Sinners and Shadows (34 page)

A few minutes later the train juddered to a halt. Rhian slipped on the brown silk coat that matched her skirt. When she judged it safe, she went to the window and peered through the side of the blind. She saw Edward leave the train and watched his tall, slim figure stride assertively through the crowd. He hailed a porter and waved him in the direction of the carriage. Then she spotted Harris walking up the steps on to the platform, and ducked back out of sight.

‘You wanted a porter, madam?' The porter knocked and opened the door.

‘Yes, please.'

He gazed in dismay at the pile of cases next to the door. ‘Are all these yours, madam?'

‘Six cases and two hatboxes,' she confirmed.

‘I'll need help with this lot. Where you going, madam?'

‘Tonypandy.'

‘All I can say is that I hope someone is meeting you the other end.'

It was then Rhian realized that while she remained with Edward and he insisted on remaining ‘respectable', there'd never be anyone meeting her. So far as the world was concerned, she was a single woman without family. And, given her secretive relationship to Edward, which she didn't doubt would eventually lead to gossip, estranged from her friends.

Edward adored her. He couldn't get enough of her company – now. But after Joey she knew what it was to be in love and she was realistic enough to accept that Edward was no more in love with her than she with him. Their relationship was purely physical, rooted and based in lust. They both derived enjoyment from it, but it was also fraught with guilt; his for using her, which was why he insisted on showering her with expensive presents, and hers for accepting them because it made her feel like a whore.

She wondered what he would do if he tired of her. He'd made no secret that there had been others before her. If another girl caught his eye, would he ask her to move out of the rooms so he could move her successor in? Would she lose her position as manager of his shop?

The uncomfortable thought occurred to her that should Edward ever discard her, she would find herself more alone than she had ever been in her life. Without Sali, Megan, Mrs Williams or, given that she was Edward's daughter, even Julia to turn to. Her position as Edward's mistress had effectively isolated her from her previous life, as much as a move to the colonies of Canada or Australia would have.

Lloyd refilled Julia and Sali's wine glasses and then his own. ‘Will you carry on working for the suffragette cause, Julia?' he asked.

‘Now that the King has given a complete and general amnesty to all suffragettes being held in prison, as well as all strikers convicted of assault, I think the war has temporarily pushed both the suffragette and workers' rights campaigns into abeyance. Besides, my first priority must be to look for a house. I can't live in the New Inn for ever.'

‘Why don't you move in with us?' Sali asked impulsively. ‘We'd love to have you, wouldn't we, Lloyd?'

Lloyd shot her a warning glance and Sali knew what he was thinking. Julia was delightful company but unless she found a place and quickly, Geraint would be likely to spend his leaves with them and that would put them all under enormous strain.

Knowing what they were thinking, Julia asked, ‘Is it possible for me to find a house in six weeks? Geraint may or may not get leave then, but he certainly won't get any before.'

‘If you don't, you could always move back into the New Inn for however long Geraint's leave lasts, and back here when he returns to his regiment,' Lloyd suggested.

‘After getting to know both of you this evening, I am sorry that things are strained between you and my husband.' Julia handed her empty plate to Sali.

‘So are we,' Lloyd replied deprecatingly. ‘You do know that things between my younger brother and your husband are even worse. On occasion they have become shall we say – somewhat physical?'

‘Geraint did mention it.' Julia allowed herself a small smile.

‘So, what do you say, Julia?' Sali asked. ‘Would you like to stay with us?'

‘I warn you that our service isn't up to the standard of the New Inn but it is cheaper if you don't persist in buying the children toys.' Lloyd smiled.

‘Yes, please.' Julia returned his smile, feeling as if she had found herself the second family that she had been looking for.

‘Home, sir.'

Edward woke with a start, opened his eyes and to his amazement discovered that his carriage was outside Llan House. ‘We're here already, Harris?'

‘You fell asleep before we left Cardiff, sir.' Harris opened the door and folded down the steps. ‘I'll bring in your luggage.'

‘Thank you.'

‘Sir?'

