Tiger Ragtime

by Catrin Collier

  ‘It will be good to have some practice time, although it will also give me more time to get nervous.’

  ‘After seeing you on-stage I don’t believe you have a nerve in your body.’

  ‘You haven’t seen me in the dressing room before I go on. I’m a quivering jelly,’ she confessed.

  ‘Which solidifies once you hear your cue?’ he guessed.

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Because I’ve seen you perform six times.’

  ‘Six?’ she questioned in surprise.

  ‘It pays to do business with Stan – free seats in the boxes are just one perk.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘It’s time to get you to the theatre, and have a word with Lennie Lane and this Mandy of yours.’ He went into the bedroom, retrieved her jacket and held it out.

  She slipped her arms into the sleeves. ‘Thank you, Mr James.’

  ‘Don’t you think it’s time we dropped “Mr James” and “Miss King” and called one another by our Christian names?’

  ‘You’re my boss,’ she reminded him.

  He smiled. ‘Do you want to call me “boss” like Freddie and Aiden?’

  ‘If that’s what you want me to call you?’

  He bent his head and kissed her chastely on the cheek. ‘Aled will be fine. Let’s go.’

  She stood and fingered the spot he’d brushed with his lips while he wheeled the tea trolley outside the door. Had she imagined the kiss? Or was she reading far more into it than he’d intended?

  ‘Aled James is your brother?’ Edyth fell back into her chair and stared at Harry in amazement.

  ‘My half-brother.’ Harry left his easy chair and paced to the window of Edyth’s upstairs sitting room. He thought for a moment, debating how much to tell Edyth about the conversation he’d had with Aled. All he could do was repeat Aled’s veiled threat ‘watch your back, Harry Evans. Watch it everywhere you go’, which when repeated in broad daylight sounded ridiculous. Especially in the calm comfort of Edyth’s sitting room, which was furnished in old-fashioned, good quality furniture, which the Goldmans had left.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me about him before now? Do Mam and Dad know he’s your brother?’

  ‘I’m not sure about Dad, but Mam knew about Aled, because I lived with him and his mother for a short while when Mam was in hospital. But it was a long time ago, before she married Dad.’

  ‘Aled James said that his mother had looked after you when you were little but I didn’t believe him.’

  ‘You know that my father was murdered before he could marry Mam?’

  ‘Mam told all of us that when she explained about your inheritance.’

  ‘And you’ve seen the photographs I have of him, so you know I look just like him. What you don’t know is that one of the first things the family solicitor told me when I started working for the company was that my father was a philanderer who’d fathered several children and the company had paid annuities to all the women who’d made claims. He tried to be kind, and suggested that not all the women were telling the truth, but it was impossible to prove either way after my father had been killed. And the firm paid out rather than have my father’s name and reputation dragged through the courts. Aled was just one of many. It’s an odd feeling to know that I have brothers and sisters out there I’ve never met and may never meet, particularly when I think how close we all are.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Harry,’ Edyth sympathised.

  ‘But to get back to Aled, although he’s done well for himself, he is very bitter. From what he told me, he and his mother lived in extreme poverty and she died young. He also insists that his mother never received a penny from Gwilym James.’

  ‘But he can’t hold that against you,’ she cried.

  ‘Not logically,’ he agreed. ‘But people who hold a grudge are never logical. Aled knows that David is my brother-in-law and he told me that he’s employing him. I tried to see David before I came here but he wasn’t at Helga’s and Helga said she hadn’t seen him since early this morning. Aled also knows that you’re my sister –’

  ‘I told him,’ she interrupted.

  ‘I’m afraid that he might try and hurt one of you.’

  ‘How can he, Harry? He certainly can’t touch me and he’d hardly be hurting David by employing him.’

  ‘That depends on what Aled is employing David to do.’

  ‘I know David is hot-headed but I can’t see him doing anything illegal.’

  ‘Have you seen him today?’

  ‘No, but I do know that he was going to try to get a job with George Powell who’s converting the nightclub. Micah asked George to take David on. Perhaps that’s what Aled James was talking about. In which case, as Micah said, David will be working for George Powell and only indirectly for Aled James.’

