The Designer(45)

‘You’ve been back to Petrus.’

Pearl’s mouth twitched in the faintest of smiles. ‘Yes, I’ve been back to my big, black devil.’

‘And what do you have to do in return for the cocaine?’

‘The same as you do.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Copper replied indignantly.

‘I’m talking about the lipstick on your face. It isn’t your shade, kiddo.’

Copper wiped her mouth irritably. ‘Could be anybody’s.’

‘Not that particular virgin’s-blood red. It’s definitely hers.’

‘She’s a friend.’

‘I’m older than you, sweetheart. And a bit wiser in the ways of the world.’

‘Not so I’ve noticed,’ Copper said dryly.

Pearl stretched out, her eyes already glassy. ‘Are you having an affair with Suzy?’

‘Not that it’s any of your business,’ Copper said evenly, ‘but no, I am not having an affair with Suzy.’

‘Well, if you’re not having an affair with her now, you soon will be, because that’s what she’s aiming at. She’s grooming you. You’re her next conquest.’

Copper snorted. ‘Pearl, really. I draw the line at being lectured by someone who’s just stuck a needle between her toes.’

‘She’s abnormal.’

‘If by “abnormal” you mean she’s not as dull as a drugstore novel, then I agree.’

‘La Vie Parisienne is fun for a while. You go to look at the freaks, have a few drinks—’

‘Pick up other women’s husbands,’ Copper put in.

‘But you’re going there every night of the week. You’re infatuated with her.’

‘And you’re an addict.’

‘So are you. You look at her the way a rabbit looks at a boa constrictor.’

‘I’ve never seen a rabbit look at a boa constrictor so I can’t comment. I’ll check next time I’m in Brooklyn Zoo. In the meantime, I like Suzy a lot. She’s been kind to me, and I guess I look at her accordingly.’

‘It’s obvious what she wants from you – she’s all over you in front of everybody. They’re all talking about you.’

‘Let them talk.’

‘I know what it’s like to go crooked,’ Pearl said. She began to put away her ‘fixings’, as she called them – her collection of syringes and little ampoules – folding them in a washbag with lethargic care. ‘I don’t want you to end up the same way I did. It’s hard to straighten yourself out.’

‘I know it is,’ Copper said more gently. Pearl was disappearing for hours each day, no doubt working for Petrus as she had done before, returning with her supply of cocaine or other drugs. At least she was also bringing her share of the rent money. Copper couldn’t complain on that score. ‘We could put you in a clinic.’

‘No, thanks. Go cold turkey? Sod that for a game of soldiers. What does Henry say about Suzy?’

‘Unlike you, Henry lets me live my own life.’

Pearl yawned. ‘You’re going to lose him.’

‘How can I? I don’t have him.’

Pearl’s eyes were disturbingly like George’s when Copper had found him dead on the floor: milky and blank. ‘You’ve got him in the palm of your hand. He’s mad about you.’

Copper wasn’t going to try to explain something as private, sensitive and complex as her feelings for Henry and Suzy, especially when she hardly understood them herself. ‘Henry’s a lot older than I am.’

‘What’s that got to do with anything? Henry’s handsome, rich and he adores you. What more do you want?’

‘I don’t want anybody. I like being free.’

‘Copper Pot, when are you going to grow up and see what life’s really like?’ asked Pearl, who liked to have the last word. She made her way to her bedroom with the slow gait of a sleepwalker.



Copper met Dior at the Pavillon de Marsan the next day. It was a bright but sharply cold morning. They went outside into the courtyard where a kiosk with a charcoal-burner was doing a roaring trade in roasted chestnuts.

‘It’s freezing,’ she complained.

‘It’s Paris. You don’t come here for the weather. You look tired, my dear,’ Dior commented, buying a newspaper cone of chestnuts.

‘I didn’t sleep awfully well last night,’ she confessed. ‘Pearl’s hooked on cocaine again.’

Dior concentrated on peeling a chestnut and picking all the shell off the hot, sweet kernel. ‘That was to be expected. There is nothing you can do. I have the same problem with Bébé.’

‘And then there’s Suzy.’

‘What about Suzy?’

‘She’s been awfully kind to me. But she wants something more than friendship. She’s impatient with me because I don’t respond the way she wants. I don’t want to hurt her, or disappoint her. What should I do?’

‘You are asking the wrong person, my dear.’

‘But you must understand my dilemma – you, of all people.’

‘You mean because I am the way I am? But I was born the way I am. I knew what I was from a very young age. It was never strange to me to long for love with persons of my own sex.’ He studied his chestnut, looking for any stray fibres. ‘And I may tell you, ma petite, that relationships are never easy. For my own part, I have never found happiness in love.’