‘Tips?’ Kate pressed.
‘Can be good if you don’t mind where the customer puts the bill – and his hands.’
‘I thought customers weren’t allowed to touch bunnies.’
‘What it says in the brochure and what happens in real life are two different things, honey.’
‘Marion, to quote your quaint Southern vernacular, your mouth overloading your tail again?’
They all turned. A hatchet-faced blonde with make-up so thick it resembled a mask, wearing an elaborate curled ‘beehive’ wig, was posing in a doorway in the corridor.
‘No, ma’am. I’m doing no such thing, ma’am,’ Marion answered.
‘No, what?’
‘No, Mother Bunny.’
‘Are those girls here for interview?’
‘We are,’ Kate replied.
‘I’m sure you were told to go to the office, not stand in the corridor gossiping to a hand who’s just been let go. What you doing, girl?’ Mother Bunny called out to Kate, who was stepping back into the lift alongside Marion.
‘Leaving.’
Penny jumped in beside Kate and Marion. ‘You coming, Anne?’
‘You girls make your minds up quickly,’ Marion commented after Anne joined them and they headed back down to the ground floor.
‘Penny and I’ve already served seven years in an all-girls grammar school without time off for good behaviour,’ Kate revealed. ‘Apart from the make-up, clothes and accent, Mother Bunny could be our headmistress’s twin sister.’
‘You got a job to go to?’ Anne asked Marion.
‘Friend of mine left here two weeks ago and headed for the Cape with her boyfriend. They got jobs the day they arrived. She’s waitressing, he’s a kitchen hand. Start of the season there’s always jobs going on the Cape. Me and my boyfriend thought we’d try our luck there.’
‘Cape?’ Penny asked quizzically.
‘Cape Cod.’ The lift reached the ground floor. ‘See you around, honeys; good luck with the job hunting.’
Penny looked at Kate. They both started to laugh.
‘We can now add the inside of the Playboy Club to our list of New York sights.’ Kate led the way to the front door.
‘Where do we go from here?’ Anne asked plaintively.
‘Don’t know about you, honey,’ Kate mimicked Marion’s drawl. ‘But I guess I’m heading for twenty dollars a week and living all found in Scarsdale.’
The room set aside for the orientation lectures in the hotel had been transformed into a student common room. People were sitting in groups on the floor and window sills eating sandwiches, cookies and chocolate bars and drinking from soda bottles. The areas around the windows were the most crowded as people fought to look down on the street, a dizzying twenty-two storeys below.
Bobby appeared at their side when they entered. ‘Lunch is included in orientation.’ He held up four paper bags. ‘Chicken, tuna, ham or cheese?’
‘I’ll take the tuna.’ Penny knew Kate preferred cheese.
‘Cheese,’ Kate answered.
‘Ham,’ Anne held out her hand, took the bag and joined a group in the corner.
‘Guess I’m stuck with the chicken.’ Bobby handed over their bags.
‘If you prefer tuna, take mine,’ Penny offered.
‘I wouldn’t deprive you.’ He joined them on the floor. ‘Am I talking to bunny girls?’
‘No,’ Kate replied, ‘according to a bunny who was running away, the incidental expenses associated with the job are high.’
Penny started to laugh again. ‘You should have seen Mother Bunny. She looked like a waxwork.’
‘They have a mother bunny?’ Bobby picked the lettuce out of his sandwich.
‘She could have been Liberace’s great grandmother.’ Kate finished one sandwich and reached for another.
‘I’ve been to the Playboy Club but I had no idea such a person existed.’
‘You can afford to go to the Playboy Club!’ Kate exclaimed. ‘You must be miles better off than us. Unless I find something in the next twenty-four hours, I’ll be left with twenty dollars a week and my keep in Scarsdale.’
‘So you’re the grey-eyed blonde with the job in Scarsdale Bobby told me about. Hi, and very pleased to meet you.’ Lunch bag in hand, Sandy sat next to Bobby.
‘Sandy meet Kate. Kate meet Sandy.’ Bobby made the introductions.
