by Rosie Harris
When they reached the other side of the Severn, Karen felt that it was almost like leaving England for a foreign country. British law still applied in Wales, of course, she reminded herself, and if Hadyn was apprehended and she was with him would the police decide that she was as guilty as him?
She had never been to Cardiff before but Loudon Square sounded quite imposing and she imagined it would be full of large Regency or Victorian houses and hotels.
She felt rather guilty about not letting her grandmother know that she was leaving Liverpool but Hadyn had been insistent that they told no one and that they should leave immediately. He was right, of course. If she had phoned Jenny then she would have wanted to know what was going on.
There were so many things she hadn’t told her grandmother in the past few months, Karen reflected. She hadn’t told her the truth about where she was living but had let her think she was sharing a flat with a girlfriend.
How could she tell her that because Hadyn was her boss she had not only let him make love to her after a rather wild party but had spent the rest of the night with him.
He was a wonderful lover and their love-making was so very different from the rough, boisterous coupling she’d known with Jimmy Martin. Although Hadyn was a gentle and sensitive lover he made her feel like a real woman. She had fallen crazily in love with him and had been more than willing to move in with him when he’d asked her to do so.
Her grandmother would have to be told eventually, Karen thought uneasily. Or would she ever need to know? If everything turned out all right then perhaps Jenny need never know the whole truth, especially about why they’d thrown their belongings into Hadyn’s car and left Liverpool in such a hurry.
She studied Hadyn’s jet-black hair and saturnine profile more intently. He might be almost thirty years older than her, old enough to be her father, but he really was devastatingly handsome; and charming. He exuded charisma; there was no doubt that she was completely under his spell. She must be or she would not have done all the things he’d asked of her, she reasoned.
It had all started innocently enough a few weeks after she’d moved in with him. He had asked her if on her next trip she would mind taking along a small package and handing it over to a friend of his who would contact her at her hotel.
Hadyn was her boss as well as her lover and she felt flattered, especially when he asked her not to mention it to anyone else as it was a personal matter.
After that it happened more and more frequently and became a regular chore. He seemed to have friends in every country she went to and when she handed over the package to them they usually asked if she would take one back for Hadyn.
She would probably never have known what was in the packages if she hadn’t been caught in a torrential downpour as she was making her way from Liverpool Pier Head out to Calderstones and the wrapper had become so damaged that it split and the contents had been revealed.
At first she’d believed him when he told her that it was samples of vitamin pills. It was only later that she suspected that the pills might be drugs and that if that was so then she was acting as a courier.
When she voiced her suspicions, Hadyn had tried to laugh it off and tell her she was imagining things, but this had made her angry. ‘They’re simply different kinds of vitamin tablets that I’ve been asked to get for a friend,’ he assured her.
‘I’m not a fool,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘They’re drugs of some kind, aren’t they?’
‘You’re quite right, of course, they are,’ Hadyn said, laughing. ‘All pills are drugs of some kind or the other.’
‘Yes, I suppose they are,’ Karen agreed, ‘but these are the kind of drugs that are termed illegal and I’m not prepared to carry them for you any more.’
‘Why not? You’ve been doing it for months and what harm has it done?’
Karen felt taken aback. ‘Surely you must know the effect they have on people; and what if they are getting into the hands of children …’ Her voice trailed off. She had no idea what she was talking about except that she knew there were lots of dangerous drugs on the market and that they were reputed to ruin people’s lives.
‘I’m going to report what has been going on to the police,’ she threatened.
‘I see. And what proof are you going to offer them?’
‘I’ll tell them what I’ve been doing all these months and all about the men who collect the packages you ask me to take for you and the ones I am asked to bring back.’
‘That would be very foolish,’ Hadyn said quietly. ‘If you do that you will be considered guilty because you have been carrying them backwards and forwards through customs.’
‘I don’t care!’
‘You might not but I do. I thought you trusted me.’
‘I did,’ she admitted, ‘but now I’m scared because I know what we’re doing is so wrong.’
It was two nights after this that Hadyn had come rushing into the house and told her to pack and that they were leaving instantly.
‘Where are we going and why?’
‘Right away from here. I know someone who will let us stay with him and the police will never think of following us there.’
When she’d hesitated and said that she didn’t want to do that, Hadyn had laughed harshly and told her she had no option.
‘In the eyes of the law you’re as guilty as I am,’ he told her sharply. ‘Pack your bag and stop arguing. The sooner we are on the road the better.’
It wasn’t until they were approaching the Severn crossing that he had told her exactly where their destination was to be. When she questioned him about it and asked where they would be staying in Cardiff he’d merely shrugged. ‘Loudon Square, but I haven’t any idea what it’s like there,’ he told her crisply. ‘This chap has a hotel but I’ve never been there before. We won’t be staying long, only until the heat dies down.’
‘Will we go back to Liverpool then?’
Hadyn shrugged again. ‘Depends,’ he snapped.
Karen looked at him in stunned silence. This was a new side of Hadyn, one she hadn’t seen before. He seemed so hard and ruthless, so different from the kindly boss or the charismatic lover who had won her heart.
