‘I’m fine, Mrs Ball.’
‘It’s not Mrs Ball, it’s Edward Larch, Rhian.’
‘Mr Larch, sir?’ Rhian opened the door. Her slim figure was swamped by the voluminous folds of his blue-and-white striped flannel nightgown. The sleeves hung loose, inches below her fingertips; the shirt-tails flapped around her ankles.
‘You have to leave, now.’
‘But it’s the middle of the night, Mr Larch.’ Her speech was slurred, her eyes clouded, and he recalled Mrs Ball telling him that she had given her a glass of brandy.
‘I’ve just discovered that my wife and her cronies in the Ladies’ Circle know about these rooms. There’s been gossip. She’s heard that I employ a woman to look after the place. Mrs Ball is a respectable elderly widow. No one would dare talk about me and her in the same breath. But if anyone should find out that I allowed you to stay the night here, you would be ruined.’
‘There’s no need to worry about my reputation, Mr Larch. Not now.’ Rhian staggered back sluggishly and fell on to the bed. She pulled the bedspread modestly over her bare legs before pushing the sleeves of his nightshirt to her elbows. It was then that he noticed she wasn’t wearing her ring.
‘Maybe your fiancé wasn’t the man you thought he was, but there’ll be others,’ he consoled clumsily. ‘You’re a young girl …’ Completely forgetting what he was talking about, he gazed at her dumbly. In the intimacy of the bedroom, surrounded by the furniture Amelia had chosen, Rhian’s resemblance to his late wife was more evident than ever. The same golden curls, slender figure, enormous blue eyes …
He looked into them and saw such intense pain he longed to scoop her into his arms and rock her to sleep the way he had Julia and Gerald when they had been babies. Only Rhian wasn’t a baby. She was a grown woman who had been engaged to be married. And his feelings towards her were hardly paternal.
‘You have to get dressed. You shouldn’t be here,’ he said abruptly, not trusting himself to remain alone with her a moment longer. ‘Mrs Ball can take you to Mrs Evans in Ynysangharad House.’
‘I can’t go to Sali. Her husband is Joey’s brother.’
‘There must be someone you can stay with?’ he said impatiently.
‘There isn’t, sir. My only friends are Joey’s family and the ones I’ve made in Llan House.’
‘I can hardly take you back there in the middle of the night without arousing my wife’s suspicions.’
‘No one saw me come in except Mrs Ball, sir. And I’ll leave first thing in the morning before anyone else sees me.’
‘I can’t just let you walk out of here when you have nowhere to go.’
‘I’ll get another situation, sir. I’ll be fine, unless …’ She thought of Bronwen’s sister Jinny, and closed her eyes tightly.
‘Unless?’ he prompted. When she remained silent, he asked, ‘Are you pregnant?’
‘It only happened once, sir, last week,’ she whispered, embarrassed to be discussing such an intimate subject with her employer. ‘I was engaged. I thought I’d be married.’ She looked down and he saw tears fall from her eyes on to the sheet.
Her pitiable state roused emotions in him that he’d assumed had died with Amelia. For the first time since he had buried his wife he felt sorrow and compassion for another human being. And his awakening from the trance-like state that had settled over him, numbing his senses and dulling his mind, was acutely painful.
He thought of Maisie and how she had been reduced to selling herself, very probably as the result of a situation similar to the one Rhian was in now. He couldn’t countenance the thought of such a young, beautiful and innocent girl – it was strange but even after what Rhian had just told him he couldn’t think of her as anything less – ending up in a house like Mrs Smith’s to be used and abused by wealthy, jaded middle-aged men.
‘I have a shop downstairs that I was going to advertise for rent next week,’ he said hesitantly, trying to think the idea through as he was speaking. ‘You could run it for me if you don’t want to go back to Llan House. In fact, it would make sound business sense. The profit of a shop is likely to be double the rent I’d get. And there are rooms behind it that you could live in.’
‘Sir? She looked up at him blankly and he realized she was in no state to understand what he was saying, let alone plan her future.
