More than play time she also needed thinking time, she reflected soberly. Sali had introduced her to her solicitor, Mr Richards, and with his help she had just signed a contract to buy a half-completed, spacious and expensive villa on the outskirts of Pontypridd. Once the builder had confirmed that she was amenable to paying for extras, he had been happy to incorporate Geraint’s demands into the specifications. But now, when she was committed to buying the place, she wasn’t at all sure that she wanted to take possession and sit there in splendid isolation until peace brought Geraint’s return.
When the war hadn’t ended at Christmas, the newspapers began to print editorials predicting that the conflict would last for years, especially after the German and Allied troops dug themselves into opposing trenches in France. And the battlegrounds were covering an ever-widening front with troops being sent into the colonies in Africa, and German naval ships shelling towns off the north-east coast of Britain.
She wanted to do more for her country – and herself than choose wallpaper patterns, arrange furniture and wait for the return of a husband whose only contact with her was a weekly duty letter. Brief notes that always ended with apologies for being unable to see her because the few days’ leave that he was able to take were not long enough for him to travel from France to Pontypridd and back. She often wondered what they would do if he did turn up. Rent the suite in the New Inn again, because he couldn’t get on with Sali and Lloyd? Share stilted meals and conversations and sleep in separate bedrooms until it was time for his return?
She hadn’t been happy in her father’s house, but since she had left, her days had been just as empty, apart from the time she spent with Sali, Lloyd and their children. And despite their warm welcome and efforts to draw her into their family, she was conscious that she was an outsider, invited into their home because she was related. She only hoped the children would never resent her the way she and her brother had done her father’s elderly and crotchety spinster aunts when they’d come to visit her family when she’d been a child.
Brushing the snow from the metal bars of the small pedestrian gate at the side of the towering main gates of Ynysangharad House, she compressed it into a snowball and flung it at a tree. It hit the centre of the trunk and she smiled in satisfaction before pushing the gate open and walking through. When she turned to close it, a uniformed soldier ran up only to stop a couple of yards away.
‘Get back!’
‘Pardon?’ She had seen cleaner and more reputable-looking tramps. Several days of beard growth blackened his cheeks. His boots, trench coat and what little could be seen of the rest of his clothes was covered in snow, but it wasn’t thick enough to obliterate the filth. And even from a distance he stank of male sweat, farmyard odours and other things she’d rather not think about.
‘I mean it, get back,’ he shouted.
She clutched her handbag with both hands and retreated.
He walked through the gate. ‘I didn’t mean to frighten you, but I’m lousy.’
She stared at him in confusion.
‘I have lice,’ he explained.
‘Oh dear!’ It was a ridiculous remark but she didn’t know how else to respond to his declaration.
‘I’ve come from France, and it’s taken me two days to get here. I take it you’re going to Ynysangharad House?’
‘Yes.’
‘So am I. That’s if Mari will let me in. I’m Lloyd’s brother, Joey.’
‘Joey, the one who …’ She faltered when she realized he had been Rhian’s fiancé.
‘Enlisted,’ he finished for her. ‘If we don’t get moving we’ll become snowmen. It’s brave of you not to be frightened of me. You’re the first woman I’ve met since I left France who hasn’t thrown up her hands in horror and run as fast she could in the opposite direction.’
‘That’s a bit harsh when you’re fighting for us.’
‘Thank you, but this war has shattered my illusions. I grew up on tales of the Knights of the Round Table. The book said everything about noble warriors, beautiful damsels, chivalry and heroic deeds, and nothing at all about living rough through a miserable freezing winter, coping with wet feet, equipment that chafes in delicate and unmentionable places, and being munched by lice. But then, it must have been a lot worse in King Arthur’s time. I would hate to sit in a snow-filled or waterlogged trench in a suit of rusting armour.’
‘I don’t think the damsel would be too keen on dirtying her flowing white robe by embracing a rusty knight either.’
