Sinners and Shadows

by Catrin Collier

  ‘No! No doctor!’ Rhian screamed. ‘Please, Mr Larch, sir, I don’t want anyone to know where I am, please …’

  ‘Leave the doctor for the moment, Mrs Ball.’ He lifted Rhian into his arms. ‘But I will call him if you don’t do as you’re told,’ he warned.

  Two glasses of hock, three of Champagne, a brandy and a Scottish whisky liqueur on top of very little food had set Julia’s head spinning.

  ‘Another brandy?’ Geraint asked.

  ‘No, thank you.’

  ‘If you don’t mind, I will.’ He signalled to the waiter.

  ‘I’m tired.’

  ‘Why don’t you go on up to bed?’ he suggested.

  ‘I think I will.’

  He left his chair. ‘I’ll take you up.’

  ‘There is no need, enjoy your brandy.’

  She walked slowly up the stairs and went into the bathroom at the end of the corridor. Taking advantage of the plumbed-in bath, she returned to her room and gathered her toiletries, nightdress and negligée. Wishing that she could ring for Rhian, she struggled out of her elaborate lace dress and underclothes.

  She caught sight of herself in the mirror opposite the bath as she lowered herself into the water. Geraint was handsome and she was fat and ugly, her skin freckled, her hair redder than ever under the bright electric light. Trying to forget her shortcomings, she washed and dried herself with care. Afterwards she applied a lavish sprinkling of a new range of scented toiletries the assistant in the chemist’s in Tonypandy had recommended, Cleaves ‘White Lilac’. Paying particular attention to her breasts, she sprinkled her skin with powder, dabbed scent behind her ears, under her armpits and in every fold of her skin from her elbows to the back of her knees.

  She stood naked in front of the mirror and brushed out her long hair. It was difficult to study her body objectively, but the images she’d dreamed, cultivated and cherished of her sitting next to Geraint in theatre boxes, restaurants and walking into ballrooms holding on to his arm, were already dissipating. Instead she imagined the sniggers and whispered comments when people saw them as a married couple.

  She has money. Tens of thousands apparently.

  So sad, he lost his. He would never have considered marrying her otherwise.

  Such an odd pair.

  She didn’t get on with her father’s new wife and he was on the lookout for any girl with a decent income. Mr Hadley had him thrown off his doorstep when he came sniffing after his daughter.

  Everyone knows he doesn’t give a fig for her but who can blame her for deluding herself. He is very good-looking.

  Do you think that he – they – share a bed?

  Do you think …

  She slipped on her gown and negligée. She wasn’t pretty but she was clean and she smelled good. Picking up clothes and her toilet bag, she made her way back to her bedroom, smiling self-consciously at a young couple who came up the stairs arm in arm together.

  She went into the suite, switched on the light and packed away her hat and dress, determined never to wear either again. She folded her linen, rolled her stockings neatly, and, when the room was tidy, crept into bed. The suite had a sitting room with a smaller, single bedroom off it where Geraint had placed the bag of new clothes he’d bought. Would he sleep there? Or with her?

  She lay rigid with her arms at her side and waited. The small sounds of the hotel echoed through the doors and walls. People walking up and down the corridor outside. Climbing the stairs and moving about in the rooms overhead. Snatches of voices drifted in, a trolley rattled as it was pushed past her door.

  She reached for the watch she’d placed on a side table. She had been upstairs for over an hour. The last thing she remembered looking at before she went to sleep was the wedding ring that Geraint had bought with her money in Carlisle and placed on her finger that afternoon.

  ‘She’s had a warm bath, drunk a glass of brandy and I’ve tucked her up in bed, Mr Larch. I hope you don’t mind but I gave her one of your clean nightshirts.’

  ‘That’s fine, thank you, Mrs Ball.’ Edward dropped his book on to the floor next to his chair.

  ‘She’s asking to see you, sir.’

  ‘I’ll talk to her, Mrs Ball, but I’ll leave the door open. Do you mind seeing to her if she should need you in the night? I’ll pay you for your time.’

  ‘There’s no need, sir. I have nothing else to do.’

