After the toasts had been drunk, the band struck up a slow waltz. David Ford left Bethan’s side and sought out Diana, who was sitting on one of the chairs Dino had carried out of the house.
‘Congratulations on your new baby, Mrs Ronconi.’ He looked down at the bundle in her arms, but all he could see was a clump of dark hair shadowing the edge of a white shawl.
‘I got your letter, and your cheque, Colonel Ford. I’ve put it into an account for her future.’
‘I’m sure your husband will be very proud.’
‘When he gets home.’
He picked up on the barb in her voice. ‘He’s doing essential work.’
‘In a war zone where he’s running the risk of getting killed. Hadn’t he done enough, Colonel Ford, that you had to ask him to go back there?’
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Ronconi. But he has unique abilities. Without the help of people with his experience and command of the language we’d be hard pressed to know who to fire our guns at over there.’
‘If you’d like to dance with Colonel Ford, Diana, I’ll take my granddaughter,’ Megan offered.
‘I’d be honoured. Mrs Ronconi?’ David hadn’t been about to ask Diana to dance, but taking the expedient way out of what was threatening to turn into a sticky situation, he offered her his arm and led her on to the boards.
‘It’s amazing that the band can play like this without music,’ Bethan said as she walked across to join Megan and Dino.
‘Natural flair,’ Dino observed, packing utensils and dishes into enamel bowls ready to carry back into Bethan’s kitchen.
‘They’re nice boys.’
‘Very.’
‘You don’t think they should be kept away from white people, Dino?’ Alma asked, playing devil’s advocate.
‘Not me.’
‘But most of the other officers in your regiment do.’
‘One, I’m a sergeant not an officer, and two, I’m from the North of the States not the South.’
‘There’s a difference?’
‘Give me an hour or two and I’ll explain it to you,’ he joked as the band finished their number. ‘But right now, I’d like to ask Megan here to dance.’
‘Is he serious about your mother?’ Alma asked Diana after David Ford had escorted her back to her seat and led Bethan on to the staging.
‘He’s asked her to marry him.’
‘Di, that’s marvellous.’
‘I think it is. I’ve almost persuaded her to say yes.’
‘Who would have thought that something as good as that could come out of this war?’
‘Or trouble like that.’ Diana nodded towards the gloom that surrounded the makeshift staging.
Alma could make out Jenny’s blonde head resting on Kurt Schaffer’s shoulder, and behind her, the dark, entwined figures of Tomas D’Este and Jane, and the colonel and Bethan.
‘Haydn!’
Bethan stared in disbelief at her brother as he walked into the kitchen where Maurice and Liza were helping her to wash dishes. ‘Why didn’t you tell us you had leave?’
‘Thought I’d surprise you. Don’t tell me that wife of mine is working?’
‘No, she’s in the field.’
‘Digging it?’
‘We’ve had a garden party to celebrate the invasion of Italy.’
‘I thought I could hear music.’
‘Come on, I’ll take you to her.’
‘Is Anne out there?’
‘Don’t be silly, she went to bed hours ago.’
‘Can I see her?’
‘If you’re quiet. Between my own, Alma’s, yours, Diana’s children and the evacuees there’s so many sleeping upstairs it feels as though I’m running an orphanage.’
‘How’s Dad?’ he whispered as they walked up the stairs.
‘He’s here too, in the garden with Phyllis and Megan. You’ll see him in a minute. Physically he’s fine and he seems to be a lot happier since he started back to work.’
‘You’re not just saying that, Beth?’
She shook her head. ‘I won’t pretend it’s been easy on any of us, but Phyllis took the brunt of his depression. That’s why Jane and Anne stayed here with me. We thought it would give Dad and Phyllis time to adjust. He’s still not his old self, but he’s getting there.’ Turning the handle, she opened the bedroom door. Putting her finger to her lips she led him into a room lit by a ceramic toadstool nightlight and crammed with cots and makeshift beds. She tiptoed softly to a cot in the far corner. Following her, Haydn looked down on a pink, sleep-flushed face, topped by a mop of blonde curls.
