Unforgettable Read Online Free Page A

concerned with saving their own skins as the beautiful new Palais went up in smoke.
    â€˜I’m getting her home,’ Dolly said through gritted teeth. ‘You two can go and stuff yourselves for all I care.’
    â€˜Chance would be a fine thing. Tell you what. I’ll see you in the park on Sunday, Dolly.’ Jim grinned.
    â€˜Not if I see you first. Are you loony orsomething?’ Dolly said, and then yelped as she banged her head against the wall as Gracie jerked out of her arms.
    â€˜Don’t even think of seeing this lout again, Dolly,’ Gracie screamed. ‘He’s nothing but a bully.’
    â€˜And you’re such a little princess, ain’t you?’ Jim sneered. ‘Anyway, what goes on between Dolly and me ain’t no business of yours.’
    â€˜Come on, Gracie,’ Dolly said, grabbing her arm and pushing her through the people running out of the alley towards the street beyond. ‘We need to get away before they start asking for witnesses.’
    They twisted away from the coalmen, but as they reached the main street they were faced with several men asking questions and taking notes.
    â€˜We don’t know anything,’ Gracie yelled in a panic. ‘We were dancing like everybody else when the air suddenly got choked and then the fire started.’
    â€˜And you are?’
    Dolly pushed forward, seeing what all this was about before Gracie did.
    â€˜What’s it worth for our story, mate?’
    â€˜A few bob if it’s reliable,’ the man said.
    â€˜OK then. I’m Dolly Neath and this is my friend Gracie Brown, and we work atLawson’s Shirt Factory. We was quite near the entrance so we could get out when the fire started—’
    â€˜Dolly, they’re
reporters
,’ Gracie ground out. ‘They’ll put our names in the papers. Don’t tell them any more.’
    â€˜Why not? Don’t you want to be famous?’
    â€˜If my mum and dad get to see any of this, they’ll make me go back to Southampton, you idiot.’
    â€˜Hold still, girls,’ came a voice, and as they stopped arguing, their eyes met a camera flash, and then a few coins were pressed into Dolly’s hand before the newspaper men slithered away like the snakes Gracie’s dad always said they were.
    â€˜
Now
look what you’ve done,’ she raged, but Dolly was looking with disgust at the paltry sum she’d been paid.
    â€˜Next time I’ll invent something really wild, and get paid properly for my trouble!
And
I’ll be looking half-decent for a picture in the paper as well and not like a bleedin’ scarecrow—’
    Gracie felt alarmed. ‘Oh God, my folks will kill me if they see my picture in the paper. You don’t really think they’ll show them, do you?’
    â€˜Nah. They’ll be taking pictures of the fire and any toffs who got fried.’
    â€˜Oh shut up, Dolly. That’s a horrible thing to say.’
    â€˜Why is it? You got to face facts, and it stands to reason that some of them were done for. ‘Specially those near the band—’
    She stopped talking at the stricken look on Gracie’s face.
    â€˜Oh, sorry, gel, I wasn’t thinking. But don’t worry about your saxophone player. The band came through a door at the other end of the hall to get on the stage, didn’t they? Stands to reason they’d have been all right.’
    She tried to sound confident for Gracie’s sake, when in reality she didn’t have any idea of the band’s arrangements. It just seemed to make sense on a night when nothing else did. But neither of them wanted to hang around any longer, and they ran down the street until they could catch a tram back to the boarding-house, ignoring the black looks of the other passengers who clearly thought they’d been up to no good.
    * * *
    As the next day was Sunday, there would be no reports of the fire in the newspapers yet,