‘When I saw Rhian yesterday, she insisted that your father hadn’t seduced her,’ Mrs Williams revealed.
‘You asked her outright?’
‘More or less.’
‘And you believe her?’ Julia said acidly.
‘From all the accounts I’ve heard, she was devastated when she found her young man in the arms of his cousin. Most people in Tonypandy now seem to believe that Mr Evans’s cousin set it up to look as though there was something between them when there wasn’t. But the truth hardly matters now that Rhian is with your father and her young man has joined the army.’
‘And everyone in Tonypandy knows that she and Father are living together?’
‘There’s gossip because they live in the same building, but there’s no real proof. Everyone knows that your father split the house next door to his office into three sets of rooms, and he put a woman in one set to take care of the building. For all that anyone knows, Rhian could be in another set of rooms and he could be living in the third, so no one can say anything against either of them for definite. But it is common knowledge that he has left Llan House and rarely visits there except to fetch something in the middle of the day when it is more likely than not that your stepmother will be out.’
‘How is my stepmother?’ Julia was anxious to change the subject. She was glad that she had met Mrs Williams and had decided to accompany her to Cardiff. The news that her father was living with Rhian had come as a shock, but it would have been much more of one if she had discovered it accidentally.
‘Mrs Larch is the same as she was when you were living at home, Miss Julia. All she thinks about is her precious Ladies’ Circle. I for one don’t blame your father for not wanting to live with her.’
‘Does she know about my father and Rhian?’
‘She knows that your father has set up a separate establishment in the rooms next door to his office. As for Rhian, I couldn’t tell you. But she is unhappy about your father’s decision to live apart from her.’
‘She must be sorry to be losing you as housekeeper.’
‘If she is, she hasn’t shown any signs of it to me. Harris has left as well; he enlisted in the second week in August.’
‘You’ll all be hard to replace.’
‘Your father isn’t replacing any of us. He has sold the horses and carriage and bought himself a car that he garages behind his office. And he’s promoted Bronwen to housekeeper. He’s shut up all the rooms in the house except for the dining and drawing rooms, the servants’ quarters and your stepmother’s bedroom.’
‘I almost feel sorry for Mrs Larch,’ Julia murmured absently.
‘Pardon?’ Mrs Williams stared at her as if she had taken leave of her senses.
‘She told me that the life she had in Tonypandy wasn’t what my father had promised her.’
‘Your father didn’t get what she promised him in church when she agreed to be his wife either,’ Mrs Williams observed caustically. ‘And what did she expect? To be presented at court. Didn’t she know that there isn’t one in Tonypandy?’
‘I think she expected to be the centre of attention.’
‘Your father did more for her than most men would have done for a second wife. He let her refurnish and redecorate the entire house, and buy whatever she wanted in the way of clothes and knick-knacks. And in return she behaved like a nun. Someone should have told her before she married that when a man gives all his worldly goods he has the right to expect a bit of loving kindness in return.’
Julia thought of her own unconsummated marriage. She had given all her worldly goods and received nothing in return. But then, unlike Mabel with her father, Geraint had never even tried to pretend to love her.
‘How are you enjoying married life, Miss Julia?’ Mrs Williams enquired as if she’d guessed her thoughts.
‘Geraint has enlisted,’ Julia divulged. ‘I’m looking for a house for us and in the meantime I am living with my sister-in-law.’
‘Miss Sali?’ Mrs Williams smiled for the first time since they had met. ‘My sister thinks the world of her, and from what I’ve seen she is a lovely lady. You will be all right with her.’
‘I am.’ Julia managed to return the housekeeper’s smile.
‘Are you happy, Miss Julia? But then, what am I saying? No bride could be happy with her husband gone to war. Well, I’ll say the same to you as I said to Rhian: if you want a holiday, or a break, or a few days away, come and see me. There’s lovely country around the boarding house.’ She opened her handbag. ‘Let me give you the address, but it might be best to write and let me know if you do decide to visit. If Rhian is with me, you might not want to stay. Not the way things are between her and your father.’
