Sinners and Shadows

by Catrin Collier

  Although it was only their first outing, there was a barrier between them; one he recognized of his own making. Julia Larch had responded to his compliments with blushes, listened attentively to every single word that he had said, allowed him to hold her hand the entire time the picture house had been plunged into darkness, when he had imagined that he was with Tonia, and even leaned towards him in expectation of a kiss when they’d parted.

  She met all the criteria he had dreamed of finding in a wife. She was wealthy, of age, independent from her family and had a pleasant and equitable nature. But he had found it almost impossible to conceal the fact that she repelled him physically.

  With the deadline to leave Ynysangharad House looming, he had to secure his future as a matter of urgency and, as there was only one other woman in comfortable, if not independent circumstances who had responded to his attentions, he found himself questioning the veracity of what Joey had told him about Rodney’s stores. The more he considered the idea that Connie Rodney’s father had left the store to his nephew, not daughter, the more he wanted to dismiss the idea. But he was realistic enough to know that Tonia, not common sense, was his motive for questioning Joey’s assertion.

  The thought of Julia naked revolted him, the idea of sharing a bed with her made him feel nauseous. Whereas Tonia … He smiled when he recalled how accommodating she had proved during their shared afternoons in the privacy of the stockroom before Joey had burst in on them.

  He needed to know more about Connie Rodney’s finances, but he could hardly go up to Tonypandy and start asking questions about her shop, assets and bank account without raising suspicions. And even if Connie was as wealthy as Julia Larch, which he doubted, there was no guarantee that she’d give her daughter a penny or consent to his marriage to Tonia unless, as Joey had so shrewdly pointed out, he made Tonia pregnant.

  If he did, would Tonia’s mother sit back and watch him and Tonia struggle to bring up her grandchildren in poverty? Or if she did deign to help them, would she expect him to help her in her shop, because much as he hated working in Gwilym James, he most certainly didn’t want to exchange his position there for an assistant’s job in a grocer’s shop. And even all these ‘what ifs’ were dependent on him getting Tonia to speak to him after the scene outside the stockroom.

  He’d missed her, or rather their stocktaking sessions, the last week. But if he was going to resume his relationship with her, he couldn’t allow the situation between them to fester for much longer. He was dreading returning to Gwilym James in the morning. Because no matter how much he tried to hide in the office and the stockrooms, sooner or later he was going to have to walk on to the shop floor. And, at that moment, he didn’t have a clue what he could possibly say to her.

  ‘Did you have a good time yesterday, Miss Julia?’ Rhian asked when she brushed her hair the following morning.

  ‘Yes.’ Julia held her finger to her lips. ‘Open the door,’ she whispered urgently.

  Rhian did as she asked and looked up and down the landing. ‘There’s no one out there.’

  ‘Whenever we talk in here I have the feeling that Mrs Larch is standing outside with her ear pressed to the keyhole.’

  ‘She’s downstairs, checking the menu for next week’s Ladies’ Circle tea party with Mrs Williams.’

  ‘Before breakfast?’ Julia asked in surprise.

  ‘She’s been up early every day since the coffee morning.’

  ‘I heard it was a great success.’ Julia tried not to sound disparaging.

  ‘We were talking about yesterday. Are you going to see your young man again, Miss Julia?’ Rhian asked, unable to contain herself a moment longer.

  ‘Yes, next Monday.’ Julia smiled.

  ‘What is he like?’

  ‘Tall, dark, handsome, well read, well educated, polite and charming.’

  ‘A real gentleman.’

  ‘In every way,’ Julia concurred.

  ‘Where did he take you?’

  ‘We lunched at the Angel Hotel in Cardiff then visited a picture house and afterwards we had tea in one of the small shops in the arcade before he walked me to the station.’

  ‘That sounds as if you had a good time.’

  ‘The best.’ Julia smiled at the memory.

  ‘Are you going to see him again?’

  ‘Next week. Where is your Mr Evans taking you today?’ Julia had said more than she’d wanted to about Geraint. She trusted Rhian implicitly, but her courtship with Geraint was very new and hardly normal and she couldn’t bear the thought of anyone, especially Rhian, of whom she was really fond, criticizing it at this early stage.

