One Blue Moon (30 page)

‘Good job I’m not a pickpocket then.’ Uneasy in Wyn’s company and anxious to be shot of him, Eddie led the way to the door.

‘By the way,’ Wyn said casually. ‘Your cousin Diana lives with you don’t she?’

‘She does,’ Eddie answered shortly.

‘Tell her there’s a job going in one of our shops if she wants it. Starting tomorrow morning at seven. Twelve and six a week.’

‘How do you know she’s looking for a job?’ Eddie asked suspiciously.

‘She came in and asked.’

Eddie remembered Diana’s job hunting. It was like her to leave no stone unturned. Even with a queer.

‘You’d better warn her though, she’ll be on her own. My sister will only be able to give her a hand for the first day or so. My Dad’s had a funny turn, and the neighbours will help out for a while, but Myrtle really wants to take care of him herself. Doctor says his working days are over, so the job’s permanent.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that about your Dad.’ Eddie was. Rees the sweets was a part of every Graig kid’s heritage. ‘But thanks for thinking of our Di. She’ll be chuffed to beans. She wasn’t very happy in Springer’s.’

‘I know. That’s why I thought of her. But warn her it’s until eight at night. Six days a week.’

Eddie opened the front door. Wyn Rees might be a queer, but there were plenty of others besides Di looking for work. He’d have the pick of the crop at those wages. Perhaps Di had reformed him. Perhaps he fancied her. He decided to have a word with William on the subject; after all, Diana was his sister.

‘Bye, Wyn,’ Eddie said as he saw him out. ‘And thanks again for thinking of Diana. She’ll be there. Seven tomorrow?’

‘High Street shop.’

Huw Griffiths ran past them as they stood talking on the doorstep. ‘Seen anything, boys?’ he panted, his face ruddy with exertion.

‘No, why?’ Wyn asked innocently.

‘Man beaten up, on Berw Road. Bad by the sound of it. See you.’

‘See you,’ Wyn shouted. Things had worked out better than he’d hoped. He knew the way a copper’s mind worked. No criminal waited around to be spotted near the scene of crime.

‘Tired?’ Trevor asked Laura as he folded back the sheets on his side of their bed.

‘Depends on what you mean by tired.’ She turned to face him, her head resting on the pillow.

‘I’m whacked. Today seems to have lasted forever. Particularly the last two hours. I never thought I’d get your mother out of the car. She just wanted to talk ...’

‘And cry. She’s just lost her eldest son, remember.’

‘To marriage and Italy, not the scaffold.’ He walked to the door and switched off the light. Using what little light percolated through the thick curtains from the street lamp outside their window to manoeuvre by, he struggled to the bed. ‘Damn,’ he cursed loudly.

‘Stub your toe on the bed leg again?’ Laura asked with irritating superiority.

‘Your flaming fault for buying a bed with splayed legs.’

‘It looks nice.’

‘It bloody well hurts.’ He sat on the bed and rubbed his stinging foot.

‘I’d kiss it better if it was any other part of you.’

‘Promises, promises.’ He lay beside her and wrapped his arms round her shoulders.

‘Trevor?’

‘Mmm,’ he murmured as he nuzzled her neck.

‘Would you mind if I took over the setting up of the new restaurant, as Ronnie suggested?’

‘No, of course not.’

‘There’s no “of course” about it,’ she insisted peevishly.

‘Why not?’ he enquired innocently, still kissing her neck.

‘Because every husband wants his wife at home, looking after him and his children ...’

‘Laura, please ...’

‘Not “Laura please!”’ she exclaimed irritably. ‘Every other man I know would object to his wife going out to work.’

‘Do you, or do you not want to run the restaurant?’ He moved away from her, sat up and crossed his arms.

‘Yes,’ she snapped defiantly.

‘Well there you are then,’ he said in a patient, long-suffering tone of voice. ‘I don’t see what this stupid argument is about.’

‘This “stupid argument”, as you put it, is about you minding.’

‘But I don’t,’ he protested helplessly.

He reached out to her and she turned her back on him. He wrapped himself around her. Burying his head in the nape of her neck beneath her hair, he whispered, ‘What’s the matter, sweetheart? You afraid of failing if Ronnie’s ideas and figures don’t add up to success?’

Furious with him for being able to read her so clearly, she retorted, ‘That and –’ She bit her lip and clammed her mouth shut.

‘And what?’ he pressed.

‘And because I want a baby.’

‘Laura, we’ve only been married a couple of months. There’s plenty of time. Believe me, one day we’ll have so many babies you’ll be cursing me,’ he said lightly.

