Micah touched Edyth’s arm. ‘Did you hear? Judy said David’s lodging with my sister.’
‘Do you think he’d head back to Helga’s?’ Edyth’s eyes were dark with concern.
He frowned. ‘Is there something you’re not telling me about you and David?’
‘There is no me and David,’ she countered touchily. ‘Not as far as I’m concerned.’
‘But David thinks otherwise?’ he guessed.
‘I have to find him, Micah,’ she insisted. ‘After seeing us together like that, he could do something stupid.’
‘Aren’t you being rather melodramatic?’
‘I wish I was.’ Finally giving up on David, she faced Micah. ‘The night I married Peter, David tried to kill himself by jumping off the Old Bridge in Pontypridd. He almost succeeded.’
‘I thought he was trying to rescue a dog.’
‘That was a story Harry and my father concocted with a police constable, so David wouldn’t be charged with attempted suicide,’ she explained. ‘If he’d been found guilty he could have been sent to gaol.’
‘Did you know that David was in love with you when you married Peter?’
‘I didn’t encourage him, if that’s what you mean. I didn’t even know he liked me until I read the note he left before he jumped off the bridge. For pity’s sake, he’s Mary’s brother, Harry’s brother-in-law. That practically makes him my brother too. We – my sisters and me, that is – thought of him as just that. We used to tease him the way we tease Harry.’ She glanced up and down the street again. ‘I won’t be able to live with myself if David does something stupid again.’
‘Go to Helga’s house with Judy and wait for David there,’ Micah ordered abruptly.
‘Where are you going?’ Edyth shouted after him as he ran down the street.
‘The dock,’ he called back.
‘Pastor Holsten’s right. David will probably go back to his sister’s house.’ Judy took Edyth’s arm.
‘Damn! Damn! Damn! And Vladivostok!’
As ‘damn’ was the strongest swear word Judy had heard Edyth use, and ‘Vladivostok’ Edyth’s substitute for a more conventional curse, Judy realised how upset she was. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find David. He was so full of himself and sure of finding a berth out of the Bay, I can’t see him hurting himself.’
‘You heard what I said to Micah?’ Edyth looked at her friend.
‘I heard, but I’ll keep it to myself.’
‘I know you will. I only hope you’re right about David not hurting himself.’
Judy linked her arm into Edyth’s. ‘I bet we’ll find him sitting at the table in Helga’s back kitchen, drinking tea and eating pickled herrings, Norwegian cheese, and rye bread with her other lodgers. And listening to their tall stories about life at sea.’
Gertie was generally happy with life and especially happy with the money she was making. Even after she paid Anna three pounds to cover rent, food and household expenses, she still made five times as much as she could have expected to earn if she had gone into service. But being the youngest and newest resident in Anna’s house did have its drawbacks. She was always the one sent on errands, especially on Sunday afternoons, when most of her ‘regulars’ were with their wives, children, extended families, and friends.
Anna and Colleen had regular bachelor clients who visited them at that time, but she and the rest of the girls weren’t so lucky. Unless a ship came in, and not many had berthed on a Sunday even when the docks had been busy, they generally spent the day visiting their families – if they were allowed to step over the threshold of the family home – or reading or playing cards with Anna and Colleen’s children.
Still in her dressing gown at mid-afternoon, Gertie was lying on her bed immersed in a Mills and Boon romance she had borrowed from Boots’ lending library, when one of the children discovered they had run out of sugar. Despite the fact that she didn’t want tea, Gertie found herself unanimously ‘volunteered’ to go to the shop. Annoyed at having to dress, she opened her wardrobe and, remembering that it was Sunday, chose a relatively sober outfit.
Hot, bothered and put out at being picked on by the others, she left Abdul’s corner shop with a pound of sugar and a chocolate bar she had bought on impulse. Abdul’s was one of the few shops open in the Bay on a Sunday because he was a Muslim who ignored both the Christian calendar and the Sunday opening laws. She was heading back to the house when a good-looking young man hurtled around the corner ahead of her. Never one to let an opportunity slip by, she shouted, ‘Want a good time?’
