‘Five nights’ work a week, Tuesday to Saturday, seven until three a.m. A respectable chauffeur escort to and from the club, all stage costumes, the services of a dresser, and ten pounds a week salary.’
‘Ten pounds?’ Judy’s eyes rounded in disbelief.
‘You’ll earn it,’ Aled said dryly. ‘As for your stage costumes: I warn you I will be very particular about what you’ll wear.’
‘Skimpy costumes?’ Jed asked warily.
‘For the chorus girls, certainly, for the star, no. It’s Miss King’s singing I’m interested in, Mr King, nothing else. If you accept the position, Miss King, I will ask my solicitor to draw up a contract tomorrow. That way, your solicitor,’ he looked from Jed to Micah, ‘can look it over. I know that Miss King has a cast-iron contract with the New Theatre for the next four weeks. I propose my contract and her wages begin the day after it terminates. And just so we enjoy the rest of this meal, I don’t expect you to give me an answer right away, Miss King.’ He clicked his fingers at the wine waiter and pointed to their glasses. ‘Now, shall we discuss Peter Pan? I have seen the show before, on Broadway, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did this evening’s performance and that has to be down to the actress who played Tiger Lily.’
During the meal Judy was aware of the large party from the theatre, principally because the producer, director, and leading actors persisted in complaining long and loud about everything from their plates being cold to the slow response of the wine waiter when it came to refilling their glasses, to the salt cellars being damp. They had been seated at a long table at the end of the room. And although she was sitting with her back to them, Judy suspected that their complaints stemmed from the head waiter’s delegation of the theatre’s table to a subordinate’s care, so he could bestow his full attention on Aled James and his table.
She didn’t dare turn around to look at her fellow performers, but when Lennie went to the cloakroom he returned by a roundabout route, so he could give her a broad and sympathetic wink. She responded with a small smile that was noticed by Aled.
‘You get on with Smee, Miss King?’ he asked in amusement.
‘Lennie – the actor who plays him – was very kind to me and all the other new girls during rehearsals. He knows all there is to know about stagecraft and he has a marvellous sense of humour,’ she added, trying to forget the acidic comments Lennie had made to Jeremy.
‘He was good,’ Aled mused thoughtfully. ‘Stan Peterson suggested that I employ a comic for the club as well as a singer. Perhaps I should talk to this Smee and see what he’s like out of character.’
‘He stole the show from Captain Hook,’ Micah commented.
‘He certainly got more laughs.’ Moody would have never dared voice his opinion if he hadn’t drunk two glasses of champagne which had gone straight to his head.
‘That wasn’t too difficult given the stilted performance of the actor playing the role,’ Aled said loudly. He’d suspected from the way Jeremy Dupois was leaning towards their table that he was listening in on every word that he and the others were saying. He was sure of it when Jeremy turned purple. ‘Max?’ Aled hailed the head waiter who was hovering attentively at his elbow. ‘I think we’re ready for coffee and the dessert trolley now. And brandies?’ He looked around at his guests.
‘Not for me, thank you. I have to be up early in the morning,’ Micah refused.
‘And we’ll be painting wonky lines on the wood and walls of your club if we have any,’ Tony added.
Aled showed off the contents of the dessert trolley as if he were personally responsible for the elegant confections, then waited until everyone had made their choice from the creams, mousses, soufflés, and iced puddings, before turning to Edyth and asking the question she sensed he had been waiting to broach all evening.
‘Mrs Slater, I had the impression that you thought you knew me when you saw me at the theatre.’
‘Did you?’ she replied, aware that her answer would irritate him.
‘I did. I also happened to see someone who looked just like me at the carnival. Is he a friend of yours?’
‘No, Mr James.’
‘Please, call me Aled.’ He laid his hand over hers on the table. She pulled it away and looked to Micah for support. He was engrossed in conversation with Jed and Moody. But as though he sensed her appealing to him, he turned and slipped his arm around her shoulders. She had never felt closer to him and gave him a grateful smile.
‘An acquaintance perhaps?’ Aled pressed.
‘My brother.’ She dropped her spoon on her gooseberry fool and pushed the bowl away from her.
