Tabs was standing, holding a torch to see people to their seats in the cinema when Jack walked in with the pretty girl on his arm. Tabs guided them into seats in the back row. Jack didn’t look at the young woman holding the torch and settled into the seats putting a proprietary arm around the girl’s shoulders. Later, when she was guiding people into seats near them she saw, to her pain and misery, that they were kissing. When she saw Ruth a few days later, she told her she had seen Jack, but they agreed not to tell Abigail what she had seen.
Ruth had continued to stay with Aunty Blod and she made her way to the centre by bus, but this morning Henry wasn’t there. A glance at the rota showed he was out with a party. His mother was in the kitchen, already beginning to prepare food for the party of eight who were there for the day. ‘They’ve taken a lunch pack,’ Rachel told her, ‘and they’ll be back for tea at four, and supper will be at seven.’
Ruth began sorting out the meals, writing down the costs in a notebook she habitually kept so Henry and Rachel could make sure they were profitable. She looked at the booking forms and saw that already there were several parties already marked for the following year. ‘Mostly repeat visits,’ she remarked to Rachel.
‘And what about you, Ruth, dear? Will you be here for the next season?’
Shocked by the question, Ruth said, ‘I don’t know what I want to do. It’s been so busy here I haven’t had time to think about it.’
‘Henry needs to know he has staff he can rely on.’
Did he really think of her as staff? she wondered in disbelief. ‘So you think I should leave to give him a chance to find someone permanent, get them trained ready for the spring?’
‘Only if you aren’t certain of staying.’
So Henry wants her to go and he had left it to his mother to tell me, she thought as she pummelled the dough to make the bread rolls for supper. As soon as Henry appeared she said, ‘I’m going to ask Mr Burrows for my job back. I don’t want you to delay in finding staff you can rely on.’
‘What are you talking about?’ he asked.
‘Talk to your mother,’ she said and, reaching for her coat, she ran out just in time to get a bus back to Aunty Blod’s flat.
‘Insurance, it’s quite an interesting job,’ she explained to Blod. ‘And with the money from the sale of Ty Gwyn I can afford a car to make it easier. I’ll go and see Mr Burrows tomorrow. He said I should talk to him if I ever wanted my job back.’
Blod said very little but she went to the phone box and told Henry he was a fool before slamming down the receiver.
Ruth didn’t talk to Mr Burrows. She spent some time with Abigail, and with Megan and Mali and Tabs, but refused to talk about what had happened. She missed her family, wished they were still together, at least Tommy and Bryn. Risking a rebuff, she went one evening to see first Bryn and Brenda, who seemed very content in their little house and hinting that a second baby might be announced soon. A few doors away the reception was different. Moving to a house hasn’t changed Toni, she thought, as she was shown into the cold, neat front room, with its crimson velvet curtains and matching three piece suite. Tommy wasn’t his usual ebullient self, quietly listening to her news and Toni sat, straight shouldered, in an upright chair looking as though she were timing her visit. Ruth wondered if they had been quarrelling, or whether it was her arrival that had caused such chillness.
‘Toni wants us to move again in a month or so,’ Tommy said eventually, as Ruth was beginning to make a move to go. ‘She wants something a bit smarter.’
‘What about Bryn and Brenda?’ was Ruth’s first question. ‘They seem very content here.’
‘That’s always the problem,’ Toni said. ‘We don’t have to do everything Bryn and Brenda do. I’m more ambitious than they are. We need to live in a better area, with decent neighbours. Somewhere our children can grow up with people in common with our tastes and aims.’
‘Staying together is the same with Mali and Megan,’ Ruth said calmly. ‘But the reason they want to stay together is Mickie. When Megan decided to keep him, not have him adopted like her mother wanted, she and Mali promised to bring him up together.’
‘More fool Mali! I hear she turned down a proposal of marriage to stay with her sister. It’s ridiculous.’
‘If you don’t understand about Tommy and Bryn, how important they are to each other, you don’t know Tommy at all,’ she said, repeating Mali’s words to Kenny.
‘Rubbish.’
