by Rosie Harris
The only thing that mattered was that she was now as penniless as she’d been when she’d first moved there from Bryson and Bertha’s place. All her plans, whether to rent a room right away or wait until Glanmor came home were dashed.
There was nothing for it but to go on living with Alwyn and Jake and she didn’t take his threats lightly. From now on she’d have to barricade herself into her room at nights and always be on the alert for his next move.
Chapter Fifteen
Jake’s revenge, when it came, was so unexpected that Fern was quite unprepared and at first didn’t even associate it with him.
It happened on a Friday night; Maria wasn’t feeling well and after the morning rush at the station was over she’d come across to the Hayes to let Fern know that she was going home.
‘I think that’s very sensible of you,’ Fern told her. ‘Go home and put your feet up and take it easy for the rest of the day and then, with any luck, you’ll feel as right as rain tomorrow.’
‘Yes, cariad, if you say so, but when you get to my age and your rheumatics start playing up it usually takes more than one day’s rest to get over them. Still,’ she added with a warm smile, ‘it will help. Now, you sure you can manage without me?’
‘Of course I can,’ Fern assured her. ‘You get off home and have some rest.’
‘Yes, that’s what I’m going to do.’ She lowered her voice and whispered, ‘Can you handle the money? It means you’ll have to take it home with you tonight, so put it inside this purse and make sure that you tie it on good and proper underneath your top clothes,’ she added as she discreetly pushed a canvas bag into Fern’s hands.
‘Put it out of sight, now, and mind you don’t let anyone see you putting the takings in it or see you putting it on.’
‘Of course I won’t,’ Fern whispered in reply. ‘Hardly likely to do so if I have to put it on underneath my clothes, now, will I?’ she added with a broad smile.
‘Will you be able to manage to do that all right?’ Maria persisted worriedly.
‘Of course I will,’ Fern assured her.
The rest of the day went well and when it was time to go home and the other traders were all packing up their stalls Fern asked Rhodri, a tall gangling young man who worked close by, if he would keep an eye on her stall while she went to the ladies.
In the seclusion of the underground toilet cubicle she secreted the day’s takings away into the canvas bag Maria had left her. It made an uncomfortable bulge underneath her dress but she managed to disguise it as much as possible before she went back up the narrow steps and walked across to her stall.
By the time she’d finished packing everything away Fern was almost the last to leave the market site so she set off briskly to walk to the tram stop in Bute Street.
There was a long queue of people waiting and when the tram finally came it was packed with home-going shoppers and workers. As she tried to elbow her way on she was pushed back on to the pavement even before the conductor had given three tugs on the bell to signal to the driver that they were completely full.
Knowing there would not be another tram for perhaps ten minutes or longer, Fern felt vulnerable with all the money she was carrying. Because there were so many other people standing there waiting she decided to start walking to the next stop.
When she reached it there was still no sign of a tram so she decided she would carry on walking. She had just passed John Street when she was aware that there was a man walking on either side of her. As they reached the corner of Bute Street and Herbert Street they moved in closer and tried to make her turn down the side street. When she resisted they grabbed hold of her arms and tried to force her down there. Immediately she screamed and fought to get free from them.
Aware that she was attracting attention and people were hurrying towards them, they each grabbed her by an arm, lifting her clear of the ground, and tried to run with her. Fern lashed out with her feet, kicking at their legs as hard as she could. One of the men stumbled and all three of them ended up in a heap on the ground. By then other people had reached them and were helping Fern to her feet.
‘Duw anwyl, there’s louts you are, attacking a woman in that condition,’ one said in shocked tones.
Fern was aware that everyone was staring at her. In the rumpus, the canvas purse she was wearing under her skirt had bunched up in such a way that it made her look as though she was pregnant.
Her attackers fled and as the people who’d stopped and helped her to her feet, dusted her down and murmured words of comfort, she said nothing to correct them.
‘You’re shaking like a leaf, do you want us to call a copper, cariad?’ one woman asked.
‘No,’ Fern shook her head, ‘I don’t think there’s much point. They’ve gone, haven’t they?’
‘True, but there’re witnesses, so we can tell the bobby what they looked like.’
‘I don’t think I want to make a fuss,’ Fern murmured. ‘Thank you so much for helping me. I’ll get the next tram home and I’m sure I’ll be safe enough now.’
A couple of people walked with her to the tram stop, one holding her arm as if afraid she might fall.
Once she was on the tram she discreetly moved the purse so that it was no longer making her skirt bulge out and she was more comfortable. What on earth would she have done if those two men had found it and taken all the money? she wondered.
She was still shaking when she arrived home. Jake stared at her in open-mouthed disbelief. He seemed to be surprised to see her yet he made no comment at all about how dishevelled she looked or that her face had a bad cut on it. His reaction made her suspicious and she wondered if he’d had something to do with the attack.
Remembering his threat she wondered if he had arranged for the two men to attack her. If he had also been hoping they would have money to share with him when it was all over, he was going to be very disappointed, she thought with a degree of satisfaction.
She went straight up to her bedroom and barricaded the door before she removed the purse. Then she emptied out the contents and counted it to make sure that it was all there.
