Beggars and Choosers (53 page)

Geraint shook his head. He'd clung to the hope that the finding of Morgan Davies might lead to the recovery of a portion of his fortune. Now even that slight hope had been dashed, he had no sympathy for the man who had robbed him of every penny of his inheritance. ‘When I think of it, Sergeant, my uncle lying in a pauper's grave seems poetic justice, of a kind.'

‘I really don't see why you are so insistent on visiting Owen in that place,' Geraint castigated Sali, as Robert the footman, whom Sali had promoted to coachman at his own request, turned the carriage into station square. ‘After what he did to you.'

‘That is precisely why I do have to see him, Geraint,' Sali interrupted testily, ‘because of what he did to Harry and me. I am not visiting him for his sake but my own. I spent four years living in fear of the man. And even when I finally managed to escape, I had nightmares every time I thought of what he would do to us if he ever discovered where we were hiding.' She put Harry's gloves on for him.

‘At least allow me to go with you.'

Sali shook her head as the carriage drew to a halt. ‘But you could see if the nurse needs help with Mother. If anything, she's become even more difficult in the last month, and the doctor reduced the dosage of her medication again yesterday.'

‘Jenkins and the housekeeper can keep an eye on the nurse. I hate the thought of you and Harry in that place.'

‘Mari can take Harry to a toyshop or a café while I make my visit. But we'll be together on the train, won't we, poppet?' She gave Harry a reassuring smile as she checked his bootlaces. ‘And we'll see Auntie Rhian.'

‘She wants to see her brother?' Geraint asked.

‘She has as many ghosts to lay as I do. It's strange to think she is still only fifteen. I doubt I would have survived a month of marriage to Owen if it hadn't been for her help.'

‘Where does she live now?'

‘She works as a parlour maid in Tonypandy.' Sali looked out of the window so she wouldn't see the look on Geraint's face. More than a dozen times during the month since the funeral, he had accused her of being too familiar with the staff and lectured her on ‘proper relations' with the servants. She knew he wouldn't recognise Rhian's estimable qualities or her kindness, only her lowly status as a maid. ‘Today's her day off and as she's never been to Cardiff, she went in early to look around. I arranged to meet her outside the station at half past three.'

Robert climbed off the box, opened the door of the carriage and folded down the steps.

Geraint alighted first and held out his arm to Sali. As she reached the ground, he muttered, ‘Damn it, Sali, I am going with you. And you can't stop me.'

‘Not into the prison.'

‘Yes, into the prison. But I won't interfere with your visit. I'm not sure how I'd react if I came face to face with the man. In my opinion, hanging is a damned sight too good for him.'

Sali lifted Harry from Mari's arms and set him on the ground.

‘I'll get the tickets. As I'm going with Sali, do you still want to come?' Geraint asked Mari.

‘I don't want Harry going near that place,' Sali reminded.

‘Then I'll get three and a half first-class tickets.' Geraint went ahead to the booking office.

‘You can't blame Mr Geraint for wanting to protect you, Miss Sali,' Mari commented, as Sali stared at his retreating figure.

‘I don't. My God!' Stunned, she turned her head to see a sea of uniformed policemen thundering down the steps that led from the platforms. What's going on?'

‘Police reinforcements down from Tonypandy, ma'am.' Robert broke one of Mr Jenkins's cardinal rules. Servants do not address their betters unless asked a direct question. And in such a case a ‘yes or no, ma'am or sir' as required should be the response. If more words were needed, they should be as few and respectful as possible.

‘There's trouble in Tonypandy?' Sali's heart was thundering so violently she could barely speak.

‘The milkman said this morning that there have been riots there all night. The miners put out all of the boiler fires in the Cambrian Collieries yesterday morning and since then there's been nothing but trouble. Management are trying to run Glamorgan Colliery in Llwynypia with blackleg labour. Fighting broke out between the pickets, police and blacklegs around Glamorgan yesterday. The police forced the picketing miners back into Pandy Square and then they charged in with their truncheons. The miners fought back with everything they could lay their hands on. He said they attacked the Power House and ripped up the railings from around the Glamorgan to use as weapons .. .'