  ‘To Victor and Megan’s for lunch and Sali and Lloyd’s for tea. We do go to other places sometimes, but we both like seeing the children.’

  ‘You are lucky that your Mr Evans has a large family. It must be lovely to have nieces and nephews.’

  ‘They’re not my real nieces and nephews yet, but yes, it is nice.’ Rhian pushed the last pin into Julia’s chignon and combed the loose hair from her brush.

  ‘All I know about young children and babies is what I can remember from Gerald’s childhood. And because there are eleven years between us, to be truthful I wasn’t very interested in him at the time. Do you want children?’

  ‘Joey has already told me that he hopes we’ll have babies.’ Rhian smiled self-consciously.

  ‘In the plural.’

  ‘When I look at Sali’s three and Victor’s twins I agree with him. It must be wonderful to be part of a large family.’

  ‘You’ve never talked much about your childhood. Was it happy? Did you have brothers and sisters?’

  ‘Two brothers, both years older than me. They are dead now.’

  Ever sensitive, Julia recognized something in the tone of Rhian’s voice that warned her not to pry further. ‘I’m going to miss you and our chats when you leave to get married.’ Julia untied the cape she wore when Rhian did her hair.

  ‘I’m not marrying for months yet and the way things are with your young man, you may be walking up the aisle before me.’

  ‘And I think you’re building a very large castle on the foundation of one outing.’ Julia reached for the locket on her dressing table.

  ‘It will be two next week. And you do like him?’ Rhian fished, sensing that something wasn’t quite right between Miss Julia and her young man.

  ‘Oh, yes.’

  ‘And you think it will lead to marriage?’

  ‘I hope so.’ Julia didn’t dare confide the identity of her secret ‘admirer’, not that she felt entitled to call Geraint that, when it was her money that he admired.

  ‘Then if you don’t mind me saying so, why don’t you bring him to the house? Your father is a kind man –’

  ‘And Mrs Larch?’ When Rhian remained silent, Julia added, ‘I want to keep him to myself until we get to know one another really well.’

  ‘I can understand that.’

  ‘Rhian?’

  ‘Yes?’ Rhian twisted the loose hair from Julia’s brush into a spiral and dropped it into her hair tidy.

  ‘Your Mr Evans is quite comfortably off, isn’t he?’ Julia really wanted to ask her maid’s opinion on the idea of marrying solely for money but she thought the direct question would shock her.

  ‘Joey earns a good wage, a lot more than me of course, and his father owns houses,’ Rhian began earnestly. ‘But that isn’t why I’m marrying him.’

  ‘I wasn’t suggesting for one minute that it was. It’s just that – and I’m talking about myself – it’s not easy when one person is much wealthier than the other.’

  ‘Megan had nothing when she married and Victor had the farm but that didn’t seem to bother either of them. And although I’ve never talked to Sali about it, I don’t think Lloyd was keen to move into Ynysangharad House, but he put up with it for her and Harry’s sake.’

  ‘And there’re no problems?’

  ‘With Sali and Lloyd, and Victor and Megan? Not that I’ve ever see
n. I only hope Joey and I will be as happy.’ Rhian hung her mistress’s cape away in the wardrobe. ‘This young man of yours,’ she ventured. ‘He doesn’t have as much money as you?’

  ‘No,’ Julia said quickly, not wanting to give Rhian a clue that might identify him.

  ‘But money isn’t what’s really important. And your father is reasonable and easy to talk to. I’m sure once he realizes how much you love him, he will give you permission to marry.’

  ‘Even if he doesn’t, I’m of age. I can marry without it.’

  ‘You wouldn’t do that, would you, Miss Julia?’ Given how close her master and the young mistress had been, especially before the old mistress had died, Rhian couldn’t bear the thought of an estrangement between them.

  Julia rose from the stool. ‘It’s early days. Promise me, Rhian, that you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone. So far as you know, Monday is my suffragette day.’

  ‘I promise, Miss Julia.’

  ‘Thank you for taking the time to do my hair. Enjoy yourself today.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘And, before I forget, I caught Mrs Larch looking in my drawers. When she saw me watching her, she commented on how tidy they were, so I told her that my wardrobe needs sorting out and I’d asked you to see to it this week. So next time you sneak away to read in here, take some of the clothes out of the wardrobe and put them on the bed.’

