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Authors: Catrin Collier

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BOOK: Winners and Losers
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Lena stared at Shipton in disbelief.

‘How about it, Miss Jones? Shall we visit the Empire Theatre on your next afternoon off?' Huw repeated.

‘Go on, Miss Jones, let your hair down for once,' Tom Shipton encouraged. ‘Oh and by the way, we need fresh water in our room.'

‘As soon as Megan and I have finished putting away this laundry we'll do your room,' Lena said numbly.

‘The girls aren't allowed into our bedrooms except in pairs, Huw,' Shipton explained. ‘See you in our sitting room? There's probably a cup of tea going.'

‘I'll be down as soon as I've dropped this off.' Huw looked around for somewhere to put the bale of laundry.

‘Put it at the foot of the stairs, Constable Davies.' Lena turned her head so he wouldn't see her tears. ‘I'll carry it up from there.'

‘I'll get that.' Joey left the breakfast table on the morning of his and Victor's trial and answered the front door.

‘Since when do you make me get up from the breakfast table by knocking?' he complained to Megan, who was standing on the pavement.

‘Since I'm not sure what Victor will say when he sees me here,' she explained, unfazed by his show of temper. ‘He told me he doesn't want me at the trial but Mrs Palmer said I could have time off if I wanted to go. And I want to,' she added defiantly.

Joey stuck his head out of the door and looked up and down the street. ‘Well, we've a fine dry day if it does come to a hanging. You coming in?'

Megan hesitated. ‘How is Victor?'

‘Eating the condemned man's last breakfast.' She paled and he added, ‘Just joking.' He led the way down the passage and into the kitchen. ‘Victor, look what the wind's blown up the street.'

‘I told you I didn't want you at the court, Megan.' Victor's greeting was all the more cutting for being spoken in a monotone.

‘Sali, is my clean collar upstairs?' Joey deftly pocketed the collar Sali had hung on the back of his father's empty chair.

‘There's a spot on my waistcoat that needs seeing to, sweetheart.' Lloyd held up his entirely blameless waistcoat.

Sali was already out of her chair. ‘If you two come upstairs with me, I'll see what I can do.'

‘Where's Harry?' Megan asked Victor when they were alone.

‘Sali took him down Connie's after an early breakfast. Tonia is walking him to school.' Victor stacked his cup and saucer on his plate and carried them to the sink.

‘Can I go with you today?'

‘I have no idea how long we'll be in the court, and you have to work.'

‘No, I don't. Mrs Palmer called on Mrs Morgan yesterday and offered her a job. Mornings and relief work so Lena and I can take a full day off every week. She's taken over from me today.'

‘Betty Morgan has taken a job in a lodging house full of policemen! Ned Morgan will spin in his grave.' Busying himself so he wouldn't have to look at her, Victor buttoned his waistcoat, picked up his watch from the table, clipped the chain to the bottom buttonhole and dropped it into the specially made pocket.

‘Ned Morgan's been in his grave for nearly a month and that's a full month without even strike money,' she reminded him. ‘What's Mrs Morgan supposed to live on? Fresh air?'

‘The train company will have to pay her compensation.'

‘So Mrs Morgan hopes, but there's no sign of it coming. And in the meantime, the ten shillings a week Mrs Palmer has offered her to come in five mornings a week will pay her bills. So,' she steeled herself, ‘as I'm not needed in the lodging house today, can I please come to the court with you?'

‘To see me in the dock?' He finally looked at her.

‘To support you. I know Sali's going, because she told me she is. She may need me to go to the school and fetch Harry if your case runs into late afternoon.'

‘You're determined to go no matter what I say, aren't you?' He shrugged on his suit jacket.

Megan opened the cupboard where Sali kept the clothes brush and brushed the back and shoulders of his dark brown woollen suit. ‘There's a public gallery.'

‘So I can't stop you from going. Is that what you're saying?'

She gave him a slightly sheepish smile. ‘Exactly.'

‘I've taught you too many lessons in how to be an Evans.' He took the clothes brush from her. ‘I suppose you may as well walk down the hill with us.'

She locked her arms around his neck and kissed him.

‘As long as you know that's a common criminal you're kissing.'

