The Lido Girls

by Allie Burns

  She’d already seen the film and been haunted by that final scene with Cleopatra found dead on her throne, the poisonous snake at her feet. It was heartbreak that killed her, at the loss of Antony. She’d held love and then it had perished.

  William and Annie had left town. But her brother was clear that he thought she should go with him. The nice thing about it all was that Jack had wanted to spend more time with her since she’d learned of Miss Lott’s passing and he’d met William. It was as if Jack understood perfectly why she would fear putting her life in William’s hands and he wanted to protect her from it.

  The lights dimmed for the start of the show. Jack’s hand crept around her collarbone and cupped itself around her shoulder. She didn’t look at him. She just left it to burn her skin a few moments before she pretended she’d dropped her bag of nuts and bent forwards, fumbling about by her feet until he retracted his arm and it was safe to sit up straight again.

  She glanced at him, his face lit by the credits, white on the black screen, popped a hazelnut on to her tongue, and tried to keep herself from grinning like a fool.

  A man in a suit pulled the curtains wide as the fanfare heralded the start of the film.

  Later on, Cleopatra and Antony fell in love, and she thought of Delphi and their bitter exchange on the sun deck. She had to accept that the two of them weren’t to be partners in their classes, that teaching the girls had become Delphi’s domain, and the door had been shut on her, for now at least. But didn’t they say, when one door closes, another one opens.

  He only put his arm around you. But, he put his arm around you! She’d always known that if one of them found a companion first, it would be hard on the other, but if that arm around her shoulder did turn out to mean anything, she wasn’t sure that Delphi would mind as much as she might hope.

  *

  She’d found George. He had got in through the back entrance again after closing. He sat on the diving tower steps, his shoes and socks beside him.

  ‘Your mother has finished work now. She’s gone home.’

  ‘I know.’ His shins drifted in the air. ‘That’s why I’m here.’ She made to sit down beside him. ‘Mother still says I’m not to talk to you,’ he warned and she crouched on her haunches instead.

  ‘What about your father?’

  ‘She said you were nosy.’ He watched his feet. ‘Father’s away at sea. I can’t remember what he looks like.’

  ‘He must have been gone a long time then.’

  ‘I’m not allowed to talk about how Mother cries.’

  ‘Well let’s not do that then. Tell me instead. If I were allowed to teach you, what stroke would you like to learn first?’

  *

  She searched up on the top deck, but the canvas of Delphi’s usual deckchair rippled in the early evening breeze. Natalie leant against the railings and scanned the beach. It was a little early for wafting, but Delphi’s white hat and its red sash were quite distinctive and she spotted her on the beach, sitting beside Sid and his contrasting dark waves.

  ‘Delphi!’ Natalie called down to her on the beach from the promenade, but she didn’t hear her. She and Sid were engrossed in conversation, though Sid’s head was obscured by Delphi’s distinctive wide-brimmed white hat, her petite body beneath, hands clasped around her knees.

  She stepped off the promenade on to the pebbles, causing an avalanche of pea-sized stones to slide down on to a family below. A woman on a blanket huffed. With a quick apology, Natalie strode around the outside of a windbreak, going over on her ankles, until she cast a shadow over the couple.

  She came to a sudden stop.

  Sid’s hand was at the back of Delphi’s waist. The two of them were quiet, so she walked again, slowly this time around the side until she stood between them and the sea. What’s going on?

  Sid leant into Delphi. He was kissing her. Natalie coughed. They broke away. Delphi giggled and kicked her legs, excited at being caught out. Her petite legs out in front of her looked tanned against her white skirt.

  ‘Natty, you found us.’ She wiped her bottom lip with her thumb and forefinger. ‘You need to close your mouth; your jaw is skirting down by your ankles.’

  Sid, so sweet but by his own admission he struggled to take care of himself. How could he hope to look after Delphi?

  ‘So you’re not the only one with exciting news.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Had Jack been talking after their visit to the pictures? But if he had Delphi didn’t say any more. ‘Does Jack know?’ she asked.

  They both shook their heads. He wouldn’t be pleased about it either. The two of them had been left in charge of Delphi. They would have to write and tell the Mulberrys that everything was ticking along nicely, and it would be a blatant lie.

