The Changing Valley

by The Changing Valley (retail) (epub)

  When she had almost reached home she saw them, and even from a distance it was plain to see that Tad was angry with his daughter. She walked a short distance behind him, her head bent low, kicking at things in the gutter as Tad urged her on, his arm waving at her, his voice, as they drew near, sharp.

  ‘I was hoping to see you,’ Delina said hesitantly as they approached. ‘When you have a moment, will you come to the house?’

  She knew instantly that she would have been better to have walked past with only a brief nod and left her news for a later date, but Tad stopped, grabbing Dawn as she tried to dart past, and with her squealing and protesting, asked, ‘What do you want this time?’

  ‘I can’t explain when you’re in this mood!’ Delina was immediately on the defence.

  ‘I’m sorry –’ He sounded anything but sorry – ‘but now is not a convenient time.’

  ‘Come and see me as soon as you can, will you? It is important.’ She tried to explain, but he and the still- firmly-held Dawn walked on and he did not reply.

  ‘Oh, the rudeness of the man! I don’t know why I bothered!’ she muttered and, screwing up the papers she intended showing him, hurried home. She did not throw them away though. Some faint hope that he would stay civil long enough for her to explain made her take them home and throw them on her bed.

  After she had eaten, there was a knock at the door. She opened it, expecting to see her father, but it was Tad and a subdued Dawn.

  ‘Once again I come to apologise, Miss Honeyman,’ he said but his voice did not sound apologetic and she told him so.

  ‘From the tone of your voice it appears that the fault was mine,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Can we come in for a moment, please?’

  Delina stood aside and allowed them to enter, then gestured them towards the front room. Tad and Dawn went in and at another gesture from her sat down.

  The room was over-filled with dark, heavy furniture that would have been better suited to an hotel or some grand mansion. Dawn was dwarfed in the wide, deep armchair, and Tad, who was a small man, sat on the edge of the sofa as if afraid of being swallowed completely.

  ‘Well?’ Delina asked coolly.

  ‘Dawn has been in trouble again and I was so angry with her that I allowed my fury to spill over on to you, and you did not deserve it. I am most sorry,’ Tad said. He stared at her all the time he spoke and there was something in his eyes that disturbed her greatly. A need for understanding and something more.

  Delina nodded and relaxed her stern expression into a smile. She shook her almost white-blonde hair and the sight of her fair beauty in the sober room made Tad catch his breath in wonder. He felt his attraction for her glue his tongue to his mouth and with difficulty he whispered to his daughter, ‘Have you something to say?’

  ‘No,’ Dawn said defiantly. ‘I want to go home and go to bed.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s unreasonable for you to give me an explanation of why you go out of your way to make people angry with you, Dawn,’ Delina said. ‘I don’t want to know what you did to make your father cross, but why are you misbehaving now? If it’s something I have done, then tell me what it is and we’ll talk it out.’

  Dawn remained silent, her head lowered and, Delina suspected, tears imminent.

  ‘Dawn, would you like a drink of lemonade while I talk to your father?’ Delina saw the girl shake her head, but went to the door and called to her brother. ‘Daniel, will you take Dawn, please, and give her a drink. Then perhaps she would like to see your rabbits and guinea pigs.’ She gave the girl no chance to argue but led her towards the door.

  Daniel, who was almost eighteen and fair, like Delina, came in and took the girl’s hand to lead her out.

  ‘Now,’ Delina said, ‘I will tell you what I wanted to talk to you about, then I needn’t interfere in your life any further.’ She left him sitting there and went to her room to fetch the papers she had brought home. Handing them to him, she said, ‘I made enquiries about studying for your exams at night-school. All the details are there and I think, after a short refresher course you will find it possible to get back to university and complete your degree.’

  He looked briefly at the papers then up at her. She was standing, a little apart from him and, feeling himself at a disadvantage, he stood also. He stared at her for a moment and asked, ‘Why do you bother? I’ve done nothing to deserve your time or interest.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said with honesty. ‘Unless it’s because I hate to see anyone as unhappy as you are. If you really want to become an engineer, then you must. There’s always a way, if you really want it. All the details are there. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of marking to do.’

