‘Of course.’ Toby leaned over the back of the car and lifted out a portfolio, set between two boards and tied with string.
‘We know he’ll work himself into a state if we don’t let him see you, but no more than five minutes – and that painting won’t leave his room if you allow him to touch it,’ Diana warned.
‘Of course.’
‘And I know your attitude to time. Not one second more than five minutes, Mr Ross. I have already briefed the ward sister, so don’t try exercising any of your charm on her. It will be wasted.’
‘It always is on the women around here. They simply don’t appreciate me,’ Toby lamented with theatrical mournfulness.
‘Treat your uncle carefully, he really is worse, Mr Ross,’ Diana said seriously.
‘I promise you, I’ll show him the illustrations and leave.’
‘Are they good?’ Diana called after him as he ran to the front door.
‘How can you doubt it?’ Toby disappeared inside.
‘Nice car.’ Harry looked at the Bentley.
‘My father’s. My runabout is being serviced by Alf Edwards.’ Diana opened the back door and lifted out a basket of eggs.
‘I dreamed about you last night,’ he whispered.
‘There are open windows, Mr Evans,’ she murmured, ‘and people have ears, but I enjoyed our time together too.’ She raised her voice to conversation level. ‘I’ve just returned from the Ellis Estate.’
‘How are Martha and Luke this morning?’
‘Martha’s speech and movements are still slower than normal, but that is to be expected. It will take a few days, possibly even a week or two, for the full effects of the concussion to wear off. And Luke is a different boy. Two brand-new teeth have arrived to drive away the grizzles. Mary is relieved.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that Martha’s no better. Is there anything I can do?’
‘According to David Ellis, plenty.’ She curled her lip in distaste. ‘He told me to tell you that he expects you to pay Martha’s wages until she is well enough to work again.’ She set the baskets on a low wall.
‘I offered -’
‘He knows you did. He also knows that his sister refused to take your money and he’s furious with her for throwing it back at you. But be warned, David is very different from Mary.’
Harry fingered his iodine-stained scars. ‘Not that different.’
‘Oh, he is. Mary’s only aggressive when she thinks her brothers and sister are being threatened. David will take every penny that he can squeeze from you, and he’ll try to squeeze a lot.’
‘It’s only right that I compensate Martha for lost wages until she can work again,’ Harry insisted.
‘As long as you keep it to compensation, Mr Evans. You are not responsible for the family’s plight.’
‘I heard how they came to lose the farm last night in the pub.’
‘It’s a tragic story, but then I’ve heard a number of those since my father took up this post. It hasn’t been easy for us to accept that there is nothing we can do to help the tenant farmers around here except give them our worthless sympathy. Mary Ellis is exceptionally single-minded and a fighter, but I don’t doubt she’ll eventually be evicted, as all her neighbours have been.’
‘After yesterday, you don’t have to tell me about Mary Ellis being a fighter.’
Diana’s smile broadened. ‘You’re not reluctant to face her again, are you, Mr Evans?’
‘Frankly, yes. I really feel that I owe them money but I’d rather post it,’ he replied honestly. ‘Or you could take it up there tomorrow?’
‘I’m not an errand girl.’
‘Can you spare me half an hour now?’ he pleaded.
‘Sorry,’ she repeated, looking anything but. ‘I’m far too busy this morning to chaperone a coward.’
‘It’s a bodyguard I need, not a chaperone. Come on,’ he coaxed, ‘it’s a nice day, the sky’s blue, the sun is shining. Mrs Edwards has packed a picnic that Toby and I can stretch to feed a guest. Don’t you feel like a run-out?’
‘I’ve had my run-out for the day, and I’ve far too much to do to here to waste any more time visiting.’
‘Then I’ll wait for Toby.’
‘You expect him to protect you?’ she smiled mischievously.
‘I’ll ask him to keep the car’s first aid kit in readiness while I talk to the Ellises.’
‘If I might make a suggestion, why don’t you drive down to the village and buy another basket of those strawberries? Martha loves them.’
‘Don’t they grow any on the farm?’
