Camellia (21 page)

Camellia was very drunk, holding onto lampposts for support. When he opened his fly and produced his huge, flaccid penis, she laughed so much she got a stitch.

'You won't be laughing, m'girl, when I use it on you,' he said, dark blue eyes full of merriment. 'When he grows to his full size he'll come up the back of your throat to be sure!'

It was the fun of that evening which stuck in both the girls' minds. These two men had danced, clowned, laughed and talked. They had alluded to sex countless times during the night, yet hadn't begun to try to get the girls into bed. They were aggressively masculine, and that came as a welcome change to the namby-pamby arty types in Chelsea and the fat cats with posh voices and soft hands at the club.

Since then the girls had been back to Finch's on several occasions, but neither man had been there. They had just about given them up for good when they got home a few days ago to find a note stuck through the door.

'Come to a party on Saturday night,' was all it said, with an address in South Kensington and a couple of pin-men drawings that could only be of Aiden and John.

Life in Oakley Street was never dull. Everything, from going to the Launderette to a drink before work was an opportunity for adventure. Chelsea was the epicentre of 'Swinging London': boutiques full of wild clothes, wine bars, clubs and pubs overflowing with young people. The tourists went to Carnaby Street, but the King's Road was for the more 'switched-on'. Pop stars bought flats and houses there; Sloaney debutantes, ex-public school boys, aristocracy and models rubbed shoulders with Cockney nouveaux riches. That year, 1969, saw Neil Armstrong become the first man to step on the moon, but to the young it would be remembered for the free pop concerts in Hyde Park and, across the Atlantic, the Woodstock Festival. The catch phrase 'free love' was on everyone's lips. The wide use of the contraceptive pill might have made sex safer, but it was the widespread intake of marijuana which led to real permissiveness.

At work in the club the girls portrayed themselves as a couple of sophisticates, with glitzy, slinky long dresses and diamante or cocktail-style minis. They flirted, flattered, danced and fluttered false eyelashes, yet always went home alone.

But in Chelsea, on their home ground, they were out for fun and dressed outrageously, in everything from Chelsea market antique dresses, to revealing crocheted minis, flared loons and diaphanous voile shirts. Here they selected their partners not by the amount of money in their pockets, but by their play value. Men who got serious were soon abandoned. Time was too short for complicated, long-term relationships.

They rarely discussed their pasts now. Their friendship was based on knowing everything about each other and loving one another because of it. Each new experience tightened the bond between them. They shared everything: food, clothes, records, and sometimes even men. Camellia cleaned, and Bee cooked. They were all the family they wanted or needed.

'Join me for a late supper?' Duncan, a big Scot, covered Camellia's hand with his, his pale-brown eyes huge behind thick glasses.

It was sometime after twelve and Camellia had been keeping an eye on the time all evening as she entertained this businessman. Bee had already packed off her partner and was waiting at the bar. She kept looking across to Camellia. It was time she wound up the evening if they were to get to the party before it was over.

'I'd love to, but I can't.' Camellia returned the squeeze of Duncan's hand. 'I've got to drive down to Sussex now, my grandmother's ill.'

If it wasn't for the party she might have been tempted by Duncan's offer. He was nice – a real gentleman, even if he was close to forty.

'You've been such good company,' he smiled, his full mouth very appealing. 'I hope I haven't bored you, going on about my family.'

'Not at all, Duncan.' Just this once she was entirely sincere; the time had flown talking to him. 'Your wife's a lucky lady.'

He got up with her, towering over her as he bent down to brush her cheek with his lips. 'Goodnight Camellia. Maybe next time I come to London?'

Camellia joined Bee at the bar for a quick, real drink before they left.

'What was old four-eyes going on about?' Bee asked.

The club was quieter than normal for a Saturday night. A quartet was playing gentle old standards while a few couples snuffled around on the minute dance floor. Four other hostesses were still working, encouraging their partners to drink, tucked away in the more intimate, black and cream plush booths.

'I want to marry someone like that one day,' Camellia said wistfully, looking back towards the door which was still swinging from his departure. 'And don't take the piss, he was lovely.'

'More than mine was then.' Bee looked gloomily into her glass. 'He was a fucking rep, chronic halitosis and terminally boring.'