‘You don’t understand.’ She turned and clung to him. ‘Sometimes I’m just so afraid of everything. Of having children. Of not having children. Of making a pig’s ear out of the restaurant without Ronnie around to tell me to do things differently.’

‘You poor, poor darling.’ He kissed her on the mouth.

‘I hate you doing that when I want to be angry,’ she murmured.

‘Then don’t be.’ He pulled at her nightdress and she sat up, lifting it over her head.

Slowly, tenderly, sure of her love and her response, he caressed her body with his own.

‘Is the phone going to start ringing?’ she muttered.

‘Not tonight. I’ve told everyone in Pontypridd they’re not allowed to be ill.’

‘Then take off your pyjama bottoms, the knot’s digging an extra navel in me.’

‘Can’t you be a little more romantic?’ he grumbled playfully, as he kicked them off, and out from the bedclothes.

‘Give me Clark Gable and a mansion and I’ll show you romance.’

‘I’ve been thinking ...’

‘Don’t, not now,’ she pleaded.

Trevor had been more than thinking; he’d been making serious plans, and wasn’t about to be put off now that he’d begun to tell her about them.

‘Speaking of mansions, you know that money we’ve put away to buy a house?’

‘You’ve found a mansion on offer for a hundred and twenty pounds?’

‘We did have a hundred and twenty pounds,’ he cautioned.

‘You’ve spent it?’

He could feel her temper kindling.

‘The hotel and the dinner for Maud and Ronnie cost me five.’

‘That’s all right.’

‘And Maud’s medicine and some other things I got, like the beer, the sherry and a few odds and ends for Ronnie came to another five.’

‘I’ve got five brothers. Make a habit of this and we’ll never get a house.’

‘I thought, as you’re intent on spending the next couple of months working towards the opening of the new restaurant, you won’t have much time to think of moving house.’

‘I’ll have all the time that’s needed,’ she began hotly. ‘You needn’t worry, you won’t suffer ...’

‘I know I won’t, sweetheart,’ he said evenly, irritating her simply by refusing to allow his temper to rise to meet hers. ‘It’s just that in a year or two we’ll have all the time in the world to think of buying a house, and if I’m lucky enough to get that senior’s position –’

‘You don’t get it, and the hospital board will have to deal with me.’

‘I’m sure they’re all trembling in their beds this very minute at the thought,’ he said, not entirely flippantly. ‘Soon you’ll have an income from the restaurant, I’ll be earning more money, but in the meantime there’s now. We have just over a hundred pounds in the bank. How about after you set the new place up, and it’s running smoothly, we go on holiday?’

‘You mean take a chalet in Porthcawl or somewhere like that?’ she said doubtfully.

‘I mean let’s take a boat and train to Italy,’ he said quickly. ‘I’ve always wanted to see Rome, Venice and Florence, and I thought you’d like to see the village your parents came from.’

‘And you’d like to see Maud?’ she suggested shrewdly.

‘She may need a doctor in six months.’

‘Is that all you give her?’ she demanded, fear crawling down her spine.

‘How about it, Laura?’ he asked, ignoring her question. ‘This may be our last chance to travel. Once you start running the café, and the babies start coming, which they will, I promise you, we won’t have time to even think of ourselves, let alone go away together. Just consider it for a moment. Only the two of us – no patients, no family, no neighbours to bother us for a whole month. I know it will put back the house, but we’d see a new country, or two,’ he added thoughtfully. ‘We’d have to travel through France, and we could either do the Italian cities first and then go to Bardi, or go to Bardi first. Wouldn’t you like to meet your grandparents?’

‘Yes, yes I would.’ She kissed the tip of his nose. ‘It’s funny, I’ve never really thought about them much, not even when Ronnie used to talk about them. He said Papa’s father is short. I can’t imagine that. And my grandmother is immensely fat.’ She suddenly burst out laughing. ‘You know what they say? You should always look at a woman’s mother before you marry her. Be warned. Hearing about my grandmother and looking at my mother you could end up with a mountain for a wife.’

‘I’d still love you.’

She closed her eyes and imagined the warm, bright yellow Italian sun, and deep blue summer skies that her father and Ronnie had described so often on cold, wet, Welsh winter nights. The old, low-built farmhouse. The fields dotted with sheep and cows. The spire of the church in the village. But as she dwelt on happy thoughts of what was to come, Trevor was thinking darker thoughts. His mind’s eye was preoccupied with an Italian cemetery, and a British Christian name preceding an Italian surname carved on a foreign marble headstone.

