Free Born to Dance by June Tate Page A

dear girl, I was summoned by Mr Andrews. When I got the phone call at the Palace I couldn’t believe it. He wants me in the show! Bloody marvellous, isn’t it? And what’s more he wants us to do a number together, like we did in Southampton!’
    ‘That’s wonderful. I am so pleased to see you. The others are nice but I do feel a bit lonely. After all, most of them have worked together before so I feel a bit of an outsider.’
    ‘Don’t you worry, now I’m here, and guess what? Rob has got me fixed up at the same digs as you!’ She leaned closer so as notto be overheard. ‘What the bloody hell is Lily Stevens doing here? She’s outclassed, I would have thought.’
    ‘Well, the gossip is that her fiancé is one of the backers. So Peter Collins had to take Lily if he wanted the money.’
    ‘Must be that old fellow she cottoned on to in Southampton. She is such a crafty bitch. She’d claw her way through a sewer to get what she wants. Does she have a solo spot?’
    ‘No! She’s not good enough, you know that.’
    ‘Hmm! Bet she gets one, one way or another.’
    ‘Not if Rob has anything to do with it, I wouldn’t think.’
    At that moment Rob called the dancers together and rehearsals began. He then ran through a number that featured Shirley and Bonny with the male dancers only. Lily looked on in fury.
    It was a lively and tricky number but as the girls were so used to dancing together, it progressed very quickly.
    At the end, Shirley turned to Bonny and whispered, ‘Blimey! There’s some very juicy blokes around, I am glad I came!’
    Rob called a break for lunch and Shirley wasted little time getting to know the men who had featured in the number. ‘You and I are off out this evening,’ she told Bonny a little later.
    ‘Really, where?’
    ‘Don’t know yet. We’ve got a date with a couple of the boys.’
    ‘What!’
    ‘Listen, girl, we work bloody hard and when we go into production we’ll be too damned tired, so we’ll have a bit of fun whilst we can. Right?’
    Bonny realized how much she’d missed Shirley. Life had been nothing but hard work until now, and carried away with her friend’s enthusiasm she grinned broadly. ‘Right!’ she agreed.
     
    Whilst Bonny and Shirley learned the delights of the Metropolis with the chorus boys, Lily Stevens was working on her benefactor and fiancé, Charles Kendal. Now that Shirley had joined the chorus and had been given a number with Bonny, Lily was even more determined to feature in a solo spot.
    Snuggling up to Charles in bed, she gently traced her finger across his lips, kissing his ears and moving her naked body close to his.
    ‘Charlie, darling, you do love me, don’t you?’
    ‘Of course, you know I do.’
    ‘You want me to be happy, don’t you?’
    His eyes narrowed. Now what? he wondered. ‘I thought being with me was enough to make you happy, Lily.’
    ‘Oh darling, where else would I want to be? You are so good to me and I adore you.’
    ‘Then what’s the problem?’
    She slipped her hand between his thighs and fondled his genitals. ‘It’s only that I don’t think Rob Andrews appreciates my talent. He’s brought a dancer in from Southampton to do a number with Bonny Burton. Now, I can’t see why he has to go to that extra expense when I am perfectly capable of doing the number. It seems to me he’s wasting money.’
    Charles, now aroused, wasn’t concentrating on the career of his young bed mate. He pulled her on top of him, but Lily wasn’t ready to concede to his wishes just yet.
    ‘You have a lot of money invested in the production and I think you should have a word with him, don’t you?’
    ‘I’ll come along to rehearsals tomorrow and see him,’ he promised.
    She slowly lowered herself on to him and kissing him passionately said, ‘Thank you, darling. I knew I could rely on you.’
     
    Rehearsals started early the following morning and it wasn’t until Rob called a break that he was aware of the gentleman