Sali noted the bandages beneath some of the police helmets, and the bloody noses and black eyes sported by a couple of dozen of the officers. ‘Has anyone been seriously hurt?' she broke in urgently.

‘The police didn't get everything their own way by the look of them,' Robert answered laconically.

‘I mean the miners.'

‘Dozens, or so the milkman said, but who knows what the truth is, ma'am? The town is full of rumour.'

Fighting palpitations, Sali tightened her grip on Harry's hand, as the police marched out of the station yard in formation. She had never seen so many policemen in her life. There had to be a hundred or more. They filled the Tumble in a tide of blue uniforms within seconds. ‘But the police are here now, so the trouble must be over,' she murmured, desperately wanting to convince herself that was the case.

Robert shook his head. ‘Looks to me as if that's just one shift coming off duty. From what the milkman said, the government's out to break the strike and as the miners are refusing to accept a pay cut, who knows where it will end.'

‘Have all the miners come out on strike from all the pits?' Sali couldn't believe that she had been so wrapped up in her family and Ynysangharad House's affairs as to forget Tonypandy and Lloyd's concerns that a strike would propel the miners into open warfare with the establishment.

‘The official strike began a week ago, ma'am. The Coal Owners' Association requested police protection a day later and they drafted in police from all over Glamorgan, Bristol and Monmouth. They say thousands more are coming up from London.'

‘Thousands,' Sali echoed faintly.

‘So they say, Miss Sali, but there's been so sign of them yet,' Mari interrupted.

‘Comes to something when the bloody government send in the police to fight men who are only asking for a living wage so they can feed their families.'

‘Robert! You are forgetting your place,' Mari reprimanded.

‘It's all right, Mari. Your father was a miner, wasn't he, Robert?' Sali asked.

‘And my four brothers. They used to work for your father and had nothing but praise for him, but since your uncle sold out ... begging your pardon, ma'am, Mrs Williams is right. I am forgetting myself.' Bowing to her, he folded the steps back into the carriage and closed the door.

‘Why wasn't I told about this?' Sali asked Mari.

‘It didn't seem to concern us, Miss Sali,' Mari replied evasively. ‘And you've been so busy, what with the Trustees Meetings and settling Mrs James's estate and her personal affairs and seeing to your mother and Miss Llinos's school ...'

‘Did Geraint ask you to keep the newspapers from me?' Sali enquired bluntly.

‘If I did, Sali, it was for your own good.' Geraint stood in front of her, tickets in hand. ‘The train is coming in. We are going to have to move quickly if you don't want to miss it.'

Trying not to stare at the police still flooding down the steps from the platform, Sali grasped Harry's hand. ‘Come on, darling, we're all going on a train.'

Rhian was waiting outside the station dressed in a navy blue coat, her blonde hair tucked beneath a matching beret to protect it from the rain.

Sali opened her umbrella, holding it more over Harry than herself. ‘Here's Auntie Rhian.'

‘You've grown enormous,' Rhian lifted Harry and hugged him. ‘And heavy.'

Harry's smile faltered uncertainly.

‘He doesn't know me, Sali,' Rhian cried out in disappointment.

‘But he soon will once you see him regularly again,' Sali assured her. ‘You've met Mrs Williams.'

‘I'm very pleased to see you again, Mrs Williams. I've never thanked you properly for getting me a job in Llan House.' Rhian shook Mari's hand.

‘You've done well for yourself. From kitchen maid to parlour maid, or so my sister tells me.'

‘Mrs Williams has been very kind.'

‘My brother Geraint.' Sali crossed her fingers in the hope that Geraint would be polite.

Geraint hesitated for the barest fraction of a second before shaking Rhian's hand. ‘I'll get us a cab.'

‘Now, darling,' Sali crouched down to Harry's level, ‘Mari is going to take you to a toy shop and afterwards you are going to have your dinner in a café, and Auntie Rhian, Uncle Geraint and I will meet you there. Be a good boy for Mari, and this,' she produced a shilling, ‘is for you.'

‘Silver! For me?' His eyes rounded. His Uncles Joey, Victor, Lloyd and Billy had slipped him coppers, halfpennies and farthings on pay days, but it was the first time he'd ever been given silver.

‘Do you want me to give it to Mari to look after for you?' Sali asked.