'The night is still young.' Camellia brightened up as the large vodka slipped down her throat. She was ready now for a party. 'I hope you've got your best knickers on?'

I'll probably take them off the minute I meet someone tasty,' Bee grinned, downing the last of her drink in one gulp. 'I've been so randy all night I expect I'd even have let that boring bastard grope me if his breath hadn't been so bad.'

Camellia smiled. Bee needed sex like Camellia needed fresh air and sunshine.

It was freezing and foggy outside in the street. Camellia hugged her white rabbit maxicoat tightly round her as they ran down towards Oxford Street for a cab. She had bought it to replace the one Dougie had stolen for her, then sold when they were short of cash. This one was far nicer though, it had cost almost a hundred pounds, and she felt it was worth every penny. All men raved about a glimpse of long slender leg under a full-length fur and just putting it on made her feel sexy.

'Suppose they've got a couple of girls already?' Bee said as they got into a taxi. She took a mirror out of her handbag, put on a thick coat of fresh glossy lipstick, and ran a comb through her blonde waves. Then opening her coat she sprayed Je Revien down into her cleavage.

"Then we make sure they drop them,' Camellia replied confidently. She knew she looked good tonight. With her short red velvet dress, knee-length platform boots and the coat, how could Aiden resist her?

They heard the party even before they got out of the cab in Brompton Road. The Beatles' 'Why Don't We Do It in the Road' was blaring out at full volume.

Bee looked up at the house in approval as Camellia paid the driver.

Number 241 was smarter than most of the others in the long terrace. Its railings, doors and windows were freshly painted, the stone work recently cleaned. An uncurtained window on the first floor had fairy lights all round it and they could see silhouettes of dancers.

'It's looking good,' Bee remarked, sliding her hands under her coat and hitching up her black sheer tights.

The front door was open. As they walked up the stairs to the first floor, a cacophony of music, laughter and revelry wafted down to them.

'Should we have brought a bottle?' Bee asked as they approached the polished wood door.

'Sounds like they've got plenty.' Camellia bounded ahead, reaching behind her to drag her less enthusiastic friend up a little quicker.

The smell of amyl nitrate made them gasp as they walked in on the party. A man was in the process of inhaling it just inside the door. They paused in fascination, watching his face turn almost purple, veins leaping out of his forehead, then almost immediately he was normal again.

'A two-second hit,' he said, blue eyes bleary and unfocused, shaking the broken glass vial into a waste bin. 'But then you're supposed to snort it at the point of orgasm.'

The girls were no strangers to wild parties, but this one was beyond anything they'd seen before. They lingered in the small hallway looking into the softly lit, crowded main room, glancing a little apprehensively at each other.

The guests were two entirely different breeds: one group predominantly male Arabs, in sober dark suits, all over forty; the rest a mishmash of weird characters who looked as if they'd been picked up in one of London's sleazier pubs.

Two girls, no older than sixteen, were doing some sort of nymphet dance wearing nothing but skin-coloured body stockings, waving green chiffon scarves in their hands. Another girl was standing by a wall, topless, her partner chatting to her as if she were fully dressed. A pretty-looking young man wearing only pink paisley loons, was kissing another male in full view of everyone. Hard-faced brassy women danced with longhaired hippies half their age. A Jimi Hendrix look-alike played an 'air' guitar in the corner.

'I don't think this is our scene,' Camellia said, backing towards the door. She didn't mind the eccentricity. It was the Arabs she feared. They stood in small groups watching the proceedings with dark, brooding eyes, almost as if it was a cabaret.

'Hullo me darlings,' Aiden's voice made Camellia's pulse quicken, even before he pushed himself through the crowd to greet them. 'I'd given up on you. What kept you?'

'Work,' Camellia grinned at him. He looked like the Martini man in a dark suit, white shirt and a dickey bow. 'We're not sure this is really for us!'

'To be sure it is, or my name's not Aiden Murphy, party-giver to the stars,' he grinned. He put an arm round each girl, drawing them close to him so he could whisper in their ears. 'The flat belongs to the towel-head over there.' He nodded his head towards the only man in Arabic robes. 'Obas is a prince with pots of money.'