  ‘This is more than a holiday romance, isn’t it, Sid?’ Delphi lifted her cheek for Sid to kiss. The two of them looked so close and happy together that it made her want to weep with joy and sadness all at once. Surely after all the things he’d told her about himself he couldn’t think that he was strong enough to cope with Delphi’s illness.

  ‘I’ll leave you ladies to talk,’ Sid said, giving Delphi a gratuitously long kiss. Then he waved before taking the steep slope back up to the prom. They waited in silence for the crunch of Sid’s footsteps to fade into the chatter of the busy beach.

  ‘If this is more than a holiday romance, what will this mean for your career ambitions?’ Natalie asked.

  Delphi lit a cigarette and leant back on her other hand as she looked out to sea.

  ‘I haven’t exactly taken St Darlstone by storm, have I?’

  ‘But you want to be an instructor. Will you do that now?’

  ‘It was all a bit of a daydream really, wasn’t it? Jack did say that coming here would take my mind off all that, and he was right.’

  ‘A daydream? Was it? I really thought we would turn our shared passion into something fulfilling and worthwhile.’ Her despondency was making her more candid than she perhaps ought to be.

  ‘Your training isn’t in demand, that much we have learned.’ She didn’t seem to notice how this made Natalie smart. ‘And I don’t have any training AND Mother won’t ever let me do that blasted course, even if you hadn’t blotted my copybook with Prunella Stack.’

  ‘But your mother won’t allow you to be with Sid either.’

  ‘Mother and Father are not to know.’ Delphi stubbed out her cigarette in the cup of a pink-tinged shell.

  ‘But they’ll find out eventually. We can lie to them now. We’re all only here for the summer and they’ve only left you because they entrusted you to Jack and I. Once they know we’ve lied to them, you will have lost your only chance of freedom.’

  Delphi threw a pebble into the sea and tutted.

  ‘The two of us together…’ it took her a moment to realise she meant herself and Sid ‘…with Jack’s support, and yours, we’ll defeat Mother. This is the way to do it; I’m sure of it.’

  ‘But what about the two of us? We always said we’d tackle spinster life together.’ She was a hypocrite for saying it. Only yesterday she’d sat smiling in the picture house, feeling the heat of Jack’s thighs against her own, full of hope that he might put his arm around her again. She didn’t seem to know what she wanted herself any longer.

  ‘Jack likes you, Natty. Surely you’ve noticed.’ This time Delphi threw a handful of shingle, which scattered like hail on the sea’s surface. Natalie waited for her to say more about Jack. Had he spoken to his sister about his feelings for her? Delphi didn’t say and there was no way she could ask. She didn’t want Delphi to know that she was increasingly sweet on a younger man. ‘You’re right anyway; we’re only here for the summer. You need to think about your future. We both do.’

  And there it was again, for a second time, the sense that Delphi was drifting away from her. It wasn’t an out-and-out declaration that their bond was out of date, but all she could think was that Delphi had long felt let down by her and she was only no
w brave enough to give that disappointment a voice.

  And instead of reaching out a hand to Delphi and telling her she was sorry for not being courageous herself in the past, instead of assuring her that she would change, that together they could be a potent force, she was sitting back and letting her go.

  *

  She hung around to watch the Lido girls wafting in the early evening. Delphi, who hadn’t turned up, had asked Barnie to relay the message that they would do just fine without her from now on.

  ‘Betsy?’ Natalie called her over. She was still as coordinated as a tree in a storm, but her waist was so much trimmer, she had the energy to bounce, her cheeks weren’t glowing and she wasn’t stopping to mop her brow. She was confident. Her eyes were open now as she wafted, but it only worked because she was secure in the knowledge that Arthur wouldn’t see her. ‘I’ve asked the men to come and watch. I need to talk to them about something.’

  ‘My Arthur you mean?’ she asked.

  Natalie nodded.

  ‘I’m sorry then love, that’s me for today.’ Betsy collected her cardigan. ‘He paid me a compliment the other day.’ She paused. ‘He said I’d started to look more like the girl he’d married. I just told him I’ve been banting. He thinks I’ve stopped all this nonsense, as he calls it.’

