by Iris Gower
The short carriage drive was soon over and Rosie climbed down from the steps the driver had provided. Alice lifted her skirt and, still with tears in her eyes, put her arm through Rosie’s.
‘I know I’ve always been selfish, Rosie, but I mean it when I say that I really value your friendship.’ She wiped her eyes with her fingers. ‘You don’t ask for anything, you don’t even get an honest wage, but you’re so kind. I don’t know what I would do without you, promise you won’t leave me.’
‘I won’t leave you,’ Rosie said and she meant it. She had seen a different side of Alice in the past weeks, the soft, vulnerable side of a woman who had been badly hurt.
‘I have to tell you something,’ Alice said slowly. ‘I hope you won’t be too angry with me.’
‘I won’t be angry with you,’ Rosie smiled. ‘I’m hardly ever angry with anyone. Except Watt Bevan that is.’
‘It’s about him,’ Alice said. ‘He called yesterday when you were fetching butter from the farm. He wanted to see you but I sent him away. I did do right, didn’t I?’
Rosie had mixed feelings about Watt; the thought that he had come looking for her was somehow comforting and yet nothing had changed; he did not love her, had never loved her. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘you did the right thing.’
‘He might come back today,’ Alice said. ‘If he does, you’ll stand firm, won’t you?’
‘I’ll stand firm,’ Rosie said but her heart was leaping in her chest and somehow the day seemed to be brighter. Perhaps Watt had realized that he did love her after all. But no, she was as sad as Alice, clutching at straws like a child. Well she was a grown woman now and she had her own life to make. Sadly it did not include Watt Bevan.
Watt lay across the bed in the small house in Greenhill, staring up at the cracked ceiling. He had spent a sleepless night examining his feelings. He had married in haste, that much was true. He had married Rosie for all the wrong reasons so how could he blame her for running off, for being unwilling to accept second best?
He had found out where Rosie was staying and, yesterday, he had ridden from Swansea to see her. Alice Sparks had sent him away; she had told him in no uncertain terms that he did not deserve a gem like Rosie.
‘That girl needs to be loved,’ she said. ‘You took her dreams of romance and stamped them into the ground. Did you really expect a girl of Rosie’s quality to put up with that?’
He had been angry but, now, after thinking about it all night, he realized she was right. Rosie was beautiful and intelligent. She had pride and spirit. Any woman who had the courage to leave a loveless marriage deserved the best life had to offer.
Did he love her? He was not sure. But he definitely wanted the chance to find out. He pushed himself up from the bed. The dawn light was breaking over the land, and the world seemed fresh and lovely.
Later, when he was dressed, he walked across the bellying hills towards the large house where Rosie worked. His heart beat swiftly at the thought of seeing her. He could only hope that she would agree to seeing him this time.
He was not turned away as he expected, instead he was invited into the kitchen. The fire roared in the grate and servants worked busily, ignoring his presence. After a time, Rosie appeared in the doorway and beckoned to him. He followed her eagerly into one of the back rooms and stood staring at her.
The morning sun lit her hair and touched her cheeks with gold. She had matured; she was no longer the innocent girl he had married; she had become a beautiful unobtainable woman.
‘Rosie,’ he began, ‘I’ve been a thoughtless fool and I want a chance to make it up to you.’
‘Don’t you think it’s a bit late for that, Watt?’ She spoke calmly, her brow unruffled. She was not angry with him and that worried him.
‘I was wrong to marry you, I see that now. Pearl and I were old friends and I felt responsible for her. I knew that her family meant a great deal to her and I suppose I wanted to comfort her when she fell sick. The only way to take care of you all was to marry into the family.’
She nodded as though the answer was what she expected. She looked down at her hands and he felt his heart melt within him. She was slender as a reed, the fly-away hair secured by pins. His wife was so lovely he felt his heart melt.
‘Rosie,’ he said softly, not touching her, ‘can I come courting you?’ She did not look up; she was silent for so long that he wondered if she had heard him.
‘Please, Rosie, I want us to get to know each other, to start all over again. Will you think about it?’