Chapter Twenty-seven

The call came at quarter-past one. Laura swore, wriggled down under the blankets and pulled the pillow over her head. Trevor took his clothes downstairs and dressed in front of the kitchen stove. He drove quickly to the Cottage Hospital, waving to the policemen he passed. They all knew him and his car. Which was more than Ben Springer did. He’d come round in a white antiseptic room to see a young, tall, thin doctor bending over him. All he knew was that he felt blissfully numb from the waist down.

‘Soon have you right as rain, Mr Springer,’ Trevor reassured him as he dripped chloroform on to a gauze mask.

Ben Springer didn’t find out until after the operation exactly what the young doctor had meant by ‘right as rain’. He screamed, shouted, ranted, raved, and threatened legal action, but all to no avail. Everyone who’d seen him that night, including the policemen and nurses, said that the course of action taken by young Doctor Lewis was the only one possible under the circumstances. Doctor Lewis had undoubtedly saved Mr Springer’s life. If Mr Springer thought that the loss of his manhood was too great a price to pay, then that was unfortunate. Trevor didn’t mind putting up with Ben Springer’s screams and insults – not when he saw the smile dawn on Laura’s face when he woke her to tell her about Ben’s misfortune. And as she said, ‘Terrible place, Ponty, after dark. But who’d have thought something like that could happen at the Berw Road end of town?’

Diana was up at half-past four to see Haydn off. She kissed him goodbye as he went out through the front door with his father, who’d offered to walk down the hill with him. Just as she turned to make her way back up the stairs, Eddie thundered out of Charlie’s room and down the passage, muffler flying, boots in hand.

‘They gone?’ he demanded.

‘Two minutes ago,’ she said in astonishment. ‘Why?’

‘Want to catch him up.’ Knees bent, Eddie pulled on his boots as he ran but didn’t stop to tie the laces. He raced out of the door, and she heard him shouting down the street.

‘What’s all that din?’ Elizabeth stood at the top of the stairs, a thick, ugly knitted shawl thrown round her nightdress. ‘We’ll have the neighbours complaining.’

‘Eddie wanted to say goodbye to Haydn,’ Diana explained as she returned to her room.

‘I thought we’d dispensed with all that nonsense last night,’ Elizabeth muttered tersely. ‘Well now I’m up, I suppose I’d better stay up.’

Diana heard her aunt pouring out her washing water as she returned to her own, now cold bed. She lay there in the semi-darkness, creating images to fit the shadows cast on her walls by the street light, her mind preoccupied with her worthlessness. Where could she go, and what could she do? She had no job. No family other than William, and he could do very well without her. Maud had needed her, but now she had Ronnie. Even her place in this house was dependent on her uncle’s charity, and he wouldn’t be in a position to keep her once her savings ran out, no matter how much he might want to. That left the agency in Mill Street and another skivvy’s job which would barely bring in enough to keep her, let alone put anything aside towards the time when her mother would come out of prison. And she didn’t even have the prospect of marriage to look forward to. No man would ever look at her the way Ronnie Ronconi had looked at Maud yesterday. She would never be able to wear white, never ... but then, did it matter? After what Ben Springer had done to her, she wouldn’t be able to face marriage – to anyone.

Wrapping her head in her arms, she cried. Hot burning tears of shame, misery and despondency. Later – she’d get up later and pack. She may as well give in and leave for service today, while she still had her five pounds in the Post Office.

‘Haydn?’ Eddie caught up with his brother and father as they reached the Graig Hotel.

‘Where’s the fire, boy?’ his father demanded.

‘No fire, just wanted to say goodbye to Haydn.’ Eddie held out his hand. Haydn looked at it for a moment, then he gripped it.

‘Good luck, Haydn. All the best. I mean it.’

‘I know you do.’ Haydn shook his brother’s hand firmly.

‘I’m sorry for everything.’ His father stood back mystified, not understanding what Eddie was talking about.

‘If it hadn’t been you it would have been someone else.’ Haydn clasped his brother’s neck. ‘Take care in that boxing ring.’

‘And you take care living with the English.’

‘Nothing but goodbyes lately,’ their father muttered miserably. ‘First Bethan, then Maud, now you ...’

‘Just think of all the places you’ll be able to visit,’ Haydn said on a cheerful note as he released Eddie.

Eddie bent down to tie his shoelaces. When he straightened up Evan and Haydn had been swallowed up by the darkness. But at least he and Haydn hadn’t parted with bad blood between them. He was glad of that. And he smiled as he remembered the good thing he’d almost forgotten in his rush to see Haydn. He had something to tell Diana.

