Spoils of War (43 page)

‘Absolutely. In fact the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that she should take over either the café or the restaurant – permanently. I can’t see her hitting customers out cold, or impregnating waitresses, can you?’

‘So, Alfredo, what are you doing tonight after the café closes?’ Judy wriggled her stool closer to where he was standing studying the race predictions in the
Daily Mirror.

‘Ask Angelo. It’s his night to take over.’

‘Even better. Seeing as how I’ve been moved to the nine-till-five shift and you have a free evening we could go to the pictures.’

‘No chance, Judy,’ Ronnie interrupted as he breezed through the door, ‘Alfredo’s got a prior engagement.’

‘No I haven’t.’ Alfredo rolled up his paper and stuffed it into his pocket as William and Angelo followed Ronnie into the front room of the café. ‘What is this? You three look like gangsters.’

‘And we just might start behaving like them too. Anyone in the back room?’

‘No, you should know this is the quiet time.’

‘Get the cook out of the kitchen and ask him to man the till. Tell him to call if he needs help.’

‘I can look after things out here, Mr Ronconi,’ Judy volunteered.

‘I’ve no doubt you can,’ Ronnie looked her up and down, ‘but I don’t like the way you look after “things” so I’d prefer the cook to do it. I’ll see you after I’ve spoken to Alfredo.’

‘What’s this about?’ Alfredo tried to look nonchalant as he reached for a packet of cigarettes but his hands shook when he attempted to shake one free.

‘You don’t know?’ Ronnie walked to a table set far enough round the corner to be invisible from anyone sitting in the front room, and pulled out chairs for Alfredo and himself.

‘No.’

‘Where were you at eight o’clock this morning?’

‘Here.’

‘I’m going to ask again.’

Alfredo looked from William to Angelo as they took the two outside chairs, effectively pinning him into the corner.

‘I may have gone for a walk.’

‘Up the mountain?’

‘It gets stuffy in here. I need fresh air –’

‘And everyone knows there’s plenty of that in a scrap yard,’ William interrupted. ‘I know exactly where you were, brother-in-law, because I saw you along with Glan Richards, Ianto Myles’ son, and all your other little friends, and I know what you were looking for.’

‘There was no one there –’

‘Where, Alfredo? Where you hid all the lorries, Jeeps and other American Army stuff you stole?’

‘We didn’t steal it – I didn’t – we were only setting things straight, that’s all.’

‘Straight?’ Ronnie lit Alfredo’s cigarette and took one for himself.

‘It’s like Glan said. The men who’ve been off fighting have had a rough time getting killed and wounded and they’ve come home to find all the good jobs taken by cowards who pulled strings to avoid the call-up. Stay-at-home boys who’ve made a fortune on the black market on the backs of those who risked their lives to keep this country safe. All we wanted was a cut to make up for it.’

‘Slightly flawed logic there, little brother. You weren’t away fighting.’

‘I had a rough time in Birmingham. You should have tried living there with a Welsh accent and an Italian name. I got beaten up all the time.’

‘So you thought you’d do some major stealing to make up for it,’ Angelo suggested cuttingly.

‘Angelo’s right.’ Ronnie removed a notebook from his top pocket. ‘You’re involved in big-time stuff, and as you’re over eighteen you’ll be considered old enough to go to prison.’

‘Prison! No …’

Leisurely unscrewing the cap from his fountain pen, Ronnie laid it and the notebook on the table in front of Alfredo. ‘I want you to list the names of everyone involved in this little scam of yours, especially the people you were going to offload the goods on to.’ He held up his hand to stop Alfredo from speaking. ‘Then I want you to write down the precise location of any other American equipment you’ve stolen or know the whereabouts of. If you do that, I might – just might – be able to have a word with Dino and Colonel Ford on your behalf. And who knows, we may even come up with a compromise that won’t mean you spending the next ten years looking at the four walls of a cell.’

Chapter Twenty-two

‘Sit there until we help you out of the car.’

‘Yes, Dr John.’

‘And less of your cheek.’

‘Yes, Nurse John.’ Diana’s eyes were bright with excitement as she sat back in the passenger seat of Andrew’s car and waited for Andrew to walk round to open the door for her.

‘Slowly, one step at a time, and use your crutches because you’re not used to walking.’ Andrew was almost bowled over by William, who ran out of the house to meet them.

