‘And she knew both of us.’ Lloyd swept Bella off her feet. ‘So you can stop crying, Belle, and prepare yourself for some more teasing when she gets home.’
‘You’re not just trying to make us feel better, Harry? Dad really is in good spirits?’ Lloyd asked for the twentieth time when he and Harry sat alone together over coffee and brandy in the dining room after dinner. Bella had gone upstairs to help Sali put the younger girls to bed, and, Lloyd and Harry suspected, to write cards and letters to Edyth and their grandfather.
‘He really is.’ Harry was exhausted, and not just by the long drive from the Swansea Valley. He’d spent half an hour talking on the telephone to Joey and Victor, answering their endless questions about his grandfather and reassuring them that he had settled into the sanatorium and responded well to treatment. And afterwards he’d had to satisfy his parents’ and sisters’ thirst for news. It had been a relief to read Glyn a bedtime story in the quiet of his bedroom before dinner. ‘I didn’t like to ask earlier when Mam and Bella were still here – is Edyth going to make a full recovery?’
‘Doctor Williams said it’s too early to tell.’ Lloyd ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it back from his face.
Harry knew his stepfather. The gesture indicated he was worried. ‘Does he think there might be a problem?’
‘I had a private talk with him when your mother was with Edyth. Not a word to your mother?’
‘Of course not,’ Harry promised.
‘There’s damage to Edyth’s spine. As yet, she has no feeling in her legs. It could return but -’
‘Are you saying that she could be crippled?’ Appalled by the thought, Harry slumped back in his chair. Edyth had been born a tomboy. Ever since she’d taken her first steps, she’d been out and about, riding her horse or bicycle, climbing trees, charging round with their cousins on Uncle Victor’s farm, doing crazy – and generally dangerous – things, like playing tag with the animals.
‘As Doctor Williams said, it’s early days, but I’d rather you didn’t mention the possibility to your mother or Dad. He still doesn’t know about Edyth?’ Lloyd asked.
‘I haven’t said a word.’
‘Don’t,’ Lloyd warned.
‘You only have to look at Mam to see the strain she’s under,’ Harry commented soberly.
‘Her hair.’ Lloyd made a face as he sipped his brandy. ‘It was a shock to both of us. It happened overnight.’
‘If you’re talking about me, I always said that girl would turn me grey.’ Sali came in with Bella.
‘She’s certainly done that, sweetheart.’ Lloyd reached for her hand when she walked past his chair. ‘Brandy?’
‘Please.’ Sali smoothed Harry’s hair away from his forehead when she sat down. ‘How are you bearing up under all this strain?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘It’s not too late to go to Paris. Your tickets are open until the end of next month, and if you write to the studio -’
Harry shook his head. ‘I’m staying.’
‘Here or the Swansea Valley?’ Lloyd asked.
‘Moving between the two, now that Doctor Adams is prepared to let me ask after Granddad three or four times a week. I think I’ll manage to see him as long as he’s well enough to receive visitors. But I would also like to see Edyth.’
‘Doctor Williams isn’t prepared to allow anyone other than us in to see her for the next week, possibly even longer, but we can give her your love. Thank you, darling.’ Sali took the brandy Lloyd handed her.
‘I don’t see why Doctor Williams won’t let me see her,’ Bella argued forcefully. ‘After all, I’m the closest to her in age.’
‘Sorry, Belle, but he was quite firm on that point. He said young people come into contact with far more contagious diseases than adults and he can’t risk Edyth catching anything while she’s in her present weakened state.’
‘But to look on the bright side, darling, Edyth will be home the minute she’s well enough, and now she’s come out of her coma, that can’t be long,’ Sali said confidently.
‘When are you thinking of going back to the Swansea Valley, Harry?’ Lloyd asked.
‘I’d like to call into the sanatorium the day after tomorrow. And because early morning is the best time for visiting, that means leaving tomorrow afternoon. I thought I’d call in on Uncle Joey in the store and Uncle Victor at the farm on the way.’ Harry felt slightly guilty. He wanted to see his grandfather – but there was also Diana.
