‘Must be catching.’
‘What?’ she asked, snuggling closer to him.
‘Love.’ He smiled, kissing her.
‘Is Jack in?’
‘Yes.’ Brian eyed Helen suspiciously as she stepped into their basement kitchen.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your tea,’ she apologised as she saw Martin and Jack sitting at the table.
‘We’ve reached the Battenberg cake stage, so why don’t you join us?’ Brian pulled the chair alongside his, out from under the table.
‘No ... I ... only came to apologise to Jack.’
‘Sit down, Helen.’
To Martin’s amazement she obeyed Jack’s command.
‘Apologise for what?’ Martin asked, watching his brother.
‘Jack and I had a stupid row earlier,’ Helen divulged recklessly.
‘Over what?’
‘Wedding plans.’ Leaning back on his chair, Jack picked up a couple of clean side plates from the dresser. ‘Pass the cake, Brian.’
‘Wedding ... Jack, you bloody idiot. I warned you not to get mixed up with this one ...’
‘That’s your future sister-in-law you’re talking about.’ Cutting two slices of cake, Jack eased them on to plates and handed Helen one.
‘You’re pregnant?’ Martin asked Helen bluntly.
‘Yes.’
‘I have things to do in my bedroom.’
‘There’s no need to go on our account, Brian. Tea, everyone?’ Jack left the table and cleared his and Brian’s sandwich plates into the sink.
‘Where are you going to live and, more to the point, what are you going to live on?’ Martin demanded.
‘We’re going to live in our basement. My father’s doing it up for us and he’s given Jack a job in his warehouse.’
‘Your father knows.’
Helen nodded. ‘Jack told him last night.’
‘You told Mr Griffiths that you’d ...’
‘Made Helen pregnant. Yes.’
Brian glanced from Martin to Jack and Helen in the silence that followed. ‘In that case, all that’s left to be said, is congratulations.’ Brian shook Jack’s hand, then kissed Helen’s cheek. ‘I hope you’ll both be very happy.’
‘Martin?’ Jack looked to his brother.
‘You’ll have your work cut out keeping this one in order.’ Following Brian’s example, he kissed Helen’s cheek.
‘I think it’s more likely to be the other way round,’ she said seriously, giving Jack a small smile.
‘I telephoned Bill last night. He’s happy to furnish all the evidence of adultery I’ll need for a divorce and as we’ve been living apart for so long there shouldn’t be any problems. Of course it will take time.’
‘Of course.’
‘But if you want to get rid of Mrs Lannon I could move in as your housekeeper ...’
‘No, Joy. Let’s do this thing properly. We’ll start living together when you’ve my ring on your finger and not before. But’ – he glanced up and down Verandah Street – ‘if you’ve got your keys on you, we could finalise the details in the shop bedroom.’
‘You’re due at the station.’
He checked his watch. ‘Not for another two hours, I’m not.’
‘What a lovely old Edwardian house, Lily.’ Angela looked around the hall as she handed Helen her coat.
‘Thank you, it’s been in my guardian’s family for three generations. Helen, this is Angela Watkin Morgan. Angela, this is Joe’s sister Helen.’
‘How do you do.’ Angela kissed Helen’s cheek. ‘My friend and my brother Robin’s, Emily.’
‘That’s the car parked.’ Robin strode through the door. ‘Hello, beautiful.’ Following Angela’s example, he kissed Lily’s cheek. ‘And – I remember you.’ He had the grace to remain silent as he looked at Helen and remembered exactly where he’d seen her last and the state she’d been in.
‘My fiancé, Jack Clay.’
Robin pumped Jack’s hand up and down. ‘Joe told me his sister was getting married, you lucky fellow.’
‘There’s food and drink in the dining room.’ Lily indicated the way.
‘Thank you, where’s the second lucky man?’ Robin asked.
‘Pouring beer last time I saw him.’ Lily stepped forward to greet Adam as he walked in. After what had happened between him and Katie she hadn’t been certain that he’d turn up.
‘Judging by the noise, or lack of it, they seem an orderly bunch,’ John commented as Roy took the tops off two bottles of beer and handed one over.