‘I could carry you, Di.’

‘You most certainly will not. Come here.’ Balancing on one crutch she pulled William’s head down and kissed his cheek.

William bit his lower lip to control his emotion as he slipped his arm round Diana’s waist to support her as she tackled the steps. Andrew glanced up at Dino, who was holding the front door open. The American nodded almost imperceptibly and Andrew saw a curtain move in the front parlour window.

‘You take care with your sister,’ Megan cautioned William as Diana finally made it to the doorstep.

‘He is, Mam.’ Turning, Diana looked out over the town. ‘Everything is so big, so clear, so strange, so –’

‘Bloody cold when I’m standing out here in shirt sleeves,’ William complained, ‘and it must feel like an ice box to someone who has just come out of a baking hot hospital.’ Wrapping his arm round her shoulders, he led her into the hall and down the passage to the kitchen.

Ronnie held his finger to his lips as he looked from Billy to Catrina. As soon as he heard voices raised in the kitchen he lifted Catrina down from the sofa in the bay and set her on the rug next to her family of rag dolls.

‘Mam looked funny.’ Billy crouched next to his sister and handed her one of the dolls. ‘She is going to be all right, isn’t she, Daddy?’

‘The doctors think so. That’s why they’ve let her visit us. But it may be only a visit. You do remember me telling you that she might not be able to stay with us all the time just yet?’

‘Yes.’ Billy’s bottom lip trembled.

‘But it will only be for a little while. Sometime soon she’ll be home for good and then we’ll be able to look after her.’

‘I’ll help.’

‘Course you will, darling.’ He dropped a kiss on Catrina’s head. ‘But you both have to remember that Mam was asleep for a long time.’

Billy looked solemnly up at Ronnie, obviously expecting more.

‘Her head is a bit fuzzy, like yours when you wake up first thing in the morning and she’s forgotten some things, so we’ll have to remind her about them. And while she was sleeping she couldn’t eat, so she lost some weight. But we can fatten her up by giving her lots of biscuits and slices of Granny’s cake.’

‘Will there still be enough for me?’

‘I should think so, Billy,’ Ronnie smiled. ‘How would you like a game of tiddlywinks until Mam has settled in enough to see us?’

‘Catrina doesn’t play it properly.’

‘And she isn’t going to learn if we don’t teach her to play it with us.’ Ronnie opened the box and tipped the counters out. ‘What colour do you want?’

‘Red.’ Catrina grabbed the large red bone disc and eight smaller ones while Ronnie set the pot and cardboard scoreboard on the lino at the edge of the rug.

‘Can I have blue, Dad?’ Billy asked.

Ronnie nodded absently, not even thinking about the game. Like Billy, he had noticed that Diana had lost weight. The only time he had seen her in two and a half years were the few minutes on the night of his arrival, and although she had been wrapped in her dressing gown he was sure she hadn’t looked quite so thin and gaunt then. The navy serge suit she was wearing – one he remembered – had hung loose on her slight frame, the white blouse under the jacket positively baggy at the collar. He felt a tug at his hand and looked down. Catrina handed him the die and Bakelite shaker cup.

‘Play!’

‘Of course, darling.’ He stretched out on the rug between the children. ‘It’s a real treat to have a fire in here, isn’t it?’ he enthused in an effort to convince them that the unusual activity in the house was all for their benefit. Catrina tipped the die out on the lino.

‘You’re supposed to shake it, Cat,’ Billy reprimanded crossly.

Ronnie slipped the die back into the cup. ‘Try again, sunshine.’

Jumping to his feet, Billy shouted, ‘I don’t want to play, I want to see Mam.’

‘Ssh, keep your voice down. You will see her, Billy, I promise, and in a very few minutes.’ Ronnie pulled him back on to the rug. ‘But she’s been very ill and needs to rest after her journey here.’

‘And she doesn’t want to see me and Catrina because she’s resting?’

‘Of course she’ll want to see you.’ Rolling on his back, Ronnie lifted him high in his arms. ‘And when Granny comes to get you, you can give Mam the flowers we bought on the market and Catrina can give her the bar of chocolate.’

‘Granny’s never coming.’

‘Roll the die, start playing and I bet you …’ Ronnie pulled the change from his pocket and laid two silver threepences on the tiled hearth. ‘Those two joeys that Granny will come to get you before the game is over.’