‘You’ll need an extra suitcase to take all the letters, cards and gifts the children have been making,’ Sali warned.
‘Ask Doctor Adams if Joey and Victor can visit him at the weekend?’ Lloyd opened the cigarette box, and offered it to Sali and Harry. ‘They said they were hoping to go down, and your mother and I will visit -’
‘Just as soon as Edyth is better and home.’ Sali took a cigarette. ‘You have no idea how good that sounds after the strain of the past few days, Harry.’
Harry didn’t dare look at his mother or glance at Lloyd, lest his mother intercept his look and read his thoughts.
She always had been far too intuitive for his liking.
Harry returned to the inn late the following evening. Just as his mother had predicted, he was loaded with cards, letters and gifts from the family for his grandfather: jars of homemade jam and preserves from Mari, and Billy’s old housekeeper, Betty Morgan; letters from his older cousins, and crayon pictures from his younger ones; copies of the latest books from Joey, Victor and Lloyd; wool-work slippers stitched by Rhian; a cardigan Megan had knitted; and a dressing gown his mother had bought.
Not knowing how long he would be in the valley, he had also stopped off in Swansea and stocked up on art supplies. Even if Toby was too busy painting his Holy Grail scene in the vestry to give him any hints or tuition, he decided that he might as well put the time between visits to his grandfather to good use. And as he had discovered for himself, with Diana’s help, the valley was very beautiful.
‘You’re ready to show your uncle the Grail painting?’ Harry asked in surprise when Toby loaded the covered canvas into the back of his car early the following morning.
‘I want his opinion on the colours I’ve used before I finish it. In my room, not the vestry,’ he qualified. ‘Hopefully, even if he wants them changed, I won’t need to go back there or listen to another word that spills from that woman’s mouth. Talk about verbal dysentery. However, if Frank doesn’t like the composition, I’ll look for another background and model before I return there.’
‘No doubt you left the vicar’s wife and daughter grief-stricken,’ Harry joked as he climbed into the driver’s seat.
‘They can join the club.’
‘What club?’
‘The club of women who have met me, and had to learn to live with the brutal reality that, to them, I will remain forever unattainable,’ Toby declaimed in Shakespearean mode.
‘You do have a vivid imagination.’ Harry laughed.
‘We can’t all be as fortunate as you with the lovely Diana. You given any thought to where you’re going after you visit your grandfather?’ Toby sat beside him and slammed the car door.
‘I thought I might try my hand at translating my sketch of the reservoir into a watercolour.’
‘Arthurian lake, you mean.’ Toby yawned and stretched his arms above his head. ‘Depending on what Frank says, I’ll either come back here and work on the canvas, or go on with you. I showed Frank the preliminary sketches of the lake and he’s more or less decided where the arm and sword should go. If I ask the Snow Queen nicely, do you think she’ll let me paint her arm with the sword?’
‘How should I know?’
‘I was hoping you’d sit with us and bestow loving glances on her while I paint. That way she won’t get bored. Don’t tell me you’re getting more strawberries,’ Toby remonstrated when Harry stopped at the roadside stall.
‘My grandfather likes them.’
‘He’s going to
turn into one if he eats the amount you buy.’
‘It’s a short season.’ Harry bought two baskets. His grandfather had always been generous, and he didn’t doubt that there were other patients besides the miners who would enjoy them.
‘You’re back, Mr Evans, and loaded.’ Diana Adams stopped Harry in the corridor. Gowned and masked, he and Toby were heading for the lift on the ground floor.
‘As you see.’ He held up the strawberries and bag of letters and books. ‘Presents for my grandfather. How is he?’
‘In surprisingly good spirits, and the presents will be given to him at the ward sister’s discretion. We have rules about cluttering the patients’ rooms.’
‘I remember, and I promise faithfully that I will give everything to the sister. Have you seen Martha Ellis?’
‘I have, and she’s almost back to normal.’
‘That’s good news.’ Harry couldn’t stop looking at Diana.
‘See you outside later, Harry, and don’t forget to ask about the arm.’ Toby turned the corner of the corridor.