‘You don’t like it?’ Aled noticed that she had scarcely touched her dessert.
‘It’s a little rich for me.’
‘His name? Your brother’s name,’ he repeated when she didn’t answer him.
She looked Aled directly in the eye. ‘Harry Evans. Do you know him?’
‘I believe I do. If he is the man I am thinking of, we were foster-brothers when we were children, in the Rhondda Valley.’
‘You’re from the Rhondda?’ Edyth had been born in Pontypridd but she knew her parents had moved there from the Rhondda Valley after her elder sister Bella’s birth. She also knew that Harry’s father had died before Harry was born and a few years before her parents had married. But it wasn’t something that her parents – or Harry – had discussed with her and her sisters, other than when they had told them that Harry’s fortune came from his real father’s family.
‘Clydach Vale.’ Aled watched her intently. ‘My mother used to look after children whose parents could not care for them. That’s how I met Harry. He was one of her foster children.’
‘I think you must be mistaken. I can’t imagine my mother handing over Harry, or any of us children, to someone else to bring up, not even for a short while,’ Edyth said tartly.
‘I believe your mother was in hospital at the time, but,’ he gave her one of his cold smiles, ‘I may be mistaken. I was only a child myself. Tell me, Mrs Slater, what does your brother do for a living?’ After making extensive enquiries Aled knew as much about Harry’s personal circumstances as any member of his family – and probably more about his business and financial affairs than anyone other than Harry and the trustees of his estate – but he continued to probe.
‘My brother works in a family business.’
‘And what would that be?’ Aled persisted. ‘Shops,’ Edyth replied shortly.
‘Big? Small?’ He widened his frosty smile when Edyth gave him a hard look.
‘It’s no secret, Mr James, my brother owns Gwilym James.’
‘The chain of department stores.’ Aled nodded sagely. ‘I can see now why you bought the bakery. You clearly come from a family of entrepreneurs.’
‘My father brought all of us up to earn our own livings, Mr James.’
‘Please, call me Aled.’
‘Very well – Aled.’
‘You are married, Mrs Slater?’
‘My husband and I are separated.’ Knowing from Micah’s enquiries that Aled had been living in the Windsor Hotel for a couple of weeks, Edyth didn’t doubt that he’d picked up all the Bay gossip, including the full story of her failed marriage.
‘You are very young. You couldn’t have been married long.’
‘A few months.’ She looked to Micah again, but Jed had commandeered his attention.
‘I’m sorry,’ Aled commiserated.
‘Marriage doesn’t always work out.’
‘Someone told me that you have applied to have your marriage annulled.’ He spooned sugar into his coffee.
‘You are well informed.’
‘Perhaps we could have dinner one evening.’
‘I don’t think so, Mr James.’ Edyth nudged Micah’s ankle beneath the cover of the table. ‘I keep very early hours as I have to be up every morning at four to open the bakery.’
‘Surely not on Sundays, which leaves Saturday night?’
‘On Sund
ays I am up even earlier to update my account books,’ she lied.
Micah looked ostentatiously at his watch. ‘I think it’s time I walked you and Judy home, Edyth.’
Aled reached for his cigar case and offered it around the table. ‘Allow me to send for taxis for all of you, Micah.’
‘Please, don’t disturb yourself, Aled.’ Micah rose from his chair. ‘It’s only a ten-minute walk from here to Goldman’s.’
‘We must be off too, Mr James.’ Judy’s uncles and Moody pushed their chairs back and rose to their feet. ‘We have to be up even earlier than Edyth,’ Tony said. ‘Mr Powell wants us to finish the conversion of the Sea Breeze in record time and what Mr Powell wants, Mr Powell gets.’
‘For the sake of my club I’m glad to hear it.’ Aled watched Micah crumple his napkin and drop it on his plate. ‘I’ll walk you to the door.’
Edyth allowed the attendant to drape her stole on her shoulders. She offered Aled her hand. He lifted it and kissed her knuckles.
‘Thank you for a lovely dinner and a lovely evening, Mr James,’ she said with more politeness than warmth.