‘Penny told you I have a job in Scarsdale?’ Kate asked suspiciously.
‘I did,’ Penny admitted.
Kate eyed Sandy as she finished her sandwich. ‘You spent the night in Bobby’s room too?’
‘Bobby and I are good friends, but not that good. I was in my own room until eleven this morning, when I had to check out. If I’d met you yesterday, I would have come knocking at your door.’
Kate laughed a deep throaty chuckle that turned the heads of the other boys in the room.
‘Tell me about this job of yours.’ Sandy screwed the top from his soda bottle and drank.
‘I’ll be nanny to three children. They’re younger than the ones I’ve worked with on teaching practice and I’m not looking forward to changing nappies. But beggars can’t be choosers. One’s eighteen months, one three and there’s a three-month-old baby.’
‘You got a contract for this job in Scarsdale?’ Sandy asked.
‘A letter. Live-in all found and twenty dollars a week.’
‘That’s no good. You have to insist on a detailed contract for any job you take in the States. One that gives the exact hours you’ll be working and the hourly rate. And, when you’re off duty, leave the house so they can’t ask you to do anything extra.’
‘That wouldn’t be polite.’
‘“Polite”,’ Sandy mocked. ‘As I said to Penny yesterday, I know the sort of people you’ll be working for. They’ll have four cars in the garage, a big Mercedes for him, an imported Jaguar convertible to drive to and swank in at the club, a family estate for her to run the kids around and a truck for weekend camping trips. The house will be furnished in mock-European antiques, taste and money no object. But their generosity won’t extend to you. Used to illegal Mexican immigrant labour, they’ll work you to death from the baby’s first feed before dawn until you finish serving coffee and clearing the plates from their dinner party after midnight. In between you’ll be expected to scrub, wash and clean up after the family non-stop. You’ll be treated and spoken to like a slave, and expected to eat alone in the kitchen.’
‘It won’t be slavery. The pay is twenty dollars a week all found …’
‘For the hours you’ll be working, it’s exploitation,’ Sandy argued.
‘I’ve no alternative.’
‘Yes, you have,’ Sandy said brightly. ‘The Bishop …’
Kate looked to Penny for an explanation.
‘Their boss. It’s a nickname.’
‘He’s coming over here this afternoon to look for someone to work with the five-to-eight-year-olds at Camp Resonance. You won’t be the same side of the lake as me, Bobby and Penny—’
‘Hold on a minute. I haven’t said yes to the job,’ Penny interrupted Sandy.
‘After I’ve worked on you for the rest of the day and night you will.’ Bobby gave her his most dazzling smile. ‘Forget Pen spoke, Sandy.’
‘All Bobby and I have to do is persuade the Bishop you’re perfect for the job. And that won’t be hard. You’re a trainee teacher, Kate?’
‘Primary.’
‘Primary … that’s like …?’ Sandy hesitated.
‘Infants five-to-seven-year-olds.’ Kate returned her empty sandwich packet to her lunch bag.
‘Your first year of study?’
‘Third in September. I qualify next year.’
‘You couldn’t be more perfect. A hundred and twenty dollars a week all found has to be better than twenty, and you’ll get a day off a week …’
‘In which we can head off to New York,’ Bobby said brightly.
‘Together? They’ll give all
of us the same day off?’ Kate unscrewed the top from her soda bottle.
‘No, but I’ll swing it for Pen and me, and when it’s your and Sandy’s turn I’ll loan Sandy my car so he can drive you wherever you want to go.’
‘I wrote to the people in Scarsdale accepting the job.’
‘A letter’s not a contract, but if you’ve a conscience find someone here to take your place. There are enough girls looking for work,’ Sandy looked around the room.
‘Say the word and we’ll tell the Bishop “mission accomplished” when he arrives,’ Bobby offered.
‘Your boss listens to you two?’ Kate queried.
‘He’s idle. He’ll be grateful we’ve done the work for him.’ Bobby assured her.
‘We haven’t had an interview yet,’ Kate pointed out.