He burst out laughing. ‘Perhaps we should get together and write an updated version of the Arthurian tales for nineteen fifteen. And that wasn’t an invitation for you to get any closer. Please keep at least six feet away. Unlike fleas, lice don’t jump, and they don’t like the cold, which is why they graze under our clothes, but they move from one pasture to another at the slightest touch. I’ve spent hours wondering what they lived on before our army went to France.’ He stepped smartly sideways when she slipped on the snow and veered towards him.
‘You must be exhausted if it’s taken you two days to get here?’ she ventured, when he stopped to get his breath.
‘I am, and I’m also starving, but most of all in need of delousing and a bath. I have no idea what Mari is going to say when she sees me. But I’ve a feeling it’s not going to be welcome.’
‘You’re here for Easter?’
He laughed. ‘No such luck. I only have six days’ leave and it will take me two days to get back, so I’ll have to go the day after tomorrow.’
‘You’ll travel four days just to spend two days with Lloyd and Sali?’ she asked in astonishment.
‘I’d do it for two hours. I can’t wait to see them.’ He grinned and his teeth showed white against his dirty face. ‘Do me a favour,’ he asked as the house came into view, ‘go ahead and warn Mari about my little friends. Tell her it might be better for me to deal with them in the outside washhouse than the upstairs bathroom. If they drop into the carpets it could take her months rather than hours to clean up after me.’
‘I’m amazed they let you on a train.’
‘We soldiers know our place, and generally it’s in a guard’s van. By the way, who are you?’ He smiled again. She looked into his eyes and, despite his soiled and encrusted state, felt as though she were the only woman in the world. Then she remembered Mrs Williams’s reservations about Rhian’s ‘young man’ who had a wandering eye.
‘Julia – Julia Watkin Jones. I used to be Larch.’
‘You married Sali’s brother.’ The smile dropped from his face.
‘Yes.’
‘My commiserations. Your husband is an idiot.’
‘You do believe in speaking your mind, don’t you?’
‘Always, but after talking to you I can see that he had more luck than he deserved when it came to picking a wife.’
It was a flippant, throwaway remark, but Julia felt as though she had been paid the greatest compliment in the world. She walked into the house and went in search of Mari.
Rhian slipped on a pair of oven gloves, and lifted the two plates in the stove on to a tray. She carried it through to the living room where Edward was sitting at the table.
‘Pork dinner with crackling and stuffing and it’s the Hart’s not mine.’ She set one of the plates in front of him.
‘It looks good. Who was the letter from this morning?’
‘Sali.’ She set her own plate on her cork tablemat and sat down.
He sprinkled salt on his meat and pepper on his cabbage. ‘She’s invited you to visit her again?’
‘Yes, for Easter if I’m not doing anything.’
‘I don’t mind you visiting her, you know.’
‘I know. But Sunday is the only day we both have free.’
‘I am quite capable of looking after myself.’
‘I enjoy our day together. I thought I’d wait to visit Sali until you make arrangements that can’t include me.’
‘Like visit Llan House,
for instance?’ he enquired frigidly.
She sipped the glass of sherry he had poured for her. Llan House had become a sensitive subject since Mabel’s parents had arrived with their housekeeper and maid to spend Christmas with her. There was no sign of them leaving, although Edward had mentioned that he’d written to both Mabel and her father asking them to go. ‘Not necessarily Llan House, Edward.’ She struggled to keep her equanimity. ‘Things being what they are, you can’t visit your friends with me.’
‘Why on earth should you think that I’d want to go anywhere without you, especially Llan House?’ he burst out angrily.
‘You mentioned Llan House, Edward, not me.’
‘It was bad enough when Mabel refused to leave the house when I asked her to. But since her parents have dug themselves in there, the situation has become impossible.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘There’s no need to be. It’s not your fault.’
‘I hate seeing you upset.’
‘If you want to spend Easter day with Sali, do so,’ he said churlishly.
‘Lloyd is driving up on Easter morning to pick up his father and his brother’s family, Sali said there is room in the car for me if I want to go, but I can always buy chocolate eggs for the children and send them down instead.’
