‘I got a job posing with no clothes on so you wouldn’t need to tinker around,’ Rosie shouted, rapidly approaching him.
John Gardiner pulled off the rubber gloves he’d been wearing and stuffed them in his overall pocket. He turned his back on his angry daughter and disappeared into the kitchenette, throwing over a shoulder, ‘I’ve told you what I think about that! Daughter of mine, acting like a little tart! Disgusting!’ A moment later Rosie could hear the squeaky tap being turned on.
‘And I think it’s disgusting what you’re getting up to … and dangerous too.’ Rosie sighed, thinking it was pointless arguing with the stubborn old git. ‘You’d better pack it up, Dad,’ she warned with a hint of despair in her tone. ‘We can manage now I’m working at the Windmill Theatre and getting good pay.’
John started setting cups as though he’d not heard her pleading with him. ‘Brought me in any empties, have you?’
‘No! And I’m not going to! And I’m not doing any more deliveries for you neither. Nearly got me head blown off in a raid last time.’ Rosie kept quiet about the fact that she’d also almost got set about by looters. Her father exasperated her, but she didn’t want to worry him unnecessarily. Besides, Dawn had reassured her that nothing more would come of it. And Rosie put a lot of store in what Dawn Nightingale said. She wasn’t sure why that was, being as they hardly knew one another.
‘I’ll pay you for them … a shilling a pop … that’s a good amount for an empty bottle of whisky.’ John carried on as though he’d not heard his daughter’s complaint. He glanced slyly at her. ‘Must be loads of places round in Soho where they’re putting out empties. Can’t you just have a poke around the dustbins, dear, and fetch me some in?’
‘Somebody died of rotgut poisoning the other day, you know …’
‘Nothing to do with me.’ John banged the filled kettle on the gas stove and put a match under it. ‘I know what I’m doing; I worked as a chemist’s assistant for a long time.’ He tapped his nose in emphasis.
Rosie’s father had always been one to do a bit of home brewing, just for the family, but since the war started he’d seen the profit to be had operating an illegal still, as had many other people who’d turned to peddling hooch.
‘Mum would hate what you’re doing, you know,’ Rosie said in desperation, hoping to talk sense into her father.
‘Oh, yes, I know that. Prudence never liked me enjoying myself or having cash in my pocket.’ John’s lips thinned as he recalled his dead wife. She’d been gone seven years, having succumbed to pleurisy, leaving him to raise their daughter.
A bang on the door made Rosie start to attention and stare wide-eyed at her father. She was on tenterhooks all the time fearing that either the police or the Revenue men would get a tip-off and turn up to search the house. Rosie knew if her father’s still in the basement were uncovered he’d get a long prison sentence. If he were implicated – even wrongly – in supplying lethal moonshine that had poisoned somebody, he might hang.
Unconcerned by the rata-tat John finished filling the teapot with boiling water. ‘Calm down,’ he told his agitated daughter. ‘That’ll be Lenny fetching me round some labels. I’ve been expecting him.’ John held out a cup of tea towards Rosie.
‘Don’t want no fuckin’ tea!’ Rosie was incensed by her father’s attitude. From the moment she’d heard the knocker crash against the door her heart had been crazily racing. ‘I’m sick of being scared half to death all the time,’ she hissed. ‘If you don’t pack it in, I’m moving out.’ She stormed out of the kitchen and ran up the stairs. About to enter her bedroom, she hesitated, smearing angry tears from her lashes. Crouching down by the banisters, she watched through the sticks as her father opened the door and ushered inside a young man.
They started to talk in low voices and Rosie strained to hear what her dad said to Lenny Purves. Lenny and his father had a legitimate printing business on the High Street and did some under-the-counter stuff on the side. Rosie watched her father hand over some money in exchange for a brown paper package that the young man took out of his pocket. Then her father was ambling away, leaving Lenny to see himself out.
But he didn’t; he glanced up and saw Rosie watching him.
‘Ain’t sure you should be up there earwigging, should you?’
‘Ain’t sure you should be wearing civvies. Too scared to fight?’ Rosie taunted.
‘Got poor eyesight. Can’t see nuthin’, me,’ Lenny said slyly. He’d swung the lead at his medical. His father had dodgy eyes so Lenny had pretended he was afflicted too and couldn’t see past the end of his nose. He’d been discharged from the army on medical grounds almost before he’d been enlisted.
Lenny liked to think he wasn’t a coward, he was just protecting his inheritance. His father was a crafty git who’d stashed away a tidy sum, and Lenny was an only child because his mother had died having him. Lenny didn’t want to risk taking a bullet and losing out on enjoying a pot of money coming his way.
‘Can’t see nothing … that right?’ Rosie said sarcastically. ‘Just saw me well enough, didn’t you.’
‘Yeah … well, you’re a sight for sore eyes, ain’t yer, Rosie,’ he purred.
‘Piss off,’ Rosie said defiantly, standing up. She knew Lenny fancied her; he’d tried to touch her up before on one occasion when he’d come round to bring her father’s order. But she’d nothing but contempt for him. He was a gangly, spotty youth with unkempt greasy hair.
Lenny swaggered to the bottom of the stairs and gazed up at her, head cocked to one side. ‘Gonna give us a show then?’ he asked coarsely. He pulled out the money her father had just handed over. ‘Want paying to flash yer tits, I suppose, do you?’ He peeled off a ten-shilling note. ‘There … how about that for a start?’ He began climbing the stairs, leering at her and waving the cash in his fingers to and fro. ‘If I like what I see I’ll pay up for the works …’
Rosie felt her face burning in anger and embarrassment. She hadn’t told many people that she’d started working as a nude in the Revudeville shows at the Windmill Theatre, but obviously word had got around.
Lenny lived just a few streets away and was about twenty-one. He’d been at the same school but in a different class. Rosie had never liked him; he’d always been a show-off with a fast mouth.
‘I told you to piss off, so get going before I call me dad and tell him what you just said to me.’
Lenny was just below her on the stairs now. He poked his face forward giving Rosie a close up of a yellow-headed spot on his chin. She recoiled from his sour breath but refused to back away.
‘What’s yer old man gonna do to help you?’ Lenny drawled. ‘I’ll knock him down with a punch. He’s probably disgusted by you anyhow now you’re stripping off. Come on … how much to go all the way?’ He looked Rosie up and down, suddenly grabbing at her breast.
Rosie shoved her palm into Lenny’s face making him stumble down a few stairs and clutch at the banister.
‘Rosie? Want any tea this evening or are you still sulking up there?’ John Gardiner had come out of the kitchen and ambled along the hallway. He stopped when he saw his daughter and his business associate face to face on the stairs. ‘What’s going on?’ he demanded.
‘Nothing, mate, just thought I’d say hello to Rosie being as we used to be school pals.’ Lenny descended the stairs in a cocky, rolling gait, grinning. ‘Let us know when you need a few more of them labels run off. Nice doing business with you. Me dad says hello …’
As the front door slammed shut after Lenny’s departing figure John stared suspiciously at his daughter. ‘Was you misbehaving with him just then?’
Rosie