by Joanna Rees
‘I know, but . . . I couldn’t exactly ask him. It would have seemed—’
‘Inappropriate?’ Percy whispered, putting it bluntly, and she winced.
‘It wasn’t like that,’ she whispered back. ‘He’ll be good for the money. He promised.’
He would be good for the money, wouldn’t he? Vita worried now that she’d forced Archie to make a commitment, when he might not have as much money as she’d thought, if his mother was having to sell Hartwell.
But they still had the house in London – albeit rented. Anyway, she shouldn’t listen to other people’s gossip. Who knew what Archie’s finances were really like?
‘Well, eat up. It’s just as well you’re back. We have work to do, if you want this presentation to be any good. It’s only five days away.’
After dinner she helped Percy in his room, making up the bras on the sewing machine for Mrs Clifford-Meade. At least she was getting better and faster all the time.
They listened to the comedy show on the wireless, but Vita was in no mood to laugh. She knew she wasn’t being logical. She knew that Archie was – right at this minute – at a party, but she longed for one tiny word of reassurance.
‘So I take it things went well,’ Percy said, as the news came on and he turned down the wireless. They were both bored of the strike.
‘They went very well, until his friend turned up and ruined it.’
‘And this Archie fellow – he’s the one, is he?’
‘Oh, Percy,’ Vita cried, putting down her sewing. ‘If being in love is like this, I can’t bear it.’
‘Welcome to the world, kiddo,’ he chuckled in an American accent.
They worked on in silence. Vita longed to tell him everything – how magical it had been at Hartwell – but she worried now that if she admitted what she’d done, Percy would think less of her. She hadn’t made a mistake, had she?
She pinned the fabric, pressing the seam beneath the foot of the sewing machine, but she was hardly concentrating, her mind filled with thoughts of Archie on the roof. He’d meant what he’d said, she knew it. Under those stars, there really had been true love. Of that she was sure. She had to hold on to that.
‘Are you going out with Edward tonight?’ she asked Percy eventually, once she’d finished the seam.
‘He wanted to meet, but I won’t see him until we’re all sorted for the presentation. I told him I had other priorities. I think it’s good to say no to him once in a while. It must have worked, because he’s invited me to the hotel, but I said I wouldn’t be available until Thursday.’
‘Goodness. Thursday,’ she said, thinking about the presentation and wishing that she could be like Percy and focus.
‘It’s going to be great,’ he said, grinning. ‘I think Top Drawer is going to be a big hit.’
‘You think so?’
Percy gave her a quizzical look. ‘Come on! Where’s my Vita gone? You’re so quiet. Where is my ray of sunshine?’
‘I’m here,’ she said, with a sad smile. ‘I’m just tired, that’s all.’
Later, in her room, she undressed slowly, remembering how it had felt to be naked in Archie’s arms. Had it only been last night?
She tried to remember everything he’d said – how he’d declared that he loved her, and would love her forever. It should be enough, but somehow it wasn’t.
But Archie loved her, she reminded herself. He’d told her over and over again. She wasn’t sure exactly how, but they would find a way to be together. She had to have faith. She must have faith, she told herself.
97
Tickets to Paris
Vita woke to the sound of the wood pigeons on the chimney and lay in bed fretting, as relentless questions pecked at her mind. Where was Archie now? What was he doing? Who was he with? What had the party at the club been like? Which one of his friends was getting married? Would he invite her to go with him to the wedding? And if he did, what would she wear?
She kept reminding herself of what he’d said on the rooftop – that he loved her and always would – but being apart so suddenly like this was torture. Unable to bear being in the house any longer, she got up and got dressed. She had a couple of hours to spare before she had to meet Percy in the workshop.
She was out of breath from the bicycle ride across town when she got to Nancy’s apartment. Nancy was wearing a camisole and a long, billowing silk dressing gown and sunglasses – even though she was indoors. Her toenails were freshly painted bright red and she held her hands up, as her fingernails were drying. ‘Paris red,’ she explained.
‘Oh,’ Vita said, remembering with a jolt that Nancy was still planning on leaving, to go to Paris.