David halted and looked back at her. He recognised Gertie as the girl he had seen with the man who resembled Harry. Only this time, she was wearing a dress that wasn’t transparent, although the hemline was just as short and the neckline as low.
Harry had warned him about the ‘good-time girls’ on the docks and told him to steer clear of them because all they wanted from men was money, and they were prone to work with roughnecks who would beat up and rob an unsuspecting customer for as little as sixpence. Even worse, they carried horrible diseases. But this girl was young, had a good figure, and although her features were too strong to be considered pretty, she looked too clean to be carrying a disease.
Having gained David’s attention, Gertie gave him her toothy, professional smile. ‘My house is just around the corner. Five bob will buy you an hour of paradise.’
‘I haven’t got five bob.’ It was the truth. Judy had insisted that David pay Helga a week’s lodging in advance, which had come to seventeen shillings and sixpence and she had then made him lock his nine remaining pounds together with his bank book into his suitcase, which had left him with a few coins that amounted to a little over half a crown.
‘How much have you got?’ Gertie asked.
Used to haggling with the livestock buyers in Brecon cattle market, David answered, ‘A shilling.’
‘I never go below two bob.’
He fingered the coins in his pocket. ‘What would I get for my two bob?’
Gertie lifted the hem of her dress a few inches. Her Sunday best was more subdued than the clothes she wore during the week, but David caught a glimpse of white thigh above the silk welts of her best pair of white stockings, bright green, diamante-studded garters and vivid green silk French knickers. His cheeks burned at the glimpse of flesh.
‘All right, two bob,’ he said recklessly.
‘Show us the colour of your money.’ She held out her hand.
He shook his head. ‘You could run off with it.’
‘Two bob when we get to my room. And if you haven’t got it, I’ll call the others and they’ll throw you out.’
‘What others?’ He recalled Harry’s warning about loose women’s violent and thieving accomplices.
‘You’ll see,’ she murmured mysteriously.
‘I don’t want a fight. I’m going to sea,’ he added superfluously.
‘No one’s going to roll you, lover boy.’
‘Roll me?’ He looked at her in confusion.
‘You really are wet behind the ears, aren’t you?’
David almost walked away at the taunt, but she lifted her skirt even higher. The even greater expanse of bare thigh below the green French knickers decided him. He followed her around three corners and along a street to an ordinary-looking terraced house.
She opened the door, and shouted, ‘Come and get the sugar.’
‘Why should we?’ answered a bored voice.
‘Because I’ve found myself a lover boy.’
What seemed like dozens of scantily dressed girls flooded into the narrow passage and stared at David. Embarrassed, he retreated towards the door, but Gertie grabbed hold of his hand and held him tight.
One of the girls brushed her hand over David’s cheek.
‘Very pretty, Gertie. Did you find him in the babies’ class in Sunday school?’
‘No, next to the sugar sack in Abdul’s. Catch.’ Gertie tossed the brown paper bag at her.
&nb
sp; ‘Careful,’ the girl cried out. ‘Good job Abdul twists the top good and hard or we’d be clearing up sugar for a month.’
‘Come on, lover boy, up the wooden hill to paradise.’ Much to the other girls’ amusement and David’s mortification, Gertie grabbed his tie and led him up the stairs, making him feel like one of the lambs he dragged into the slaughtering shed every spring.
Micah didn’t stop running until he reached the south end of Bute Street. The road ended at the dockside and he walked past the Pier Head to where the larger vessels were berthed, on the premise that David might have decided to ask some of the captains for work. But there were few people around. He was just about to give up when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He whirled around and his face fell.
‘Not glad to see an old friend, Micah.’
‘Very, Lars.’ Micah took the hand the old sea captain offered him and shook it firmly. ‘But I was looking for someone else.’
‘A girl, judging by the disappointment on your face.’
‘You’re wrong, it’s a boy.’
‘Young boys have a habit of turning up, especially when you don’t want them to,’ Lars said wryly.
‘This one ran away and he’s particularly stupid.’
