Pontypridd 07 - Spoils of War

by Catrin Collier

  ‘As Andrew told you, no one’s ever experienced what the survivors of Hitler’s death camps have before. There’s no medical precedents, no textbooks to guide the doctors. You saw the films.’

  ‘Yes, and I’ve tried to talk to Charlie about them but every time I mention the word “camp” he walks away. I can understand him not wanting to relive what he went through but I can’t just stand back and watch him disintegrate without lifting a finger either. So, I end up trying to imagine what it must have been like for him and I’ve no idea whether I’m close to the truth, or if it was even worse than I picture it. Whatever happened, Beth, it’s eating him alive and I can’t do a thing to stop it.’

  ‘But you do talk to him about other things?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ she grimaced. ‘The weather – rationing shortages of raw materials for the shops – Theo’s drawings – what he’d like for tea – not that he eats a tenth of what I cook, which is why he still looks like a walking skeleton.’

  ‘Nothing important?’

  ‘No.’ Alma turned to the mirror. ‘I’ve tried everything you suggested – romantic dinners, soft music, I even dragged him to the White Palace to see Frenchman’s Creek from the back row. As a last resort I went for the more direct approach …’ She bit her bottom lip to stop it from trembling.

  ‘And?’ Bethan pressed.

  ‘He pretended to be asleep and when I tried to discuss it in the morning, he shut himself in the kitchen with the account books.’

  ‘Andrew sees him a couple of times a week. I could ask him –’

  ‘No.’ Alma was adamant. ‘I don’t want Charlie to know I’ve talked about this to anyone. Not even you.’

  ‘I want to help.’

  ‘You have, by listening. If I didn’t have you to confide in, I probably would have resorted to rolling round the floor and screaming like a demented two-year-old by now.’

  ‘That approach might even work.’

  Alma smiled in spite of herself as she reached into her bag for her make-up. ‘For the time being I think I’ll persevere with subtlety.’

  ‘You never know, given the amount of drink Dino’s stockpiled, tonight could be the night.’

  Alma pushed up a stick of lipstick that was barely a quarter of an inch high and applied it sparingly. ‘What worries me is that they could have done something to him in that camp. I’ve read about the medical experiments the Nazis carried out. Since Charlie’s come home, I haven’t even seen him naked. He used to walk round half the time with nothing on, now he even wears pyjamas in bed.’

  ‘Before the war he was a fit, healthy man and you didn’t have Theo or Mary living with you.’

  ‘I didn’t think of that.’

  ‘And Andrew has examined him, several times.’

  ‘He hasn’t said –’

  ‘He wouldn’t,’ Bethan interrupted. ‘Not to me,’ but he would to you if there was anything seriously wrong.’

  ‘So, I’m letting my imagination run away with me.’

  ‘On that point.’ Bethan automatically checked her reflection in the mirror. Her nose needed powdering and her lipstick was smudged but, preoccupied with Alma’s problems, she didn’t notice.

  ‘I’m sorry, I keep dumping all my troubles on you and it must be just as difficult for you and Andrew to adjust. I’m so wrapped up in Charlie I tend to forget that Andrew was away for even longer.’

  ‘Things could be better,’ Bethan conceded. ‘Like you, I feel as though I’m living with a stranger. The main problem is Andrew wants everything to be perfect, especially with the children. It’s worked reasonably well with the Clark girls. After being evacuated, orphaned and adopted by us in the space of two years they appreciate having a settled home and a father – even a new one – and they’re prepared to meet Andrew more than halfway. It’s Rachel and Eddie.’

  ‘They can’t get used to having a man around the house.’

  ‘You’ve seen it with Theo.’

  Alma nodded.

  ‘Andrew expects them to love him before they know him. It’s not easy for any of us after five years apart but it’s hardest of all on Eddie. Ever since he was born Rachel and I have been calling him the man of the house, now someone else has taken that role. And before Andrew came home Eddie had Rachel and me all to himself. Now Rachel hardly bothers with him. She’s become a real Daddy’s girl, shadowing Andrew whenever he’s around, and if the four of us are together Andrew always seems to want to talk to me when Eddie does. Oh, Eddie treats Andrew politely enough, but as a stranger not a father, and I can’t help feeling that he resents Andrew for coming back.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘There, now I’ve poured it all out on you, but at the risk of repeating what you don’t want to hear, dare I say, neither of us has problems that time can’t cure.’