Although he claimed that he had never visited Cardiff before, Hadyn seemed to know precisely where he was going and was able to drive directly to Loudon Square without pausing to ask anybody for directions.
Karen felt her heart sinking as she looked around her. Loudon Square was a large ‘square’ of stunted grass with a couple of sad-looking trees surrounded by grim-looking grey terraced houses and a modern tower block of flats at one end.
‘We’re here,’ Hadyn said as they drew up and he switched off the car engine. He waited for her to get out and, taking her arm, accompanied her to one of the terraced houses.
A dark-skinned man who was wearing a smock-type shirt over grey baggy trousers opened the door. Hadyn pushed her inside the door and said abruptly, ‘Go with Jamil. I’ll get the cases.’
‘This way, please,’ the man said with a little bow. He turned and led the way up a flight of stairs to the second floor leaving Karen to follow him.
He showed her into a drab room furnished with a double iron bedstead that was covered with a multicoloured candlewick bedspread, and then he stood by the door as if he was keeping guard.
Apart from the bed there was only an armchair, a small brown wood table pushed up against one wall with a mirror above it and a brown wood cupboard in the room.
Karen walked over to the window and was about to draw aside the heavy net curtain when Jamil let out a warning noise and grabbed at her arm, shaking his head in disapproval. ‘No, no!’ he scowled. ‘Keep away from the windows, please.’
Before she could ask him why, Hadyn was in the room. He heaved their two suitcases on to the bed and then nodded at Jamil who had indicated with a movement of his hand that he wished to speak to him in private.
As the two men left the room, Karen returned to the windo
w and, carefully moving an edge of the curtain away from the side, stared out into Loudon Square.
Within seconds she saw Hadyn leaving the house and get into the car. As he pulled away from the kerbside and drove off, Karen was panic-stricken for a moment in case he had deserted her. Then common sense came back; he was probably only going to garage the car somewhere out of sight, she told herself.
Sitting on the edge of the bed she drummed her fingers impatiently on one of the suitcases as she waited for Hadyn to come back. This place wasn’t at all like she had expected it would be, she thought with a shiver as she looked round the drab room.
Loudon Square had sounded quite grand and she had expected to be staying in a luxury hotel or at least somewhere comfortable. This place was little more than a slum, she reflected in dismay and wondered how long they would have to stay there.
‘How the hell do I know?’ Hadyn said brusquely when he came back from garaging the car and she questioned him. ‘We stay here as long as is necessary so shut up and make the best of it. I don’t want to be here any more than you do,’ he said irritably.
Karen stared at him in dismay. She felt hurt; he sounded so curt and unfeeling and completely oblivious to how she felt.
‘It’s so drab here and that man Jamil frightens me,’ she whispered.
She expected Hadyn to put his arms around her and comfort her but he did nothing of the sort. Instead, he opened up both their suitcases. ‘You may as well unpack, we’ll probably be here for quite some time,’ he told her curtly.
Sixteen
Karen detested living in Loudon Square from the moment she arrived in Cardiff. She particularly disliked Jamil; she was suspicious of his motives even though Hadyn seemed to trust him.
From the first days after their arrival, Hadyn insisted that they stayed in their room. Jamil brought them meals, most of which Karen found distasteful. She longed to go out and enjoy a good English meal but Hadyn insisted that it wasn’t safe to do so.
‘We don’t need to stay around here, we could drive out into the countryside and find a restaurant there,’ she argued.
‘This is Cardiff not Liverpool, I don’t know the area outside the city,’ he told her.
‘Then let’s explore; it could be fun. Anything would be better than being cooped up in here,’ she said tetchily.
‘Not yet, it’s far too dangerous. We might be recognized,’ he cautioned. ‘Have patience. Another few days and then perhaps we can do something like that.’
Each morning when Jamil brought in their breakfast, he always had some news of some kind that he confided to Hadyn in a conspiratorial whisper. All the time he kept glancing uneasily at Karen as if afraid she might hear what he was saying.
When Karen asked what Jamil had said Hadyn usually shrugged and said, ‘Oh, nothing of any importance.’
His refusal to take her completely into his confidence irked Karen. She knew that if Hadyn was charged with drug smuggling then she would probably be regarded as an accessory or even considered to be as guilty as he was.
She certainly didn’t want to end up in prison and she wondered if perhaps the best thing to do was separate from him before the police traced his whereabouts.
Apart from the fear of being caught there was no other reason why she should stay. Hadyn had changed so much that she was no longer in love with him and the hold he had once had over her was gone.
They were no longer lovers. He hadn’t made love to her once since they’d arrived in Cardiff.
That first night in Loudon Square when she had longed for the comforting feel of his arms around her, of his lips on hers; when she had needed to know he cared and that he still loved her, he had turned his back towards her in bed and there had not been any reconciliation since then.
The problem of how to make her escape filled every minute of Karen’s waking hours. To start with she was in a strange city and she had very little money, so how was she going to be able to afford to buy a train ticket back to Liverpool?