‘I know it was raining yesterday, Mr Evans,’ she said loudly for the gardener’s benefit as he moved on to a flower bed even closer to them, ‘but didn’t you notice what a bleak spot the Ellis Estate is in? It’s as much as Mary can do to grow a few potatoes, carrots and cabbages in the sheltered area in front of the house.’
‘Martha really likes them?’ He pressed the ignition.
‘She does. Just a moment, a strawberry has dropped on your back seat, it will stain the leather.’ She dropped her voice to a whisper when she leaned over the car. ‘Are you staying in the valley tonight?’
‘I’m living day to day. One of my sisters is ill and I may have to go home at a moment’s notice. But I am reluctant to leave until I know that my grandfather has settled in.’
‘If your grandfather is well enough, I’ll ask my father if you can see him tomorrow.’
‘Thank you. I’d appreciate it if you would.’
‘And if you’d like to go for a walk this evening, I’m off duty at eight and I usually go for a stroll alongside the river from the sanatorium up to the hills. The scenery is very pretty around there.’
‘I’ll look forward to seeing it, Miss Adams.’ He gazed into her deep-blue eyes.
‘Away from the hospital, I allow my friends to call me Diana.’ She raised her voice. ‘There, I have the strawberry, Mr Evans.’ She flicked the offending berry on to a flower bed.
‘And you consider me your friend?’ He gave her the smile that he flattered himself had melted a few female hearts.
‘Not yet, but after another evening like yesterday’s, I might,’ she whispered.
‘You’ll tell Toby I’ll be back for him in ten minutes.’
‘I will.’ She waved him off.
In the hope of ingratiating himself with the Ellises, Harry bought a large basket of raspberries as well as one of strawberries. He returned to the sanatorium to find Toby sitting on the doorstep, his chin resting on the edge of his portfolio, a disconsolate expression on his face.
‘Your uncle is worse?’ Harry guessed.
‘He looks dreadful. I didn’t see him yesterday and I can’t believe the deterioration in just two days.’ Toby flung his portfolio into the back of the car and slumped in the passenger seat. ‘It’s ghastly to watch him grow weaker by the day.’ He looked intently at Harry. ‘I’m not sure how much more I can take.’
‘If he can take it, so can you.’ Harry was aware that if Dr Adams did allow him to visit his grandfather he would soon be facing the same ordeal.
‘You’re right, of course. I can’t leave him, not now. But I tell you something: if there is a God and I come face to face with him in the hereafter, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind. Frank’s brain is sharper than it’s ever been, his creative ability is undiminished. He has ideas and passion enough to create hundreds if not thousands more paintings and illustrations that would dazzle the world and give pleasure to untold millions who appreciate art. And he hasn’t even the strength to hold a pencil, let alone do anything with it.’
‘How did he like your illustration?’ Harry asked, trying to lift Toby’s spirits.
‘He didn’t entirely, but then he never does. He made a few suggestions for improving it, but not as many as usual. And that’s not a sign I’m becoming more skilled as an artist.’ Toby turned and checked that the portfolio was secure in the back. ‘Raspberries as well as strawberries
? We’ll be sick if we eat all those.’
‘They’re not for us. I bought them for that little girl I told you about.’
‘The one you knocked down?’
‘I was hoping you’d call in at the farm with me. But if you want me to drop you off somewhere first so you can start painting right away, I will.’
‘As I’m in no mood to start work right away, a spin up the valley sounds just the sort of time-wasting exercise I need. Besides, I can always fool myself that I’m scouting for locations for the next illustration.’
Harry pushed the car into low gear when they started climbing upwards. ‘Are you looking for something in particular?’
‘Frank wants me to paint the lake next, so I need a stretch of pretty water and a shapely arm to rise out of it to hold Excalibur. I have the sword in my room, as the last illustration Frank completed was Arthur wielding Excalibur for the first time in battle. You should see it, Harry. It’s a huge, magnificent canvas. It’s bound to be exhibited at the Academy.’
‘I’ll make a point of going next May.’
‘We’ll go together, if you like.’ Toby fell silent, and Harry sensed that he was thinking of what would happen to Frank before next May.