‘Don’t you want to give them to the children yourself?’
She did, but she murmured, ‘Not particularly.’
‘I could take you down to Ynysangharad House the Saturday before, after you close the shop.’
‘You do know that Julia is living with Sali?’ she ventured.
‘No, I didn’t.’ He hadn’t heard from Julia since her wedding to Geraint, but Cedric, to whom he was just about talking again after he had lashed out at him, had told him that she had been seen in Pontypridd.
‘Sali wrote and told me that Julia is buying a house in Pontypridd. If you would like to see her –’
‘I wouldn’t,’ Edward broke in sharply. ‘Julia ignored my advice and if anyone should make amends and apologize, it should be her.’
‘I’ll take the train down.’
‘No, I’ll walk around the market. We … I used to enjoy looking at the stalls, especially before Easter and Christmas. It almost became a tradition.’
Rhian knew what kind of tradition. She was beginning to recognize the change of tone in Edward’s voice whenever he spoke of anything remotely connected to his first wife.
‘Rhian?’
She looked expectantly at him.
‘What would you like for Easter?’
‘For us to be honest with one another.’
‘I was thinking of jewellery.’
‘I’d prefer honesty.’
‘Really.’
‘Really. I don’t want anything else from you, Edward, and I mean it.’
He dropped his knife and fork. ‘You’re quite a woman. I’m lucky to have you and I know that I haven’t been easy to live with lately but …’
She gave him a tentative smile when he hesitated. ‘You’ve had a lot of problems. Between Gerald and Julia.’
‘And Mabel and her parents.’
‘Perhaps you should visit them, for appearance’s sake?’
‘I’ve told her the only Easter gift I want from her is for her to move out of the house, Tonypandy and my life. She can’t get servants. Everyone’s left except Mair, and if her parents hadn’t brought their housekeeper with them she’d be doing her own cooking and cleaning.’ He watched Rhian intently. ‘I want to pay her off with an annuity and give the house to Julia and Gerald.’
‘That is a good idea.’
‘It is?’ After Cedric’s suggestion that Rhian was only out for what she could get, Edward had half expected her to show an interest in living there herself.
‘It’s a lovely house. Gerald may want to live in it after the war.’
‘Yes, he might,’ he agreed. ‘You wouldn’t want to live there?’
Rhian laughed. ‘Me in a house that size? No, thank you.’
‘I’m sure that after the war we’d find servants again to help you run it.’
Rhian shook her head. ‘I’m happy here. I’d hate to run a house and I could never be a lady. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I didn’t work for a living.’
‘You really would prefer to live in these rooms and manage the shop?’ he asked incredulously.
‘For the moment.’
‘And afterwards?’
‘I thought we agreed some time ago that we’d live one day at a time, Edward.’
‘With the war and everything, you are probably right to adopt that attitude.’ He picked up his knife and fork again, and resolved to meet with Cedric first thing in the morning. Despite his threats to dissolve their partnership if Cedric didn’t carry out his bidding, he hadn’t spoken to his junior partner about his will and the property transfers since the day he’d hit him. But this time, no matter what delaying tactics Cedric tried to employ, he’d see it done, and the sooner the better.
‘A man is entitled to privacy when he’s in the bath, Mari!’ Joey grabbed his flannel and laid it across the top of his thighs when the housekeeper walked into the washhouse.
‘You haven’t got anything that I haven’t seen before, Joey Evans.’ Unabashed, she walked up to the old slipper bath and poured in a jug of boiling water before going to the old-fashioned, coal-fired wash boiler. She poked at his uniform with a pair of wooden tongs, dunking it beneath the water. ‘There are an awful lot of drowned lice in here.’
‘I wouldn’t be too sure they’re all drowned if I were you. From my experience the average louse has more lives than the proverbial cat.’ He was sitting in his third change of water, which was a great deal cleaner than the first but still not clear. Leaving the flannel in a strategic position between his thighs, he ducked under the water and wet his hair.