  ‘You’ve talked to Micah Holsten about Aled James?’

  ‘Yes, Aled took Micah as well as me and Judy’s family to dinner in the Windsor on Judy’s opening night.’

  ‘So that’s what Aled meant when he said he’d taken you to dinner.’

  ‘I certainly wasn’t alone with the man.’

  ‘You don’t like him?’

  ‘He makes me uneasy, Harry. I don’t have a reason for feeling the way I do about him. It’s just …’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Promise you won’t laugh.’

  After his meeting with Aled James, the last thing Harry felt like doing was laughing. ‘I promise, Edie.’

  ‘He looks so much like you but he’s not you. It’s almost like he’s a mirror image in every sense. You’re good and he’s evil.’

  ‘You think Aled James is evil?’

  ‘I said my feelings about him weren’t based on reason.’

  ‘I know Judy is working for the man, but please, promise me that you won’t see more of him than you absolutely have to.’

  ‘I assure you, I don’t and I won’t. Would you like tea?’ she asked when he left the window.

  He shook his head. ‘No, I want to get home tonight. Mary’s happy at the farm but I’m never happy about staying away from her for too long.’

  ‘You two are lucky to have found one another.’

  ‘We are. I’m sorry things didn’t work out between you and Peter,’ he added sincerely.

  ‘Some things aren’t meant to work out.’

  ‘You seem friendly with Micah Holsten.’

  ‘Very.’ She smiled broadly. ‘Which is why you don’t have to worry about me seeing too much of Aled James.’

  ‘You’re …’

  ‘I love Micah and he loves me.’

  ‘And?’ he pressed.

  ‘Micah wants to marry me when my marriage to Peter is annulled. But I’m talking it one step at a time. Annulment first.’

  ‘Have you told Mam and Dad about this?’

  ‘How can I, when I’m still legally married to Peter?’

  ‘They wouldn’t mind, Edie. In fact they’d be delighted. The whole family have been worried about you living down here alone. But then there’s David and he’s –’

  ‘David saw me kissing Micah so he knows that Micah and I are in love. He was angry at the time but we’ve talked since.’

  ‘And he’s all right with it?’

  She shook her head. ‘You know David, he’s angry with both Micah and me, but Micah is convinced he’ll get used to the idea.’

  ‘I’m pleased for you, sis. I really am. I liked Micah Holsten the first time I met him. You must bring him to the farm for a holiday so we can get to know him better.’

  ‘And leave the baker’s shop and the mission to run themselves?’ she asked. ‘It will be easier if you bring Mary and the children down here.’

  ‘I’ll put it to her but I’m not promising anything. It’s time I was on my way – I told Helga I was going to call in again on her in the hope of seeing David. Look after yourself, sis.’ He hugged her. ‘You’ve come a long way from the clumsy girl who was forever falling over and breaking her bones.’

  ‘I’m s
till clumsy.’

  ‘Maybe, but you’ve proved that you have what it takes to run a business.’

  ‘I’ll see you out.’ She picked up her cardigan from the back of a chair.

  ‘You don’t have to.’ He fetched his hat from the hall rack.

  ‘I usually go for a walk about this time in the evening.’

  ‘In the direction of the Norwegian mission?’ he guessed.

  ‘No. In the direction of a boat Micah has berthed on the docks. He practises his saxophone there most nights.’

  ‘The bakery is doing all right, isn’t it, Edie?’ Harry asked seriously as they walked down the stairs.

  ‘Business is booming. I’ve even managed to pay a chunk off my overdraft, but I know it can’t last. The men converting the Sea Breeze eat as much as we can produce these days, but trade will fall off as soon as the work’s finished.’

  ‘And then?’

  ‘Like everyone else on the Bay, I’ll have to tighten my belt.’

  ‘Sis …’

  ‘Offer me money, Harry, and I’ll never talk to you again.’

  ‘Stubborn little thing, aren’t you?’