‘And you think he’ll turn up here?’
‘I was hoping he would, but if he’s going to,’ Micah looked around again, ‘he’s not here yet.’
‘Is he likely to go anywhere else?’
‘Helga’s house, possibly, he’s lodging with her.’
‘I have a bottle of aquavit in my cabin on the Vidda. We could crack it open?’
Micah hesitated, Lars Nordheim had been a good friend of Micah’s parents, and had helped him when he’d needed it most, just after their deaths. The thought of sitting in Lars’ comfortable cabin and drinking a glass of aquavit or two or three – and knowing Lars’ hospitality, eating a bowl of Norwegian fish soup to soak up the alcohol – was very tempting. But the anxiety on Edyth’s face when David had run off haunted him.
‘Send a message to Helga to tell her you’re on board the Vidda. Ask her to let you know if the boy turns up there. In the meantime, we can sit on the wheel deck and look out for him. You won’t get a better vantage point on the dock,’ he added persuasively.
‘No, I won’t.’ A thought occurred to Micah. ‘When are you sailing?’
‘Dawn tide in the morning. It’s a short stopover, this trip, otherwise you would have found me in your sister’s house. So don’t say you’ll come back tomorrow.’
‘I wasn’t going to, Lars.’ Micah laid his arm around the old man’s shoulders. ‘Can I ask you a favour?’
‘Does it involve money?’
‘Mine, possibly, if you need it.’
‘Ask away.’
‘Welcome to cloud nine, my bedroom and soon to be your paradise.’ Gertie walked into the room, kicked off her shoes and faced David. ‘Before you close the door I want to see your entrance ticket.’
‘My what?’ Mouth dry, heart thumping with anticipation – and fear – David stared at her dumbly.
‘Your money? Two shillings, remember.’
He pushed his hand into his pocket and fingered the coins. Discarding the large heavy pennies, he pulled out a shilling, two small silver threepenny pieces and a sixpence. He held them out to her. She looked at them, took them from him and dropped them into a slot on a piggy bank on the mantelpiece.
‘I’m Gertie.’
‘David,’ he muttered, summoning the courage to look around. The bedroom was untidy but not dissimilar to his younger sister Martha’s, apart from the clutter of lipsticks, face creams, pots of rouge and, scent bottles on the dressing table, and clothes scattered on and around the only chair.
The wallpaper was printed with pink roses against a background of leafy greenery, the linoleum was green and the bed was covered by a rumpled cream cotton cover that looked as though someone had been lying on it. Every inch of the mantelpiece and chest of drawers was crowded with china animals, mainly dogs and cats, and there were two vases, one on the window sill and one perched amongst the clutter of make-up on the dressing table. Both held bouquets of dusty purple and blue wax flowers.
Gertie took a book from the bed, dropped it to the floor and went to a marble washstand. To David’s astonishment she continued to meet his steady gaze, while unbuttoning her frock. It dropped in a puddle at her feet and she stood before him dressed only in her stockings, garters, and French knickers.
‘My regulars tell me I’m quite an eyeful and have a very nice pair of gentlemen’s comforters.’ She thrust out her chest, and fingered her nipples. ‘Do you like them?’
‘They’re very nice,’ he mumbled, embarrassed at being asked and even more embarrassed because he couldn’t stop staring at them.
‘A “very nice” is hardly poetry, but I suppose it’ll have to do.’ She walked to the washstand and poured water from a china jug patterned with cornflowers into a similarly patterned bowl and shook some coloured crystals into it. He peered over her shoulder and watched the water turn purple. ‘You can wash in this.’
‘Wash?’ he looked at her blankly.
‘Wash,’ she repeated.
He plunged his hands into the bowl and she burst out laughing.
‘You’ve never visited a pro before, have you?’
‘Lots of times,’ he blustered.
‘Really?’ she mocked. ‘Do you even know what to do?’
‘Of course I do.’ He meant to look at her face but his gaze kept slipping lower.
She moved close to him. ‘There has to be a first time for everyone and I think it’s nice of you to trust me to see you all right.’