‘She’s grown so much, I wouldn’t have recognised her,’ he said as they walked down the stairs.
‘But she recognises her daddy’s photograph,’ Bethan consoled him.
‘Photographs can’t make up for all the time I’ve missed.’
‘It’s the same for everyone.’
‘Not everyone. Ronnie …’
‘Is in Italy.’
‘What!’
‘They asked, he went.’
‘I never had him down as a hero.’
‘A reluctant one, according to the letters he sends Diana.’
The strains of ‘Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me’ wafted towards them on the cool night air as they opened the small gate at the bottom of the garden.
‘How is Jane, Beth?’ he asked seriously as she paused to listen to the music.
‘She seems fine. Busy, between work and taking care of Anne. We don’t have much time to talk. You know how it is.’
‘No, but I can imagine.’
‘It’s not easy on any of us.’
‘I don’t need you to tell me we have problems, sis. Her letters have got shorter and shorter since my last leave.’
‘And yours are long?’
‘She’s showed them to you?’
‘No. But I think I know what you’re going through. Sometimes when I read what Andrew’s written I wonder if we’ll have enough in common to pass the time of day when the war is over.’
‘You’ve nothing to worry about with cashmere coat, Beth. He knows he’s on to a good thing with you. He’ll jump through hoops to keep you happy when it’s over.’
‘And if I don’t want him to jump through hoops?’
‘Typical woman. Never satisfied, no matter what a man does for her.’
He blinked hard as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Two couples were dancing in the moonlight. He recognised Jenny’s blonde hair, shining silver in the half-light. There was no mistaking the slender frame, height or size of the other woman. As he watched, she stretched upwards to receive the kiss of her partner. Heart thundering, Haydn took a step forward. Wrenching the couple apart, he didn’t even look at the woman. Swinging back his fist he knocked the man clear from the staging.
‘After Eddie was killed, I thought we’d put this sort of thing behind us.’ Evan poured out two brandies from the bottle Bethan had unearthed, and handed Haydn one.
‘And I never thought I’d come home to find my wife kissing another man.’
‘Seems to me you two have some sorting out to do.’ Evan sat on the sofa in Andrew’s study and looked up at his son.
‘What’s the point?’ Haydn paced restlessly to the window. The blackout had been pulled but he remained there, his back turned to his father, fingering the cloth.
‘She’s your wife.’
‘You wouldn’t think it, the way she carried on over that Yank doctor after I hit him.’
‘Probably because she didn’t know who you were. A fist coming out of the darkness can be pretty anonymous when you’re not expecting it.’
‘I saw the look on her face when the Yanks carried him into the kitchen.’
‘She was concerned. You’d just put him flat on his back.’
‘What about me?’ He held up his bruised and swollen knuckles.
‘Haydn, it’s not just you and Jane here,’ Evan said forcefully. ‘You have a daughter to cons
ider. Jane’s your wife. All I’m saying is talk to her.’
‘The way you talk to Mam?’
‘I’m not making excuses for the mess I made of my marriage to your mother, but we never loved one another. Not the way you love Jane. And we didn’t need a war to wreck our marriage. We did it all by ourselves. You and Jane might have been married for three years, but how long have you been together in all that time? Ten months? Son -’
‘Can I stay with you tonight?’ Haydn broke in abruptly.
‘You don’t need to ask. It’s your home, Haydn.’
The door opened and Bethan walked in. ‘There’s no bones broken, but he’s going to have a sore head and a wonderful shiner in the morning.’
‘Right, that’s all I’ve been waiting to hear. I’ll see you back at the house, Dad.’ Haydn finished his drink and set his glass on the desk.
‘Aren’t you going to see Jane?’ Bethan asked.
‘I’ve no reason to.’
‘Haydn, don’t be stubborn, not now. She’s in a terrible state.’
‘My heart bleeds for her.’
