Spoils of War (35 page)

‘Your colonel used to tell me that my English, written and spoken, was better than that of most of the English secretaries he’d employed.’

‘My mother owns everything. I work here for a wage.’

‘Like the waitress.’

‘I earn more than the waitress and when my mother dies …’

‘Is your mother old or ill?’

There was a strange expression on her face making it difficult for him to decipher her train of thought. ‘No.’

‘You told me you have several brothers and sisters.’

‘There are eleven of us.’

‘Your brother Angelo mentioned last night that your family run this café and one restaurant. Are there any hotels, Tony?’

‘Not yet – no,’ he admitted, wishing he’d never suggested otherwise. ‘But there was another café. It’s rented out.’

‘So, even if your mother is about to die, which I sincerely hope she isn’t, there is no reason for her to leave this café to you, any more than any of your other brothers and sisters. She may even think it more sensible to leave everything she owns to all of you. In which case this café and the restaurant could be sold off to realise the money, or alternatively you could carry on working here at a wage for your family for the rest of your life.’

‘You’re angry with me?’

‘Very angry, Tony.’

‘I know this café isn’t much –’

‘It’s not the café, Tony. It’s your lies. When you asked me to be your wife I told you I loved you, but you didn’t love me.’

‘Of course I did.’

‘Not enough to tell me the truth. You deliberately made me believe that you owned fine hotels and restaurants.’

‘We do own a restaurant.’

‘One that your brothers manage. And you promised me that we’d live in a comfortable apartment, not two rooms without a bath, a toilet in a wooden hut outside and a kitchen shared with a café, where I’d have to ask a strange man’s permission every time I wanted hot water to wash myself.’

‘It’s not easy to find accommodation in the town at the moment with everyone coming back from the war, but I’ll look. I promise you I’ll try and find something better. Yes?’ he snapped as a bus conductor walked up to the counter.

‘When you’ve finished talking to your Nazi girlfriend perhaps you’d like to serve us?’

Drawing back his fist Tony punched him soundly on the nose.

Chapter Eighteen

‘How’s my favourite girlfriend?’ Angelo asked Liza as he rang up the till, and transferred the cash already bagged in paper envelopes into a canvas sack.

‘Tired after walking down the hill.’ She leaned over the counter so he could kiss her.

‘Will you look at that,’ Maggie shouted to the other waitresses as they collected their coats and handbags, ‘and it’s barely dinnertime. Imagine what they’ll be like after dark.’

‘Bye, girls,’ Angelo prompted. ‘Enjoy your afternoon off. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, and shut the door behind you.’

‘I haven’t got the energy to do what you’re doing, let alone think of things that you wouldn’t, Angelo.’ Maggie winked at Liza as she headed out through the door.

‘Here you are, Alfredo.’ Angelo tossed him the sack. ‘Straight to the bank and if you’re feeling generous, you could offer to take over the café for Tony this afternoon and evening so he can spend time with his girlfriend.’

‘I’m not that generous,’ Alfredo growled.

‘Where’s your heart?’

‘Beating beneath my empty wallet.’

‘If that’s a hint for extra or an advance on wages I’m not biting.’

‘Then I’m not going near the café.’

‘Poor Tony.’

‘Seeing as how you’re the one who suggested it, why don’t you take over?’

‘Because I’m here, and I need him,’ Liza smiled.

Alfredo picked up the sack and stuffed it in his pocket. ‘And I’m going to the pictures. There’s a cowboy matinee on in the Palladium.’

‘Charming little brother I’ve got there to go with my immediate older one,’ Angelo complained as Alfredo left. ‘Now, what would you like to eat – or shall we go up to the landing first to whip up an appetite?’

‘I would like to talk –’ The telephone interrupted her. ‘Shouldn’t you answer that?’

‘No, because it will only be someone wanting me to do something and seeing as how we both have an afternoon off I don’t want to do anything that doesn’t involve you.’

‘It sounds urgent.’

‘How can a telephone sound urgent? It’s the same ringing tone if a rep’s trying to sell me the latest thing in dried peas or if someone in the family has had a heart attack.’

‘Angelo, I can’t hear myself think.’

‘Ronconi’s,’ he barked, finally picking up the receiver. He listened intently for a few seconds then cried, ‘I’m there!’ down the line. Grabbing his coat he threw the keys to Liza. ‘Lock up for me.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘The café. Tony’s been arrested. Find Alfredo and tell him I need him.’

‘Hello, stranger.’

‘Bethan.’ Diana sat up in bed and extended her right arm to her cousin. ‘I was hoping Dr John would let you come. He promised he would, but the doctors here promise a lot of things and then forget about them.’

‘Mrs John, you do realise that we can’t extend any privileges to you in this hospital. You might be a doctor’s wife but you are no longer on staff …’

‘I know, sister, but Dr John – senior, that is – telephoned and suggested I visit my cousin this afternoon.’

‘And I’ve been advised that this patient is to have no unsupervised visits. As there is no doctor on this ward at present, I am afraid I will have to ask you to leave.’

