Homecoming (7 page)

‘And if she tells you she really is up the duff?'

‘We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.'

‘I suppose even if it's bad news at least I'd know where I am with her. You're a brick, Angie. Thanks.'

‘Phone,' she prompted.

‘We'll need some girls and if they know Ems is coming …'

‘I won't tell them until after they arrive. Then, if anyone cuts Ems or is foul to her, it will give her all the more reason to drink and me the chance to worm the truth out of her.' She picked up the cue and returned it to the rack. Robin went into the hall.

Emily had been her closest friend and as a consequence knew more about her than was desirable in view of the Murton Davieses' fall from grace. She hadn't been comfortable with Robin's refusal to ditch Emily or Emily's insistence on remaining in Swansea. There was nothing quite so embarrassing as meeting someone who presumed on old friendship when that friendship no longer existed. And Robin was right about one thing; her boyfriend, Julian, didn't like her brother's liaison with Emily any more than their parents did. Much as he and his family adored her, they would never welcome the sister-in-law of Emily Murton Davies into the Pickering Jones family.

But – and it was a huge ‘but' – if tomorrow's party went according to her plan, Emily would have to leave town and they'd never move in the same social circles again.

Robin looked in on her from the doorway. ‘Thompson's coming and bringing a couple of friends.'

‘Good.'

‘I'd better get back to it.'

‘The more the merrier,' she called after him, as he returned to the telephone.

‘Jack, they're beautiful.'

‘Real gold and sapphires,' he said proudly.

Helen kissed him. ‘Could you afford them?'

‘No, but I did. Put them on.'

‘They'll look wonderful with my dressing gown,' she joked.

‘They'd look better without it.'

‘I'll reserve that fashion show for our bedroom.' She kissed him again before slipping the plain gold studs from her ears and replacing them with the sapphires. ‘Help me with the necklace.'

As he fastened the clasp, she slid the ring on to her finger. ‘It fits.'

‘I remembered your size.' He took her hand and fastened the bracelet around her wrist. ‘I told you I'd give you a reward if the meal was good.'

‘You did,' she smiled, ‘but I wasn't expecting anything like this. Thank you.'

‘You can thank me properly later.'

‘Would you like another piece of chocolate cake?'

‘No, it might interfere with the plans I've made.' Picking up the tray she'd loaded with their dishes, he carried it into the kitchen. ‘Leave those,' he said, as she began to run a sink full of water. ‘I'll do them in the morning.'

‘You?' She looked at him in surprise.

‘Yes, me, I'll have nothing else to do. I was hoping you could take some time off.'

‘I have, two weeks.' Untying the apron from her waist, she hung it on the back of the door. ‘Dad said you can go back to the warehouse whenever you want. You can talk to him about it tomorrow night.'

‘I'm not sure I want to go back.'

‘You want to do something else?' She followed him into the living room.

‘I've had two and half years of taking orders. That's more than any man should put up with.' He sat on the sofa facing the fire.

‘Working for my father wouldn't be like being in the army.'

‘I know, sweetheart.' He slipped his arm around her shoulders as she nestled close to him. ‘But with Katie married to him …'

‘They're happy.'

‘Can't you see it's all too neat and convenient? Me married to you, your father married to my sister. I don't want a job that's reliant on family charity.'

‘You were good in the warehouse. The stockroom manager said you were one of the best boys he's ever had working under him. He's been looking forward to you coming back.'

‘Anyone can put stock out in a warehouse, Helen.'

‘Then what do you want to do?'

‘Spend all the time I can with you, while looking around to see what else is on offer. I'll find something.'

‘I don't doubt you will. And if whatever it is doesn't work out, you can always go back to the warehouse.'

‘Perhaps.' He nuzzled her ear. ‘When are you going to tell me about the party tomorrow night?'

‘Party –' Her eyes blazed as she moved away from him. ‘Martin said something, didn't he? And he promised he wouldn't. I'll kill him.'

‘It wasn't Marty, it was you.'

‘Me!'

‘You just said I could talk to your father tomorrow night, you wouldn't have invited him without everyone else.'

‘Oh.' Anger deflated, she moved close to him again. ‘You don't mind, do you?'

