‘Pardon?’ She stared uncomprehendingly at him.
‘Can I bring the dogs into the basement for the night?’
‘Yes.’
‘Victor’s thinking of skinning and jointing them so we can have them for dinner tomorrow,’ Joey said, after Victor closed the door.
‘He what?’
‘Sali, what on earth has got into you?’ Joey complained when Lloyd walked in with a pile of books.
‘Sorry, I’m a bit preoccupied. Megan came around earlier and suggested that I should send Harry to school after the summer holidays.’
‘That’s a great idea. It will be good for Harry and it will give you more free time to run classes in the library.’ Lloyd set the books down on the window sill.
‘What?’
‘Everyone says you’re the best teacher we have.’
‘That’s rubbish and you know it.’
‘I don’t know anything of the kind. The union has been talking about setting up morning and afternoon classes for the afternoon and night shift workers and their wives for some time. You should be teaching more than basic literacy. Geography, literature, history, music ... What’s the matter?’ he asked, when she didn’t appear to be overly enthusiastic. ‘Don’t you think people who are desperate to learn but never had the chance to follow a formal education should have an opportunity to better themselves?’
‘Of course, but –’
‘You obviously love teaching.’
‘I keep telling you I’m not qualified.’
‘Your pupils don’t care. If you go to the library when Harry’s in school you can start a morning literacy class for miners on night shift and any of their wives who can spare the time, and from there you can –’
‘You are quite mad.’ He was so carried away she had to shout to make herself heard. ‘One, I am not qualified and two, Harry is not going to school after the summer holidays. He’s not even three and a half.’
‘He will be by September and it will do him the world of good to get away from your apron strings and play with boys of his own age.’
‘You make it sound as if I mollycoddle him.’
‘You do.’ Lloyd joined Joey at the table.
‘I most certainly do not.’ Her voice rose precariously. ‘He’s out now –’
‘At a tea party in Megan’s.’
‘He’s with other children, isn’t he?’
‘Why won’t you admit that you keep him too close? He needs to learn to be independent. And if you don’t mind me saying so, you wouldn’t come to any harm if you made a few more friends.’
‘Now I’m friendless!’
‘I never said that.’ He beamed at her. He had actually provoked her into a real argument. He loved her with all his heart, mind and soul, but his love hadn’t blinded him to the fact that she had been so badly scarred by Owen Bull that she had lost confidence in her own opinions as well as her ability to express them. And now she was actually screaming at him. The girl who had been terrified by their family spats was actually quarrelling with him, and it felt wonderful.
‘And I suppose you think that Harry should pack his bags and leave home next week,’ she retorted, irritated by his smug smile.
‘Now you are being ridiculous as well as hysterical.’
His calm only succeeded in infuriating her all the more. ‘I am not hysterical or ridiculous,’ she yelled. ‘Harry is my son and I will decide what’s best for him.’
Mr Evans opened the door and walked in with Victor. He looked from Sali to Lloyd. ‘What on earth is all the shouting about?’
‘Lloyd and Sali were arguing about whether Harry should go to school after the summer holidays so Sali can teach classes in the library during the day as well as the evening,’ Joey revealed.
Mr Evans took his place at the table. ‘The meeting didn’t take as long as I expected, Sali, but there’s no rush with the meal. Take all the time you want.’
‘It’s ready, Mr Evans.’ Glad of something to do, she opened the oven door, lifted out the pie and set it on the table. Keeping her eyes averted from the men, she strained the vegetables, mashed the potatoes, poured the gravy into a jug and took her seat beside Lloyd.
‘How did the meeting go?’ Joey asked, in an effort to fill the silence.
‘Much as I expected. We are going back to management with our original offer of a five per cent cut.’
‘Which they’ve twice rejected,’ Victor reminded, taking Sali’s plate from his father and handing it down to her.
‘They say three tries for a Welshman.’ His father handed him Joey’s plate.
