Belle - Lesley Pearse [117]
On a Friday night right at the end of July, rain was belting down so hard that the drains couldn’t carry the water away fast enough and Basin Street became like a river. The girls called it a hurricane, but then they were always talking about hurricanes and how scary they were, with roofs being ripped off houses and trees being uprooted. Martha agreed this could be a hurricane, although it was a month early, but she said the girls were exaggerating and that in all her years in New Orleans she’d only ever seen one roof ripped off.
Belle had seen rain as hard as this dozens of times in England, but there it was always cold. This rain was like a warm shower, and she wasn’t surprised that people were still out on the streets regardless of getting soaked.
But the rain was keeping gentlemen away. By nine in the evening only two had come in, the Professor was wilting at his piano and the girls were so bored that they were sniping at one another.
Anna-Maria, who Belle had discovered at least a year ago was extremely treacherous, asked Suzanne why she had chosen a green dress as it made her look sallow. This wasn’t true – Suzanne had glossy, coppery-coloured hair and green suited her.
‘I don’t mean to be unkind,’ Anna-Maria simpered. ‘I just think someone ought to tell you.’
‘Someone ought to tell you that you’re a lying bitch,’ Suzanne retorted, getting to her feet and looking down at the other girl menacingly. ‘You’re jealous of me because that rich banker asked for me yesterday.’
‘He won’t ask for you again now he knows how dirty you are,’ Anna-Maria snapped back, jumping out of her chair. ‘I know you don’t wash between clients, you stink like a polecat.’
Suzanne sprang at the other girl with her long nails poised to claw her face. Belle didn’t like Anna-Maria much, and felt she deserved a scratched face for being so nasty to Suzanne, but Martha was likely to put all the blame on to the one that struck the first blow. So Belle jumped up too and stepped in front of Anna-Maria.
‘That’s enough,’ she said in the kind of firm voice she’d often heard Mog use with the girls. ‘Anna-Maria! You will apologize to Suzanne, that was an awful thing to say and it isn’t even true.’
Hatty, Polly and Betty all began to add their opinions. Betty said that Anna-Maria deserved a good thumping as she was always making mischief.
‘Watch out I don’t claw you as well,’ Anna-Maria yelled at Betty, trying to get past Belle. ‘You’re just jealous of me too.’
The Professor began to play louder, and at that moment the parlour door opened and Martha stood there, her double chin quivering with anger.
‘What is this?’ she asked, looking at each of the girls in turn.
None of them answered. It was an unwritten law that they didn’t tell tales on one another.
‘I suppose it was you, Belle?’ Martha snapped. ‘I can see by the way you are that you’ve been intimidating Anna-Maria.’
‘I haven’t,’ Belle said, aware she was still standing right in front of the other girl, and maybe that did look like intimidation to someone just coming into the room. ‘Tell her, Anna-Maria?’
‘She was, she’s always pushing me around,’ Anna-Maria burst out.
By lying she’d just knocked out the code of silence, and all the other girls began to shout out what had really happened.
They were all still shouting and adding other grievances about Anna-Maria when suddenly Cissie’s voice cut through the noise to say a gentleman had called.
It was Faldo Reiss, the big Texan, but although he was usually impeccably dressed in a pinstriped grey and white tail coat and stiff-winged collar, tonight, soaking wet, he looked ridiculous as he stood in the doorway of the parlour.
The girls fell silent immediately. Belle wanted to laugh, for with his wet clothes sticking to him and plump belly, hair and moustache dripping wet, he resembled a walrus.
‘How good to see you, Mr Reiss,’ Martha gushed. ‘The girls were just having a little debate. You look almost drowned,