His mother was raking the hot ashes from the stove when he went back into the house.

‘Eddie Powell, just look at the state of your bootlaces,’ she grumbled as he walked into the kitchen. ‘You’ve been running down the road with them undone. You could have broken your neck. As it is they’re frayed to ribbons, good for nothing ...’

‘Diana up yet?’ he asked, helping himself to a cold leftover pikelet from a plate in the pantry.

‘No.’ Elizabeth looked at the clock. ‘And seeing as how it’s only a quarter to five she doesn’t need to be up. That’s if she’s still got a job in Springer’s to get up for.’

Eddie kept his secret to himself. It didn’t seem right somehow for his mother to know about Diana’s good fortune before she did. He went into Charlie and William’s room to collect the clothes he’d carried downstairs the night he and Haydn had quarrelled. William would be pleased to see him move back upstairs. It had been a tight squeeze, two of them in a single bed.

Elizabeth had breakfast waiting on the table when Evan returned from town. Charlie, William and Eddie were eating, but there was no sign of Diana.

‘He got off all right then?’ Elizabeth asked.

‘Ay, he did,’ Evan assured her.

‘I’d be happier if I knew more about where he was going.’

‘He knows the people, and he seems to think he’ll be all right.’

‘He’s only a boy.’

‘A sensible one,’ Evan said firmly.

‘I’m going to call Diana again.’ Eddie left his seat.

‘Sit down and finish the food on your plate,’ Elizabeth ordered. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you this morning. You’re like a cat on hot bricks.’

‘I’ve a message for her.’ He pulled the door open and bumped into Diana, who happened to walk in just as he tried to walk out.

She was wearing her best dark green costume, and cream blouse.

‘And may I ask where you’re off to, young lady?’ Elizabeth asked.

‘New job,’ Eddie smiled.

‘New job?’ Diana looked at him blankly.

‘Wyn Rees called round the gym late last night. His father’s been taken bad, and he asked if you could take over the High Street shop for him. His sister’ll help you today and tomorrow, but then you’ll be on your own. Twelve and six a week because it’ll be long hours. Seven until eight at night, and you’ll be responsible for everything.’ Diana sat down rather suddenly. ‘He said you’d know all about it, because he told you what was expected when you went round asking him if he had anything going in the shops.’

‘He did?’

‘That’s a darned sight better than Springer’s any day, love,’ Evan said. ‘I never was very happy with you working there.’

‘No.’ She looked at her aunt. ‘I’ll be able to pay my way now, Aunt Elizabeth,’ she said proudly. ‘Seven and six. The same as William and Charlie.’

‘Well, seeing as how Bethan and Maud have both gone, and you know how to make yourself useful around the house, supposing we keep it to four shillings on the understanding you help out. Especially on Sundays. Now that Uncle John Joseph’s on his own, he needs all the help I can give him.’ Evan stared at his wife in amazement as Diana stammered her thanks. ‘And you may as well move your things into Maud’s room. No sense in leaving a big room like that empty. You can have the box room, William, and that means you can have a room to yourself, Mr Raschenko.’

‘Thank you, Mrs Powell,’ he said, winking at Diana.

‘Mrs Powell, Diana?’ Laura walked into the kitchen. ‘I’m sorry for calling so early,’ she apologised.

‘Not at all. Sit down. I’ll pour you a cup of tea,’ Elizabeth offered stiffly, smoothing over her apron.

‘Please don’t put yourself out, Mrs Powell. I can’t stop. I’m on my way up to Mama’s. I want to see Tony before he starts in the café, and I rather hoped to have a word with Diana beforehand if I could.’ Laura was bubbling with suppressed excitement. ‘If you’d like to walk me to the door, Diana. It won’t take a minute.’

Completely bewildered, Diana followed Laura out through the door and into the freezing cold passage. The door slammed behind them. Two minutes later there was a huge shriek.

‘What on earth ...’ Eddie was halfway out of his chair when William pulled him down. ‘I’ve no idea what it’s all about, but they won’t want you there,’ he pronounced knowledgeably, used to Diana’s ways. ‘Probably some stupid girl rubbish or other,’ he added, hurt that Laura hadn’t let him in on the secret.

‘Seems to me that’s the first time I’ve heard that girl laugh since she’s come home,’ Evan commented, looking sideways at his wife as he bit into his toast and dripping.