‘Let’s hope they remain that way. Lily only agreed I could stay until Joe gives her the ring on condition I keep the door between this room and the dining room closed.’
‘Roy.’ Joy knocked on the door. ‘I brought the fruit punch and pasties Judy volunteered to make.’
‘And didn’t,’ Roy suggested, as he let her in.
‘I think she was a bit over-ambitious offering. Between work and her final examinations she didn’t have time.’
‘I hear she did very well.’
‘Top of her year in college.’ Joy made a conscious effort not to sound as though she was boasting.
‘That’s what I always say about the children in this street,’ Doris Jordan sang out from the sink where she was already washing glasses, ‘they all seem to be going as high as they can go.’
‘They seem to be doing well,’ Mrs Lannon concurred.
‘Yes, well, Roy.’ Joy glanced at the others and hesitated awkwardly. ‘Just thought I’d show my face and pass my good wishes on to the happy couple.’
‘Joe will be giving Lily the ring in a half hour or so. Why don’t you have a sherry and stay and watch? After that, John and I are going down the pub to hide.’
‘And the girls will have banished me and Mrs Lannon to my house,’ Doris chipped in. ‘You can join us if you like.’
‘Thank you but ...’ Joy tried to think of an excuse.
‘They insist they can cope, but I’m not so sure,’ Mrs Lannon pronounced, tight-lipped and evidently disapproving. ‘You know what girls are these days, too flighty by half to keep an eye on where the forks, plates and spoons go after people have finished eating.’
‘They can’t be too flighty. Lily and Helen will be married women before too long.’ John topped up his beer glass.
‘I only wish one of them was marrying my Adam. I thought him and that little Katie ...’ Doris turned round as someone hammered on the front door.
‘Who can that be, banging on the door like that? They’ll have the glass out of it,’ Mrs Lannon said tactlessly. Embarrassed lest she’d inadvertently stirred up traumatic memories of Ernie breaking down the door, she began to heap the glasses she’d dried on to a tray.
‘Don’t worry.’ Roy lined up the sherries he’d poured on the wooden draining board. ‘One of the boys will see to it and give them a good ticking off.’
Brian heard the knocking as he walked from the dining room into the parlour. Dumping his plate of food on Adam who was hovering close to Katie, he walked down the passage into the hall and opened the door.
‘Roy Williams live here?’
He stared in disbelief at the woman in front of him. He had patrolled Swansea long enough to recognise one of the prostitutes.
‘Gawped enough?’ Flicking back her tightly permed, improbably dyed red hair, she stepped towards him, widening a split in her tight skirt that revealed fist-sized holes in her fishnet stockings and a puckered expanse of grubby thigh.
‘Constable Williams is busy.’ Brian blocked her path.
‘Not too busy to see an old friend.’ She tried to push past him.
‘This is his niece’s engagement party.’ Brian half closed the door on her.
‘That’s why I’ve come, to congratulate the happy couple.’ Grabbing the lapel of Brian’s suit, she breathed gin and pep fumes into his face.
‘This is not the time ...’
‘I’m a close friend of the family, ve
ry close.’ She stamped her foot against the doorpost, preventing him from closing the door. ‘He’ll be glad to see me.’
‘And I think he’d prefer to see you later,’ Brian persisted, aware of whispering and movement behind him.
‘If you want “later”, boy, we can work something out.’ She grinned, exposing a row of crooked yellow teeth.
‘Please ...’
‘You want a taste now, I can give it.’ She lurched forward, making a grab for his crotch. He retreated, just as she’d expected him to, giving her the opening she’d been waiting for.
‘Can’t you come back tomorrow?’ he appealed as she finally succeeded in pushing past him.
‘No, I can’t. I warned Roy and that sister of his that I wanted my daughter back the minute she started earning and he wouldn’t listen. Norah was different, God rest her soul. She saw sense because she realised what a mother’s entitled to. I’m here to make sure I get my rights.’
‘Look ...’
‘Out of my way.’ She thrust him aside with a surprisingly strong hand. ‘I’ve stood here freezing my fanny long enough. Roy?’ she shouted. ‘Roy, where the hell are you?’
