The Valley by Richard Benson Read Free Book Online Page B

introduces a new song and the windmilling Charleston lot drift off the floor as new dancers partner up. When the foxtrot begins, a man comes over and asks Mabel to dance. Winnie sits alone, looking at the band and the other women in their frocks.
    The man brings Mabel back, and a second man, his friend, takes Winnie off to dance. He feels hot and smells of shaving soap, and he holds her too tight and pushes himself against her. The girls at work talk about this sort of thing; it is exactly what she had worried about. She smiles thinly and moves her body away, holding her partner at length by extending her arms until he takes her back to her seat. As she sits down Millie comes through the crowd with a friend in tow, a friend who is wearing full flapper get-up. Winnie can imagine what her father would have to say about that .
    ‘This is my big sister,’ Millie says to the flapper. ‘She doesn’t like dances much, do you, Win? But she’s come to hear me and Juggler singing.’
    ‘I don’t dislike them,’ says Winnie. She is anxious not to seem a stick-in-the-mud, but no one is listening. The band’s handsome singer has announced the interval, and the flapper is squealing at Millie.
    ‘You next. It’s your big moment!’
    ‘Aye, better go and get myself sorted out,’ says Millie. ‘Juggler says I have to swallow some VapoRub.’
    ‘Vicks VapoRub?’ asks Winnie, bewildered.
    ‘Yes, he says it improves your voice. He’s got some funny ideas, but most of them work. See you later anyway, I’m off backstage.’
    A few songs into the second part of the evening, the singer steps up to the microphone and says, in a broad Barnsley accent that contrasts with the American one he sings with, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’d now like to introduce a new double act who’ll be singing a few numbers for you t’neet. Some of you may have heard them before – they’re a young local pair, and I hope you’ll gie ’em a right warm welcome. Ladies and gentlemen, Millie Parkin and Harry Hollingworth – also known as the Juggler!’
    ‘Isn’t that t’ Juggler then?’ says Mabel.
    ‘It doesn’t look like it,’ says Winnie.
    Both had assumed Millie would be joining the singer from the first half, but hearing their confusion, a man beside Winnie laughs and says, ‘Nay, love, this is t’ Juggler,’ and points to the stage where Millie is standing in the spotlight with another, younger man who is not like the first singer at all. This man has slicked-back, centre-parted hair and is dressed in a wide-legged gangster suit. He is tall and broad-shouldered but his facial features look as if they could belong to various comic cartoon characters. His pale brown eyes are heavily lidded and topped by heavy, dark eyebrows that make him appear sleepy. Sticking out like giant handles, his ears seem too large for his head. His forehead is high, accentuating his height. When he opens his mouth to smile, he reveals a wide gap where his upper front teeth are missing (‘Kicked out by a pit pony,’ Millie tells Winnie later on).
    Stepping downstage, he winks at someone in the audience and spins off three quick gags. Millie makes a joke about his looks and he frowns theatrically; more laughs. Then she says, ‘For God’s sake, Juggler, sing!’ and the band starts ‘ Home in Pasadena’ , and Juggler steps forward. He presses his arms flat against his sides to make himself taller and straighter, half closes his eyes, and then opens his near-toothless mouth.
    The voice that comes out of the strange face is a tenor as sweet, rich and strong as the sponge at the bottom of a sherry trifle. Winnie is amazed at its tunefulness, and senses the amazement of the others in the hall. When Millie’s voice comes in, mixing with his, she thinks they sound wonderful, like singers you might hear on the radio. And as she watches she finds that although she feels thrilled and impressed by her younger sister, she cannot keep her eyes from drifting back to