‘So,’ Nancy said, cupping her hand and blowing on her fingernails as she surveyed Vita, sliding her glasses down her nose. ‘You finally did the deed, then?’
Was it that obvious? Vita bit her lip, concerned now that there was something in Nancy’s tone she hadn’t heard before. Something cruel. She’d thought Nancy would be proud of her for being so daring. ‘Don’t say it like that.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like I’ve done something wrong. I thought you’d be pleased. For me.’
But as soon as she said it, Vita knew it wasn’t the truth. A part of her had known all along that Nancy would be jealous. Maybe she’d somehow hoped that losing her virginity to Archie might give her some kind of status, but now she wished she’d gone straight to Percy’s studio.
Nancy relented, pulling her into an embrace. ‘I am, I am. Just annoyed that you missed my party. So come on in and tell me all about it. Excuse the mess,’ she said, gesturing to the stacks of glasses teetering on the tables. Records were scattered all over the carpet. A breeze blew in through the open balcony door, but the air was still thick with smoke. Through the open door to Nancy’s bedroom, she saw two people sprawled asleep under the black cover.
‘Come in the kitchen,’ Nancy said, lighting up a cigarette.
Vita sat on Nancy’s chair and cuddled Mr Wild as she relived every moment of her night away with Archie.
‘But now I feel . . . I don’t know. Like he’s keeping things from me,’ she said, immeasurably cheered to get all this off her chest. ‘Like I’m not seeing the whole picture.’
Nancy sighed and took off her sunglasses. She pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Vita, I won’t have you losing your head over a silly man.’
‘He’s not a silly man.’
‘Of course he is. To have treated you like that. He doesn’t deserve you.’
Vita hadn’t expected Nancy to react like this, and much as she wanted to defend Archie, he had been a bit mean – hadn’t he? It had never occurred to her that Archie might not be good enough for her. Only the other way round.
‘Anyway I have exciting news, too,’ Nancy said. ‘I’ve bought a ticket to Paris. Well, two. One for me and one for you.’
She went over to the sideboard and took out two paper tickets for Le Train Bleu from the drawer. She put them down on the table and Vita picked up one of them. She stared at Nancy, then back at the ticket. It was leaving next weekend. How could Nancy be so sure that the strike would be over by then and that travel to France would be possible? But then she remembered that events inevitably conspired for Nancy to get her own way.
‘But the presentation? It’s on Thursday.’
‘Oh,’ Nancy said, and Vita saw that she’d entirely forgotten.
‘So there’ll be orders, won’t there?’ Vita said. ‘Well, hopefully there will be.’
‘And?’
‘And so . . . I can’t possibly come with you. I thought you wanted me to do Top Drawer. It was your idea,’ Vita said.
‘You could run it from Paris,’ Nancy said, with a shrug. ‘Why not?’
‘Because . . . because everything is here. And Percy. I can’t do it without Percy.’
‘You mean Archie is here,’ Nancy said, looking put out.
Vita resented the way Nancy was
making her feel as if she had to choose between Nancy and Archie.
‘Yes. Archie is here. My whole life is here.’
‘But I’ve booked the tickets now. All this strike business is so dreary. Come on, Vita. Don’t you want to get out of here? Have another adventure?’
‘No,’ Vita said, aghast that Nancy was behaving like this. How could she describe the strike as dreary? Didn’t she have any real idea what it was like, for real people out in the real world?
As for having an adventure? Well, hers had only just started. And she’d thought Nancy would be sharing it with her. For a moment Vita considered begging her to stay, and articulating how much she wanted her help with Top Drawer, but she could tell from Nancy’s haughty look that it would be pointless. She had made up her mind.
‘Well, you’ll be missing out,’ Nancy said.
98
The Presentation
Mrs Bell paced in front of the wireless.
‘Can you believe this? They derailed the Flying Scotsman,’ she said, turning off the news, which had been on constantly since the weekend. She’d been following every detail of the strike, and Vita had been getting regular updates.
