Hearts of Gold (22 page)

‘How much was this little lot, Beth?’ Haydn demanded.

‘Not a lot. Auntie Megan has the account.’

‘What’s not much?’ he pressed.

‘Hadn’t you better try them on to see if they fit before asking me how much they are? And before you say any more, I only brought what you both need. Have you thought what you’re going to wear to work when your one and only suit needs cleaning? And Eddie hasn’t even got a one and only.’

While Bethan was glaring at Haydn, Maud tried to ease the situation by holding up the grey suit to Eddie as be latched the gate of the dog pen.

‘Fancy yourself in this then, boyo?’ she asked.

‘Mmm.’ Eddie flicked the jacket over gingerly with the tip of his grubby forefinger. ‘Waistcoat as well.’

‘Of course,’ Bethan said defensively. ‘Nothing but the best.’

‘How much do we owe you, sis?’ Eddie asked.

‘Nothing yet. I’ve taken them on spec.’

‘Well what do you say, Haydn, shall we try them on?’

‘No harm in that.’ Haydn folded the paper back over the suits and dusted off his trousers as he rose from the step. Bethan breathed easier. She hadn’t expected them to give in so easily.

Maud moved so Eddie and Haydn could walk down the steps.

Bethan rested her elbow on the wall and allowed herself a small smile of triumph as they passed.

‘You’ll either get the money or the suits back tonight, Beth.’ Eddie dumped the can he’d used to fill the dog’s bowl in the corner of the yard. Bethan looked up and saw a cut on his chin that she hadn’t noticed when they’d eaten breakfast together the day before. His left cheekbone was also bruised, but there was a look of quiet determination in his eyes that made her blood run cold.

‘The Rattle Fair! Of course. You’re going to fight.’ It wasn’t a question.

‘As soon as they open the boxing booth. Come and watch. If you’ve any money to spare you can place a bet. You won’t lose,’ he said cockily.

She shuddered.

‘And I won’t get hurt either,’ he insisted. ‘I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of months. Joey’s been training me, and training me good. I’ll be the breadwinner in this family soon, Beth. Not you. And I’ll make enough to pay for half a dozen suits for each of us, Mam and Dad included. You’ll see if I’m not right.’

The Rattle Fair was held every Easter in Pontypridd. Every other fair that visited the town pitched on the vacant lot, sometime cattle market, known as the Fairfield opposite the Palladium cinema at the north end of town. But the Rattle Fair was held courtesy of a charter which enabled it to pitch in the centre of the town itself. The Dante family who owned and ran most of the fairs that visited Pontypridd erected their rides and booths along the main thoroughfares including Taff Street and Market Square. The police in compliance with the order closed the town to all traffic, diverting all non-fair carts and vans around Gelliwastad Road.

Roundabouts and brightly painted garish stalls that sold every conceivable kind of useless object and edible delicacy cluttered the streets from one end to the other, and in prime position in Market Square stood the coughing, wheezing engine that drove the machinery and powered the organ that announced to everyone within a mile’s listening distance that the fair had arrived. It was the place to visit after dinner on Easter Monday. But it was just after eleven o’clock in the morning when Laura, wearing a new and most becoming (from Megan’s stock) lilac spring suit, and Bethan in her green costume and cream silk blouse emerged from under the railway bridge.

The Ronconis always opened their café in town on Rattle Fair afternoons but today they’d decided to hold a family dinner in the place and Laura had invited not only Bethan but also Trevor and Andrew to join the family party.

More nervous than Bethan had ever seen her before, Laura tripped along Taff Street on heels twice as high as those she normally wore. Both of them were careful to avoid the grimy outstretched hands of the street urchins who’d camped among the stalls since before dawn in the hope of cadging scraps from the food vendors or winning free rides from the “softer” fair folk.

‘Ronnie’s told the cook to make a chicken dinner. Roast potatoes, peas, stuffing, all the trimmings,’ Laura said fussily. ‘There’ll be brown soup first and apple pie and Papa’s ice cream for afters. Do you think Andrew and Trevor’ll be happy with that?’

‘They’d be hard to please if they aren’t.’ Laura’s edginess was beginning to irritate Bethan.

‘It’s just that I want everything to be absolutely perfect. You know what bears Papa and Ronnie can be.’

‘It’s serious between you and Trevor isn’t it?’ Bethan asked suddenly.

‘Yes,’ Laura admitted, pulling non-existent wrinkles out of her new cotton gloves. ‘Promise you won’t breathe a word of this to Andrew.’