Then there was the problem of escaping from the house without either Jamil or Hadyn seeing her leave. Even if she could avoid them she wasn’t sure that there weren’t other people living in the house and if there were then they might tell Jamil.
She had almost abandoned the idea when Jamil came rushing into their room to tell Hadyn that he must come with him at once and move his car.
‘Someone has spotted it and asked who it belongs to,’ he said in a nervous voice. ‘They are talking about reporting it to the police. I know of a warehouse on the dockside where you can hide it away out of sight and it will be safe there from prying eyes.’
‘I’ll do it after dark tonight,’ Hadyn told him. ‘It’s too risky to do it now.’
‘No, you must do it now. You must take the risk. You don’t seem to understand that here in Tiger Bay the police are very suspicious. Once they are informed about the car they will start asking questions. Come. I will accompany you.’
Hadyn’s mouth tightened. ‘Very well, if you think it is that important. You wait here, lock the door behind me, and don’t open it to anyone,’ he told Karen.
‘Will you be gone long?’
‘As long as it takes,’ he told her curtly. ‘Remember now, lock the door and don’t open it to anyone and keep well away from the window.’
Although she promised to do so and nodded as though in agreement, the moment Hadyn and Jamil left the room she went straight to the window and pulled one corner of the curtain aside so that she could see when they left the building.
The minute she saw them walk down the road and then turn a corner, she put on her hat and coat, picked up her handbag and headed for the front door.
She hoped she wouldn’t meet anyone but if she did and they questioned where she was going she decided she would tell them that she was hurrying to catch up with Hadyn and Jamil because they had left something behind.
Once she was out in Loudon Square breathing fresh air Karen felt elated. She had no idea which way to go but that no longer seemed to matter. She was free; not only from being imprisoned in the house but from Hadyn as well. All she had to do now was get well away from Loudon Square and for that matter from Tiger Bay.
As a trolley bus lumbered past her with the destination ‘CITY CENTRE’ emblazoned on it she decided to walk to the nearest stop and catch the next one that came along.
She’d find a cafe or restaurant once she reached the main part of the city and have a cup of tea while she planned what to do next. If she decided that she wanted to go straight back to Liverpool she would ask someone to direct her to the railway station. Or perhaps, since she had never been to Cardiff before, she would have a quick look round before she left, she told herself.
As she explored the shops in the city centre, Karen lost all count of time. There were so many large department stores, some of them even better than the ones she knew in Liverpool.
Eventually she stopped for a cup of tea and a sandwich, but instead of making for the railway station she went on exploring. She loved the maze of brightly lit arcades all packed with individual shops. They seemed to lead from one to the other all over the city centre.
Emerging from Castle Arcade she found herself facing the crenellated walls and towers of Cardiff Castle. She was so intrigued by the site of the original Norman castle high on the hillside beside it that she followed the road round to see where it took her.
Suddenly she found she was in the civic centre and its breathtaking panorama of Portland stone buildings; the impressive city hall, its clock tower and dragon emblem outlined dramatically against the sky, and close by it the National Museum. She went into Cathays Park with its marble memorial and stared across the road at the imposing edifice of the Law Courts.
The sight of the stream of policemen going in and out of that building brought her back to reality. Quickly she turned on her heel and made her way back towards the shopping centre. She knew it was possible that one of them might recognize her, that was if her desc
ription and that of Hadyn had been circulated, and there was no sense in taking unnecessary risks.
It would be better not to delay her departure from Cardiff any longer, she told herself. By now both Hadyn and Jamil would have returned to Loudon Square and when they discovered she was missing they might set out to look for her.
‘You’d be better going to St Mary Street,’ a woman told her when she asked someone in Queen Street where she could get a bus to the railway station, ‘There’s buses to everywhere from there. Mind you, it’s a bit pointless getting one there because you are only a hundred yards or so from Wood Street where the station is.’
‘So how do I get to St Mary’s Street?’ Karen asked.
‘Cut through the David Morgan arcade, cariad, and then when you come to the other end ask somebody to direct you and you’ll be there in next to no time.’
Karen took her at her word and followed her instructions. Fifteen minutes later she was sitting on the station platform waiting for the next train to Liverpool.
She spent the journey home trying to sort out in her mind what she was going to do next. She couldn’t go back to Hadyn’s house in Calderstones in case the police were watching the place.
When she reached Lime Street she went into the ladies’ room and checked on how much money she had left in her purse. As she feared, there was very little left after paying for her train ticket. And she certainly didn’t have enough money left to book into anywhere, not even for one night.
She had enough to buy a ticket across to Wallasey on the ferry. So the only option she had, she reasoned, was to go to Merseyside Mansions and see if her grandmother would give her a bed and let her stay there with her for a few days until she could make other plans. It was far too late to do that tonight so she would have to stay where she was.
She made herself as comfortable as she could in the waiting room and settled down to sleep. If a porter came along then she would say she was waiting for an early morning train or something, she decided.