Roy’s face darkened as he stepped out of the kitchen into the passage. ‘What are you doing here, Mary?’
Brian had never seen Roy so angry, or heard his voice quite so cold.
‘What do you think? Looking after number one because no other bugger will.’
‘Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow. I’ll meet you wherever you want.’
‘Don’t want me dirtying up your nice, clean, respectable house, is that it? Well, tough, I’m here and I’m staying until you agree to pay me what I’m owed.’
‘I don’t owe you anything.’
‘Me and Norah had an agreement, thirty bob a week on the nail to cover my rent until my girl got married, then a hundred pounds pay-off. It’s no more than I’m entitled to, seeing as how you and her robbed me of my only child.’
‘Norah paid you!’ Roy stared at the woman in horror.
‘Like I said, thirty bob a week on the nail.’ Her voice rose to a screech and Brian realised she’d not only been drinking but was drunk. ‘I’m not daft, Roy, I know what my girl’s been earning in that bank. That was my money by right, not yours. But I’m not greedy, just want my rights. The hundred pay-off Norah promised.’
‘Uncle Roy.’
Lily was standing in the dining-room doorway next to Joe and half a dozen curious guests.
‘This is her, isn’t it?’
Roy stared helplessly, apparently rooted to the spot. Taking Roy’s silence as assent, Mary approached Lily. ‘You haven’t half grown up nice. I haven’t seen you in years, not to talk to. Snotty Roy and Norah thought you’d be better off not knowing your old mam. But I’m here now. Well, come on, ducks, give us a kiss.’
The silence that closed in on the hall buzzed, red-tinged, ringing hollowly in Lily’s ears.
John Griffiths was the first to react. Taking Mary by the shoulder, he muttered, ‘If it’s money you want you’d better come with me.’
‘It’s you again. Small world, innit ...’
‘You want paying – out.’ As John frogmarched the woman through the door, Lily looked at Joe. He met her gaze, hesitated, then, clearly embarrassed, averted his eyes. Even as he did so he sensed he was making the worst mistake of his life but he simply couldn’t help himself.
‘Joseph, we have to leave ...’
‘Go with your friends, Joe.’
‘Lily ...’ Steeling himself to meet the hurt in Lily’s eyes, Joe finally stepped towards her.
‘Joseph, this is no place for the girls ...’
‘Shut up, Robin,’ Joe broke in savagely, taking his anger out on his friend.
‘Robin is right, Joe.’ Lily was astonishingly cool and composed. ‘This is no place for decent girls – or boys with ambition.’ Turning, she ran up the stairs, Roy following in her wake.
The telephone began to ring. Everyone ignored it. Joe looked towards Lily as though he couldn’t make up his mind whether to go after her or not. Sensing her brother’s dilemma, Helen tried to fight her way through the crowd in the dining room.
But before she could reach him Robin laid his arm on Joe’s shoulder. ‘I’ll take Em and Angie home but I’ll be back.’
‘You don’t have to.’
‘I want to.’
Angela slipped her hand into Joe’s as he followed Robin to the door to see them out.
‘Lily.’ Roy knocked on her bedroom door. ‘Please, Lily, love, let me in. I need to explain.’
‘I’d leave her for a while, Roy.’ Joy lit two cigarettes and passed him one as she sat on the first step of the stairs that led up to the attic.
‘We should have told her about her mother years ago.’ He took the cigarette and sat beside her.
‘You did what you thought was best at the time, like me with Bill and Judy. And just like me with Bill, if you’d looked for the right time to tell Lily about her mother I’d take bets on you not finding one – until now, when you’ve been forced into it.’
‘I had no idea Norah was paying Mary. If Norah had only told me I would have carried on paying the woman after she died. Oh, God! Did you see the look on Lily’s face?’
‘Yes.’
The telephone began to ring again.
‘I’ll get that and clear up downstairs. If Lily hears us talking she may not come out. Try again, Roy, in ten minutes or so. That girl needs you, now more than ever.’
‘And ten makes one hundred.’ John Griffiths handed over the final ten pounds. ‘And that’s it, there’ll be no more, so don’t try coming back.’
