Starlight (7 page)

‘You mean, to a pub? Are you joking? My mother would shoot me. You know what pubs are like here – no' for women.'

‘Sally and Arnold were going to a pub.'

‘Well, Sally can probably do what she likes. Ma keeps tabs on me.'

Rusty sighed deeply. ‘All right, I'll take you home, then. Don't say I can't come on the train with you, because I'm coming, whatever you say.'

‘I'll say, thanks very much,' Jess retorted, repenting of her irritation and laughing. ‘It'll be nice to have company.'

Eleven

On the train, he sat close and told her he didn't know Leith at all. His father had lived in the Old Town and that's where his own lodgings were, but Leith was a complete unknown. Still, Jess, as a Leither, would be able to tell him all about it.

‘I'm no' a Leither!' she cried. ‘I'm an Edinburgh girl. Ma only took the flat where we are now because it was cheaper than where we were. But I love Leith, anyway. Some folk disapprove – say it's all sailors and fallen women – but I say it's exciting and a fine place to live.'

‘Another place for you to show me, then. At this rate, I'll soon be an expert on this part of the world.'

‘You are half Scottish. It's your world, anyway.'

‘I've got two worlds, that's my trouble.'

‘You miss England?'

He nodded. ‘And my folks. But, it's strange, I do feel an affinity with Scotland. Maybe if I can get to be head projectionist some time, I think I'll settle.'

Jess's eyes widened. ‘Head projectionist? Why, that'd mean Ben would have to leave!'

‘Wouldn't be the end of the world, would it?'

At the coolness of Rusty's tone, Jess said quickly, ‘No, but he's very good, isn't he?'

‘And handsome?'

Jess stood up, clutching her bag. ‘Train's stopping. We're there.'

‘Didn't take long.'

‘Won't take long to get to where I live, either. It was nice of you to bring me home, but you needn't have done, you know.'

‘Who's talking about need? I wanted to take you home.'

On the short walk to the flat, they didn't attempt to link arms, and it seemed to Jess that Rusty had lost his usual good humour. Had she given herself away? Shown too clearly her dismay at the thought of Ben's leaving? No, she'd recovered very quickly – he couldn't have noticed anything. Still, when they reached her door at the side of Derry Beattie's shop, she stole a quick glance at Rusty and saw that for the first time his face was turned away from her. He was certainly upset.

‘This is it,' she said cheerfully. ‘This is where I live.'

He stopped in his tracks, staring around at the traffic hurtling along Great Junction Street and the people hurrying by.

‘Where?' he asked. ‘Where d'you mean?'

‘Here, over this greengrocer's. We've got the flat upstairs.'

‘Oh, I see.' He looked up at the lighted, curtained windows, and suddenly seemed to relax. ‘Over a fruit shop – that's nice.'

‘Used to love to look at the apples and oranges,' she told him. ‘Used to love to smell all the different fruits and vegetables. Still do, in fact.'

He was looking at her now, smiling down, as she was rapidly trying to decide whether or not she should ask him in. No, she didn't think so. This was only the first time they'd been out, and if she were to bring him up to see her mother and Marguerite, they'd be sure to think he was more than she'd said he was. It was true, it was still not late and she felt bad ending his evening for him, but what could she do?

On a sudden impulse, she reached up and kissed his cheek.

‘There you are, Rusty – a colleague's kiss. Goodnight, and thank you for a lovely evening.'

‘A colleague's kiss?' he repeated, and took her in his arms. ‘Well, here's another.'

Not true, thought Jess, as his mouth met hers in a long, sweet and deliberate kiss. Oh, not true at all! Pulling herself away, she felt a touch of unexpected excitement coursing through her, and was annoyed with him again, that he should have been able to make her feel like that.

‘I thought you said you were going to behave yourself in future,' she said coldly. ‘We're supposed to be just a couple of colleagues.'

‘I was hoping you didn't want just that.' He was winding his scarf around his neck, keeping his eyes on her face. ‘I'm sorry, Jess, I couldn't help myself.'

‘Yes, well, all right, but I've got to go in now.' The effect of his kiss having now faded, Jess was feeling more in command and admitting to herself that she had been a bit unreasonable. Fellows did like the goodnight kiss, she knew that – it was just that she hadn't expected Rusty to kiss her in that way.

