‘This is what Ellis must have been searching for.’
*
It was two days before Ellis was found. He had slipped as he reached up for a hand hold yards away from the rope marks Alun had found on the cliff top. His fall had ended on sharp rocks not far above the waves he had cheated once before. His injuries hadn’t been fatal, but a night on the cold rocks with broken bones, suffering from shock, had resulted in hypothermia, which had been. Ken was with Lowri when they heard the news she had dreamed of for so long, Ellis Owen’s body had been identified, the evidence against him in the form of the notebooks handed in and Jimmy Vaughan would soon be free.
It was Harold Saunders who went to tell Terri the news of her husband’s death and to arrest her. The real reason she had sold everything was undoubtedly to help fund a fresh start. But it was in France – not Spain as Marion had believed – with the man whose survival she had helped to conceal.
Love has its dark side, he thought. Marion Davies had been duped by its tender folds into breaking the law and cheating on a friend before being let down in the most humiliating way.
Lowri and her mother as well as Dic and his parents were interviewed and told all they knew. Jack Morris, Dic’s father, was inconsolable.
‘Knowing I doubted Jimmy is bad enough, but the way I behaved towards Lowri is inexcusable,’ he said to Cathy. ‘How can I face her after this?’
‘I’ve spoken to her,’ she said. ‘It was difficult at first but she listened and I think, given time, she’ll understand and forgive us both.’
‘I’m not sure I can forgive myself,’ Jack said sadly.
‘We have to go and see her. She’s living in Cwm Derw not far away.’
‘Just walk in and tell her I’m sorry? It won’t be that easy.’
‘We have to try. Perhaps Dic will go with us.’
‘She might not want to see any of us. Even Dic let her down, leaving her alone, knowing Ellis was looking for her.’
‘Don’t underestimate Lowri.’
He smiled then. ‘Ellis Owen and Terri did that, and look what happened to them.’
*
Ken’s parents too were uneasy about how Lowri would behave towards them. They had acted badly when she had told them of her father’s imprisonment. They both wrote to her and explained their reaction and ended with the hope that as their prospective daughter-in-law, she might forgive them. In answer, Lowri, with her mother’s full agreement, invited them to come on the day her father was being released, knowing that his intention to face everything immediately had to be her way too.
*
While investigations were beginning, there were celebrations at The Ship. Alun was helping in the bar and he had stayed on after lunchtime session on Saturday to deal with the cellar ready for the following week’s deliveries. After brushing the walls, washing the floor, cleaning the copper and brass, he went up to the ground floor where Betty was making tea. She had been to the bakery for cakes and they sat in the quiet of the room behind the bar and Alun felt utterly content.
‘Glad it’s over, even though you might not get your money back?’ Betty asked.
‘It was more than money he took from me. I lost interest in everything. To have worked for years learning my trade, then struggling to get the property and build up a reputation, for those things there’s no compensation.’
‘What will you do now?’ she asked. ‘Are you ready to start again?’
He turned to look at her. ‘Yes, I am.’
Betty tried to hide her disappointment. He was leaving and there was nothing to offer, except a job helping run The Ship, to persuade him to stay. ‘Good on you,’ she replied knowing the words sounded less that genuine.
‘What I’d really like to do,’ he began, then he looked at her, his clear eyes staring at her, lighting up his sometimes solemn features, ‘really like to do, is stay here and help you run this place.’
‘You mean it?’
‘Betty, I’ve never been this happy since I lost the restaurant. I like the variety, the visitors passing through, the locals, who have made me so welcome, and I like the way you work. Will you consider taking me on? I might not give as much amusement as ‘Willing-But-Won’t’ and the rest, but I’m sure I can avoid being boring.’
Betty didn’t know what to say. Ever since Ed had moved out, she had dreamed of finding someone who cared about The Ship and Compass as much as she did, and unbelievably, she had found him. ‘Alun Harris, get off that chair, there’s work to be done. Tonight we’re having a celebration.’