  ‘It’s a start Betsy, and he’s right – you do look terrific. Simply terrific. How is Yvonne?’

  Betsy’s smile fell from her face. ‘She misses her husband. It’s a hard life being married to a seaman. Listen. Thank you for starting these classes; it’s made such a difference to my life. And it’s all thanks to you.’

  ‘It’s thanks to Delphi, really. She’s the one who found a way to make this enjoyable. It’s just a shame we can’t help Yvonne too.’

  ‘Do you think Delphi’s finished with the classes now she is courting Sid?’

  Before Natalie could shrug, Betsy jumped at the sound of Arthur’s voice growing closer. She darted down a side staircase just before he came into view.

  ‘Why do we have to look at this motley band?’ Arthur boomed to Jack.

  ‘I’d like these girls to introduce the next bathing belle contest,’ Natalie explained. ‘I think we should do it to music, do some demonstrations, inspire the holidaymakers.’

  Arthur rubbed his chin, trailing the girls’ movements as if they were bluebottles he was waiting to swat. ‘I thought I’d said no to you already. I must have been on the sauce.’

  ‘Every town holds bathing belle contests,’ she continued. ‘They’ll get something different when they come here. Something to make them come back. I think Yvonne should lead them out.’

  ‘I want Toots to lead the next contest.’ Jack spoke at last, not meeting her gaze. ‘That’s what you wanted too, wasn’t it, Arthur?’

  ‘Girls in bathing suits are what the public wants to see. And Toots is the local beauty. Young too. Terrific legs. All the chaps like her. Besides, you thought we shouldn’t have our own employees in the contests.’

  ‘I’ve said before I thought that was a mistake and that we should let the Lido and its staff lead from the front. And Yvonne…’

  ‘Where is that French girl?’

  ‘She’s unwell,’ she admitted.

  ‘Still?’ Jack said. She had been off work for a week now.

  ‘Well there’s your answer then. The exercise is obviously doing her no good at all.’ Arthur clutched his prodigious belly and chuckled. ‘These girls, it’s as well business isn’t down to them.’

  *

  She’d found young George kicking a pebble about near the dairy depot at the back of the Lido.

  ‘Won’t you miss your tea?’ she asked. She’d been hanging around the Lido for Jack to come back from wherever he’d gone with Arthur so long that the light was fading now, and she’d missed her own evening meal too.

  He shrugged and punted his stone against the wall. She’d thought about asking Yvonne’s permission to teach him to swim, but she already knew the answer and it wouldn’t be fair on the boy. Besides, with Yvonne off work, she hadn’t been around to ask.

  ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Daylight’s all but gone. Let’s get some fish and chips.’ They sat on a bench further down the prom, the pier in front of them and Arthur’s hotel, the St Darlstone, behind. He ate the chips three at a time, his cheeks bulging, the next handful ready and waiting. She’d planned to have some herself, but couldn’t bring herself to take any from him.

  ‘Have you ever heard of a seaman’s boy who is afraid of the water?’

  ‘I think you’re the first son of a seaman that I’ve met. Why?’

  ‘Well, I think that’s why my father’s been away so long. He’s ashamed to have a boy who can’t swim.’

  ‘I’m sure he’s very proud of you,’ she told him, ‘very proud indeed.’

  He finally took notice of her instructions to eat with his mouth closed and chomped the rest of his chips in silence, finishing off by dangling the slab of battered cod in front of his mouth.

  ‘Look,’ he said. She had buried her head in her hands in despair at his manners, although she was smiling, but as she lifted her head she was caught unawares.

  ‘Evening, Mr Mulberry.’ George’s cheeks glistening with chip fat, he bowed his head to Jack. Her stomach flinched. He came from the direction of the St Darlstone hotel. His hands deep in his high waister pockets, braces peeking out from his suit jacket, his head cocked to one side, that disarming grin always accompanied by a sparkle in his cobalt eyes and the lone dimple in his cheek.