  ‘I will. Thank you, Miss Julia.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Julia smiled, ‘and hurry. You don’t want to keep your Mr Evans waiting.’

  ‘Mr Watkin Jones, sir?’

  ‘You spoke to me, boy?’ Geraint glared at the lad. In all his time at the store he had never known a lift attendant address him by name.

  ‘Yes, sir.’ The boy faltered, amazed at his own temerity. ‘I spoke to Mr Evans, the manager of the Tonypandy store, the other day,’ he began hesitantly.

  ‘I do know who Mr Evans is,’ Geraint barked brusquely. The mention of Joey didn’t exactly endear the boy to him.

  ‘I told him that I wasn’t happy working on the lifts and I’d like a trainee assistant’s job. He suggested that I speak to you about it, sir.’

  ‘Did he now?’ Geraint mused, his temper rising.

  ‘You, or Miss Gulliford, sir. Do you think that I could get a trainee assistant’s job, sir? My brother Geoff works in the stockroom in Tonypandy, and Mr Evans has promised to look at his work record in four months and, if it’s good enough, give him a trial. That’s all I’m asking for, sir, a trial.’

  ‘You live in Tonypandy and travel down every day?’ Geraint asked.

  ‘Yes, sir, in Primrose Street, not too far from Mr Evans. Of course, his father owns his own house.’ Wary of putting himself on the same social level as the manager of the Tonypandy store, the boy felt the need to explain his background. ‘We rent from Mrs Rodney.’

  ‘Mrs Rodney of Rodney’s Provisions?’ Geraint softened his voice.

  ‘Yes, sir, she owns most of the houses in our street, sir. Although from the way her daughter behaves you’d never think it. She always has time for a kind word, sir.’ The lift reached the top floor, the boy opened the doors but Geraint didn’t step out.

  ‘So, how many houses would you say that Mrs Rodney owns?’ he asked thoughtfully.

  ‘Hundreds, sir. It’s not just Primrose Street; she has houses all over Pandy. She even employs her own rent collector. About the job, sir –’

  ‘Tell you what I’ll do … what is your name?’

  ‘Mike, sir, my mother called me Micah after one of the Old Testament kings but I prefer Mike. You won’t tell anyone, will you, sir? Most people think I’m Michael.’

  ‘I won’t tell anyone – Mike. I’ll talk to Mr Horton and see about moving you into the stockroom. If you do well there for a month or so, I’ll consider you for the first trainee assistant vacancy.’

  ‘Thank you, sir.’ Mike gazed at Geraint as he strode up the corridor. Mr Evans had been right. All he’d had to do was talk to one of the managers. And it had been so easy the only wonder was that he hadn’t plucked up the courage to do it before.

  ‘Miss Adams?’ Geraint waylaid the supervisor when she returned from her lunch break. ‘Could you spare Miss George for an hour when she has finished serving her customers? Mr Horton has ordered an intensive stocktake to ensure that we don’t overbuy for the next three months before the July sale. Your department in particular had more out-of-season reduced goods than were strictly needed last January.’

  Taking Geraint’s comment as he’d intended, as an adverse reflection on her inability to control her stock, Miss Adams replied, ‘Of course, Mr Watkin Jones. Please, keep Miss George for as long as you need her.’

  Tonia was showing a selection of straw hats to a woman and her two young daughters. Although apparently engrossed in her task, she’d heard every word Geraint had said.

  Like everyone else in the store she knew that Geraint hadn’t been in work because he’d been suffering the after effects of Joey’s assault, but unlike everyone else she knew why Joey had hit him. As Geraint hadn’t attempted to see her privately or contact her since Joey had walked in on them in the stockroom, she had assumed that Joey had been right and Geraint was after her mother’s money, not her.

  The knowledge hurt, and she had determined, even before Joey had hit him, that if she could make Geraint Watkin Jones suffer for what he had done to her, she would.

  Geraint answered Tonia’s knock on the stockroom door ten minutes later. ‘Miss George, thank you for coming so promptly.’ He looked up and down the empty corridor before admitting her. ‘My dear Miss George.’ He locked the door and kissed her.

