The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies Read Free Book Online

him. Esther hears him say "Not here, lad, nargois ," and then he releases him. Colin rolls his shoulders and takes a gulp of air. He gives Esther a questioning glance, and when she shrugs, joins in the general laughter.
    Harry is helped up by Mary and Tony, one of the sound engineers. "Up you come," Mary tells him. "And they say you can't do slapstick. You're wasted on radio, you are."
    "Always told you Scotch was my favourite topple," Harry mutters.
    Mary leans across to Esther and says softly, "Sorry, darling.
    They don't let him do that blue stuff on air, and it just sort of builds up in him like spit." For the rest of the bar, she adds more loudly, "Never mind, luv. All you need to know about Englishmen, Welshmen, or Germans, for that matter, is they're all men. And you know what they say about men: one thing on their minds...and one hand on their things." There's a round of whistles from the crowd. She grins at Esther. "Always leave 'em laughing." Tony turns Harry towards the exit, but at the door he wheels round and lunges over, almost taking Tony and Mary down in a drunken bow.
    "Ladies and gentlement, I thank you." There's a smattering of sarcastic applause, and when it dies out only Colin is clapping, slowly.
    "Piss off," he calls. Esther wishes he'd drop it now. In his own clumsy way, he's trying to be chivalrous, she knows, but there's an edge of bullying to it.
    Harry tries to shake himself loose, but Mary and Tony cling on. "I did see a bloke in here once," he says, "with a terrible black eye."
    "Looking in the mirror, was you?" Colin shouts.
    "Told me he'd been fighting for his girlfriend's honour. Know what I said to him?"
    "Bloody hell!"
    "I said," Harry bawls over him, "it looked like she wanted to keep it."
    He's redfaced and suddenly exhausted, and Mary and Tony take their chance to frogmarch him out. Over Mary's shoulder he gives the room a limp V-for-victory sign, and over Tony's
    arm he flashes a quick two fingers at Colin. And then he's gone, dragged out into the darkness.
    "Sorry about that," Colin says, and Esther tells him quickly it's fine. She needs the job. When Jack hired her, he told her not to take any nonsense: "In this business, the customer isn't so often right, as tight." But she doesn't need them fighting over her. Her English is supposed to be good enough to talk her way out of situations.
    "You shouldn't have to put up with it," Colin goes on, but she shrugs. Jack's still keeping an eye out. It's a small village. She doesn't want talk.
    "Anyhow," she says, "thank you, sir."
    "Don't mention it, miss," he tells her, getting it finally, but still a little peeved.
    She wipes down the bar, drops Harry's dirty glasses in the sink. She finds herself feeling a little sorry for the old soak.
    Mary has told her he's lost his wife. "Songbird, she was. Big, warm voice. They met on the circuit, but you could see she
    was always going to be a star. Got her first top billing for a tour of the Continent in '39, but then the war come and she never made it back. You wouldn't think to look at him, but it was true love." It makes Esther wonder. She's heard Harry telling jokes about his wife on the show: the missus; 'er indoors; the
    trouble-and-strife. "Show biz! " Mary told her with a grim,
    exaggerated brightness. "The show must go on and all that." The clock strikes ten-thirty. " Amser, boneddigion. Amser,
    diolch yn fawr ," Jack cries, clanging the bell, and Esther
    chimes in, "Time, gents. Last orders, please."

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    he rinses glasses while Jack locks up, pouring the dregs away, twisting each glass once around the bristly scrub
    brush. They come out of the water with a little belch and she sets them on the rack. Normally she'd stay to dry and polish them, but Jack says it's enough. "Only gonna get dirty again tomorrow." He reaches over her to switch off the radio, and she realises with a little flush that she's been swaying to the muted band music.
    "It's all right," she says. "I'll see to these."