‘Yes, Harris?' Edward's limbs were heavy from sleep and he moved awkwardly as he stepped down from the carriage.

‘I would like to hand in my notice so I can enlist, sir. My brother's going and we want to join up together.'

‘This rather leaves me in the lurch, Harris,' Edward said irritably.

‘I did wait until you came back, sir. If it had been up to my brother we would have signed up last Monday.'

‘Isn't this a sudden and irresponsible decision of yours, Harris?'

‘I don't think so, sir. I'll be sorry to leave Llan House, you've been a more than fair employer, but well, the way my brother and me see it, our country needs us more than anyone else right now. So, if it's all right with you, I'd like to pack right away and leave tonight.'

‘And the horses, have you thought what's going to happen to them?' Edward was furious at being saddled with practical problems the minute he'd returned to Tonypandy.

‘I'll stable them as usual tonight, sir. The oldest Jones boy said he'd see to them in the morning and I've made enquiries. There's room in the stables in town.'

‘You've taken a lot upon yourself, Harris.'

‘I wanted to make sure that they would be all right, sir. About my wages …'

‘Come into the house after you've packed.'

‘Thank you, sir.'

‘Just one thing, Harris. I know that some people would see what you're doing in a heroic light, but I have to be practical. I can't pay your wages while you're in the army.'

‘I wouldn't expect you to, sir.'

‘And I can't guarantee that you'll have a job to come back to. I'll need to employ another coachman and I can hardly fire him when the war is over, especially if it lasts any length of time.'

‘I understand, sir.' Harris returned to the box and drove the carriage around the back of the house.

Edward walked up the steps and Mrs Williams opened the door.

‘I trust you had a good journey and a successful trip, sir?'

‘I did, Mrs Williams.' Something in the expression on her face made him uneasy. ‘Is everything all right?'

‘Not exactly, sir. I was hoping to have a word with you.'

Sensing trouble of his wife's making, he braced himself. ‘I'll see you in my study in ten minutes, Mrs Williams. Is my wife in?'

‘She's at church, sir. Can I get you anything?'

He shivered, suddenly cold after his sleep although the evening was warm. ‘Hot coffee, please, Mrs Williams. My letters are in my study?'

‘On your desk, sir.'

‘Most of the clothes in my suitcase can be sent to the laundry.'

‘I'll see to them, sir.'

Edward retreated to his study and poured himself a brandy. He checked the time. Seven o'clock. With luck, Mr Hadley would preach a long sermon, in which case Mabel wouldn't leave church for another half-hour. And as she usually spent another ten minutes gossiping outside afterwards, it would give him ample time to go through his mail, pack clean clothes and be long gone by the time she came home.

A pile of envelopes had been stacked neatly to the side of his blotting pad on his desk. Taking his brandy, he sat in his chair and flicked through them before picking up a silver sword letter-opener that had been a gift from Amelia.

‘Your coffee, sir.' Mrs Williams brought a silver pot and porcelain cup in on a tray.

‘Bills, bills and more bills.' He studied the grocer's invoice. ‘Ground almonds, salted almonds, French cheeses, eight pints of fresh double cream?' He looked questioningly at Mrs Williams.

‘The mistress has been doing a great deal of entertaining, sir.'

He opened the fishmonger's bill. ‘Caviar, smoked salmon, lobster, shrimp, prawns.' He moved on to the greengrocer's account. ‘Grapes, asparagus, pineapple, melon … The food bill for the last month is the highest it's ever been and for most of that time my wife has been living alone.'

‘Yes, sir,' Mrs Williams agreed shortly. ‘But if you'd like to see the household accounts, you'll note that the food bill for the servants has been halved.'

‘You don't follow the same menu?'

‘It's smoked salmon on Melba toast upstairs and bloater paste on dry bread downstairs, sir.'

‘Have you complained to my wife?'

‘Not only me, sir, but also Cook.'

‘And her reaction?'

‘She said there has been a great deal of waste in the house, sir.'