‘Second post, Mr Larch.’ Miss Arnold set Edward’s mid-morning cup of tea on to his desk and stacked the letters next to it.
Edward gazed at the pile of buff-coloured envelopes. When he had returned from Brighton with Rhian, he had arranged to have all his post re-directed from Llan House to his office.
He picked up the first envelope, slit it open and removed an unpaid bill from Gwilym James’s ladieswear department that exceeded his wife’s monthly allowance. Sorting out the rest of the bills, he consigned them to his inside pocket. He really couldn’t afford to put off confronting Mabel any longer.
The last envelope he looked at was addressed in a strange hand and bore the crest of Gerald’s public school. He felt horribly guilty and neglectful. He and his son had never been the best of correspondents but their sporadic contact had become even more sparse and perfunctory since last Christmas.
Dear Mr Larch,
I regret alarming you, but Gerald, along with five other senior boys from his house, left school sometime late last night and have not returned. The boys were present at final roll call before the doors were shut for the night, and found to be absent at breakfast this morning.
They left a note in one of their studies stating that they intended to enlist. Please be assured that we are doing all we can to trace them. The headmaster has forwarded their names and correct ages to the relevant authorities. However, as the local recruiting offices are not demanding to see birth certificates or proof of age, they could have volunteered under false names, so it may take us some time to find out if they have in fact enlisted, and if so, what regiment they have joined.
I repeat, we are doing everything in our power to find them. I trust that you will contact me immediately should you hear from Gerald. I will keep you informed of any new developments,
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Mayfield, Housemaster
Edward gazed at the photograph of Amelia, Julia and Gerald on his desk. Gerald had been fifteen when he had taken it. He compared the way Gerald looked there to when he had last seen him. He was tall and broad-shouldered; any recruiting sergeant anxious to boost his regiment’s numbers would accept the boy without asking too many questions.
But that didn’t alter the fact that Gerald wouldn’t be seventeen until January. The fool! The damned stupid fool!
But how much was he to blame when his son’s last holiday at home had been blighted by the strain between him and Mabel and embarrassment at Mabel’s assault on Rhian. He couldn’t even remember the last real conversation they’d had together. He tried to recall the content of the last letter he’d received from his son. It had been a thank you for sending him a cheque to cover his term’s allowance, after the family Gerald had summered with in France had been forced to cut their holiday short because of the war.
He opened his desk drawer and rummaged through the small pile of personal correspondence he kept there. Notes from Amelia, the letter Julia had left on her pillow before she’d eloped. He found Gerald’s letter and read it again.
Dear Father,
Thank you for the cash and the extra ten pounds, which I will put to good use. France was excellent and we were sorry to have to leave three weeks before we planned to, but we are now back in Windsor and Michael’s mother and h
ousekeeper are helping us pack for school. I am replacing everything that I have grown out of and the store has agreed to forward the bills to you. Hope that is agreeable.
See you at Christmas. Give Julia my love.
Your son,
Gerald
‘Mr Edwards, sir,’ Miss Arnold tapped at his door. ‘Your wife is here.’
‘Have I any appointments?’ he barked brusquely, concern for Gerald and anger at Mabel’s spending making him abrupt.
‘Not until eleven-thirty, sir.’
‘Show her in, and make my apologies to the clients if we run late.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Mabel, take a seat.’ He didn’t rise when his wife entered his office.
Miss Arnold hesitated at the door. ‘Would you like tea, Mrs Larch?’
‘No, she wouldn’t, Miss Arnold. Close the door behind you.’ Edward studied his wife. She looked tired, her face was drawn and there were dark circles beneath her eyes. He felt that he should have a certain amount of sympathy for her after leaving her to live alone in Llan House, but after reading the letter from Gerald’s housemaster all his compassion was for himself. ‘To what disaster do I owe this unexpected pleasure?’ he enquired frostily.