‘Yes, you have, I’ve been interviewing both of you since you arrived,’ Bobby countered. ‘You’re healthy and have stamina. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have survived the horrors of the plane trip your fellow passengers can’t stop talking about. So is it “yes”?’ He looked at Penny. But it was Kate who answered.
‘Yes,’ she said decisively.
Penny glared at Kate. ‘What about the museums and galleries …?’
‘What about sleeping in the street?’ Kate retorted.
‘How about you leave the camp early at the end of the summer, return to New York with me and I’ll show you around,’ Bobby coaxed. ‘We’ll have earned enough to pay for a good hotel room for a week or two by then.’
She thought it odd that Bobby hadn’t suggested they stay at his grandmother’s apartment, but happy at the prospect of spending time sightseeing with him, she dismissed the thought almost as soon as it came to mind.
The lecture that afternoon was on America, its history, government and customs. Not the best topic to deliver to jet-lagged students. She didn’t take in a word after the first five minutes and woke with a start when the students around her started moving to the door of the side room where coffee was being served.
Kate stared wide-eyed at her and she realised she wasn’t the only one who’d been sleeping. Bobby and Sandy entered the room by the main door and spotted them.
‘Enjoy your nap?’ Sandy asked Kate.
‘No, because this irritating American droned on and on about the history of the country. After doing the American War of Independence for A level, I knew more than him.’
‘Do you want the good news or the bad?’ Bobby asked.
‘Penny and I are sleeping in the streets after tonight?’ Kate guessed.
‘No, you both have jobs, starting tomorrow. As there’s no time to buy your train tickets in advance you’ll have to fund them yourselves. Keep the receipt and you’ll be reimbursed when you reach Camp Resonance.’
‘There’s bad news?’ Kate looked at him in surprise.
‘The Bishop’s ordered us back to camp. Apparently the staff shortage is “acute” and I’m driving him and Sandy. We’re leaving at ten tonight which means we can’t stay till the end of the orientation farewell party with you guys.’
‘Odd time to drive,’ Penny commented.
‘My car’s a convertible and I pointed out that in this heat and humidity we’d turn into jelly if we travelled any earlier. So,’ Bobby glanced at his watch, ‘you – me – seven free hours. What do you want to do, Penny?’
‘Go to Harlem,’ Kate answered.
‘Harlem?’ Bobby repeated.
‘What the hell do you want to do there?’ Sandy demanded. ‘It’s dangerous even for brown people like me. Lethal for whites.’
‘That’s why I want to go there. To see why it’s lethal.’
‘Got medical insurance?’ Sandy enquired.
‘The best.’ Kate left her chair. ‘Give us twenty minutes to transform ourselves into stunning dolly birds and we’ll meet you in the foyer.’
‘“Dolly birds”?’ Sandy repeated.
‘You’ll like them when you see them.’ Kate looked at her. ‘Bags I the bathroom first.’
‘“Bags”?’ Bobby asked her quizzically.
‘I can see we’re going to need an interpreter. British expression that means Kate intends to commandeer the bathroom for eighteen minutes and leave me two.’
‘Use mine. The room’s paid up until tomorrow morning.’
‘Thanks, I will.’
‘I’ll get your bag from your room.’ He winked at Kate. ‘Take Sandy with you and make it forty not twenty minutes before we meet in the foyer.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Bobby had barely slammed the door on his hotel room before they began tearing the clothes off one another. Naked they tumbled headlong onto the bed. His mouth sought hers as she guided his erection deep inside her. And for a while nothing existed for either of them outside of one another.
When he finally withdrew, they lay back, exhausted, her head pillowed on his chest, his arm wrapped around her shoulders.
‘We’re going to have to watch ourselves in the camp,’ he warned. ‘If we don’t, the Bishop and Pill Face will throw us out for corrupting the kids.’
‘And then Kate’s prophesy of us having to sleep in the streets will come true.’ She traced a line down his breastbone with her forefinger.
‘It wouldn’t be the streets, not in the wilds of Connecticut. But it could be my car and that’s not comfortable for one. It would be impossible for two.’