‘My common criminal, not any old one.' She opened the door and shouted up the stairs, ‘Sali, Lloyd, Joey, I'm coming to court with you.'

‘Good.' Joey ran down the stairs. ‘I wish Dad was here,' he muttered to no one in particular as he took his overcoat from the hall rack.

‘Don't we all,' Lloyd agreed feelingly as he joined him.

Porth magistrates' courtroom smelled schoolroom musty, a mixture of dust, beeswax polish and chalk, although Victor couldn't see any evidence of the chalk. An uneasy silence had settled over the packed public benches, as all three magistrates on the bench focused intently on the witness box, where Abel Adams, dressed in his frayed and only suit, was giving evidence.

Unnerved at being the centre of attention, Abel pulled nervously on his jacket lapel. ‘Luke Thomas called me a blackleg, which I never was nor will be. I -'

‘Then, as we have been given to understand the term used by Mr Luke Thomas, you would not describe yourself as a blackleg, Mr Adams?' the leading magistrate interrupted.

‘In no way, sir,' Abel protested stoutly. He looked from the magistrates to Luke, who was standing stiffly to attention alongside Joey and Victor in the dock. ‘I support the strike and my fellow workers in the struggle for better wages and conditions, but if some things aren't done to keep the pits in good condition, none of us will have a colliery to go back to when the dispute is settled. And the only people who have the know-how to do those things are the experienced workers like myself, Sam and Fred.'

‘That would be Mr Samuel Winter and Mr Frederick Winter?' the magistrate clarified with irritating precision.

‘Yes, sir.' It took Abel a moment to recover from the magistrate's second interruption. ‘All three of us were –are –employed by management to carry out essential maintenance in the pit. Water has to be pumped out of the shafts on a regular basis, otherwise the workings are liable to flood and then the mine would be no use to anyone, management or collier.'

‘And on the day in question you were ordered by management to pump water out of the pit?' The leading magistrate scribbled a note on the sheet of paper in front of him and showed it to his colleagues.

‘Yes, sir.'

‘And the defendants stopped you from going about your lawful business?'

‘Luke Thomas did, sir.' Abel glowered at Luke. ‘He said we were digging coal for market.'

‘And were you?'

‘We were only digging coal to fuel the engines that work the pumps. I tried to explain that to him but he wouldn't listen.'

‘Thank you, Mr Adams.' The magistrate folded his arms across his chest and sat back in his seat.

‘But Victor Evans -'

‘I said thank you, Mr Adams. You may return to your seat,' the magistrate repeated curtly.

‘But, sir -'

At a nod from the magistrate, two policemen moved either side of Abel and forcibly escorted him from the witness box, while he was still murmuring Victor's name. The leading magistrate turned his attention to the police officers sitting on the front benches.

‘Sergeant Lamb?'

‘Sir.' The officer rose to his feet.

‘We are in receipt of the sworn witness statements submitted by the police. Is there anything you wish to add?'

‘We would like it to be placed on record that we have submitted written evidence to the court, in order to prevent the harassment and,' the sergeant gave the three men in the dock a significant look, ‘further intimidation of the honest citizens of this town. It is our experience, sir, that people are too afraid to make any complaints against members of the Federation of the Union of Mineworkers for fear of repercussions against them and their families. That is why it was necessary for us to submit our evidence in this anonymous and secretive form to protect the identities of our informants.'

Lloyd, along with every other man sitting in the public gallery, leaped to his feet to protest the injustice of a system that allowed evidence to be presented to the court in such a way that the witness, and the veracity of his or her statement, couldn't even be questioned.

The leading magistrate shouted for the restoration of order, the police sitting on the front benches left their seats and turned to the public gallery, but it took them several minutes to quiet the protesters.

‘My father's right,' Lloyd muttered tersely to Sali, pitching his voice below the din. ‘It's too much to expect justice in this country for the working man. Especially when he dares challenge the establishment.'

Victor, Luke and Joey rose to their feet and stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the magistrates on the bench. Despite the air of solemnity, Victor felt faintly ridiculous. All three of them standing to attention in their best clothes as if they were going to a wedding, waiting for the magistrate to begin his summing up after listening to the police relate a version of events at which no officer, or, given the quality of the evidence, any of the supposed ‘witnesses' could have possibly been present.

