Jazz Baby Read Online Free

‘If we’re quick I can take you for a tour before things get started.’
    Dolly followed Alice out of the room and back down the hallway, the rabbit warren of rooms beginning to make sense. Behind the façade of the three identical terraces the building was actually one. The front rooms were all set up along similar lines to the one where she’d met Jack. Plush yet somehow cosy and each painted a different colour. The bright colours appealed to her, though her father would have been horrified. They made her want to smile. A red room, a green room and a blue room, and then beyond them, behind the stairs and down the hallway, were Mrs Mack’s rooms. Past the kitchen and out the back the girls’ bedrooms sprawled higgledy-piggledy into the concrete yard where three dunnies stood in a row like sentinels guarding the back fence.
    â€˜Leave your suitcase where it is and I’ll take you for a quick look upstairs. We’ve got to get a move on. It’s getting late and the rooms will all be busy soon, and I’ve got to get into my glad rags.’
    â€˜Glad rags?’ Dolly cast another glance at Alice. Wearing a red drop-waisted frock and heeled shoes with a slash of matching lipstick across her mouth she looked more than ready for a night on the town.
    â€˜Put my working clothes on. Best bib and tucker. You know.’
    Dolly’s mind swirled and she frowned. ‘I thought the day was pretty much over. I’m quite tired and hoped I’d get some sleep so I’d be ready for work tomorrow.’
    â€˜Don’t worry. Mrs Mack won’t be expecting you to do anything until then. You’ll start off cleaning, getting to know the place. Me, I’ve been here a while. Got myself a step up.’ Alice stuck out her scrawny chest and batted her eyelashes. ‘Come on, quick.’ She grabbed Dolly’s hand and raced her up the stairs.
    As they reached the top of the narrow staircase Dolly skidded to a halt on the polished floor. A landing ran to her right and left with lots of closed doors. The high ceilings, ornate plasterwork and dangling chandelier belonged in a fairy story, the prisms of light dancing and scattering rainbows.
    Alice placed her finger on her lips and tiptoed to the nearest door. She pressed her ear against the painted timber, opened her eyes wide and shook her head, then crooked her finger indicating Dolly should follow. Alice repeated the same process at the next door, nodded and turned the brass doorknob. Together they crept inside.
    â€˜Oh my!’ Dolly clapped her hand over her mouth. ‘It’s beautiful.’
    Heavy curtains covered the floor-to-ceiling windows and the enormous brass bed was covered in cushions and pillows. The golden yellow of the coverlet matched the curtains and the only light in the room came from a bedside lamp. The shade, like the solitary stained glass window in the church in Wollombi, beamed rays of coloured light everywhere.
    Alice’s painted lips spread into a wide grin and she plumped down on the bed and gave a bounce. ‘A darn sight more comfortable than the wretched cotton mattresses we get. Shame I don’t get to actually sleep in one.’ She gave a toss of her head and jumped up. ‘Come on. We need to get out of here. You’ll see the rest tomorrow morning when you’re cleaning up.’
    Taking one last look around the room Dolly followed Alice back onto the landing, closing the door quietly behind her. She raised her hand to her gaping mouth and glanced back over her shoulder. At least ten doors opened off the landing and there had to have been twenty or more girls sitting around the table. Then she remembered the green room downstairs, set up with card tables and the blue room with the piano. With a thousand questions buzzing in her head she followed Alice back down the stairs, past the dining room and out beyond the kitchen.
    The dark passageway snaked out to the ramshackle