‘It’s all right, sister, I’m here.’ Andrew’s father walked into the cubicle. ‘You’re never able to stop work on a busy ward like this for a moment, are you, sister?’ he murmured sympathetically. ‘Well, why don’t you take the opportunity to make yourself a cup of tea and put your feet up for five minutes now. I’ll let you know when we leave.’

Giving Dr John a stern look, the sister left the room.

‘No extra cups of tea for me on this ward for the next year or two,’ he said, not entirely humorously. ‘Thanks for coming, Beth.’

‘Yes, thank you.’ Diana gave Bethan an enormous hug as she leaned over the bed to kiss her cheek. ‘See, I can move both arms now. You will tell Mam? They won’t let her back in again until Saturday.’

‘Which is why I allowed Bethan in this afternoon. But I warn you, she knows she’s here to calm you down and stop you asking so many questions.’

‘I promised I’d be good if you allowed her to come, didn’t I?’

‘And I’ll hold you to that promise, young lady.’

‘I’ll tell your mother.’ Bethan sat on a chair next to the bed. ‘How are you? The truth, mind.’

‘Worn to a frazzle, whatever one of those is. A woman comes in three times a day to pummel me and make me do more exercises than anyone in their right mind would want to.’

‘But that “woman”, as you call her, has helped you to regain some control over your left arm and leg.’

‘I know, Dr John, and I’m grateful. Really I am,’ Diana conceded. ‘But I have a million and one questions and no one will give me any answers.’

‘I’m not surprised. From what I’ve heard your number one question is, “when can I go home?” and you’re asking it ten times an hour.’

‘More like twenty,’ she corrected, and Bethan saw a trace of the old mischievous Diana.

‘You remember home?’

‘Wyn’s house. Do I still live there?’

‘Don’t answer that, Bethan,’ Dr John ordered.

‘When can I see Will?’

‘On Saturday, with your mother.’

‘Promise?’

‘You heard it from the horse’s mouth.’ Bethan grasped Diana’s right hand. ‘I’ve missed you and our talks.’

‘Sorry I can’t say the same but it would sound peculiar under the circumstances. I don’t think you can miss anyone when you’re in a coma. Although I really do miss Billy, and I can’t begin to imagine him as a five-year-old. The doctors and nurses,’ she glanced at Dr John, ‘won’t even let me have a photograph of him.’

‘All in good time.’

‘You’re beginning to sound like a cracked record, Dr John.’

‘And patients should show more respect to their doctor.’

Diana turned back to Bethan. ‘William really has come through the war all right?’

‘You know your brother, Will is more than all right. He’s absolutely fine. He even made some money in Italy.’

‘He was in Italy?’

Bethan looked apologetically at her father-in-law, ‘Sorry, that just slipped out.’

‘Make sure nothing else does.’

‘What does it matter where Will was in the war, now he’s back home?’ Diana said, determined to be both casual and cheerful because she suspected if she showed the slightest emotion, she’d lose not only the prospective visit from her mother and William, but have this one curtailed.

‘Is he working for Charlie again?’

‘He’s got a new job but he’ll tell you all about it himself.’

‘And Mam is married. What is my stepfather like, Beth?’

‘Can I show Diana a photograph of Dino and Megan, Dr John?’ Bethan asked.

He glanced over her shoulder as she pulled it from her bag to make sure it was just of Dino and Megan and no one else. ‘That one and no others.’

Bethan handed it to Diana.

‘He must be short.’

‘He’s taller than your mother.’

‘Not by much that I can see and she’s five foot nothing, although he is a whole lot wider. Mam said Billy’s living with them.’

‘Yes, and they’re looking after him beautifully.’

‘And I have a daughter?’

‘You’re moving on to dangerous ground, Diana,’ Dr John warned.

‘How am I ever going to remember the last six years if people won’t talk to me about the things I’ve forgotten? Mam said I named her Catrina after our grandmother.’

‘You did, and she’s going to be a beauty.’

‘She’s two?’

‘Yes, she’s just beginning to talk in sentences and she loves playing with Billy, Eddie and Rachel –’

‘Bethan, we have to go.’ Dr John had suddenly realised where Diana was leading the conversation but Bethan was ahead of him and had already left her chair. ‘And you, young lady,’ he admonished Diana, ‘were warned not to ask questions by the specialist, who only agreed Bethan could visit you on condition you kept the conversation fixed on events that you can remember.’

‘If Wyn’s been dead for over four years, who’s Catrina’s father?’ Diana blurted out impatiently.

‘One thing at a time, Diana.’

‘She does have a father?’

‘Of course she has a father,’ Bethan reassured.

‘I married again after Wyn was killed?’

‘Yes.’

‘That’s a relief. At least she’s not a bastard. But I can’t remember …’

‘Which is why you have to take things easy. Bethan, we really do have to go.’

‘Here,’ Bethan handed Diana the photograph. ‘Why don’t you look at this to see if it helps jog your memory. You went to your mother’s wedding. She wouldn’t have many people in the church but afterwards there was a big party in Ronconi’s restaurant.’ She didn’t dare look her father-in-law in the eye as she mentioned ‘Ronconi’. ‘Practically everyone we know was there.’

‘Will?’

‘No, he came home later that night.’