‘Why?’ Joey asked.
‘Because the first two bridges William Edwards built over the Taff at Pontypridd washed away.’
‘The third one’s standing?’ Joey enquired.
‘It was the last time I was there. This pie looks even better than usual, Sali.’
‘Thank you, Mr Evans.’ She was having difficulty in believing what she had just done, not just quarrelling with Lloyd, but shouting and arguing with him in front of his father and brothers. She poked the food around her plate, wishing everyone would hurry up and finish the meal so she could use the excuse of fetching Harry from next door to get out of the house.
‘You going out tonight?’ Mr Evans asked Victor, noting that he was wearing the navy pinstriped three-piece suit complete with watch and chain that he normally reserved for church.
‘I’m taking Megan to the half past six performance at the New Empire Theatre. Harry Freeman and Jennie Dauntley are there this week.’
‘You two are only interested in the comedian and the singer?’ Joey asked scornfully.
‘Who else should we be interested in?’ Victor enquired.
‘The chorus girls. There’s supposed to be a couple of real crackers among them. I’ll walk down with you if you like.’ Joey made a face at the disapproving expression on Victor’s face. ‘It’s all right, I prefer to sit in the fourpenny pit to the sixpenny circle with the courting couples.’
‘Do you mind if I leave the dishes until after I’ve fetched Harry from next door, Mr Evans?’ Sali asked, after Joey split the last of the turnovers between himself and Victor.
‘You run this house in your own time, as you see fit, Sali,’ he said easily, leaving the table and sitting in his chair next to the fire.
‘We could have a quick one in the White Hart before the show,’ Joey suggested to Victor. ‘Megan is going to take at least an hour to clear up after the party and get the children ready for bed,’ he added persuasively.
‘You buying?’ Victor asked.
‘The first round.’ Joey handed Sali his bowl and left the table.
‘I thought you said a quick one, Joey,’ his father said.
‘So I did.’ Joey flashed one of his charming smiles. ‘See you all later.’
Lloyd carried his teacup from the table to the sink after Victor, Joey and Sali left. He looked at the pile of dishes, filled a bucket with cold water and set it on the stove to boil.
‘Why don’t you sit down and give yourself time to digest your meal?’ his father said quietly.
‘I intend to until the water boils.’
‘Sit in your mother’s chair,’ Billy said, as Lloyd pulled a chair out from under the table.
‘Are you sure?’
‘She would have hated the thought of us venerating her things as if they were museum pieces.’
‘Yes, she would have,’ Lloyd agreed shortly.
His father folded the week-old copy of the Rhondda Leader that he’d been reading and looked across at him. ‘How long do you and Sali think you can keep this up?’
‘What?’ Lloyd didn’t even know why he was asking the question. It was obvious from the way his father was eyeing him that he knew.
‘That argument earlier. You were at it hammer and tongs like an old married couple. And the one thing she is right about, is that Harry is her son, not yours. Or would you like to make him yours?’
‘I’m fond of the boy.’
‘We all are. But much as you’re fond of the boy, I’d say you’re even fonder of the mother.’ Billy pulled his tobacco pouch from his pocket and began to leisurely pack his pipe. ‘And in case you didn’t know, the floorboards creak between your room and hers.’
‘I’d marry her if I could.’ Lloyd realised further denial was pointless.
‘Would she marry you?’
‘If she were free.’ Lloyd removed a packet of cigarettes from his jacket, shook one out and placed it in his mouth. ‘I suggested she change her name by deed poll, we disappear up to Cardiff in our best clothes, return and announce that we were married there.’
‘She wouldn’t go along with it?’
Lloyd struck a match, lit his cigarette and shook his head. ‘As you and I are the only people in Tonypandy who know that her husband isn’t dead, I thought it was a good idea.’
‘We’re not the only people in Tonypandy who know she isn’t a widow. Connie does, and from what I saw at Christmas, she doesn’t appear to be all that enamoured with you, or Sali.’
