Not wanting to give herself too much time to think about Lloyd or build up hopes that his appeal would be successful when it might fail, Sali immersed herself in work. She contacted Mr Richards every day to check on the progress of the appeal that he was working on with Geoffrey Francis. She taught Harry and the sons and daughters of the estate workers Mr Jenkins had rounded up for his ‘class’ in the mornings. She fed and played with Bella and Harry, spent three afternoons in the shop meeting manufacturers’ representatives and discussing policy and shop fittings for the new Tonypandy store with Mr Horton. She visited Mason and Hardy’s in Cardiff, and approved of the buy-out, which was ratified by the trustees.
She also made daily duty visits to her mother, always before Geraint came home, and rarely saw her brother outside of the store. The running of the house she left entirely to Mari, who saw that apart from the meals, which were delivered from the kitchen in the main house, the annexe and its occupants were regarded as entirely separate from the main household. She paid a short visit to Gareth and Llinos when they came home from school for the Christmas holidays and, mindful of the staff’s workload during the holidays, invited them and Geraint to Christmas dinner, which turned out to be a subdued affair, in sharp contrast to the two Christmases she had enjoyed with the Evanses. And a week after Christmas, she left Bella and Harry with Mari, and she and Joey set off to make their first visit to Cardiff prison.
Sali crept close to Joey and took his arm, as they joined the crowd waiting outside the jail. It was a grey day and the wind whipped icy needles of sleet beneath their umbrella no matter how close to their heads Joey held it. She turned up the collar of her coat, pulled her hat down and glanced at the people around them. One young woman was barefoot, the child she was carrying wrapped in a tattered blanket.
Joey put his hand in his pocket and slipped something into the woman’s hand. Sali pretended she hadn’t seen him. The one thing she had learned about all the Evans was they hated to be thought of as soft touches and although Joey had a pound a week left over from his wages, she knew he was saving as much of it as he could. Most of their tenants were so deep in debt after the strike that their rents were slow in coming in and Joey was acutely aware that even when Lloyd, Victor and his father were released, he was the only one with a job.
After an interminable ten minutes, locks were drawn back and they all filed through a small door set in the high gates, into an open inner yard. Two warders stood behind a table and searched all the bags and parcels the visitors had brought in for the prisoners. After the food and books she had brought for Lloyd, Victor and Mr Evans had been confiscated for distribution ‘at the governor’s discretion’, she was separated from Joey, taken through a door into a side room in the main building and patted down by a female warder before being allowed back into the main corridor.
Joey joined her at the door to the room set aside for visits.
A warder held the door open and chanted, ‘Sit at a table as soon as you are inside, no touching the prisoners, no handing any objects whatsoever to the prisoners. Sit at a table ...’
‘They only sit four,’ Joey whispered, when they were inside. ‘Take those two in the corner.’ Joey sat across the aisle from Sali on one of the rough wooden benches set either side of the heavily scarred deal tables. The first thing that struck both of them was the lack of oxygen in the air, and the smell. A foul overpowering stench of unwashed bodies, clothes worn too long, faeces and urine.
Whispers occasionally broke the silence as they waited and, after another ten long minutes, the convicts eventually began to file in.
Sali covered her mouth with her hand when she saw Lloyd. His head had been shaved and his cheeks were covered in dark stubble the same length as his hair. As he moved towards her she saw that he had lost an alarming amount of weight. Victor who walked behind him didn’t look any better, but her father-in-law was obviously very ill. Hunched and grey, he tottered and stumbled towards them like an old man, and she felt that he had aged ten years in a month. He started to cough when he and Victor sat at Joey’s table, and his breath was harsh, grating as he drew in the foul stinking air.
‘Don’t be fooled by the uniform, Sali. Underneath these imposing clothes, I’m the same old me,’ Lloyd joked as he sat opposite her.
‘You look ...’ Words failed her.
‘Like a convict?’
‘Lloyd ...’
‘If you don’t keep a sense of humour in here, you’ll go insane. How are Harry and Bella?’
