The Posthorn Inn

by The Posthorn Inn (retail) (epub)

  ‘Hello, Walter,’ Lowri said. ‘Can I come in?’

  * * *

  Daisy decided that to ease any embarrassment when she called on Walter, she would take her sister. For once Pansy agreed to accompany her and the sisters, driven by Arthur, who had some business to see to for Pitcher, went into town soon after Barrass had left with the letters for Gower.

  ‘If you wish, I’ll leave you to talk to Walter while I look at the shops,’ Pansy offered.

  ‘No, that’s what I do not want,’ her sister said. ‘I don’t want to talk to him at all! But I feel he is unhappy and I am the cause. The least I can do is assure myself I have done everything I can to comfort him in his misery.’

  The wagon pulled up in front of The Voyager Inn and Arthur helped them both down. He tied the horse to a convenient post and after seeing he was out of the sun and with a drink nearby, wandered to sit under the big beech tree, on the bench.

  From an upstairs window, Lowri watched the girls approach. Walter was lying on the bed drowsily watching her.

  ‘Customers,’ she whispered. ‘Go and see to them, shall I?’ She didn’t wait for his agreement but slipped a gown none too neatly about her stocky form and went down the stairs. She pulled at her hair to make sure she did not look tidy, loosened the neck of her gown even lower and yawned as she opened the door.

  ‘Why, Mistresses Daisy and Pansy!’ she said in feigned surprise. ‘Have you brought something for the post?’

  ‘No, I – that is…’

  ‘We wondered if Walter is well,’ Pansy added swiftly. ‘We were told he was incapacitated somewhat.’

  ‘Fine and handsome he seems to me! Sleeping like a babe he is, and with such a smile of contentment on his face. Pity to wake him – if it isn’t nothing urgent…’

  ‘No, please don’t disturb him. And there’s no need to tell him we called,’ Pansy said, and hurried her sister away.

  Arthur watched as Daisy and Pansy entered the office, then stood up in surprise when they turned and hurried back to the wagon.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked, seeing their tight-lipped expression.

  ‘Don’t ask!’ Daisy said grimly. ‘Just take us to where we can sit and drink a glass of cordial and forget we came!’

  From the sorting office, a face stared after them. Lowri smiled. They were unlikely to call on Walter again. For the moment, she had a place to sleep and a man to feed her. It would do, until she was ready to move on.

  Daisy wanted to buy some beads to match a dress she planned to wear when they went as a family to dine with their sister Violet, Edwin and their little niece.

  ‘I think I’ll stay here and sip another cordial,’ Pansy said. ‘Take your time, I won’t be impatient.’

  ‘Are you sure you’re well, Pansy?’ Daisy asked. ‘You seem loath to do anything, go anywhere or even take an interest when I do! You aren’t feeling sick, are you?’

  ‘The summer weather is a bit trying, but no, there is nothing wrong that a cooling breeze will not mend. Go and find the beads you want and I will sit here until you come back. Bring me some sweetmeats, and some to take back for Mamma.’

  When Daisy had disappeared, Arthur and Pansy hugged each other and left the front room of the house where they had bought refreshments.

  ‘A whole hour at least!’ Pansy said, as, taking Arthur’s hand, she ran with him towards the edge of the sea behind the castle.

  Like children released from confinement, they took off their shoes and ran at the edge of the tide, laughing with delight at the sensation of the rippling water. They waved to the men who worked on some upturned boats, talked with the urchins who wandered along the line of the tide looking for treasures. They aimed pebbles to skim across the waves, earning their cheers when their missiles touched the surface more than twice.

  They searched for seashells and Arthur found some large shells which he gathered for Pitcher.

  ‘He uses them for the tables,’ he explained to a curious Pansy, ‘for the men to empty out their pipes into, and to use as trays to rest the pipes on to cool.’

  Pansy laughingly helped him to fill his pockets, then stopped and gasped with admiration at the rockroses growing in profusion on the dunes, their yellow petals as fine as silk.