‘Separate Tommy and Bryn and you’ll regret it,’ Ruth whispered as she left.
Ruth went home feeling dejected. It was ages since she’d heard from her older brothers. Emrys and Susan weren’t that far away, yet an occasional letter was all they managed. Geraint, in London, had written to tell them that his wife had left the man for whom she had ended her marriage. ‘But,’ he had told Ruth when she had phoned him, ‘the divorce will still happen. I could never trust her again, and going through this misery once is quite enough for one lifetime.’
‘I knew this would happen, Aunty Blod,’ she called, as she went into the flat, but there was no reply. Puzzled she looked for a note. She was probably visiting her neighbour Mrs Harrison, she thought, and set a tray for tea for when she returned.
Blodwen was at the hospital. She had heard from her brother and he had told her where to find him. She went on the bus and waited outside the ward with other visitors, aware that they all carried some small gift and bags of what appeared to be freshly laundered clothes. She wished she’d brought more than a small bag of fruit. But how could she know what he needed? Next time she’d do better. She mentally made a list of items to bring on her next visit.
Ralph was sitting up in bed, his face rosy with the heat of the ward. He greeted her with pleasure but his first words were, ‘You haven’t told anyone I’m here, have you?’ She shook her head, kissed him lightly and offered the fruit. ‘Sorry I haven’t brought anything useful, but tell me what you need and I’ll bring it next time.’
‘No need, Sis. I’m leaving here tomorrow. I’ll be in touch, but I don’t want to come to your flat just yet.’
‘What’s your story, our Ralph? Why the secrecy? I’m bursting to know.’
‘Patience for a while longer, please.’
They talked for the rest of the time about their childhood, bringing to mind things long forgotten. Blod was very thoughtful as she went home. When she went into the flat, preparing the lie about where she had been, she heard voices.
‘Tell me why you’ve suddenly decided to leave the centre. I thought you were happy there. To go back to selling insurance? Not much cooking and caring there and that’s what you’re good at.’ Blod put a hand over her mouth to stop calling. This might be important. She quietly slipped into her bedroom and sat on the bed.
‘Your mother made it clear that I should leave to give you time to get proper staff before next season,’ Ruth told him. ‘You couldn’t even tell me yourself!’
‘But I haven’t discussed you with my mother. I don’t want you to leave. I – I depend on you.’
Ruth frowned angrily. ‘Depend? That sounds worse than grateful!’
‘I need you, Ruth, and I always will. I thought we’d build up this business together. Please stay.’
Spoken as a grudging favour to hide the relief she felt, she agreed.
‘But first,’ he said, standing to leave, ‘first I must talk to my mother.’
Abigail bumped into Jack, literally, as she turned the corner of the street near the bungalow where Tabs now lived with Megan and Mali. He smiled at her. ‘Abigail, love, I didn’t hurt your mother. I’d never have done anything to harm her. I loved her too. Please tell me you believe me.’ How she wanted to take those extra steps and feel his arms around her. But she pushed him aside and ran to the bungalow and knocked on the door, which was opened by Tabs.
‘Was that Jack?’ Tabs asked. ‘What’s he doing around here? Not coming to see me, I hope.’
‘You don’t seem t
oo surprised to see him? I thought he’d gone to London,’ Abigail said.
‘I saw him in the cinema. I actually showed them to their seats. I didn’t want to tell you in case you were upset.’ Abigail wanted the whole truth so she also told her about the girl he was with. ‘Young and very pretty.’
‘Thank goodness we’re both free of him. He’ll never be loyal, or honest. It isn’t in his nature. It’s a pity it took so long for me to learn that.’ Tabs went into the kitchen to make tea and Abigail followed her.
‘I feel at least partly responsible for the way he’s behaving,’ Abigail murmured.
‘How can you blame yourself for a man like Jack?’ Tabs protested.