‘You understand what I told you about your reputation, Rhian? That it might not survive if it ever became common knowledge that you spent the night in my rooms?’ He stepped towards her and saw that her eyes were closed. He lifted her legs gently, and slid her back into the bed. It would have been so easy to lift the gown and look at her body, but, summoning all his powers of self-control, he tucked the sheets around her and tiptoed from the room.
Pulling the door to behind him, he stole quietly into the living room and poured himself a large glass of brandy before sitting in the comfortable chair next to the fireplace and considering Rhian’s position. The last thing he wanted to do was seduce or exploit the girl. But on her own admission she wasn’t a virgin.
He had a good income, and a house with three sets of rooms that he didn’t need to let out. He could fit out and stock a shop on the ground floor as a tobacconist. He was tired of walking to the other end of Dunraven Street for his cigars and cigarettes and there was good profit in tobacco. Rhian could move in and run it for him. Of course there would be talk, particularly as news had already reached the Ladies’ Circle of his rooms in the building, but with Mrs Ball in his pay and living on the premises, he could counter any gossip with the assertion that she was Rhian’s chaperon. No one would believe it, but, on the other hand, if he was discreet they wouldn’t be able to prove anything either.
Mabel would be furious, but he wasn’t in the least concerned with her feelings. In fact, after the way she had behaved, upsetting her would be a bonus. He recalled the way Rhian had looked when she’d sat on the edge of the bed, her hair tousled, her figure slim, curvaceous and eminently desirable even beneath his flannel nightshirt. He imagined what it would be like to undress her, take her in his arms, smother her with kisses …
Restless, he left the chair, walked to the table and refilled his brandy glass. If only he had listened to Julia and Cedric’s cautionary warnings he could have married Rhian instead of Mabel. She might be only a maid, but she had been prepared to give herself to a man willingly before marriage and he had no doubt that she would have made a damned sight better wife.
But would she be prepared to sleep with him so soon after breaking off her engagement? She might be angry with her fiancé now, but would she change her mind in the morning and forgive whatever it was that he had done to her? And if she didn’t, would it be so very wrong of him to offer her a position as his mistress?
He could take care of her, give her all the things women wanted and she’d never had. Fine clothes, jewellery, outings to restaurants and hotels away from Tonypandy, he would shower her with gifts and good times, and in return …
And in return, he would enjoy her gratitude, the happiness in his domestic life Mabel had denied him and perhaps even the physical closeness he had missed and craved throughout all the long lonely days since he’d lost Amelia.
‘You look like you’ve just come off a double shift down the pit,’ Billy Evans said to Joey when he walked up from the basement in his dressing gown.
‘I couldn’t sleep, so I went downstairs for an early bath.’ Joey had hung his jacket over one of the kitchen chairs and reached into a pocket for his cigarettes.
‘A cold one?’
‘I don’t see the point in lighting the range in summer.’ Joey struck a match and lit his cigarette.
‘You don’t cook for yourself?’
‘We have a staff canteen in store. And after we close, I eat in one of the cafés.’
‘Well, as I’ve lit this stove up here this morning, would you like tea?’
‘If it’s made,’ Joey answered absently.
‘Do you want to talk?’
‘Would you listen?’
‘Try me?’ Billy poured two cups of tea and sat at the table.
Joey took his and put it on the mantelpiece. ‘I’d prefer to wait until after I’ve seen Tonia.’
Billy looked at his son. ‘For what it’s worth, I really believed that you’d settle down with Rhian.’
‘I want nothing more.’
‘Then why play around with Tonia?’ Billy asked irritably.
‘I didn’t, Dad,’ Joey retorted vehemently.
‘I’d like to believe you.’
‘But you don’t.’ Joey’s hand trembled as he drew on his cigarette.
‘Appearances are against you. And, much as I hate to say it, you have always been an expert liar. How many times have you sworn blind to me and your brothers that you weren’t having an affair with a married woman, only to get caught out in her bed afterwards?’
Joey sipped his tea, made a face and replaced the cup on the saucer. ‘I’m going upstairs to dress, then I’m going down to Connie’s.’
‘Do you want me to come with you?’