She looked into his eyes and saw that he was hungry for news of the children and, if anything, was missing her even more than she was him. But then she could immerse herself in the children and work, whereas he ... she didn’t want to begin to imagine what his days were like within these grim, grey walls.
She forced an insincere smile, and realized he had seen right through it. ‘They’re both fine. Bella can roll around the floor of the nursery now, and Harry is enjoying his lessons with his new friends.’ Unable to keep up the pretence, she fell serious. ‘I’m so sorry, Lloyd, I didn’t know what to do after the trial. Then I read the minutes of the trustees’ meetings I had missed and saw a chance for Joey. I moved because I thought it solved a lot of problems. Joey has a job with prospects. I don’t have to worry about money, the house, shopping or even the children. If we’d stayed in Tonypandy ...’
‘You don’t have to apologize, Sali.’ He clasped his hands together to remind himself not to touch her. ‘I’m proud of you for not sitting back and crying, which is what most women would have done if their husbands had been locked up. I got your letter and I wholeheartedly approve of every decision you made, especially kicking Geraint out of the main part of Ynysangharad House. I agree that you can’t abandon your mother but you’ve been feather-bedding him for far too long.’
‘You don’t mind? I thought you’d be furious.’
‘Our marriage is a partnership, sweetheart. I know I can be stubborn to the point of pig-headedness at times, but I am proud of you and the way you’ve dealt with the strike, the trial and now this.’ He looked at their miserable surroundings. ‘I wish I could have written to tell you just how proud of you I am, but there’s a stupid rule, no letters for the first month. You made all the right decisions, Sali, especially for the children and Joey. I saw the letter he wrote to Victor. He’s enjoying his new job.’
‘I don’t know what kind of collier he was, but he’s a superb salesman. Mr Horton said Gwilym James’s china sales have doubled since he put him in the department. As soon as the Tonypandy store opens he’ll be going up there as assistant manager.’
‘I read your letter and Joey’s, so I know what you are doing with yourselves. But how are you, Sali? Really?’ he said earnestly.
‘Missing you, grateful at the end of every day because it’s one day less that we have to spend apart.’ She stretched her hand towards him. A warder shouted at her and she withdrew it. ‘I see Mr Richards every day. He and Geoffrey Francis are working hard on your appeal ...’
‘I know. Geoffrey Francis is allowed to visit us.’
‘Lloyd ...’
‘No lying, Sali, and no false hope, please. We’ve always been truthful with one another, don’t change that now.’
‘You were wrong about the men not daring to support you. You may not have seen them but thousands of colliers gathered outside the court in Cardiff to protest after you were sentenced. And there have been demonstrations all over the Rhondda at your imprisonment. All the unions are agitating for your release. Mabon has asked questions about your sentences in Parliament and they are allowing your appeal without costs. Every Labour politician, and even some Liberals are saying how unjust your sentences are. The unions have offered to support us -’
‘You said no,’ he broke in.
‘I told them that Joey and I are earning enough to keep the children and ourselves. Working in the business gives me something to do and it stops me from thinking about you every single minute of the da
y.’ She saw a warder glance at his pocket watch. They were running out of time. ‘Mr Richards has done all he can to find Megan. We haven’t found her. But tell Victor we are still looking and haven’t given up hope. Your father is ill.’ She eyed Mr Evans in concern, as he burst into another coughing fit.
‘He’s spent most of his time since we’ve been here in the infirmary. He only left there today because he wanted to see you and Joey, and by the look of him he’ll be back there tomorrow.’
‘Lloyd, what is hard labour?’ she asked quietly.
‘Work, no different to any other,’ he said lightly. ‘Let’s not talk about me, or politics or the appeal, let’s talk about you and the children. I want to know every tiny little thing that you do, starting with when you get up in the morning.’
So she sat and wove him a tale of their days in Ynysangharad House and pretended not to see the pain and despair in his eyes, as she described a family life he was no longer part of.
‘How is Lloyd?’ Joey asked, when he and Sali were in the train on their way back to Pontypridd.
