‘I must rescue Miss Costello,’ she murmured to Gian, and got to her feet and with some difficulty passed him and Ellen and Dwight at the end of the row in front, to reach Gloria.
‘I’ll take him,’ she murmured as she got there, reaching for Buster, but Gloria smiled up at her dreamily and said, ‘Oh, don’t you worry yourself, Mizz Kincaid! He’s no trouble at all, none in the world. It’s a pleasure to have him here. Just you go and relax and enjoy yourself, now. You have him all the time – let me share him for a while, hmm?’
‘That is nice of you, Gloria!’ Jay said heartily, turning back from Cray with whom he’d been in close colloquy. ‘Isn’t that great, Maddie? Hey, look – is that the Queen’s coach? I do believe it is! Look, back there, they’re just coming round that mess of statues in front of the Palace – hey, will you listen to them shout! Jesus, but who’d ha’ thought it?’ And he jumped to his feet as did half the rest of the stand’s occupants as they all waved to the coach that even on this grey drizzling day managed to glitter like tinsel in a pantomime as it passed just below them.
And Maddie went back to her seat beside Gian Giovale, and tried to take pleasure in watching the Coronation procession of Queen Elizabeth the Second instead of worrying about Gloria Costello.
27
June 1953
Getting back to the Savoy Hotel from the Mall after it was all over, and the noisy procession with its columns of red-uniformed guardsmen, glossy head-tossing, harness-clinking black horses and the eternity of gleaming glittering carriages led by brass bands had returned to the Palace, was even more difficult than getting there had been. The crowds were now milling around everywhere, organising impromptu dancing along the pavements, climbing lamp posts and bouncing in and out of the overcrowded pubs and cafés and coffee bars in eddying groups that made a steady forward passage hazardous in the extreme. But somehow they managed it, steaming gently as their efforts heated them up and sent the damp their clothes had collected from the relentless rain back into the grey air, and humping their rugs and the empty hampers and the weary children and each other along with as much cheerfulness as Jay could muster in them with encouraging hails and grins and waves as he led the way.
But once they were there the day picked up again. Jay had gone to considerable trouble to entertain his guests, renting a suite on the river side of the hotel in which he ordered champagne and afternoon tea for them all – much to the American visitors’, especially Rose’s, shrieks of delight at the sight of the little sandwiches and the scones and jam and cream – and booking a big table for them all at the dinner and ball that was to be held at the hotel that evening. After they had all fallen on the food and drink, Daphne and the boys were scooped up by Rose and borne away to her suite on the third floor where they could be dried and changed and take much-needed naps, for which Maddie was deeply grateful, and Gloria too disappeared to her room, drifting away with murmurs about nose powdering, while Cray and Benny Martyn and the Giovale brothers sat at a table in the corner of the suite and settled to some serious drinking of Cray’s whisky and the Flannery family, especially Dwight, enjoyed the remaining food and seemed happily oblivious of everyone else. For the first time Maddie felt she could talk to Jay – and didn’t know what to say.
She knew what she ached to say. Why had he asked the Costellos rather than other Kincaid customers? And having asked them, why had he not told her they were coming? And why Gloria anyway? Her father was the important Kincaid contact, surely; if Jay wanted to impress some of his father’s most important business colleagues why waste a place on a stupid girl who didn’t matter? Unless, of course, she did matter –
‘How come your folks and Declan didn’t come, Jay?’ she managed at last, and complimented herself on her tact. ‘Didn’t you suggest it? It would have been nice to see them all.’ And she smiled at him brilliantly to hide her mendacity. The only good thing about the situation was the absence of Blossom.
