Pontypridd 07 - Spoils of War

by Catrin Collier

  ‘I’ll bring you hot drinks every half-hour.’

  ‘I’ll need more personal attention than that.’ Pulling her even closer he sighed contentedly. ‘Skin is a marvellous invention. I think I’ll begin an in-depth study of yours.’

  ‘I really would like to get this house sorted tomorrow. Your Uncle Huw is a lovely man but when he lived here, he lived like a bachelor.’

  ‘He was one before he married Myrtle,’ he agreed drily.

  ‘I gathered that. I doubt he decorated this place after your grandmother died.’

  ‘As she went before my time, I wouldn’t know.’

  ‘I wouldn’t say no to some help.’

  ‘Ronnie and I have things to do.’

  ‘You were talking about putting him off.’

  ‘Tina, much as I love and adore you, to be honest, I’m fed up of cleaning. First Laura and Trevor’s place then the rooms above the café, now this one.’

  ‘But we’re going to live in this one until we can afford to buy our own.’

  ‘If you like it enough to clean it, we could buy it off Uncle Huw if he’s prepared to sell.’

  ‘With what? Buttons?’

  ‘I don’t think Uncle Huw collects buttons.’

  ‘Have you any idea what houses go for these days? I’ve saved some money from my wages for running the café and my soldier’s wife’s allowance but nowhere near enough to buy a house. Let’s face it, until you and Ronnie find a business to set up and it starts making a profit, or you go back to work for Alma –’

  ‘We’ve quite a few actually.’

  ‘A few what?’

  ‘Buttons in the bank.’

  ‘The river bank?’

  ‘I told you, Ronnie and I did a bit of wheeler-dealing in Italy.’

  ‘You said. Enough to put a deposit on a business?’

  ‘Oh, we made a bit more than that. There’ll be enough left over to buy this place.’

  ‘Outright, without a mortgage?’

  ‘Of course.’

  She sat up suddenly. ‘I know you and Ronnie. What kind of business, because if –’

  ‘Shush, woman. Nothing illegal.’

  ‘William!’

  ‘We sold a few things.’

  ‘What kind of things?’

  ‘I’ve never known a woman with so many questions. Useless things that were lying around.’

  ‘No one buys useless things and in my experience nothing is ever “lying around”. It always belongs to someone.’

  ‘I suppose you could argue that some of the stuff we sold belonged to the German Army but they didn’t seem to want it. And …’ he pulled her back under the eiderdown, ‘as I said, there’s enough for us to buy a half-share in a business and put a deposit on a big house or buy a small one outright.’

  ‘I don’t believe it.’

  ‘I promised you when we married that when the war was over we’d live happily ever after.’ Pulling the sheet over both their heads he kissed her again – and again until she decided that all her other questions about money, work, businesses and houses could wait.

  ‘Well?’ Megan looked up from the flour and salt she was sieving into a bowl as Ronnie walked through the door.

  ‘Your son, William Powell, Esquire, and son-in-law Ronnie Ronconi, Esquire, are now the proud owners of Powell and Ronconi, scrap yard and garage.’ Taking the tea she poured for him, Ronnie dropped into the easy chair next to the range.

  ‘Why Powell first?’

  ‘In case anyone saw Ronconi and expected tea, beans and chips.’

  ‘I hope you’ve done the right thing.’

  ‘And I hope we’ve bought the right things. They cost us almost twice as much as we wanted to pay.’

  ‘You’re both broke?’

  ‘Not quite.’ He winked at her as he looked down at Catrina, who was playing at her feet. ‘I stopped by the hospital. Andrew was there, so I got to see Diana for a few seconds.’

  ‘Still no change?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘That’s the official line but I thought her colour was better. No one else seemed to have noticed it and just as I started to point it out to Andrew, the sister swept in, and us out of Diana’s cubicle. I swear if that woman comes out with one more, “Your wife’s doing as well as can be expected, Mr Ronconi. We’re making her as comfortable as we can, “ I’ll take one of those great big enema syringes they keep in the sluice room and give her a good dose of what she’s so fond of doling out.’

