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Back The Actresses Save as PDF
Chapters (51)
  1. Cover
  2. THE ACTRESSES
  3. About The Actresses
  4. Contents
  5. Dedication
  6. Epigraph
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. 9
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. 14
  21. 15
  22. 16
  23. 17
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. 23
  30. 24
  31. 25
  32. 26
  33. 27
  34. 28
  35. 29
  36. 30
  37. 31
  38. 32
  39. 33
  40. 34
  41. 35
  42. 36
  43. 37
  44. 38
  45. 39
  46. 40
  47. 41
  48. About Barbara Ewing
  49. Also by Barbara Ewing
  50. An Invitation from the Publisher
  51. Copyright

Very very slowly Molly hung up on her old lover. She stood in her hall with her hand up to her mouth, totally still, like a statue. No one you know, Banjo had said. The phone rang again but it rang on and on in the hall in Clapham as Molly stood there.

*

That same morning, before the trial was reconvened, the first of the mail started arriving for Terence Blue at the Old Bailey. Hundreds and hundreds of letters from sympathetic women and grateful men.

Dear Mr Blue, By bringing our problem out into the open you have allowed myself and my wife to discuss it... My lover and I are eternally grateful to you for mentioning this subject in public... I am an experienced woman, I’m sure I could help you if you would only telephone me... hundreds and hundreds of letters. Terence Blue had suddenly become a different kind of hero. There were photographs of postmen with sacks of mail standing outside the Old Bailey in the snow wearing Christmas holly in their hats.

*

At 10 am Simone Taylor was recalled by direction of the judge.

‘I am sorry Simone,’ said the judge, very gently, leaning over the bench towards the witness box, near enough for Simone Taylor to catch the scent of menthol, ‘to ask you back into the box like this. I understand what a terrible ordeal this has been for you but we must be sure. Are you certain it was Terence Blue who raped you?’

‘He raped me, it was him,’ she insisted in her high, girlish voice. ‘How could Terence Blue be impotent? Everyone knows he couldn’t be impotent, he isn’t impotent, he kissed me, I loved him.’ She was now in such a state of terrible distress that even Elvira in the public gallery couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. She broke down several times, especially when the defence pressed her about the state of her inebriation that night and whether she remembered Terence leaving. The clerk of the court brought her lots of glasses of water. She never once, Elvira noted, looked towards the prisoner in the dock.

‘He came back in,’ she wept, ‘and he raped me.’

‘Came back in?’ It was the judge asking her quietly. ‘Had he gone?’

Simone looked confused. ‘He raped me,’ she repeated, wiping away the tears that kept pouring down her face, ‘he raped me, I was raped, I was.’

Mr Tweed, counsel for the defence, pounced.

‘Could someone else have come back in Miss Taylor?’ he asked. ‘Could you have been too drunk to know who came back in?’