As she looked at the money spread out on her bed she realised that it was more than double the money she’d managed to save up towards moving out of Margaret Street and into a place of her own. With this much she could do it right now and not wait for Glanmor to come home. For one moment she was tempted to do that and then when she told Maria about being attacked to let her think that all the day’s takings had been stolen.
The moment the idea came into her mind Fern felt thoroughly ashamed that she had even thought it. Maria was struggling to make ends meet as it was because the stall was not nearly as busy as it had once been. Flowers and potted plants were one of the first things that people cut back on when they were trying to eke out what little money they had. Food came first and next was replacing their clothes when the ones they were wearing wore out. All the little luxuries of life like sweets, cakes and flowers were right at the bottom of the list.
She would have to tell Maria about the attack, of course, and she intended to do so first thing the next morning before any of the other stallholders or one of the customers told her first.
Maria was relieved to hear that the day’s takings had not been stolen but she was very concerned about Fern’s cuts and bruises.
‘You should have called the police and reported it,’ she admonished. ‘Thugs like that deserve to be punished. Did you see them hanging around the market at any time during the day?’
‘No.’ Fern shook her head. ‘I’m pretty certain that I know who they were. Well,’ she corrected herself quickly, ‘not who the two men were, but I know who told them to accost me.’
Maria’s mouth dropped open and she looked at Fern in astonishment. ‘Whatever do you mean, cariad?’
When Fern told her about Jake and how he had behaved Maria looked shocked. ‘Does Alwyn know what’s going on?’
‘Heavens no! She wouldn’t believe me; she think
s so highly of Jake. If I told her, then she would probably say I had to move out and I can’t do that.’
‘Why not? I pay you well, so are you saying that your wages aren’t enough for you to live on?’
‘No, of course not.’ Fern sighed. ‘I want to move out of Margaret Street and get a room of my own. I’ve been saving up to do that ever since I started work but I was hoping that Glanmor would come home and then we could find a place together.’
She stopped and bright colour flooded into her face as she saw the expression on Maria’s face. ‘I don’t mean live together, not in the way you are thinking,’ she assured the older woman.
‘I thought you meant that you were expecting him to ask you to marry him,’ Maria said mildly with a twinkle in her dark eyes.
‘Well, he probably will; we do care a lot about each other and he knows I’ll be waiting for him,’ Fern said defensively. ‘I thought that if I went on living with his mam it would give me the opportunity to save up a nice little nest egg and then we could rent a couple of rooms and even buy all the countless other things we would need to set up home.’
‘So what stopped you from using the money you’d saved to move out and find yourself a place when Jake Tomlinson started making a nuisance of himself?’ Maria asked as she busied herself arranging the pots on the stall. ‘I’m quite sure that is what Glanmor would expect you to do if he knew that you were having trouble of that sort.’
Fern was quiet for so long that Maria stopped what she was doing and asked her again, this time keeping her eyes fixed on Fern’s face so that she had no option but to answer.
‘After Jake attacked me I knew I couldn’t go on living there so I decided I would go ahead and find a room,’ Fern said quietly. ‘I had almost twenty pounds saved up; more than enough to do what I wanted to do, but when I went to get my money from where I’d hidden it underneath my mattress, I found that it had gone’
‘All of it?’
‘Every penny piece had been taken.’
‘And you think that Jake Tomlinson took it?’
‘Well, it must have been him. At first I thought it was Alwyn, but now I’m not so sure that she would do anything like that.’
‘No, I’m quite sure she wouldn’t,’ Maria agreed. ‘So what did you do when you found it was missing?’
‘Nothing at all. What could I do? If I told Alwyn, it would have caused a rumpus and if I’d accused Jake, he would have denied it.’
‘So why do you think he set those two men on you?’
‘He couldn’t do it himself, could he, that would have put him out of favour with Alwyn and he probably knew I would have told her all about everything else.’
Maria looked puzzled. ‘Why would he want to be revenged on you like that?’
‘Because I’d rejected him, I suppose. And because I’d bitten his hand rather badly when he held it over my mouth to stop me screaming after he’d forced me down on the bed.’ She stopped and a smile lit up her face. ‘It made him yelp, I can tell you.’
‘Fair-dos; he was annoyed by that but why send those men to attack you, I wonder?’
‘I don’t know. The only thing I can think is that he wanted to get me into trouble with you. He probably thought that if I lost all the takings you would sack me.’
‘Yes, maybe he did. He sounds a right evil devil,’ Maria agreed. She sighed. ‘Alwyn never did have much luck with men. Look at that Bryson.’ She stopped and held up a hand. ‘I know he’s your uncle but he’s a bad lot in more ways than one.’
‘Whatever do you mean by that?’ Fern frowned.
‘Well, for one thing, he managed to get himself out of the army by claiming that he had a bad back. They tried to prove that he was hoodwinking them but he’s a clever rascal and he managed to convince the army doctor that he really was in pain. Two or three times they attempted to draft him but in the end they simply gave up.