‘Does my husband live with me?’

‘Not during the war, but he’s back safely now and he can’t wait to be with you when you leave here.’ Bethan looked helplessly at Dr John.

‘Then why hasn’t he been to see me?’

‘Because, young lady, we’re afraid what the shock might do to you if he does,’ Dr John broke in.

‘So he’s happy to stay away because you say so?’

‘He’s not happy, Di,’ Bethan gave her hand one last squeeze.

‘Now why don’t you lie back on those pillows, and try to get some sleep?’

‘I slept for weeks, Dr John.’

‘That was a coma.’

‘If my husband wants to see me and I want to see him, what’s the problem?’

‘The problem is you don’t remember him.’

‘At least tell me his name,’ Diana pleaded.

‘Not one word, Bethan.’

‘I’ll go and see him, Di, and tell him you were asking about him.’ It wasn’t much of a consolation but it was all Bethan was able to offer before Dr John pushed her out of the cubicle.

‘Judy, what are you doing here?’ Angelo asked in bewilderment as he burst through the door of the café.

‘What does it look like? I’m working.’

‘Tony took you back?’

‘It’s just as well he did.’ She jerked her head towards the back room, which had been emptied of customers by two policemen, who were questioning Tony and Gabrielle.

‘Angelo,’ the younger of the two policemen called to him, ‘sorry about the circumstances.’

‘I came as soon as I got the call.’

‘I’m afraid we’re going to have to arrest your brother for assault.’

Angelo glanced from Tony, who was sitting, sullen and wretched, staring down at the table in front of him, to Gabrielle who was very close to tears. ‘What happened?’

‘Fred Jones –’ the policeman began.

‘The bus conductor, that Fred Jones.’

‘That’s the one. He made a crack about Miss von Stettin here; your brother took it personally and hit him. Unfortunately Mr Jones banged his head on a table on the way down. We don’t know the extent of his injuries but he’s been taken to hospital and his companions made a formal complaint. Even if they hadn’t, with Mr Jones hospitalised we have no choice but to arrest and charge your brother. Depending on Mr Jones’ recovery the charge may become more or less serious.’

‘Can Tony get bail?’

‘Not until the magistrates’ court convenes tomorrow morning. By then we should have the medical reports on Mr Jones and we’ll be better placed to know how your brother stands. Come on, Tony. We gave you ten minutes’ grace for Angelo to get here. Now he’s arrived it’s time to go.’

‘I’m sorry, Gabrielle,’ Tony mumbled as the police constables closed in either side of him. ‘I’m sorry for everything, for lying to you, for –’

‘Don’t worry about Gabrielle, I’ll look after her,’ Angelo shouted after him more for Gabrielle’s benefit than Tony’s, as the police escorted Tony through the door. Moments after they left, Liza rushed in with Alfredo.

‘We saw Tony with the police.’ Alfredo made a face as he looked around. ‘I suppose you want me to take over.’

‘For the moment.’ Angelo shook his head at Liza. ‘I’m sorry. You said you wanted to talk to me.’ He drew her into the back room away from the crowd in the front room of the café.

‘It can wait.’ She looked at Gabrielle who was still sitting alone at the table the constables had used to interview Tony. ‘As you’ve got your hands full here, I’ll meet my sisters from school and spend some time with them this afternoon.’

‘If you’re going back home, I’ll telephone you later.’

‘There’s no need. You just take care of things here. I’ll write to you tomorrow.’ Liza kissed him on the cheek.

‘And I suppose I can kiss the pictures goodbye,’ Alfredo grumbled, slopping the cup of sweet tea he’d made for Gabrielle on his own initiative, as he plonked it in front of her.

‘Good boy,’ Angelo patted his back. ‘I’ll talk to Gabrielle.’ He glanced to where she was still sitting, crestfallen and forlorn. ‘Until we know one way or the other what’s going to happen to Tony, I suppose one of us had better move into the rooms upstairs.’

‘With Gabrielle?’

‘Don’t be an idiot. I’m taking her up to the house.’

‘What about Mama?’

‘With Tony in jail we can hardly leave his girlfriend here,’ he countered irritably.

‘I suppose not. If you like, I’ll move in here, but only on condition I have three nights off a week.’ When Angelo stared at him, he mumbled. ‘I was getting sick of sharing a room with Roberto and Tony anyway.’

Charlie put down the telephone and turned to see Masha standing behind him.

‘Who were you talking to?’

‘A friend, from the war. You slept a long time.’

‘I am very lazy.’

‘Exhausted, more like it. Did you sleep well?’

‘How can you ask that when I slept in your arms for the first time in sixteen years?’

‘Mrs Lane has made food in the kitchen. Peter and I have already eaten.’

‘The second meal of the day?’

‘We’re greedy.’

‘I’d like to see the house.’

‘I would have shown it to you last night but you were tired and it was so late by the time we got here. How about doing it after you’ve eaten?’ he suggested, unnerved by her fragility which was even more obvious now she was dressed in one of the new frocks Alma had bought for her. It was pretty, blue wool with a green trim, but it was at least two sizes too large, and Masha’s face was just as pale, lined and exhausted as it had been the night before.