‘I spotted a reservoir below the farmhouse last night that might do for your lake,’ he said in an attempt to distract Toby.
‘A reservoir?’ Toby exclaimed disdainfully. ‘How unromantic. I can tell you now, it will never do.’
‘You haven’t seen it,’ Harry remonstrated.
‘I don’t need to. I need a proper, natural lake. And as all anyone will see of the lady is her arm, it will have to be a very beautiful and young one, with no wrinkles, a slim wrist and manicured nails.’
‘Won’t the skin on the tips of the fingers have water crinkles if the lady lives in the lake?’
‘Idiot, the hand will be out of the water.’
‘For how long?’
‘As long as it takes Arthur to see it.’
‘And of course, your Excalibur is the genuine article?’
‘Absolutely.’ Toby fell in with Harry’s mood. ‘As verified by Merlin himself, who, incidentally, was a marvellous old shepherd who wandered into the bar one night. Frank wanted him painted with Nimue at the moment of her betrayal. Nimue was a model he used in Paris, so I was able to follow his sketches of her. Merlin was all mine, and it took me four days of following him around the mountains before I managed to portray him to Frank’s liking. But I have yet to find my Morgan le Fay. However,’ he gave Harry a sly glance, ‘from the way you looked at the Snow Queen this morning and, more importantly, the way she looked back at you, I have hopes of seeing her transformed into Guinevere in love some time soon.’
‘What look?’ Harry asked warily.
‘The “sick calf in love” look, and if I had any doubts, the guilty one that’s on your face right now has dispelled them. So what gives between you two? Tell Uncle Toby all.’
‘There’s nothing to tell.’ What had happened between him and Diana had been so sudden and unexpected, and was so new that the last thing Harry wanted to do was talk about it.
‘Don’t believe you,’ Toby chanted maddeningly.
‘She freezes me out in exactly the same way she freezes you out.’
‘Still don’t believe you,’ Toby sang out.
‘All right,’ Harry conceded when he realized Toby wasn’t going to give up. ‘I had supper with her last night after she dressed the cuts on my face.’
‘My oh my, you don’t waste any time.’
‘I’m sure she only invited me because she’s bored witless by the lack of social life in the valley.’ Harry deliberately tried to sound casual. Even after she had invited him for a walk that evening, he could scarcely believe what was happening between them. And he wasn’t at all sure where their relationship was leading, or even if they had one.
‘There’s always church this evening.’
‘You’re going?’
‘I wouldn’t miss it.’
Harry looked sideways at Toby. ‘I wouldn’t have taken you for the religious sort.’
‘Oh cynical one.’ Toby pulled a packet of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and stuck two into his mouth. ‘The truth is I need to paint a room in the Castle of Corbin – you know the scene where the maiden appears to Lancelot in a dream, shows him the Holy Grail and foretells the achievements of Galahad? Well, there’s a corner of the vestry that’s absolutely perfect for the castle. It has old stone walls with leaded glass windows set at shoulder-height. They’re ideally placed to convey ghostly rays of golden light on the maiden. I asked the vicar if I could use it, and he agreed. Unfortunately his wife overheard me so somehow or other I also found myself agreeing to use their daughter as the maiden.’ He lit both cigarettes and pushed one into Harry’s mouth.
‘And when are you painting her in the vestry?’ Harry drew on the cigarette before removing it.
‘Tomorrow morning. Her father wouldn’t allow me to paint her on a Sunday, and her mother, who never, never stops talking, not even to draw breath, is chaperoning us. Join me?’ he said hopefully. ‘You could paint your own Grail scene. They’re very popular in galleries right now.’
‘Liar. Besides, if I see my grandfather I hope to drive back to Pontypridd tomorrow.’
‘Oh, my good kind Lord.’ Toby hung over the side of the car.
‘Get back in before you fall out.’ Harry grabbed the bottom of Toby’s jacket and hauled him back.
‘Do you see that?’
‘Crai Reservoir. It’s the one I told you about and you insisted would never do for your lake. Go on, admit it’s pretty.’