The stipendiary magistrate finally ceased whispering to his colleagues, clasped his hands together and leaned towards the dock. ‘This case is the result of a long period of high feeling, which came to a climax on the morning in question. In particular Thomas' conduct was not commendable. In fact, it was reprehensible.' He fixed his attention on Luke. ‘Luke Thomas, you are a troublemaker who has no hesitation in flouting the law, or showing contempt for the officers employed to keep the peace in Tonypandy. Therefore, after giving careful consideration to all the evidence, we impose a fine of fifteen pounds or six weeks imprisonment.'

A gasp rippled through the public gallery. The magistrate held up his hand and shouted for silence. Two policemen again turned to the public benches in preparation to enforce his order.

‘As to your accomplices,' the magistrate looked at Joey, ‘in the case of Joseph James Evans, a fine of ten pounds or one month's imprisonment will be imposed. In the case of Victor Sebastian Evans, a fine of ten pounds or one month's imprisonment will be imposed. Costs of sixty pounds to be born equally by all defendants, fines and costs to be paid within one week, or all three defendants will be incarcerated in prison.'

Angry shouts and catcalls echoed around the courtroom.

The magistrate rose to his feet. ‘There will be a short adjournment before the next case.' He and his two colleagues stepped down from the bench and walked out through a door behind them.

Abel Adams glanced up and down Porth Square. Joey, Victor and Lloyd were waiting at the tram stop with Megan and Sali. He crossed the road and walked towards them.

‘Victor, I'm sorry,' he began hesitantly, unsure how Victor would take his apology. ‘I tried to tell the police and the magistrate that you stopped Luke and the others from having a real go at us but they wouldn't listen.'

‘It's not your fault, Abel,' Victor said flatly. ‘They were out to get Joey and me and they did.'

‘But still -'

‘Just do us all a favour, Abel,' Lloyd said grimly, ‘keep manning the pumps so we have a colliery to go back to when the strike is over.'

‘I'll do that, Lloyd.' Abel shook his head. ‘Thirty pounds, or a month inside, just for stopping Luke and his butties from beating the Winter boys and me to a pulp. It's wrong, and worse than wrong, it's savage.'

‘Tell you what, Abel,' Joey said, ‘if you feel that badly about our sentence, you can do mine for me.'

‘I ... I ...' Abel stammered his way to silence.

‘Joey was joking, Abel. But thank you for trying to make them listen,' Victor said. Abel nodded and moved away.

‘It was decent of Abel to apologize for something he had no control over,' Lloyd commented.

‘We have a week to get the money and I'm only ten pounds short to cover both our fines, so I should do it,' Victor lifted his cap as a crowd of women approached.

‘You've made fifty pounds boxing?' Lloyd asked Victor in surprise.

‘Thirty boxing, twenty by betting on myself over the last few weeks.'

‘Neither of you is going to gaol,' Sali said decisively.

‘No, they're not,' Megan broke in earnestly. ‘Because I have more than ten pounds saved. I want you and Joey to have it, Victor ...'

‘I wouldn't hear of it.' Victor bristled in indignation.

‘Why not take the loan Megan is offering?' Sali looked for a middle ground that would allow Victor and Joey to keep their Evans pride, and also permit Megan to help. ‘You could pay her back as soon as the strike is over.'

‘Then there would be no more need for you to box,' Megan said eagerly.

‘The loan would only be for a short while.' Sali was hoping for support from Lloyd, but he remained stubbornly silent, refusing to be drawn into the argument. Angry with him for what she felt was misplaced pride, she nudged his ankle gently with the toe of her shoe.

‘We're getting married, aren't we?' Megan removed her glove and laid her left hand with its glittering engagement ring over Victor's.

‘You know we are, the minute you're twenty-one.'

‘And then everything I own will become yours.'

‘And vice versa,' Victor agreed grumpily, sensing the way the argument was headed.

‘Then what possible difference will it make if I lend you some money a little earlier. My motives are purely selfish.'

BOOK: Winners and Losers
3.19Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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