‘He didn’t want to talk about much except the children and me. I could see that he is worried about your father. That cough of his sounds dreadful.’
‘He said it sounds worse than it is, but I’m not convinced.’ Joey propped his umbrella in the corner of the carriage where it couldn’t drip on them. ‘Do you think that we should write to the governor to say we’re worried?’
‘The governor and our MP. I’ll do it tonight.’
‘Victor is climbing up the wall because there’s no news of Megan.’ Joey sat forward and sank his face in his hands. ‘I’ll be honest with you, Sali, I don’t know how they are going to survive the next eleven months –or any of us come to that.’
‘We’ll survive because we have to, Joey,’ she said finally. ‘We have no other choice. Do me a favour?’
‘If I can.’
‘Put a smile on your face before we reach Ynysangharad House. Harry is so bright and sensitive. Sometimes I think he picks up on our worries even before we’re aware of them.’
Mr Richards was right; the carpenter had underestimated the time needed to fit out the Tonypandy store. It opened in March, not January as the trustees had intended, and Sali and Joey invited every friend, neighbour and all the families of the union men Mr Evans knew to the opening. The store was packed, and Sali’s thoughts turned to Lloyd, Victor and Mr Evans and how proud they would be if they could see Joey, in his brand-new black wool, three-piece suit and wing-collared shirt presiding over the celebrations with Mr Horton junior.
‘We showed the lodgers where the kettle is, put a tray of shortbread on the dining-room table and told them to fend for themselves for once,’ Betty said to Sali after she and Joyce Palmer had fought their way through the crowd to where Sali was helping dispense lemonade and sweet biscuits to the first customers. ‘Tell me, how is Harry?’
‘And little Bella?’ Mrs Palmer added.
‘Not so little any more,’ Sali smiled. ‘I’ll bring them up for a visit, but I can’t promise when. I don’t know where my time goes but I never seem to have enough of it to do everything I want.’
‘Neither do I,’ Mrs Palmer agreed. ‘I’ve been meaning to write to you. Can we go somewhere quiet?’
‘I’ll ask the assistant manager if we can borrow his office.’ Sali waved to Joey. He waved back to her from the middle of a crowd of local girls. Judging by the way they were all talking to him at once, Sali assumed he’d been missed. ‘Can I borrow your office?’ she mouthed.
He nodded. Sali handed Betty and Joyce two glasses, picked up a jug of lemonade and a glass for herself, and led the way. She closed the door and breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I wanted the opening to be successful, not bedlam.’
‘You can’t blame people for coming. We’ve needed a shop like this in Tonypandy for some time, if only to convince people that not everyone has given up hope of prosperity returning to this valley.’ Joyce sat on one of the two easy chairs Sali set in front of the desk. ‘And it will be nice not to have to go into Pontypridd to buy clothes.’
‘What will be even nicer is having a department store down the road that we can call into and look around any time we’ve a spare five minutes. No one else is investing in the Rhondda, Sali, especially with the colliery owners point blank refusing to make any improvements in the colliers’ pay and conditions. Businesses are going bankrupt at a rate of knots. Even the farm went yesterday. Everyone is wondering when the next strike will take place.’ Betty took the second chair.
‘Surely no one wants another strike.’ Sali cleared a pile of manufacturers’ catalogues from the desk to make room for the lemonade and sat in Joey’s chair.
‘No one wants one and there’s no denying that it will take us a few years to get over this one, but there’ll be another, mark my words. Did you know there’ve been four deaths from accidents underground since the men have gone back?’ Betty held her glass while Sali filled it.
‘I’ve heard,’ Sali said sadly.
‘It’ll take everyone years to pay off the debts they’ve incurred in this strike before the union can seriously consider calling another,’ Joyce observed. ‘You watching Joey, Sali?’ she asked, seeing Sali look through the glass window of the office.
‘Those girls have me worried. I hope Joey doesn’t go back to his old ways now he’s working here.’
‘Is he moving back home?’ Joyce sipped her lemonade.
