Fern prepared something for them to eat, Rhodri busied himself making more notes and working out the possibilities of what they could stock if they did retain the shop for their own use.

  ‘We would probably only have enough money to be able to stock gramophone records at first and that would hardly be profitable,’ he said despondently.

  ‘You had your stall for at least ten years so surely the people who supplied you would be willing to take a gamble and let you have some stock. Perhaps a selection of instruments on sale or return,’ Fern suggested hopefully.

  Rhodri frowned. ‘I’m not sure; things are still pretty bad, you know, so they mightn’t be prepared to take the risk.’

  ‘If trade is slow, then that’s all the more reason for them to take a chance and supply you with some stock. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know, and if they turn you down, then when the business is in full swing and they come along trying to sell you something, you can turn them down.’

  ‘Whew! You are a hard-headed businesswoman. Are you going to be equally tough with your dance customers?’

  ‘No, I shall charm them with my dancing so much that they will be queueing up to come to my classes,’ she said with a smile.

  ‘Well, it’s difficult for me to say what the chances are of that happening when I’ve never seen you dance,’ Rhodri told her. ‘Perhaps you should give me a demonstration so that I can judge whether you are any good or not.’

  ‘I was a solo dancer at the Folies Bergère,’ she reminded him, tossing her hair back in an affected, haughty manner.

  ‘So you keep telling me! Then how about showing me what you can do?’

  ‘I will after you’ve eaten this meal I’ve gone to the trouble of cooking,’ she said, smiling.

  Later, after she’d cleared away their dishes, she selected a record and put it on the gramophone then went through to the bedroom and unpacked one of her costumes and put it on.

  Rhodri was sitting at the table still engrossed in the list he was making when Fern came back into the room. With a half smile on her lips she began to play the record. When he looked up she started to slowly twist and turn in time to the music and perform one of her favourite dances.

  She was aware that he was watching her in astonishment but he said nothing until the record stopped playing.

  ‘If that’s one of the dances you intend to do then you are quite right when you say that we will have people queueing to get in the door,’ he said, a look of admiration on his face. ‘I never knew you could dance like that; it was incredible.’

  ‘I’m so glad you approve.’ She smiled, giving a s
weeping curtsy. Then, moving across the room and selecting another record, she looked over her shoulder and asked, ‘Would you like me to dance some more?’

  Without waiting for a reply, as the music started, she began to dance once more. When the record ended she changed it and then held out a hand to him. ‘Come on, this is a waltz, let’s see how well you shape up as a partner.’

  Rhodri hesitated then stood up and took her in his arms and circled the floor with her. ‘Will I do?’ he asked when the music stopped.

  ‘Very hard to tell because there isn’t really enough room here for a proper performance,’ she teased.

  He didn’t answer but pulled her back into his arms. ‘There may not be enough room to dance but there is enough room for me to kiss you,’ he told her as his lips sought hers.

  The suddenness of his action took her breath away. For a brief moment she tried to resist his embrace then as his mouth came down hard on hers she found herself responding with such fervour that when he released her she felt overcome with embarrassment.

  His lips on hers had brought back vivid memories of Glanmor; nothing that had happened since, not even her association with Pierre, had made any impression. Returning his chaste kisses had been purely perfunctory but Rhodri’s kiss had stirred some response from deep within in her. So much so that it left her feeling quite unnerved.

  As they broke apart she stood staring at him in bemused silence; a stare so intense that it made him uneasy.

  ‘I’m sorry, Fern,’ he muttered contritely. ‘I shouldn’t have done that but you looked so beautiful as you danced in that . . . that very revealing dress, that I was completely bewitched and got carried away. Blame my hot blood,’ he added with a rueful laugh.

  She pulled away with an awkward little laugh. She wanted to refute what he was saying; to reach out and pull him towards her, entwine her arms round his neck and surrender her lips to his again, but some inner caution warned her that if they were going to work together then this wouldn’t be wise.

  Rhodri gave an imperceptible shrug of his shoulders. ‘I hope you were not . . .’ he paused as if seeking the right word before adding with a challenging lift of one eyebrow – ‘that you were not offended.’