‘Pretty?’ Toby rolled his eyes heavenwards. ‘Forgive him, oh great creative ones. It’s not his fault that he lacks an artistic soul. It’s nothing as ugly as a reservoir, you philistine, it’s an Arthurian lake.’
‘I saw it marked on a map before I drove down here. It’s a reservoir that was built by the town council of Swansea in nineteen o-seven -’
‘Now you sound exactly like Diana Adams.’ Toby blew a plume of smoke in Harry’s direction but it was carried away by the breeze. ‘Are you going to marry her and breed a column of solemn-faced lecturers who’ll think it their duty to bore the world?’
‘You can be an ass at times, Toby,’ Harry grumbled.
‘After you’ve done whatever it is you want to at the farm, bring the picnic hamper down, will you? I’ll get a head start on a couple of sketches.’
‘You expect me to haul that hamper all the way down to the reservoir?’
‘I’ll give you my spare sketchbook and an art lesson in return. And there is no reservoir, only an Arthurian lake, and it will be known to all as such by the time I’ve finished with it.’ Toby dared him to say otherwise before turning back to absorb the magnificent view.
Harry had only known Toby Ross for a few days, but he had already discovered that there was no point in trying to talk to him while he was creating paintings in his mind’s eye, so he concentrated on the road and the majestic, magnificent scenery of sweeping hillsides that rose and fell around them.
But as they approached the Ellis Estate, he couldn’t help agreeing with Diana Adams that, for all its beauty, it was a bleak and lonely spot.
Harry dropped Toby off at the entrance to a track signposted ‘Crai Reservoir’. Studiously ignoring it, Toby strode off, haversack on shoulder, sketchpad and pencil in hand and a look of intense concentration on his face as he studied the vista below him. Harry carried on to the farm, but instead of driving into the yard as he had done the night before, he turned the car around and parked on the road opposite the house. Taking the two baskets of fruit, he walked through the arch into the farmyard.
Dogs started barking as soon as he set foot on the cobbles, but to his relief, he noticed they were securely penned. Chickens scratched between the cobbles and wandered in and out of the barn. Ducks waddled around a small pond, splashing water over the weeds that encroached at the sides.
Two enormous sows snorted and scuffed in an open sty that fronted the outbuildings at the far right-hand corner of the yard. The doors to a cowshed and milking parlour opposite him stood open, a freshly swept pile of manure heaped in front of them, but the stalls were empty and there was no sign of any of the Ellises. He was halfway to the back door in the hope of finding someone in the house, when he heard a noise in an outbuilding on his left.
He knocked and the door swung open. Mary Ellis was standing in front of a trestle table, turning the handle on a butter churn.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,’ he apologized, when she jumped back nervously.
‘I heard the dogs but there’s a puppy that starts them off and he barks at nothing … Mr Evans! Your face! Did I do that?’
He touched his cuts and bruises lightly. ‘They only look this way because Miss Adams put iodine on them to prevent them from getting infected.’
She glanced at him in confusion before looking down at the table. ‘I wasn’t expecting you to return.’
‘I saw Miss Adams this morning. She told me that your brother thought that I should pay Martha’s wages while she’s too ill to work. And I quite agree with him.’ He set the baskets down, pulled his wallet from his inside jacket pocket, opened it and extracted two white five-pound notes. He held them out to her.
Avoiding his gaze, she shook her head. ‘We couldn’t possibly take that much, sir, Martha only earns seven shillings a week.’
‘It’s not just Martha’s wages, Miss Ellis. It’s also the upset and pain I’ve caused her and your family. Please.’ He folded the notes, placed them on the table and pushed them towards her. ‘Nothing will make me feel any the less guilty, and this is no more than Martha deserves.’
She hesitated, and he sensed her wavering.
‘It’s not charity, Miss Ellis; it’s compensation for Martha. Sensible people would see it that way.’
‘Perhaps just one, sir.’
‘Please, take both, and my name is Harry, not sir. I’m not that much older than you.’ She made no effort to pick up the notes. ‘Miss Adams said that your sister is still suffering from the effects of concussion.’
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