‘And my heart bleeds for both of you,’ Bethan retorted angrily. ‘I’ve put her in my bedroom. I’ll sleep with the children tonight. Please, go and see her, take all the time you want, but sort out your problems once and for all. Right now, she’s feeling pretty wretched.’
‘And how do you think I feel!’ he shouted. ‘All that nonsense about staying with you, so Dad and Phyllis could have time alone together, when all she wanted to be was here, in the same house as that …’
‘If you think that’s why she stayed here, Haydn, you’re mistaken.’
‘And I suppose I didn’t see what I did?’
‘Go upstairs and talk to her. If you are man enough,’ Bethan added, taking a calculated risk that the taunt might override his anger and obstinacy.
‘I’ll talk to her. But only to discuss a divorce. I’ll see you down the house, Dad.’
Evan looked helplessly at Bethan as Haydn left the room.
Haydn walked across the hall and up the stairs. He could hear muffled whisperings and movements behind closed doors as he passed, but he met no one. Reaching Bethan’s bedroom door, he knocked quietly, opening it when he heard a strained ‘Come in.’
Jane was sitting on the bed, her face turned away from him. He looked past her at the furnishings. The severity of a pale wood, art deco bedroom suite was offset by crisp, cream lace curtains and bedspread and deep blue satin drapes. He found himself wondering if Bethan or Andrew had furnished the room. The plain wallpaper and furniture looked like Andrew’s taste, but he could imagine his sister picking out the lace and satin.
‘I’m sorry.’ Jane made a valiant effort to keep her voice steady. ‘I didn’t mean for it to happen.’
‘You just thought you’d get your own back on me?’
‘It wasn’t like that.’
‘Then what was it like, Jane? Tell me. I’m listening.’ He leaned against the door and crossed his arms.
‘How can you expect me to explain when you’re in that mood?’
‘The music, the moonlight … the romance of the moment. Just like in the films?’
‘Something like that,’ she confessed miserably.
‘And how often has it happened before?’
‘Once, only once. I swear it, Haydn. I told him then he could never kiss me again …’
‘But it didn’t stop him, did it?’
‘No more than the thought of Anne and me stopped you with that chorus girl?’
Suddenly exhausted, not only by the events of the day but the futility of their conversation he picked up a chair and moved it as far from the bed as the confines of the room would allow, before sitting down.
‘It doesn’t matter what I’ve done or haven’t done, does it, Jane? Not any more.’
‘What do you mean?’ Her red-rimmed eyes widened in fear.
‘You’re in love with D’Este.’ It was a statement, not a question.
‘Nothing’s happened between us, Haydn. Only two kisses …’
‘But in your mind you’ve already made love to him a hundred times over. Kissed him the way he kissed you. Imagined yourself in his arms …’ He had to stop himself from crossing the room and touching her in an effort to make her forget that there was a man called Tomas D’Este.
‘I don’t even know him, Haydn.’
‘But you will.’ He rose to his feet. ‘Let’s cut our losses, Jane, and get a divorce. I’ll admit adultery. That should speed things up and give you all the grounds you’ll need.’
‘And Anne?’ She lifted her tear-stained face to his.
‘Touring with a singer is no life for a kid. You’d better keep her,’ he said harshly, gripping the door handle. ‘This D’Este,’ he looked back at her, ‘he will marry you?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘I’ve got two days’ leave. I’ll be staying with my father until tomorrow. Unless there’s something you can think of that’s relevant to the divorce, I’d rather not see you.’ Closing the door he looked up the narrow staircase that led to the top floor. Eighteen steps later he was on the landing.
‘Captain Powell?’ David Ford, no longer the immaculately turned out colonel, but half-dressed in braces and shirt-sleeves, opened a door and stepped out to meet him.
‘I’m here to see D’Este.’
‘I’m not sure that Captain D’Este wants to see you.’
‘He will, once he’s heard what I’ve got to say.’
‘I take it you do just want to talk?’