Joey almost said ‘please yourself’ but recalling the look on Lloyd and Sali’s face when he had told them why Rhian had disappeared the night before, he decided he needed all the friends he could get. And his father had always proved to be a friend, even when he’d been furious with him.
Freshly bathed, shaved, and wrapped in his bathrobe, Edward walked into the bedroom where Rhian lay asleep in the middle of the double bed. Her blonde curls tumbled in disarray over the pillow; her cheeks were flushed with sleep. She looked beautiful, perfect – and innocent, that word again. He set the cup of tea he had made for her on the bedside cabinet, sat down and continued to watch her.
Rhian moved and opened her eyes. She stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment then looked around the room.
‘How do you feel this morning?’
‘A little tired, sir.’
‘Stay in bed. I’ll get Mrs Ball to bring you breakfast.’
‘I can’t stay in bed, sir. I am used to being up at five and cleaning the house before breakfast.’
‘Mrs Ball does all the cleaning that needs doing here. You don’t want to put her out of a job, now do you?’
She shook her head.
He pointed to the cabinet. ‘I brought you tea.’
‘Thank you, sir.’ She sat up, her golden hair haloing her face.
‘Do you remember anything about last night?’
‘Not much, sir.’
‘Do you remember me coming back and asking you to leave because I was afraid that your reputation might not survive if anyone found out that you’d stayed the night in my rooms?’
‘Vaguely, sir.’
‘Really?’ he pressed sceptically.
Realizing that he didn’t believe her, she replied truthfully, ‘No, sir, I don’t. I’m sorry, sir, I’ve put you to an awful lot of trouble.’
‘You haven’t.’ He took the cup of tea from the bedside cabinet and gave it to her.
‘Thank you, sir.’ Acutely conscious of and embarrassed by Mr Larch’s state of undress, and being in the peculiar and somewhat ludicrous position of being served morning tea by the master, she sat and took the cup.
‘Is your head clearer now?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Last night, I asked if you’d like to stay here and manage a shop for me that I intend to open downstairs.’
‘Me, sir? Manage a shop?’
‘Why not? You’re bright and you’ll soon pick it up. If you’re worried about taking on a job you’re not used to, I can always get someone in to help you until you feel more confident about it.’
‘Where would I live, sir?’
‘I have three sets of rooms here.’
‘But everyone knows that you own the building, sir. I’m not thinking of myself, but Mrs Larch …’
‘Damn Mrs Larch!’ he cursed feelingly. ‘Dear God, looking at you sitting there, Rhian, I wish I’d married you instead of her.’
‘Sir?’ Stunned, she couldn’t believe she’d heard him correctly.
‘Why not?’ he smiled. ‘You’re sweet natured, beautiful …’
‘And a maid, sir,’ she reminded him. ‘Gentlemen don’t marry maids.’
‘Damn people and damn gossip! You would have made a better wife than Mabel.’ He paced to the window and back. ‘Will you marry your fiancé if he apologizes to you?’
‘No, sir. Not now,’ she said finally.
‘You’re sure about that?’
‘I’ve never been more sure of anything, sir. I warned him that if he ever went back to his old ways and started seeing other girls again, I’d leave him. And I have.’
He lifted a chair close to the bed and sat on it. ‘So, would you consider remaining in Tonypandy and managing the shop for me?’
‘I don’t want to remain close to Joey, but it would be better than trying to make a new life for myself among strangers, sir. I’ve never been further than Cardiff in my life, and after yesterday I realize just how few people I can turn to for help.’
‘Then that’s settled. You’ll stay here and manage the shop for me.’
‘Sir, you won’t tell anyone that I’m here, will you?’ she pleaded.
‘People will have to find out where you are eventually, Rhian.’
‘I know, sir. But not just yet.’ Tears started into her eyes.
Afraid of losing control if he tried to comfort her, he left the chair, opened the wardrobe door and lifted out a set of clean underclothes, a shirt and suit. ‘I’ll dress in the bathroom. We have a lot more to discuss. Spend the morning in bed. I’ll join you for lunch. We’ll talk some more then.’
