Sinners and Shadows (14 page)

‘Rhian has plenty of time, Miss Collins. She is not getting married until the first of August.' The gown was the height of fashion but that wasn't why Sali had picked it out. The instant she saw it, she knew that it would highlight Rhian's slim figure and delicate colouring. Slender-cut with a high waist, knee-length lace over-tunic and richly-beaded lace and satin train, it was decorated with pendent bands of sparkling crystals that swung in glittering hoops from the shoulders to the hips.

‘Shall I order one made in your measurements, madam?' Miss Collins asked Rhian.

‘All you need is a lace veil, crystal tiara, elbow-length lace gloves and satin slippers to transform you into the perfect bride, Rhian. And I don't want to hear a word about money. Your outfit is Lloyd's and my wedding present to you and Joey.'

‘I couldn't –'

‘You could.'

‘My wedding dress is hardly something for Joey,' Rhian demurred.

‘The woman inside it will be. But are you sure that you don't want to look at any others? I'd hate to think that I forced this one on you. We have a wide selection of more traditional as well as fashionable gowns.'

Rhian shook her head. ‘None of them could possibly make me look as good as this one does.'

‘They wouldn't,' Miss Collins concurred.

‘Then you'll let me buy it for you?'

Rhian hesitated.

‘It would give Lloyd and me such pleasure.'

‘Yes, please, but only if you let me buy the accessories,' Rhian conceded.

‘I won't because a wedding outfit is a package. Miss Collins, you'll take Rhian's measurements and send for the appropriate accessories?'

‘I will, Mrs Evans.' The dressmaker reached for her tape measure.

Sali glanced at her watch. ‘As we're running over the hour, I'll tell Joey that you'll be late. You'll come to the house for tea?'

‘I'm sorry, we can't. Joey's made an appointment for us to see Father Kelly and we promised to visit Victor and Megan afterwards.'

‘We were there yesterday. Give her my love, kiss the twins for me and we'll see you next week.'

‘You will, and thank you. I never thought I'd have a wedding dress like this.' Rhian glanced back into the mirror.

Sali opened the door and saw the supervisor from menswear running towards her. She stepped into the corridor and closed the door behind her.

‘Mr Paige sent me to get you, Mrs Evans. Mr Watkin Jones has met with an accident in Mr Horton's office.'

‘Joey, how could you?' Sali demanded irately after Geraint had been examined by a doctor, packed into a cab and sent back to Ynysangharad House to be cared for by his housekeeper.

‘Very easily.' Joey rubbed his fist. His knuckles had already turned the peculiar shade of red that precedes severe bruising.

‘I've often felt like hitting Geraint myself, but I've always managed to control myself. Couldn't you?'

‘No.' Joey lifted his head and looked her in the eye.

‘If Geraint has done something to you –'

‘Not to me, but to someone close to me.'

‘Rhian?' Sali asked quickly.

He shook his head. ‘Please, don't ask me any more questions, Sali. I can't answer them.'

‘Why?' she demanded.

‘Because I made someone a promise and I won't break it.'

‘You do realize that I will ask Geraint about this.'

‘He won't give you any more answers than I have.'

‘You seem very confident about that.'

‘I am,' he declared flatly.

‘Geraint's my brother; I have a right to know what he's done.'

‘Not when the knowledge will hurt a third …' Joey almost said ‘and innocent party' but given Tonia's recent behaviour the last thing he could call her was innocent.

‘You're fortunate Geraint refused to press charges.'

‘He knew what would happen to him if he tried.' Joey left the chair and went to the door. ‘And if it ever came out, it wouldn't be just me hitting him.'

‘Lloyd, Victor?' Sali looked at him in alarm.

‘I've said all I am going to. Do you think Rhian will be ready now?'

‘Possibly,' Sali answered non-committally.

He opened the door. ‘Do me a favour, don't mention this to her.'

‘I won't, but you can bet your last sixpence that someone has by now. Gossip flies around this store faster than smoke up a chimney.'

‘You do know that I would tell you if I could.'