‘No, sweetheart, not as long as you've kept the next two weeks free. This evening's reminded me just how much I like being married to you.'

Chapter Four

‘Those look even better than they smell.' Martin glanced around the kitchen door at the trays of cheese straws, oyster patties, miniature Cornish pasties, and choux cream and chocolate buns that Lily had spent all morning baking.

‘Thank you.' Lily recalled the night before and gave him a quick, self-conscious smile. ‘You were up early.'

‘The car needed servicing and I couldn't sleep. You looked so peaceful I was afraid I'd disturb you if I stayed in bed.'

‘I could have taken a little disturbance.'

‘Can I take that as permission to do just that on some future occasion?'

‘We'll discuss it when you're clean.' She wrinkled her nose at his grease-spattered and oil-stained overalls.

‘I don't even get to sample anything,' he complained, eyeing the trays.

‘I'll feed you two of anything you want on condition you stay that side of the door.'

‘Fine way to treat me after I've spent all morning working on the car you ride round in.'

‘Is there any oil left in your car engine or did you pour it all over yourself, Martin?' Sam peered over his shoulder.

‘Don't you ever knock?'

‘I heard you talking as I came up the stairs.' Sam stared at the trays. ‘Oh my! And all I was hoping for was a slice of apple flan.'

‘And that's all you're getting,' Lily warned. ‘Marty?'

‘You can put one of those pasties in my mouth.'

‘Wonderful, he gets fed and I have to beg for yesterday's leftovers,' Sam complained. Martin demolished the pasty Lily held out to him in two bites.

‘You can eat all you want, Sam,' Lily slapped his wrist as he reached for the nearest tray, ‘tonight, at Helen and Jack's.'

‘More please,' Martin mumbled through a full mouth. ‘A cheese straw this time.'

‘Want me to get that?' Sam asked, as the doorbell rang.

‘Please. I'd better have a bath before I contaminate any more of the house.' Munching a mouthful of cheese flavoured pastry, Martin headed for the stairs as Lily attacked a greasy finger mark he'd left on the kitchen door with a cloth and neat Quix.

‘Lunch will be ready in half an hour,' Lily called after him, ‘so don't start reading in the bath.'

‘I won't.'

‘And don't you dare touch any more paintwork until you've washed your hands.'

‘Turned out bossy, hasn't she?' Sam said to someone behind him. He moved and Lily stared, dumbfounded.

‘Think she recognises me.' Brian Powell nudged Sam with his elbow.

‘It's been a long time,' Sam mocked. ‘Over two and half years – Jack and Helen's wedding.'

‘Sorry I couldn't make yours,' Brian apologised to Lily.

‘Thank you for your present.' The phrase ‘speak of the devil and he appears' sprang to mind, as she recalled the conversation she'd had with Judy only the night before. ‘The towels were just what we needed.' She pulled him into the kitchen. ‘This is such a surprise, but it's lovely to see you. Martin will be thrilled. He's been complaining that he hasn't heard from you in months.' She hugged him and he kissed her cheek.

‘I see you were expecting me,' Brian joked, indicating the trays of food.

‘These are for Jack's homecoming party tonight.'

‘When did he get back?'

‘Last night.' She handed him a chair. ‘Sit down; I was just about to make a meal. You will join us?'

‘If this is any indication of what's on the menu, I'd love to.'

‘Great,' Sam moaned. ‘He comes back after years away and gets an instant invitation while you make your lodger, who pays his rent every week without fail, beg for crumbs from your table.'

‘If you made yourself useful instead of grumbling, Sam, I'd invite you as well.' Lily pulled down the flap on the kitchen cabinet and stacked the trays of food inside.

‘I'm putting the kettle on even as I speak.' Sam went to the stove.

Lily pushed a casserole dish into the oven and switched it on. ‘So, what are you doing in Swansea, Brian? Are you down for a couple of days, or longer? Are you still working in London?'

‘That's a lot of questions. Do you want me to answer them in order?'

‘Still the same old, aggravating Brian.'

‘Not quite.' He winced as he lowered himself on to a chair. ‘I've been invalided out of the Met.'

‘What happened?' Sam set three cups on the table.

‘I had an argument with a man carrying a switchblade. I lost.'

