by Iris Gower
There was a loud knocking on the door. Arian saw Calvin shake his head impatiently. Reluctantly he released her hands.
Arian moved quickly towards the window. She didn’t want Bella or any of the other servants to see how distressed she was. Half hidden by the curtains, she saw the door burst open and Sarah Frogmore push her way, past the startled servant, into the room.
‘Oh, Calvin,’ Sarah’s voice was shaking, ‘I had to come. Please comfort me. I’ve been so ill. I’ve lost the baby, our baby and I can never have another one, not ever. Oh, Calvin, I feel so distraught, so alone. I didn’t know who else I could turn to.’
Sarah pressed herself against him, her face against his shoulder and awkwardly he put his arms around her. ‘I’m so unhappy,’ Sarah said in a muffled voice. ‘I wanted this baby, your baby, so very much.’
Shock waves washed over Arian – she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She saw Calvin give her an agonized look before she slipped from the room. Men, they were all cheats and liars; hadn’t she learned that about them yet? How many lessons did she need before she stopped being fooled?
She hurried up to her room and picked up her bag. She would get right away from here, leave all the lies and deceit behind her. She never wanted to see Calvin Temple again. And as for Gerald Simples, when he did come back with some made-up story of how he had been released, it would be to the realization that he had no wife, except in name, for she would never he in his bed again.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The main road wound through the small village of Clydach along the same line as the turgid waters of the canal. There were few houses in the village, some of them meandering up the slope of the wooded hillside like white mushrooms grown at random. A sprinkling of public houses had been strategically built along the main thoroughfare for the convenience of the local colliers and, towards the perimeter of the village where the road led to Pontardawe stood the beginnings of what was to be a new nickel works, the dream of Ludwig Mond and Carl Langer.
Near the centre of the village was a small shop, the windows and entrance hung with boots and shoes. The sign above the door, newly painted, read: Davies and Son, boot and shoe repairers and manufacturers.
Eline Temple was seated at a desk at the corner of a workroom. She had a pencil in her hand and there was an unfinished drawing on the sheet of paper before her. She looked up suddenly and smiled.
‘Good girl, Arian. You’ve finished those boots for Jono the Mond, I see.’ She leaned on her elbows and chewed the end of her pencil.
At the long workbench sat Arian Smale, her small mouth sprouting the nails she’d been using on the heavy sole of the boot on her last. She took the nails carefully from between her lips.
‘Aye, I’ve finished them, finally, but I hope Will doesn’t get me too many customers like that one. Gone through to the uppers, Jono had, and him with feet like a cart horse.’
Eline’s eyes were suddenly dreamy. ‘It’s good to have work though, isn’t it? We seem to be doing all right, up here in Clydach, touch wood.’ She smiled wryly. ‘With us all pulling together, we’re bound to make a success of the business, if you can grace our little enterprise with such an elevated name.’
Silence followed her words and Eline, watching Arian shrewdly, saw the frown between her fair eyebrows and guessed something of what she was feeling. If the enterprise they were engaged in was small, then Arian’s part in it was infinitesimal. It must be hard for Arian to be a cog in the wheel when she’d harboured fond hopes of going it alone. Arian was probably feeling at this moment that she’d failed dismally.
‘Your newspaper pieces are bringing in a bit of extra money.’ Eline felt the need to encourage Arian. ‘Very clever you are with words. It all helps, mind.’
Arian didn’t reply and Eline rose to her feet and moved towards her, resting her hand on the girl’s shoulder. She was far too thin. Eline felt a dart of concern.
‘Perhaps you should ease up on the heavy work around here, do more writing – you’ve obviously got a talent for it and we’ve certainly gained some publicity from it.’
Arian met her eyes. ‘Well, at least I’m good at something then, better at writing than at selling leather or making shoes.’ Her tone was dry. ‘Still, you’re right. We’re not doing too badly, when it comes down to it.’ She hesitated as though she were about to confide in Eline and then the moment passed. ‘We needed to get away from Swansea,’ she said briskly, ‘and if I’ve never mentioned it before, I’m grateful to you for giving me a job.’