She nodded. It wasn't idle curiosity that had led her to press Joey. The alternative to not knowing why Joey had hit Geraint was imagining all kinds of lurid reasons. And given Geraint's faults, she hated herself for even thinking what some of them might be.

Sali was right, Rhian had heard about the altercation between Joey and Geraint before she'd left the fitting room. And she was as annoyed as Sali at his refusal to tell her any more.

‘We have time to lunch in the New Inn,' he offered, in an attempt to change the subject.

‘The New Inn is monstrously expensive.'

‘A celebratory lunch for our engagement,' he suggested, elated by his momentary success in steering the conversation away from him and Geraint.

‘After hearing what you've just done, I'm hardly in the mood for a celebration and I shouldn't think you'd be either,' she reproached.

‘I'm hungry. I'll settle for a sandwich and a cup of tea in the arcade if you won't go anywhere else.'

‘Why won't you tell me why you did it?' She recalled his reticence the week before when they had called into the store. ‘This has something to do with what happened last week. You said that you'd quarrelled with Geraint then.'

‘I can't talk about it,' he pleaded.

‘Won't, more like.'

‘Can't,' he corrected, ‘and as you only get one day off a week, let's not spoil it.'

‘Just answer me one thing.' She laid her hand on his arm, and stopped him in the middle of Market Square. ‘Is it about a girl?'

‘I made someone a promise,' he hedged.

‘A girl someone?'

‘Not a girl I've gone out with or even looked at in the way I've looked at you.'

‘I didn't think there was a girl left within a ten-mile radius that you haven't gone out with.'

‘I swear I have never regarded this one as my girlfriend, not even for a second.'

‘And telling me more would break your promise to her?'

‘Yes,' he confessed miserably.

‘Why did you promise her anything if she means nothing to you?' When he didn't answer her question, she said, ‘Only last week you made me a solemn promise. Do you make a habit of going around promising girls whatever they ask of you?'

He gripped her by the shoulders and pulled her into the shelter of a doorway. ‘I made you a promise. I won't and haven't broken it. And I'll swear that on the Bible if you want me to. What happened between Geraint and me is nothing to do with any girl that I've ever gone out with.'

‘You mean it?'

His eyes were dark, anguished. ‘Yes.'

‘If I ever find out that you've lied to me, Joey, I'll walk away from you and keep on walking. There'll be no second chance.'

‘I know.'

‘Let's go to the New Inn and have lunch.'

‘And then we'll go back to Tonypandy and see Father Kelly about booking the wedding before visiting Victor and Megan.'

‘Yes.' She tried to smile, but a tiny maggot of doubt wormed away at the back of her mind, poisoning her thoughts and magnifying every reservation she'd ever had about accepting Joey's proposal.

‘A visit from my sister. I am honoured,' Geraint watched his housekeeper pour, sugar, milk and stir his tea, before taking a piece of toast from the rack she had set on the table. ‘I take it you haven't come for breakfast?' he enquired caustically when Sali shook her head at the housekeeper's offer of refreshments.

‘No, I haven't, Geraint.'

‘I'll ring if I need anything else, Mrs Andrews.' He dismissed the elderly housekeeper, who left the room and closed the door behind her.

Knowing that if she waited for an invitation to sit down she'd wait for ever, Sali sat opposite her brother at the table. ‘By the look of you, you've fully recovered.'

‘No thanks to your thug of a brother-in-law.' He picked up his knife and fork and cut into the bacon and eggs Mrs Andrews had put in front of him.

‘You still refuse to tell me why he hit you.'

‘Does a ruffian like him need a reason? After growing up in the gutter and working in a colliery before you pulled strings to get him a position in Gwilym James, he probably thinks beating a man senseless is an acceptable pastime.'

Sali flinched at the insult, aimed not only at Joey, but Lloyd's entire family. It wasn't easy to ignore, but having discovered from past and unpleasant experience that a shouting match with Geraint would achieve precisely nothing, she continued. ‘Joey wouldn't have hit you for no reason.'

‘That's right, take the side of the dirt you married into.'

A steely note crept into her voice. ‘I didn't come here to have an argument with you, Geraint, but another comment like that and I will.'

‘Why did you come?' he demanded belligerently.