  ‘Ronnie!’ Megan tried to look disapproving but couldn’t help laughing.

  ‘Daddy,’ Catrina chattered, looking up at him from the hearthrug where she’d laid out a family of tiny rag dolls.

  Megan smiled triumphantly, She’d spent all morning coaching her granddaughter to accept the stranger who’d suddenly walked into their lives as her often spoken of, but never-seen, father. Ronnie gave the first real smile Megan had seen since he’d moved in with her and Dino.

  ‘Yes, darling, Daddy’s home. Come on my lap.’ He sat patiently, arms extended until she’d gathered all nine of the dolls Diana had made her into her arms before climbing on to his knees.

  ‘Diana’s got to come round sooner or later,’ Megan said firmly, cracking an egg into a basin and beating it with a fork before adding it to the milk she’d measured into a jug.

  ‘And if she doesn’t?’

  ‘You don’t know my daughter, Ronnie Ronconi.’

  ‘Yes I do, and it’s slow murder trying to live without her.’ He hesitated for a moment, ‘Megan – you’ve never really asked me what happened that night.’

  ‘You and Tony were messing about and accidentally pushed Diana through the window.’

  ‘Megan –’

  ‘There’s been too much talk about that night, Ronnie, and none of it is helping Diana. Thanks to Wyn Rees stepping in and marrying Diana, Billy’s got a dead hero for a father and all the stepfather he needs in you.’

  ‘You know.’

  ‘That Tony’s Billy’s father? Diana told me years ago and I’m glad she had the sense not to chase after him and demand he marry her. It would have been a disaster. Wyn Rees was a good man and good to Diana but no husband, through no fault of his own, bless him. Some men are just cut out to like men not women, but as my grandmother used to say, everyone’s different and thank God for it. I know you two weren’t together that long before you had to go off to Italy but you made Diana happy, Ronnie, probably for the first time since she was a child. She lived for the day you’d come home. You do know that, don’t you?’

  Too choked to answer her, he nodded as he bent to pick up one of the dolls that had fallen on to the rug, and tickled Catrina’s tummy with it. She giggled, throwing her small arms round his neck as he hugged her tight.

  ‘And you do know Diana never saw Tony alone from the time you left until that night?’

  ‘I don’t need any convincing on that score, Megan. I heard them talking before I tried to throw him out. If only I hadn’t tackled him …’

  ‘And we’ll have less of that blaming yourself. It’s not your fault. What happened, happened. We have enough to do to get Diana well without dwelling on things that can’t be changed.’

  ‘Now I know where Diana gets her attitude to life from, and why I love her so much.’

  ‘You’ll get her back, Ronnie.’

  ‘Billy go to school all right?’ he asked, needing to change the subject.

  ‘Yes, Dino took him. I think he’s missing Diana more than any of us.’

  ‘I don’t think that’s possible. I was wondering: do you think it would be a good idea if I took him to the pictures on Friday night? Just the two of us? Tina was saying that there’s a special showing of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on in the White Palace. If I picked Billy up from school, I could take him to the restaurant for tea before the five o’clock show. We wouldn’t be out much before nine so it would mean he wouldn’t get to bed before ten, but he could have a lie-in on Saturday.’

  ‘
Diana’d have a fit at the thought. She insisted on regular meal and bed times, but,’ Megan smiled broadly, ‘I think it’s a great idea, and I’m sure so will Billy.’

  It was an unprepossessing sight by any standards. Three acres of barren, black-silted mountainside almost completely covered by rusting pieces of unidentifiable machinery and scrap cars that didn’t even warrant the effort of cannibalising their interiors to turn them into chicken coops. Here and there, occasional unstable pyramids of shiny, bald tyres threatened to topple over on to the debris below. As Tina walked towards the low, rickety farm gate that served as entrance to the yard, a flock of crows fluttered upwards from the roof of a ramshackle shack alongside it, squawking in indignation at being disturbed.

  ‘What do you think?’ Will asked disarmingly.

  ‘As an act of mercy, you and Ronnie are going to bury the dead?’