‘It can’t last forever,’ she said.
‘Everything feels so odd, doesn’t it?’ Mrs Bell went on. ‘I don’t like seeing the army trucks. And goodness only knows when we’ll get more milk.’
Vita picked up an apple from the fruit bowl on the sideboard and bit it. She squeezed Mrs Bell’s arm.
‘Are you sure your presentation will go ahead?’
‘There’s no reason why it won’t,’ Vita said, wistfully, thinking of how enthusiastic she’d felt at the American Bar with Archie.
Oh, Archie. She longed for some contact with him and toyed endlessly with the idea of going to his house, but having encountered his mother once before, she knew she had to wait for Archie to come to her.
When the strike broke on Wednesday and the girls all gathered at the club, Vita looked out into the darkness, willing Archie to be in the audience, but he wasn’t. By Thursday, the day of the presentation to W&T, her nerves were shredded. Percy must be sick of her, she thought, as she packed up all the underwear sets they’d made for the girls.
‘Don’t worry about Archie,’ he told her. ‘If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.’
‘He could have found a way to wish me luck,’ she said, realizing that her fear was turning into anger.
‘Put him out of your head and concentrate on the presentation,’ Percy said, kissing her.
‘I wish you were coming.’
‘You don’t need me,’ he told her.
She knew that Percy was way behind on the costumes for the chorus girls at the Apollo, so he was staying behind to get them finished, before meeting Edward. Vita made him promise to meet her at the Zip Club later.
‘Knock ’em dead,’ he said, as she left.
Nancy, Edith, Jemima, Jane, Betsy and Emma were all waiting for her outside the department store.
‘Thank you all,’ Vita said, relieved to see they were all here. Even Edith had come. ‘Edith,’ she nodded.
‘I thought I might as well see what all the fuss is about,’ she explained.
‘Let’s go and change,’ Vita said. ‘We don’t want to be late.’
She handed the brassiere sets out to each of the girls from her carpet bag, and they headed for the changing rooms on the first floor.
Upstairs, Miss Proust seemed annoyed that so many girls had turned up for the meeting, but Nancy, behaving as if they owned the place and this had been prearranged, bustled them through to Mr Kenton’s office. Vita was amazed at how easy Nancy found it to bamboozle people.
Mr Kenton stood up at the intrusion. Vita hadn’t known what to expect, but she was surprised to see that he was young and dapper-looking, with fair hair and a tanned face. Nancy helped herself to one of his cards from his desk, after he’d shaken her hand and she’d introduced Vita as if she were some kind of thrilling act.
‘Miss Casey?’ he said, shaking her hand. ‘I wasn’t expecting so many of you.’
‘I hope you don’t mind, but I brought the girls from the Zip,’ she said.
‘I thought this was about your brassieres?’ he said, looking confused as the girls started to take off their coats.
‘Oh, it is,’ Vita said, ‘but, you see, it’s much better to show you how they really look when they’re worn.’
Lance Kenton’s eyebrows shot up. This was certainly an unconventional approach, but Vita didn’t care. She had to make him see in order to understand.
‘Oh no, that’s not how we do things here—’
‘Let’s hit it, girls,’ Nancy said.
Before Mr Kenton could protest, she and Betsy cleared a space so that they could move, and then Jane produced a tuning fork, which she tapped and held on his wooden desk to get the right note. Then together in close harmony, the girls started to sing: ‘Top Drawer, Top Drawer, you need look no further for . . .’
Vita watched Mr Kenton’s face as the girls started to strip off. ‘Flexible,’ Betsy sang, doing a handstand so that Jemima caught her legs. ‘And practical, too,’ the girls sang. ‘Go dancing or running – it’ll hold up for you.’
There was a knock on the door and Miss Proust came in, but Lance Kenton held up his hand to stop her interrupting. The girls had all stripped off now and headed into the tap-dancing part of the routine. Vita had to smother a smile when she saw the look on Mr Kenton’s face. He was loving this – despite himself. She could see it. His foot was tapping ever so slightly.