‘Pa’s not fit to travel,’ Jay said. ‘I asked him to bring Mother and the girls but he said he couldn’t, so he sure as hell wasn’t going to pay for Mother and the girls to whoop it up if he couldn’t be around too. As for Declan –’ He scowled then. ‘Someone has to mind the store. He gets enough benefit being there in Boston all the time. He doesn’t have to come here and get in the way. The people who are here are all important – they have money. Lots of it. And they spend it with us. I make a nice piece out of their business. Not as nice as I’d make if Declan weren’t there, but nice all the same.’ He paused then and reached for a plate of sandwiches. ‘Most of it comes from Costello, of course. Once the Beach project’s done, I’m hoping to get him going on some of the redevelopment here. Christ knows it’s needed. He’s got the money to invest, people here want the buildings – if I can sort out the permits and the money exchange business it could be very pretty. I have to be very nice to Cray – and thank God, Queen Elizabeth was willing to give me a hand.’ And he grinned at her and even though his mouth was full of egg sandwich, and he was a little dishevelled from the day’s damp efforts, he looked so young and so wonderful that she felt herself melting, and she reached for him and lifted her face and kissed his cheek.
‘Anything Queen Elizabeth can do for you, I can,’ she murmured. ‘If you want me to charm the man out of his tree and prove to him what a great place London’d be to build in, just say the word –’
He laughed. ‘You’d better get yourself sorted out first,’ he said. ‘Have you looked in a mirror since we got here?’
She pulled back from him, her face scarlet. ‘For Christ’s sake, Jay! What do you expect with two kids to deal with and weather like this and –’
‘So? Leave them to Daphne, for God’s sake. She’s the first decent girl we’ve had – use her. Go and get yourself changed, hmm? There’s some sort of reception here at half after six, then there’s the dinner and the ball. It’s cost a godamn fortune to set it all up, so I’m counting on you to make it all look good. You too – what are you wearing?’
Mollified by his interest she said, ‘I’m not telling you. Not in detail. You don’t think I don’t know it’s important to look right tonight, do you? I’ve got a new dress. I’ve had it for weeks. It’s from Worth. I warn you, it cost a bomb.’
‘Where is it? You don’t have to go home to dress, do you?’
She shook her head. ‘Don’t be daft! I’m going over to Marianne’s flat in Covent Garden. It’s all been arranged for ages. I can walk there and back, and I’ll be fine, even in this weather. It’d be easier if you came too, of course –’ And she looked at him sideways, hopefully. But he shook his head.
‘I’m changing in Cray’s suite. My tux is up there already. Okay, Maddie, go and sort yourself out. I’ll change later – I want to have a word with Flannery before I go up and dress.’ And he patted her rump and dropped a swift kiss on her cheek and went across the room to sit down beside the still eating Flannerys and start talking to them.
She sat for a while longer watching and then slowly got up and slipped away to go and find Daphne and the boys. There was no need to worry, she told herself as she padded damply along the thickly carpeted corridors towards the lifts. No need in the world. It’s all fine. He’s like me, cares only for the business and money. And me. She repeated it inside her head and then said it aloud. ‘And me.’
Daphne was indeed the best nanny they had ever had. Both the boys were asleep in Rose’s big bed, and Daphne was occupied in drying out their clothes and packing up the baskets they had brought.
‘Don’t you worry about us, Mummy,’ she said in her jolly Northern voice, full of relentless cheerfulness. ‘I’ve got everything organised,’ and indeed she had and Maddie relaxed, not minding as much as she usually did Daphne’s refusal to address her as anything but Mummy, which, since Daphne was half a head taller and a good deal heavier, did rankle.
‘Will you be able to get back to the car with the boys without trouble?’ she asked. ‘It’d be a pity to wake them y
et to take them home, but unless we go now, I can’t go with you. I have to go and change for the ball –’
‘I told you, don’t worry about a thing,’ Daphne said brightly, and smoothed her apron smugly. ‘It’s all arranged. Mr Martyn says he can miss part of the reception on account of he doesn’t like standing about much, and he’ll come with me down to the car and then I’ll take the boys home and you can stay and enjoy yourselves, you and Daddy –’
‘It is essential business entertainment, Daphne,’ Maddie heard herself sounding apologetic and was annoyed and that sharpened her tone. ‘If I had my way I’d gladly come home and spend the evening quietly watching television, but as it is, we have to be here.’
