The Runaway Daughter Page 15

  She’d spent all of her life looking over her shoulder, expecting to be scolded for every tiny thing she’d ever done. But Percy was right, wasn’t he? Last night had just been a bit of fun. Outrageous fun, but there was no harm done, surely? She was in one piece. And why should she beat herself up? Why should she feel guilty? The thought that she didn’t have to feel bad about it made Vita feel heady. It had never occurred to her that she could behave so outrageously and actually get away with it.

  ‘Oh, I forgot. I brought you this from the workshop,’ Percy said, opening the leather satchel on the bed and pulling out her brassiere. ‘I made it up again with the changes we discussed.’

  ‘Oh, Percy. You are so marvellous.’

  ‘I’m very glad nobody stopped me and searched my bag,’ he said, laughing. ‘Can you imagine how I’d explain that away?’

  Vita laughed and then held it up. ‘Perfect!’ she exclaimed. ‘That’s exactly how I wanted it to be. Pop outside for a minute and I’ll get changed.’

  She stripped off to her camiknickers and was pulling on the bra, when the door opened and Percy rushed back in.

  Vita yelped, grabbing a scarf from the bed to protect her modesty. Percy blushed deeply as they looked at each other, and then she realized one of her breasts was completely exposed.

  ‘Sorry. It’s just that Edward is here. The front door is open and he’s over the road, waiting in the car. He doesn’t look like he’s been to bed.’

  ‘Do you think she saw?’

  ‘Saw who? Edward?’

  ‘No, Percy! Mrs Bell,’ Vita said, ‘she was just in the hall and I’m sure she saw me. Half-naked in your room?’

  ‘Oh God! No. I don’t think so. I hope not.’

  Vita rolled her eyes. ‘You’re hopeless.’ She let out a half-amused growl of frustration and flung the scarf away. ‘You’ve seen one, you might as well see them both,’ she said, standing in the camiknickers and throwing her arms out to show him. She’d never felt so brazen. Certainly not in front of a man, but this felt like owning her body for the first time.

  ‘Oh!’ he said, looking, then looking away, then looking again.

  ‘You see. This is what we’re dealing with. This is what we have to subdue.’

  Percy shrugged, still pressed against the door. ‘It seems a shame. They are quite marvellous,’ he said, his cheeks pulsing red.

  She’d never felt connected to her body like this before and she wondered if she was still high on Nancy’s drugs, but somehow last night had changed her. It had made her feel more feminine than she’d ever felt. ‘Now stop gawping and get over here and help me pin this thing,’ she said, pulling the straps of the bra over her arms.

  Percy pinned it at the back, fumbling with the pins.

  ‘It’s still a bit loose. Look,’ she said. She turned round, then jokingly bunched her breasts together in an impressive cleavage. ‘We could do that with it.’ Percy’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Although I doubt it will catch on.’

  ‘Never say “never”,’ Percy said. ‘As I told you. Fashions change.’

  Vita rearranged herself in the bra until it was right, and Percy marked up the material with the special crayon he used. Then he unpinned it again.

  ‘So what are you going to do about Edward?’

  ‘Go and see what he wants. He’ll be bored, no doubt, and will want to go somewhere. Do you want to come out with us?’

  ‘No. I’m nowhere near ready. And if you don’t mind, I’ll stay and copy this one in the other fabrics.’ Now that Percy had made the bra, just as she wanted it, she wanted to have a go at making more herself. In fact, she couldn’t wait to get started.

  47

  Mr Connelly’s Mood

  Vita spent much of the time before she was next due at the club on Wednesday perfecting her brassiere in the tangerine silk. She’d been concentrating so hard that she barely had time to think about what had happened with Nancy. She’d been tempted, late on Sunday night, to go round to Nancy’s apartment, but Percy had told her it was best to leave Nancy alone and to get an early night.

  On Monday she’d fulfilled her promise and had spent the day helping Percy sort out the costumes in his workshop. Her head was so full of excitement at all the clothes Percy had bestowed upon her that she was rather taken aback when Nancy didn’t return her smile, as Jerome thumped out the newest show tune on the piano at Wednesday’s rehearsal.