Eline watched Arian place the carefully polished boots on the workbench and rub at her eyes with slender fingers. There was a deep sadness there, hidden away behind the girl’s tough exterior, and it was not difficult to recognize the reason why. Clearly her marriage to Gerald Simples had not been a success, it had lasted for such a short time. Things must have gone badly wrong. Arian refused to use her married name even when she wrote her pieces for the local press. She was, it seemed, hiding behind a pen-name. It was almost as though she feared her husband might come after her. Well, if Arian wanted to confide her feelings then she would, in her own time.
‘I’m glad you came to ask me for work,’ Eline said. ‘Quite frankly we couldn’t have managed without your help. You were a godsend, believe me.’
‘I don’t know about that. You could have employed a much more experienced cobbler than me, somebody with strong hands and plenty of practice.’
‘Ah, yes, but none of them would have worked for just bed and board. In any case, most of the cobblers have families. We couldn’t uproot them and bring them here, could we? You, Arian were an answer to our prayers.’
‘The arrangement suited us both, then.’ Arian picked up a cloth and absent-mindedly polished the leather uppers of the boots she’d just repaired, her long hair swinging over her shoulders in a shimmering curtain.
She really was a beautiful girl, such delicate skin, such fine features. Eline smiled to herself. Good thing Will only had eyes for her, if he had been a womanizer he might well have had his head turned by Arian’s delicate looks.
Eline’s heart melted at the thought of him. Will had been so angry at the way Eline had been treated by the people of World’s End, he’d have gone out and fought the whole of the town if it would have spared Eline pain. Instead, he had accepted her suggestion that they make a fresh start somewhere outside the boundaries of Swansea.
How strange fate was, Eline mused. Arian wanted to be free of her marriage vows and Eline couldn’t wait to tie herself to Will in holy matrimony. Soon now, she told herself, very soon, they would be married. Then they could both begin to put the past behind them.
Eline bit her lip. She would try to forget her unhappy marriage to Calvin Temple and all the pain and misery of the divorce. What was past was dead and gone and she must try to look to the future.
Will would be her third husband; she had made two wrong marriages but she knew that this one would bring her lasting happiness.
‘Duw,’ Arian’s voice broke into her thoughts, ‘you look so happy sitting there. I envy you, Eline, you know that?’
Eline was startled out of her reverie. ‘I suppose I’m very lucky but things haven’t always gone easy for me, as you well know. I was just thinking about Calvin, how foolish I was to think we could be happy together. I’ve made an awful lot of mistakes in my life but that must have been the worst.’
She looked at Arian who had suddenly bent her head, her cheeks flushed. ‘I know what you mean,’ Arian’s voice was low. ‘I’ve made my own share of mistakes, too, but you are so happy now, you shine with it.’
‘What are you looking for in life, Arian?’
‘Something I can’t have.’ Arian looked directly at Eline. ‘I’d give anything to be with one of your “mistakes”. I’m in love with Calvin Temple. That’s a big laugh, isn’t it?’
Eline felt shock waves run through her. Arian and Calvin? She couldn’t picture them together somehow and yet why should she
be surprised? Arian had worked in Stormhill for some time, had been close to Calvin. Even Eline had to admit that he was a handsome man, a good man. He wasn’t to blame for any of the unhappiness in their marriage – she was.
‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned it,’ Arian said. ‘He was your husband and I realize there was bad feeling between you. I love him and there’s no point in denying it.’
‘Why in heaven’s name did you marry Gerald Simples, then?’
‘It’s a long story.’ There was an edge of bitterness in Arian’s voice and Eline felt she had probed enough.
‘Well, here in this lovely little village, we can make a fresh start,’ Eline said cheerfully. ‘No-one knows us, or anything about us, except that we make and mend the best shoes the villagers will ever see.’
She sighed. ‘I can’t pretend I don’t miss Swansea – the sea, the rolling sands, the beautiful parklands.’
Arian gave a short laugh. ‘Not forgetting the stink from the copper works and the smoke that forever hangs over Kilvey Hill!’