‘Of course you do,’ Daphne said, managing to sound both soothing and jolly at the same time. ‘And you need to have a rest first yourself. Go over to your nice friend’s flat, now, do, and take your time dressing. And the boys and I will see you in the morning.’
So she did, and it was an oasis in what was proving to be a wearing day and not just for the most obvious reasons. Marianne was, as she knew she would be, out, and she let herself into her racy little flat in Henrietta Street with its rather outrageous, indeed decadent, decor and ran a bath in the round black tub and filled it with handfuls of Marianne’s most expensive bathsalts. There was, she told herself, little point in having as expensive and lavish a friend as an actress like Marianne if you didn’t make the best use of her you could, and she wallowed in the scented water and tried to think of agreeable things like her new dress that was waiting to be put on and the smell of the bath and the sense of silken hot water on her body. Anything but think of that girl and Jay …
I’ll bet she hasn’t got stretch marks, she thought lugubriously as she climbed out of the bath and stood watching herself dry her now pink and glowing skin. She tried not to look at her body but it was impossible since the bathroom walls were completely mirrored as was the ceiling and even the back of the door, and what she saw fed her uncertainty. And she stopped for a moment as she rubbed her feet dry and thought, when did that happen? I never used to worry about how I looked or what people thought of me. I was certain and excited and everything was so easy and right – I knew what had to be done and I did it. Why can’t I be like that now?
Because you are older and have two children and the stretch marks they gave you and your breasts are softer and lower than they used to be, a part of her mind answered, and she felt the most bitter pang of regret she had ever known as she straightened up and looked at herself properly. I didn’t know I was beautiful when I was, she thought. Now I look and all I see is what has gone; and tears started in her eyes and she had to sniff hard to hold them back. It was almost the way she had felt during those dreadful months after Buster’s birth, and she shook her head to clear it of such foolish thoughts and went padding out of the steamy bathroom into the cool of the bedroom, and threw herself on to Marianne’s purple counterpane to lie staring up at the ceiling with its drapes of matching billowing purple silk and take a series of deep breaths.
This was all nonsense. She was far from being sensible in being so obsessively suspicious of that silly vapid Costello girl. She meant nothing to Jay. Jay cared only for his business and his family and certainly never worried about such minor items as stretch marks, and Maddie smoothed her hands over her soft belly as she lay there stretched out and remembered last night’s lovemaking and felt good, and a little sleepy too. It was a much pleasanter way to feel than she had been.
She woke suddenly and stared up at the ceiling in amazement, totally disoriented and then turned her head to look at Marianne’s clock and nearly fell out of the bed in dismay as she leapt up and rushed to dress. It was gone six and she’d promised Jay she’d be back at the hotel in ample time to receive all their guests at the reception. She had just twenty minutes in which to dress, make up, repair her hair and get through the crowds down to the Strand and into the hotel. And she almost wept as the spring of anxiety inside her tightened inexorably as she rushed herself into her underclothes and into her new dress, a sheath of dull bronze taffeta pulled to the right hip in a great sash bow, and held over just one shoulder. It looked marvellous, and once she had it on she felt much better, and in a moment of inspiration brushed her hair up into a great aureole of curls and riffled through Marianne’s bottles and sprays to see what she could find; and discovered bronze sequins in a small box and, using a plastic bottle of hair lacquer she had seen Marianne use once, managed to stick some of them to her hair. It looked odd and interesting and she stared at herself and thought triumphantly – match that, Mizz bloody Costello, match that if you can.
She was only ten minutes late getting to the reception, and she stood in the entrance to the main ballroom looking round and saw him standing against the wall, talking to Cray, and smiled at the sight of him. He had said he was wearing a tux but had gone one better and she admired him for that; clearly he’d taken himself to Moss Bros and found a well-fitting set of tails and he stood there with one hand in his pocket so that the tails drooped elegantly behind him, with his dark gold head bent over the stocky man beside him and Maddie sighed deeply with pleasure and moved across the room towards him, knowing she looked good, and also something that was better than good; she looked striking. She knew that from the way people’s heads turned as she passed and she curved her lips into a little Mona Lisa smile of self-satisfaction as she drifted to his side.