‘He believed an inheritance was waiting for him and it ruined his life. When we first met he had a good job, well paid, and it was me who encouraged him to leave everything and go off to find the family who owed him a fortune. Once I’d heard about the inheritance, the “treasure” that had been stolen from him, it sounded so romantic, finding a family lost to him for most of his life I begged him to find them.’ She smiled sadly. ‘I was so young and earning a lot of money to which I could see no end. I gave him money, there was plenty more where that came from. I was never one to save for a rainy day. It was so easy to persuade him and once he began, he couldn’t give up.’
‘You weren’t the cause of him stealing, or for him using me to try to find this imaginary inheritance.’
‘I don’t think he’d have tried if it weren’t for me.’
‘Bringing out his greed and making him steal from friends who trusted him? That is Jack. No one made him that way.’
‘One day I might believe that,’ Abigail said sadly.
Chapter Twelve
Ruth was edgy when she went back to the centre. She was unsure of how Rachel would behave. To her surprise Rachel came out to meet her, and hugged her. ‘I’m sorry, Ruth. I had no right to interfere. I just wanted you to think about what you wanted, before Henry depended on you absolutely and you left us with a serious gap in the team.’
‘I do know what I want,’ Ruth told her, ‘and it isn’t working here as a general fill-in until Henry finds someone experienced and trained in the running of a place like this.’
‘You are trained and certainly experienced. I’m very sorry, dear. Henry couldn’t find anyone better. Now, can we please forget my stupidity in mentioning the possibility of your leaving?’
Ruth smiled at her but she wasn’t convinced. Was Henry just making use of her until he found someone suitable? Would he then tell her to leave? She found that hard to believe. But, she admitted to herself, we have drifted so far apart, it wasn’t impossible.
Christmas intervened and she didn’t embrace it with her usual enthusiasm. Last year it had been a disaster and this year, with the absence of her brothers and sisters-in-law, it was likely to be even worse. She made no suggestions, just waited for instructions from Henry and his mother. She baked mince pies, and a Christmas cake and filled the pantry with extra food but it was Rachel who cooked the dinner.
The days passed quietly, leaving her almost unaware of the special occasion apart from exchanging gifts and eating the meal which didn’t taste as good as her own would have been, although, she admitted to Tabs later, that was mainly sour grapes. The truth was, she felt as though she were among strangers. She wasn’t involved. This wasn’t her Christmas, she was a guest at someone else’s.
Lillian was in North Wales visiting her son. Aunty Blod was back at her flat sharing the time with her neighbour, Cathy Harrison. They were few in number and that made it even more difficult for Ruth, who regretfully left the meals for Rachel to arrange.
Unknown to Ruth and the others, Blod visited Ralph in the bed-sit he rented and gave him a parcel of food to cheer his Christmas Day. ‘As soon as you tell the others you’re here, we’ll have a second Christmas and celebrate in style,’ she promised.
Tommy and Bryn and their families brought gifts but stayed away for the important days. Tabs, Mali and Megan and the children spent the time in the bungalow. Abigail was alone, having refused the invitation to join them. Christmas was a sentimental time, a time for memories, and she wanted to wallow in her misery of missing her mother – and Jack.
Mali had seen nothing of Kenny since she had refused his proposal and she watched passers-by hoping he would come. She knew she wouldn’t change her mind, but saying goodbye to someone she loved was hard. Surely he wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye?
While she and Megan and Tabs were playing hide and seek, with Mickie a very excited seeker, screaming in excitement when he found one of them, Kenny knocked the door but no one heard. He went around to the back and peered through the window. Bottoms were sticking out from under the table, Mickie and Megan were creeping up on them and when they tapped them more shouts and laughter filled the air. He walked away.
Tommy and Toni went to Bryn and Brenda’s for Christmas dinner but Toni was clearly there on sufferance and kept looking at the clock, willing the time to pass so she and Tommy could leave. Brenda was not very organized and the meal was late and some of the vegetables were cold. Next year, she promised herself, she would do things her way and show Tommy how well they could manage without his twin brother’s family dragging them down. She felt as much an outsider as Ruth.
