A Vision of Loveliness - By Louise Levene Page 0,44

was sitting up on the draining board rinsing the hair cream off her legs and armpits in the sink with an old pink face flannel. Jane thought for a minute that she’d actually done the washing up but Lorna wasn’t going to get off that easily: the heap of cups and glasses and milk pans was now piled up on the floor in a big plastic bowl. Once Suzy had sponged off the last of the stuff she jumped down from the sink, sank into the bubble bath and began rubbing herself with a pumice stone – Polish those elbows every week.

‘Mmmm. This could well be my last bath in the kitchen, Janey darling. Henry says he’s found a Nice. Little. Flat.’ She sponged her feet in time to this Happy. Little. Thought.

Jane kept her face in shape this time. She’d been thinking it over and had decided that a freezing cold fleapit behind Bourne and Hollingsworth shared with an Egyptologist’s fancy woman was still better than life with Doreen. But Suzy was quick to remember last night’s promise.

‘You can come too if you like, Janey. You don’t want to live in Norbury all your life. Henry says he’ll run us over there on Monday lunchtime to have a look and see if I like it.’ She was now soaping each leg with a great big yellow sponge she’d somehow managed to half-inch from a fancy chemist’s in Piccadilly. The hairless leg was so smooth and shiny it looked like plastic. Like Barbie’s bathtime. ‘If I like it he’ll send one of his men round with a van in the afternoon to pick up our gear. We can leave all the hanging stuff on the rail. The rest is mostly shoes. You might as well have all Glenda’s clobber. It’ll all be out of date by the time she gets back from sunny Spain – if she ever does. There’s some tea chests in Lorna’s room. Now then. Do you fancy sharing my new flat with me?’

Be nice. Be very, very nice.

‘I’d love to but I don’t know if I could afford it . . .’

Suzy smiled a funny little smile.

‘Don’t worry, sweetie. That’s all taken care of.’

Apparently the flat belonged to a business associate of Henry’s who’d gone abroad for a year after his beautiful young wife was killed in a car crash. Only twenty-five. Two lovely little girls. Twins. Tragic. Hong Kong. And he didn’t want it left unoccupied while he was away in case his sister-in-law moved in. Ghastly grasping woman. Ran one of those data processing places. Divorced.

‘Why doesn’t he rent it out?’

Suzy barely missed a beat.

‘Oh, he reckons tenants are nothing but trouble. Cost you more in the long run. Dilapidations, all that. Rather lend it to friends. Anyway what do you say? I had such fun dressing you up yesterday and I’m sure the whole twin thing could work out. You’ll have your own room. And your own bathroom.’

That clinched it. Doreen’s bloodstained toothbrush. The death-wish boiler. The fuck-off-I-hate-you bath cubes. Or her own bathroom.

Suzy stood up in the bath and soaped the rest of herself. Nice figure. It can’t be denied that a superlative figure is top of the list for a beautiful woman. Round tidy bosom, round tidy bum, nice neat waist in between. But it was no nicer than Jane’s.

‘What are your vital statistics?’ wondered Jane.

‘With or without?’

‘With or without what?’

‘Waspie, darling. You don’t think anybody really has a 22-inch waist, do you?’ The foundation of all stylish dressing is a tiny waistline.

‘With, then.’

‘34-22-35. And you?’

‘The same. Only I haven’t got a waspie.’ Suzy stuck out her tongue. All right for Suzy with her Henries. A decent girdle cost fifty bob.

‘Did Big Terry mean what he said about that photographer?’

‘What? The twin thing? Could be a good gimmick. Have you ever actually done any modelling?’

‘No. I did go to Trudi Morton once and they seemed quite interested but the woman just wanted to sell me a modelling course really and she kept asking me about my bust size.’

‘Oh her.’ Suzy pursed her lips and rubbed at her feet with the pumice stone.

‘Did you ever do a course?’

‘I did actually. Daddy won a fortune on a fifty-to-one outsider in the Two Thousand Guineas when I was sixteen and bought me six weeks with Mary Madison. I bunked off most of it but it knocked me into shape. And their agency isn’t bad. Teaches you which jobs to say no to at least.