And was well repaid for her efforts for he turned and looked, letting his gaze slide from her feet up to her head and back again and then smiled.
‘Great!’ he said. ‘Just great. What have you done to your hair? Sequins? Wow – you look fantastic – you really are one crazy kid, Maddie. And that dress – well worth waiting for.’
‘I told you it was a Worth dress,’ she said and laughed softly and Costello laughed too, loudly, chucking back his head to display his appreciation of the joke.
‘And you’ll see how much you’re worth by the time you’ve paid for it, hey, Jay? But it’s a lovely dress, Maddie. You look as good as the Queen herself –’
‘And so does your daughter, Mr Costello,’ she said graciously and smiled and turned to make room for Gloria. She had seen her as soon as she had arrived, of course. She looked pretty, Maddie decided, if a shade obvious, in a froth of pale blue silk chiffon skirt and the skimpiest of strapless bodices embroidered with glass beads, and she was trailing a very long chiffon stole with it, quite in the very latest style. But Maddie knew it to be a girlish look which had none of the sophistication and excitement of her own and she felt there was no contest. And her spirits lifted and bubbled and she turned back to Cray Costello and started to chatter vivaciously at him as the rest of their party joined them and the day’s ubiquitous champagne, now spiked with brandy and served in sugar-frosted glasses to make cocktails, appeared at their sides, borne by Savoy waiters on their best behaviour.
‘It’s been the greatest day ever, Jay!’ Benny Martyn boomed at them all, holding his glass high and then draining it at one draught and looking round for more. ‘The greatest. To be here at such a historical business and to share it with you British – and you’re so witty about it, too. I just heard a guy over there saying someone asked who that little guy was in the same carriage as Queen Salote of Tonga – you remember, that fat black broad who waved so much? And Noël Coward was there and he said, “The little guy? That’s her lunch, I guess.” ‘ And he swallowed his second cocktail and laughed so hard Maddie thought he would choke. But he recovered and slapped Jay on the back, and roared even louder. ‘I tell you, the greatest day. Worth every penny it cost – you’re a great guy to fix it for us, eh, Rose?’ And Rose screeched and chattered something in a loud parrotty squawk and then everyone was chattering and laughing as the cocktails came round yet again and the vast room filled up.
Benny really was right, Maddie declared. It was a magnificent occasion. Heaven knew they were not unused to such events, she and Jay. There were
the over-elaborate Masonic Ladies’ Nights to which they were so often invited by business contacts, the charity dinners and balls they supported to placate some business contact which were much like this and held in the great London hotels like this, but this evening was special. People had taken extra trouble to dress well, and the whole atmosphere bubbled with money and excitement and optimism. The bad years, the evening seemed to say, were really over. The Festival two years ago had been the start of it all, the birth of the new Britain where there was fun to be had and work to be done and above all money to be made. No more austerity, no more postwar misery, no more making do and skimping. From now on it was to be growth and expansion and a truly new and truly Great Britain, and she smiled again at the thought of how much that could mean to she and Jay, with their thriving business which was so much bigger and so much more successful than its shabby and understated Great Portland Street offices would ever suggest. We’re well and truly on our way to being millionaires, Jay and I, she thought as the brandied champagne swirled delightfully around her head. Well on the way. No need to worry, no need to feel uncertain. Just be ready to work and make it all wonderful; and she drifted into dinner on Jay’s arm and ate her way through its six courses, and chattered her way through its three wines as full of happiness and self assurance as a bubble is of air.
The bubble burst when they were dancing. All through dinner he had talked with Cray and only Cray across Gloria, who had been sitting between them (and Maddie had not been able to disguise the pleasure she felt when she saw how bored the girl looked, as she sat there crumbling her bread roll between her fingers for want of something better to do) but once they had reached the dessert stage and conversation had become general, he had concentrated on everyone else at the table. And that, of course, had been exactly as it should be, and she had followed his lead, being the perfect hostess, as busy in her chatter with their guests as he was.
Maddie Page 29