*
It was a few weeks before Jimmy was freed. Leaving the house in the hands of a regular guest, Emily met him outside the prison and took him straight to the railway station. She hardly spoke, tears were so close to the surface. He seemed content to look around him, feasting his eyes on the towns and countryside they passed, and was fascinated just watching people go about their normal routines. It was as though he’d been on a journey to a far distant planet.
She had suggested they went away somewhere where they were unknown for a few days, before meeting everyone, to give him a chance to adjust to the freedom, but he had refused.
‘I want to go to Badgers Brook,’ he’d insisted. ‘I want to face everyone straightaway and from what Lowri has told me, Badgers Brook is the best place to do that.’
When their taxi arrived at Badgers Brook that evening, he stepped out and straightened his back as though about to march into battle, which, in a way he was. Knowing who would be there, facing everyone for the first time since before his arrest, took all the courage he could muster.
Lowri had been looking out of the kitchen window and she ran out and took the suitcase her mother had brought, plus the pathetic bundle that represented Jimmy’s life over the past months. She chattered as they walked up the path to the back door, giving him time to prepare.
It was his partner Jack he saw first and hesitantly Jack offered his hand. A moment then as Jimmy’s pale face tightened, then he took the hand and shook it. Cathy came forward and kissed his cheek. Lowri, standing beside Ken, introduced him and Ken offered his congratulations, remarking on his wonderful daughter.
Lowri didn’t know whether to take charge and lead him in to face the others at once or allow him to sit in the kitchen for a while talking to Jack and Cathy. Jimmy made up his own mind: Putting aside his wife’s supporting arm he walked into the living room of Badgers Brook, where a fire burned brightly. The windows shone and reflected the people inside so the outside was an extension of the group of friends. There were a few he knew and some were strangers but all were smiling. He looked at Dic, sitting in an armchair with his daughters on his lap and said, ‘Hello everyone. Hello Dic. My word, Sarah-Jane and Katie, haven’t you grown.’
Then the peace of the place settled on them and conversations began until laughter and the murmuring of friendly voices filled the air. An hour later the neighbours started to arrive.
Lowri and Ken looked around them and smiled contentedly. ‘I know you had your doubts, but look at everyone,’ Lowri said to her mother. ‘No one can be unhappy here.’
Ken’s parents found friendliness; Lowri’s parents seemed to hold them no grudge for their earlier behaviour and his brothers enjoyed comparing experiences with Bob about their prowess on the rugby field.
Dic sat there feeling like an interloper, only occasionally joining in with the conversation. His father, Jack, was still uneasy too, only his mother seemed relaxed. Then she whispered something to Jack who went back to his car and brought in a package.
‘I have another apology to make,’ he said handing it to Jimmy. ‘You gave me this to look after for a few days and I’m sorry, but with all that’s gone on, I forgot it.’
Jimmy took it from him but didn’t open it, he handed it to his wife. ‘Emily, love, this was your birthday present, but you might have difficulty opening it.’ The paper was removed to reveal a small tin box with a lock on one side. ‘I’m afraid I’ve lost the k
ey,’ he admitted. ‘We’ll have to break it open.’
With a gasp, Lowri stood up. ‘No you won’t, I think I have the key.’ She ran up to her room and rescued the key from the toe of her Wellington and brought it down. It turned sweetly and inside was the necklace Jimmy had bought for Emily’s birthday, many months before.
‘So all the mysteries have been solved,’ Dic said. ‘Life will be quite dull after all the excitement.’
‘I hope so,’ Ken and Lowri chorused.
Later, when her parents were asleep and everyone else had gone, Ken brought out a small box. ‘I hope it fits,’ he said as she opened it. ‘And I hope we’ll buy the wedding ring to go with it before the spring. The bungalow is ours and will be ready in April.’
‘A perfect month for a wedding.’
‘And the ring? Does it fit?’
‘It’s just perfect, like you, and everything else on this wonderful day.’
First published in United Kingdom in 2007 by Severn House Publishers Ltd
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
57 Shepherds Lane
Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2DU
United Kingdom
Copyright © 2007 by Grace Thompson
The moral right of Grace Thompson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781910859315
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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