He shook his head, took the shilling and tucked it into his glove.

She kissed him and rose to her feet. ‘Let him buy whatever he wants, Mari, within reason.'

‘I'll remember the within reason,' Mari replied. ‘You two girls take care of yourselves in that ungodly place.'

‘We will.' Sali took Rhian's arm.

‘Your cab, ladies.' Geraint helped Rhian in. Sali took the seat opposite Rhian and Geraint sat beside her. Sali tried to give Rhian an encouraging smile but an image of Owen towering over her, leather belt in hand, came to mind and she froze. The last time she had seen her husband, he had tried to kill her. Throughout their marriage he had beaten, abused and humiliated her. He had stolen her dowry and everything she had owned of any value. She didn't owe him a single thing, so why was she going to see him?

Hardly Christian charity, because Owen and her Uncle Morgan had almost destroyed her faith. Curiosity, because he would be dead soon? Or was she simply seeking reassurance? Would she only finally believe herself free from Owen when she saw him caged in a cell like an animal, awaiting the hangman's rope?

The gates of Cardiff jail towered above them, massive, broad and made from oak thick enough to withstand a siege engine. Sali and Rhian moved instinctively closer to Geraint as he knocked. A smaller door set in one of the large doors opened and a warder emerged. Geraint gave their names and the warder ushered them inside.

Sali found herself in a high-walled, narrow porch. Rain still spattered down on their hats and she realised there was no roof. The warder kept them waiting a few minutes until a second warder appeared. He escorted them across an inner yard, walled in by the same massive grey stone walls as the exterior of the prison, through a door and into the keep of the prison itself.

The atmosphere was dank and musty, the air heavy and foul with the stench of urine, faeces and unwashed bodies. The stink intensified, as they followed the warder down a corridor that led deep into the centre of the building.

Periodically they stopped before a locked door, the warder would speak to the officer manning it and they would be admitted, the clank of locks being turned and bolts pushed home behind them, accompanying their footsteps, as they marched up flights of stone stairs and down further dimly lit passageways.

Finally the warder halted before an open door. Beyond it was an office furnished with a desk, chair and wooden bench. A warder rose from behind the desk and stepped out to meet them.

‘Mrs and Miss Bull, sir,' their escort informed him.

‘Mrs Bull, Miss Bull, leave your coats, bags, hats and umbrellas here.' The senior officer faced Geraint. ‘The request was for two visitors only to see the prisoner, sir. Mrs Owen Bull and Miss Rhian Bull.'

‘I am here to support my sister.'

‘I will have to ask you to wait here, sir.' He indicated the bench. ‘The prisoner has indicated that he wishes to see you ladies separately. However, you can visit him together if you prefer.'

Sali felt intimidated by the sombre surroundings and was terrified at the thought of seeing Owen, although as a prisoner he was in no position to hurt her, but when Rhian grabbed her hand, she sensed her sister-in-law's fears were even greater than hers.

‘We'll see him together, Officer.' Sali spoke for both of them.

‘By rights you should be searched.' The warder looked them both up and down. ‘Do I have your word that you won't touch the prisoner or give him anything?'

‘You have my word,' Sali agreed solemnly.

‘You, Miss Bull?' he addressed Rhian.

She nodded, too frightened to speak.

‘Follow me.'

They were shown into a small room. A metal door was set into the thick stone wall directly ahead of them. The room was bare except for a plain wooden table and four chairs.

‘Sit at the table, ladies. Regulations require at least two officers be present at the interview. However, as you have given your word that you will not try to touch the prisoner, we will remain at a discreet distance.' The warder waited until Sali and Rhian were seated before knocking on the door.

The first thing that struck Sali when the door opened was the size of the cell beyond it. It was roughly the same length as Harry's box room in Tonypandy and no more than four feet wide. The warder spoke to someone inside and a few seconds later Owen stepped out, flanked by two officers. He was dressed in a drab grey prison uniform. His hair had been cropped short and his face was drained of colour. He stumbled as he walked towards the table, and one of his escort gripped his arm above his elbow. He would have fallen if the warder hadn't held on to him and when they drew closer, Sali could see that he was clutching a Bible between his handcuffed hands and was mumbling a barely decipherable prayer.