‘It’s five to six, I’d better see if Trevor’s arrived.’ Ronnie took one more look around at the room he’d begun his married life in, before kissing Maud.

‘Not on the lips,’ she admonished, sinking back against the cushions of her chair.

‘As I’m sleeping with you, woman, it’s time I got used to your germs.’ Maud had insisted on getting up at four to have another bath and wash her hair. He’d helped her dry it, and it now framed her face, soft, fluffy and curly.

‘Promise me something?’ he asked as he picked up their bags.

‘What?’ she smiled.

‘Don’t wave your hair again. I like it just the way it is.’

‘Frizzy?’

‘Soft, like an angel’s.’ He dropped her Gladstone so he could run his fingers through it again. ‘I also think it would look better long.’

‘Long hair isn’t fashionable.’

‘It is in Italy,’ he hazarded a guess.

‘Then seeing as how you asked nicely, I might let it grow.’

He picked up the case again. Laura’s wedding dress and veil were on the bed, where he’d laid them earlier. ‘I’ll bring Trevor up to take down the dress,’ he said, ‘and you –’ he pointed a warning finger at her, ‘– will not move from that chair until I lift you out.’

Maud smiled impishly.

‘I mean it.’

‘I’m terrified.’

‘So you should be.’

He left the room, whistling happily as he ran down the magnificent wide staircase.

‘Bridegroom looks happy.’ Trevor grinned from the foyer.

‘Bridegroom is happy. Very happy.’ Ronnie beamed.

‘Your chariot awaits, and someone who wants to talk to you. I picked him up half-way down the Graig hill.’

Ronnie looked behind Trevor and saw his father hovering in the doorway holding his mother’s fox fur coat.

‘I’ll put the cases in the car,’ Trevor said as he took them from Ronnie.

Ronnie walked warily towards his father and extended his hand. He’d feared a rebuff, but his father took it.

‘Twenty years I’ve been wanting to send this to your grandfather, but there’s always been something. Another café to open, or worries about it getting lost in the post, or one of you needing something ...’ He folded a fifty-pound note into Ronnie’s palm. ‘It’s for your grandfather,’ he repeated sternly as though Ronnie was likely to misunderstand him. ‘To buy a white suit and a good horse. All his life he’s wanted a white suit and a good horse. And I promised when I left home that I would buy them for him. And this’, he gave Ronnie another twenty pounds, ‘is for your grandmother and Aunt Theresa to buy new Sunday clothes. You mind you tell them what it’s for.’

‘I will, Papa, but the business won’t stand this money being taken out ...’

‘You’re not the only one who knows how to put a little by,’ his father admonished. ‘And this is for you.’ He gave him one more fifty-pound note. ‘There won’t be enough food put away on the farm to feed two extra mouths until the crops come in. And I won’t have your grandparents and aunt giving you their rations.’

‘Papa –’

‘Maud!’

Ronnie heard the shock in Trevor’s voice and looked behind him. Maud was clinging to the elegantly-carved mahogany banisters as she walked slowly down the stairs.

‘Please don’t be angry,’ she laughed as Ronnie rushed to her side. ‘I wanted to see if I could do it. And I have!’ she announced triumphantly, allowing him to help her as she reached the last step.

‘I told you ...’

‘I know.’

‘This is your wife?’ his father asked, although he’d known Maud since the day she was born.

‘Yes Papa.’

‘This is for you.’ He thrust the fur coat at her. ‘Don’t thank me, it’s none of my doing, it’s Ronnie’s mother’s, and I wouldn’t let her come this morning to give it to you herself. Couldn’t stand any more of her fussing and crying. She won’t wear it, not here where it rains all the time. And it can get cold in Italy in winter.’

‘Mr Ronconi, I can’t take this,’ Maud gasped.

‘None of my doing. Just you see that she wears it, Ronnie. Looks like she needs something to keep her bones warm. There’s no flesh on them to do the job.’

‘Yes Papa,’ he choked back his laughter as he helped Maud into the coat.

‘I’ve got the wedding dress and veil.’ Trevor ran down the stairs with them in his arms. ‘If there’s nothing else we should be on our way.’

‘There’s nothing else.’ Weighing up the austere expression on Mr Ronconi’s face, and balancing it against the twinkle in his eye, Maud stepped towards him and ventured a hug. He kissed the top of her head, then propelled her gently back to Ronnie.

‘I’ve an idea. Why don’t you come to Cardiff with us, Mr Ronconi?’ Trevor asked. ‘You can keep me awake on the way back. I had a night call,’ he explained.