  Edward rose from his chair and, careful to leave both the sitting-room and corridor doors open, went into the bedroom. Rhian was lying in the centre of the large double bed, still pale and trembling despite Mrs Ball’s ministrations.

  ‘You do realize that you’ve had people out looking for you all day.’ He sat on the chair in the corner of the room.

  ‘I can’t face anyone. You won’t tell a soul where I am, will you, sir?’

  ‘I have to tell them you’re safe. Mrs Williams said that Mr Evans has called at Llan House several times today and Mrs Evans has telephoned –’

  ‘Please, sir. You won’t tell anyone?’ Her eyes rounded in agitation. ‘I’ll leave first thing in the morning.’

  ‘To go where?’

  ‘I don’t know, sir. But it doesn’t matter so long as it’s away from Tonypandy and somewhere I can find work.’

  ‘We’ll talk again tomorrow. Mrs Ball’s rooms are on the floor below these should you need anything in the night. I’ll let everyone know you’re safe but I won’t say where you are, is that all right?’

  She nodded dumbly.

  ‘And you promise to stay here until I come back in the morning? If you’re still determined to leave Tonypandy then, I’ll pay you what you’re owed, so you’ll have some money behind you.’

  ‘Thank you, sir. You’re very kind.’

  He left his chair. ‘Sleep well. Hopefully everything will look better in the morning. We’ll talk then.’

  ‘Don’t worry, sir, I’ll look after her,’ Mrs Ball said, as he returned to the sitting room. ‘I told the driver of the brake to come back at eleven.’

  ‘It’s that late now?’

  ‘Ten minutes before, by the clock, sir.’

  Edward picked up his jacket. If Mabel were still up she’d be furious. But he realized with a start that without Julia in the house, he had no reason whatsoever to continue calling Llan House home – or even to visit there.

  Edward went into his office and locked the communicating door behind him. He picked up the telephone book from his secretary’s desk, looked under E and dialled Lloyd Evans’s number. A butler answered and he breathed a sigh of relief, he didn’t feel up to conversation. He left a message to say that Rhian was well, safe and in good hands, but didn’t want to see anyone for a day or two.

  The brake was waiting in the street and he settled back in the seat, trying not to think about what his daughter might or might not be doing with Geraint Watkin Jones at that very moment.

  The driver stopped in the drive of Llan House. Edward alighted and was almost bowled over by Joey Evans who hurtled out of the shrubbery to meet him.

  ‘Mr Evans, a strange time for a social call, don’t you think?’ Edward brushed off the pollen Joey had deposited on his jacket.

  ‘Mr Larch, have you seen, Rhian?’ Joey demanded breathlessly.

  ‘You’ve saved my coachman a trip, Mr Evans. I would have sent him round to your house as soon as I got in. Miss Jones is in safe hands, but she doesn’t want to see anyone for a few days. I telephoned your brother’s house earlier and left a message.’

  ‘I must see her. You know where she is –’

  ‘I’ve told you all that I can, Mr Evans. Now if you’ll excuse me, I haven’t been home all day.’

  Joey blocked Edward’s path. Edward stared back at him in the gloom and Joey realized that he had no right to demand any more of him.

  ‘Thank you, Mr Larch. I’ll call back tomorrow, if I may.’

  ‘Please don’t, Mr Evans. She knows where to get in touch with you if she wants to.’

&nbs
p; ‘She won’t. Can you get a letter to her?’ Joey asked as an afterthought.

  ‘Yes, Mr Evans. I will be able to arrange that.’ Edward looked up. The curtains were open in the drawing room and he could see Mabel pacing in front of the window. ‘Good evening, Mr Evans.’

  Joey watched Edward walk into his house before turning towards home. He had done all he could – for tonight.

  Half an hour later he turned the key in the lock of his father’s house, went into the hall and switched on the light. Before he had time to walk down the passage, the kitchen door opened and his father limped out.

  ‘Did you find Rhian?’

  Wretched, sunk too deep in his own misery for anything outside of it to register, Joey wasn’t even surprised to see his father home for the first time in months. ‘I saw Edward Larch. He said Rhian is safe but she doesn’t want to see me.’

  ‘I’m not surprised.’

  ‘You’ve seen her?’ Joey whirled around eagerly.

