‘The kind of favours money can’t buy. It’s the way life works on the docks.’ He climbed under the blankets but he was still shivering. ‘It’s times like this that I wish I’d stayed in the Caribbean.’
‘You’ve travelled?’
‘Not as much as I’d like. You look ridiculous perched on the edge there. You’re like a gull on a rock without the aptitude for balance. You may as well lie down. We can keep the fake me between us, if you’re afraid I’ll pounce on you. But I warn you, I’m too exhausted to do much in that line.’ He patted the rolled-up rug.
She moved back into the space where she’d been sleeping when he’d arrived.
‘I’m sorry I woke you.’
‘I’m sorry I slept. I didn’t mean to.’
‘You’ve had a hard couple of days, Edyth, and tomorrow – or rather later today – won’t be any different. I’ve a feeling that the police will be asking us a lot of questions about Peter’s disappearance.’ He stretched out, pulled the rolled-up rug closer to himself to give her more room, and turned to face her. ‘So, we may as well sleep while we can.’ He took off his glasses and laid them beneath his pillow.
‘Have you any other spare clothes here?’
‘No.’
‘You’ll set the whole of the Bay talking if you go to the mission dressed like that in the morning. People will think you’ve gone on the tramp.’
‘Can’t be helped,’ he said carelessly.
‘Yes it can. I’ll go to the mission for you and ask your sister to give me some of your clothes.’
‘You really are keen to lose what little is left of your reputation, aren’t you?’
‘You know something, Micah, I’ve gone past caring, and it’s a wonderful feeling to be totally free and not have to worry about what people are thinking or saying about me.’
He leaned back on the pillow and stretched out his arm. ‘Sorry, did I hit you?’
‘You did. You’re so cold you can crawl into my space and steal my body heat if you like.’
‘I’m too uncomfortable to turn down that offer.’ He sat up, shook out the rug and spread it over both of them. ‘Goodnight, or rather good morning, Mrs Slater.’
‘I think I’ll revert to Edyth Evans.’
‘In that case, goodnight, Edyth.’
She closed her eyes. What could have been a minute or an hour later, he rolled closer to her and slipped his arm around her waist. Three-quarters asleep, the only thing that registered was the cold, and she snuggled up to him as she would have to Bella or one of her other sisters if they had been as icy.
Only he wasn’t Bella or one of the others, and the next thing she knew, his mouth was pressed over hers and he was kissing her with a passion and urgency that sent the blood coursing headily around her veins.
His hands sought her skin beneath her clothes. He caressed her thighs above her stocking tops, her breasts through layers of clothes …
She moved away from him.
‘Edyth, I’m sorry …’
Before he finished speaking she had stripped off her clothes.
He kissed her again, harder, roughly, thrusting his tongue into her mouth. When he finally lifted his head to draw breath, he said, ‘I fell in love with you the first time I saw you laughing at the top of the stairs in your parents’ house, holding a golden slipper in each hand. Looking inordinately pleased with yourself because you had frightened Harry.’
‘You didn’t know me then.’
‘I don’t know as much about you as I would like to now.’
‘Please, Micah, no more words.’ She caressed his entire body with the length of hers.
‘Are you sure you want this to happen?’
‘This is not the time for talking.’
‘Say my name,’ he commanded.
‘Micah.’
Without any finesses, or attempt to caress her into submission, he kicked off his own clothes and thrust himself into her.
She gasped.
‘Edyth … I thought … I’m so sorry …’
‘Please, Micah, don’t stop.’ She dug her nails into his back, treating his body as brutally as he was treating hers. ‘Don’t ever stop.’
Seconds later, just as her mother had promised, nothing mattered outside of the passion they had engendered in one another. Not her pain, not the unsettled traumatic past or the uncertain future. Only the fact that they were together, and it was everything she had ever dreamed of finding in love – and more.
When Edyth next woke it was to see Micah watching her. He looked strange and then she realised he wasn’t wearing his glasses, although he must have turned up the lamp sometime while she slept, because the light was stronger, casting a gold tinge over the cabin.
‘Good morning,’ she smiled lazily.