  ‘There’s money in that dead.’

  ‘Money! No one with any sense would go near that disgusting pile of junk with a septic barge pole. For once, I think you and Ronnie have found an even bigger mess than you could have made on your own.’ As realisation dawned, Tina stared at him, horrified. ‘Don’t tell me you paid out good money for this place?’

  ‘One week from today you won’t recognise it.’

  ‘A week! It’ll take a couple of bulldozers, a fleet of lorries and a month of Sundays to clear that, and even then you’ll have to pay for somewhere to clear it to. And what will you do with the land afterwards? Start a slag farm? Last I heard, even the coal owners didn’t know what to do with the stuff.’

  ‘You’re missing the point, Tina,’ William said impatiently, ‘Most of this is metal.’

  ‘Rust,’ Tina corrected sharply.

  ‘Salvageable rust. And at the moment the price of scrap metal is low –’

  ‘I can understand why, there seems to be a lot of it about.’

  ‘Only because the war is over,’ William explained as if he were a headmaster, and Tina the class dunce. ‘So, we buy cheap now and sell when the price goes up, which it’s bound to do as soon as this country gets back on its feet and starts manufacturing domestic goods again.’

  ‘Even supposing this ridiculous plan of yours works, what will we live on until then, fresh air?’

  ‘We have some money set aside, and there’s the garage.’

  Tina narrowed her eyes. ‘What garage?’

  ‘The one on Broadway. Ronnie’s looking at it right now. We bought it along with this field from Ianto Myles’ widow.’

  ‘What did he die of? Blood poisoning after taking a walk through this.’

  ‘A heart attack.’

  ‘I’m not surprised. He probably checked his assets against his overdraft.’

  ‘The garage is a going concern. We saw certified accounts.’

  ‘And you took the word of an accountant and a solicitor! You two are insane. Even if people had the money to buy cars, there are none and there’s no petrol.’

  ‘But there will be, sweetheart.’ William put his arm around Tina’s waist. She shrugged it off. ‘I suppose you want me to start tightening my belt and teaching Billy and Catrina to do the same. It’s a bit hard on a two-year-old, but Billy might just be old enough to understand that he has an insane uncle and stepfather.’

  ‘There are enough business people in the town, like the doctors and shop owners, who have cars and vans and need them serviced every couple of months, for the garage to tick over nicely until the boom starts.’

  ‘Tick over enough to keep us and Ronnie’s children?’

  ‘As I said, we have a bit put by for emergencies.’

  ‘And to think I let you two talk me into giving up the café for this! What did you have in mind for me, dusting and polishing the scrap iron?’

  ‘Ronnie and I are going to do that.’

  ‘Diana would never have let Ronnie buy this.’

  ‘Yes, she would have, because unlike you she believes in her husband.’

  ‘You’d need fairy dust in your eyes to believe in this.’

  ‘We were hoping you’d run the garage for us,’ Will ventured.

  ‘Run it!’ she reiterated scathingly. ‘You’ve booked me on a crash course in mechanics?’

  ‘We have a mechanic. He worked for Ianto for years and if we need another, there’s thousands being demobbed.’

  ‘It’s reassuring to know that you don’t want me to look under a bonnet.’

  ‘There’s a nice little room at the front of the garage that Ronnie and I are going to clean up and turn into an office and reception area where people can sit and wait while their cars are being serviced. We were hoping that you would do the accounts there, man the telephone, book cars in …’

  ‘Can you see me in a garage?’

  ‘We would pay you,’ William said carefully.

  ‘And you and Ronnie?’

  ‘Would set up this scrap yard. I grant you it doesn’t look promising at the moment but once we’ve sorted the metal that’s only fit for meltdown from the bits that can be cleaned up and reclaimed, we’ll soon start making money. Spare parts for cars and machinery are almost impossible to get these days.’

  ‘Run it? The two of you together?’

  ‘We were hoping Luke would do that for us when he’s released from the pit.’

  ‘No doubt, while you two sit on your rear ends living off the fat of the land.’

  ‘We’ll be attending auctions.’

  ‘You what … ?’