‘You knew about me and Connie?’
‘Come on, Lloyd. How green did you think your mother and I were? All those evenings you spent down there doing her accounts. Connie has one shop. Granted, it’s a good one with a brisk trade, but it’s hardly a Cardiff department store. Your mother was worried for you. I told her that considering the age difference between you and Connie it was bound to run its course some day. Mind you, I didn’t think it would take quite so long.’
‘Does anyone else know? Victor –’
‘Victor is so wrapped up in Megan, his dogs, horses, garden and rabbiting he doesn’t see anything unless it’s directly under his nose and sometimes not even then. As for Joey, he’s too busy chasing his own women to concern himself with yours. In my opinion they haven’t a clue about what went on between you and Connie, but have another argument like the one you just had with Sali, and they’ll soon find out about you and her.’
‘I hate the way things are between Sali and me,’ Lloyd confided. ‘I want to be with her day and night.’
‘I thought you were.’ His father had the grace to smile.
‘I mean openly.’
‘Then find a way to make that possible.’
‘Sali was brought up in the chapel. Even after everything her preacher uncle and husband did to her, she still refuses to live in what she calls sin.’
‘That’s the chapel for you, founded on guilt and preaching denial, self-abuse and martyrdom as a way of life. There has to be a way out of your problem, boy. My advice to you is find it.’
‘Easier said than done,’ Lloyd reflected gloomily, then he smiled. ‘You approve then?’
‘It took me a while to warm to her, but once she stopped shaking every time she was spoken to and the boy moved into the house, she blossomed. If you can get her to acknowledge you publicly as her husband, you’ll have done well. Almost as well as I did with your mother.’ He puffed his pipe, looked into the bowl and tapped it against the side of the fireplace to empty it. ‘Ask her to come to the farm with us on miner’s fortnight next month. Two weeks is a long time, there’s no saying what might happen. You know how magical the Gower can be.’
‘Let me speak to Sali first, she may have other plans.’
‘I doubt it. I’m off to the County Club. I’ll be –’
‘In the library if you’re wanted,’ Lloyd said for him. ‘You always say that. Who or what, is likely to want you?’
Billy tapped his nose mysteriously. ‘You have no idea.’
‘I don’t think you do either.’
‘Good luck with persuading her, boy, and if you think me putting my oar in will help, you only have to ask.’
Chapter Twenty-two
Lloyd was drying the last few dishes when Sali returned with a flushed, excited Harry.
‘Nice hat.’ Lloyd tweaked the point of Harry’s newspaper Admiral’s hat.
‘Auntie Megan made it for me. I was at Sam’s party. We had jelly, custard and sandwiches and –’
‘Far too much cake than is good for one small boy,’ Sali chided. ‘It’s time for bed. Downstairs to wash and use the ty bach, Harry.’ She opened the door.
‘I can go on my own.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Sam and the others go to the ty bach on their own.’
Sali was just about to tell him that Sam was two years older than him when she saw Lloyd watching her. ‘Slow and careful on the steps and don’t forget to close all the doors behind you.’
‘I won’t.’
‘You didn’t have to do the dishes,’ she reproached Lloyd.
‘I know I didn’t have to, but I didn’t have anything better to do.’
‘I’m sorry about earlier,’ she apologised. ‘I should never have shouted at you the way I did, especially in front of your father and brothers.’ She picked up a pile of dinner plates and carried them to the dresser.
‘You may be sorrier than you think.’ He handed her the dessert bowls.
‘Why?’
‘Because my father knows about us.’ He took the bowls from her just as she was about to drop them.
‘I won’t live in sin with you, Lloyd.’ It was nine o’clock in the evening. Harry had long since gone to bed and Sali was curled on Lloyd’s lap in the kitchen. They had drawn the curtains, turned down the lamp and for once, spent more of the evening talking than making love, but they were no nearer a resolution.
