Nothing is Forever

by Grace Thompson

  Abigail smiled and agreed. Whatever Jack wanted was fine with her. A week later he went by bus and train back to a cheap bed-sit not far from Ty Gwyn, and asked for his job back in the green-grocery.

  At Ty Gwyn, life settled down into a pleasant routine. Collecting insurance was something that Ruth found she enjoyed. Meeting people, discovering mutual acquaintances and even a few people who had known her parents, and remembered her and her brothers as children, made many visits into social occasions that took longer than they should as kindly people insisted on making her tea and it was difficult to get away after writing the transactions into their books.

  Once a month a few farms were included on her round and she loved walking into the huge farm kitchens with the tables neatly spread with a white cloth and plates ready for the men to come for their food. She looked forward to the next visits with happy anticipation. Henry came with her once, driving her around and talking to the farmers, listening to their stories about the wildlife they saw and sharing descriptions of favourite walks. One young farmer, Ted Wills, became a friend and he sometimes joined them on walks, inviting them back to the farm for tea. Ruth and Henry had always enjoyed walking in the countryside and were quite knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of the area. Ted added a lot more to their knowledge and interest.

  Walking back into Ty Gwyn was no longer a fear and there had been no further worries about things being moved or searched. Gradually Megan and Mali came more often to the kitchen and even Tabs relaxed and no longer asked before making tea or a sandwich or helping herself to a cake.

  Tabs and Ruth sometimes went to the pictures and Mali and Megan invited Tabs to go with them to a dance, which she quickly refused. The sisters never went together, one of them would always be with Mickie. Ruth offered to look after him so the sisters could go together.

  ‘No, thanks. Mali and I promised each other that no one else would look after the baby and it’s a promise we’ll keep until he’s old enough to go places on his own,’ Megan said firmly. ‘Besides, I think Mali likes to see a certain trumpeter without my playing gooseberry,’ Megan teased. Ruth learned to her surprise that Mali sang with the local dance band in which the trumpeter Kenny played.

  Ruth wondered what would happen when one of the sisters found a serious boyfriend. It hadn’t happened so far. Then, Megan came in with a young man called Sam. To Tabs’s embarrassment, Mali gave her sister detailed warning to, ‘Be careful, Megan, our Mickie might not be ready for a brother or sister just yet.’ Then, after a whispered comment shared by Ruth, they all began to giggle. Tabs didn’t think it funny.

  ‘We aren’t flippant about having a baby, Tabs; we’re just picturing our Mam’s face if we told her Megan was expecting again!’ Hesitantly, imagining her own father’s reaction, Tabs tried to laugh with them, but failed.

  Sam soon faded from the picture, but there was always excitement in Mali’s face when she was brought home from the dance by Kenny, the trumpeter in the band.

  Ruth planned to say farewell to her lodgers by inviting her four brothers and their wives for a picnic lunch in the garden, a prospect that frightened Tabs and made her disappear for a whole day trying to think of an excuse not to be there.

  Guessing her fears, Ruth told her she could spend the day in her room if she wished, but she hoped she would be there to help serve the food. ‘’Specially as you’ll be helping me to make it!’ she hinted.

  Tabs prayed to be struck down with a severe cold that would give her a genuine excuse to stay away from them all. She was used to Megan and Mali now and she loved the little boy, but sharing a day with eight strangers? How could she possibly cope with that? She stared at herself in her small handbag mirror and wondered why she was so stupid. She also wondered if she would ever be any different and thought not.

  Ruth invited Aunty Blod too and tried to use that invitation to encourage Tabs to be there. ‘She’s a little unsteady on her feet, see, and I’d appreciate you being there to keep an eye on her and look after her.’

  ‘All right, I’ll stay for a while, but only to get the food set out, then I think I’ll go for a walk.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Ruth said, as she thought out ways of making the anxious woman stay, believing that if she did she would enjoy the day and benefit from it.

  A few days before the picnic lunch, Tabs came to Ruth and told her she would have to leave.

  ‘Tabs, why? Have I upset you in some way?’ Tabs seemed unable or unwilling to explain and Ruth said, ‘I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you. I promise you I haven’t meant to.’ Still no explanation. ‘Is it the party? You don’t have to stay, really you don’t.’