  ‘I hope you’re right. There’s just one more thing.’

  ‘The house? You’ve taken Charlie to see it?’

  ‘I dropped hints about how cramped the flat is for the four of us, and how Theo needs his own room. Charlie neither agreed nor disagreed with me, so I mentioned the house. I’ve made an appointment for both of us to view it tomorrow.’

  ‘Good for you. You must be making some headway with Charlie if –’

  ‘I only made the appointment because Mrs Harding won’t hold it any longer without putting it on the open market and I can’t blame her. It’s a beautiful house, Beth, big and light and airy. The garden’s not huge like yours, but it’ll be fine for Theo to run around in and best of all, Tyfica Road is less than five minutes’ walk from the shop.’

  ‘You still haven’t said what Charlie thinks of the idea of moving.’

  ‘That’s just it, he’s said nothing – absolutely nothing. He hasn’t even said he’ll view it with me, but mind you, he didn’t object either.’

  ‘Do you think he’ll go?’

  ‘Possibly, if he hasn’t shut himself away somewhere, and I force him.’

  ‘Do you want me to call round some time tomorrow with the car?’

  ‘Would you, Beth? I told Mrs Harding we’d be there at two o’clock. Charlie’s always listened to you. If you tell him it’s a good idea to move, between the two of us we just might persuade him.’

  ‘I’ll be there. Judging by that noise it sounds as though everyone’s arriving at once, we’d better go back upstairs. It would be bad form to arrive after the bride and groom.’

  Andrew sat watching the door intently; only half listening as Tina’s sister, Gina, and her husband, Luke, enquired after Charlie’s health and business. He tried to recall everything he’d heard about David Ford as he waited for the man himself to appear.

  Tall – or had he heard that from the children? – in which case tall could mean anything over five foot four. Old – or again was that Rachel? To a child anything over twenty would seem ancient.

  A slim, blond man in an American officer’s dress uniform of olive-drab tunic, light khaki trousers, shirt and tie walked through the door and headed straight for his table. He extended his hand.

  ‘Dr John, forgive me for introducing myself. I recognised you right away but then I lived with your photograph for almost a year. I’m happy I finally have an opportunity to thank my absent host. I’m David Ford.’

  Andrew rose to shake David’s hand. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this tall, youthful, direct man with a shock of blond hair and blue eyes. Every colonel he’d met had a rather off-putting air of self-important arrogance, presumably cultivated in an attempt to communicate their superiority over lesser ranks and beings.

  And in the main it worked. He’d met none who could be remotely considered agreeable, charming or approachable – all adjectives he’d heard applied to David Ford and, now he’d finally met the man for himself, understandably so.

  ‘I’ve heard a lot about you,’ Andrew acknowledged guardedly.

  ‘Likewise. That’s quite a family you’ve got there. How are Bethan, Rachel, Ed
die and the Clark girls?’

  ‘Well, thank you. Bethan is around here somewhere.’

  ‘I’d like to pay my respects.’

  ‘As you’re in Pontypridd again you must visit us.’

  ‘I couldn’t impose on your hospitality a second time.’

  ‘Bethan would be upset if you didn’t. Are you staying in town tonight?’

  ‘No, I’m stationed in Cardiff. I have a room in the officers’ club there.’

  ‘It would be bad form to miss any of this party by returning early. The top floor of the house is still full of your furniture …’

  ‘I’ve been meaning to contact you about that.’

  ‘It can wait. Please, you really must stay. Bethan!’ He hailed her as she returned with Alma. ‘Come and help me persuade the colonel to stay the night with us.’

  ‘My name is David.’

  ‘And I’m Andrew, but then you’d know that.’

  ‘It’s nice to see you again, David, and looking so well.’ Bethan glanced uneasily from David to Andrew. The tension between them was palpable. After a moment’s hesitation she offered David her cheek, watching Andrew as the colonel stooped to kiss it. ‘You’ve recovered from your wounds?’