She met his eyes. ‘I will think about it. But I am not moving back home with you, Watt, not now, perhaps not ever.’ She smiled wryly. ‘I’ve promised not to leave Alice and I intend to keep that promise.’
‘Rosie, can’t we just spend some time together?’
‘Come to see me Sunday, it’s my day off. We’ll go out, we’ll walk and talk. As you say, we need to get to know each other. I think you’d better go now, Watt, I’ve got work to do. I’ll see you on Sunday.’
He left the house, his heart light with hope. Rosie was a lovely woman; she was good and kind as well as beautiful. If only she would give him the chance he would show her how much she meant to him.
He realized quite suddenly that he did love her with all his heart. He had been a blind fool not to have realized it before.
At least Rosie had not rejected him outright. She was willing to see him again. He thrust his hands into his pockets and whistled as he walked. One day, one day not too distant, he would take Rosie in his arms and repeat his marriage vows to her. And he would love her as no man had ever loved his wife before.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
John strolled along the road breathing in the fine evening air. It was a good day for a man to become a landowner, to find his rightful place in society again. John could not forget his roots. He had been born to luxury; he was not one of the lower orders, he was a gentleman.
Life as a working man had never been easy for him. But soon he would be the owner of the Mainwaring Pottery and it was a good thought. He would have to rename the place of course and the Pendennis China Company would do nicely. All that remained was for him to collect his money from Sparks.
He smiled to himself. Everyone thought he was mad buying a failing business. But he knew why it was failing and so did Edward Sparks, the cunning bastard! Just give him a few months and John Pendennis would be the owner of a fine business.
The house looked deserted and John frowned. Edward had been conspicuous by his absence lately and, suddenly, John felt uneasy.
John hammered on the door more loudly and at last heard footsteps coming across the hall. Edward himself answered the door. The man was unshaven; he looked as if he had been drinking. His bleary eyes focused on John and he stepped back a pace. ‘Oh, John, it’s you.’
‘Yes, it’s me.’ John pushed past him, it was clear that Sparks had no intention of asking him in. ‘I’ve come for my money, I do hope you have it ready for me.’ He strolled into the drawing room, looking round him appraisingly. Elegantly furnished though it was, the place smelled of stale smoke and there was a port stain on the side table.
‘It’s not convenient right now,’ Sparks said, his speech was slurred; he seemed like a man in a daze. ‘Can you come back in the morning?’
‘What is this?’ John spun on his heel and looked closely at Sparks. ‘You know I needed that money today. Just go and get it, if you know what’s good for you.’
‘I’m in serious trouble.’ Edward Sparks sank into a chair and put his hands over his eyes. ‘The auditors have found my alterations to the books.’ He looked up suddenly, his eyes were bloodshot and he was sweating.
‘I still want my money.’ John was becoming angry. ‘Your problems are no concern of mine. Come on, where is my share of the money you’ve embezzled?’
Sparks spread his hands wide. ‘It’s gone, just gone.’
John felt a pain in the pit of his stomach. ‘All of it?’
&nb
sp; Sparks nodded. ‘All gone.’
‘What about the sum of money I gave you at the start of our deal?’ John said desperately. ‘I want it back right now!’
Sparks shook his head. ‘It’s no good,’ he said. ‘I meant to invest your money but I never got round to it.’ He glanced at John, a frightened expression on his face. ‘Everything has gone wrong, can’t you understand? I’ve been dismissed from my job. I might go to prison.’
John grabbed him by the throat. ‘My money, where is it?’
‘I had debts, gambling debts and it’s all your fault.’ Sparks was nearly in tears. ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, everything is crashing down around me and I can’t stand it!’
‘Sorry!’ John felt the blood pounding in his head. The man had ruined the best deal John would ever be offered in life and he said he was sorry.
John’s fist shot out and connected with the side of Sparks’s head. The man fell to the ground, cringing like the coward he was. His glasses went spinning across the room and cracked.