‘See you in the morning,' she told him. ‘Now, you'd better hurry for your train. Get out of the cold.'

‘We'll go out again, won't we?' he asked quickly. ‘I haven't been struck off your list?'

‘What list?' She laughed. ‘OK, we'll go out again. If we can fix it up.'

But when he was walking slowly away and she looked up at what she knew to be the living room window, she thought she could just see a curtain being replaced and a figure move behind it. Marguerite taking a look at Rusty. Letting herself into the stair, Jess ran up to the flat. Talk about being nosey!

‘Well, what did you think of him?' she asked at once, as her mother and sister looked up from another card game.

‘Who?' Addie asked.

‘Rusty, of course. I saw you peeping, Marguerite!'

‘Heard your voices, couldn't resist it,' Marguerite answered blandly. ‘Seemed a lovely guy, from what I could tell.'

‘Yes, he's very nice. Tall and handsome.'

‘Tall and handsome and very nice,' Addie repeated with a smile. ‘But still no' for you?'

‘No' for me,' Jess agreed.

Twelve

As autumn slowly turned to winter, things at the Princes were going well. Perhaps because people were easier in their minds after the Munich agreement and felt more like going out, ticket sales were up, which meant the staff, too, were relaxed, and even optimistic about the future.

Trevor, the organist, outdid himself, playing his popular tunes, while the cafe was always full, and the usherettes couldn't keep up with the demand for ice cream, which Jess had to keep on ordering. As for Mr Hawthorne himself, he was in a perpetually good mood, much given to praising everybody, particularly Jess, who was fast becoming, as Sally described it, his ‘blue-eyed girl'.

‘Honestly, I think if he could promote you somehow or other, he would,' she told Jess, who only looked at her with widening eyes.

‘Promote me? Whatever are you talking about, Sally? I'm no' looking to do your job, when you're the best there is!'

‘Hey, listen to us!' Sally cried, with one of her chuckles. ‘Are we the mutual admiration society, or what? But I don't mean he wants to put you in my job – I just think he'd like to make you his assistant. Get you to help with the budgeting and cash handling and all his chores, because he's got no help, you ken.'

‘How about Edie?'

‘She's fine for what she does – secretarial and that – but she's got no head for figures. She'd run a mile from a budget!'

‘He could do with an assistant, then,' Jess said slowly, her mind fixed on new and dizzying prospects. ‘But there's no such post, is there?'

‘Afraid not.' Sally tapped Jess's arm. ‘But you could always try for something at one of the big cinemas, after you've been here a bit. I tell you, you're a natural for running things, and George would give you a good reference.'

‘Try for another cinema?' Jess cried, scandalized. ‘Sally, I'd never leave the Princes! This is where I want to be.'

‘Ah, that's nice, dear. But you're ambitious, eh? Got to go where the work is.'

‘Somebody leaving?' asked a voice that could always send Jess's heart fluttering, and she couldn't help blushing slightly as Ben Daniel looked in at the box office, a smile in his dark brown eyes, a cigarette at his lip sending smoke over his fine dark head. ‘Not you, Sally, is it?'

‘No, no, Ben, I'm staying put. I'm just telling Jess here that she should maybe think of trying for a better job sometime. No need to stay in the box office.'

‘It's a piece of nonsense!' Jess cried. ‘I haven't been here five minutes!'

Ben's eyes moved to her and he nodded. ‘But you've got potential,' he said quietly. ‘Didn't I say you'd be going places? Climbing the ladder?'

‘I like it here.'

‘Ah, now, would that be because of a certain young man not a million miles away?'

Oh, no! Jess froze. Oh, no, he'd seen her with Rusty! The very thing she hadn't wanted to happen!

No wonder he hadn't made a move to be more than friendly towards her, then. Like Sally and others, he thought Rusty was her young man, which he was not and never would be. Why, she'd only agreed to meet him now and again because she felt sorry for him, all alone in a strange city. And they'd only walked in the parks, or by the Water of Leith on Sunday afternoons which were free to them in a way the evenings usually weren't. There was nothing between them – nothing! But she could tell from the smile on Ben's face, which was a replica of the smile on Sally's, that she'd be wasting her breath saying so.