  She’d hoped Nancy would be impressed with the outfit she was wearing today: the jaunty mint-green trousers that she’d cropped beneath the knee and a red tunic, along with a pink headband with a large, floppy flower. Teamed with the red lipstick that Nancy had given her, it was quite a striking look.

  Mr Connelly had a general aura of grumpiness and disapproval this morning and it set the girls on edge, as if he were waiting for them to trip up. He’d already given them a lecture about commitment and how they were all to mingle with the guests. Or if they did insist on going out after the show, then they should be checking on the competition. With so many other clubs around, it was clear that he was worried about their future.

  ‘You – who are you, again?’ he growled, putting his hand up for Jerome to stop and pointing at Vita.

  ‘Vita . . . Verity,’ she said, feeling the attention of all the girls.

  ‘Well, pay attention. And this goes for all of you,’ he added, pointing his cigar along the line of girls. ‘I want the customers in here to be entertained – in the right way.’

  ‘Yes, Vita. You should practise more,’ Edith chipped in. She was wearing a navy leotard today, her blonde hair scraped back. She looked like a proper dancer. ‘We can’t have you being perpetually one beat behind.’

  That was unfair, Vita thought, blushing. She’d been in time, hadn’t she?

  ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, glancing back at Jane and Betsy, who gave her the briefest of sympathetic looks, but they were trying to concentrate, too, and not get in Connelly’s firing line.

  ‘Exactly,’ Connelly agreed.

  ‘A little more sleep at the weekends probably wouldn’t go amiss,’ Edith continued in a low mutter.

  Vita caught the snide tone in her comment and bristled. Could it be possible that Nancy had told Edith what happened between them on Saturday night?

  ‘And, good God, what are you wearing?’ Connelly asked. He hadn’t heard Edith’s snippy comment.

  Vita looked down at the outfit she was dancing in, then back up at Mr Connelly.

  ‘It’s just for rehearsals.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Mr Connelly didn’t commit himself to an opinion.

  Vita glanced now at Edith, whose steely gaze betrayed a knowing look of triumph.

  Blushing deeply, Vita began the routine again, her arms linked around Betsy’s waist on one side and Jane’s on the other. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Nancy.

  At the time, sharing a bath together had seemed like the most natural thing in the world, when of course it was anything but. And then there’d been the kiss. More than once. And the touching. The intimacy of it had felt so scary and yet so thrilling, as if her body had been waking up for the first time. But now it felt like something she couldn’t bring herself to admit. Like another awful secret that she couldn’t bear for anyone else to know.

  She didn’t have a chance to speak to Nancy until right at the end of the rehearsal in the dressing room, after the others had gone.

  ‘How have you been?’ Vita ventured.

  ‘Fine.’

  There was a small silence. Something about their physical contact had changed everything between them. And not in the right way.

  ‘You seem . . .’ Vita persisted.

  ‘What?’

  ‘A bit off.’

  ‘I told you, I’m fine.’ Nancy said. ‘If you want to come to a party with me and then disappear, and not speak to me for days on end, then fine.’

  Vita felt relief then, recognizing Nancy’s put-out tone. She was cross with her for not getting in touch. That was all. Ther
e was nothing more to it. She should have ignored Percy and gone round to see Nancy on Sunday.

  ‘I’m sorry. I did think about coming to see you, but it’s just . . . I’ve been busy. I’ve been working on something,’ Vita said. ‘You know – the lingerie. I told you about it.’

  ‘Oh,’ Nancy said, unenthusiastically, after she’d told her about working with Percy all day Sunday and then helping out at the studio yesterday. Vita didn’t admit how dreadfully hungover she’d been on Sunday.

  ‘But about Saturday,’ Vita began, steeling herself.

  ‘What about it?’ Nancy said, looking at her directly. ‘Is there anything you want to tell me?’

  Vita pressed her lips together. She took a deep breath and tried again. ‘Only that it shouldn’t change things. I mean, I’ve been thinking about it and it doesn’t mean . . .’

  ‘That you’re a lesbian?’

  Vita blushed deeply, looking down at her hands. This wasn’t going well.

  ‘So what if it does? I told you, it’s very fashionable to be one nowadays. Anyone who is anyone is a lesbian,’ Nancy said matter-of-factly. Vita bit her lip and suddenly Nancy gave a shrill, fake laugh. ‘Look at your face! Forget about it,’ she shrugged. ‘What goes on at parties stays at parties. It’s the rule.’