Kenny had been at school with Tommy and Bryn and, unsettled and utterly miserable, he walked to where Tommy and Toni lived. He knocked on the door, convinced he would be invited in to share an hour of pleasant reminiscences, but although Tommy threw open the door and welcomed him, Toni was less enthusiastic. The place was immaculate, with only a bowl filled with holly branches to suggest that it was Christmas. Armchairs and a couch held cushions that appeared never to have been dented by anyone. There weren’t even any cards on display.
The table was set for a meal, with serviettes and glasses for wine and he hesitated. ‘Sorry, you’re just about to eat.’
‘No, it’s all right,’ Tommy said. ‘We won’t eat for an hour yet. In fact, why don’t you stay?’ But a look at Toni’s disapproving face made Kenny give his excuses and leave. ‘ I only wanted to say Happy New Year. Perhaps we can meet soon, go for a drink, eh, Tommy?’
Toni said nothing, and an embarrassed Tommy showed him out.
A few doors away Bryn was opening the front door and putting milk bottles on the step. ‘Hi, Kenny, got time for a drink?’ he called, and Kenny followed him in.
The difference between the two houses made him smile with relief. There were clothes everywhere; drying on racks, piled in a basket ready for washing and a quantity of freshly laundered baby clothes in an other, identical basket.
‘The baskets were Toni’s Christmas present; she thought it would help us to tidy up, I think,’ Bryn said with a laugh. ‘No chance of that, until this little one grows up, eh, love?’
‘He’s such fun we spend too much time enjoying him,’ Brenda said. ‘I can’t see it changing for a long time. Daft Bryn’s already bought him a football!’
‘It’s a lovely home and you, Bryn Thomas, are a lucky bloke.’
‘And I know it!’ Bryn agreed.
He handed the baby to Kenny who took him nervously. ‘Coming to see your Uncle Kenny then, Niblo?’
When he left Bryn and Brenda’s, Kenny walked back to the bungalow and this time he knocked. Tabs answered and called, ‘Mali, it’s Kenny.’ She left him waiting at the door until Mali joined him.
‘I’m not going,’ he said at once. ‘I want to stay here, with you.’
Joy flooded through her but caution quickly followed. ‘For how long?’ she asked. ‘How long before you get itchy feet again, Kenny?’
‘I know now I’d have been unhappy, trying to live a different life, when everything I need is here. I’ve just been to see Tommy and his ambitious wife, and Bryn, whose wife knows what happiness it. She enjoys what they have and doesn’t waste today dreaming of a wonderful tomorrow that could turn out to be so much worse.’
&nbs
p; ‘That’s very philosophical, Kenny.’
‘I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want from life. Living here with you is all I’ll ever want. Marry me. I want a home and a family just like Bryn and Brenda.’
‘And Mickie?’
‘Mickie will always be a part of it.’
Behind the door, Megan and Tabs were leaning forward unashamedly listening, with crossed fingers held high.
Toni was already discussing with Tommy how they would arrange Christmas for the following year, in the elegant new house she planned to buy up near the park. Getting Tommy away from his cloying family had not been as easy as she’d expected. She couldn’t understand it, when what she offered was so much better. Once Ty Gwyn had been sold she had expected the family connection to end, but Tommy and Bryn were still inseparable. That would have to change when they moved among more suitable neighbours. ‘Tommy,’ she called to where he was standing looking at the garden, ‘will you open the wine, it needs time to breathe.’
Tommy raised his eyes to the sky and did what she asked.
It hadn’t taken Jack very long to realise that the family referred to by the man on the train wasn’t the one he was seeking. They were from the north of England and had no connection with the area in which he believed his family would be found. He went out with the young girl a few times but found her rather boring. She stared at him adoringly and uttered agreement to everything he said. There was no sign of any interest in her life except, he suspected, marriage and children. Not mine, he muttered, on their final date.
Regretfully, he left the job that was to have been the base on which to build a new, honest future, and went back to the town were Abigail lived. Work was hard to find so he returned to the casual work and occasional theft to survive. He watched Abigail as she went to work and at lunchtimes when she sometimes went out to do some shopping, and once he had knocked on her door.
Nothing is Forever Page 28