  He hesitated for a moment, then thrust the papers back at her. ‘It’s no use me looking at these. It would only make me more frustrated than I already am. There isn’t always a way, Miss Honeyman. I have Dawn and no money. She is more important to me than a career, even if I do seem to be making a right mess of bringing her up.’

  Delina deliberately let the papers fall and as he bent to recover them, said, ‘I was going to suggest that I took responsibility for Dawn while you went to the evening classes, but I realise you don’t think enough of anyone, certainly not me, to trust them to help, so there’s no point discussing it. Good evening, Mr Simmons.’ She called her brother and Dawn and held the door for him to leave.

  ‘You’d be willing to look after Dawn – I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘Please don’t apologise again, Mr Simmons, it’s getting quite tedious.’

  He looked down at the untidy pile of papers and then looked at Delina and this time his blue eyes were not cold, but showed a spark of excitement.

  ‘Let me take you out one evening, will you? So we can discuss it? That is, unless you have changed your mind about helping?’

  His invitation startled her. Her heart beat faster as she realised how much she wanted him to notice her; think of her as a young woman as well as a teacher who might be willing to help him with his daughter. However quick-tempered he might be, the man behind the façade of an irritable, suspicious, over-protective parent, attracted her greatly.

  He was very different from her previous love, Maurice, who had been as easy to read as a ‘Trespassers Keep Off’ notice on a farm. She quirked her lips in a secret smile at the thought that in fact those very words seemed to be written in the frown lines on Tad’s face!

  ‘Well, have you?’ he asked again and she saw the expression in his blue eyes begin to close him in again, as if preparing for her refusal, hardening himself against being hurt. She answered in a firm voice, hiding her desire to make things easier for him, her sympathy for his brittle arrogance put resolutely aside.

  ‘No, I haven’t changed my mind. But if I agree, you can be sure that Dawn won’t find me a soft option.’

  Dawn rejoined them and Tad held out his hand to Delina.

  ‘Thank you, Miss Honeyman.’

  Dawn, looking far happier than earlier, said goodnight and added, ‘The rabbits are lovely. Can I come and take some photographs, please Miss?’ She was already planning how she would arrange the rabbits for the photographs she wanted to take.

  Delina was reminded that Dawn, like most children, needed very little to make her happy apart from someone to show love and interest.

  Tad and his daughter walked away and, after thanking her brother for amusing the little girl, Delina went to try and put her mind to marking the essays of her eight-year-old pupils. Her thoughts constantly wandered and she began to wonder if Tad would repeat his invitation and whether, if he did, she would accept.

  * * *

  Delina got up the following morning and, as usual, took her mother a cup of tea before helping her to dress. Since a fall, her mother’s arm had been stiff and occasionally painful. Physiotherapy seemed to help for a while but there was little overall improvement. Once she was helped into her clothes, she managed well enough. Her father had already left for wor
k, his job at the wholesalers beginning at seven o’clock when he loaded the van ready for his deliveries. He caught the bus into Llan Gwyn at six-thirty.

  As she reached the school gates, the caretaker handed her a letter. It had been given in by a man, at seven o’clock when he had opened up and was stacking up the crates of milk bottles ready for the deliveries.

  It was from Tad, and he asked if she would meet him at The Drovers that evening to discuss the return to study. She was smiling as she went to greet her class.

  He had added a phone number where a message could be left for him. She phoned at lunchtime and was able to speak to him.

  ‘The Drovers is not a convenient place to meet and discuss this,’ she said briskly. ‘And besides, if I went there, I would expect to be escorted, not hang around waiting for you.’ She saw no advantage in walking on eggshells where he was concerned; there had been too much of that already.

  ‘What do you suggest, Miss Honeyman?’

  Did she detect a hint of a laugh in his voice? ‘This concerns Dawn as well as you, so I suggest we meet at my house. All right?’

  ‘Thank you. We’ll be there at six-thirty, if that suits?’ Delina rejoined her class with a smile lighting her lovely features.