‘It is.’ He returned her smile. ‘Why did you want me to think that you had made love with Charlie Moore?’
‘I didn’t. You assumed I had, and refused to talk about it. But when I picked him up, Charlie was barely capable of standing upright. Anything more strenuous was out of the question. Possibly that’s why I dragged him to Anna’s. I never liked the man. Certainly not enough to do what I just did with you.’
‘I couldn’t bear the thought of you and him – together.’ He stroked her body lightly, tantalisingly, with his fingertips. ‘But this seems so right, doesn’t it?’ he asked as if he needed reassurance that she felt the same way.
‘It does.’ She lifted her arms and locked them around his neck, and for the next half-hour there was no need for any more words.
*……*……*
When Edyth next opened her eyes the hands on her wristwatch pointed to six o’clock. She grabbed her petticoat, slipped it on and tried to leave the bed, but Micah grabbed her waist.
‘Let’s play at bears hibernating today and not leave the cave.’
‘I can’t, I have to clear the vicarage.’
‘Move into the mission with me. We’ll marry as soon as your annulment comes through.’
She wriggled free from his grasp and stepped out of his reach. ‘No, Micah.’
He sat up, hitting his head on a cupboard door.
She leaned over him in concern. ‘Did you hurt yourself?’
‘No.’ He caught her wrists and gripped them hard. ‘Don’t you love me?’
She smiled at him. ‘Of course I do. And I want another night – morning – like this one as soon as you can spare the time.’
‘Then move into the mission.’
‘No, Micah. Try to understand. I went from school to marrying Peter. It’s as though as I was frightened of being alone and making my own way in the world.’
‘Were you?’ he asked seriously.
‘I don’t know. What I do know is that I need to find my own life before I look for another marriage, so I can bring something to the relationship instead of leaning on my husband. It’s too easy to live someone else’s life instead of building your own, and that’s exactly what I’d be doing if I moved in with you. I’d become an appendage to you and your job. Your friends would become mine. Your work would become my work, and I don’t want that. Not any more.’
He looked confused and she asked.
‘Am I making sense?’
‘Not the kind I want to hear.’
She finished dressing and walked over the cushions to the cupboard where he kept the sugar, tinned milk and coffee. There was no food, not even biscuits.
‘Close your eyes, get another hour’s sleep and I’ll walk up to the mission and ask Helga to send down some clothes for you. Then I’ll go up to the vicarage, have a bath and change, and on my way back I’ll buy breakfast in Mr Goldman’s bakery. We’ll eat it here and talk about ways in which I can achieve my independence. I haven’t a clue how to go about it.’
‘I confess I’m not thrilled at your choice of topic. I can think of far better things to discuss.’
She blew him a kiss. ‘Or not, as the case might be.’
‘You won’t be
long?’ he pressed.
She shook her head. ‘An hour at most.’
‘A real kiss before you go?’ he pleaded.
She kissed him, he held her tight and she said, ‘I had no idea a lover could be so possessive.’
‘Get used to it, Edyth, because it’s the way I intend to behave with you for the rest of my life.’
Forty minutes later, bathed, changed, her hair and make-up in place, Edyth left Judy packing Florence’s china in the vicarage and walked down to Goldman’s. The Jewish baker was putting the fourth lot of bread rolls in his window that morning. He saw her, waved enthusiastically and smiled. Half-expecting him to ostracise her because of the scandal involving Peter, she wondered if he had heard about it.
‘Sit down, Mrs Slater.’ He pushed a chair towards her when she walked into the shop. ‘My wife and me, we heard about your trouble, and we’re sorry for you and your husband. Everyone is made different and thank God for it, I say. It would be a dull world if we were all the same. Have a cup of coffee – on the house. It’s the best coffee you’ll get on the Bay.’ He set a cup and saucer on the counter in front of her.
She thought of Micah waiting for her in the Escape and almost refused, but decided ten minutes either way wouldn’t make much difference. Her mother had warned her that she and her father wouldn’t arrive early because he had an appointment with one of the local councillors that he couldn’t postpone.
