Clouds Below the Mountains by Vivienne Dockerty Page A

“The night porter had ‘phoned the police and they took him away. They’ll probably keep him overnight, then bring him back to the hotel in the morning.”
    â€œOh no, poor Simon,” Jenni said, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. “Could I not go after him and tell the police to let him go, he just made a stupid mistake?”
    â€œI’d leave it until tomorrow love,” Lucy said gently.
    â€œAnd Miguel might want to press charges,” cut in Anna. “He and Juan have gone off somewhere. The poor man might have had to go to bed.”
    â€œI doubt he’s gone to bed, Anna. He seemed all right to me when I left you all in the entertainment room. Talking of beds, Jenni. I have a spare one in my bedroom if you’d like to crash with me.”
    ***
    â€œSo what happened,?” asked Kate when Greg had come back from the bar with a double whisky and the Candelaria duo were on their break.
    â€œYes, we wondered,” said Paul, moving his chair closer so that he could listen, without Greg having to share the news with the rest of the guests, who were still glancing over at him.
    â€œHe got taken away by the police, probably for being drunk and disorderly, though he soon sobered up when they put him in the police car.”
    â€œGosh what a drama,” said Cheryl, her eyes gleaming. “And weren’t you brave wading in like you did? We just sat and watched and did nothing.”
    â€œI would have done something if Greg hadn’t,” said Paul stoutly, feeling a little annoyed with her. “It just happened to be that Greg saw what was going on, before I did.”
    â€œWell Greg has some experience with brawls,” said Kate kindly. “He has some apprentices at the factory who need splitting up now and again.”
    â€œOh,” said Paul suddenly very alert, though he had drunk quite a lot that evening. “ What does your factory do, Greg?”
    â€œWe make things from rubber,” he replied diffidently. “The apprentices learn how to cut around the templates for the product. Then the pieces are sent to the sewing room for stitching. After that the articles go to Packing and they are sent off all over the world.”
    â€œYou mean like Mail order?”
    â€œYes, I suppose you can call it mail order, but we do have contracts as well for certain goods and some of our products are sold in the high street stores as well.”
    â€œLike hot water bottles?”, asked Cheryl.
    â€œOr those gloves you wear in the kitchen?”, asked Paul.
    â€œThose as well,” laughed Kate “ and he sometimes has orders for naughty items, don’t you Greg?”
    â€œThe less said about that, thank you Kate,” Greg said, smiling broadly.
    ***
    The duo came back on again and the dark haired girl singer launched into “Will you still love me tomorrow”, by the Shirelles.
    â€œOh, I love this song,” said Mavis to Fred. “Do you remember all those songs that came out in the 6o’s? Our girls used to play them, on that record player you bought between them one Christmas. Doesn’t it seem a long time ago?”
    â€œYes, love, it does,” he said, taking her hand in his. “Makes yer sad though when yer see that young fella me lad, kicking off at that little girl before. He don’t know how precious it is to have someone to care for you, like she seemed to do. Bloody young fool.”
    ***
    â€œOoh, I’m feeling tired,” said Jean, stifling a yawn as the three women sat listening to the singer. “Would either of you mind if I got off to bed when this has finished?”
    â€œNo love,” Doreen replied. “I don’t know about you, Milly, but I think we’ve had enough excitement this evening.”
    â€œI wonder what happened to that young bloke after Security took him out?”, asked Milly. “That tall chap over there came back without the rep’ , so