‘The first of many we’ll enjoy together I hope, Mrs Slater. I trust that you,’ he looked at the others, ‘all of you, will come to the grand opening of the club and often afterwards to hear Miss King sing.’
‘We certainly will,’ Jed answered. ‘Our niece is very precious to us. Thank you for the dinner, Mr James.’
Aled smiled graciously as the others gave him their thanks, then taking Judy’s stole from the cloakroom attendant, he draped it around her shoulders. ‘You’ll let me know your answer when you’ve had time to consider my proposition?’
‘I don’t need time, Mr James; I would like to accept it.’
‘Subject to contract,’ Micah qualified cautiously.
‘That goes without saying, Micah. I trust this is the beginning of a very profitable relationship for both of us, Miss King. We must do this again and very soon so we can toast our future – together.’
Edyth watched Aled lift Judy’s hand to his lips and kiss it. Despite the warmth in the air, she shivered. Aled James had been kind and generous to all of them and exceptionally so to Judy. She was being ridiculous. After all, what did she have to base her dislike of him on, except a peculiar likeness to Harry – and a more abrupt and business-like personality?
‘Goodnight, Mrs Slater.’
‘Goodnight, Mr James.’ Edyth took Micah’s arm and walked away.
Chapter Nine
Aled returned to the dining room to tip and thank the head waiter. He was heading for his suite when Stan Peterson waylaid him.
‘There’s someone sitting at our table that you should meet.’
‘It’s a bit late in the day to do business, Stan,’ Aled said.
Stan lowered his voice. ‘He’s a major wheeler-dealer on the Bay. His family own the largest shipping company. They’re into all sorts, and,’ Stan reduced his voice to a whisper, ‘he’s been asking questions about you, your employees, and the old Sea Breeze.’
‘His name?’ Aled enquired shortly.
‘Charlie Moore.’
‘Of Moore’s shipping agency.’
‘You know him?’
‘I’ve heard of the agency.’ Aled recalled the long, cold hours he’d stood day after winter day on Penniless Point, along with all the other unemployed men and boys who were desperate for work, waiting for a Moore’s representative to turn up.
‘We’re at the coffee and brandy stage. Would you like to join us? As our guest,’ Stan added, hoping that Aled wouldn’t discover that the ‘our’ was Charlie Moore. Charlie and his cronies frequently bankrolled Stan’s firstnight dinners for the cast, in return for theatre tickets, invitations to theatrical parties and introductions to the chorus girls.
Deciding he couldn’t afford to ignore ‘a major wheeler-dealer’ on the Bay, Aled followed Stan back to his table. Stan relinquished his chair so Aled could sit next to Charlie.
‘Mr Charles Moore, Mr Aled James.’ Stan effected the introduction and its significance wasn’t lost on Aled. He set no store by etiquette but he knew the likes of Charlie Moore did. The fact that Stan had said Charlie’s name first put Charlie on a socially superior level. Stan went to the end of the table and sat next to Jeremy Dupois, whose mood hadn’t improved with the advent of brandy and cigars.
‘Mr James, or may I call you Aled? Everyone calls me Charlie.’ Slightly the worse for drink, Charlie rose to his feet and offered Aled his hand.
‘You may, Charlie.’ Aled shook Charlie’s hand and took Stan’s chair.
‘You’re setting up business on the Bay?’ Charlie spoke slowly and deliberately, in the manner of the habitual drunk.
‘I am. But no doubt Stan Peterson has told you that.’
‘Good man, Stan. Have a brandy.’
Aled watched the waiter fill Charlie’s brandy balloon but he signalled the waiter to put no more than a splash into his. ‘The shipping business is slow at the moment, or so they tell me. Has it affected Moore’s?’
‘I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t.’ Charlie laughed as one of the chorus girls leaned across the table to talk to Lennie. Her low-cut dress fell, exposing her nipples. ‘What an eyeful, eh, Aled,’ he chortled.
‘You’re not worried?’ Aled asked.
‘She’s not mine so she can stand on the table, strip off, and do the Hula-Hula naked for all I care.’
‘I was talking about your family’s business.’
