Clouds among the Stars. Victoria Clayton

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       ELEVEN

      A canal, bordered on each side by a leafless framework of pleached trees, flowed between two rows of terraced houses. Gas lamps, placed sparingly along the cobbled pavements, cast ribbons of light on the water and moving shadows across the soft red-brick façades. The houses had severely plain sash windows and graceful fanlights. This small Georgian utopia on the cusp of Richmond, where Beauty frolicked, was called Horn-on-the-Green, presumably because one end of the terrace adjoined a park. This I had discovered from my A – Z, for now it was too dark to see it. At the town end was a pair of wrought-iron gates, padlocked and admitting pedestrians only, through a wicket gate.

      For reassurance I felt in my pocket for the sheet of paper my father had given me. I had read it several times and was familiar with its message. In a large hand, in black ink, beneath an engraved address on thick cream paper, were the following words: ‘Dear Waldo, I have read with distress of your misfortune. If I can be of any service to you, I am yours to command, Rupert Wolvespurges.’ Though well-expressed, the letter lacked warmth. Remembering it now, I felt thoroughly discouraged from asking a virtual stranger if he would lend me two thousand pounds.

      I had been amazed to discover that my father had kept in touch with Rupert Wolvespurges all this time, without saying a word to anyone. My mother would have been absolutely furious if she had known. From the moment of his exclusion, visitors had quickly learned not to mention Rupert’s name in our household if they wished to avoid the permafrost of her displeasure. It had seemed strange to me, then, how rapidly he had passed out of our lives. Only Portia and I had felt, apparently, that the sentence of permanent exile had been too harsh. Bron and Ophelia, precociously attractive to the opposite sex, were already profoundly absorbed by their own lives. Anyway, neither of them had been more than vaguely attached to Rupert. Maria-Alba’s dislike of men was too deeply ingrained to permit her to take any man’s side against a woman. Cordelia was just a baby. In a house so filled with sociable comings and goings Portia had soon lost interest in someone she never saw. As the years passed, I thought of Rupert only occasionally, in disconnected images, as someone almost imaginary like a character in a book, for ever lost.

      The sound of voices strained to shrillness came from number 10, which was Rupert’s house. The escaping warmth from the open front door sent wisps of steam into the night. I walked into the hall, threw my scarf on to the pile of coats and asked myself if I would rather be at the dentist. I usually answer this question with an unequivocal ‘no’ and feel heartened as a result. But for once I was in two minds. A cheque signed by my mother and marked ‘Return to Drawer’ had been brought round that morning by the local butcher. He had made a plaintive appeal through the letter box. My errand could not be put off.

      ‘How’th the chick?’

      A girl with a large bust and blue sequins on her upper eyelids kissed my cheek and put a glass of something sparkling into my hand. I recognised her voice. A few hours earlier I had telephoned in a state of trepidation and asked to speak to Rupert. A girl with a lisp and an inability to pronounce her Rs had answered. She said Rupert – only she called him Woopert – and Archie were expecting one or two people for drinks. I had made polite noises about not liking to turn up uninvited. She had said not to be a thilly ath and come. Apparently Rupert was flying to New York the next day so if I wanted to see him urgently I must take my chance.

      It was after nine now and the racket suggested large numbers of la jeunesse dorée warming up for a night of revel. I recognised a decadent Weimar Republic chic, brought into vogue by the film Cabaret. Two men wearing basques, stockings, high heels and bowler hats leaned against a piano on which a black man in a pink suit was playing something jazzy.

      I was conscious that the hem of my skirt was hanging down at the back, that there was a run in my tights and that Portia’s suede jacket had a blob of makeup on the sleeve, which I had tried, unsuccessfully, to scrub off. My yellow silk dress would have done wonders for my self-confidence but Portia had left it at Dimitri’s house and the police had impounded it.

      ‘I’m Harriet Byng.’ I tried not to stare at her breasts. ‘I telephoned earlier.’

      ‘Hello, darling. I’m Wothalind.’ Rosalind’s freckled bosom swelled within the bodice of her dress as she leaned over to pour herself another glass of champagne. There is nothing sexual about my interest in other women’s breasts. But it is difficult not be curious when you have next to none of your own. ‘Who did you thay you were?’

      ‘Harriet.’

      ‘Hello, Harriet darling.’ She took a swig and looked at me over the rim of her glass with large swimming eyes. ‘Isn’t thith fun? Woopert and Archie alwayth have thuch lovely partieth.’

      ‘Actually I was hoping to be able to talk to Rupert. But perhaps this isn’t the right moment –’

      ‘I do love Woopert. Tho much! But he never taketh me theriouthly.’ Her eyes swum a bit more.

      ‘I’d probably better go – another time –’

      ‘Don’t be bashful, darling. Woopert’th over there, being nithe to evwybody.’ She pointed to the corner of the room. ‘Exthept me.’ She hiccuped sadly and turned away.

      A fair young man of epicene beauty who wore a dinner jacket and tiger-skin shorts, winked at me and blew me a kiss. An equally gynandrous figure with long red hair and a stubbly chin offered me the cigarette he or she was smoking. I did not like to refuse, though the butt was uninvitingly soggy. I was careful not to inhale.

      Peering between the heads of the crowd gathered around him, I had a chance to observe Rupert. He was dressed in a striped blazer with a bow tie and his black hair was slicked back from his forehead with glistening pomade. His face was covered with white makeup. His eyebrows were upside-down Vs, pencilled starkly in black, and his lips were cherry red. He was recounting a story that was drowned by explosions of laughter from his audience. His was an interesting face, expressive, СКАЧАТЬ