  ‘Before you explode, Tina, give this business idea of ours a chance. Petrol won’t always be rationed. We’re going to buy up cars and lorries, do them up and sell them on at a profit. Ronnie thinks we can’t lose if we get into the garage business before the boom.’ Wary of the look in Tina’s eyes, Will gave up on the sales pitch he and Ronnie had devised in Italy to convince their wives that their plan would work.

  ‘Ronnie is crazy and you’re even crazier for listening to him. Pontypridd is a working-class town. The ordinary people here will never be able to afford cars.’

  ‘Yes they will. Ronnie says –’

  ‘Ronnie says! Well I’m having no part of it. As soon as the house is straight I’m going to look for a job.’

  ‘Tina …’ William chased after her as she stalked back towards the ancient Trojan van they’d borrowed from Angelo.

  ‘Drive me home, right this minute.’

  ‘Tina …’

  ‘Not one more word, Will. If you’ve any sense you’ll go looking for Ronnie and back out of this deal before it’s too late.’

  As William drove away he didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was already too late, and he and Ronnie had deposited the deeds to the scrap yard and garage in the bank before he’d met her.

  ‘Charlie, you didn’t have to come down here. I would have called to see you, if you’d let me know something was wrong.’

  ‘I’ve had enough preferential medical treatment as a friend of the family.’

  ‘Not at all. You’re looking better.’ For once Andrew didn’t have to lie. Charlie was still a long way from the man he had been before the war, but he had put on some weight, his face had lost its cadaverous, drawn look and his eyes were alert. More like those of a live man than the ex-death-camp inmate he had travelled home with from Germany nine months before.

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘You always say that.’

  ‘I’d like to talk to you about my wife.’

  ‘Your Russian wife?’ Andrew asked carefully.

  ‘It must be difficult for a man like yourself to understand how someone can acquire two.’ There was no humour in Charlie’s statement.

  Andrew glanced at his watch. ‘Is there anyone else in the waiting room?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘How about we go for a drink in the New Inn and talk there. The bar is always quiet this early in the evening and there’s a few secluded corners where we won’t be disturbed.’

  ‘What are you drinking?’

 
‘Pints – with brandy chasers,’ Andrew suggested. ‘The first for nourishment, the second for medicinal qualities.’

  ‘First round on me.’

  Andrew slung his stethoscope and a few boxes of pills from the desk into his bag. Snapping it shut, he followed Charlie out. After locking the surgery door, they walked the short distance to the best hotel Pontypridd had to offer. As Andrew had predicted, it was empty and he commandeered a private table while Charlie went to the bar.

  ‘You’ve heard from the Red Cross?’ Andrew asked as Charlie set the drinks before him.

  ‘Masha is leaving Hamburg on Monday night. She’ll be in Tilbury early on Wednesday morning.’

  ‘I don’t know what to say. You and Alma are good friends, I’ve always thought you belong together. I have difficulty imagining you married to someone else.’

  ‘Alma understands about Masha.’

  ‘I’ve talked to her, she seems to understand a great deal more than most wives would under similar circumstances. Are you going to Tilbury to meet … ?’ Andrew only just stopped himself from saying ‘this woman’ but he couldn’t bring himself to say ‘your wife’. As far as he was concerned Charlie only had one wife and she wasn’t Russian.

  ‘Meet them,’ Charlie finished for him. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Them? She’s bringing someone?’

  ‘Our son.’

  ‘I had no idea you had another child.’

  ‘Masha was pregnant when she disappeared. I hoped but I didn’t really expect the child to survive. The Red Cross sent me two railway warrants because they thought I might need the support of a friend when I meet Masha and Peter at Tilbury. Masha’s spent years in camps. She’s ill, weak, and although I’m her husband, after sixteen years, I doubt we’ll even recognise one another. You saw what I was like after only three years in Nordhausen. We’re bound to be more like strangers than man and wife.’

  ‘You’d like me to go with you?’

  ‘I was thinking of Bethan. Masha may need the help of another woman, especially a nurse on the journey back here.’

  ‘Have you asked her?’