  ‘A1 fit for duty.’

  ‘David was seriously injured during the invasion,’ Bethan explained.

  ‘Not that seriously,’ he corrected, anxious to change the subject. He looked across to the top table where Diana was putting the finishing touches to a flower arrangement.

  ‘From what I saw this morning my old army cook is settling down well here.’

  ‘A couple more months and my Aunt Megan will have turned him into a Pontypriddian, accent and all.’ Bethan’s face was beginning to ache from the strain of smiling.

  ‘He certainly looks happier than I ever recall seeing him before.’ David had meant the comment to sound light-hearted but with Andrew’s attention fixated on his every word it held a wistful tinge that he realised could be open to misinterpretation.

  ‘And I’m glad Dino finally persuaded my Aunt Megan to set a date.’

  ‘From what he told me, he set five, and she chickened out of four,’ David replied wryly.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, would you please go to your tables and be upstanding for the bride and groom,’ Megan’s brother, Huw Davies, shouted, assuming the mantle of Master of Ceremonies.

  ‘Won’t you join us, David?’

  ‘Thank you for the invitation, Andrew, but Dino’s commanded all remaining Americans to the top table. I believe it’s something to do with needing the moral support of his fellow countrymen in the face of overwhelming odds.’

  ‘We’ll see you later?’

  ‘I’ll look forward to it.’ David nodded to Andrew and smiled at Bethan. His gaze met Bethan’s for the briefest of moments but he saw enough to realise she was uneasy about something. And given the way Andrew was watching him he didn’t need anyone to spell out what was troubling her.

  ‘The bride and groom!’ As the toast echoed around the room, Bethan lifted her glass to Megan, resplendent in a cream and lace silk costume that her newly acquired nieces-in-law had sent from America. As the guests sat down, Dino rose.

  ‘My wife and I …’ the laughter that greeted his opening drowned out the rest of his sentence. Shrugging his shoulders he crumpled the sheet of paper he was holding into a ball and tossed it on to the floor. ‘So much for speeches,’ he continued when he could finally make himself heard. ‘Those of you who know Megan, also know how hard I had to work on her just so I could say those four words.’ His face fell serious as he looked down at her. ‘But boy, was it worth it!’

  ‘Let’s hope she still thinks so in six months,’ Tina called out from the door.

  ‘That’s another thing I’ve learned since Uncle Sam sent me on this trip,’ he retorted cheerfully. ‘There are some people over here who will never accept us Yanks as the good guys. Even stepdaughters-in-law.’

  ‘Maybe in another ten years or so.’ Tina nodded to the waitress behind her. She entered the room carrying an outsize, elaborately iced cake, larger than any seen in Pontypridd since before the war.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Tina announced, ‘I give you the Ronconi family present to the bride and groom, and before the groom asks, it is real, not cardboard and in answer to any other questions – don’t ask.’

  Through the laughter and ceremony of cutting the cake that followed, Bethan’s attention, like everyone else’s was drawn to the top table.

  ‘He’s what you women call good-looking, isn’t he?’ Andrew murmured.

  ‘Dino?’ Bethan was very fond of the middle-aged, short, plump American who’d captivated her aunt, but by no stretch of the imagination could she call him good-looking.

  ‘I was referring to the colonel.’

  ‘David? I wouldn’t know.’

  ‘Come on, Beth, you know.’

  ‘I suppose he is, I’ve never thought about it,’ she lied, taking the slice of cake the waitress handed her. ‘I wonder where Tina found these ingredients. I haven’t seen dried fruit this quality since before the war.’

  ‘I think it was a good idea to ask him to stay with us tonight.’ Andrew refused to be fobbed off by a discussion on dried fruit.

  ‘I don’t.’ The instant she’d spoken she realised her reply had been too quick, too finite.

  ‘It would put an end to the rumours once and for all if he stayed with both of us, Beth.’

  ‘I wasn’t aware people were still talking about David and me.’

  ‘Weren’t you?’

  ‘I have better things to do than listen to old women’s gossip.’

