Nothing is Forever

by Grace Thompson

  She stared at Blod. ‘Well?’

  ‘I don’t know much, just that he’s been in prison for fraud, and has had to live by finding poorly paid jobs when he once had a successful business. He’ll tell you when he’s ready. Until then, please, Ruth, it’s important to him that no one knows he’s here. Will you promise to say nothing? He doesn’t want rumours to spread before he tells his story and he wants to tell it all just once. As you see, he is very tired and too many explanations will exhaust him.’

  ‘I can tell Henry, can’t I?’

  ‘Henry knows.’

  ‘What? He knows that an uncle we thought was dead has turned up, and he said nothing?’

  ‘He promised.’

  ‘But he should have told me! D’you know, Aunty Blod, Henry knowing about this and not saying a word is more of a shock than seeing Uncle Ralph!’

  ‘Don’t take it so personally. Ralph’s been through so much and we have to respect his wishes. He’s a very sick man.’

  ‘But Henry knew! I really thought that Henry and I would rediscover our love for each other, that my future was with him and this Country Walks Centre. But this puts me firmly in my place, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Don’t be angry.’

  ‘Angry? I’m destroyed!’ She fought back tears. ‘I have to leave. How can I continue working for him? I’m just an assistant, that’s all I am. I can’t stay. Not after this.’

  She walked back to the centre the long way. Not wanting to go inside and face Henry, knowing how little he cared for her, how impossible he found it to trust her with a secret she would certainly have shared with him.

  He was talking to Lillian when she eventually went into the kitchen. Before she could tell him how she felt about his deceit he said, ‘I’m taking Lillian back to North Wales to pick up her car early tomorrow. You’ll be here all day, won’t you?’

  ‘I suppose so. I’m always reliable, aren’t I? Someone you can trust?’

  ‘If it’s a problem I can easily go by train,’ Lillian said, aware of the tension in Ruth’s voice. She began edging towards the door. ‘Please don’t change any plans you have, Ruth.’

  ‘No plans. I’ve just been to see Aunty Blod and met someone there whom Henry knows but declined to mention.’

  Henry frowned, guessing what had happened, then said, ‘We’ll talk about it later.’ He drove Lillian home then returned to where Ruth was sitting exactly as he had left her.

  ‘How could you meet my lost uncle and not tell me?’ she demanded as soon as came in.

  ‘For some reason which I didn’t ask, he wanted to wait perhaps until he felt well enough to face you all. Perhaps he didn’t want half truths and gossip spreading through the family before giving us the facts. He’s ill, as you’ll know if you’ve met him.’

  ‘But you and I, we used to tell each other everything. My first thought when I met him was to tell you.’

  ‘And I’m glad of your confidence in us, but this is an exception, you’d have been wrong. I don’t know what he has planned, but a meeting with the whole family and telling his story is very important to him. I didn’t want to risk upsetting him in his fragile state. That should have been your thought too.’

  ‘No, any secret was shared with you. You were always a part of everything in my life, Henry.’

  ‘I hope I still am, but we have to wait. When we know what he has to say, we can decide which of us was right.’

  They sat for a moment, each waiting for the other to speak but there was nothing more to say and they went to their rooms in silence. The next morning she went down to see that breakfast was set out ready to cook, the tables were laid for the guests but Henry wasn’t there.

  ‘Henry left very early. He’s driving Lillian to North Wales to collect her car,’ Rachel told her.

  ‘I know that, but he didn’t tell me what arrangements have been made. Who is leading the walks?’

  ‘Ted Wells is coming for the day. Both walks are in his area and he will get them back at the right time for meals.’

  ‘When will Henry be back?’ Ruth asked. ‘He should have told me.’

  ‘I expect he forgot, there’s so much going on with eight guests. He hopes to be back by nine or ten o’clock.’

  ‘I’ll start the breakfasts, then I’d better ring Ted to make sure he knows. If he forgot to tell me, he might have forgotten Ted Wells too,’ she explained.