‘In private.’
‘I owe the man an explanation, David.’ Tomas D’Este stood in the doorway, a bandage holding a cold compress on his head, the bruise that had spread halfway across his face already deep purple.
‘If you want to throw any more punches, might I recommend you take it outside again, gentlemen, rather than risk disturbing the household and breaking the furniture,’ David suggested drily.
Tomas opened the door wider and stepped back. Haydn followed him into a small room furnished with a canvas army cot and a trunk. An ashtray and a framed photograph of a middle-aged couple surrounded by children of various ages stood on a small folding table set in front of the window. Apart from the trunk, a canvas chair and regulation-issue canvas washing and toilet bags, and an open book on the bed, the place was bare. Not even a rug to cover the floorboards. It reminded Haydn of a monk’s cell.
‘Please, sit down.’ Tomas indicated the chair. ‘Would you like a cigarette?’
‘I’d prefer my own, thank you.’ Haydn tapped one out of the packet he took from his breast pocket.
‘I’m sorry for what happened, Captain Powell. It’s not Jane’s fault. I lost my head.’
‘I haven’t come for explanations. Are you prepared to look after her and Anne? Marry her when I divorce her?’ He wanted to add ‘because if you’re not, leave her alone …’ but the proviso remained unspoken.
‘I love her. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with her.’ D’Este’s frank reply took Haydn by surprise. He’d expected refusal, or at best evasion.
‘And Anne?’
‘She’s Jane’s daughter. I’d treat her like my own.’
‘Be sure you do.’ Haydn pulled out his lighter and lit his cigarette.
‘That’s it?’ Tomas stared at Haydn incredulously. ‘You hit me, then you come up here and hand your wife over to me as though she’s a piece of livestock.’
‘You don’t know Jane very well if you think she’d allow anyone to treat her like a piece of merchandise.’
‘If you’re doing this because you assume that we’ve been having an affair, you couldn’t be more wrong. Jane would never do anything to compromise her marriage. She’s the most honest and decent woman I’ve ever met.’
‘I know.’ Haydn left the chair. ‘Which is why I’ve got more sense than to try and hold on to her when she loves you, not me.’
‘Captain Powell …’
Tomas stood looking helplessly at him. ‘I never thought this would happen to me. Not with another man’s wife.’
‘None of us knew what was coming when war broke out and our governments sent us careering all over the world, D’Este. Just take care of them. That’s all I ask.’
‘Don’t you want to stay in touch with Anne? You’re her father. The most important figure in a girl’s life.’
‘She doesn’t even know who I am,’ he said flatly. ‘She cries every time I go near her. You see her every day, D’Este. It would be easier all round if you take on that responsibility.’
Chapter Twenty
‘You’re being stupid and stubborn. You just can’t walk away from your responsibilities, Haydn. Jane’s your wife. Anne’s your child.’
‘And D’Este has promised to take care of them.’
Bethan stared at her brother in exasperation. ‘Then you don’t love them any more?’
‘You know me, sis. Footloose and fancy free. A girl in every show.’
‘You don’t mean that?’
‘Oh, but I do.’ He kissed her cheek before climbing out of the passenger seat of her car.
‘She hasn’t left the bedroom since you walked out of the house. I know that if you saw her just one more time, you could -’
‘I could do a great many things, Bethan, but I won’t.’ Pulling his railway warrant from his top pocket, he turned, leaned on top of the car and faced her.
‘You said yourself that you don’t have to go until tomorrow. Dad …’
‘Dad is going to be all right. You and Phyllis will make sure of that. I saw what I came to see, you and him. And now,’ he gave a wry smile as he heaved his kitbag from the back of her car, ‘it’s time to go to Bristol and sort myself some female companionship for the duration of my stay there.’
‘Tit for tat. Is that it?’
‘Retaliation doesn’t come into it. Chastity is for wives and monks. Not red-blooded males. Didn’t you know that if we don’t get our regular quota we go raving mad?’
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