‘I need to talk to you, Edward. You never come home, you never –’
‘I am well aware of my faults, Mabel. There is no need to catalogue them.’
She swallowed hard and straightened her back. ‘Bronwen and Cook gave me a month’s notice this morning. I contacted the Labour Exchange but they said they have no suitable replacements. I need your permission to advertise.’
‘It’s not worth advertising, you won’t get any applicants.’
‘I pay the going rate –’
‘I pay the going rate, Mabel,’ he corrected her heavily. ‘But you treat servants like slaves. Word gets around, especially in a place like Tonypandy. And with the employment situation the way it is, any intelligent, capable woman can earn twice as much in a month in a factory as I pay in a year.’
‘What factory?’ she asked blankly.
‘I suggest you read a newspaper, Mabel. It might prove an enlightening experience.’ He picked up a copy of The Times from his desk and tossed it towards her. ‘With so many men answering Kitchener’s call there is an acute shortage of labour. Women are needed to take their place in factories, offices and shops and that’s without the recruitment drive for munitions and land workers.’
‘What will I do if I can’t get anyone?’ She looked horrified at the prospect.
‘Return to Carmarthen,’ he suggested.
‘I will not go back to my father’s house.’
‘The only alternative is for you to do your own dirty work.’
‘Are you suggesting that I scrub floors, wash clothes and clean the house myself?’
‘Other women do it.’ He thought of Rhian, walking upstairs to cook their meals and clean their rooms after putting in a full day’s work in the shop. He had wanted Mrs Ball to do their cleaning, but Rhian had insisted she didn’t mind doing it, and it gave them more privacy if she, not Mrs Ball, did most of it.
‘You can’t expect me to –’
‘I don’t expect you to do anything, Mabel,’ he cut in ruthlessly. ‘I’d like you to return to Carmarthen but I have no desire to argue with you about it. And, as you’re here, you’ve saved me a trip to Llan House. I gave you an allowance and I warned you to stick to it.’ He removed the bills from his pocket. ‘On my rough calculations you have already exceeded it by fifty pounds this year.’ He had pulled the figure from the air, but she didn’t contradict him. ‘If you do not retrench over the coming months to pay back your overspend, I will place that newspaper advertisement I warned you about, and absolve myself of all liability for your debts.’
‘All I have done is a little entertaining. You want me to live like a nun?’
‘I thought you were.’
She blushed hotly. ‘I offered –’
‘Too little, too late, Mabel. And you have done a lot more than “a little entertaining”. You forget that I have seen the bills. And it is not only entertaining, you have also been shopping.’ He threw the bundle of envelopes at her and they fell, scattering over his desk and the floor.
Her face contorted, ugly in rage and intensity. ‘I know all about Rhian,’ she hissed. ‘An uneducated maid. A slip of a girl younger than your own daughter –’
‘As you are, Mabel.’
‘You’re perverted, disgusting, dirty –’
‘If you force me to call for help to eject you from my office, that would give the Ladies’ Circle something to talk about.’
‘You wouldn’t dare!’
He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. ‘Please leave, Mabel. Now.’
‘Christmas is in a couple of weeks. You have to come home then.’
‘I won’t.’
‘Gerald –’
‘Has enlisted.’
‘He’s not old enough.’
‘It’s amazing what my children will do to get away from you, Mabel: Gerald enlisting, Julia eloping.’ Tired of arguing with her, longing for the peace and quiet of his sitting room next door so he could think out what he should do about Gerald, he said, ‘My next appointment will be here any minute.’
‘You still haven’t told me if I can advertise for replacement staff for the house.’
‘If you must, but as I said, you won’t get any takers.’ He watched her leave the chair. ‘Go back to your father for Christmas. Stay there and I’ll clear your bills, Mabel.’
‘I can’t go back because my parents are coming to spend Christmas in Llan House.’
‘Your father won’t leave his parish.’