  ‘Oh, I doubt that, dear,’ Rachel said. ‘He’s very organized where the business is concerned.’

  And that’s put me in my place again, Ruth thought sadly.

  Tommy was gradually able to help Bryn again, only light work at first, but as he grew more confident and the doctors gave him encouragement, he was dealing with more than the paperwork and things looked hopeful.

  Toni insisted on keeping her job at the wool shop. ‘The extra goes straight into the house fund,’ she said happily. ‘We won’t have such a long delay if I keep working, even having to pay someone to look after Dora Jane.’

  ‘You are sure about this move, are you?’ Tommy asked.

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘I’m not. While I’ve been laid up, the neighbours have been so kind, helping us in a dozen ways. I don’t think we’ll find that where you want to live. Detached houses, curtains drawn, I don’t think there’s much coming and going in a place like that.’

  ‘There certainly isn’t! That’s what I want to get away from.’

  ‘I don’t. I like people popping in and checking when there’s trouble. I want our Dora Jane to grow up surrounded with people who care.’

  ‘Tommy, you’ve been talking to that boring brother of yours again. I just know it.’

  ‘Bryn and Brenda are happy.’

  ‘And so will we be, once we get away from this place.’

  ‘Then you agree that we aren’t now?’

  ‘Stop complaining, Tommy. I know what’s best for us.’

  Blodwen did as Ralph asked her and after talking to Ruth, she wrote to invite Emrys and Susan, Geraint, and the twins with their wives to the centre for a family conference. Ralph knew his health was precarious and he left an envelope for Blodwen to open, should he not be there.

  At the centre Ruth looked at the booking forms and noted that they had all agreed to come. She wished she hadn’t met Uncle Ralph in Blod’s flat that day. It had led to yet another disagreement between her and Henry, and with him leaving for North Wales without discussing his plans, it seemed likely to be the final one.

  The guests sat in the lounge until eleven p.m. talking, playing board games. She sat in the kitchen listening to the murmur of voices and the sporadic laughter wishing they’d go to bed. The days were long, starting before six and, when Henry wasn’t there, without a break during the afternoon. When the last one had called ‘Goodnight’, she didn’t go to bed herself. She sat and waited for Henry.

  At two o’clock she began to doze, but roused herself with a cup of tea. Few cars passed along the road and each time she heard the distant sound she stood and listened for its approach. At four worry made sleep impossible. Foolishly she went out into the dark night and watched and waited, as though that would make him come back sooner.

  Scenes of accidents flashed through her mind, Henry injured, in hospital, on a deserted road, unconscious and alone. She couldn’t stand it any longer, and at six o’clock she woke Rachel and told her Henry hadn’t returned. Rachel hurriedly dressed and joined her in the kitchen where she was already preparing breakfasts and packing lunches for the all day walk that was planned.

  ‘Did he tell you he was staying over night? You should have told me if that’s the case. I’ve been imagining everything. I’ve been sitting here all night, waiting for him.’ She saw the fear on Rachel’s face and was immediately sorry for her outburst.

  ‘He said he’d be back by ten,’ Rachel said in a small voice.

  ‘I think we should call the police, don’t you?’

  ‘No. Not yet, that will make it serious, hopeless.
Please, let’s wait for a few hours.’

  Lillian left to drive back to South Wales very early but Henry left a few hours later. He was always curious to explore a new area and, borrowing maps, he walked around the area, making notes and promising himself that one day he would come back and explore further. The journey home seemed very long and he was tired. There were several detours as, lacking his usual skills through fatigue he lost his way. A road blocked by an accident caused further delays.

  He stopped to rest several times and drank from the flask he’d filled with coffee. When he was close to home, instead of driving to the centre, he went to Rhossili to deliver the reading glasses and a purse Lillian had left behind. Leaving the package in her porch he turned the car and, seriously lacking in concentration he went too close to a ditch and the back wheel slid into it. He closed his eyes and surrendered to sleep.