‘I’m not an invalid, Mam.’

‘Yes, you are, and you’ll do as you’re told.’ Megan bustled Diana into one of the easy chairs placed next to the range. Pulling a blanket from beneath a cushion on the sofa she unfolded it and tucked it around her daughter’s legs.

‘Now I’m going to roast.’

‘Quiet, or I’ll set Andrew on you.’

‘Great, now I’m the bogeyman.’ Andrew carried Diana’s case in, and left it by the door.

‘If you don’t do as you’re told, he’ll have you straight back in hospital.’

‘All you’ve succeeded in doing is swapping one dragon witch sister for another, Di,’ Bethan cautioned.

‘Tea’s ready when you are,’ Tina called from the wash house.

‘Come and meet the invalid before you lay it,’ Bethan suggested.

‘I thought we weren’t supposed to overwhelm her all at once.’ Picking up a towel, Tina dried her hands on it before joining the others. Megan was hovering anxiously over Diana, Andrew had sat next to Bethan on the sofa but William and Dino were standing at the door like sentinels.

‘Hello, Di.’ She bent to kiss her. ‘Nice to see you up and about and looking so well. Boy, your hair looks great.’

‘One of the nurses cut and shaped it for me.’

‘Any chance of her coming to the house to do mine?’ She looked across at William and Dino. ‘You two standing guard, or what?’

Diana looked at them and laughed. ‘Little and large.’

‘Who’s the large?’ Megan asked.

‘That depends on whether you’re looking sideways or head on,’ Tina teased.

‘You’re my stepfather?’

‘You recognise me, Diana?’ Dino asked hopefully.

‘From a photograph Bethan gave me of you and Mam that had been taken on your wedding day. Apparently I was there but I don’t remember a thing about it. You’re even wider than Mam said and I thought you would be.’

‘Diana! I said no such thing,’ Megan exclaimed.

‘It’s all right, I grew a skin like a rhinoceros when I married into this family,’ Dino grinned, ‘but only because I had to.’

‘I think I’m going to like you, Dino. Did I before?’

‘Glad to see you’ve lost none of your tact and diplomacy along with your memory, sis.’ William perched on the other chair and looked up at Tina. ‘Tea, woman.’

‘No ordering me about to show off in front of Diana or I’ll hit you.’

‘See how cruelly she treats me? She needs you to set a good wifely example …’ He stooped to rub his ankle where Andrew had kicked him.

‘Where are the children?’ Diana asked.

‘In the parlour. We lit the fire so they could play in there.’

‘That’s my fault, not Megan’s,’ Andrew explained. ‘I thought you shouldn’t be bombarded with too many people at once.’

‘And I’d like this to be a normal day and a normal family teatime. You should have invited Uncle Evan and Phyllis …’

‘And all my brothers and sisters.’ Tina carried an enormous oval meat plate piled high with Welsh cakes into the kitchen and set it in the middle of the table, ‘including my mother and Gina, who’s just had a baby.’

‘Boy or girl?’

‘Girl. Sorry, Andrew,’ she apologised as he shook his head at her. ‘I didn’t think.’

‘But I remember Gina marrying Luke,’ Diana protested. Tired of the strained atmosphere that was the result of everyone trying too hard, she looked from Andrew to her mother. ‘I want to see the children.’

‘Andrew?’ Megan asked.

‘I want to see them, not him.’ Reaching for her crutches, she heaved herself to her feet.

‘I’ll go and check the fire in the parlour.’

‘There’s no need, Beth. It will be fine.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because there’s no way you lot would leave a five-year old and a two-year-old alone in a room with a fire. I know their father’s with them and I think it’s time I made his acquaintance.’

‘Peter, what on earth are you doing here?’ Liza stared in amazement as she walked into the lobby of the nurses’ home and saw Peter standing in the foyer.

‘I’m here because they told me I couldn’t wait anywhere else.’

‘But how did you find me?’

‘You told me you worked in Cardiff Royal Infirmary. Today’s my half-day in the garage, I caught a bus into Cardiff found it, and asked for you.’

‘Someone in the Infirmary told you I was here?’ She pulled her nurse’s cloak closer to her body, holding the edges together with her fingers. She’d been fast asleep after her night shift when one of the other trainees had woken her with the news that there was a young man waiting to see her. She’d thrown on a few clothes and run down expecting to see Angelo, but Peter’s white-blond head shining like a beacon in the tiled gloom of the hostel foyer had taken her breath away.