  Tonia pushed him away and kicked his shins with all the force she could muster. ‘You beast!’

  ‘Ow! That hurt!’

  ‘It was meant to.’ She lifted her foot, intending to kick him again, but he retreated behind a pile of stock to rub his wounds.

  ‘Why so vicious?’

  ‘How can you ask that question after what you did to me?’

  ‘Darling –’

  ‘Don’t “darling” me. Joey was right; you’re only after my mother’s money.’

  ‘Surely you didn’t believe him?’ Geraint countered indignantly, still massaging his aching leg.

  ‘Of course I did,’ she retorted fiercely.

  ‘Tonia, Tonia, look where I live, and the way I live. Not to mention how I dress.’

  ‘Everyone knows that you lost your money.’

  ‘But I earn a decent wage. Granted, it’s not what I’m used to, but I have the wing of Ynysangharad House, expense-free for as long as I need it, or I will have when the repairs are completed on the roof next month,’ he lied. ‘And when I marry, I’ll move my wife in there. It’s fairly modest, but there are four bedrooms, a bathroom, drawing room, dining room and study, all fully furnished. And I and my future family have use of the grounds, garden, carriages and car.’

  ‘Really?’ she questioned suspiciously.

  ‘Tonia, everyone knows that my nephew is going to inherit the store. You don’t think he’d allow his uncle to live like a pauper, do you? Besides, I have shares in the company,’ he elaborated, moving further into the realms of fantasy.

  ‘Then Joey was wrong, you’re not after my mother’s money.’

  He stepped out from behind the boxes, linked his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. ‘I’m after your mother’s daughter, not her money, darling.’ He nuzzled her neck.

  ‘But Joey –’

  ‘I thought you’d realize that I was afraid he’d tell your mother about us. The last thing I want is for her to interfere in my plans for our future. I meant what I said about us eloping, Tonia. But if your mother found out about us before I have time to arrange everything, she might lock you up or send you away and then I’d never find you.’

  ‘You’ll still take me to Gretna Green?’

  ‘Of course, darling. We’ll be off the minute the repairs are completed on the
roof of the annex of Ynysangharad House. I’m moving into the lodge temporarily, and I can hardly take you there to live in one room after we’re married, now can I?’

  ‘No.’ She thought about what he’d said. It made perfect sense.

  He released her, checked the lock on the door and jammed a wooden wedge beneath it. ‘Not that I’m expecting Joey Evans to come back but someone else might take it into their head to visit here.’

  ‘The stocktake –’

  ‘I did it earlier.’ He pulled her blouse from the waistband of her skirt, slid his hands inside her bust-shaper and drew her behind a mountain of hatboxes. ‘I love you, Tonia; there’ll never be anyone else for me.’ Lifting her skirt, he pushed her gently down on to an old curtain he’d laid out on the floor. ‘You believe me?’ He stroked her leg and pulled down her drawers in one easy movement.

  ‘Yes.’ She kissed him. ‘Yes, Geraint, I do believe you.’

  ‘I love you, darling, only you.’ He unbuttoned his flies. ‘God, you’re so beautiful, you’ve no idea how much I’ve missed you this last week.’

  She locked her arms around his neck as he entered her. ‘I love you too, Geraint,’ she murmured, her mind busy painting pictures of the perfect life they would lead in Ynysangharad House.

  ‘Only two and half weeks to go before you become Mrs Joseph Evans. Aren’t you excited?’ Julia and Rhian were in Julia’s bedroom, and although it was Rhian’s day off, as usual, she’d gone to Julia’s room first thing to dress her hair.

  ‘I am excited but it seems unreal.’ Rhian brushed Julia’s hair. ‘You’re absolutely sure about the style?’

  ‘As firm and tight a bun as you can make. I don’t want a hair to move until I take it down before I go to bed tonight.’

  ‘You’re going to see him on a Tuesday?’ Rhian asked in surprise.

  ‘I am.’ Julia smiled as she always did when she thought of Geraint. They had dropped the formal ‘Mr Watkin Jones’ and ‘Miss Larch’ on their second outing and had spent every single Monday together for the last thirteen weeks. Before he had walked her to the station to catch her train late yesterday afternoon she had asked him to meet her in the Angel Hotel for dinner that night.