Tiger Ragtime (26 page)

‘In the city or Tiger Bay?’

‘Both. There’ll be an office suite in the club next to your dressing room.’ He sat in one of the brown leather armchairs and opened his cigar case. ‘You’re happy with your repertoire?’

‘I’ll be happier still after I’d had a chance to practise it.’

‘I’ve hired an orchestra leader. Stan Peterson recommended him, so he should know how to handle musicians. He’s arriving next Monday and he’ll be holding auditions in an upstairs room in the White Hart next week. Aiden’s sorting it, so tell your uncles to have a word with him if they if they want to apply.’

‘I’ll pass on the message.’

‘You don’t think they’ll be interested?’ He reached for his lighter.

‘It’s a regular job and everyone on the Bay is looking for one of those. But an Argentinian ship is leaving the docks at the end of the month. My Uncle Tony has been taken on as ship’s carpenter and he’s recommended Uncle Jed and Uncle Ron to the skipper, although it’s not certain they’ll get berths.’

‘Your uncles would prefer to go to sea than stay at home and play in a band?’

‘The sea’s their profession, the band’s a hobby. Just as Pastor Holsten – Micah – said: the Bute Street Blues are amateurs.’

‘Except for you.’

‘Sometimes when I wake in the night I have to pinch my arm to convince myself that I am performing on a professional stage.’

‘The only wonder is that you weren’t picked up by an impresario sooner. I’m glad I came along when I did. When I spoke to Stan Peterson on opening night he was talking about offering you work in London.’

‘He did,’ she said briefly.

‘The bastard – pardon my French – the swine,’ he amended in response to the startled look in her eyes. ‘Did he offer you more money?’

‘Not until after he asked what you were paying me.’·

‘You told him?’

‘Shouldn’t I have?’ She turned the question back on him.

‘I suppose there was no reason not to. Did he offer you more?’

‘He offered me the same plus three pounds a week lodging allowance.’

‘And you turned him down?’

‘Obviously,’ she smiled, ‘as I signed a contract with you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I love Cardiff Bay. It’s my home, I know practically everyone there. And I like living with Edyth above her baker’s shop. It’s close to my family and,’ she smiled grimly, ‘I might need their kindness if I fall flat on my face on opening night in the club.’

‘You won’t,’ he said confidently.

‘But if I do, I can always go back to working with Edyth in her shop.’

‘That’s the last thing you’ll be doing. Good, our tea – or rather coffee.’ He opened the door and a waitress wheeled in a trolley.

‘Shall I pour for you, sir?’

‘No, Miss King will. Thank you.’ Aled signed the chit the girl handed him and slipped her a coin before closing the door behind her. ‘Mine’s milk and two sugars.’

‘I remember from the lunches.’ She picked up the coffee pot. ‘It seems odd to drink coffee at this time of day.’

‘I lost the habit of drinking tea in America. They drink coffee at all times of the day – and night.’ He took the cup she handed him and watched her set a plate and knife on the table beside him. ‘You look quite at home.’

‘Serving tea? I should do. I was a maid for long enough after I left school.’ She took her coffee and a cucumber sandwich and sat in a chair opposite his. ‘Thank you,’ she said simply.

‘What for?’

‘Not trying to get served in the restaurant downstairs. They wouldn’t have waited on me.’

‘Like the Windsor, they wouldn’t have dared not to, the amount I pay them for the use of this room.’

‘If they had, it would have been unwillingly and only after an unpleasant scene.’

‘At the risk of sounding tactless, it’s time you developed a thicker skin.’ He lifted two ham sandwiches on to his plate.

‘I’ll try.’

‘You haven’t come across prejudice before?’

‘Never in Butetown.’

‘And outside it?’

‘The only times I ever left it, apart from auditions, was on outings with my grandmother or uncles and aunts when I was small. Looking back, I realise how much they must have shielded us children from unpleasantness.’

‘I knew you hated me making a scene in that first department store we went to, but life won’t get better for Negroes, or any coloured people, unless you yourselves make a stand. There’s a society in America called the Society for Advancement of Coloured People.’

‘I’ve heard of it. Uncle Jed reads a lot of political papers.’

‘Then you must know that people and their attitudes won’t change unless you force them to sit up and take notice of the injustice that’s being meted out in your direction.’

‘If you’re trying to tell me that I am a coward, I know I am.’

‘Not always, Stan told me that you had a go at the theatre manager over the way he treated your family and friends on opening night.’

‘I snapped at him, that was all.’

‘And there’s been no problem with your friends and family from the Bay coming into the New Theatre since?’

‘No, but that’s mostly down to Micah Holsten and Mr Peterson – and you. Uncle Jed told me that you were the one who suggested that Mr Peterson deal with the situation.’

‘Bigots despise the poor every bit as much as they despise coloured people and I was poor for long enough to develop a dislike of prejudice. Don’t let the cakes go to waste.’ He lifted a chocolate éclair on to his plate.

She took another bite of her cucumber sandwich. ‘What’s America like?’

‘That’s like asking, ‘what’s Europe like?’. It’s a big country and some parts of it are as different as Russia is from Scotland. I spent most of my time in New York but I visited New Orleans a couple of times. That’s where I learned to appreciate jazz and good blues singers like you.’

‘I love listening to the records the sailors bring in. If they have something new they take it to the Norwegian Church Mission, so Micah can play it on the gramophone. That’s where the band practises and if Micah likes a piece we try to put it into our act.’

‘Talking about practising and rehearsing, I’ve decided to open the club on a Saturday night. A week to the day after
Peter Pan
closes. That will give you six days to rehearse with the orchestra and get used to them, provided the conductor can get one together next week.’

‘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 still 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.’