‘You haven't been in work since last Tuesday.'

‘I had concussion.' He set down his fork, buttered two pieces of toast and cut them into triangles.

‘You're up, you're dressed and you look perfectly fit to me now.'

‘Monday is my day off. I have an important engagement.'

‘Can I tell Mr Horton that you'll be in work tomorrow?' she persisted patiently.

‘You can tell him what you damn well please.'

She found it difficult to ignore his swearing, but not wanting to get sidetracked from the purpose of her visit, refrained from reproaching him. ‘He won't be pleased if he sees you walking around town today.'

‘Now you're threatening to dismiss me from Gwilym James?'

‘As you well know, hiring and firing is Mr Horton's prerogative, not mine.'

‘Come on, Sali, drop the pretence.' He picked up his fork. ‘Mr Horton's your lap dog. He wouldn't dare be anything else when it's your son who owns the business.'

‘If he ever hears you saying that, you will be out of the door,' she informed him coldly. ‘I have no more influence than any of the other trustees over Mr Horton.'

‘Has he been complaining to you about my work?' There was an edge to Geraint's voice and Sali hoped that he was disturbed by the thought of losing his only income.

‘I'm your sister, not your guardian. If you're worried about your position in the company, I suggest you talk to Mr Horton about it. That's if you do condescend to work tomorrow.'

‘You can tell Mr Horton I'll be in,' he conceded abruptly.

‘Tell him yourself,' she said wearily. ‘There's one more thing. The trustees have asked me to remind you that Mother died six months ago.'

‘And you want me out of your house.' He tossed his napkin over the uneaten food on his plate.

‘The trustees want you out of
Harry's
house,' she corrected. ‘You requested one month's grace; you have been given four. I asked them to pay the wages of the nurse and housekeeper and the running costs of this annex so Mother would be cared for during her lifetime. They felt that they couldn't do any less for Harry's grandmother and, while she was alive, they were happy for you to live with her.'

‘And now she's dead they're happy to put Harry's uncle out on the street?' he challenged.

‘They're not happy about the situation, Geraint. But, unlike Mother, you are able-bodied. And for the last three years you have been promising me and the trustees that you will look for other accommodation, rather than be a burden on your nephew's estate.'

‘If I'd found anywhere suitable, I'd be there,' he snapped.

‘It costs a great deal to keep this wing open. There are coals, electricity and gas to pay for as well as Mrs Andrew's wages and the meals Mrs Williams sends over from the main kitchen. I told the trustees I'd talk to you one more time before –'

‘Before what,
dear
sister? They send me an eviction notice?' he cut in.

‘It's not my decision.'

‘No, only one-twelfth of your decision. I'll look for lodgings but have you considered Llinos and Gareth?' He referred to their younger brother and sister. ‘Where are they supposed to go when they visit their home town? Judging by the way you treat me, I can't see you making them welcome in your house.'

‘Gareth and Llinos know that they can stay with us in the main house any time they choose.'

‘But I can't!'

‘Not permanently, no.' She struggled to contain her temper. ‘Holidays are different, and if you were living away like them you'd be welcome to visit – for a week or two,' she added pointedly.

Gareth's inheritance had been invested in property, which their uncle had been unable to plunder. He had an income of four hundred pounds a year, which had covered the cost of his education, enabled him to set up a modest saving account and enrol in Sandhurst after he'd left school. Llinos' education had been paid for by Harry's trustees and they had, at Sali's instigation, also advanced Llinos a loan so she could take a position as a ‘working' pupil in a language school in Switzerland with a view to becoming a lady's travelling companion. But Sali knew her sister's sole ambition was to marry well and wealthily. Laudable or not, at least Llinos had an ambition, whereas Geraint appeared to have none.

‘You'd be happy to see me living in some ghastly rundown lodging house with colliers, wouldn't you?' Geraint taunted.

‘I'd be happy seeing you living anywhere where you weren't a burden on my son's estate,' Sali replied tartly. ‘Plenty of men are paying mortgages and bringing up families on less than you earn. You've had absolutely no living expenses for the past three years. Surely you've saved something?'