behind Verrall. He held a fist-full of snow up to Bella’s cheek and pressed. The cold scorched her face. ‘You are like a bad kitten. You must learn to look after yourself better! And not to lead men on.’
‘Oh no,’ she said, more pitifully. ‘I did not—I only meant—’
‘Yes, yes, that’s the usual,’ East said, clearly disgusted. ‘You only meant to have some fun and next you found him excited.’
‘Let me get your sister,’ said Verrall, in some agitation. His delicate hands flapped.
‘Oh no, no!’ she cried, quite desperate. ‘You must not—she will be angry, she will say it is because I am too young. Please do not tell her.’
‘Well, you are only a little thing—how were you to know how he might be?’
East snorted. ‘She is a woman, ain’t she? Born to be one, born knowing.’
‘You are too hard on her, East. It’s only a baby still.’
‘I am not,’ Bella said stoutly. She brushed down her front and tried to sweep the dirt off the back of her skirt. ‘And I did not get beet juice on my boots, so you need not tell.’
‘Well, come with us,’ East said, long-suffering. ‘We will look after you. And no more going off into corners or you will get what comes to you.’
Bella opened her eyes wider and the tears welling there did not fall. She shut her teeth together and refused.
Joy of the Moment
Side by side with Mayhew, who had commandeered the stool next to hers, Aurora sat watching a dancer—the one Mayhew told them he’d come to see. He was looking for a bit of flash for his next venture, he said, and a quick man could find treasures in these dark woods that the slower-moving producers in Boston and New York might give their ears to book.
‘Elvira of the Regiment,’ the band captain called, and Elvira came prancing on, in a tight military jacket with a soldier’s cap, long plaited tails dangling down her back; her small worn boots had brass heels that clicked prettily to the music. Now she seemed only lazily beating time; now she rushed along as if seized by the joy of the moment. Those little brass heels! They gave a tantalizing syncopation to the dancing. Aurora looked round for her sisters. But Clover was still off with Victor Saborsky—and Bella? She could not crane her neck far enough to see Bella at the card tables.
Elvira smiled as she danced, with predatory, evenly spaced teeth. Off came her jacket and cap, revealing a scrap of bodice and a loose-laced cummerbund. Off flew her jaunty skirt, and she was dancing in what appeared to be her underthings, a red-dyed rag-bag with a wild gypsy air. Tapping-mad, she reeled and stamped and flew. At the conclusion of the dance she swirled the skirt up to make herself an officer’s cape, then trotted along the edge of the platform in an orderly fashion and took leave of her public with a right military salute. As she wove through the crowd there was no doubt that she was making a series of appointments with various of the men.
Not that for us, Aurora thought. We don’t have to; we’re going to make money on our feet. And they had Mama, who knew the ropes and meant to keep them in the first flight, both in art and respectability.
Mayhew had risen to clap hands for the little military dancer, but he did not leave Aurora’s table entirely, only reaching across to give the dancer a pasteboard card and hold her in a moment’s conversation.
Mayhew’s acquaintance could not be wasted—Aurora knew she ought to sit with him, work the conversation round to their act, and invite him to see them at the Hippodrome. But while he was occupied with Elvira, she thought she’d run and check on Bella, whose absence was suddenly causing her a cramp of fright. She had forgotten how rough the men were, how green Bella was. She made her way among the tables.
But Bella was nowhere to be seen—no East or Verrall, either. Bella must have gone outside. The air was thick with smoke back here, and the stink stronger. Aurora stood still for a moment, thinking; then sidestepped back through the crowded tables to get her wraps. Too cold to do without, if she had to search for long.
She reached for Bella’s things on back of her chair, and told Sybil that she had to go. ‘Keep him entertained for me till we get back,’ she said,