All the same, she had to speak.

‘If you mean Rusty, we are just good friends,' she managed to bring out coolly, though the deepening flush on her cheeks did nothing to change the smiles on the watchers' faces.

‘We believe you!' Sally cried happily. ‘Thousands wouldn't. Ben, shouldn't you be in your box? We're going to be opening any minute.'

‘On my way. Just had to snatch a smoke.' He grinned. ‘Good film this week by the way – comedy with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.'

‘Oh, I know, and I love those screwball films!' Sally glanced at Jess. ‘You should do your famous nipping up to the circle, dear, and give yourself a treat.'

‘I have to check the ice cream,' Jess answered and, without looking again at Ben, left the box office.

‘She doesn't like you to say Rusty's her young man,' Sally whispered. ‘Don't ask me why.'

‘I never said he was,' Ben replied. ‘Got an ashtray round here? I'd better dash.'

On her way back to the box office, her face blank, her thoughts whirling, Jess heard her name called and swung round to see Pam Gregg approaching from the cafe.

‘Hello, there, Jess! Mrs Baxter's got me doing the rounds for Nancy.' Pam shook a small box and grinned. ‘Like to contribute to her leaving present?'

‘Nancy's leaving?' Jess was remembering the young waitress, Nancy Scott. ‘Oh, yes, she's getting married, eh? Come back to the box office, Pam, I'll have to get my bag.'

‘Is Sally there?'

‘Yes, just for the afternoon.'

‘Good, I'll catch her, too.'

A waitress's post going at the cinema cafe? For a moment or two, Jess wondered if Marguerite might be interested. No, it wasn't likely. She'd have to work evenings, which would not appeal – hours at the teashop were much shorter. Still, she would mention it, Jess decided, just in case, and scrabbling in her bag for something to give Pam, managed to avoid Sally's still knowing gaze.

‘When's the interview?' she asked Pam, who said she wasn't sure.

‘But it'll be some time in December. Nancy's wedding's at the end of the month.' Pam shook her head. ‘We're going to miss her so much, you ken. Just hope we can get someone we all like.'

‘You girls and Joan Baxter can get on with anyone,' Sally said comfortingly. ‘And Joan'll pick the right lassie, never fear.'

Who wouldn't be Marguerite, Jess thought, as Fred arrived to open the doors. Because she wouldn't want the job, anyway.

When Rusty came loping in to see her in his break that evening, Jess wasted no time in buttonholing him.

‘Rusty, did you tell Ben we were going out sometimes?'

‘Ben? No!' Rusty's grey eyes sparkled with irritation. ‘Why should I? What the hell has it got to do with him?'

‘Nothing, only he seems to know.'

‘No secret, is it?'

Jess, turning to attend to a customer, made no reply. ‘So, it is a secret?' Rusty pressed, when she was free. ‘Look, why are you so upset? Has Ben said something?'

‘He made some silly remark.'

‘He's not usually silly.'

‘He was teasing – the way people do.'

‘And you minded?'

‘It's just that I don't want him – I mean anyone – to get the wrong idea.'

For a long moment, Rusty stood looking down at her, his eyes so strangely cold, his mouth a straight hard line.

‘Sorry going for a few walks with me has got you so worried,' he said curtly. ‘Now, I have to get back.'

‘Rusty!' she called after him, but he was already moving swiftly across the foyer, as an irate man began tapping coins on the glass wall of the box office.

‘Two front stalls, miss, WHEN you're ready!'

‘I'm sorry, sir.'

‘Shouldn't be rowing with your fella when you're at work, you know.'

‘Two front stalls,' Jess said icily as she handed him his tickets. ‘And your change. Thank you, sir.'

‘Thank YOU!' he cried, glancing with satisfaction at the woman by his side.

Good job Mr H. hadn't seen that little exchange, Jess thought grimly. Couldn't see him wanting to promote her after something like that. Hadn't been her day, had it? But, for sure, it wasn't the customers' fault. Big smile, Jess, she told herself, and was rewarded by surprised smiles from the next couple buying tickets.

At home, her bad day over, Jess remembered to mention the cinema cafe job to Marguerite, being quick to add that she'd probably not be interested, seeing as there'd be evening work.