Bye Bye Love

Victor was on firmer ground here. ‘Oh, I found that. It’s down the first flight of stairs, second door on the left.’

‘So it’s not ours? We have to share it?’

‘Er—well—yes—’

It was all getting worse and worse. Scarlett felt as if she were trapped in a bad dream from which there was no waking.

Victor shifted uneasily. ‘Look—er—it’s nearly five. I got to go. Mustn’t be late for my first shift. Will you be all right here by yourself, pet?’

‘Oh, fine, just fine,’ Scarlett said with heavy sarcasm.

Her father reached out and patted her shoulder. ‘There’s my good girl.’

When he was gone, Scarlett went and sat on her bed. The place smelt all wrong. There were mysterious bangings of doors and muffled shouts coming from below. The tiny room seemed to close round her like a prison cell. It was all strange—strange and horrible. She reached for Gone with the Wind, but even that couldn’t distract her from the aching loneliness. She clapped the book shut, threw it on the bed and went out, clattering down the gloomy staircases towards the brightness and life outside.

In the downstairs passage she stopped short. Coming in at the back door was a tall fair-haired boy. He was wearing salt-stained khaki shorts, a faded red shirt open at the neck and a pair of old plimsolls. His skin was tanned golden-brown by the sun and he had a rolled-up towel under his arm.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘You must be the new cellar man’s daughter.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’m Jonathan. I live here.’

Scarlett took his hand. It was warm and strong. ‘I’m Scarlett. How do you do?’

His smile broadened into one of delight. ‘Scarlett? Really? Like Scarlett O’Hara?’

Scarlett found herself smiling back. ‘That’s right. My mother named me after her.’

‘Well, I do declare!’ Jonathan said in a drawling southern states accent. ‘Welcome to the Trafalgar, Miz Scarlett.’

Suddenly, life didn’t seem quite so dreadful.

CHAPTER FOUR

JONATHAN’S first thought was that he made a very poor Rhett Butler. His first instinct was to keep her talking.

‘Where are you off to?’ he asked, without thinking. It sounded lame the moment it came out of his mouth.

‘Oh—just out,’ Scarlett said.

Scarlett—such a wonderful name. And it suited her. There was something wild and vivid about her. When his parents had said something about the new cellar man bringing his daughter with him, he’d not really thought about it. If he had any notion of what she might be like, it was a pasty-faced kid, someone who got in the way. Not a girl like this, with a challenging stare and a mobile mouth and the beginning of a woman’s figure showing through her thin cotton dress.

‘I’ll come with you, if you like. Show you round a bit,’ he offered.

‘I have been to Southend before, you know,’ Scarlett said.

Jonathan felt horribly rejected. He hid it with a nonchalant shrug. ‘OK. If you’d rather be on your own—’

To his delight, she looked slightly flustered.

‘No…I mean…I just thought you might have something else you wanted to do,’ she said.

‘Tell you what I do want to do, and that’s eat,’ Jonathan admitted. ‘I’ve been out all day in the Ray, and I’m starving.’

‘The Ray?’

Of course, stupid of him, she wasn’t local, she wouldn’t know what he was talking about.

‘It’s a channel of water out in the estuary beyond the mud-flats,’ he explained. ‘You sail out on the falling tide, then you can spend all day out there sailing and swimming and having races and that, and playing cricket on the Ray Sands. It’s brilliant. Do you sail?’

Scarlett shook her head. Her ponytail of dark, almost black hair shivered in glossy waves.

‘We lived in the country.’

‘Can you swim?’

‘Oh, yes. I learnt at school. I got my hundred yards certificate.’

‘Then you’ll have to come out with us one day. If you want to, that is.’

He found he was holding his breath. How wonderful if she said yes.

‘Thanks—yes.’

He felt like punching the air. Fancy taking her out for a whole day on the water! His mind raced, turning over how to bribe his friend to let him have the boat to himself, what time they would have to start, all the things he wanted to show her. But for now he had to keep her attention.

‘Are you hungry?’

She appeared to consider.

‘Yes. Yes, I am.’

She sounded almost surprised. He ran over the logistics in his head. It was just about the worst time to start cooking now. He came up with an interim plan.

‘Let’s go and get some chips, then. Irma or Marlene might want the kitchen at the moment, but we can go in when the pub opens and everyone’s busy.’

‘Marlene?’ Scarlett said.

‘Yes, she’s the other live-in barmaid. Haven’t you met her yet?’

‘No. Won’t your mum be expecting you?’ she asked.

Jonathan had to stop himself from giving a derisive laugh. His mother, expecting him? That would be the day.

‘Oh, she doesn’t know I’m in yet,’ he said, which was true. ‘You never know quite when you’re going to be back when you’ve been out in the boat. So do you fancy some chips?’

Scarlett nodded.

‘Yes, please. I’ll just go and get some money.’

Suddenly it seemed very important that she didn’t leave.