He had tried to sleep but the gambling sailors made too much noise. Instead he studied the reflections in the window; the blurred beak of his own nose, that thong as if of an Indian brave imprinted across his brow by the absurd cap which he had removed at Crewe and which now lay among the cigarette b.u.t.ts at his feet; the jutting shoulders of the poker players who sprayed their cards like fans beneath their mouths. Madame b.u.t.terfly Madame b.u.t.terfly, he thought, for he had sneaked a glance at the soldier opposite and seen that he was now weeping, the letter crumpled in his fist, scrunching apple blossom.

At Wolverhampton the carriage had all but emptied, leaving only a sleeping woman cradling a badminton racket. Some miles from Nuneaton, as the train jolted with drawn blinds between an embankment, the man gave an audible sob. 'Forgive me,' he said. His voice was educated although he was wiping his nose on his sleeve. 'Bad news?' Meredith asked, and lent him a handkerchief.

The letter was from Bunny's father, telling of a bomb that had exploded in the garden. Thinking in terms of his mother's back yard in Hoylake, the washing sagging between poplar trees, Meredith had prepared himself for details of death. In his head he saw the hung sheets dotted with coal-s.m.u.ts torn from their pegs and ripped into bandages as they sailed above the foxgloves. He a.s.sumed a melancholy expression and said, 'I'm so sorry. No, please keep the handkerchief.'

'There was a 300-year-old oak,' Bunny said. 'And a yew hedge even older. It wasn't a raid. The bomber released its load because it was having difficulty reaching the coast. Another mile or so, another thirty seconds at the most and they would have dropped harmlessly in the Channel.'

'What rotten luck,' said Meredith.

'Robyn was found in the orchard with his leg blown off.'

'What can I say,' murmured Meredith. 'There aren't any adequate words.'

'My father had to shoot him.'

Meredith still hadn't forgiven him not for the big house, the holidays touring France on bicycles, the expensive schooling, the mutilated pony or the affectionate parents. He himself had never known a father, being the issue of a man who smoked cigars and a girl plucked from the typing pool of the Cunard buildings in 1913.

Desmond Fairchild was loitering in the corridor when Meredith emerged from the rehearsal room. He demanded to know when they would have the use of the stage. Like a beggar, he went so far as to pluck at Meredith's sleeve. 'Sorry to go on about it, squire,' he said. 'I just find it impossible to get into character here.'

'So I've noticed,' said Meredith, and he pushed past him impatiently and ran down the grand staircase in search of Bunny. He found him in the station buffet slouched against the counter eating toasted tea-cakes. Beside him stood a man whose boots had burst asunder at the toes.

'No wonder you look ill,' Meredith said. 'You should eat proper food.'

'I don't have your appet.i.te,' said Bunny. 'Nor your taste buds.'

'My G.o.d, what a stench,' cried Meredith and, s.n.a.t.c.hing up Bunny's plate, took it to a table near the door.

Bunny followed. 'You don't have to be so unkind,' he complained. 'People have feelings, you know.'

'If you'd stood next to him much longer you'd be scratching by teatime.'

'I haven't got your sensitive skin either.'

'That's true enough,' said Meredith and, unable to apologise directly for his outburst at rehearsal, invited him instead to dinner that evening at the Commercial Hotel.

'I'd rather read,' said Bunny.

'Come early and leave early,' coaxed Meredith, and as though it had just occurred to him wondered aloud whether it would be a good idea to include young Harbour.

'Better not,' said Bunny, avoiding his eye. 'It's as well not to rush things.'

'I wasn't very nice to him this morning.'

'You weren't very nice to quite a few people,' said Bunny mildly.

His amiability irritated Meredith; it made him spiteful. He referred disparagingly to Bunny's demob suit. 'Own up,' he demanded. 'You sleep in it.'

'Only in the winter months,' conceded Bunny. 'I suppose this has to do with Hilary.'

'I telephoned twice this morning. I couldn't raise a d.i.c.ky bird.'

'People go out, you know.'

'At eight in the morning!'

'Hilary's mother could be ill. From what you say she's very frail.'