‘The arm?’ Diana murmured.
‘Toby wants to paint your arm holding a sword. It will be coming out of a lake,’ Harry explained.
‘Me as the Lady of the Lake.’
‘Your arm, at any rate. Any chance of a walk tonight?’ he whispered after a nurse passed.
‘My parents have a dinner party. Maybe tomorrow.’ She held up a file as her father approached. ‘If you’ll excuse me, Mr Evans.’
‘Of course, and thank you for the progress report on my grandfather.’
Billy’s bed had been wheeled out on the balcony again. Just as before, Harry found him sitting up and reading.
‘Behave, and they might give us an extra five minutes,’ Billy said when Harry sat beside his bed.
‘Is that you hoping or the sister promising?’ Harry asked.
‘The sister agreeing after she’s been nagged to death,’ she answered, without looking up from the papers on her desk.
Billy closed his book. Always a quick reader, he’d finished Tom Jones and was halfway through a combined edition of Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel. ‘How is everyone at home?’
‘All the better for hearing that you have settled in here,’ Harry replied guardedly. ‘I saw Uncle Joey and Uncle Victor – they’re both coming here this Saturday. The aunts wanted to come with them but Doctor Adams won’t allow you more than two visitors at a time. I brought you some more strawberries and a bucketful of letters, drawings, cards and books from Dad and the uncles. I gave them to the sister -’
‘Who will pass them on when she sees fit and not before,’ the sister interrupted.
‘Since when were you invited into the conversation?’ Billy’s friendly tone belied his words, and Harry sensed that a rapport had already developed between his grandfather and the staff.
‘Since I recognized that you’re the type of patient who needs a firm hand, Mr Evans.’ She left her desk and joined them on the balcony. ‘And if you are going to have two visitors the day after tomorrow, your visit shouldn’t last more than five minutes now.’
‘Come on, Sister,’ Billy coaxed. ‘Five more minutes aren’t going to tire me out.’
As before, Harry heard his grandfather’s voice weakening. ‘I’ll talk to him but won’t ask him any questions,’ he promised.
‘Five minutes, Mr Evans, but only on condition that you do the listening and your grandson does most of the talking,’ she warned.
Not wanting to dwell on what was happening in Pontypridd lest he inadvertently slip up and say more than he should about Edyth, Harry moved the conversation on as soon as he’d assured Billy that everyone in the family was as well and as happy as they could be without him. So he talked about the people he’d met in the valley: the mother and son who ran the garage and the inn; Toby Ross; and, halfway into the story before realizing that it wasn’t a happy one, the Ellises, and how the family had lost their farm.
Turfed out unceremoniously by the ward sister after ten minutes, Harry found Diana Adams waiting by the lift cage.
‘Good morning again, Miss Adams.’ He gave her a guarded smile.
‘Mr Evans.’ Her dark-blue eyes gazed into his. ‘I trust you found your grandfather in good spirits?’
‘Just as you said he would be.’
‘My father is pleased with the way that he is responding to our fresh air and dietary treatment.’
The lift arrived. Harry waited for Diana to precede him into it. He closed the doors and she pressed the button. When they were between floors she pressed a red button and the lift juddered to a halt.
‘Something to remember me by until tomorrow evening.’ She held her finger to her lips before pulling down his mask and hers. Pressing the length of her body against his, she kissed him hard on the mouth. He leaned against the wall of the cage.
She moved back, lifted the gown that covered his flannel suit and unbuttoned his flies. Slipping her hand inside his trousers, she fingered his erection.
‘Diana …’ The half-hearted protest died in his throat when she kissed him again. He cupped her left breast with his right hand. Her nipple had hardened into a peak that he could feel even through the layers of her clothes.
A bell rang in the lift. She released him abruptly, rearranged her gown, pulled up her mask and pressed the button again. The lift continued its journey. He was still adjusting his mask when they reached the ground floor.
Toby was sitting, waiting for Harry in his car. His eyes narrowed when he climbed in and sat beside him.
‘You all right?’