‘If you regard us loving one another or making love every chance we get as sinful then we’re living in sin now,’ he argued persuasively. ‘All living openly would do is make our lives easier because we wouldn’t have to go pussy-footing around in the middle of the night and my father wouldn’t have to listen to floorboards creaking overhead as we tiptoe between bedrooms.’
‘He’s heard us!’
‘There’s no need to look embarrassed. He was young once and not too old to remember it. Besides he’s a Marxist and we believe in free love.’
‘How free?’ she enquired suspiciously.
‘The freedom to love the person we want.’ He hugged her. ‘Please, sweetheart, live with me as my wife?’
‘I’ll think about it.’
‘You said that months ago.’
‘I know,’ she concurred miserably.
‘What are you doing for miner’s fortnight? Annual holiday, last week of July and first week of August, the only two weeks of the year they allow miners to stay above ground.’
‘What are you doing?’ It had never occurred to her that the Evanses might leave their house.
‘Megan’s uncle takes care of Victor’s menagerie and we rent a cottage on the Gower from my father’s sister. You’ll love the place, Sali. It’s a short walk from the sea, and next door to a shop and a pub.’
‘With a pretty barmaid for Joey?’
‘I never noticed the barmaids,’ he lied. ‘We can go swimming every day.’
‘In this?’ She fell silent and he heard the rain hammering against the window.
‘This is June. It wouldn’t dare rain during miner’s fortnight. Come with us?’
‘I couldn’t.’
‘You’re our housekeeper. We’ll need someone to cook for us. Last year when my mother was ill, my aunt hired a girl from the village. Frankly, my stomach wouldn’t stand another two weeks of her burnt offerings.’
‘If I go, I’ll insist on Harry and I paying our own way.’
‘I’ve just asked you to carry on working.’
‘I have to pay for our train fare and food and any other expenses.’
‘Argue that one out with my father. You’ll come?’
‘I’ll come.’
‘Look, Harry.’ Sali lifted her son from the back of the wagon that had picked them up at Swansea station and held him in her arms. ‘That blue is the sea.’
‘We’ll teach you to swim.’ Victor turned round from the box where he was sitting nex
t to the driver.
‘And I can wear the costume Mam bought me?’
‘You can.’ Sali eyed the women watching them from the doorways of their cottages and hoped they wouldn’t think the knee-length swimming costume she had bought for herself too daring. She couldn’t imagine any of them stripping off to swim in the sea.
The driver slowed the wagon to walking pace and Joey jumped from the back. He ran to a long, low, pinkwashed cottage, opened the garden gate and walked up a short path bordered by clumps of cornflowers and poppies. The door was open. A plump, middle-aged woman appeared in the doorway.
‘Auntie Jane, as beautiful as ever.’ Joey planted a kiss on her cheek before waltzing her down the path.
‘I see you haven’t changed, you monster.’ She returned Joey’s kiss before pushing him away. ‘Hello, Billy, boys. Did you have a good journey down?’
‘It was long, as usual, Jane.’ Mr Evans climbed down from the wagon and kissed her cheek. ‘You look well.’
‘I have a few more grey hairs, but I can’t complain.’
‘The cottage looks good.’
‘We’ve done some work on it. Our Sam is getting married next spring so John and I will be moving out of the big house into here.’
‘We won’t be able to rent from you next year?’ Victor was crestfallen.
‘Not from me but John’s sister has a little house free. Her mother-in-law died last month, God rest her soul.’
‘Most of the farms around here have a small and a big house,’ Lloyd explained as he helped Sali and Harry down from the wagon. ‘When the eldest son is ready to take over the farm he marries, brings his bride to the big house and the parents move into the little house so they can semi-retire.’
‘Mrs Sali Jones, her son Harry, Jane Howells, my sister.’ Mr Evans introduced them. ‘Sali is our housekeeper.’
Beggars and Choosers Page 38