‘I'll go along with that,' he agreed caustically. ‘But from what I can see it's none of yours or Cook's doing.' He took a large envelope from his desk drawer and pushed the bills into it. He intended to check them all meticulously against Mabel's allowance. And if, as he suspected, she'd exceeded it, he'd force her to cut her expenditure until she'd made good the deficit.

‘There's something else, sir.'

Edward slipped the envelope into his inside pocket and turned his chair to face the housekeeper. ‘If there's any more bad news, Mrs Williams, I may as well hear it all at once.'

‘There's been talk in the town, sir. Rhian was seen leaving the house next door to your office.'

‘She is renting rooms there and I have offered her a job managing a shop I am opening on the ground floor.' Unable to meet Mrs Williams's penetrating gaze, he turned away.

‘It is not for me to criticize, sir –'

‘But you are,' he interrupted.

‘As I said, sir, there's been talk. I thought you should be aware of it.'

‘I was aware that it would start, Mrs Williams. I didn't think you would subscribe to the gossip.'

‘I took Rhian on as a trainee when she was barely fifteen, sir. She is a decent girl. I feel responsible for her. I have grown very fond of her –'

‘I too, am fond of her, Mrs Williams,' he cut in.

‘I wasn't happy when she got herself engaged to Joey Evans, but I could see that she was head over heels in love with him and it was pointless saying anything against him. Then when he showed his true colours and she ran off I don't mind telling you that I was worried sick. When you said she was somewhere safe, I never dreamed for one minute that it was with you.'

‘Rest assured, I will take care of her, Mrs Williams,' he said firmly.

‘But you can't buy her respectability.' When he didn't comment, she added, ‘Can I be blunt, sir.'

‘I thought you were being exactly that, Mrs Williams.'

‘May and December never work, sir. Half a century and nineteen are thirty years too far apart.'

‘There's blunt, Mrs Williams, and there's overstepping the mark with an employer.'

She poured his coffee. ‘Not for much longer, sir. I am handing in my notice.'

‘Because of Rhian?'

She didn't answer him. ‘I have a cousin who owns several houses, including one in Pembrey. The government has taken over a factory down there to make munitions. My cousin has asked me if I'd run his Pembrey house as a boarding house for the workers.'

‘And you would prefer to work for him after working for me for nearly thirty years?'

‘Frankly, yes, sir. This is no longer a happy house. The mistress has made it plain that she's not satisfied with my work and I am certainly not satisfied with her attitude towards me or the rest of the staff.'

‘I see.' Edward couldn't imagine Llan House without Mrs Williams and Harris. ‘Happy or not, there is no way that it can be run with just Bronwen, Meriel and Mair.'

‘It could if you promoted Bronwen to housekeeper and shut up everything except the drawing and dining room and the mistress's bedroom, sir.'

‘Would you consider staying on as a special favour to me, until I can make alternative arrangements?'

‘No, sir. I'm needed in the boarding house right away.'

‘Surely you can spare four weeks after the length of time you've worked here?'

‘No, sir.' Her reply was final and Edward realized there was no point in pressing her further. ‘Will there be anything else, sir?'

‘No.' Edward rose to his feet. All he wanted to do was pay Harris his wages, plus a week extra in view of his patriotic gesture, pick up clean clothes and take refuge with Rhian in the comfort of his rooms in Dunraven Street before Mabel returned.

Mrs Ball left her rooms when she heard Rhian turn her key in the front door. ‘Some letters have come for you, Miss Jones. I've put them in your living room.'

‘Thank you, Mrs Ball.' Rhian took her hatbox from the cabman who was unloading her suitcases on to the pavement. ‘Could you please carry these up to the second floor?' She handed him a shilling as an incentive.

‘I'll watch these, while you go on up,' Mrs Ball offered.

Rhian picked up her second hatbox, ran up the stairs, left the boxes in the bedroom and picked up her letters from the table. One was from Sali; the other was addressed to her in Joey's hand. Lacking the courage to open Joey's, she opened Sali's first.

Dear Rhian,

I want to say so much more to you than I can put in a letter. I love you like a sister and always will. Please come and see us as soon as you can. If it isn't easy for you to get away, let me know when it will be convenient for me to call.