One Blue Moon by Catrin Collier Read Free Book Online

was still rubbing raindrops from her face.
    ‘One pie.’ Tony laid it on the table in front of her.
    ‘Before you go,’ she called out to William, Jenny and Haydn as they opened the door. ‘Any of you know of a job that’s going?’
    ‘No, but I’ll keep an eye open,’ Haydn shouted as he left.
    ‘Two, even,’ Will grinned as he followed Haydn.
    ‘What about you?’ Diana pressed Ronnie as he rose from his seat and cleared the dishes from the table.
    ‘With two sisters and two brothers over fifteen out of work, I always live in hope of hearing something, but at the moment there’s nothing about.’ Ronnie stacked the dishes on the edge of the counter.
    ‘Your family all work here!’ Diana remonstrated.
    ‘Work? Call that work?’ Ronnie pointed to where Tina was sitting perched on the back of a chair, deep in conversation with a couple of chorus girls from the show that was currently playing in the New Theatre. ‘My family visit here every day. They eat and drink the profits of the place, but they don’t work. They don’t know the meaning of the word.’
    ‘It’s that bad around here?’ Ignoring his grumbles, Diana stared glumly at her pie.
    ‘I’d start eating that while it’s hot,’ Ronnie advised. ‘The situation’s bad,’ he modified his opinion a little, ‘but it’s not that bad. Not for a smart girl. Pity I can’t call either of my sisters that.’
    Diana cut the pie and began to chew it slowly, savouring its rich meaty taste. She made a mental list of places she could try for vacancies. If there had been anything going on the market or in the Town Hall, William or Haydn would have known about it, but then the market was only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. A few of the food stalls, like Charlie’s, opened on Fridays too, but it was hard going, trying to keep yourself on three days’ pay a week. The only places that were open five and a half days were the big shops like Wien’s, Rivelin’s, Gwilym Evans and the Co-op, the three cinemas, and the theatres. If the New Theatre had needed help, Ronnie would have known about it with half the company eating in the café. As she scraped the last of her pie from her plate she decided to start on the big shops first.
    ‘Will you be working very late?’ Jenny asked Haydn as they pushed and jostled their way through the miserable, wet crowd of evening shoppers in the glistening, black and gold lamp lit market square.
    ‘You know Saturday nights.’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘One company moves out, another in. They’ll want a hand to move their costumes, props and scenery into the vans.’
    ‘And with their last-night party.’ Her voice held a bitterness she couldn’t have concealed, even if she’d wanted to.
    ‘Jenny,’ he pulled her into the brightly lit shelter of the Co-op Arcade. ‘Don’t let Will’s teasing upset you. You know they never invite the likes of the callboy to the after-show party.’
    ‘I know no such thing. I saw the way that – that – chorus girl’, she almost exploded in indignation, ‘ogled you when we were sitting in the café yesterday afternoon.’
    ‘The girls do that to everyone,’ he said wearily, already tired of the conversation. It was one she insisted on having at least twice a week. ‘It’s habit. Nothing more. They’re so used to making eyes and smiling on stage, they don’t know when to stop. Half the time they don’t even realise they’re doing it. Will you wait up for me?’ he pleaded, grasping her hand.
    ‘That depends on what time you walk past the shop.’ Her voice was brittle. ‘I’ll be in bed by twelve.’
    ‘As I’m not likely to be walking up the hill much before one, I’ll not bother to call in.’
    Devastated by the news about Maud, up at five to help set up and work on Horton’s stall, cold, tired, wet through and dreading the prospect of coping with keyed-up comics and chorus girls during an exhausting, final double house of revue which would last at least