  ‘So you won’t . . . I mean, you won’t tell anyone? About what we did?’

  She wanted to tell Nancy that, at the time, it had been wonderful – not that she could really remember the finer details. Only that they’d been intimate in a way she’d never imagined possible. But now she felt embarrassed. Embarrassed and slightly ashamed.

  ‘You don’t want me to tell anyone?’ Nancy said, cocking out her hip and staring at Vita. She felt wrong-footed. Was Nancy going to tell everyone? It felt dangerous trusting her with such a big secret, when she was such a gossip. ‘Then, no, precious one. I won’t. Your secret is safe with me.’

  Vita nodded and opened the door to find Percy standing right by it, two bales of material piled up in his arms.

  ‘Ah, there’s Wisey,’ Nancy said and brushed past Percy into the corridor.

  ‘What is up with her?’ Percy asked, looking after Nancy, but Vita turned away, so he couldn’t see her face. She felt close to tears. She felt as if she’d done something terrible, but she couldn’t work out what it was.

  Because, despite all Nancy’s protests, it occurred to Vita now that Nancy might very well be a lesbian herself. That’s why she hadn’t married. That’s why she was outcast from her family. And that’s why she’d taken Vita under her wing. Had she been waiting for more from Vita? Some sort of verbal commitment to their shared secret, after Saturday? Because if she had, Vita now felt as if she’d said all the wrong things.

  ‘Can we take Nancy out with us?’ she asked Percy, having an idea about how to fix things. ‘With you and Edward, I mean? When we next go out. I won’t say anything about . . . well, you know. I won’t say anything about the two of you.’

  ‘Nancy is a big girl. She can work things out for herself.’

  ‘And it wouldn’t be a problem?’

  ‘I don’t see why it would. But listen, I have exciting news. Connelly wants you to help with the costumes.’

  ‘What?’ Vita asked, momentarily forgetting Nancy.

  ‘Yes, I was chatting to him. Just now. He was saying that he thinks you have natural style.’

  48

  The Sign in the Fire

  Relieved that the air seemed to be clearer with Nancy, Vita threw herself into learning the routine, enlisting Jane and Betsy’s help. And, back at home, she worked non-stop on the sewing machine in Percy’s room. She was so busy that she didn’t have the faintest idea what was going on when Mrs Bell called her and Percy for ‘a little meeting’ in her front parlour on Friday afternoon.

  ‘There’s no easy way to broach this, so I’m just going to say it,’ said Mrs Bell, wringing her hands.

  Vita glanced at Percy, who was in the armchair, petting Casper on his knee. For once Mrs Bell wasn’t wearing either an apron or a headscarf and, dressed in a tweed skirt and matching jacket, looked rather smart.

  ‘What is it?’ Vita asked, wondering if she’d done something wrong.

  ‘Yes, whatever is it, Mrs Bell?’ Percy asked.

  The landlady took a deep breath. ‘I don’t know what is going on between you two and it’s none of my business, I know,’ she put up her hand, not looking at either of them, ‘but I don’t think I can endorse your . . . well, you know . . . without saying something. Not that I don’t think you’d make a marvellous couple, don’t get me wrong, but I have the other girls to consider – and my reputation. This is not,’ she lowered her voice, ‘that sort of house.’

  There was a moment of silence, then Vita looked at Percy and they both burst out laughing.

  ‘Oh, Mrs B. Honestly, it’s not what you think at all,’ Vita said, jumping to her feet and squeezing her landlady’s arm. ‘There’s nothing going on between me and Percy.’

  ‘There isn’t?’ she asked, looking slightly perplexed. ‘But I saw . . . well, I’m not exactly sure what I saw, and I certainly don’t want even to think about it, but on Sunday—’

  ‘We were working,’ Percy said.

  ‘Working?’ Mrs Bell was clearly confused.

  ‘It’s impossible to explain. Wait there. I’ll show you,’ Vita said.

  She ran upstairs to Percy’s room and collected the pile of silk-satin brassieres she’d been making. The latest one was the best.