  When they felt they had been there long enough to become invisible to those nearby, they found a place amid the dunes and sat together with their arms about each other.

  ‘Such a pity we have to go back,’ Arthur said. ‘But I don’t want us to have to explain our absence. A brief walk along the shore, that is easily explained, but it’s best we go now.’ He kissed her lightly and stood to help her rise.

  ‘How can I explain the brightness of my eyes? I know it shows when I have been with you, Arthur,’ Pansy sighed. ‘How no one has guessed I can’t imagine.’

  They walked back to the small room, pleased that their return was well-timed as, within a few minutes, they were joined by a jubilant Daisy.

  ‘I have found exactly what I want,’ she told them, holding up the beads she had bought.

  ‘How wonderful,’ Pansy said with a secret glance at Arthur. ‘To find what you want makes the world a beautiful place.’

  * * *

  Annie still refused to leave the house. For a while she had begun to relax, thinking her time for caution was ended and she could begin to explore the neighbourhood and its people. Seeing Cadwalader had made her withdraw again like a snail whose shell was touched. Unaware that he had seen her, she thought that with extra caution, she was safe.

  It was from Olwen that she gleaned the news. Because Olwen was gregarious and belonged to a family who were familiar with all the inhabitants of the village, she knew what was happening as soon as anyone. Her mother sold fish both locally, knocking at doors, and in the Swansea market. Spider and Dan were regular visitors to the alehouse, where, it seemed to Annie, all the information of the world filtered. Anything she needed to know, she asked Olwen.

  One afternoon, when William was in Bristol with John Maddern and Edwin, Annie suddenly needed something from the village. She called for Olwen, then remembered that both she and Dozy Bethan were out helping with the harvest in the cornfield. She stepped outside into the warmth of the afternoon and called for David and the other stable boys. None appeared in answer to her demand. She stamped her foot irritably.

  Should she take a chance and go as far as Ceinwen’s house to buy the vegetables she had forgotten she needed? She looked around the kitchen and the small garden close to the house, but there was no alternative. William would be home either that day or the following and after four days away, would be expecting a decent meal. The risk was a small one, the thought of not giving William the best meal she could provide, unacceptable.

  She put on the thick, unsuitable cloak she had not worn since her arrival at Ddole House and adding a hat which, she hoped, might mislead anyone who saw her, set off across the fields. She was not even sure of the way and with only Olwen’s vague, half-remembered instructions to go on, she found herself walking along the green lane. She stopped at the house of Betson-the-flowers and asked her way.

  ‘It’s vegetables I need,’ she explained crossly. ‘The girls I depend on have forgotten them. They are most unreliable! If you could direct me to the house of Ceinwen, who I understand sells them, perhaps I can get what I need.’

  ‘Don’t worry yourself to walk all that way on such an afternoon,‘ Betson smiled. She beckoned the woman inside and from a shelf gave her a bundle of pea plants on which full pods still hung. ‘Have these, and welcome. There are plenty more where they came from. Some parsnips too.’ She picked up a paper-wrapped bundle. ‘With plenty of butter they make a tasty meal even tastier.’

  ‘You must let me pay you…’ Annie took her purse that was hanging from the chain around her waist and opened it.

  Betson shook her head, making her long red hair shimmer in the sunshine.

  ‘Take them and welcome,’ she said, pushing the purse away from her. ‘I�
��ve plenty more. People are so kind to me, I’ll never understand why.’

  Relieved that she had managed to avoid a visit to the outskirts of the village, Annie hurried back to the house.

  From a position close to the house of Betson-the-flowers a figure watched her go. He was wrapped in a black cloak and sat cross-legged against the trunk of a tree on a high branch. When Annie passed close beneath him, he did not move.

  When she had disappeared from sight, he climbed down and began to walk back to the town. He did not want to go, but having promised to play and sing for supper and a barn in which to sleep, he felt obliged to keep his word. There would be other times and being reliable was important. Tomorrow he would return.