'Could be,' sneered Meredith. 'But I bet my bottom dollar she isn't.'

'The phone could be out of order. Perhaps the bill hasn't been paid.'

'I've paid the d.a.m.ned bill,' shouted Meredith. 'I pay for everything,' and he lit another cigarette and exhaled furiously, glaring through the smoke at Bunny munching on the last of his tea-cakes.

The man in the worn-out boots limped towards the door carrying an ancient suitcase. Meredith, noticing Bunny fumbling in the pocket of his mackintosh, leaned across the table and seized him by the wrist. 'Don't you dare,' he hissed. 'By the state of you, it's you that needs the hand-out.'

'I was looking for my matches,' said Bunny crossly. He pursed his big mouth into such a babyish pout that Meredith found him comical; he sn.i.g.g.e.red.

'You lack consistency,' said Bunny. 'You blow with the wind.'

Meredith couldn't deny it. Often he suspected he hadn't the capacity to sustain either love or hate.

Encouraged, Bunny suggested he would be doing himself a favour if he asked Desmond Fairchild to dinner. The man might be something of a bounder, dispatching young Geoffrey every afternoon to that bookie in the Nelson Arms, not to mention the way he tapped his cigarettes on his thumbnail, but he was, after all, a favourite of Rose Lipman. Leastways, he was a distant connection of Councillor Harris, and he had made an enormous success as Cousin Syd in that comedy series on the Light Programme, quite apart from his role in Charley's Aunt Charley's Aunt on Sat.u.r.day Night Theatre. Appreciative letters were still arriving at the stage door from listeners to the Home Service. Meredith might not like him but he was a box office draw and bearing in mind that unfortunate incident in Windsor... on Sat.u.r.day Night Theatre. Appreciative letters were still arriving at the stage door from listeners to the Home Service. Meredith might not like him but he was a box office draw and bearing in mind that unfortunate incident in Windsor...

'Like him!' said Meredith. 'I detest him. The man's a sartorial offence. That camel-hair coat with the velvet collar... that vulgar hat.'

'It's possibly a mistake to make an enemy of someone on account of his trilby,' warned Bunny.

'I wouldn't stand him dinner if my life depended on it.'

'I despair,' said Bunny. He actually looked as though he did.

A young woman came in from the booking-hall trailed by a ragged child, its legs pocked with the marks of vermin. Beneath a man's jacket the woman wore a gaudy satin slip streaked at the hem with blood. Meredith clapped his hand over his nostrils.

'If I could,' said Bunny, only slightly smiling, 'I'd take you away from all this.'

Stella had run all the way on her errand to the Post Office; rather than let Meredith down she would have dropped in her tracks. She was quite composed copying the address onto the telegraph form, but when she came to the words: Am in h.e.l.l. Does ten years count for nothing? You must ring. Reverse charges. Devotedly Meredith Am in h.e.l.l. Does ten years count for nothing? You must ring. Reverse charges. Devotedly Meredith, she experienced such a choking sensation of jealousy she thought it must be like parachuting from an aeroplane, in that she couldn't breath and the world dropped away that she scrumpled up both sc.r.a.ps of paper and flung them into the metal basket beneath the counter.

She was half way up Stanley Street before she recovered and her heart stopped sinking in her breast. She retraced her steps just as swiftly, only to find the wastepaper basket had been emptied. Fetching another form, she wrote: Don't bother to telephone. Will not accept reverse charges. Yours Meredith Don't bother to telephone. Will not accept reverse charges. Yours Meredith. She gave the money for the words not used to a boy with ringworm throwing stones at a cat on a wall.

5.

The cast was allowed onto the stage five days before the opening night of the season. Meredith apologised for the delay. A leak had developed in a portion of the roof above the flies; there was still a slight pinking of water-drops splattering behind the flats of the living-room set. Rose was suing the builders.