  Back downstairs, she showed it proudly to Mrs Bell, who ran the silk through her fingers and held up the bra by its pretty ribbon straps. ‘Well, I never,’ she said. ‘And you, Percy. You know about all this?’

  ‘It’s no different to designing for the theatre,’ he said. ‘And I really think Vita is on to something here. I think she could make a business out of it.’

  Vita explained how Percy had been helping her design something for dancing. ‘I’m just trying to fathom out how to make them for the other girls. They are fiendishly fiddly.’

  ‘They look it.’

  ‘You see, there are so many variables. Not only in the cups, but in the central part here.’ She showed Mrs Bell. ‘You see, this has to work with the straps, and each bit has to be stitched together. This is just a simple pattern, but with time, I’m going to perfect it. Percy’s been helping me, and you wouldn’t believe how much I’ve picked up already.’

  ‘She’s a fast learner and there’s no doubt she has a flair for it,’ Percy said, and Vita wanted to hug him.

  ‘You won’t catch me throwing out my girdle anytime soon. But if I were a younger woman, I’d certainly want one. I’d say they were top-drawer.’

  Percy laughed. ‘Top-drawer. You sound like Vita here. Are you sure you’re not related?’

  Mrs Bell smiled. ‘I’d be only too proud to have a daughter like you,’ she said, and Vita put her hand to her chest. ‘Now then, I’m going to light a fire and make us some more tea.’

  ‘Don’t on our account, please,’ Percy said.

  ‘Goodness only knows when we’re going to get more coal, if the papers are to be believed and all this business with the miners gets worse.’

  Vita and Percy exchanged a look as she started plucking some paper out of the wooden box in the alcove and scrunching it into balls. She picked up the scuttle and threw in some coal on top of the papers.

  ‘Do me favour, Vita dear, and pass the matches. ‘They’re on the sideboard.’ She lit the fire. ‘I’m going to put the kettle on,’ she continued, going out into the kitchen. ‘Then I want to hear more about this brassiere of yours. I feel like a fool now. Imagine me thinking . . .’ She trailed off, putting her hand to her head and making for the kitchen.

  ‘I honestly adore her,’ Vita told Percy, watching Mrs Bell go, then walking over to the fire.

  ‘You know, I like that,’ Percy said thoughtfully.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Top-drawer.’

  ‘How d
o you mean?’ asked Vita.

  ‘As a name,’ Percy replied. ‘For your firm.’

  ‘Firm? Gosh, I hadn’t considered that it might go that far.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Vita thought of her father’s firm now, and of the business back home. It had always been a male domain – something that concerned only him and Clement. She’d lost count of the number of times she’d asked questions and had been told to mind her own business. It had never occurred to her that she might run her own enterprise one day.

  But with Percy’s faith in her, she felt something spark inside her. All those suffragettes in the paper – all those women fighting for their right to be heard – she could be one of them, couldn’t she? She could be a woman doing something all for herself, couldn’t she? Wasn’t it just a case of daring to dream?

  ‘Well, you should think about it, if you want to take all this seriously. I think Mrs Bell’s right. Young women will want these,’ Percy said.

  Vita took a deep breath, letting it sink in. She’d always been told that she wasn’t allowed to have ambition; that it was wrong for a girl to feel anything but dutiful. But maybe such ambition had been inside her all along, waiting for this moment.

  ‘Well, maybe down the line – yes, it could be a business. We could start off small. Build it up. See what happens. And you’re right, Percy. And about the name. Top Drawer lingerie.’ She put her hand up, miming seeing the words. ‘I can see it on the advertising posters.’

  ‘Are you not getting a bit ahead of yourself there, lassie?’ Percy said, impersonating Mrs Bell.

  ‘Not at all. Paris. Milan. Rome. We could go big. Huge,’ she laughed. She was joking, of course, but Percy gave her a wry smile.

  ‘Why not? Every woman needs underwear.’

  Vita bit her lip. ‘And you’d do it with me, right? Be partners. Split it all fifty–fifty?’

  ‘Well, it’s more your baby than mine. But I’ll help you, of course. I suppose we’d better warn Mrs Bell that she’s nurturing an international businesswoman.’

  Vita laughed. ‘Poor Mrs B. You know, I think she was a bit disappointed that our rendezvous was so innocent. She doesn’t suspect a thing? About Edward, I mean?’