Homecoming (19 page)

‘Perfectly,' Emily whispered.

‘Visitors are not allowed into the bedroom, Miss Hunt,' she reprimanded, as Judy followed Emily.

Judy turned back on the staircase. ‘I was hoping to see my cousin settled.'

‘We will take care of her from here on, Miss Hunt.'

‘Thank you.' Realising that if she argued, the matron could take out her displeasure on Emily, Judy hugged her flatmate goodbye. ‘I'll visit you a week tomorrow.'

‘You'll be busy.'

‘Not that busy. If you want me to bring anything, or discover that you've left anything in the flat, write to me.'

‘I will. I can't thank you enough …'

‘No more thank yous.' Judy stepped back. ‘You'd better go,' she whispered, as a telephone rang and the matron disappeared, presumably to answer it. ‘“Quick sharp”.'

‘And I have to learn to jump to it.' Emily gave Judy a sad little smile. ‘Have a good journey back.'

Judy stayed long enough to watch her friend walk up the stairs. Emily looked so small, lost and alone, she couldn't help feeling that she was abandoning her. She recalled Robin Watkin Morgan's good looks, swaggering self-assurance and flirtatious manner. No doubt he had already moved on to the next girl. It was so unfair. If her own experience was anything to go by, all the ‘fun' involved in conceiving a child was purely on the men's side and they could walk away any time they chose to, leaving the woman quite literally holding the baby. 

Chapter Ten

‘You've done me proud,' Brian reassured Lily, running down the stairs behind her.

‘Do you have time for tea? If you don't, you could come back for a meal, or stay the night?'

‘Once I've sorted things with the painter, I have to drive straight back to Pontypridd.'

‘Oh, yes.' She smiled.

‘And you can wipe that knowing grin off your face when you like, Lily Clay. I'm meeting Will and Ronnie to talk about business, not a girl to talk about … remind me what is it boys talk about to girls?' he enquired disingenuously. ‘It's so long since I've had a date I've forgotten.'

‘I don't believe it. Not of you.'

‘The last date I had with a female of the species was in London. Since then, Ronnie and Will have taken up every minute of my spare time.'

‘No nurses in hospital?' she teased.

‘They were so bossy when I was ill, I didn't fancy any of them when I recovered.'

‘And when did they change you for the Brian Powell that I remember?'

‘The Brian Powell you remember was young and foolish and I'm old and wise, but to get back to your question and away from my non-existent private life, I could murder a cup of tea.' He joined her in the kitchen. ‘I confess, I also had an ulterior motive for coming here this morning. Martin mentioned that he works alternate Saturday mornings and I calculated that this would be one of them. I wanted to find out if you're absolutely sure about this partnership. One minute Martin was on the phone telling me in no uncertain terms that there was no way that he could afford to take me up on my offer. The next, you ring up to say it's all fine and you have the money.'

‘And it is and I do.' She lifted the kettle to check there was enough water in it before lighting the gas. ‘The overdraft facility came through yesterday, two and half thousand pounds. I can give you a cheque for one thousand now, if you like. A thousand was the amount you mentioned to Martin, wasn't it?'

‘For tools and equipment. And that's the other reason I'm here. There's an auction of second-hand tools and garage equipment in a bankruptcy sale in Cardiff next week. If Martin can get the time off, I could go down there with him. If the stuff's any good he might be able to pick up what he needs cheap.'

‘And if it's outdated or damaged?'

‘He'll have to fork out full price.' He nodded as she held up a homemade apple pie. ‘Yes, please.' He sat at the table.

‘But he'll need money to buy into the business.'

‘Five hundred pounds for his share of the buildings.' He cut himself a large slice of the pie and laid a dollop of cream on top.

‘Then I'll give you a cheque for that amount now.'

‘It would help, because my cousin and brother-in-law have already put up the cash for the dealership and the buildings, and it would be nice to pay them back.'

Lily was glad that she had opted to take the extra five hundred pounds the manager had offered. Fifteen hundred pounds going out immediately on tools and buildings only left a thousand for other expenses and the wages of the apprentice Brian had said Martin would need. She went to a cupboard and pulled out a drawer. Removing the chequebook and a writing pad, she wrote out a cheque for five hundred pounds and signed it. ‘Who do I make it out to?'

‘Powell and Ronconi.'

She filled in the rest of the details, tore the cheque from the book, and handed it to him together with the notepad.

‘What's this for?' he enquired suspiciously.