The actors, now they had the use of the theatre, grew noticeably more confident. Dawn Allenby presented Richard St Ives with an oil-painting of a bull in a tortoisesh.e.l.l frame which had caught her eye at the back of a butcher's stall in St John's Market. It had been a bargain because the butcher was thinking of throwing it out in favour of a signed photograph of Field Marshal Montgomery. St Ives, while agreeing with Dotty that Freud might have something to say about the choice of subject, was rather taken with the gift. In return Dotty, on his behalf, bought Dawn Allenby a pot plant to which was wired a card saying: 'To Dawn, with great affection from Richard and Dorothy.'

The 'stopping rehearsal' of Dangerous Corner Dangerous Corner began at ten o'clock on Monday morning. Not until twelve o'clock, by which time no more than five minutes of the drama had been enacted, did Stella understand the meaning of the phrase. She hadn't known the lighting would play such an important part. Bunny, wearing a knitted Balaclava and carrying a clip board, called out commands to the chief electrician in a voice m.u.f.fled with pain. Geoffrey said he had complained earlier of toothache. There was some trouble with the follow-spot attached to the balcony rail of the upper circle. Then a whole bank of dimmers on the switchboard unaccountably fused. began at ten o'clock on Monday morning. Not until twelve o'clock, by which time no more than five minutes of the drama had been enacted, did Stella understand the meaning of the phrase. She hadn't known the lighting would play such an important part. Bunny, wearing a knitted Balaclava and carrying a clip board, called out commands to the chief electrician in a voice m.u.f.fled with pain. Geoffrey said he had complained earlier of toothache. There was some trouble with the follow-spot attached to the balcony rail of the upper circle. Then a whole bank of dimmers on the switchboard unaccountably fused.

Sometimes the actors went back up to their dressing-rooms for an hour at a stretch while she and Geoffrey stood in for them, posing languidly at the fireplace or leaning back on the settee, twirling empty wine gla.s.ses. Behind them a young man with a paint-flecked beard followed the designer about the set, twitching the hem of the velvet curtains hung at the window and rearranging the ornaments on the mantelpiece. Twice, when Meredith ordered 'Two steps stage left' and Geoffrey moved to the right, Meredith came bounding down the centre aisle shouting 'Left, left, ducky' and leapt onto the ap.r.o.n to seize him by the shoulders and shove him into place. Stella was torn between getting it right and being manhandled by Meredith. Geoffrey was also in charge of the effects record on the Panatrope; he was better at that than moving about the stage.

The prop-room became crowded with elderly men; stage-hands and fly-men, none of whom were needed for this particular production but who were there just the same, heating cans of baked beans in a saucepan on the fire. George said that Rose Lipman, having climbed from slop-girl at Kelly's Melodrama Theatre in Paradise Street to manager of the repertory company, didn't hold with casual labour. Any day the D'Oyly Carte could disembark at Lime Street station and hire every available hand. Geoffrey said it was altruistic extravagance. 'It's not your bleeding money,' George reminded him.

Someone called Prue, who until today had remained hidden in the wardrobe-room on the first floor pedalling her sewing machine, had a chair allocated for her use in the prompt corner and a s.p.a.ce reserved for cotton reels and safety pins on the props table in the wings. Every time the actors pa.s.sed in their evening dress she was there, flicking at their shoulders with a dampened clothes brush.

'That's my wardrobe mistress,' cried St Ives, winking suggestively and hugging her until she squirmed.

'I'm n.o.body's mistress, you daft beggar,' she countered, beating him with mock ferocity about the head, cheeks burning with delight.

St Ives had pencilled a little red spot at the corner of each eye, to make them look bigger. Wearing grease paint, he appeared younger and yet more sinister. But then they all did, even Grace Bird. They looked both sly and exhilarated, as though they were off to some party that would end in tears.

At half past one Geoffrey confided he was worried about Dawn Allenby.

'Why?' asked Stella.

'She's got a bottle in her dressing-room and it's almost empty. And she's sitting in a peculiar way, staring at herself in the mirror.'

'That's not peculiar,' Stella said. 'You do it all the time.'

He flounced off, tugging at his hair.