‘But you are all right?' Lily sat next to him.

‘As you see.' Brian smiled, but Lily could detect pain lines around his eyes and mouth.

‘Couldn't they find you a desk job?' Sam poured boiling water into the teapot.

‘They offered, I turned it down. After three years in London I wanted to come home.'

‘So, you're back in Swansea.' Sam set the teapot on the table.

‘Not as a copper. You know the force, they like their officers fighting fit.'

‘What will you do?'

‘Take it easy, see a few mates, admire their wives, see if I can entice them away,' Brian winked at Lily, ‘drink a couple of beers. But that's enough about me,' he added, closing the subject. ‘How about filling me in on what's been happening here since I last heard from Martin. If Jack's only just got back he must have served more than two years.'

As Lily told him about Jack's extended National Service, injuries and return, Katie's pregnancy, Helen's career as a buyer in her father's warehouse, the changes she and Martin had made to the house, she noticed the one person Brian didn't ask about was Judy. But with Sam sitting in the room, she didn't dare mention her, and from the look on Sam's face, she wasn't the only one who remembered how close Brian and Judy had once been.

‘Sam has a point, Judy,' Joy suggested mildly, as she lifted a noisy, wriggling Billy from her lap and set him on the floor next to a wooden toy truck filled with plastic bricks. ‘You have been engaged for over eighteen months.'

‘Exactly, which is why I can't see that a couple more months will make much difference. The salons –'

‘Are doing fine,' Joy said. ‘We have good girls in every one of them and provided we keep paying them well and treating them fairly, they're not going to be in a hurry to move on.'

‘But we could open more,' Judy began heatedly.

‘I was happy with one salon for eighteen years; you've opened ten in the last two and half.'

‘They bring in a good income, which we both need.'

‘You can only spend so much money in a lifetime.' Joy looked fondly down at her son who was running his truck along the edge of the hearthrug.

‘It will soon go, between Billy's education and the house I want to buy …'

‘You've seen a house you want to buy?'

‘Not yet,' Judy conceded, ‘but I will want a house one day and they are expensive.'

‘And when the time comes, Sam will get a mortgage. And as for Billy,' Joy smiled as Billy looked up at her, ‘the state schools were good enough for you and they will be for him.'

‘Billy might go on to university.'

‘Not for seventeen years.'

‘I'd still like to pay my share of any deposit Sam and I put on a house.'

‘So you and Sam have been talking about houses?'

‘We haven't,' Judy retorted irritably.

‘I see.' Joy sat back in her chair. ‘Do you want a full church wedding with a big reception or a small affair in a register office?'

‘I haven't a clue.' Judy chewed her lip. ‘Damn Sam, he knows I hate threats and ultimatums.'

‘He doesn't strike me as the kind who would make them lightly.' Joy looked at her daughter. ‘Are you sure you love him?'

‘Of course I'm sure.' Judy didn't want to elaborate after Lily's reaction to her definition of ‘everyday love'.

‘Then why the reluctance to set a date?' Joy questioned gently.

‘Because Sam is pushing me into it when I'm not ready.'

‘You're not making much sense, Judy.'

‘You and Roy carried on for years before you were married, and that's not meant nastily,' Judy added hastily, realising how her comment could be misconstrued. ‘In fact, I rather admired you for it. Independent successful businesswoman able to keep her clients and lover happy while successfully bringing up and grooming intelligent, talented daughter to take over from her,' she joked.

‘Thank you for the compliment, but my biggest regret is that I was too stupid to give your father the divorce he wanted years ago, when you were a baby.'

‘Really?' Judy questioned seriously.

‘Really,' Joy reiterated solemnly. ‘Given how fond you are of Roy and he is of you, the three – four,' she handed Billy back a brick he had given her, ‘of us missed out on years of what could have been happy family life.'

‘Brum … Brum …'

Joy bent down and tickled Billy as he made car noises. ‘There might even have been more like this one.'

‘There still could be.' Judy opened her arms, as her brother headed towards her.

‘Perhaps.' Joy fell serious again. ‘If you are one hundred per cent sure that you love Sam and he loves you, and you want to spend the rest of your life with him, then marry him, Judy, and my advice is the sooner the better. But if you have any doubts, any at all …'

‘Which I haven't.'

