The Glittering Life Of Evie Mckenzie. Delancey Stewart

she needed her most. ‘Maybe she did,’ she said.

      ‘Come on,’ Chuck prodded.

      ‘It’s Elizabeth Claire.’

      ‘That’s lovely.’ They walked in silence for a moment, and he added, ‘It fits.’

      Tug smiled. ‘Maybe it did, once. Your turn.’

      ‘Well it isn’t too hard to decipher,’ he said. ‘My name is Charles.’

      ‘But not just Charles,’ Tug prodded. No one from Chuck’s background had just one name.

      ‘Charles Merriweather Tate the fourth,’ Chuck confirmed.

      ‘My, my!’ Tug laughed.

      ‘Please call me Chuck,’ he said, his cheeks coloring.

      ‘Well I’m not going to call you “Merriweather.”’

      They chatted and strolled, finally hiring a cab to deliver them to the sidewalk outside the hidden entrance to the club where Tug knew she could get the answers she needed.

      Chuck let out a low whistle as they elbowed their way up to the bar between the other patrons. The club was raucous, with customers standing in every free inch of floor space, holding drinks, toasting, and laughing. There was a gorgeous black woman belting out a song in a low sultry voice, and the band was behind her as dancers filled the open space in front of her. Drinks slid back and forth across the smooth bar top, keeping the men behind it hopping around in an effort to keep up.

      Tug handed Chuck the printed drink menu, which offered things like the Bee’s Knees, the Southside, and the Highball.

      ‘If you’re printing the drinks right here, how’s it gonna work when the Prohibition officers raid you?’ Chuck asked, his eyebrows high in confusion.

      ‘Mister,’ interrupted a tall bottle blonde wearing a necklace made of keys draped around her neck, ‘all we sell here is mixers. If these fine people bring in their own alcohol, I can’t exactly stop them, now can I?’ She smiled and then noticed Tug. ‘Haven’t we met before? Elizabeth, right?’

      Tug nodded eagerly. ‘Ms Guinan, this is Chuck.’

      ‘He sure is,’ Guinan gave Chuck an appreciative look, running a hand down the length of his tie. ‘A pleasure,’ she drawled.

      ‘I have a question for you, Ms Guinan, if you have a minute.’ Tug sounded uncertain and wanted to kick herself. Here was her idol before her, and she sounded like a child.

      Guinan didn’t budge, so Tug continued.

      ‘I just wondered, who teaches your fan dancers their numbers?’

      The girls up front all lifted huge fans into the air, as if on cue.

      ‘Well, nobody, darlin’. They teach themselves!’ Guinan laughed. ‘When you hire a dancer, you hope they know how to dance! I just make a few suggestions and they do the rest.’

      The simple nature of Guinan’s answer left Tug feeling even less confident.

      ‘Are you kids stealing my tricks?’ Guinan raised an eyebrow.

      ‘Just getting some ideas,’ Chuck jumped in. ‘I have a quiet club across town. Tug here thinks we need to shake things up a bit, and she’s always talking about how you’ve done it right.’

      ‘That’s lovely, darling,’ Guinan said. ‘But I do very little. I open my doors and welcome people in. They bring the spirit and the hooch. I just give them a place to enjoy it!’ She smiled a glittering smile, revealing perfect teeth. Guinan had been a showgirl herself, and Tug knew that she had appeared in lots of films. As Guinan moved off through the crowd, Tug realized that her background in theater was the reason she was so successful. She used her club like a stage, offering herself, the girls, and the music like acts in a show.

      ‘She’s incredible,’ Chuck said, his eyes watching the proprietress’s back move away.

      ‘She is,’ Tug nodded. She had learned a few things tonight. The club wasn’t the only thing that needed to change.

      As Chuck helped Tug back out the door an hour later, she had big plans in mind.

      ‘Did you get what you needed?’ Chuck asked. He leaned forward to light the cigarette that Tug had pulled from her purse.

      ‘Butt?’ she asked, offering Chuck a cigarette.

      He shook his head.

      ‘Thanks for the light,’ she said. ‘Yeah. I think I know what I need to know.’

      They found a cab and rode together in silence.

      Tug studied Chuck’s face as they moved through the streets in the bouncing car. He was handsome, she thought. She smiled when he caught her gazing at him and pulled her eyes away, a warm blush creeping up her cheeks. Tug had never really thought of Chuck that way. She’d been distracted by her silly crush on Roger. But she had no doubt that Chuck would soon have some society girl planning a big wedding, too. Her perspective on a few things had shifted tonight.