  * * *

  Lowri spent several days with Walter, and with a bit of coaxing, managed to persuade him to part with a few pounds which she told him she needed for clothes. Taking a few items from her pack and paying for them to be pressed, she paraded them for his benefit, making the demonstration of her purchases a flirtatious dance, and explained that the money was spent.

  When he was sleeping beside her later that day she crept down and counted her hoard. Soon there would be sufficient for a coach journey to Cardiff, where, she suspected, her mother might be.

  She knew her brother was still in the area, and for a while thought that meant he had found her, but he was showing no sign of it, wandering around, singing at the market place, and at alehouses and inns, to keep himself fed and warm. Cadwalader, she thought with relief, had given up the search and was staying in the town because of some woman.

  When she went out to buy food, she saw him, sitting with his cloak around him, in his usual position, legs crossed, his bundle and his harp beside him. He was eating the flesh from a pig’s trotter, and almost on his knee, a paw raised in pleading gesture, was a dog waiting for him to abandon it.

  Cadwalader was smiling and at first she thought it was at the anxious expression on the dog’s face, its head to one side, its brow furrowed like a row of cigars. Then she realized that he was unaware of the dog and the smile was one of satisfaction not amusement. Instead of greeting him, she decided to watch, just in case he had stumbled on a clue to the whereabouts of their mother. She retraced a few steps and stood at the corner of a house, where she could secretly observe him.

  When he moved off, she followed. The shopping she had done was abandoned near the corner and, allowing him to get well ahead, she carefully moved along the street keeping him in view and ready to dart for cover if he should turn around. She guessed he had something on his mind as he did not once glance back, but walked steadily and with a clear indication that he knew where he was heading, back to Mumbles.

  Lowri was getting tired by the time she and her quarry reached Pitcher’s alehouse. At first she thought he was going inside, but he seemed to change his mind and walked past. Wearily, Lowri followed. Her shoes were broken and they were cutting her toes, so once they had left the road and taken to the fields, she threw them into a hedge.

  The grass was cool under her feet with the approach of evening, and the occasional stream a welcome, soothing pleasure. She gradually discarded one idea after another about where he was heading as they went through the village without stopping, and once or twice she felt disappointment at the thought that he knew she was there and was leading her on a long, fruitless journey. But she knew she had been very careful, keeping him close enough to see if he looked in her direction, and being far enough back for him not to hear her.

  Then she saw him walk through the gates of Ddole House and her mind filtered the information she had on the household. William Ddole a widower, and – ‘Yes,’ she said aloud. ‘A new housekeeper!’ Keeping well back now, she darted past the drive and through into the field beside it, then down to where she was near the house but sheltered by a thick hedge of hawthorn.

  For a while she listened, then, hearing a door close, she pushed her way painfully through the hawthorn, her excitement such that she did not feel the pricks of the cruel branches. The kitchen door was open and she boldly went inside. Cadwalader and her mother were facing each other across the table.

  ‘Hello Mam,’ Lowri said into the sudden silence. ‘Glad I’ve found you. I want my share of the money you stole.’

  ‘Cadwalader!’ Annie wailed, ‘you promised me that she hadn’t followed you!’

  ‘I didn’t see a sign of her,’ Cadwalader said. ‘How did you know to follow me today of all days?’ he demanded.

  ‘Saw a smile on your face like a pig with a full belly and knew that it was more than food to make you look like that.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Annie asked. Her small eyes had lost their smile, and her jaw was tight and jutting. She would not give up all her hopes without a fight.

  ‘I want you to come home,’ her son said simply.

  ‘I want my share of the money,’ Lowri said firmly. ‘You sold the boarding house that was our home and had us all evicted, Dad, Cadwalader and me!’

  The emphasis seemed to suggest to Cadwalader that if she had been included in their mother’s plan she would not have had any righteous or moral objections to the act. It was not the selling of their home, their abandonment and their eviction, but the fact that she had not been a partner in her mother’s crime.

  ‘You’ve survived,’ Annie said coldly.