She glanced over at Miss Proust, whose hand was over her mouth, her eyes wide, as the girls wriggled their shoulders and sang, ‘And perfectly safe for you.’ They finished with a final pose, each one with one arm up, one foot forward. Vita clasped her hands together. They all looked magnificent.
She nodded to the girls and clapped her hands and they relaxed from their poses. Mr Kenton looked down at his shoes, as if they might have the answer. Vita felt terrified for a moment. Maybe he thought she was mad. Maybe she was mad, thinking this might work. Had she made a fool of herself?
‘I’m quite bowled over, Miss Casey,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
Edith stepped forward and placed her hand on the desk, leaning towards him. ‘It’s not just us who are fans of these brassieres. Vita has several other stockists interested,’ she declared.
‘And we know that, as a store, you pride yourself on stocking only the latest fashions, so we would hate you to miss out,’ Vita said, backing Edith up.
Lance Kenton looked cornered.
‘Show me that order again, Vita,’ Edith said. This was entirely unrehearsed, but Vita got up and showed Edith the blank page in her book. She had no idea what Edith was playing at, but it certainly caused Mr Kenton to pay attention.
‘Did they confirm it?’ she asked in a stage whisper.
Nancy came forward and peaked over Edith’s shoulder at the book. ‘Yes. They’re starting with fifty,’ she said.
Vita stole a glance at Lance Kenton, who was eyeing up Edith. Then Vita turned away and got out her carpet bag and placed it on his desk. She took out the prototype samples and laid them in front of him. ‘This is what we’re going to manufacture,’ she said confidently. ‘Because this is what women want.’
Lance Kenton drew in a long breath, his eyes dancing. He exhaled and shook his head, as if he were surprised at himself as well as surprised at the whole situation. ‘Well then, young lady. Let’s get down to business,’ he said.
99
Archie at Last
They all linked arms as they walked jubilantly towards the Zip Club in the sunshine, Vita holding aloft the purchase order that Miss Proust had written out. Nancy had seen someone she knew in the street and was lagging behind, but Vita didn’t mind.
She couldn’t believe how well the meeting had gone and she chattered animatedly, analysing everything that had happened.
‘And, E
dith, you were brilliant,’ she said, meaning it.
‘I should have my own business,’ Edith said. ‘I’ve always thought that.’
‘I can’t wait to tell Percy,’ Betsy said. ‘One hundred. It really is a proper order!’
‘And that’s just for starters,’ Emma reminded them.
‘You’ll have your work cut out now,’ Jane said, as they all turned down the alleyway to the stage door.
‘Don’t I know it. Oh, my goodness,’ Vita said, her heart soaring as she saw Archie waiting by the stage door. He crushed a cigarette beneath his foot. Vita had never see him smoke before, but it didn’t matter; she was too excited to see him. She broke away and rushed ahead of the girls.
‘You’re here. Oh, Archie, wherever have you been?’
She had so many questions – about the party the other night, about his money worries – but they all faded now, and his eyes met hers.
‘I’m sorry. I had things to attend to. Mother—’
She cut him off with a quick kiss and then there was raucous greeting all round. Archie looked bashful. Vita beamed at him, drinking him in. ‘You’re here now, and you’ll never guess what? We did our presentation—’
‘She got an order,’ Betsy interrupted.
‘It was marvellous, Archie,’ Jane said. ‘We all did our dance.’
And then Jemima and Emma chipped in, too, telling Archie all about their meeting and how impressed Mr Kenton had been.
‘Vita was wonderful,’ Jemima confirmed. ‘You should have seen her in action.’
Vita blushed, soaking up their praise while checking Archie for a reaction. ‘So this means,’ she said, trying to suppress her grin, ‘it’s a proper business. Just like I said.’
She wanted him to be happy. Not just for her, but because of what it meant. Because of this afternoon, she was really on her way. To making money. To being so much more than a dancing girl.
‘Come on, come on, ladies,’ Nancy said, arriving now and flouncing into the dressing room. ‘Oh,’ she said, seeing Archie, who was looking more and more out of place amongst the girls.