‘Hot. The lift got stuck between floors,’ Harry said truthfully.
‘Your grandfather?’
‘Looking remarkably well. He said he’d seen your uncle.’
‘Incredible, isn’t it? Last week I thought Frank was at death’s door. Today they wheeled his bed out on the balcony.’
Harry pressed the ignition. ‘So where am I taking you?’
‘The inn.’ Toby made a wry face. ‘The good news is that Frank was happy with the composition. The bad, there isn’t enough gold in the painting for his liking. Naturally he’s absolutely spot on. The illustration would be more stirring and impressive if there was. But hopefully, if I work like hell, I’ll be able to finish it today and start on the lake tomorrow. You sure you don’t mind dropping me back at the inn?’
‘Not at all,’ Harry replied easily.
‘You going up to the lake afterwards?’
‘I thought I might visit the reservoir,’ Harry teased.
‘You’ll never succeed in capturing it successfully on canvas if you persist in calling it that.’
‘So you say.’
‘And you won’t forget that grass is green, the sky blue and water reflects the light from the sky?’
‘I’m not that much of a novice,’ Harry said testily.
‘Given your present condition and mood you might forget.’
‘What condition and what mood?’
‘The Snow Queen’s obviously – how can I put this delicately? – got you going.’
‘What makes you think I even met Miss Adams in the sanatorium?’
Toby grinned. ‘Your flies are undone.’
Harry glanced down, saw his shirt tail protruding from his flies and turned crimson. He slammed on the brakes, pulled over and buttoned his trousers.
‘For someone who said he was hopeless at seduction, it didn’t take you long to thaw the Snow Queen. Or did she thaw you?’ Toby asked mercilessly.
Mary spent most of the morning working in the dairy. After making six pounds of butter, she turned every one of the four dozen cheeses that were ripening on the stone shelves. She cleared all the paddles and butter-shapers that needed washing into the churn, stood behind it, straightened her back, took a deep breath and picked it up. Kicking the door open with her foot, she carried it across the yard and left it next to the stone trough in the scullery, ready for washing. On her way ba
ck to the dairy to fetch the milking buckets, she saw Martha sitting, elbows on knees, her chin cupped in her hands, on the kitchen doorstep.
‘You’re not feeling any worse, are you, darling?’ she asked in concern.
‘No.’ Martha stared blindly into space. ‘Just tired of having nothing to do.’
‘If you feel like doing something, you could go in the barn and check the chicken coops for eggs.’
‘I’ve already done that and filled both baskets.’
‘You could pick some beans for dinner.’
‘Matthew did that.’
‘Miss Adams said you should rest.’ Mary lifted the buckets into the yard and closed the door of the dairy.
‘I’m tired of resting. I want to do something.’ A crotchety tone crept into Martha’s voice.
‘All the dairy equipment needs scrubbing with soda.’
‘That’s a horrible job.’
‘I know it is. That’s why I hoped you’d help me with it.’ Mary looked over Martha’s shoulder into the kitchen. ‘Where are Matthew and Luke?’
‘Matthew’s taken Luke down to the reservoir. He said I couldn’t go because I’d slow him down, although I can walk quicker than Luke, even after banging my head.’
‘The baby …’ Mary dropped the bucket and ran across the yard.
‘It’s all right,’ Martha yelled after her. ‘We saw that man down there. He won’t let Luke fall in.’
‘What man?’
‘The man who took us to chapel … Wait for me,’ Martha shouted when Mary picked up her skirts and ran to the gate that opened out of the back of the yard.
Harry glimpsed movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned around and saw Matthew leave the farmyard by the back gate. His progress was slow, because every few yards the small boy stopped either to set down the baby he was carrying, or pick him up. He was trying to get Luke to walk, but although the child toddled a few steps quite happily, a few was as many as he was prepared to take because he preferred to sit down and play with the grass.
Harry started sketching out the composition of his watercolour and became so engrossed in placing the lake in relation to the surrounding hills that he almost forgot Matthew and Luke until twenty minutes later, when Matthew’s shout took him by surprise.
Finders and Keepers Page 19