‘The recruiting people told him he’d have to go and work in munitions but after a couple of weeks in a factory he managed to have an accident and was off sick. They could see that he was going to be more trouble than he was worth and so they didn‘t insist that he must go back there. In my opinion they were glad to see the back of him.’
‘Yet hard-working young men like my brother Barri were sent to fight over in France at the Front. Barri was only eighteen when he died,’ Fern said bitterly.
‘That’s the way of things,’ Maria commented. ‘The bad ’uns always seem to get away with everything while the honest, upright chaps are the ones that take the brunt. Anyway, enough of that, we can’t undo what’s happened in the past so there’s no point in dwelling on it. What we can do is make some plans for the future. To start with, I think the best thing for you to do is to come and live with me.’
Fern smiled gratefully. ‘That’s awfully kind of you, but I couldn’t put you out like that.’
‘You won’t be putting me out at all,’ Maria assured her. ‘I’ve got a spare bedroom; it’s not very big, but there’s a bolt on the door,’ she added with a dry smile.
‘If you are quite sure that it won’t be upsetting you,’ Fern murmured doubtfully.
‘It’s upsetting me far more to hear what’s going on where you are now. When we finish here tonight I’ll come back to Margaret Street with you. I can help you move your few bits and pieces and deal with Alwyn if she starts making a fuss.’
‘You won’t tell her what I told you about Jake, will you, because I don’t want to cause trouble; she is Glanmor’s mam after all.’
‘I won’t say a word about that. I take it she knows about you being attacked last night?’
‘Yes, but by the time Alwyn came home from work I’d sorted myself out so I don’t think she knows the whole story. She certainly doesn’t know that Jake had anything to do with it.’
‘Well, leave it like that,’ Maria advised. ‘The least said the better. If she does ask questions about you leaving there, then I’ll tell her that I need some company.’
‘I think that would be best,’ Fern agreed.
‘Come on, then,’ she added briskly. ‘We had better get cleared up here so that we can leave good and early, otherwise it will be midnight by the time we get back to my place and have a bite to eat.’
‘You are quite sure about all this?’ Fern asked anxiously. ‘You are so used to living on your own that I’m sure you will find it difficult to have someone else staying with you.’
‘If I find you too much trouble then I’ll send you packing and since I don’t think you want to have to go back to Margaret Street I’m pretty sure that you’ll behave yourself.’
‘Thank you, Maria, I am grateful.’ Fern smiled, hugging the older woman.
‘Now stop chattering and let’s get things moving,’ Maria told her. ‘With any luck you’ll be settled in and we’ll have everything shipshape before you go to bed tonight.’
Chapter Sixteen
Fern found that living with Maria was like turning the clock back and that her life was almost as comfortable as it had been before she came to Cardiff.
Maria’s flat was at the top of a three-storey house in Loudon Square and looked out on to the park and trees. Fern could occasionally even hear birds singing and that conjured up fond memories of her old home in Blaenafon.
After a couple of days of awkwardness while they found their way around each other, they settled down into a pleasant routine that suited them both. They made an excellent team. Down the week Fern tidied around and made herself useful in a hundred and one ways while Maria cooked their evening meal. At the weekends she helped with the cleaning, washing and ironing.
As they worked they talked. Maria regaled Fern with stories of her own childhood in Tiger Bay and her struggle for independence after her husband was killed in the Boer War.
‘My own mam and dad were both dead and I felt I had no one, so I was determined to make my own way in life. Selling flowers outside the railway station has kept a roof over my head and food in my belly
but having a stall in the Hayes has always been my dream and thanks to you, cariad, it has come true, though how long it will last is another matter.’
Fern looked at her in alarm. ‘Whatever makes you say that, Maria?’ she asked.
‘We’re in troubled times, cariad. There are still a lot of men who came back from the war who can’t find work and, added to that, there’s a lot of unrest in the Valleys.’
‘Do you mean amongst the coal miners?’ Fern questioned.
‘That’s right, my lovely. A lot of them think they should be paid better wages because of the dangerous work they do. They’re probably right, but the coal barons are a greedy bunch. Unless they manage to come to some sort of agreement with the men there’ll be a strike, you mark my words.’
‘Surely that won’t affect us down here in Cardiff, will it?’ Fern frowned.
‘It most certainly will do, cariad. Cardiff’s wealth depends on the amount of coal shipped from here, surely you know that. If the miners go on strike then the docks will be practically at a standstill and there will be even more men out of work than there are now. If that happens, there won’t be many people buying flowers, or any other little luxuries, I can tell you.’
Fern fell silent, thinking not only about the effect of a miners’ strike on them but also of how it might affect the rest of the shipping. If the docks came to a standstill, how would Glanmor’s ship fare, because surely they must return to port very soon.
‘Come on, cariad. I didn’t mean to depress you,’ Maria told her. ‘We won’t be going out of business yet. Christmas is only just around the corner and business is always brisk then. This year you can try your hand at making up the holly wreaths that folks like to buy to hang on their front doors.’
‘I bet you get scratched to bits making them, is that why you are going to let me do it?’ Fern said teasingly.
‘I’m sure your fingers are more nimble than mine so you’ll make a better job of it than I can.’ Maria smiled.