  They arrived at six-thirty as arranged and Dawn was wearing a neat skirt and jumper, with long socks that, on her thin legs, reached well past her knees and kept slipping down. Her skin was mottled with the cold and she was grateful to sit on one of the huge armchairs which Delina turned closer to the fire.

  ‘Now, Dawn,’ Delina began in what her brothers called her ‘teacher’s’ voice. ‘This concerns you and your father and I am only an outsider offering to help. Your father would like to study for a big exam and to do so he will have to go several times a week to a school that opens in the evenings. I have offered to look after you while he is out. Now what do you think of the idea?’

  ‘No. I don’t want you to look after me. I want to go to Nelly and George.’

  ‘I doubt they would think that a pleasure, considering how you let their chickens out and stole from them.’

  Tad was about to protest but hurriedly subsided in his chair as Delina glared at him. Dawn looked at her father for support but for once did not get it. Silently, Delina sighed her relief. So far so good.

  ‘If you wish, I’ll ask Nelly and George, but Dawn, because of your past stupidity, I doubt they will help, and who’s to blame them?’ She knew she was risking Tad taking Dawn and walking out in a temper but she had to start as firmly as she needed to be, to handle this wild-mannered child and her equally wild-tempered father. She glanced at Tad. He was balling a fist, but his gaze, when he looked up and caught her watching him, showed no anger against her. She guessed his anger went inward.

  ‘I want to go to Nelly.’ Dawn began to cry and Tad stood and said, ‘It’s no use. Forget it. It isn’t going to work.’

  ‘Dawn!’ Delina spoke sharply and the girl stopped crying and again looked at Tad.

  ‘Go and fetch your coat from the hall, will you? We’ll go now to see Nelly. And, on the way, I think you should consider how your behaviour has caused her, and many others, so much trouble.’ She fastened the girl’s coat and they went out.

  The evening was cold and a keen wind swooped on them as they reached the top of Heol Caradoc and began to walk down to the top of Sheepy Lane. Dawn shivered loudly and Delina felt pity for the little girl make her waver in her intentions. But she only told Dawn to walk faster when she complained of the cold.

  It was dark when they walked past the woods and the first light they saw was from Nelly’s doorway. The dogs pushed their way out through the half-open door and ran, barking, up the path. Delina hesitated, but Dawn called to them and they began fussing around her in welcome, their bodies, in the faint glimmer of light, twisting into circles, long tails swishing madly.

  ‘They are pleased to see you, Dawn,’ Delina said.

  ‘So will Nelly be. She doesn’t make a fuss about things like some people,’ Dawn said belligerently.

  ‘Dawn—’ Tad warned.

  There was a delicious smell as they walked down the path, with the dogs leaping about them like ecstatic idiots. George appeared in the door and they heard him call to Nelly.

  ‘Kettle, Nelly love, we have visitors.’

  One of Nelly’s chickens had learnt the knack of pushing against the door of the run and, when it swung slightly back, push her way out. As the run had not yet been locked for the night, the procession, which had begun with three people, grew to include the two dogs, and a scattering of hens, who chortled and clucked as they headed for the living room and began to peck oddments of food from the stone floor. Laughing, George went to shut them in, taking some bread to coax them back to their run.

  Nelly found them seats, pushing magazines she had been reading on to the floor and throwing some cushions beside them for Dawn to sit on. Dawn settled at once in her favourite place and the dogs rested their large heads on her lap.

  When George returned, Tad and Delina explained the problem and Nelly turned to George who gave only the slightest shake of his bearded head.

  ‘George an’ I agree that we couldn’t look after yer, Dawn. It would be too much of a responsibility. Sorry.’

  ‘It’s unfortunate she isn’t better behaved, isn’t it, Nelly,’ Delina said, giving Nelly the lead she needed to know how to handle the conversation.

  ‘Yes, that’s the trouble, Dawn. We’re fond of yer, me an’ George, but you’re not the best be’aved and we’ve got busy lives, what with one thing and another. We wouldn’t ’ave time to go chasin’ to see what mischief you were findin’. Come an’ see us though. We’d like that, wouldn’t we George?’

