Free Swansea Girls by Catrin Collier Page A

than fifty miles from Pontypridd he was being positively maudlin.
    ‘Nice to hear yourself think again,’ Adam commented as the band crashed out the final chord of the second jive of the evening.
    ‘Next one’s bound to be slow.’
    ‘Martin’s hanging on to Lily but there’s two stunning girls sitting over there.’
    Brian followed Adam’s line of vision. ‘I trust you’re suggesting I take the one in the red dress, her friend looks like a sheep.’
    ‘If you don’t fancy either of those, there’s Martin’s sister over there.’
    ‘She looks about twelve.’
    ‘She’s eighteen and a really nice kid.’ Adam’s tone revealed more than he’d intended.
    ‘Then why don’t you ask her to dance?’ Brian suggested.
    ‘Friends’ sisters are out of bounds.’
    ‘First I’ve heard of it. Unless, of course, you have dishonourable intentions.’
    ‘She’s the kind of girl you court, not mess around with.’
    ‘Ask her to dance, Jordan.’
    ‘You think I should?’
    ‘As you so obviously want to, yes.’
    ‘I might just do that.’
    ‘What about the one you jived with?’
    ‘Judy? She lives in Carlton Terrace too.’
    ‘Anyone’s girlfriend?’ Brian tried to sound disinterested.
    ‘No one I know anything about. But she’s fit.’
    ‘Meaning?’
    ‘Well able to put anyone who steps out of line back in place.’
    ‘Now that’s a challenge.’
    ‘I can’t see her ...’
    ‘Jordan, I don’t need anyone to hold my hand. I’ve been around a dance hall before and I’m quite capable of asking a girl to dance, including the redhead when she reappears.’
    ‘In that case, see you.’
    Brian took another long pull at his pint, then realised it was his fourth and it was only nine o’clock. If he didn’t slow up he’d be waking with a hangover and that was no way to impress a new landlady. He stood back as the familiar melody of ‘Twilight Time’ filled the room.
    Martin was dancing with Lily but if he was besotted he was showing no signs of it. He was holding her at arm’s length and their conversation was too animated to be romantic. Adam hadn’t wasted any time in getting Martin’s sister out on to the floor. He glanced at the table where Lily and Martin’s sister had been sitting in the hope of seeing the redhead again and did a double take. A girl was sitting alone there, an exceptionally well-endowed blonde judging by the amount of flesh bulging from the top of her dress. And what a dress! She could have escaped from Ladies’ night in the officer’s mess to slum it with the masses.
    ‘One of those, six of the other,’ he murmured to himself, quoting one of his father’s favourite phrases. If he’d been moving on and out of Swansea he might have opted for the blonde, but he sensed she was trouble. He looked around again and saw the redhead leaving the other end of the bar with two orange juices. As he watched, she carried them to the table where the blonde was sitting. Almost falling over his feet in his eagerness to get to her, he rushed to their table.
    Helen was finding it increasing difficult to sit within the confines of her hooped petticoat, watching her friends dance and smiling insincerely at the room in general without receiving any offers herself. After dancing with Judy, Adam Jordan hadn’t left Katie’s side – which really hurt. The knowledge that tall, blond dreamboat Adam Jordan preferred small, nondescript Katie to her in all her finery stung more than her pride. To add insult to injury, Martin had claimed Lily the moment he’d spotted her and Judy had found herself a dark, good-looking stranger who evidently knew both Martin and Adam, judging by their exchange of conversation between dances.
    ‘By yourself?’
    She made a face. ‘Hello, Jack.’
    ‘That’s no way to look at a man who’s come to ask you to dance.’
    She remembered her mother’s admonition ‘You stay away from Jack Clay, he’s a bad lot’ and decided the warning lent him new charm.