‘Thank you, Mr Goldman, I’d love a cup of coffee.’ She couldn’t help but contrast his attitude with that of the Bishop.
‘If you’ve come for rolls, they’re good today. We have some good cakes, too, and bagels.’
‘Fresh fish bagels?’ she asked.
‘Lox.’
Before Edyth knew what she was doing she had bought enough bagels, rolls and doughnuts to feed half the Bay.
‘Hello, Edyth, how are you bearing up?’ Eirlys Williams walked in carrying a shopping bag. ‘Maldwyn and I were sorry to hear about Reverend Slater. We don’t care what anyone says about him, he was good for the parish.’
‘Thank you.’ Tears started in Edyth’s eyes. She knew she was being silly but she couldn’t help herself. She found it hard to take people’s kindness after the Bishop’s attitude. It didn’t make sense, but she had found it easier to cope with criticism of Peter’s behaviour than understanding.
Mr Goldman saw that she was overcome with emotion. ‘You were expecting people to be unkind about you and your husband? Well, it won’t happen, not on the Bay. You and Peter were kind to your neighbours and that’s what matters most.’ The baker served Eirlys and two other customers with bread and biscuits, and topped up Edyth’s coffee and his own. ‘People here – well, we’re not so quick as people outside to condemn because we all have something wrong with us. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be here.’
‘Speak for yourself, Mordecai Goldman.’ His wife bustled in with a tray of pasties and dropped it on a shelf in the window.
‘What do you think is wrong with you, Mr Goldman?’ Edyth asked in amusement after his wife had returned to the kitchen.
‘You got an hour, I’ll tell you.’ He picked up his cup, leaned over the counter and began relating his family history. ‘My whole family are Jewish; that wasn’t so good in Russia when the Cossacks started murdering us for sport, so my father went to Poland and set up a bakery there. But the Poles,’ he shrugged, ‘they’re not so fond of Jews either. So, when I married my beautiful Leila, I decided it was better for our children to come here. Only problem was my wife and I had no children, so I should have stayed in Lodz to look after my parents.
‘Now my father has just had a heart attack, and my mother can’t manage to run the shop. My brothers and their wives have all up and gone to America. I’m the nearest to Poland, so I have to go back and take care of the family business. But I’m going to miss the Bay. You take half the families here. They’re not Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Catholic, black, white, yellow, Arab, Somali, Pakistani or whatever, but a mix of everything human under Jehovah’s sun, and the only place they all fit in is the Bay. That’s why I love it here.’
‘But you have to go back to Poland?’
‘Just as soon as I can find someone to buy my business.’
Edyth looked around the baker’s shop. ‘How much do you want for it, Mr Goldman?’ she asked suddenly.
‘Why?’ he replied suspiciously. ‘You interested in buying?’
She suppressed a rising tide of panic. ‘I might be,’ she ventured, desperately trying to quell the thought that she knew absolutely nothing about running a business.
‘Well, it’s not just the business, there’s the rooms upstairs. The wife and me, we have it comfortable here. We’d want to sell our furniture to the buyer to save trouble. It’s all quality goods. And there’s the goodwill. Our customers come here every day because they know they’re going to get the best bread on the Bay. And I don’t disappoint them. I have a good apprentice. He needs managing but he bakes all right. Although I don’t tell him that. I’d want him kept on. It’s only fair; he’s been with me since he’s twelve.’
Micah’s brother-in-law, Moody, stuck his head around the door that led to the kitchen. ‘Hello, Mrs Slater, nice morning.’
‘It is, Moody.’ His smile was infectious and Edyth couldn’t help but return it.
‘You want me to bake more fairy cakes today, Mr Goldman?’ he asked.
‘Yes, Moody.’ The baker turned back to Edyth after Moody disappeared. ‘He’s young, he’s black, but I tell you, after what I’ve taught him, that boy is an honorary Jewish baker.’
‘How much do you want for the house and the business, Mr Goldman?’ Edyth was conscious that she knew even less about baking on a commercial scale than she did about business. But how hard could it be to learn? It could be months, if not years before she found another ready-made, successful business to buy.
‘I couldn’t let it go for less than two hundred and fifty pounds. I’d be robbing myself blind if I did.’