‘I can’t help it, John!’ Sparks blubbered. ‘I’m in deeper trouble than you know, so please don’t hit me again.’ He lay against the carpet, his eyes closed. ‘I gambled, like a fool I wrote promissory notes. If I don’t pay the rest of my debts I’ll be killed for sure.’
John kicked out at Sparks’s booted foot. ‘Then the job will be done for me!’ He left the man lying on the floor and began to search the house.
He dragged open drawers and threw the contents on the floor. He searched the rooms one by one, coming up with only a few cheap trinkets. When John returned to the drawing room he found Sparks crouching in a chair, his eyes wide with fear.
‘Is there a safe in the house or anything of value?’ John demanded. Sparks shook his head; he seemed to be in some sort of dream, as though his mind had deserted his feeble body. John slapped him hard.
‘Please,’ Sparks said, ‘please don’t hit me, there’s nothing here. If there was anything to sell don’t you think I would have sold it by now?’
John pulled the gold watch from Sparks’s pocket. It would not fetch a great deal of money but it was something. ‘Have you a safe?’ He hit Sparks again and the man began to cry. John hit him again and, finally, Sparks nodded.
‘It’s in the cupboard under the stairs,’ he said. ‘But it needs two keys to open it and I don’t know where they are.’
‘You’d better think about it then if you don’t want me to flay the skin off your back,’ John said angrily.
‘But there’s nothing in the safe.’ Sparks protested. ‘Alice took everything when she left.’
John punched Sparks in the face and left him sprawling against the chair, blood pouring from his nose. The man was trash; he did not have the wit of a new-born child. ‘I know that’s a lie! Tell me where the keys are.’
‘I don’t know, I tell you, I don’t know.’ The man was blubbering and John pushed him away scornfully.
‘I’ll just have to look for myself, won’t I?’ The safe was a solid one made of heavy cast iron. It looked impenetrable. John felt on the floor behind the safe, a favourite hiding place for keys. His fingers found only cobwebs.
Crouching on his heels, he looked around him and saw the plant pot in the hallway sporting a large leafy succulent. He dug his fingers in the dirt and grunted in satisfaction as they closed on something cold and metallic. Both keys were there and John wiped the earth away from them carefully.
The safe swung open with ease but all that was inside was a bundle of papers. He drew them out and took them to the hall table. The deeds of the house crackled crisply between his fingers. John searched through all the documents and found, to his surprise, that the house was fully paid for. At least that was something. He thrust the papers into his pocket.
He looked around; the house was a good solid building, he would have no trouble selling it. But first he must get Sparks to sign it all over to him.
Sparks had not moved from the chair. He was holding a kerchief to his nose and his eyes were beginning to turn black.
‘If you do as I say, we’ll be able to salvage something out of this mess,’ John said.
Sparks looked up at him hopelessly. ‘How?’
‘The house,’ John said, ‘it’s yours, free and clear.’
Sparks shook his head. ‘Alice paid for it with money from her lover. It’s not my property, it’s hers.’
‘You must sign it over to me. What’s your wife’s is yours, you know that as well as I do.’
‘That would take time, we’d need a notary or someone to witness it all.’ He sat up straighter in his chair. ‘Anyway, how could I trust you to give me any of the money for the house even if you do have time to sell it?’ He seemed to have recovered some of his spirit.
‘That’s your problem.’ John was congratulating himself for his good luck. He could find a lawyer within the hour and, even if the house could not be sold immediately, it provided enough collateral to impress even the most careful bank manager.
‘All right.’ Sparks seemed resigned now, willing to do whatever John suggested. He had nothing better to offer.
‘I’ll be back within the hour,’ John said. ‘Don’t leave the house under any circumstances, do you hear me?’
‘I won’t leave the house, you can depend on that,’ Sparks said quietly. ‘I haven’t left the house in days. I told you, I have gambling debts and I have no intention of getting my throat cut or something equally brutal.’