‘Mam!' Billy rolled his truck back to Joy.

‘Then I can't understand why we are having this conversation. You clever darling.' Joy scooped her son into her arms, as he pulled on her skirt to show her the pillar he'd made out of the bricks.

‘Don't you resent staying at home with Billy? You must miss running the business …'

‘Miss what?' Joy hugged Billy. He threw his arms around her neck and planted a sticky kiss on her cheek. ‘The smell of peroxide, hair lacquer and perming solutions; standing on my feet all day trying to soothe cantankerous old women who want to look like Hollywood stars while griping about the time it takes to set their hair.' She wiped Billy's mouth with her handkerchief before he dribbled over her blouse. ‘I wouldn't go back to that for all the tea in China.'

‘How's my favourite son?' Roy opened the door and strode towards Billy, who screamed with delight at the sight of him. Scooping the toddler from Joy's lap, he tossed him, squealing with laughter, into the air. After he caught him, he bent his head to Judy's and kissed her cheek. ‘And my favourite stepdaughter?'

‘I'm fine.' Judy felt strangely embarrassed as she intercepted a look between Roy and her mother, a loving intimate glance that spoke volumes about their marriage. She rose to her feet. ‘Time I was off.'

‘Stay and eat with us,' her mother offered. ‘It won't be much, just toasted sandwiches.'

‘I want to check on the Morriston salon.'

‘It will still be standing after lunch.'

‘Please stay, we hardly see anything of you,' Roy pressed.

‘Perhaps some other time.' Taking Billy from Roy, she kissed him goodbye.

‘You work too hard,' Roy commented, walking her to the door. ‘And it's not just us who are complaining, Sam –'

‘Sam talks to you about me?' Judy whirled round.

‘Only to say nice things. You don't mind, do you? After all, he will soon be my step son-in-law.'

‘Yes.' Judy looked back at her mother as she opened the front door. ‘Yes, Roy, he will.'

‘Thanks for the meal, Lily.' Sam left the table.

‘When are you and Mike going to invite Lily and me down to your place to sample your cooking?' Martin asked.

‘The next evening we're both free and off shift.'

‘And we'll be eating what exactly?' Lily questioned.

‘The fish and chip shop in Hanover Street does a great battered cod and chips.'

‘Judging by the number of times you eat here, I'm surprised you know,' Martin retorted.

‘A man builds up an appetite pounding the freezing winter beat in Swansea. Not that a grease monkey who works in a nice, dry, comfortable garage would know anything about the effects cold, rain, damp and snow have on a man.'

‘I'll expect afters as well as fish and chips.' Lily stacked their empty dessert bowls.

‘I'll get you the cake of the day from Eynon's.' Sam turned to Brian. ‘Great seeing you again, mate. You'll be at Jack's tonight?'

‘Hardly, I'm not invited.'

‘Only because Jack and Helen don't know you're here.' Martin handed Lily the empty custard jug. ‘You have to come, it'll be great, a reunion of the basement flat boys.'

‘One of us still lives there.' Sam glanced at his watch. ‘If I don't get a move on, I'll never get to my mother's and back in time to pick up my missus. See you, Brian. Thanks again for the meal, Lily. Next time I promise I'll wash up.'

‘If I thought you wouldn't take advantage, I would say come again.' She carried on clearing the table.

‘Sam's married?' Brian asked, as Martin ran a sink full of hot water.

‘Engaged, has been for eighteen months.' Martin caught Lily's eye and remembered that it had been serious enough between Judy and Brian for Brian to follow her up to London, only for their relationship to end when Judy had returned to Swansea a few months later. ‘I'll wash, you dry,' he suggested to Lily.

‘I've a better idea; you take Brian into the living room while I wash the dishes and leave them to drain. When I've finished, I'll make us coffee.'

‘That's hardly fair,' Brian protested.

‘I'll enjoy the peace and quiet. Go on,' Lily ordered, hoping Martin would have the sense to tell Brian about Judy and Sam. ‘Out of my kitchen, both of you, now.'

‘Sam is right,' Brian said, when he and Martin were in the living room.