‘Yes, sir, and thank you.’
‘You have nothing to thank me for, Rhian. Not after everything you have done for my family during the years you’ve worked for us. Try to get some sleep.’ He smiled at her and left the room, closing the door behind him.
‘Come in, Uncle Billy.’ Connie left the breakfast table when Annie showed the men into the dining room.
‘Tonia not up?’ Billy noticed that the table was set for three but one place setting was untouched.
‘I’ll get her.’ Annie left and a few seconds later they could hear her hammering on Tonia’s door.
‘Would you like tea or shall we go into the drawing room?’ Connie continued to ignore Joey.
‘In the other room, I think, Connie,’ Billy suggested.
Joey hadn’t said a word since they had left the house, and he continued to remain silent, his brooding presence heightening the fraught atmosphere.
‘Sit down.’ Connie took one easy chair, Billy the other. Joey went to the window. Brushing aside the net curtains, he stared down at the street. The ash cart was out, and men were emptying dustbins into the back, clattering and banging them when they returned them to the pavement.
The door jerked open and Tonia stumbled into the room. Annie followed and it was obvious that she had pushed Tonia in. The dark circles beneath Tonia’s red-rimmed eyes were even more pronounced than Joey’s. She was wearing her Gwilym James uniform, but it was so creased and crumpled it looked as though she had slept in it.
‘Antonia,’ Connie turned to her daughter, ‘I went to see Joey last night –’
‘He told you, didn’t he?’ Tonia burst out hysterically. She turned on Joey. ‘You promised you wouldn’t tell! You promised!’ Then, realizing what she’d said, she screamed, ‘It’s all a pack of lies! You can’t believe a word he says! You can’t! You can’t –’
Connie left her chair and went to her daughter. ‘Pull yourself together, or I’ll slap you.’
Tonia buried her face in her hands and her screams subsided into soft whimpers.
‘What did Joey promise you and what is all a pack of lies?’ Connie demanded. ‘Answer me, Tonia.’
‘Why ask me? You were the one who spoke to him.’ Tonia’s voice wavered precariously.
‘I didn’t tell your
mother anything last night, Tonia, but after what you did to Rhian and me yesterday I will,’ Joey said quietly.
‘I didn’t do anything –’
‘You came crying to me because Geraint Watkin Jones had eloped with Julia Larch.’
‘What’s that got to do with Tonia?’ Connie asked in bewilderment.
‘Do you want to tell your mother, Tonia, or shall I?’ Joey asked.
Tonia sank down on the floor, curled into a ball, wrapped her hands around her knees and buried her face in her arms. She began to cry again, not the high-pitched hysterical screams of when she had first entered the room, but self-contained, throat-rasping sobs that racked her shoulders and sent shudders through her body.
‘Tonia,’ Connie said angrily, ‘I will have the truth.’
Tonia clamped her hands over her ears in a final, last ditch attempt to block out what Joey was about to say, and she remained on the floor while Joey told her mother, Annie and his father how he had stumbled across her and Geraint making love in the stockroom in Pontypridd. How Tonia had pleaded with him not to tell anyone and the promise he had made to her that he had regretted making several times since. How she had visited him in his office the day before. And when, against his better judgement, he had offered her a shoulder to cry on, she had unbuttoned his trousers and told Rhian they’d been having an affair and she was carrying his baby.
When Joey finished talking, no one said a word. He turned back to the street. Silence grew in the room, dense and oppressive.
‘Is this true, Antonia?’ Connie asked, finally breaking the tension.
Tonia whimpered like a puppy being whipped.
Joey turned around. ‘I have told you the truth, Connie, but frankly, I don’t care what you think of me. The only person I care about right now is Rhian and I’m going to see Edward Larch. If he won’t tell me where she is, I’ll give him a letter I wrote to her last night. Hopefully, she will read it and believe my side of the story even if none of the rest of you do.’ He left the room and closed the door behind him.
‘Tonia? Is what Joey said true?’ When her daughter didn’t answer, Connie yanked her violently to her feet.
Sinners and Shadows Page 24