‘A word about you being serious?’

‘About what I’m going to tell you, you clot. If you tell Andrew he’ll only go blabbing everything to Trevor. Those two are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee.’

‘I hadn’t noticed.’

‘You haven’t noticed anything except Andrew’s dark brown eyes since New Year’s Eve.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous …’ Bethan began coldly.

‘Oh come on, Beth, it’s not a sin to be in love.’ Laura paused, then giggled. ‘And then of course it might be.’

‘A sin?’

‘In the eyes of the Church what Trevor and I do is classed as sinful but I don’t see anything wrong with it. She lifted her chin defiantly, ‘particularly as he’s far too caring and careful to see me landed in the same mess as poor Phyllis.’

‘You mean you and Trevor …’ Bethan paused, too embarrassed to continue.

‘Of course. Are you saying that you and Andrew don’t?’ Laura exclaimed incredulously.

With her face burning, Bethan shook her head.

To think of Andrew …’ Laura’s eyes grew round in amazement. ‘He’s lived in London and everything. He never struck me as backward about coming forward, not like Trevor. Now he needed a bit of pushing. You know what I mean?’

Bethan crossed the road in advance of Laura. She had a fair idea what Laura meant by “pushing” but she didn’t feel like discussing the details in any great depth.

‘Being a doctor has its advantages,’ Laura continued when she caught up with Bethan. ‘For one thing Trevor doesn’t have to sidle up to old Dai Makey in the market to buy his French Letters. You know our Tina is friendly with Dai’s daughter Pru? Well when she called in on Pru one day she caught Dai and his wife rolling the letters … rolling them …’ she giggled, ‘in talcum powder. Trevor told me Dai charges half a crown just for one. No wonder the unmarried ward is so full. If you ask me the quickest way to empty it would be to hand out free French Letters to everyone who wants them.’

‘Ssh.’ Bethan pulled her out of the path of a group of gaping, dumbstruck children.

‘Anyway,’ Laura continued lowering her voice, ‘Trevor might not be as well-heeled as Andrew, but he does have prospects. And although his car isn’t quite in the luxury class, it gets us to where we want to go. You wouldn’t believe the quiet lanes that he knows …’ She gave Bethan a hard look. ‘You’re not having me on about you and Andrew are you?’

‘No,’ Bethan protested indignantly, leading the way around the back of the stalls to the canvas walled alleyway that had been created on the pavement in front of the shops.

‘I just find that hard to believe. You do know he’s absolutely mad about you?’

‘I’m not so sure.’

‘Beth, you’re impossible. Andrew jumps through hoops, switches duties, and breaks all kinds of engagements with his family just to spend his days off with you.’

‘Who told you that?’ Bethan asked suspiciously.

‘Who do you think?’

‘Trevor?’

‘They are best friends.’

‘And Andrew told Trevor that we were …’

‘Good Lord, no. I don’t think they talk about anything as personal as that.’ Laura skipped over a pile of debris at the back of a candy floss stall.

‘Why not? We do.’

‘I suppose we do. How did we get on to this subject in the first place?’

‘You were telling me about the dinner Ronnie organised and your father …’

‘That’s right, Papa,’ she mused thoughtfully. Her expression changed completely. ‘Beth, you wouldn’t believe what he did when I told him about Trevor on Friday night! Doolaly Tap wasn’t the word for it. And, as soon as he started performing everyone ran and hid except Mama and Ronnie. Mama wanted to, but I stood in front of the kitchen door and wouldn’t move, leaving her with the choice of either staying or sitting in the washhouse. Nothing would have budged our Ronnie of course. He loves Papa’s tempers – when he’s not on the receiving end of them, that is,’ she added bitterly.

‘Have you warned Trevor what he’s walking into today?’

‘I didn’t dare. He’d never have agreed to come if I had. Besides, Papa did eventually calm down, a little,’ she qualified. ‘At least he went from raving lunacy to ordinary temper when I told him Trevor was a doctor. Ronnie was no help. The only comment he made in Trevor’s favour was that an Irish Catholic doctor was better than a Protestant Welsh miner, but only just. Then Papa turned on Mama and blamed her for talking him out of sending me to my grandmother in Italy, as he wanted to when I was sixteen. When Mama pointed out that I was a qualified nurse, he said he’d rather have a decent married Italian housewife for a daughter.’

‘Sounds fun,’ Bethan said ironically.