'Oh yeah?' Bee said sullenly, yet Camellia saw a sparkle of interest in her eyes as she noted this man's comparative youth, his aquiline nose and sensuous full lips.

' 'Tis true,' Aiden gave her bottom a playful smack. 'And didn't he just tell me he adores blondes with big tits!'

Closer inspection of the flat suggested it was a pied-a-terre, rather than anyone's home. Even in the dim light they could tell that the high-ceilinged lounge would be elegant when empty of all these strange people. Blue silky curtains with tasselled pelmets hung at the vast windows, though no one had bothered to draw them and the large semicircular settees were just a shade darker. Camellia wondered if the central chandelier was real, or plastic – with the light switched off it was hard to tell. A professional-looking sound system, complete with strobe lights was operated by another wild-looking hippie, his bare chest festooned with beads.

'The prince must be pretty desperate for company to mix with people like this,' Camellia whispered to Aiden. 'They look like renta-crowd waiting for the pay-off!'

Even as she spoke she saw she had inadvertently stumbled on the truth. The sober-looking men were all Obas's friends, the strange people invited purely as a floorshow. Aiden had engineered the whole thing!

'Now will ye stop being a pair of Jonahs,' Aiden said, leading them towards the kitchen which was divided from the lounge by reeded glass doors, before they ran out on him. 'And get some grog into yous.'

On one side of the long narrow kitchen a bar was set up, complete with spirits, mixers and a huge silver punch-bowl. On the other side was food: houmous, pitta bread, and great salvers of savoury rice and kebabs. The girls hadn't expected much in the way of food and the sight of it weakened their resistance.

'Are you expecting us to perform in some way?' Camellia asked, helping herself to a large glass of punch and taking a kebab in the other hand.

Aiden didn't reply. He leaned back on a split-level cooker with his arms folded, a wide naughty grin showing brilliant white teeth.

'What would you like?' Camellia went on. Wicked men always made her feel more wanton. 'For us to seduce a couple of Arabs on the floor? To have sex with a donkey?'

'Seamus, the man with the donkey, let me down tonight,' Aiden retorted. 'But will ye take a look at the cucumber in the fridge and try it for size?'

Both girls began to laugh, and as the first glass of the rum-laced punch went down, they relaxed enough to forget leaving.

'Take off your coats,' Aiden said, his hands lingering on Camellia's fur. He leaned close to her ear to whisper, 'I'll have you dressed in that alone later tonight. But for now let me put it where no one else can steal it.'

The girls went back into the lounge with their drinks to look at the other guests. It was all so bizarre. There weren't nearly enough women to go round, but the ones present were unforgettable. A statuesque brunette in a lace minidress that revealed more than it covered moved around kissing men indiscriminately. Another pint-sized redhead with flowered loons and a matching brief top wriggled her abdomen as she danced alone. There were some older hard-eyed women who she suspected were prostitutes, brought down by Aiden from Soho for a busman's holiday.

'Look what's going on in there,' Bee squeaked, pointing towards the open bedroom door.

Camellia's eyes nearly jumped out of her head and she looked away in embarrassment. Two couples were making love on a huge bed. There was no doubt in her mind that they were getting an even bigger thrill from it by knowing they had an audience.

'You have to hand it to Aiden,' Bee gasped. "This party is like your wildest dreams. I bet those Arabs can't believe what they're seeing.'

Everyone was smoking dope. A hookah stood on a low table surrounded by several of the sloe-eyed Arabs. The two homosexuals paused in their dancing to snort coke, using rolled twenty-pound notes.

'Would you like some?' Aiden appeared at Camellia's elbow as Bee went off to investigate what was happening in the kitchen.

'Why not,' she smiled up at him. 'Everyone else seems to be doing it.'

She had tried it before, but not in the quantity Aiden used. He scooped out the white powder with a tiny silver spoon and laid it on a small mirror.

'Where's the twenty-pound note?' she asked.

'No need to be ostentatious,' he laughed. 'I never was one for overdoing things.'

The coke froze her nose and made her eyes water. Aiden took out a handkerchief from his pocket and gently wiped them dry.

'Let's dance?' he suggested. 'I've done my work for the night and been richly rewarded. Now I want a girl in me arms.'