  ‘Just like the rest of my family.’ She closed the door behind her and followed him through the yard.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Aled left the theatre feeling pleased with the world in general and himself in particular for the deals he had struck with Mandy and Lennie. The sun was a deep orange ball in a cloudless blue sky that promised a fine dawn in the morning. And, if the dry weather continued for just one more week, George Powell had told him that all the supports and alterations to the roof of the new dub would be finished.

  A few more days to put the interior finishing touches and the Tiger Ragtime would be ready for the first customers to walk through the doors, provided Aiden had enough trained croupiers ready to run the tables. Hopefully the orchestra leader would be up to scratch and would take on a sufficient number of competent musicians – he thought of the chorus girls and Judy. They at least were ready to perform.

  Deciding to walk back to the Windsor Hotel he continued down Bute Street, tipping his hat and exchanging pleasantries with acquaintances. He couldn’t help but contrast his present with his past. People will look with unseeing eyes when a ragged, barefoot boy crosses their path, but waiters, barmen, unemployed men and women hoping to find work will always be respectful to a man who might be in a position to offer them a job.

  Halfway down Bute Street he saw Edyth walking towards the docks and quickened his pace to catch up with her. As he had told Harry, she was a good-looking woman, but certainly not in the conventional sense. Her mouth was too wide and her features too strong to be thought of as pretty. But he was attracted to her – and she was separated from her husband.

  In his considerable experience separated, widowed, and divorced women were ridiculously easy to seduce. They missed the intimacy of sex. A few compliments and small presents were usually enough to gain admittance to their beds. And his seduction of Edyth Slater would serve another purpose: it would infuriate Harry Evans.

  ‘Mrs Slater.’ He lifted his panama from his head when he caught up with her.

  ‘Mr James.’

  ‘It’s a lovely evening.’

  ‘It is,’ she answered shortly.

  ‘Are you going for a walk?’

  ‘Just down to the sea.’

  ‘May I escort you?’

  ‘I’d hate to take you out of your way.’

  It was obvious from the look she gave him that she didn’t want him to accompany her but they were in the middle of a street crowded with early-evening idlers and he knew that like most well-brought-up middle-class girls, she’d be loath to make a scene. ‘You wouldn’t be. I’m going to the Windsor.’ He offered her his arm. ‘I took Judy shopping this afternoon.’

  ‘She told me that you wanted to buy her fur coats and day clothes.’ She capitulated and took the arm he offered her.

  ‘As I told Judy, I will get more use out of them than her. Everywhere she goes she will be representing my club. And I intend to use her as a hostess at the formal and informal lunches I am planning for various organisations and charities as well as the council. I don’t just intend to open a nightclub here in Cardiff, I intend to become a part of the community.’

  ‘And do good works?’ Aled James’s use of ‘Judy’ as opposed to ‘Miss King’ wasn’t lost on Edyth.

  ‘Isn’t that what all businessmen – good businessmen – do? Take your brother, for instance.’

  ‘He called on me today. He mentioned that you two had met.’

  ‘Did he?’

  She looked him coolly in the eye as they passed the Exchange and drew alongside the turn to Stuart Street. ‘You go that way, I believe, Mr James.’ She pointed in the direction of the Windsor.

  ‘I’ll walk you to the sea.’

  ‘There is no need, but thank you for the offer,’ she refused firmly.

  ‘Would you take pity on a lonely bachelor and have dinner with me one evening?’

  ‘No, Mr James, but thank you for asking.’ She broke into a broad smile and he smiled back, unaware that Micah Holsten was standing behind him.

  ‘I hope I haven’t kept you waiting, Micah.’ Edyth relinquished Aled’s arm and took Micah’s.

  ‘Not at all, Edyth, I was just chatting to Old Bill. His charabanc business is thriving.’ Micah raised his hat. ‘Mr James, if you’ll excuse us.’

  Micah and Edyth walked away, leaving Aled standing on the pavement looking after them. It was then Aled realised that he’d never stood a chance with Edyth Slater, for the simple reason that she was already spoken for.