Stella's main job was to sit in the prompt corner with the book. Earlier, supervised by George, she had added a tablespoon of Camp coffee to half a pint of water and poured it into the cut gla.s.s whisky decanter on the sideboard. She had polished the gla.s.ses and checked there were seven Capstan in the cigarette box set on the low table beside the settee. George said that if she put in more the whole lot would be gone before the curtain rose on Act Two. The box was a musical one and made of silver. When opened it played the chorus of 'Spread a Little Happiness', although the book stipulated it ought to be the 'Wedding March'.

Dotty wore a sleeveless dress of black velvet caught at the hip with a diamante buckle. The flesh of her upper arm hung down when she reached for a cigarette, but it scarcely mattered. She was beyond that sort of upset. Her mouth was a red gash in her powdered face and when in Act Two she told her husband that the degenerate Martin had never loved her, never ever, even though they'd conducted an affair, real tears trickled from her tragic eyes.

At seven o'clock Stella was sent out to buy bacon sandwiches. It was dark and rain spat on the cobblestones. She ran to the cafe and fretted while the rashers sizzled on the stove; she couldn't wait to get back to that make-believe room blazing with light. Returning across the square she felt she was going home; not for one moment did she confuse such a place with the Aber House Hotel.

Meredith was sitting in the stalls with his feet propped up on the row in front.

'The play's awfully good, isn't it?' Stella said, handing him his sandwich.

'In your opinion,' he asked, 'what is it about?'

'Love,' she said, promptly, for she had given it some thought. 'People loving people who love somebody else.'

He explained she was mistaken. Mostly it had to do with Time. 'Think of it this way,' he urged, 'we are all mourners following a funeral procession and some of us, those of us more directly concerned with the departed, have dropped behind to tie a shoe-lace. Contact with the beloved has only been temporarily interrupted. The dead are still there, as are those we think we love, just round the corner... waiting to be caught up with.'

'Of course,' Stella said, 'I hadn't thought of that.'

For the life of her she couldn't fathom where funerals came into it. Besides, not everyone wore shoes with laces. Still, she was pleased he had sought her opinion.

Bunny told her to call the actors for the last act. He found it difficult to talk; having found a bottle containing tincture of iodine in the First Aid box, he held a saturated plug of cotton wool against his raging tooth.

Grace Bird was already in the corridor outside the dressing-room she shared with Dawn Allenby. 'Look here, dear,' she said, 'tell Bunny to pop up, will you?'

'What's the noise?' asked Stella, although she knew. Someone was squealing and crying at the same time, as if caught in a trap.

'Not a word,' Grace said. 'Go and fetch Bunny.'

The actors paced in the wings puffing on cigarettes, watching the sliding door in case the fireman should catch them. Desmond Fairchild got a speck of dust in his eye and Dotty, tut-tutting with concern, lent him a tissue to blow his nose.

'Any better?' she asked, and he said, giving her a peculiarly defiant look, 'My G.o.d, I suppose you think that solves everything.'

'What's wrong,' called Meredith. 'Why can't we start?' He sounded angry.

Stella tiptoed from the proscenium arch, shielding her eyes from the glare of the footlights. She couldn't see Meredith. 'There's a spot of bother,' she whispered.

'Speak up,' he shouted, and repeated, 'What's wrong?'

'I've been forbidden to divulge,' she said. Had she been alone she would have told him. It wasn't right for a man in his position to be kept in the dark.

The waiting was not prolonged. After no more than five minutes Bunny announced they could begin. It went very well. During a break in which the designer's a.s.sistant smeared the mirror above the fireplace with vaseline Meredith had complained it reflected too much light Dawn Allenby apologised for the drenching smell of eau de Cologne that pervaded her person. 'Bear with me, darlings,' she pleaded, 'I sweat like a navvy when nervous.'

Nervy or not, she was particularly convincing in her role as Olwyn, more so than she had been in previous rehearsals. When she confessed to shooting Martin no one could doubt she had it in her to pull the trigger. Martin had considered her priggish, a bit of a spinster. He had shown her some naughty drawings, to test her prudishness. 'They were horrible,' she cried, wrinkling her nose in distaste; even so, her tone was that of a woman of the world and it was evident it was Martin she found disgusting, not the drawings.