‘You, to write a receipt. If you fill in exactly why I've given you the money, there'll be no misunderstanding when Martin reads it.'

He eyed her carefully. ‘Martin doesn't know you've raised the money.'

‘No.'

‘Then he hasn't even given in his notice at the council garage?'

‘I checked his diary, he has two weeks' holiday due.'

‘If he walks out and leaves them in the lurch, they won't give him a reference worth reading and they'll never take him back, Lily.'

Her blood ran cold at the thought that something might go wrong and Martin would need his old job back. For the first time she understood his reluctance to stake every single penny they owned and possibly even their house on Brian's venture. ‘If both of you and Jack put everything you have into this garage, Martin won't need to go back,' she said determinedly, setting the alternative from her mind.

‘Lily …'

‘It's a chance in a lifetime and we can't afford to miss it, Brian. I'm only sorry Martin is too blinkered and stubborn to see it.'

He wrote out the receipt. ‘Do you think that Martin is going to see this as a good surprise or a bad one?'

‘That's entirely up to Martin.'

‘You haven't even discussed it with him, have you?'

‘That's a bit difficult when he isn't talking to me.' She set the tea she'd made in front of him.

‘The last thing I want to do is drive a wedge between you two.'

‘You haven't. I have.' She pushed the pie towards him, as he finished the slice on his plate and set the notepad in the centre of the table.

‘You're not even going to give Martin the receipt.'

‘I promised my uncle I'd babysit Billy. Joy is looking after the salons today because Judy had to do something or other, so I won't be seeing Martin until Judy's mother comes home this evening.'

‘You haven't even told Martin you're babysitting?'

‘How could I when he's not talking to me? Mind you,' she gave Brian a wry look, ‘I've a feeling that he will have a few things to say to me after reading that.'

‘I've seen Martin angry. A couple of hours won't be enough to calm him down when he finds out what you've done.'

‘It doesn't matter. This house is big enough for both of us to live in without seeing one another,' she answered, with more courage than she felt.

Emily trailed up the stairs and down a passageway into a room that resembled a dormitory more than a bedroom. Eight beds and lockers lined the three inner walls. The fourth was dominated by an enormous window that looked out over a garden of damp lawns and flowerbeds filled with spring bulbs. In the distance she could see a range of softly rolling hills, their summits shrouded in the misty rain that hadn't let up since she had left Swansea. As Judy had said, the countryside was pretty, but she couldn't help feeling that she would derive little comfort from it.

‘Hello, welcome to Cartref.'

A woman was lying stretched out in the bed behind the door. She wasn't at all the sort of person Judy had expected to find in a home for unmarried mothers. Her face was lined and careworn, her curly, blonde hair streaked with silver.

‘I'd get up and shake your hand if Matron hadn't ordered me to lie here until teatime and, if you've met Matron, you'd know why I dare not move.'

‘I've met her,' Emily said dryly.

‘I'm Maggie, and I can tell by the look on your face that your first impression of this place isn't a good one.'

‘It's different from what I expected.' Emily studied the only unmade bed in the room. She had never seen such a thin mattress or narrow bed. The locker next to it was considerably taller than it. Divided into two, there was a cupboard and three drawers on one side and a hanging rail on the other. ‘Not much storage space,' she commented.

‘When you're this shape,' Maggie stroked her bump, ‘you don't need much besides a couple of changes of clothes.'

‘I suppose not.' Emily lifted a pile of bedding from the foot of the bed on to the top of the locker.

‘Don't let Matron or anyone else upset you,' Maggie advised. ‘They think it's their duty to show us poor sinners who is in charge from the minute we step over the door, but,' she watched Emily unfold a sheet, ‘not all the staff are like her. And she's far too grand to mix with the likes of them, let alone us. She spends most of her time holed up in her office.'

‘That's a relief to hear.'

‘Not that way,' Maggie warned, as Emily tucked the base sheet over the mattress. ‘Any girl caught without hospital corners on her bed gets extra scrubbing duty, and given the length of the corridors in this place, that's the last thing you need.'

‘Hospital corners?' Emily queried, mystified by the term.

‘Here, I'll show you.'

‘You're not supposed to get up.'

‘I'm relieving cramp in my leg. Besides, I only fainted. Hardly surprising when you consider that we have to get up a full hour and a half before breakfast.' Maggie pulled the sheet away from the mattress and deftly folded the corners squarely around the thin pallet.

‘Where did you learn to make beds that way?' Emily asked.

‘My mother was training to be a nurse when she met my father, but they fell in love and that put paid to her career.' She gave Emily a hand to finish making the bed before returning to her own.