‘Oh it was. Papa finished off by screaming up the stairs at my sisters. He swore blind that he won’t let any of them out of his sight until they reach sixteen and then he’s packing each of them off to Italy in turn. That makes Tina overdue for the journey. I don’t think she’s recovered from the shock yet. Not that she’s talked to me about it. I’ve been sent to Coventry for making Papa angry in the first place.’

‘Does your father mean it?’

‘You know Papa. At the moment he does.’

‘Poor William,’ Bethan said feelingly.

‘He’s still sweet on Tina?’

‘Isn’t Tina still sweet on him?’

‘I’ve just told you, she’s not talking to me. Oh Beth, I’m so worried. What if Papa hates Trevor on sight? It was as much as Mama could do to persuade him to let Trevor come to dinner in the cafe today.’

‘I don’t know whether I should thank or kick you for inviting Andrew and me.’

‘Don’t you see, I need you and Andrew there? Papa’s always liked you, and Andrew can charm the birds off the trees when he wants to. And with you two sitting at the table I don’t think Papa’ll dare make a scene. At least that’s the plan. And as he can’t very well ignore someone who’s eating with us he’s going to have to talk to Trevor, and when he does he’s bound to see how wonderful he is.’

‘And if he doesn’t?’ Bethan probed.

‘I’ll have to elope. I’m old enough.’

‘Elope as in get married?’

‘Of course. What do you think we’ve been talking about for the last half-hour? Trevor asked me to marry him on Friday evening after work. We’ve nothing to wait for except more money, and we can save as well when we’re married as we can now.’

‘You’ll have to give up nursing.’

‘That won’t matter, I never really saw myself as the Florence Nightingale type. Besides I spend every penny I earn on clothes, and thanks to Megan my wardrobe should last me until Trevor gets a better paid post. He earns four pounds a week now,’ she said proudly. ‘Another two years should make it six, and although we haven’t enough money to buy a house straight off we certainly have enough to rent one. Glan says there’s one going in Graig Street for ten bob a week and we shouldn’t spend more than a pound a week housekeeping, so with luck we’ll manage to save the deposit for a decent place of our own within a year. Maybe even a house on the Common.’

‘Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out,’ Bethan murmured wistfully. While Laura had been talking, her mind had painted a picture of the terraced houses in Maritime Street, or rather one in particular. Newly decorated and papered, tastefully furnished.

And her caring for it; cooking delicious meals in the kitchen while she waited for Andrew to return from the hospital in the evening. Suddenly it all seemed so very attractive and Laura had it within her grasp.

‘Neither Trevor nor I have saved a bean,’ Laura prattled on, ‘me because … well you know where my money goes, and Trevor’s been supporting his mother and his brother and sisters. But I’m sure we’ll be able to scavenge everything we need, and what we don’t need we’ll do without. Once his sisters and brother are settled his mother can move in with us. She’s so sweet, Beth. And she really likes the idea of Trevor marrying me.’

‘You’ve met her?’

‘On Saturday. I was dying to tell you all about it in work yesterday but you had to be off, didn’t you. I know we won’t quite have the start you and Andrew will have. His father will probably buy you a mansion on the Common …’ She stared at Bethan. ‘Don’t tell me you and Andrew haven’t even talked about marriage?’

‘We’re just good friends.’ Bethan repeated the trite phrase without even thinking what she was saying.

‘Just good friends, my eye. The man’s besotted. God, you’re either a cold fish or a slow worker, Bethan Powell. I thought you’d have chosen the ring pattern by now.’

‘Ring pattern?’ Bethan repeated blankly.

‘Engagement ring,’ Laura explained impatiently. ‘Trevor and I are going to choose one in Cardiff on my next day off. Oh God there he is!’ Laura muttered, catching sight of Andrew and Trevor, cigarettes in hand, waiting outside the cafe door.

‘Do you think they’ve already knocked and your father wouldn’t let them in?’

‘Don’t tease, Beth, I’m not in the mood for it. What’s the time?’

Bethan opened her hand bag and looked at the nurse’s watch that she’d pinned inside the flap. ‘Nearly half-past eleven.’

‘Dinner won’t be until twelve. Back me up if I suggest a stroll round the town.’

‘Hello, darling,’ Andrew winked at Bethan, before turning to Laura. ‘What have you done to this fellow?’ he demanded mischievously. ‘He’s an absolute wreck.’

‘I think we should go for a walk around the town and see what’s going on,’ Laura suggested loudly.

‘Not on your life.’ Andrew pushed a large cardboard box towards Trevor with his toe. ‘For one thing your brother’s already seen us, and for another, Trevor couldn’t carry this another step.’