  ‘It’s my father.’

  ‘I thought he was getting married and wanted the place for himself and his new wife?’

  ‘Now he wants me back.’

  ‘Can you tell me why? Is it something we can sort out?’

  ‘Martha Howard isn’t happy about running the house. He wants me back to look after it all as I did before. Then stay out of their way between meals, I’d imagine,’ she added sorrowfully.

  ‘And you? How d’you feel about going back home?’

  ‘Having two people telling me how useless I am? One was bad enough. No, I want to stay here, but I can’t, can I?’

  ‘You’re old enough to make you own decisions, Tabs.’

  ‘I can’t refuse. She won’t marry my father unless I go back. She didn’t expect to have to run the home without me there.’

  ‘I’ll come with you. You can explain that you want to stay here. He won’t upset you if I’m there. I promise not to say a word, mind. I’ll just be there.’ She crossed her fingers as she promised.

  It took two days to persuade her, but with coaxing from Henry, as well as Megan and Mali adding their opinions, Tabs and Ruth eventually set off to confront Mr Bishop and his ‘intended’, Martha Howard.

  Tabs gave in almost straight away, nodding and agreeing without saying a word. As she was whispering, ‘All right, I’ll come back’, and despite her promise to say nothing, Ruth overrode her submissive replies and insisted that she needed Tabs at Ty Gwyn.

  ‘Besides being my friend, she has a responsible job as an accountant at the newsagents.’

  ‘An accountant? Rubbish!’

  An argument ensued during which Martha shouted, then cried, then started a fresh argument with Tabs’s red-faced father.

  ‘I’m your father and you’ll do what I say!’ he said, his face close to Tabs’s, his expression threatening.

  ‘No she won’t,’ Ruth replied for her. ‘And that’s an end to it.’

  ‘Get out of my house! This is nothing to do with you. She’s coming back home where she belongs.’

  ‘No, she is not!’ Ruth replied with irritating calm.

  Wide eyed, Tabs looked from one to the other and began wailing in despair. Ruth shoved her back away from her father who was trying to wear her down by glaring at her.

  ‘Come on, Tabs, we’re going home.’

  ‘This is her home and this is where she’ll live!’ George Bishop shouted, while Martha’s large brown eyes swivelled from one to the other.

  Ruth had always considered herself a placid person. She had never felt strongly about anything and her life had been trouble free, but listening to this man demanding that his daughter give up a life she was just beginning to build, to move back home to his domination, because her prospective stepmother was lazy, was too much.

  ‘Very clever she is, our Tabs. And I respect her brilliance with figures and so does the newsagent. She’s a valued friend and I won’t hear of her coming back to be an unpaid housekeeper. There! That’s the situation. Come on, Tabs, we have to get back or the casserole will be ruined.’

  Tabs stood undecided, staring at her angry father and a tearful Martha Howard until Ruth grabbed her arm and pulled her from the house.

  They didn’t go back to Ty Gwyn but instead went to the shop to find Henry. When they told him of what had occurred she and Tabs wer
e laughing and soon all three were enjoying the surprising end to what had been intended as a polite discussion explaining why Tabs wasn’t going back home.

  It was a changing point for Tabs, albeit a small one. She was still very unsure of herself in company, but together with the job she had found and the growing friendship of Ruth, she found a confidence which she would never have found at home.

  ‘D’you know,’ she said one evening, when Ruth and Henry were entering payments into Ruth’s weekly statement book, ‘I’m grateful to Martha Howard. If she hadn’t agreed to marry Dad, I’d have still been that frightened woman nicknamed the goose. Or mouse,’ she added, admitting she knew of Ruth’s nickname for her. ‘I’m still a bit of a mouse,’ she added as they smiled at her, ‘but a bit bolder, don’t you think?’

  ‘Is there still going to be a wedding?’ Henry asked.

  ‘I haven’t heard any different, but I don’t think Martha will want me there, do you?’

  In her father’s house Martha reluctantly agreed to continuing with the wedding plans on condition she would have a cleaning woman twice a week.