Emily opened her suitcase on the bed, lifted a hanger from the cupboard, and folded her dressing gown over it. ‘They don't give us many hangers, either.'

‘They don't give us much of anything except lectures on morality. But the other girls in this room are friendly and the sewing, knitting and cookery teachers are human. Don't worry.' Maggie broadened her smile, which made her look even more drawn. ‘You'll be fine and it's only for a couple of months. Then you'll be able to walk away and be your own person again.'

‘I hope so.' Emily gazed at the dismal room. ‘I really hope so.'

Brian took a deep breath, as he left his car and walked up the short path to Martin and Lily's house. Bracing himself, he rang the bell and waited. His meeting with the painter had dragged on but it was still only three o'clock and he suspected that if Martin hadn't read the receipt until twelve-thirty he would still be angry and, knowing Martin, very angry indeed. A few seconds later he heard footsteps echoing over the tiled floor of the passage and a shadow appeared behind the frosted glass in the door. The door opened and Martin glowered at him.

‘Can I come in?'

‘As you seem to have more of a say in my affairs than I do, please yourself.' Despite his hostility, Martin stepped back.

Resisting the temptation to walk away, Brian entered the porch and closed the outer door. ‘Look, Marty –'

‘No, you look!' Martin confronted him head on. ‘I told you there was no way that I could afford to take you up on your offer. Yet, you still went to Lily behind my back just so you could raise the finance for your bloody garage.'

‘I did not go to Lily behind your back.'

‘She went to you.'

Trapped, Brian fell silent.

‘Dear God! I've been blind and stupid. It was her, not you, wasn't it?' Without waiting for an answer, Martin turned and strode into the living room.

Brian hovered uneasily in the doorway. He saw the receipt he'd written lying abandoned on the coffee table, a cup of cold tea, milk curdling on the surface beside it. The room was freezing; the gas fire switched off. As Martin sank down on the sofa, Brian reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out his wallet.

‘If you want the cheque back, you can have it.' Stepping into the room, he laid it on the receipt.

Martin picked it up. ‘Presumably Lily has already paid the arrangement fee for the overdraft.'

‘That's peanuts compared to what you stand to lose if the garage fails, as you're so damned sure it will.'

‘I never said the garage was going to fail,' Martin retorted hotly.

‘It must be what you think, otherwise why would you be so reluctant to come in with me?'

‘Because two thousand pounds is more money than I have, or can raise.'

‘You're holding part of it,' Brian pointed out mildly.

‘This,' Martin slapped the cheque back on the table, ‘is Lily's money.'

‘And a person can do what they like with their own money. Unless that is, they are married to you.'

‘I've never told Lily what to do with her money.'

‘You're telling her now.' Brian dared to sit on one of the easy chairs.

‘I don't want her to throw it away.'

‘Then you do think the garage is going to fail.'

‘No … damn it … I …' Lost for words, Martin pulled his cigarettes and lighter from his pocket and laid them on the table.

‘Lily has faith in the garage – and you,' Brian added quietly, steeling himself for another outburst.

‘It's a risk. She could lose everything. All the investments her aunt left her, possibly even this house …'

‘It's more likely that you stand to make a good living,' Brian interrupted.

‘You expect me to gamble every penny my wife owns on a “likelihood”?'

‘If you came in with me, you'd control your own business. You said yourself, you're a good mechanic.'

‘There's a world of difference between being a good mechanic and a good businessman.'

‘I agree, but you're careful and honest, two qualities in short supply in the motor trade. Believe me, I know. You'll soon have more work than you can cope with from word of mouth alone. People will flock to have their cars repaired and serviced by you once they realise you charge a fair price for reliable work. And there are enough cars being bought every day in Swansea for the accounts of your repair and maintenance side to go into the black and stay in the black.'

‘There are also other garages.'

‘Who don't have mechanics with your expertise to run them.'

‘You said yourself that we won't make any money for the first three years.'

‘And after that we'll make a very good living.' Brian looked at his friend. They had lived in the same army barracks for two years when they'd done their National Service and, on their return, shared a flat in the basement of Roy Williams's house. During that time they'd grown close. And although they hadn't seen one another for the last couple of years, Brian sensed that Martin hadn't changed. Not even his close, loving relationship with Lily had blotted the past from his mind. Somewhere beneath the surface of the happily married man lurked the ragged, insecure child who'd been beaten and half-starved along with the rest of his family by his father. ‘Lily said –'