  ‘No,’ his father interrupted tersely. ‘Connie’s here, she came to see me in Victor’s house.’

  Joey set his hat on a coat hook. ‘What does she want?’

  ‘What do you think she wants?’

  Joey looked at his father for the first time. ‘You and Connie believe Tonia, don’t you?’

  ‘At the moment I’m not sure what to believe.’

  Joey walked past his father and went into the living room. Connie was sitting next to a small fire his father had lit. A cup of tea stood on the shelf next to her but she was nursing a glass of leftover Christmas brandy.

  ‘We can’t believe Tonia,’ she informed him coldly, ‘because Tonia hasn’t said a single word since she came home this afternoon. But the customers who called into the shop said plenty.’

  ‘I can imagine.’

  She glared at Joey. ‘I need to know, Joey. Were you two alone together in your office with the blinds drawn and the door closed?’

  ‘It wasn’t what it looked like.’ Joey had said the words so often he was sick of them.

  ‘No?’ she questioned sceptically.

  ‘No,’ he repeated emphatically.

  ‘And when Rhian opened the door and surprised you, your trousers weren’t unbuttoned.’

  ‘They were, but as I keep saying, it wasn’t what it looked like,’ Joey repeated wretchedly.

  ‘Then my customers weren’t all lying?’

  Joey ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling his curls. His father recognized the gesture. Joey had done it since babyhood whenever something upset him.

  ‘If there is an explanation other than the obvious, I’m listening.’ Connie sat back in her chair and waited. Joey heard the tap of his father’s walking stick and the springs creak on his chair when he sat in the chair behind him.

  ‘I’ll not say any more without Tonia in the room.’ Joey sat at the table and sank his head into his hands.

  ‘For pity’s sake, Joey,’ Connie raged. ‘Isn’t any woman safe from you? Antonia’s your cousin, your younger cousin,’ she emphasized. ‘You two were brought up so close you could almost be brother and sister.’

  ‘Which is why I’ve never regarded or treated Tonia any differently to the way I would have a younger sister.’ He dropped his hands from his face and parried Connie’s glare.

  Billy looked at his youngest son for a moment before turning to Connie. ‘It’s late and without Tonia we’ll never resolve this tonight. I’ll walk you home. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.’

  ‘When? It’s Pandy Parade tomorrow night. Joey and I have to work until ten o’clock.’

  ‘I’ll come down to your house first thing in the morning. The sooner the mud’s cleaned from my name, the sooner I can get back to finding Rhian.’ Joey left his chair.

  ‘And I’ll see you home, Connie, not my father. If you walked here from Victor’s, Dad, you’ve done enough hiking for one day.’

  ‘You’re not walking anywhere with me, Joey,’ Connie refused curtly.

  ‘Then I’ll walk behind you.’

  ‘After what’s happened today I’d be more frightened of you attacking me than one of the drunks leaving the Pandy.’

  ‘That’s a vicious thing to say.’

  ‘Not after what you’ve done to Tonia.’

  ‘Stop it, the pair of you,’ Billy ordered brusquely. ‘Sniping at one another isn’t going to help. I’ll walk you back, Connie, and before you say another word, Joey, Victor brought Connie and I back here in his cart. Get some sleep, boy,’ he added, not too unkindly, before following Connie out.

  Mabel stood quivering with rage as she faced Edward across the drawing room. ‘I asked you a question, Edward. And, as your wife, I demand an answer. Is what Mrs Hodges said true? Have you fitted out rooms for your own use in the building you’ve renovated next door to your office?’

  ‘At the risk of repeating myself ad nauseum, Mabel, yes, I have fitted out a shop and three sets of rooms in the building. And, as you’re so adamant on knowing every detail of the arrangements, yes, I have furnished the rooms on the second floor to my own personal taste.’ Edward sat on the sofa, slipped his hand into his inside pocket and pulled out his cigarette case.

  ‘You know my rules. I won’t have any smoking in the drawing room.’

  ‘It was your insistence on laying down rules as to how I should live in my own house that drove me to furnish those rooms, Mabel.’ Edward lit his cigarette.

  ‘Have you any idea how it feels to have someone tell you that your husband is leading a double life?’