‘Oh that,’ Charlie said carelessly. ‘I’ve diverted some of the family’s funds into other things. Can’t afford to lose income at a time like this, old boy. Need to keep up appearances and there’s nothing like a good time – eh?’ Charlie dug his elbow into Aled’s ribs.
‘There isn’t.’ Aled decided that of all the ‘crache’ expressions, ‘old boy’ was by far the worst.
The chorus girl leaned back and adjusted her bodice. Disappointed, Charlie turned back to Aled. ‘Stan says you’re turning the Sea Breeze into a nightclub.’
‘Given that Moore’s offices are only up the road, you probably inspected the plans at the council offices.’
‘I did.’ Charlie narrowed his eyes and pursed his mouth. ‘I also heard that you’ve bought gambling, drinks and entertainment licences by wining, dining, and entertaining members of the various council committees – with Anna Hughes’s assistance.’
‘I have the licences but I resent your implication as to how I got them.’
‘We’re both men of the world. Let’s not pretend that we don’t know how it works. And just so we’re not at cross purposes, I have a business proposition for you.’
‘What kind?’ Aled asked warily.
‘You’ll need insurance.’
‘Against what?’
‘The people of Tiger Bay. They’re a rough lot, and they’re not like us.’
‘“Us” being?’ Aled enquired.
‘Hard-working businessmen. Everywhere you look on Tiger Bay you see Negroes, Lascars, Somalis, Chinese … not to mention all the half-castes. They’ll take one look at your club and want a piece of it for themselves.’
‘I doubt it. I’m aiming more up-market than the common seaman can afford.’
‘All the more reason for them to be jealous. And they’re capable of anything,’ Charlie warned. ‘Attacking your customers inside and outside the club, arson – even murder.’
‘And I thought you were a businessman,’ Aled mocked. ‘No businessman worth his salt would sink so low as to use the old Mafia protection racket.’
‘It’s insurance …’
‘What’s the going rate for a thug on the Bay? Five pounds a week. Ten?’
Charlie flushed angrily. ‘I’m offering you a good service.’
‘I don’t need it.’ Aled looked pointedly at Aiden and Freddie. As usual, they weren’t far away. They’d dined at an unobtrusive corner table close to the kitchen door. The moment they saw him looking at them, they dumped thei
r napkins on their plates and left their seats. Aled shook his head and they sat back down again. ‘Those two are all the insurance I need, Charlie.’
‘They’re not local. They don’t know who’s who around Tiger Bay.’
‘They’re quick learners. They proved that when they worked for me in New York. Where do you think I made the money to open my club?’
‘You’ll need operating capital. I can let you have preferential rates.’
‘I’m sure you can, but I’ve all the money I need.’
‘Only a fool sets up a high-risk business like a nightclub with his own money,’ Charlie declared.
‘Then I’m a fool,’ Aled agreed evenly.
‘You’re running poker tables, roulette, blackjack – what happens if a gambler breaks the bank?’
‘I pay him. Word soon gets out if a casino reneges on debts. On the other hand, if he’s cheating, I’ll call the police. Fraud is still a crime in this country, isn’t it?’ Aled enquired conversationally.
‘How much money do you have?’ Charlie demanded bluntly.
‘Enough.’
‘First friendly warning: steer clear of the turf if you value your health.’
‘Thank you for the brandy, Charlie.’ Aled opened his cigar case, offered it around to the men and women at the table and Charlie last of all.
‘I’m serious,’ Charlie emphasised.
‘I never doubted you were. Anything else I should steer clear of?’ Aled struck his lighter and lit his own cigar.
‘There’s no reason why we shouldn’t get along,’ Charlie blustered in a friendlier tone. ‘My family have had an office on the Bay since 1840.’
‘Things have changed since then.’
‘Not that much,’ Charlie snarled, ‘and we don’t need Yanks coming in to change them.’
‘That’s where you’ve made your first mistake, Charlie. I’m not a Yank. I’m as Welsh as you are and I’ve lived on the Bay before.’
‘When?’
‘A few years ago.’
‘It couldn’t have been for long, or I’d remember you.’
Tiger Ragtime Page 15