  Lillian had heard the car. She went out, shook him awake and led him indoors to give him coffee and a brief rest. He sat on her couch and rolled into a comfortable position and immediately slept. Promising to telephone to tell Ruth first thing in the morning, presuming she would now be asleep, she covered him with blankets and let him sleep. Unfortunately she too overslept. The garage sent a pick up truck and extricated the car from the ditch which took some time, then Henry set off back home.

  At nine when Ruth’s hand was about to lift the telephone, she and Rachel heard his car. He walked in, unshaven and with eyes that were still red and strained. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘I fell asleep and both Lillian and I overslept.’

  The phone rang then, before either of them could ask a question.

  ‘It’s Lillian. I’ve had to find a phone box as mine isn’t working. Is Henry home safely? I hope you didn’t worry, but I thought it safer to let him sleep on my couch, he was so exhausted. He’d put the car wheel into the ditch.’ Still confused by what had happened, Ruth thanked her and rang off.

  ‘I was so afraid you were hurt. Or,’ she admitted in a low voice, ‘that you’d left me.’

  He held her close. ‘I’m sorry you were worried, I just couldn’t drive any further last night. Lillian’s phone didn’t work and—’

  ‘I’m sorry too. I over-reacted when Aunty Blod told me you knew about Uncle Ralph.’

  He kissed her and behind them Rachel left the room. She was smiling, and she hid by the door until she heard them say, ‘I love you.’ At last. Now she could go back to her own life, and leave them to get on with theirs.

  Ralph arrived in a taxi accompanied by an anxious Blodwen. Ruth found him a comfortable seat on the old couch that had survived the move and was in the living-room Henry and the staff used. Geraint had booked a room in a nearby hotel, Emrys and Susan drove from Bridgend after lunch and they stared at Ralph in amazement after being introduced. The twins came in and, after marvelling at the unexpected addition to the family, were soon boasting about their children. In a remarkably short time they were comfortable with each other although they each had a dozen questions hovering on their lips.

  ‘First of all,’ Blodwen said, ‘Ralph wants you to know why, at the age of fifteen, he was sent away from home.’

  Talking slowly, conserving his strength, Ralph said. ‘I was a thief. I stole money and I even learned to break open gas meters to steal the coins inside.’ He looked around the group of faces and added ruefully, ‘I don’t expect sympathy for any of this. I wasn’t much more than a child but I was a criminal and it took a disaster to change me. I broke open a gas meter and I treated it roughly and moments after I left the house, fire broke out and the place was burned to the ground. I was accused of arson so my father told me to leave. I never went home again. But after that I never took a thing that I hadn’t earned legitimately.’

  The weather was warm and the doors stood open. Jack walked in, hoping for work as the summer was approaching and Abigail had told him that Ruth and Henry were looking for temporary staff. Ralph had slid down on the couch and was invisible to Jack as he knocked on the door and asked to speak to Henry.

  ‘Not now. We’re busy,’ Henry said firmly.

  Jack took a few more steps into the room, ‘I’m looking for work, just temporary I know that, but I’ll be glad of anything. I’ll call tomorrow, about five, all right?’

  As he turned to leave, he saw Ralph and gasped with shock. His face lost its colour and he looked as though he was about to faint. ‘Dad!’ he said.

  ‘I don’t have a son,’ Ralph said angrily. ‘Get him out of here!’

  ‘But, Dad!’

  ‘Get him out!’ Ralph began to breathe heavily and Henry jumped out and showed Jack to the door.

  ‘I want my inheritance!’ Jack shouted, as Henry closed the door.

  They all looked expectantly at Ralph. ‘He’s my son, but I never want to see him again.’

  It took a while for him to recover, as the others absorbed the fact that Jack was their cousin, then Ralph told them the rest. ‘I had a good business. A general stores in a small village, selling everything that the local people needed. The community was warm and friendly and I was happy and utterly content. Then the police came and I was arrested. Jack, my son, had been cheating everyone. He’d forged my signature on purchases I couldn’t afford to buy for him and signed my name on several dishonest deals. It was my name on everything and, besides, he was my son. So it was I who went to prison for fraud. While I was there, Jack’s mother committed suicide. She couldn’t cope with the shame of knowing what her son had done to us.