‘I won’t.’ Mary folded the notes into her bra.
‘But in case you forget, it might be as well if you sign something.’
‘Something legal? Don’t make me laugh. It was a bloody lawyer who sent me here in the first place.’
‘What lawyer?’
‘Norah always said if anything ever happened to her she’d see me all right in her will. I never got a bloody penny. When I went to see about it the toffee-nosed berk said there was something wrong with the papers and I wasn’t going to get what was mine by right. He gave me a fiver. A bloody fiver – and what’s that? Hardly enough to get pissed on. It was him who suggested I call in person ...’
‘What lawyer?’ he repeated.
‘Richard Thomas. Thinks he’s so bloody hoity-toity. I know his sort and what they’re like once they’ve got their knickers down around their ankles.’
‘Did he tell you when to call?’ John’s blood ran cold as he recalled Esme’s reaction to the news about Joe and Lily. Richard was her lawyer ... surely she wouldn’t have ...
‘You think I would have walked up here on spec? My room’s the other side of town; it’s a long haul ...’
‘Quite.’ John cut her short. ‘You’ve got what you came here for, Mary. We don’t want to see you around here again.’
‘You’ll come calling when you want your next divorce, ducks,’ she cackled.
‘I need to see her, Mr Williams.’
‘You’re welcome to try, boy. I only hope you have better luck than me.’ Roy rose to his feet and moved to Lily’s door. Knocking on it, he murmured. ‘Joe’s here, love.’
‘Tell him to go away.’
Roy looked at Joe. ‘That’s the first time she’s spoken since she locked herself in there.’
‘I won’t go, Lily.’
‘Yes, you will.’ Lily wrenched open the door. Her face was white, her eyes puffy from shock and tears, but she looked him in the eye. ‘Go away, Joe. I don’t want to see you again.’
‘Lily ...’
‘Just consider the reaction of your fine university friends. They couldn’t get out of the house quick enough. It wasn’t good when they looked down their noses at me last Saturday night. Then I was only a nobody, now they know I’m the daughter of a common prostitute think what that will do to your ambition and the fine
career you’ve mapped out for yourself.’
‘You said it didn’t matter who your real parents are,’ he murmured, conscious of Roy Williams standing behind him.
‘I was wrong. Do you think you’ll have any friends left if you get engaged to me now? Do you think you’ll still be able to take that job with the BBC? And don’t say it doesn’t matter to you, because I know it does. You’ve talked about nothing else for weeks. We’re over, Joe. It’s finished between us.’ Looking past him, she murmured, ‘Uncle Roy, I need to talk to you.’ She held the door open. Roy glanced at Joe, then stepped inside and closed it.
By the time Joe returned downstairs most of the guests had left. Helen, Judy, Katie and Joy were clearing the food and dishes while Brian, Martin and Jack were moving the furniture back into place. He gave them a hand.
They had just restored the dining room to order when Robin returned. ‘Sorry sounds pretty inadequate,’ he muttered as he followed Joe into the hall.
‘Lily told me to go. Said I should think about my friends and career at the BBC. She won’t even talk to me, Robin, and I haven’t a clue how to make her.’
‘Seems to me there’s nothing you can do around here for now. Why don’t we go for a drink? You never know, talking it out might help.’
Too miserable and wretched to think straight, Joe followed him out of the house.
John walked in and looked around the parlour and dining room before going into the kitchen where Helen was drying dishes. ‘Where’s Joe?’
‘His friend Robin Watkin Morgan came back and took him out for a drink. Lily wouldn’t talk to him ...’
‘So he thought getting drunk would help.’ John didn’t bother to conceal his disgust. Furious, he returned to the hall. He found the telephone directory in the top drawer of the Georgian chest Norah and Roy used as a telephone table. Flicking through the pages, he found Dr Watkin Morgan’s number, but before he could dial the telephone rang.
‘Roy Williams’ house,’ he answered tersely.
‘Swansea police station here, tell him to ring in as soon as possible.’
‘He’s busy at the moment.’ Cutting the line, John dialled out. It was picked up on the third ring.
Swansea Girls Page 42