John let himself out of the house and stared up at the evening sky. Clouds were racing in from the east and a chill wind had sprung up. Under normal circumstances no-one would find a lawyer willing to work at such a time of day but these were not normal circumstances. In any case, John knew a man of law who owed him a favour. John smiled to himself; he had learned a long time ago that it was a wise move to make anyone of influence beholden to him.
‘You’ve agreed to sell! What are you thinking of, Llinos?’ Watt said incredulously. She shook her head at him.
‘There’s nothing else I can do, you must see that.’ She sighed heavily. ‘You know the debt we’re in, the problems we face. At least by selling to John Pendennis I can keep a roof over my son’s head.’
‘I never trusted John Pendennis, you know that.’ Watt paced across the room. ‘This is just madness, we have made a handsome profit over the last year, where’s all the money?’
‘What if Joe has taken it as Sparks claimed?’ Llinos asked.
‘Never in this life! Joe wouldn’t leave you penniless, it’s not in his nature. In any case, we all know that Sparks is under suspicion, he’s been suspended from the bank and he might well be facing criminal charges.’
Llinos’s mind was on Joe; even his name had the power to thrill her. She remembered his bright blue eyes smiling into hers, his silky black hair brushing her skin. She tasted again his mouth on hers, thought of the warmth between them as they lay entwined in each other’s arms, and the pain in her heart was almost too much to bear.
‘I know you’re right but, whatever’s happened, even if Sparks has been stealing from my account, the end result is the same, I have no money to pay my bills.’
‘But you have to fight for your rights!’ Watt said desperately. ‘You can’t just go under like this.’
‘Perhaps, ‘but I’m tired. I’ve racked my brains to think of another way out but I can’t.’ Llinos felt like weeping. ‘The debts have piled up and there’s no money to pay for stock. I don’t want to fight any more. I’ve got that right, haven’t I, Watt?’
‘Maybe, but Joe is your husband, if I contacted him he would fight for you, can’t you give him credit for that at least?’
‘How long would it take to find Joe, Watt?’ Llinos said. ‘We don’t know where he is, probably in America with Sho Ka. Anyway, it’s too late to hope for help from that quarter.’
She saw a strange look on Watt’s face and stared at him closely. ‘Have you been in touch with Joe? Come on, Watt, tell me the
truth.’
He nodded. ‘Don’t be angry, I sent Joe a letter some time ago. He did not follow that girl back to America; he’s been living on the border, on his own estate, for some time now.’ Watt brushed back his hair.
‘No wonder Charlotte has been talking about going back home lately.’ Llinos took a deep breath. ‘Am I the last one to know where my husband is living?’
Watt did not reply and Llinos felt anger growing inside her. ‘So I’m not to know where my husband is until you see fit, is that it? How dare you, Watt!’
‘I’m sorry, Llinos, I didn’t know what to do.’
She felt close to tears. ‘You are a man, Watt, explain to me why Joe was unfaithful to me?’
‘Men are not like women.’ Watt was clearly uncomfortable. ‘A man can be with a woman and she can mean little or nothing to him.’
‘I can’t believe Sho Ka meant nothing to Joe. In any case, did you sleep with another woman when you lived with Maura?’ She stared at him, daring him to lie to her. He looked away.
‘No, I didn’t. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t tempted.’ He ran his hand through his hair. ‘If I saw a lovely girl I lusted after her, I admit it.’
‘But you didn’t do anything but think about it, did you? That’s the difference between you and Joe. You stayed faithful to Maura while she was alive.’
Watt sighed. ‘Look, don’t ask me to be wise! I’ve made a right mess of my love life, haven’t I? People have faults, Llinos.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘And men can be coerced into anything given the right set of circumstances.’
‘Were you forced into a marriage you didn’t want, then?’ Llinos stared at Watt, he was trying to excuse what Joe had done by claiming men were weak. Well it would not wash. Joe had betrayed his wife and his child. He had left them destitute and all for another woman.
‘In a way, I was,’ Watt said. ‘More by my own conscience than anything else. I felt obliged to help Pearl.’ He smiled then, like a wicked boy. ‘And I admit I fancied Rosie like crazy.’