‘His curate is taking over. And I have invited the entire Ladies’ Circle and their husbands, over fifty people, for supper on Boxing Day.’
‘How brave of you without a cook or housekeeper.’
‘I’ll get them and I need a host, Edward. Let me down, and I’ll see that your business suffers.’
‘I’ll sell it before I spend another night under the same roof as you.’
She glared at him for a moment, then left, slamming the door behind her. Edward sat, staring at the door before picking up his pencil. He opened a notebook and wrote a heading across the top of the first page: Last Will and Testament.
‘Come on, Rhian, come to Pembrey with us,’ Bronwen coaxed. She and Cook had called into the tobacconist’s unexpectedly at midday and persuaded Rhian to join them in the tea shop for a lunch of sandwiches, tea and cakes.
‘We’re going to lodge in Mrs Williams’s cousin’s boarding house,’ Cook added persuasively. ‘It will be all of us together, just like old times.’
‘Except we’ll be earning decent money for the first time in our lives,’ Bronwen crowed. ‘Jinny wrote and told me that she made two pounds seven shillings last week. And Mrs Williams only charges seventeen shillings and sixpence a week for full board, lodge and washing. Think of all the money we’ll save.’
‘Your sister Jinny is working in the munitions factory in Pembrey?’ Rhian asked.
‘Yes, she had her baby adopted.’
‘No, she didn’t.’ Cook contradicted. ‘She left it in the workhouse.’
‘It could be adopted by now,’ Bronwen countered.
‘But the munitions factory just doesn’t take on anyone,’ Cook explained. ‘You have to be British born of British parents, physically fit and have good eyesight. Bronwen and I had physical examinations last week.’
‘And we both passed with flying colours. But then, if we weren’t fit, we’d be dead the way the mistress works us,’ Bronwen complained. ‘I swear she’s got ten times worse since we’ve given in our notice. Old witch!’
‘And you have to supply four references,’ Cook continued. ‘Mrs Williams and the doctor have given us two and I asked the minister and my old schoolteacher for the others.’
‘Not Mrs Larch?’ Rhian poured herself another cup of tea from
the pot on the table.
‘No fear.’ Cook opened her ham sandwich and spread mustard over it. ‘We were frightened she’d give us a bad one in the hope they’d turn us down. She hasn’t had a single application from anyone who wants to fill our posts.’
‘She’ll be left all alone with Mair, that’s if she stays.’ Bronwen added another lump of sugar to her tea. ‘And there’s no way that girl can run Llan House on her own.’
Rhian wondered if Edward knew what was happening in Llan House. He’d hardly mentioned the house or Mrs Larch in months but then he had been preoccupied with trying to find Gerald. Not that he or any of the masters at Gerald’s school had succeeded in tracing any of the boys who’d enlisted.
‘Jinny said it’s hard work. They have to work a full ten-hour day, starting at eight in the morning and grafting right through to half past six at night with only an hour for lunch and no other breaks at all. But they work two weeks on and one week off and get paid for the one off.’
‘She wrote and told Bronwen she’d turned yellow,’ Cook laughed.
Wondering if Cook was joking, Rhian looked to Bronwen for confirmation.
‘It’s something in the stuff they use to make the pellets or put in the shells. Gunpowder, or TNT or whatever it is, turns their skin yellow and their hair gold and apparently it doesn’t wash off,’ Bronwen corroborated. ‘It’s even caused some of the girls to break out in a rash.’
‘If you worked there your hair would probably turn green, Rhian.’ Cook finished her tea and stacked her cup on her empty plate. ‘Jinny said in her letter that the girls with fair or grey hair go that colour.’
‘If that’s the case, then it might be as well I’m not going with you. I don’t fancy green hair.’ Rhian reached out impulsively and gripped Bronwen’s hand. ‘I know I haven’t seen much of you lately, but I’m going to miss you when you’ve gone.’
Sinners and Shadows Page 34