  David’s back and thigh muscles were aching from crouching low over the floor of the Sea Breeze for most of his twelve-hour shift in the old hotel. And his hands were raw and bleeding from the skinning he had inadvertently given them while sawing and sanding lengths of skirting boards, in between taking more bets than he had anticipated from his fellow workers. He wondered if Aiden Collins would be pleased with the money he had bagged. It seemed a vast amount to him but he had no idea what a bookie’s runner was expected to take in a day.

  He had done exactly as Aiden had asked him to. Left the site at the end of the day and returned to Helga’s to wash and change into his suit. After barely eating half a dozen mouthfuls of the sausage and mash Helga had prepared for her lodgers’ tea, he had headed for James Street and the upstairs room of the White Hart.

  He found Aiden sitting with his feet propped on a corner of a desk reading the evening edition of the South Wales Echo.

  ‘It’s just as you said, Mr Collins.’ David pulled the canvas cash bag from inside one of his best linen shirts. ‘I only had to tell one person I was taking bets and the men flocked round me like chickens at feeding time. Especially at break.’ He set the bag on the table in front of Aiden. ‘The books?’ Aiden held out his hand, David took them from his pocket and placed them on the desk. Aiden flicked through them before taking a small notebook from his own pocket. ‘Have you checked the cash against the entries you made?’

  ‘I didn’t have time in work. And I was in my lodgings only as long as it took me to eat and change.’

  ‘Pull up a chair. Count the money. I’ll tally the books.’ Aiden took a pencil from his pocket and began to add up the columns of figures David had entered.

  David tipped the bag out on the opposite side of the table to the one Aiden was working on. He started piling pennies, halfpennies, threepences, and sixpences into shillings, and the shillings, half crowns, and florins into neat stacks of pounds. For ten minutes the only sounds that could be heard in the room were the clink of coins, the scratching of Aiden’s pencil and their breathing.

  ‘How much was in the bag?’ Aiden laid down his pencil and looked expectantly at David.

  ‘Seven pounds, thirteen shillings, and sixpence.’ David looked at Aiden in concern, worried that he had somehow lost money despite the care he had taken to look after it.<
br />
  ‘Which is exactly what I make it.’

  David weakened in relief. ‘That’s good to hear.’

  ‘You’re not used to handling money?’ Aiden asked.

  ‘Only what we get when we sell the farm produce to the local shops in the Swansea Valley and then it was always simple and straightforward. More or less the same amount every week.’

  ‘Have you tallied the winnings?’

  ‘No.’ David shook his head.

  ‘I have. We’ll be paying out two pounds nine shillings, which leaves a clear profit of five pounds, four shillings, and sixpence, of which,’ he pushed a stack of shillings in David’s direction, ‘one pound, one shilling is your share, which is slightly more than the percentage due to the runner, but the boss believes in rounding up not down.’

  ‘This is mine?’ David stared at Aiden in astonishment.

  ‘Didn’t the boss tell you that the runner takes twenty per cent of the profit?’

  ‘He said I’d be well paid.’

  ‘I’d say that isn’t bad for a day’s work.’

  ‘No – no, isn’t, in fact it’s bloody great,’ David concurred.

  ‘So you’re pleased with how your first day went?’

  ‘Yes, but what happens if everyone backs a winner and I make a loss, not a profit?’

  Aiden gave him the same pitying look Aled James had when he’d asked the self-same question. ‘Take it from me. Unless the runner is on the take, there is always a profit.’ He nodded to David’s cut. ‘Put it away before the punters come in to pick up their winnings. Do you owe anyone change?’

  ‘No. There was plenty around the site today.’

  ‘That will alter when the work dries up.’ He handed David a book. ‘The odds for tomorrow’s races.’

  David pocketed it along with his winnings.

  ‘The boss will be pleased with this. He’ll probably want to see you about a regular job when the work on the club is finished. In the meantime, it might be as well if you concentrate on the book instead of the building.’ Aiden lifted a briefcase from the floor and, after separating the ‘winnings’ that had to be paid out, scooped the rest of the money into it. He closed the case, returned it to the floor and handed the empty canvas bag to David.