‘Well, there is that,’ Eline conceded, ‘but I suppose I was always lucky. The places where I lived were away from the worst of the dust and smoke.’ She lifted her head, listening. ‘My son is awake,’ she said, smiling. ‘I thought the peace was lasting rather a long time. I’ll leave you to carry on here and I’ll make us all a bit of dinner. I’m starving.’
She took off her leather apron and hung it up on the hook. ‘Not that I’ve been much practical help to you anyway, too busy at my drawings for that.’ Eline frowned. It had been one disadvantage of moving to Clydach that she’d had to conceal her reputation as a well-known shoemaker – it appeared to the villagers that she was just a cobbler – but the sacrifice was a small one. Soon she would build up a name for herself again. This was a fresh start, for Arian as well as for Eline.
She moved along the shadowed passageway. The old walls, she noticed, needed a coat of whitewash and there was a damp patch near the ceiling. It was not her property, none of her business if it deteriorated, and yet the thought saddened her.
Eline made her way towards the kitchen, her thoughts busy. There was a lot of headway to make in the business – there was little money coming in and her family still needed to be fed. She sighed. The bit of meat left over from Sunday would have to do; sliced with hot vegetables, it would make a passable enough dinner.
Eline felt her spirits lighten. Soon now, Will would finish making his deliveries. He would come home, take her in his arms and kiss her, and then everything, the hardships, the poverty, all would seem worthwhile.
Arian hoisted the basket of boots higher on her arm. Her load was lighter now that she had made most of her deliveries. She had collected quite a lot of money for the repairs and by God they needed to make some profit somewhere. The last few days business had been slow, to say the least. She glanced up at the evening sky. It was still pale with late sunshine but the clouds were beginning to gather, threatening rain.
The smell of fresh bread drifted towards her from the bakehouse and Arian realized quite suddenly that she was hungry. Eline did her best, cooking nourishing meals with very little means at her disposal but Arian was beginning to feel she was a burden, straining the small resources of the family to the limit.
Fish was cheap, coming up from Swansea Docks but there were only so many ways of making fish appetizing and today, Arian had declined to eat with Eline and Will. Now she was sorry.
Still, she had no cause to complain. At least she had a roof over her head and a job to do and, more to the point, she was well away from the sight of Gerald Simples.
She had, at the first opportunity, taken the wedding ring from her finger and thrown it into the sea, as if by that act she could break the ties that bound her to him. When she had come to Clydach she had reverted to her maiden name, unwilling to be called Mrs Simples a moment longer.
Arian still burned with anger when she thought of how Simples had coerced her into marrying him and, worse, had tricked her into going into his bed. She shuddered as she recalled his embraces and her cheeks flamed as she remembered doing his bidding, helping him to take his pleasure of her. Well one day he would pay dearly for what he had done.
She stopped at the cottage on the edge of the hillside and knocked at the door which was standing slightly ajar.
‘Bore da, Miss Smale.’ Jono Morgan was smiling down at her; a big, beefy man who had worked on the planning of the new nickel works that were coming to Clydach. Already he was an admirer.
‘Good morning, to you too, Jono,’ she replied. ‘I’ve brought your boots back. Worked hard on them, I did, mind.’ It was with amusement she realized she was falling into the Welsh pattern of speech, influenced no doubt by the people in the village.
‘Come in, merchi. Have a sit down by here in the kitchen. Look fagged out, you do.’
Arian followed him into the warm kitchen that smelled of meat freshly roasted and she swallowed hard as she set down her basket.
‘Duw, there’s pale you are,’ Jono said gently. ‘I’ll make us a nice cup of tea, shall I?’
‘Please. Something smells nice.’ Arian glanced towards the oven beside which a bright fire burned. ‘Just about to have your supper, were you?’
‘Aye, I was that. Like to take food with me, Miss Smale? Honoured I’d be, mind.’
Arian hesitated and Jono; seeing her hesitation, spoke quickly. ‘It’s settled. You’ll stay. Miserable, it is, breaking bread alone.’