‘I suppose you have nits as well.’ Leaving the washing, Mari inspected his head. ‘And you have. Sit there, I’ll get the nit comb.’
‘I can get them out myself,’ he said testily.
‘Please yourself, but I warn you now, you’re not setting foot in the main house until I’ve inspected every inch of you. I’m not risking Master Harry catching anything. The poor boy’s only just got over the scarlet fever he picked up in that nasty school of his. And the Good Lord only knows what those filthy little creatures of yours are carrying. Typhoid or worse, I wouldn’t wonder.’ She left and returned a few minutes later with the nit comb and a large brown glass bottle.
‘What’s that?’ he shouted in alarm when she unscrewed the cap and tipped a stream of foul-smelling liquid into his bath.
‘Carbolic lotion.’
‘It stinks. No one will want to come near me.’ Grabbing the flannel, he rose from the bath.
‘That’s the idea. It’ll warn the ladies as well as lice.’ Locking her fingers into his short hair, she pushed him forcibly back into the water.
‘Mari –’
‘You need a razor. Safety or cut-throat?’
‘Cut-throat,’ he retorted acidly.
‘You must be tired. Shall I send the maids in to change the water a fourth time?’
‘I’ll do it myself,’ he growled. ‘You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?’ He stepped out and wrapped a towel around his waist.
‘It’s a long time since I’ve made a man your age blush.’ She looked him up and down. ‘And all the way from his head to his curling toes.’
‘Doesn’t he clean up well?’ Sali said to Julia when Joey joined them in the dining room for dinner. He’d slept for a couple of hours after his bath and, ignoring Bella and Harry’s complaints about his smell, put them to bed and read them a story before coming downstairs.
‘Apart from his cologne, and my trousers, shirt and sweater drowning him, he does,’ Lloyd agreed.
‘My, rather your, clothes may not be the best fit, but they are clean, dry and louse-free, and as for my cologne, all the best people will be getting bottles
of carbolic lotion for Easter instead of eggs this year.’ Joey picked up the glass of beer Lloyd had poured for him. ‘Cheers, you have no idea how good it feels to be my own man again, without any little friends hiding in my underwear.’
‘And since I set the maids to iron your clothes with particular attention to the seams, you should stay your own man when you go back.’ Mari carried in the soup tureen.
‘Only until I rejoin my platoon.’ Joey made a wry face.
‘I sent a message to the colliery to tell them I won’t be in tomorrow morning, so if you want to go up to the farm I’ll take you, Joey,’ Lloyd offered. ‘You two as well, if you’d like to come,’ he said to Julia and Sali.
‘You can’t go without Harry, and if he goes, Bella will want to go as well,’ Sali warned.
‘He seems more grown up every time he comes home from that school of his.’ Joey shook out his napkin and looked at the bowl of leek and potato soup Mari had set before him. ‘When I gave him the present I brought for him, he asked to see my sword and gun.’
‘I hope you left your rifle at your base.’ Lloyd said.
‘I did. I also told him that non-commissioned officers don’t have swords only bayonets. Unfortunately I didn’t have to explain how to use one. He described their use as “blood and guts sticking” and asked me how many Germans I had killed.’
‘What did you tell him?’ Sali asked anxiously.
‘None as yet.’
Sali wanted to ask if that was true but lacked the courage. Freshly shaved and washed, Joey looked thinner, tougher, harder and years older than the young man who had enlisted only eight months before. There were new lines etched around his mouth and eyes and she didn’t want to consider how he’d acquired them. ‘Harry reads too much comic book propaganda,’ she said anxiously.
‘Non-commissioned officer?’ Lloyd looked at Joey enquiringly. ‘They’ve made you a lance corporal.’
‘Sergeant, according to his uniform,’ Mari broke in. ‘It might be in a disgusting state but it has the right number of stripes.’
‘Sergeant Evans?’ Sali smiled. ‘They’ll be making you a lieutenant next.’
‘Not if I have anything to do with it.’ Joey sprinkled salt on his soup.
Sinners and Shadows Page 36