  ‘It’s not just the old women, Beth. A lot of the men coming home are questioning what their wives did when they were away.’ Crumbling his cake into small pieces, he left it lying uneaten on his plate.

  ‘I told you nothing happened between David and me.’

  ‘And I believe you.’

  She looked into his deep, probing eyes and wished that she wasn’t, and never had been, attracted to David Ford.

  ‘Are Dino and Megan going on honeymoon?’ Alma enquired, sensing and attempting to defuse the tension between Bethan and Andrew.

  ‘He’s booked them into a hotel in Mumbles for a week, but don’t say a word. It’s a surprise.’

  ‘Lucky Megan,’ Alma murmured enviously. ‘It’s years since I’ve seen the sea.’

  ‘We still have the chalet on the Gower, why don’t the four of us take the children down there for a week?’ Andrew suggested.

  ‘In winter?’

  ‘Why not winter, Bethan? The rooms have fireplaces. There are plenty of farms we can buy wood from. The beaches will be empty, the walks glorious.’

  ‘Is there room for all of us?’ Alma asked.

  ‘There are three bedrooms, two with double beds, one with singles and two living rooms. We could put Eddie and Theo into one bed, Rachel could have the other and there are couches for the Clark girls in the sun lounge. I can vouch for their comfort because I’ve slept on them myself.’

  ‘What do you think?’ Alma turned to Charlie. ‘We have good staff. The business could run itself for a few days.’

  ‘Make it a week.’ Andrew moved his chair so the waitress could pour his coffee.

  ‘What about petrol to get down there, and the practice?’

  ‘Leave the details to me, Bethan. What do you say, Charlie?’

  ‘If Alma wants.’

  Bethan squeezed Alma’s hand sympathetically beneath the tablecloth.

  ‘Alma wants.’ Alma laid her free hand on top of her husband’s. ‘Very much indeed.’

  Constable Huw Davies helped his blind wife, Myrtle, to Bethan’s table before waylaying Tina. ‘Waitress just told me there’s a stray soldier downstairs …’

  ‘Will!’ Before Huw could say another word Tina whipped off her apron and ran full pelt down the stairs.

  ‘William’s back?’ Andrew asked.

  ‘Tony,’ Huw
corrected.

  ‘Given the Ronconi temper, I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes when Tina sees her brother, not her husband, waiting to greet her.’

  ‘Tony?’ Tina looked a little uncertainly at the uniformed soldier with dark eyes and black curly hair sitting at the family table in front of the till.

  ‘I haven’t changed that much, have I?’ he asked, rising from his seat.

  ‘Of course not.’ She hugged him then called to a waitress. ‘Eileen, tell Mrs Grenville Mr Tony Ronconi’s here.’

  ‘Mrs Grenville? Mr Tony Ronconi?’ Tony queried. ‘That’s a bit formal, isn’t it?’

  ‘Not with the staff. You home for good?’

  ‘I hope so.’

  ‘There’s a wedding upstairs.’

  ‘I know, your mother-in-law’s marrying some Yank or other.’

  ‘Not some Yank. Dino’s nice. He gave me the chocolate and cigarettes I sent to Will, Ronnie and you.’

  ‘And what did you give him in return?’

  ‘One more remark like that and I’ll be giving you a punch on the nose.’

  ‘I meant café favours.’

  ‘He’s had the odd free coffee.’ Tina examined her brother carefully, wondering if he’d been drinking. ‘Why don’t you come upstairs?’ she suggested, remembering the last time he’d been home on leave. Drunk and offensive, it had taken the combined efforts of William, Ronnie, Diana and herself to calm Tony, and the damage he’d done to his relationship with Ronnie in that one afternoon had never been repaired. ‘Nearly everyone’s there,’ she added persuasively, deciding that if he had hit the bottle he was less likely to create a scene in front of a gathering of their closest friends and family.

  ‘I don’t want to break in on a party, besides I’ve ordered a meal to be served here.’

  ‘You can eat upstairs. No one will mind. I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything of Will?’

  ‘Or Ronnie?’ Gina asked eagerly as she joined them, momentarily forgetting the fight between Tony and Ronnie the last time he’d been home, in the excitement of seeing her brother again.