  ‘Would you like me to tell you how?’ Lowri demanded.

  Annie ushered them into the sitting-room out of sight and looked at the big longcase clock. Ticking away the seconds, marking the passing of her brief freedom. William must return soon. She had to get rid of her children, but how? She did not want to run away and start looking for a place now, when William was beginning to depend on her, but if he came back and heard what they had to say, she would be told to go anyway.

  ‘Come back tomorrow and we’ll discuss what’s the best for us all,’ she said. ‘Go now or you’ll spoil the best chance of bettering ourselves we’re likely to have!’

  ‘I’ll sleep in the barn,’ Cadwalader decided.

  ‘And so will I.’ Lowri said firmly. ‘Don’t think of running away again, we’ll find you, and next time it will be with the law!’

  Annie didn’t waste time wondering how Cadwalader had found her, but thought of all the choices she had left. To do as Cadwalader wanted and go back to her drunken husband was out of the question. To run away, when she was just beginning to make a home for herself, seemed hard. But how could she stay put with them at her heels?

  She wondered if it was too soon in their relationship for her to confide in William. By missing out the fact that she was still married, and make the man she was running from her drunken brother, he might just believe her. But there were still Lowri and Cadwalader. Nothing she could say would make them go away now they had found her! With an unaccustomed frown on her normally gentle face, she put finishing touches to the meal she had prepared and looked anxiously along the drive for the return of the servants. Yesterday she railed against the inconvenience of having to tend the cooking while the others helped in the fields, today it seemed a trivial chore.

  The following day, after a sleepless night, Annie rose early. The household was silent and still when she called Dozy Bethan. With the girl’s sleepy assistance she prepared all the food for the day, so she would be free. When the servants, including Bethan and Olwen, had gone to their work in the fields. and William was eating his breakfast, she went to the barn to find Cadwalader and Lowri.

  ‘I can’t stay long,’ she whispered. ‘You must go from here. Give me time to decide what to do. I won’t go back to your father, Cadwalader, and you can take that as definite! As for you, Lowri, why should I share my hard-earned money with you? Grown up you are and well able to work. Go and find some like I always have!’

  ‘Dad is devastated and ill,’ Cadwalader said. ‘Surely you have some sympathy for him?’

  ‘None! He had a good business as a printer and spent all his dwindling profits at the alehouse.’<
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  ‘Then give us a share. As a family we did our bit to keep the boarding house going, why shouldn’t we benefit from the sale of it?’ Lowri demanded.

  ‘I can’t talk now. You’ll have to give me a couple of days. No, don’t worry,’ she said as Lowri began to protest. ‘I won’t be running off. This place suits me fine and if you’ll give me a while to consider, I’m sure I can satisfy us all. Now go, before William comes out and sees you here.’

  After more discussion, in which Cadwalader showed regret and Lowri showed consternation and aggression, Annie persuaded them to leave. With a sigh of disappointment showing on her face, she went back to see if William needed anything further before she cleared the table.

  When she thought William was watching her, she allowed the faintest sob to escape her lips.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ William asked. ‘Is something worrying you, Annie?’

  With her back to him, head bent into a handkerchief, she shook her head and opened the door to leave.

  ‘Annie, a moment if you please.’

  He rose from his chair and came to where she stood, touching her shoulder and making her face him. Her fascinating eyes were barely visible in their thickly-curled lashes. The strong eyebrows looked as if a comb had just passed upwards through them. The eyes looked reproachful, as if some dreadful wrong had been witnessed by them. He felt his heart race as he tightened the arm which he had placed on her shoulder and led her to a chair.

  ‘It’s nothing for you to concern yourself about, sir, best I go now before I bring some trouble to your house.’

  ‘Trouble? What sort of trouble?’ His first thought was that she had overheard something to do with the boats and he straightened in preparation for some damning revelation. ‘You can tell me,’ he coaxed, half afraid that what she had to say would condemn her to death. If she had learnt something of their activities and felt morally bound to report it, then she would be dealt with efficiently and in haste.