He jumped back when he realised she was unbuttoning his fly. She slipped her hand inside his trousers and clamped it over the front of his underpants. ‘Now that is very welcoming.’
‘Gertie …’
‘That’s why you came, isn’t it? Time to get you undressed, washed, and on the bed so this,’ she pinched him lightly, ‘can start having fun. Nice suit you’re wearing.’ She unbuckled his belt and unclipped his braces. ‘Is it your best?’
‘My only, and I’ll undress myself.’ He grabbed his trousers as they slipped down.
‘It’s your two bob.’ She pulled down the waistband of her French knickers and wriggled out of them. He froze, mesmerised by the sight of the first naked woman he had seen.
‘Wash,’ she reminded him after his clothes had joined hers on the floor. ‘Or do you want me to do it for you?’ Without waiting for him to reply, she soaped her hand and washed his private parts, but before she had time to reach for a towel he pushed her on to the bed. Unable to contain himself a moment longer he rolled on top of her and thrust himself into her. She cried out.
It took every ounce of willpower David had to pull away from her. ‘I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?’
‘Yes. You’re clumsy but I suppose that can be cured by practice – yours, not mine.’
He looked down at her. ‘Your legs, your arms, you’re covered in bruises. I’m so sorry …‘
‘The ones you’ve given me haven’t had time to come out yet.’
‘Then …’
‘You’re not my only clumsy customer. Come on.’ She opened her arms, but he held back.
‘They look painful.’
‘Just slightly.’ She wrapped her arms around his neck and he bent his head to kiss her lips. She turned her head aside. ‘House rule, no kissing on the mouth, but you can kiss anywhere else.’ She moved sideways and leaned over him, lifting her breasts to his eye level.
‘Gertie…‘
‘Ask me how a nice girl like me got into a business like this and I’ll give you a few bruises.’
Terrified of hurting her a second time, he lifted her on top of him and thrust himself into her, as gently as his passion would allow. ‘I was only going to say, this is bloody great,’ he cried as he moved inside her.
‘It might be for you, but I’m telling you, nicely mind,
you do need a lot of practice. I’ll clear a spot for you in my diary tomorrow and the day after. A couple of weeks of hard work on my part and I’ll make every girl you do this with in future grateful that you picked me to teach you the basics.’
Micah was finishing his third glass of aquavit when he saw David leaning on the railings on the dockside. He made his excuses to Lars, shook hands with him and left the ship. He joined David, but although he was convinced that David had seen him, the boy continued to stare down at the dirty, grey-green water, flecked with coal-speckled foam.
Micah searched his mind for something to say. He loved Edyth and was certain she loved him – but that didn’t stop him from feeling unaccountably guilty for causing David pain.
‘What do you want?’ David asked eventually, in a more civilised tone than Micah had expected.
‘It’s a free world and a nice evening, I came out for a walk in the hope that I would find you,’ Micah said quietly.
‘Why?’
‘I thought we should talk.’
‘I have nothing to say to you.’ David was angry, and not just with Edyth. He hadn’t given her a thought when he had been with Gertie. But he hadn’t been able to stay in Gertie’s room for as long as he’d wanted. Half-a-dozen theology students had turned up unexpectedly and he’d been unceremoniously bundled out at five minutes’ notice. Gertie had told him he had no right to feel slighted because he’d had more than his two bob’s worth. He sensed that he had, and he hadn’t argued with her because she’d offered him another half an hour at her special Monday morning price of one shilling, but only on condition he left quietly.
He’d hoped to stay with Gertie long enough to make Edyth and Micah worry and feel guilty about what they’d done to him. The problem was he wasn’t sure why he wanted Edyth to worry about him when she clearly didn’t love him. For the first time he realised just how futile his feelings for Edyth were. And his experience with Gertie had complicated the situation. She’d introduced him to a whole new world of sensuality and sexual excitement that he couldn’t wait to sample again.
‘Please, David, you have to talk to someone.’ Micah’s plea broke in on David’s thoughts.
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