‘The voice of experience.’ She looked up at him. His blue eyes were bright, sparkling with mischief.
‘I confess I’ve had my homeless moments,’ he admitted, ‘but rarely more than one night in succession and every one of them down to my own stupidity after drinking more than was good for me.’
‘It would be four if Kate and Sandy joined us.’
‘They’d have to sleep under the car like pioneers did under wagons in the old West.’ He frowned. ‘I mean it, about us having to be careful. The Bishop’s one of my grandmother’s snoops.’
‘Your grandmother has snoops?’ She buried her fingers in the thick black curly hair on his chest.
‘Dozens of them who watch every move I make.’
‘You’re paranoid.’
‘During my boarding school days at least one master if not two used to make weekly and occasionally daily reports to her about me. I cottoned on to what was happening when she knew what punishments I’d received for my misdemeanours when I hadn’t mentioned them. I thought I’d get more freedom when I went to junior college. But it was worse. I only had to look at a girl for my grandmother to contact me and tell she was “unsuitable”.’
‘Your grandmother vets your friends? What on earth will she think of me?’
‘If I take care, she won’t find out about you.’
Bobby’s admission hurt but she concealed her disappointment.
‘That’s why we have to act cool in front of the Bishop and Pill Face. He and my grandmother are closer than slices of apple in a pie. She supports his church with donations and he treats her like an empress whose wishes are his commands. One of her wishes was that Sandy and I be given jobs in Resonance. She believes clean outdoor summer living with plenty of sport will keep us out of trouble and away from women. I intend for her to keep right on believing that.’
‘She approves of Sandy?’
‘For two reasons. First guilt. Second practical considerations. My father seduced Sandy’s mother, when she was thirteen. My mother was pregnant with me. My grandmother didn’t want stories getting out about her newly wed stepson’s feckless ways with under-age maids. She paid Sandy’s mother to keep quiet and paid her medical bills. When Sandy was born three months after me, my grandmother decided he’d make a suitable companion for me. Sandy and I shared the nannies and the early boarding schools, which left Sandy’s mother conveniently free to carry on working for my grandmother. Sandy and I stayed close, although unlike me, he did get to attend a more humane boarding school after the age of eleven. He was also allowed to study the subjects of his ch
oice, music and drama, at an American college.’
‘So your childhood wasn’t that lonely.’
‘Not when Sandy was around. But Grandmother insisted Sandy and I be housed in different dorms at our prep boarding school because she didn’t want me getting “socially reliant” on his company.’
‘So you’re half-brothers?’
‘My grandmother would have a fit if she heard you say that. No Brosna or Buttons would ever admit to it. My grandmother insists on maintaining the master-servant relationship. And, as Harriet’s livelihood depends on the status quo, she’s just as anxious as my grandmother to pretend that Sandy’s father was a mysterious unidentified figure.’
‘I’m surprised your grandmother told you and Sandy about the relationship.’
‘She didn’t. Before he left for Mexico, my father used to drink with the gardener at the Cape Cod Estate. He told George, and George told Sandy and me when we were fourteen, after first making us swear to secrecy. But given the similarities between us in height and looks, if not colour, I had wondered before then.’
‘Will Sandy go to Oxford with you next term?’
‘No,’ he answered abruptly, so abruptly she was reminded they barely knew one another. ‘You won’t forget? Careful around the Bishop and Pill Face.’
She reached up and kissed his lips. ‘You’re not that irresistibly gorgeous. I can control myself.’
Bobby smiled. A smile that sent the blood coursing headily around her veins. ‘You’ve just proved that’s a lie.’
‘I may tell little fibs but I never lie.’
‘I’ll remind you of that next time we’re alone together.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘If we’re going to Harlem we’d better dress. This trip is against my better judgement. It’s a dangerous place for white people in quiet times. And it’s been anything but since Martin Luther King’s assassination in April. There were riots then and there’ve been riots since. The place is a powder keg. All it needs is one spark to set it burning again. Why does Kate want to go there?’
Bobby's Girl Page 14