  ‘Sorry Tabitha’s let you down,’ George Bishop said. ‘I don’t know what’s got into her. She’s been so difficult since she met up with that Ruth Thomas.’

  ‘I’ll remind Ruth of the part she played one day,’ Martha said. ‘I could tell a few tales about that family that Ruth wouldn’t like broadcast around the town. How that poor Ralph was treated, it was a disgrace.’

  ‘I’ve never heard of Ralph.’

  ‘Not many remember him now. But I do. Sent away he was, poor dab, hoping the shame of what he did would remain hidden, but my memory’s long and one day I’ll tell her what happened to her Uncle Ralph.’ She smiled, wondering what she could invent that would embarrass poor Tabitha the most.

  George was hardly listening. ‘We’ll invite Tabs to the wedding, won’t we?’

  ‘Well, I did expect us to have a rather grand reception. She wouldn’t feel very comfortable, scared goose that she is. Capable she might be, but I can’t imagine her coping with a wedding like ours will be, can you, dear? Kinder if we don’t ask. Better we forget to post her invite, don’t you think?’

  So relieved that the wedding was back on track he could only agree.

  Chapter Four

  Tabs’s father turned up one day and at once, Ruth went to stand by her in a protective manner.

  ‘Hello, Dad. Arrangements going all right, are they?’ Tabs asked nervously.

  ‘No thanks to you!’

  ‘I expect you’ve brought the invitation to the wedding,’ Ruth said politely. ‘It’s next month, isn’t it?’

  George Bishop ignored her.

  ‘I want you to reconsider,’ he said to his daughter. ‘Take no notice of Ruth. She doesn’t know about family loyalties. Can’t help it, mind, her not having parents to teach her. But you know how I rely on you and Mrs Howard expects the same.’

  Ruth made a low growling sound in the back of her throat as Tabitha began to reply.

  ‘Sorry, Dad, but I’ve left home and I enjoy living here with Ruth. And I’m really enjoying my new job.’

  He argued for a while, glaring at Ruth between attempts to persuade his daughter to return home, then he left.

  An hour later, Mrs Howard knocked the door. As soon as Ruth opened it she pushed her way in and demanded to speak to her future stepdaughter. ‘Where is she? Tell her I want to speak to her.’

  Ruth gave a tight smile and said, ‘I’ll see if she’s in and if she wants to talk to you.’

  Instead of calling up the stairs as she usually would, Ruth went up the stairs and to her irritation, Mrs Howard followed.

  ‘Which is her room?’ she demanded when she stood on the landing. Wordlessly, Ruth pointed with a thumb to the relevant door, and Martha walked straight in.

  ‘Tabitha, my dear,’ she said, before slamming the door closed against Ruth’s attempt to follow. Shamelessly, Ruth put her ear to the door and listened. ‘I’m disappointed you won’t be sharing the home with your father and me. Friends I thought we’d be. I haven’t come to persuade you where your duty lies,’ she added with a hint of a sob. ‘I just wondered if there were any special things you’d like to take from the house now you’ve left home. Little things that have some sentimental value, you know what I mean. Come one afternoon while your father’s at work and we can look through the drawers and cupboard to see what there is.’

  Ruth could imagine Tabs frowning as she thought about some of the treasures she had left behind.

  ‘No, there’s nothing, except one or two pieces of my mother’s jewellery. Not that there was anything of value, but I’d like a necklace she wore often, and one of her rings, just a few mementoes.’

  ‘That might be awkward, my dear. Your father offered some of the better items to me and, as I don’t want to start my marriage wearing things he’d bought for your mother – you understand I’m sure, dear – we sold them. There isn’t much left. In fact, we sold some of the pieces so he could buy me this beautiful engagement ring.’ She held out her hand for Tabs to admire.

  ‘Then there’s nothing I want, but thank you for offering,’ Tabs replied sadly. ‘I did love the opal ring that had once belonged to my grandmother. I’d have liked that.’

  ‘No, I couldn’t have let you wear that! I made sure that was sold.’ She gave an elegant shudder. ‘Unlucky things, opals.’

  ‘But so beautiful.’ Ruth heard the disappointment in Tabs’s voice.