Edyth’s face fell.
‘How much you got?’ Mr Goldman asked.
‘Two hundred but not a penny more, and I’d need fifty contingency funds to run the place.’ Edyth knew that if she asked, Harry or her father would lend her the money. But she wanted to do something entirely on her own for once, and not have to rely on the family to help her.
‘Tell you what I’ll do, for a nice lady like you who will look after Moody and my customers for me. You pay me one hundred and fifty pounds cash upfront and you give my sister-in-law a pound a week. That will square things up. We’ll get the papers drawn up all legal. You won’t miss a pound a week from the till but it will keep my sister-in-law going. She married an Arab seaman but she hasn’t seen him in four years. I keep telling her he has a wife in every port, move on, find yourself another man. All she says is, “He’ll come back.”’
‘How long do you want me to keep paying her?’ Edyth asked cautiously.
‘Three years.’
‘But that’s fifty-six pounds interest on a hundred pounds over three years. That’s an astronomical rate,’ she protested.
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘My wife’s sister could die six months from now.’
‘She’s ill?’ Edyth asked.
‘No.’
‘How old is she?’
‘Thirty-five.’ A ghost of a smile played around his mouth. ‘Take it or leave it.’
Edyth didn’t hesitate. ‘I’ll take it, Mr Goldman.’
‘First you look at the room upstairs and the building, so I can show you how sound it is. Then tomorrow we go to the solicitor, and afterwards the bank, and you pay me the one hundred and fifty pounds.’
She looked at the bag of rolls and bagels. ‘I was going to have breakfast with a friend.’
‘Pleasure can wait,’ he said firmly. ‘If you don’t put business first, you’ll be bankrupt in a week.’
‘Can I borrow your errand boy?’
‘Be my guest. And a pencil and a
piece of paper?’
‘At no extra charge,’ she cautioned.
‘You’re learning, Mrs Slater. One day you may even be ready to do business with a Jew.’
Edyth took the brown paper bag and pencil Mr Goldman gave her. She thought for a moment then scribbled, ‘Bought breakfast, but was delayed. Sorry, can’t make it back – enjoy the food.’ She paused for a moment debating whether or not to put ‘love Edyth’. Instead she added, ‘Thank you for last night.’
Micah, or the police if they managed to intercept the note, could interpret the message any way they wanted to.
Chapter Twenty-five
‘Ready, Moody?’ Edyth called into the bakehouse.
‘Yes, Miss Evans.’ Moody carried the first tray of steaming rolls out into the shop. Edyth took them from him and began to stack them in the window. She had never known there could be so many different kinds of breads and rolls; white, brown, rye, corn, poppy seed, oatmeal, milk, wholemeal, bagels, soda, sultana, French …
‘Butter and sandwich fillings.’ Judy carried them out of the kitchen and set them on the counter. ‘I’m going to enjoy making them to the customers’ orders, especially the man Mr Goldman told us about who likes corn beef and strawberry jam. But then, he hasn’t put in an appearance yet. Do you think Mr Goldman was joking about him?’
‘I never knew when Mr Goldman was joking and when he wasn’t. Let’s just hope we keep all his customers and his books didn’t look better than they were.’ Edyth stood back and looked around the shop. She hadn’t stopped working for the last three weeks and in all that time she and Judy had only managed to spend two days in Pontypridd.
They had moved into the Goldmans’ spare bedroom as soon as Edyth’s banker’s draft had cleared. And shortly afterwards, the mistress and maid situation between her and Judy had died from an overdose of friendship. It was difficult to be standoffish with someone or address them formally as Judy had done in the vicarage, when they divided the work that had to be done equally between them during the day and shared a bed at night.
After the Goldmans left on a ship bound for Gdańsk, Edyth and Judy had cleaned the upstairs rooms, and Edyth conceded that Mr Goldman had been right. They hadn’t needed to do anything to make them habitable. There was even – the most unimaginable luxury – a small bathroom in the rooms behind the shop, put in next to the kitchen at great expense, or so Mr Goldman had assured her.
Tiger Bay Blues Page 44
