Donna nodded. The hopeless despair around her from both clientèle and workforce hit her hard. The place was squalid and dirty and until that moment she had never realised such hellholes existed. Two men stood up and slipped from the room. Henry watched Donna as she watched the two men.

‘Follow me, love.’

Donna followed him across the bar itself and then through the doorway. In the light from the naked bulbs she saw the partitioned room, but it took a few seconds before she realised what was going on. As she walked along the middle of the room, she saw the two men embracing each other intimately. The curtain was barely closed and the younger man looked over the older one’s shoulder and winked at her saucily.

Henry laughed at her green-tinged face.

‘This is what we’re dealing with. They’re animals, love. Now, have you seen enough?’

Donna nodded and walked quickly back to the bar. She gulped at her white wine and swallowed it heavily.

Taking pity on her, Henry said, ‘I’m sorry, love, I shouldn’t have done that.’

Donna pulled herself together and said nastily, ‘It’s the queers I hate, that’s all. It sickens me.’

Her voice was so hard he believed her straight off. It affected a lot of people like that. Lesbians never bothered anyone, but two men could be like a red rag to a bull.

‘Drink up and then I’ll take you through to the office, OK?’

Donna nodded. Glad her lie had been believed. As she followed him from the bar and up the stairs her hatred for Stephen Brunos rose inside her like a wave.

This place was a sewer, the people in it like rats. Rats caught up in something they couldn’t get out of.

In the office she regained her equilibrium and said, ‘Has Stephen been in touch from Sri Lanka?’

Henry shook his head. ‘Never gets in touch when he’s overseas. Not with me anyway. I heard though that the hotel’s doing well. Candy comes here to see me when she’s in the Smoke, but I don’t hear much from her otherwise. She stays in the flats in Wardour Street. Likes the Chinese girls does old Candy, and there’s plenty of them round there!’

He chuckled to himself and Donna nodded in agreement, wondering what the hell he was talking about.

‘Do you use the flats there, Henry?’

He shook his head, his face hard as a rock as he answered stiffly, ‘Too pricey for me, love. Not only that, the youngsters ain’t my forte. I have a nice wife and nice kids. I’m happy with that.’

Realising her faux pas, Donna smiled.

‘Sorry, I should have thought before I asked you that.’