Which was why, at the very end, when Gordon tuned in on the wireless to a dance band and Robert was supposed to waltz Olwyn about the room, Stella had no patience with St Ives's reaction to Geoffrey's ten-second delay in putting on the gramophone record. Anybody with any feeling for the drama wouldn't have noticed. Richard didn't say anything; he simply stood there, every inch the martyr. Dawn Allenby seemed annoyed too, though that was possibly because she'd been cheated out of those extra moments in his arms.

When they stopped for a beer rest before running through Act Two again a fly-man was dispatched to the Oyster Bar with a hot-water jug stamped 'Property of Sefton General Hospital' Meredith climbed into the orchestra pit to play the piano. Geoffrey said the piece was Sheep May Safely Graze Sheep May Safely Graze by Bach. Whatever it was, it was very tinkly and repet.i.tive, and often, just as he seemed to be getting somewhere, Meredith broke off and started all over again. Stella hadn't suspected he was musical. by Bach. Whatever it was, it was very tinkly and repet.i.tive, and often, just as he seemed to be getting somewhere, Meredith broke off and started all over again. Stella hadn't suspected he was musical.

Uncle Vernon had paid for her to study the piano. After three weeks, during which time it became clear she might be in her dotage before she mastered the Warsaw Concerto, she'd given it up. Mr Boristan, her teacher, had a sh.e.l.l-shocked leg. His knee jerked up and down to the clacking of the metronome on the piano lid. Uncle Vernon had flown into a paddy on account of the seven lessons left outstanding.

She was stood in the wings refilling the whisky decanter, picturing herself seated at a concert grand on the platform of the Philharmonic Hall Meredith was in the front row gazing up at her with adoration when three men walking one behind the other filed through the pa.s.s-door into the auditorium. She ran to the prop room to inform George.

'They're dressed all in black,' she said. 'Like funeral directors.'

'It'll be the priests,' he said. 'Father Julian, Dr Parvin and probably Father Dooley... fella with carroty hair same as yours. They're from Philip Neri's.'

'That's at the end of the street opposite our house,' Stella said. 'It's Catholic.'

'What else would it be?' said George. Strictly speaking, priests weren't supposed to visit the theatre, but a blind eye had been turned to the attendance of rehearsals. Meredith had started inviting them last season. He was a convert to Rome. According to George, his sort were usually the worst; they were after redemption. Before the cast went home Dr Parvin would give a blessing.

'Mr Potter's a Catholic!' asked Stella, shaken.

'They all are,' said George. 'Apart from St Ives and that bloke Fairchild. I shouldn't think he's anything.'

Stella had been brought up to believe that Catholicism was a plague rather than a religion. Its contaminated followers were one step removed from the beasts of the field. Angels at the foot of the bed and the devil at their back, they drank like fishes and bred like rabbits. After midnight ma.s.s on Christmas Eve the street was desperate with maudlin men with bloodied noses and bruised knuckles singing 'Silent Night, Holy Night' as they urinated through the railings. Uncle Vernon had telephoned the police on more than one occasion. 'I'm the proprietor of the Aber House Hotel,' he protested. 'I can't have mayhem round my premises.' Lily said he was wasting his money, and he was; they were all papists down at the Bridewell.

In summer, when the white trash Protestants from the rookeries of the Dock Road marched in honour of King Billy, the police put up barricades to stop the Catholic men from charging the procession. The women stood on the doorsteps with their rumps to the crowd, skirts lifted to flash tattered green knickers. When Uncle Vernon was a boy a Catholic had let off a firework in the path of the brewery dray-horse and it had lumbered sideways, the streamers of orange paper fluttering from its bridle rein and drifting to the kerb. The lad on its back, dolled up as King William, had been crushed to death against the wall. The rattle of the sword he had held aloft echoed across the cobblestones.

It came as a shock to Stella, learning that educated people like Dotty Blundell and Meredith adhered to such a faith. She asked Geoffrey whether he knew the exact meaning of the word 'convert'.

'I don't know about exact exact,' he said. 'It's to alter purpose, to change from one thing to another.'

'What sort of thing?'