‘You’re angry with me.’

‘Just surprised.’

‘I wanted to see you.’

‘I’m on night shift for the next three days.’

‘The nurse I spoke to told me.’

‘But I have next Thursday off.’ Try as she may she simply couldn’t stop looking into his eyes. Blue – deep blue – so unlike Angelo’s dark brown ones.

‘I have to work in the day, but I could meet you here in the evening, or if you come to Pontypridd I could see you there.’

‘I’m going home to see my sisters.’

‘Then we’ll go out on Thursday night.’ She suddenly realised he hadn’t asked but told her. ‘Do you have some free time now?’

She looked at her watch. ‘A couple of hours. I intended to spend them sleeping.’

‘But you’re awake now. I could take you …’

‘For a coffee, a walk, or to the pictures.’ She expected him to accuse her of making fun of him but he smiled.

‘Any or all of those things.’

‘Give me a quarter of an hour to get ready.’

‘You are ready.’

‘Not if you look at what I’m wearing under this cloak.’

‘I could help you dress.’

‘Say that within earshot of the warden of this hostel and you’ll never have any children. Fifteen minutes, no more, I promise.’ She ran back up the stairs.

‘Liza, he’s gorgeous.’

‘Where have you been hiding him?’

‘Who is he?’

‘He looks Scandinavian.’

‘I thought you were going out with that Italian boy.’

‘I am,’ Liza mumbled, remembering that she still hadn’t had time to tell Angelo of her change of heart, and he deserved to hear about it before a crowd of her fellow trainees.

‘Does he know about this one?’

‘Peter’s a friend of the family.’

‘I wish my family had friends who looked like him.’

‘He’s only sixteen.’

‘Now we know you’re lying. If you get fed up of him you know where to send him.’

As Liza finally managed to push her way back up the stairs, she stole another glance at Peter in the foyer and knew with absolute certainty that she didn’t want to send him anywhere – especially away from her.

The door to the parlour opened and Megan beckoned to Billy and Catrina. ‘Better get the flowers and chocolate, she’s coming.’

Billy rushed to the table to pick up the bunch of daffodils and tulips he had helped Ronnie pick out earlier that morning, while Ronnie handed Catrina the chocolate that had used up his month’s sweet rations.

Diana hobbled round the corner.

‘Sit down before you try to hug them,’ Megan advised.

Diana almost fell into the nearest chair and opened her arms. Billy stood still for a moment then, clutching the flowers, he hurtled at top speed on to her lap throwing his arms round her neck.

‘Steady now, Billy. Remember Mam has been very ill.’ Megan brushed a tear from the corner of her eye.

‘But I’m fine now.’ Sitting back, Diana held her son away from her with both hands and looked at him. ‘You’ve grown into a fine boy.’

‘You home for good, Mam?’

‘I hope so, darling. If it was up to me I would be but I still have to do what the doctors say.’ She looked across the room to see Ronnie struggling to hold Catrina, who was fighting to climb off his lap.

‘She knows her mother,’ he said quietly.

‘Here, Billy, shift over.’ Diana made room on her lap and Ronnie lifted Catrina gently on to her. ‘Chocolate, flowers, for me?’ She kissed both of them. ‘Thank you so very much. Now I want you to tell me everything that you’ve been doing since I’ve been away.’

Ronnie moved closer to Megan as the children began babbling.

‘Do you think she remembers?’ he whispered, hoping, although he already knew the answer to his question.

‘Well prepared. She’s been pumping Bethan all morning,’ Megan muttered under her breath.

‘Me and Daddy saw you coming.’

‘Did you, darling?’ Diana kissed Billy’s cheek.

‘And we bought you flowers. I chose them.’

‘They’re lovely.’

‘And chocolate.’

‘You’re spoiling me.’ She handed Megan her presents. ‘Don’t you think it’s time I saw this mystery Daddy?’

‘Perhaps when the children go into the kitchen for tea.’ Megan looked away, unable to meet Ronnie’s eyes.

‘Daddy’s no mystery,’ Billy giggled.

‘Billy, why don’t you take Catrina into the kitchen and see if Auntie Tina’s set out those iced biscuits we made this morning? If she has, pick out the two nicest and put them on a plate for Mam,’ Megan suggested.