Arian felt soothed and rested as she sat in the cosy room watching Jono deftly cut the roast meat into slices. Beside the meat, he spooned a mound of vegetables and Arian smiled.
‘I’m a woman, not a horse,’ she said in amusement. ‘I’ll never eat all that.’
‘Well do your best, merchi, and what you don’t want you leave, right?’
It was strange and rather nice being called a girl by this big Welshman. Jono was not handsome. His face was rugged, pitted with blue scars that betrayed his past. Sometime, Jono must have worked the mines, his cuts and grazes becoming impregnated with coal dust but now he was to be something high up in the works.
‘Know me next time, will you?’ Jono was smiling and Arian became aware that she was staring at him. She returned his smile.
‘Aye, I’ll know you, Jono the Mond. How could I forget such an ugly face then?’
‘Oh, a pretty compliment, I must say!’ Jono pretended indignation. ‘And I thought I was winning you over with my charm.’
‘Winning me over with your cooking, more like,’ Arian said. ‘This meat is done to a turn. You’ll make someone a fine wife one day.’
‘I can cook when I have to but I’d rather have a pretty young girl in my house, serving my food.’ Jono had stopped smiling and Arian realized she’d led him into what was becoming a far too personal line of conversation.
‘I’m sure you’ve had more than your fair share of those,’ she said briskly. They ate in companionable silence and then Arian sat back in her chair with a sigh of gratification. ‘That was lovely. Now then, about your boots.’ She pushed away her empty plate. ‘I think you’ll find them satisfactory, though try not to wear them down quite so much next time. You’d gone through to the uppers.’
Her attempt to change the subject fell on deaf ears. Jono leaned across the table and imprisoned her hand in his. ‘I’ve had my fair share of young ladies, yes, more than my fair share if the truth be told, but never a girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.’
Arian sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Jono.’ She knew she would have to be honest with him. ‘I’m not a single girl, I’m married.’
He jerked back from her, his eyebrows raised. ‘Married? Well where’s your husband, then? What’s he thinking about, letting you run about the countryside alone?’
‘It was a mistake,’ Arian said. ‘The marriage, I mean. I didn’t love him and when I found he’d cheated on me, I left him.’
‘Duw,’ Jono said, ‘that took a bit of guts
.’ He stopped in confusion. ‘I don’t suppose I should be so familiar seeing as you are a married lady, but I can’t think of you as anything but a pretty little girl.’
Arian was flattered. Jono was an honest man and she felt able to trust him with the truth. ‘He’ll be back from France some day, I suppose, and I don’t want him to find me, so please, Jono, don’t talk about this to anyone.’
‘A man who cheats on you with another woman must be a real waster,’ Jono said misinterpreting what Arian had told him. ‘Deserves a good hiding, does a rat like that.’
Arian decided to let him believe what he wished, it was far too complicated to explain matters to him. She rose to her feet.
‘Well, thank you for a lovely supper.’ She looked longingly at the big piece of beef standing on the table. How Eline and Will would love to get their teeth into that.
‘Why don’t you take this with you?’ Jono said, quickly wrapping the meat in a muslin cloth. ‘I don’t want any more of it and I can’t be bothered storing the stuff.’
Arian bit her lip. Jono’s kindness touched her deeply. She rested a hand on his arm.
‘I wish I could have fallen in love with a man like you, Jono,’ she said softly. ‘I know you would have cherished me and cared for me …’ she smiled to relieve the intensity of the moment, ‘and kept me well fed into the bargain.’
‘Well if ever you need me, I will be here. That is a promise,’ Jono said softly.
Arian was aware of him watching as she moved away up the valley road. At least, she thought warmly, because of Jono she was able to take a fine supper home to Eline and Will.
She sighed heavily. This period of hardship was only temporary, she felt it in her bones. There must be better than this in her future. She hoisted the heavy basket higher and taking a deep breath, walked forward with her head high.
Gerald Simples stepped down from the gang plank, glad to leave the unsteady deck of the Marie Clare behind him. The master was beginning to get on his nerves. Paul Marchant asked too many questions.