‘Is that you in the middle?’ asked Declan, thinking he was right about her being a stunner when she was young.
‘It is, how very observant,’ said Alice as she poured everyone more wine.
She remembered that photo well; it was taken in London on a rare night off with some of the girls from the dance troupe.
‘Was that in London?’ asked Mark, the telltale sign of the London Palladium in the background.
‘It was. I worked there,’ said Alice as she sipped her wine. ‘I was twenty-one years old in that photo. I was a dancer.’
‘I want to be a dancer,’ piped up Maisie. ‘I go to ballet.’ She slid off her chair then and did a perfect pirouette.
‘How wonderful. Well, you must follow your dreams. I’m sure you will make a wonderful dancer if you work hard at it,’ said Alice wisely. ‘You can achieve almost anything in life with hard work and dedication.’
Hard work and ambition had been the path to success for Alice. She remembered the evenings her feet almost bled, but the show would go on as there was always another young hopeful waiting in the wings for their big chance if you gave up.
‘What type of dancing did you do?’ asked Jess, who wasn’t surprised to learn that Alice had once been a dancer. She stood tall with a straight back, with no sign of a stoop even at her advanced years.
‘I was in a theatre dance troupe at the London Palladium. You may not have heard of them, but we were called the Tiller Girls.’
Mark almost spat his wine out.
‘You were a Tiller Girl?’ he asked open-mouthed. He’d sat watching them as a child, as they opened a variety show calledSunday Night at the London Palladium. They wore tall feather headdresses and linked arms as they high kicked their legs in unison.
‘Yes, do you remember them?’ asked Alice.
‘Oh, I do. My dad was a big fan too, as I recall.’ He smiled. ‘I was just a little boy and every Sunday night after the usual bath, I would sit in my pyjamas and watch the show with my parents.They usually sent me to bed before it had finished, though, and I remember I was never very happy about that.’ He laughed.
‘What a lovely memory,’ said Alice. ‘Watching TV together I mean, not being sent to bed early.’
‘I can’t get my head around it.’ Mark shook his head. ‘Just think, I might have actually watched you dance.’
‘Probably not. I did my dancing in the nineteen fifties; I’m guessing you weren’t even born then.’ She smiled.
‘A couple of years later. Even so, you were a Tiller Girl, that’s amazing.’
Alice found it amusing that Mark seemed a little star-struck.
‘It was a good life, but we worked very hard. I met some wonderful stars,’ she said casually. ‘Frank Sinatra was particularly polite.’
This time everyone almost spat out their drinks.
‘You met Sinatra?’ asked Declan, open-mouthed.
‘Yes. Amongst others. But that really is a story for another evening, I think,’ Alice casually declared.
‘Who was he with?’ pressed Mark.
‘Ava Gardner at the time. She was a head turner, although I personally thought she had a hardness about her. I much preferred Audrey Hepburn. She was just as nice as she was in the films.’
‘You have to be kidding me!’ said Jess.
‘No really. She was lovely to everyone as I recall. I was never really star-struck. They were just people after all, like you and I.’ Alice helped herself to a portion of banoffee pie.
‘Apart from being rich and famous.’ Mark smiled.
‘It’s not all it’s made out to be,’ said Alice, thinking of how one or two big names had succumbed to the temptations that went with fame, and ended up ruining their marriages.
Maisie began to yawn then and asked Jess if she could change into her pyjamas.