  ‘Any time, but we couldn’t look after you, not like Miss Honeyman could. It’s her job, knowing about children, just like it’s mine to help Mr Leighton on the farm.’

  The girl started to protest, but her arguments were slowly being worn down. She began to be afraid that if she did not agree, the only possible step her father could take was to send her into care, and although she was unclear what it entailed, she did not think she would enjoy it.

  ‘Just think ’ow lucky you’d be to ’ave someone like Miss Honeyman to talk to. Blimey, Dawn, you’d be top of yer class in no time! Just by bein’ with ’er, you bein’ as bright as a newly opened buttercup! Make yer dad proud, that would. Dawn, dads want to be proud of their kids, even if they are daft and stick up for ’em when they’ve been idiots, like you’ve been more times than them dogs ’ave ’ad a slice of cake. Try it, why don’t yer?’

  ‘Can I still come and play on the swing?’

  ‘More than that,’ George interrupted. ‘I’ve got a job for you.’ He smiled and said, ‘Come and see the garden.’

  ‘The garden? But it’s pitch-black out there!’

  George picked up a lantern, lit it and guided her through the house to the back, where the door now opened freely on to the recently cleared back garden. In the distance, they could see the lights of the village nestling below them, the church spire faintly lit by the street lamps and its silhouette showing touches of gold.

  ‘I’ve cleared it you see,’ he explained, ‘and we thought of planting a lot of spring bulbs. Would you like to help?’

  As their voices faded, Tad looked at Nelly. ‘I’m sorry to burden you with my problems.’

  ‘In this village, everyone shares, good things and bad. Sorry we can’t ’elp, but kids is ’ard work.’

  ‘We didn’t come to persuade you to mind Dawn,’ Delina smiled. ‘We were showing her she has no choice. I should have spoken to you first, but there wasn’t time. I just knew you’d say the right things.’

  ‘Me say the right things? Blimey, I bet my Evie wouldn’t agree with you!’

  George returned with a shivering but happier-looking Dawn.

  ‘George wants me to help plant dozens and dozens of bulbs, Dad. Can I?’

  ‘If Delina is going to look after you, y
ou must ask her.’

  ‘Yes, young lady,’ George warned. ‘You never go anywhere without telling your father and Miss Honeyman first. Is that understood, first mate?’

  ‘Understood captain,’ Dawn laughed.

  ‘Stay an’ ’ave a bit of supper, why don’t yer?’ Nelly offered, wondering how she could make the meal spread to five plates. Tad and Delina stood to leave, shaking their heads, regretfully.

  ‘We’ve taken enough of your time. I hope we haven’t spoilt your meal. It smells delicious.’

  ‘Only a bit of stuffed bream. Can’t beat this old oven fer cookin’, can you George?’ She turned to where Dawn and George were still deep in conversation. ‘What you two talkin’ about that we should know?’

  ‘Dawn thinks the garden lacks something,’ George explained.

  ‘Yes, why don’t you dig a pond?’ Dawn asked. ‘It would be perfect then. Frogs are nice and I could take photographs of them. And there would be tad – er – frog-spawn in the spring,’ she amended. She blushed as she realised how easily she might have reminded her father that he had been nicknamed Tadpole by her school friends as he was so small.

  She saw her father’s face tighten. Nerves made giggling a certainty. She ran from the house to hide her unreasonable merriment and in the blackness of the garden ran unerringly to the swing.

  She pushed herself higher and higher, above the hedge to where she could imagine seeing the tree in which the den stood. Her laughter rang out unrestricted, like the calling of some strange bird of the night and making the people inside the house smile with her. For some reason she could not understand, Dawn felt light-hearted and ridiculously happy.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  The morning started with a mist that filled the valley, and traffic crawled along the road outside Amy’s house, making its way to Swansea. She came downstairs much later than usual but it felt like the middle of the night, the day refusing to make its presence felt in the gloom.