‘Not for the moment. Mr Horton’s son lives in Pontypridd and they travel up together. Harry misses Lloyd and the family a great deal. Joey and I think it would be too much if he moved out as well. Not that they see that much of one another. Joey’s been working twelve hours a day since he started in the shop, but Harry gets up to eat breakfast with him every morning, Joey reads him a story every night and,’ Sali made a wry face, ‘it’s easier if we travel down to the prison together. And because prisoners are only allowed to send one letter a month Joey and I share the news.’
‘How are Mr Evans, Lloyd and Victor coping?’ Betty enquired.
‘Lloyd and Victor are just about managing. Mr Evans has spent more time in the prison infirmary than out of it. He’s had pneumonia twice since Christmas.’
Mrs Palmer nodded sagely. ‘He loved his wife very much. Sometimes it’s easier to let go than keep fighting.’
‘We hope that when he comes out -’
‘Any news of the appeal?’ Betty interrupted.
‘Not yet. Mr Francis has warned Joey and I that there’s no hope of a quick release for any of them. Not even Mr Evans, although he’s pressing a case to get him released on the grounds of ill-health.’
‘Do the prisoners hear the news in prison? If they do, they must have been happy last Friday,’ Joyce said brightly.
‘When the minimum wage act was passed by Parliament?
I don’t know,’ Sali said thoughtfully. ‘I hope they heard about it, but as Joey said, it’s only a beginning. You do know that all the Labour MPs refused to vote because the government wouldn’t agree to set the minimum wage at five shillings a day for a man and two shillings a day for a boy.’
‘I didn’t know Joey was interested in politics,’ Betty said good-humouredly.
‘His interest has developed since his father and brothers have been imprisoned. I don’t want to be rude, Mrs Palmer, but I should go back out there soon. You said you wanted to see me?’ She was anxious to change the topic of conversation. The longer she and Lloyd were apart, the harder she was finding it to keep up a brave façade.
The nights were the worst, especially since Harry had moved into the nursery suite, because before, when she hadn’t been able to sleep she had opened the connecting door between the dressing room and her bedroom and listened to his breathing. She still had Bella, but even the presence of her baby daughter wasn’t enough to dull the ache engendered by Lloyd’s absence from her life and her bed.
‘I packed all Lena’s things into a suitcase. Huw
Davies was transferred back to Pontypridd shortly after her funeral.’ Mrs Palmer gripped her glass and stared down at her lemonade. ‘As you know, Lena left a letter for Huw and the engagement ring he gave her. I asked him if he wanted anything else. All he took were two photographs and a scarf to remember her by. He insisted on giving me the ring and I wondered if Megan would like it, together with the rest of Lena’s possessions. Everything Lena owned was suited to a young girl, her clothes were all practically new and Megan was probably the closest friend she’d ever had. Do you know where Megan is?’
‘Unfortunately not. My solicitor, Mr Richards and I have looked everywhere we can think of. But we haven’t found any trace of her.’
‘I’ve never seen two people more in love than Victor Evans and Megan Williams. And I’m sure she’ll contact Victor just as soon as she is twenty-one. You will take Lena’s things, won’t you, Sali?’ Joyce pleaded and Sali saw that she simply wanted them out of the house.
‘Yes, I’ll take them. As you say, Megan will be twenty-one in August and I’m equally certain that she will contact Victor then.’ Sali sat back in Joey’s chair and smiled.
‘What is it?’ Betty asked.
Sali left the chair, and kissed and hugged both women. ‘Thank you, Mrs Palmer. You have just given me the most wonderful, marvellous idea.’
‘You will pick up those things today?’ Joyce asked, bewildered by Sali’s behaviour.
‘Just as soon as we’ve closed up here for the night.’
Mrs Palmer and Betty Morgan exchanged mystified glances, but Sali was in no mood for explanations. She didn’t know if her idea would work. But it was a better alternative than sitting back and waiting for Megan to contact them, which was the only other option.
Winners and Losers Page 48