  ‘Well, dear, I wish you’d change your mind about sharing our little home. If you do your father would be delighted. Loves you, he does. And he misses having you around. He was only saying last evening how lost he is without you to chat to. Even me moving in won’t change that,’ she said, with another hint of a sob.

  ‘Perhaps I should—’

  Ruth opened the door and said, ‘Tea anyone?’

  ‘I was just telling Tabitha how much her father misses her,’ Martha said. ‘Loves her he does.’

  ‘But once you and he are married he won’t be lonely then, will he? And we all know what they say about two women in a kitchen,’ Ruth spoke breezily, as she coaxed Tabs out of the room. Martha tried to hide her fury as she followed them down the stairs.

  In the kitchen she noticed the child’s painting. ‘Oh, you have Ralph’s picture on show. He would be pleased.’ She stepped closer to Ruth and whispered, ‘Better than anything Tabs can do, mind, even though he was only a child. She does have a false idea of her abilities.’ She leaned closer and waited until Tabs had moved away. Behind a hand she whispered, ‘Tell the truth, her father is worried about this job she’s so proud of. She isn’t capable of something like accounts. I mean, where would she have learned about something like that? The poor man will find out when she gets everything in a mess.’

  ‘How can you say such a thing? Tabs is clever and it’s taken all these years for anyone to realize it!’ She pushed the woman aside angrily and opened the door. She stood as Martha left without another word. She turned to where Tabs was beginning to set out cups and saucers, and forcing a smile, said, ‘Tabs, I’m proud of you for not giving in to that woman’s false affection. Come on, take the kettle off the gas, I’m treating you to tea in the café. Right?’

  Jack saw Henry leave the antique shop and drive away. He opened the door and slipped inside. ‘Tabs, I had to see you. I saw Henry leave and I couldn’t resist coming in. I miss you and want you so much.’ He locked the shop door and pulled down the blind on which a notice said ‘Closed’. Between kisses he said, ‘Once I’ve found my family, nothing will keep us apart, my beautiful, wonderful Tabs.’

  ‘Jack, I have to open the shop! Someone might tell Henry I closed up!’ Her protests became less and less urgent as other concerns awoke in her body. He led her up the stairs and she guided him into Henry’s living-room, where she surrendered to a passion that engulfed her. They lay for a while, calm after the storm that had overwhelmed her and she marvell
ed at the realization that she was in love and this fascinating man loved her, something she had never imagined happening to her.

  She went to tidy herself in the bathroom as Jack said a reluctant goodbye, promising to meet her the following day in the park. She went to the kitchen and made herself some tea, dawdling dreamily, almost unaware of what she was doing.

  She was still glowing with happiness when Henry returned. He saw at once that several small and valuable pieces of silver were missing from the cabinet. She looked horrified when he showed her. Had she spent too long in the kitchen? Someone could easily have stepped inside and taken them. The cabinet wasn’t locked as Henry had never thought it was necessary. Foolishly, she helped his search, even though she knew exactly where they had stood.

  Henry noticed the rosy cheeks and the glowing eyes and wondered about Tabs’s boyfriend. Could she have been day-dreaming and got careless? It wasn’t very likely, but love can do strange things, especially to someone as inexperienced as Tabs. She admitted being out of the shop for a while and he wondered if the boyfriend had distracted her. There had been a cushion out of place in his flat. Tabs being used as an accomplice to a thief? Surely not.

  Tabs had a moment’s doubt about Jack. He was the only one who could have taken them, the shop bell would have told her if someone else had entered and there had been a delay before he left. But she brushed the disloyal thought aside. Not Jack; he wouldn’t have risked compromising her by taking anything from here.

  Henry informed the police and explained that fortunately he had photographed the items that were missing. Something he did occasionally, taking a snap of a group of pieces in case there was a problem of ownership. He was able to check and assure an enquirer that the pieces hadn’t passed through his hands. Occasionally members of a family sold something without the agreement of others.

  Tabs was afraid; the small doubt about Jack wouldn’t quite go away. He was in the park the next day, joining her as she sat eating her lunch, and she told him about the theft. He suggested possibilities: regular visitors who rarely made a purchase, someone slipping in while she was in the kitchen. ‘I know what you Welsh girls are like for your cups of tea,’ he teased.