  ‘Am I your husband, Mabel?’ He stared up at her questioningly.

  ‘We’re married …’ She faltered under his steady gaze.

  ‘Standing up together in church doesn’t constitute a marriage, Mabel.’

  ‘How can we have a marriage when you are never at home?’

  ‘How can we have a marriage when you won’t let me touch you, and refuse to share my bed?’ He continued to look at her but she turned away.

  ‘Married couples of our class always have separate bedrooms.’

  ‘Amelia and I never did.’

  ‘Then she was very different to me.’

  ‘She was,’ he concurred.

  ‘Are you trying to tell me that she liked the disgusting things men want to do to women?’

  ‘I’m not a violent man, Mabel,’ he broke in harshly, ‘but you say one more word about Amelia, not just now – ever – and I’ll hit you, and harder than you hit Rhian.’

  ‘That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?’ She grasped the excuse to move away from the subject of their non-existent intimate life. ‘My punishing a stupid maid.’

  ‘The sight of you slapping an innocent girl may have woken me up to the person you really are, Mabel. But that is not what this argument is about. Hasn’t it occurred to you that details of our family affairs come to you as complete revelations from strangers because you’ve done your damnedest to destroy my family life? And, as for a double life, I wouldn’t call anyone’s existence in this house a life, which is probably why Julia has sought escape by eloping with a fortune-hunter and Gerald wrote to tell me that he would prefer to spend the summer in France with his friend’s family than come home. It’s certainly the reason why I’ve gone to all the expense of setting up a separate establishment.’

  ‘That is a despicable thing to say after all the care and attention that I’ve lavished on this house.’ Her temper escalated to meet his.

  ‘That’s exactly it, Mabel. You’ve turned my and my children’s home into a house. A cold, unwelcoming place presided over by a woman who cares more for the Ladies’ Circle than the family she married into.’

  ‘Just because I have some consideration for appearances –’

  ‘Consideration!’ he sneered. ‘Well, I have consideration too. For myself, and you. Because if I spent any more time in this house I would probably end up harming either one or both of us. Would you like to know what I do in the rooms I’ve furnished?’ He inhaled his
cigarette before continuing. ‘I sit alone. I dine alone. I eat simple food and read books, enjoying my own company, which I find infinitely preferable to yours.’

  Devastated, Mabel sank down on the nearest chair.

  ‘And before you ask the obvious question, no, I am not always alone. I do have the occasional visitor, but then you’ve forced me to go elsewhere for the pleasure and comfort you’ve denied me.’

  ‘Mrs Hadley said you had a woman there. But Mrs Hodges said she was a respectable, elderly widow. And to think that I chose to believe Mrs Hodges. You … you … beast!’

  ‘Mrs Hodges and Mrs Hadley seem to spend a great deal of their time watching my movements,’ Edward observed coolly.

  ‘You are shameless and disgusting. Have you no thought for my reputation?’

  ‘On the contrary, I thought you were trying to preserve one as a vestal virgin.’ Edward couldn’t resist smiling when he thought of Mrs Ball. She would never see her sixtieth birthday again, but if Mrs Hadley had heard that he’d employed a female caretaker-cum-housekeeper he had no doubt she’d put two and two together and made a dozen. Women like her loved scandal. On the other hand there was enough truth in the gossip Mabel had heard for him to appreciate just how closely they had been watching him.

  Suddenly, he remembered Rhian, and in the light of Mabel’s accusations, just how much he’d compromised her reputation by allowing her to sleep in his rooms.

  ‘How can you sit there smiling … Edward, I am talking to you,’ Mabel shouted when he jumped to his feet. ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Out!’ He flung the word back at her before slamming the door.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Edward stood outside his offices in Dunraven Street. No lights burned in the building or the one next door, but his bedroom was at the back. If Rhian was going to preserve her reputation, he had to get her up, dressed, and ask Mrs Ball to call a brake and take her down to Ynysangharad House quickly, and more importantly, without anyone connecting her disappearance with him.

  He opened his office door, locked it behind him and ran lightly up the stairs. He walked through the connecting door to his rooms. A strip of light showed beneath his bedroom door. He knocked.