An Awfully Big Adventure - Beryl Bainbridge [36]
Dotty protested it would never happen, never, and couldn’t help smiling. She was flattered that Grace considered her young enough to be ordered about.
Stella was seated in front of Dotty’s mirror, a towel draped across her shoulders, when St Ives burst into the room without knocking. ‘I shall go crazy,’ he announced. He wore a hair-net and was brandishing on his fist his Caesar wig with the laurel wreath.
‘Shall I go?’ Stella asked, half-rising from the stool. She hated anybody seeing her hair dragged back from her forehead, even St Ives.
He restrained her by laying his hand paternally on her shoulder. ‘Heavens, no, my dear. You’re one of us.’ Sometimes he put his pipe away while it was still smouldering and the breast pocket of his dressing-gown was burnt full of holes. ‘Where the hell were you this afternoon?’ he demanded, turning on Dotty.
‘None of your business,’ she said mildly.
‘The dawn chorus was on the doorstep when I got back, clutching a bloody great bunch of half-dead daffodils.’
‘At the digs?’ asked Dotty, shocked.
‘She said she didn’t want to disturb me but she needed my advice. I had to let her in. Do you know she had the sauce to pick up my socks and start smoothing down the eiderdown.’
‘A womanly attitude when all’s said and done,’ observed Grace charitably. She was speaking blindly into the mirror, concentrating on smudging violet shadows onto her closed and bulging eyelids.
‘I had to offer her a round of toasted cheese and a cup of tea. Not her usual tipple, you’ll agree. She was cracking those damn peppermints in her back teeth to disguise the fact she’d called in at the Oyster Bar on her way up.’ St Ives began to pace backwards and forwards, watching himself in the mirror and pulling in his stomach. He held the wig in front of him like a withered bouquet. ‘Then she told me she’d been offered a part in Jane Eyre at Warrington rep and did I think she ought to accept. Well, I couldn’t jump on her and shout, “Take it, take it, here’s the train fare”, could I? Did I think it would be a wise move or should she try to persuade Meredith to keep her on for Christmas? She said she didn’t mind playing a redskin at a reduced salary and wouldn’t six weeks here be better than one week in Warrington? Of course, she’s right about the money.’ He sat down heavily in Dotty’s chair.
‘It’s always the money,’ murmured Grace. Stella thought she was probably thinking about her treacherous husband.
‘It rather depends on the part, doesn’t it?’ said Dotty. She drew a line down the centre of Stella’s nose with a stick of No.5 and gestured she should rub it in.
‘Exactly what I told her,’ cried St Ives. ‘She said it was the lead and I said, “What, Jane?” I mean, I was surprised, though I dare say she’d be adequate in the part . . . she’s plain enough . . . and she said “No, the governess.”’
‘Poor soul,’ Grace said briskly.
‘What am I going to do if Potter tells her she can stay? You know what he’s like . . . I wouldn’t put it past him to say yes just to spite me. And I can’t depend on Dotty keeping guard on me. Certainly not now she’s otherwise engaged.’
‘Quite,’ said Dotty, and winked at Grace in the mirror.
‘My life won’t be worth living,’ St Ives prophesied dejectedly. Catching Stella watching him he flashed her an extravagant smile. Under his hair-net he had the defiant air of a faded beauty.
‘How did you get rid of her?’ Dotty asked. ‘I hope you weren’t unkind.’
He reminded her that it was kindness, as she well knew, that had got him into his present pickle. ‘When I said I was tired she glanced sideways at the bed and hinted she was fairly tired herself. A rest in the right surroundings, she implied, would have her tickety-boo in no time. You’ve no idea how awkward it was.’
‘I can imagine,’ said Dotty, who had served in Bomber Command during the war.