  He had a girl on his arm. Not just any girl – he was with Toots. She put Natalie in mind of a stick of rhubarb, and as tart and lacking in substance too. Behind them came Delphi and Sid.

  She forced a smile at them both as they drew close.

  ‘There you are, Natty. We’ve just been at Arthur’s hotel for a drink and a discussion with Toots here about your idea for the bathing belle contest.’

  ‘All of you?’ she asked. He must have gone there straight away and why was I the only one not invited?

  ‘It’s Natalie, isn’t it?’ Toots cut in with her husky, cultured voice. ‘Yes. I remember you.’

  ‘We’re off to the dance hall now,’ Jack said.

  She saw then that she had got carried away with the idea that he was sweet on her. All they’d had was a dance and one outing to the picture house. He’d just been kind to her. The two of them towered over her now, such a handsome couple; Toots exotic in her feathered turban was a much more likely sweetheart. Hadn’t it been Jack who had suggested her for the contest? He certainly hadn’t wasted any time in making the arrangements.

  ‘Are you coming?’ Delphi joined them.

  ‘I’m not dressed for it.’ She shrugged, trying to look as though a night out with a seven-year-old boy was what she’d had in mind all along. She’d look like a gooseberry fool if she went along now, and Toots looked every bit as if she knew it.

  ‘This one’s a bit young for you, isn’t he?’ Jack winked. ‘And it’s getting dark. Shouldn’t you be in bed, young toe-rag?’

  Please just go. She already looked the epitome of the ridiculous eccentric spinster, on a bench, eating fish and chips with a schoolboy for company. Just leave me to my own pathetic solitude.

  Finally, they said their goodbyes. Delphi had one last attempt at persuading her to join them. But she didn’t sound as though she really meant it.

  Sid and Delphi made a good couple too, despite their combined troubles. They were a similar height. Sid’s shoulders a little broader and higher than Delphi’s, but his gait was much more pinched and conservative, while she strode out as if she was on Vaudeville, her pointed shoes at the end of her petite legs flicking up into the air before clicking on to the pavement.

  An older couple coming the other way appraised them all quickly with an admiring glance.

  George had rolled up the paper from his fish and chips and was kicking it about on the prom. He asked her for a game.

  ‘Why n
ot,’ she said, glad that she wasn’t alone.

  *

  At the end of the pier, iron steps took her down to a wooden boarded level that was much closer to the sea. All around the edges of this lower platform, resting against the handrails, were whiskery fishing lines, their fine threads reaching into the water. Their owners adopted various poses, either leaning on the handrail while they watched their floats bob about, down on their haunches fiddling about with bait, or with their backs to the sea on the platform’s bench, all locked tight in their occupation.

  Delphi hadn’t been down to the hotel dining room for breakfast that morning and Natalie just had a bad feeling that she was avoiding her; perhaps she didn’t want to tell her that Jack had enjoyed himself with Toots.

  She lingered over a metal pail containing one fisherman’s catch. This older chap with white hair and a knitted jumper was more active than the other fishermen. He cast off again and no sooner had his bait hit the water than he wound the line in, dragging it across the surface. Then he swung it behind him and flung it forwards again. In the bucket, lying on their sides, lay two sleek mackerel, as iridescent as oil. The sharp smell of the sea wafted up and slapped her.

  She dodged the hook as the bait came behind her again and found herself leaning on a pillar, ignoring the occasional suspicious glances from the fishermen, wondering what a woman was doing down on their deck.

  After a while she became aware of a hubbub on the platform above. To begin with she’d thought she’d heard the clanking of metal, then men shouting. As she peered up the staircase she could see more and more legs and feet all travelling towards the back of the pier, above her head.

  In a small spot between fishermen, she craned her head out over the handrails, above the sea, to look up at the main pier above. She couldn’t see much, but she could hear cheers and the swoosh of flashbulbs over the gentle roar of the sea.

  Gasping, she whipped herself back beneath the pier’s ceiling as fast as she could. The metal chinked, a more delicate sound this time. Cheers came from above, and then wind against fabric as headfirst hurtling towards her, over the side of the platform above, came a man dressed in a straitjacket, with meridian lines of chains across his body, fastened with a padlock.