  ‘Prison didn’t suit me,’ he said wryly. ‘I came out seriously ill to find the shop was sold, to clear my, or rather Jack’s, debts. Of Jack there was no sign.’

  ‘How have you managed?’ Ruth asked.

  ‘Factory work was all I could find with a record for fraud. That didn’t suit me either. I was ill but I managed.

  They discussed all this for a while then Ralph spotted the picture he had drawn when he was a child. ‘Good heavens, you’ve still got my treasure!’ He pointed to the picture. ‘My treasure! How amazing that it’s survived.’ Ruth handed it to him and he held it, smiling at memories of a childhood that had ended too soon.

  Jack had come back in by another door and was listening from the hallway. On hearing the word treasure, he burst in and snatched the picture from his father. ‘This is mine,’ he said, grasping it tightly against him. ‘I should have had a share of the house when it was sold. I’m family too and I want what’s mine.’

  Jack began to run for the door but Henry stopped him. Ralph hardly reacted.

  ‘Open it,’ he told Jack. ‘My treasure is hidden inside, and it’s yours if you want it. Gently now; Ruth and the boys might like to keep the picture.’

  With hands that trembled, Jack eased the picture out of its frame. Underneath the drawing was a picture of a lovely young woman with flowers in her long hair, sitting in a garden. ‘This is only a cheap worthless print!’ Jack said in disgust.

  ‘Look underneath,’ Ralph said. An envelope was attached to the back of the print with passé-partout. Panting with anticipation Jack eased the sticky tape away and opened the envelope. Ralph was smiling. Impatiently Jack tore open the envelope. Out fell one large, white five pound note, three ten shilling notes and coins totalling twelve and sixpence. ‘What’s this?’ Jack demanded. ‘A joke? Where is it? You told me about some treasure and I’ve searched for the family for almost two years, so where is it? I demand my inheritance!’

  ‘That is my treasure.’ Ralph was laughing. ‘ I started to save when I was nine. I wanted a motor bike.’ Ralph continued to laugh. Nervously, the others waited to see what Jack would do, preparing to protect Ralph if he were attacked.

  Jack glared at his father for a moment then ran out. He went back to Abigail’s rooms. She was still at work and he gathered together his belongings. As usual, he’d made a mess of everything. He had a woman who loved him no matter what he did, a daughter called Melanie and a newly found family and he had to walk away from it all.

>   The family decided that Ralph should go to a nursing home where he would be cared for. Somewhere close to the sea which he believed would help him get well. Not too far away, so the family could visit him regularly. They all hoped that Jack would stay away and avoid worrying Ralph again.

  Jack was walking towards the railway station and Ruth saw him and watched him go. As he reached the approach to the station a police car drew up and after a brief conversation, Jack got in and was driven off. So they hadn’t seen the end of him. They would be put through the agony of seeing a man who they now knew was their cousin facing charges. She knew they would cope. Henry would help them ride it out.

  Tabs was told the news of Ralph’s return and Jack being a cousin, whose existence no one had known. In great excitement she went up to see Ruth. ‘Don’t you see, this means that my baby, Melanie Ruth, is a relation of yours? A sort of cousin!’

  ‘Not sort of, but real. Tabs, you’re part of our family!’

  Talk of the unexpected development went on for days and weeks, with Jack in police custody. Remarkably, Ralph’s health began to slowly improve. Gradually the talk about his return and the arrest of Jack eased and made room for talk of the wedding. One day when Ruth and Henry were visiting him, Henry asked, ‘Ralph, will you be my best man?’

  Life was full and Ruth knew how easily she could have lost it by being afraid to let go and take a chance. Ty Gwyn was a happy memory but now was the time to contemplate the future.

  By the Same Author

  Time to Move On

  The Runaway

  Facing the World

  Gull Island