The Oyster Catchers (8 page)

Eline could see at once that these were not village women but ladies of quality from the town. Their clothes were of good cloth, not made for working the oyster beds and the three of them wore expensive hats above well-groomed hair.

Eline moved forward and wondered if she should bob a curtsy to the obviously affluent customers. After a
moment, she decided against it and, with her head high, moved forward.

‘Can I be of any assistance?’ she asked pleasantly and one of the women sank into a chair.

‘Is this another of Mrs Grenfell’s shops?’ she asked setting down her large bag on the floor. ‘I seem to recognize her touch in the beautiful window display.’

William stepped forward from the shadows and the woman’s face was suddenly wreathed in smiles.

‘Will! I wondered if I’d see you here, how lovely.’ Her voice was smooth and cultured, that of a lady of refinement.

‘Emily – Mrs Miller, didn’t you see the name over the door and me so proud of it?’ He took her hand and smiled ruefully.

‘I saw the name, Will, and that’s why I came in. But to be honest with you I’m so impressed with that wonderful window of ladies’ boots and shoes, I thought that surely Hari must have done the display.’

William shook his head. ‘As a matter of fact it was done by Eline here, my new assistant. Isn’t she talented?’

Mrs Miller smiled at Eline. ‘You are very clever, Eline, perhaps you should do some of the windows in my Swansea boot and shoe emporiums. You could easily make a career of window displays.’

‘Don’t entice her away!’ William said. ‘I’ve only just found her!’

He smiled and waved his arms around the shop. ‘What can we do for you and your friends? Anything you want I’m sure Eline and I can find it for you, though I can’t think of anything we’d have here that you haven’t got in your own emporium.’

Mrs Miller smiled. ‘I’ll be honest, Will, my new shoes are killing me, the heels are too high for walking; pride must pinch, it seems,’ she added ruefully.

Eline, warmed by the praise and by the way William
made her feel a valuable part of the team, was anxious to please.

‘We have some lovely calf boots in stock, I could bring you those.’

Emily Miller nodded. ‘I’ve come to buy something comfortable to wear for the rest of the day.’ She looked up at Will. ‘But while we are here, I’m sure my friends and I would be happy to patronize your shop, Will, get you off to a good start with a few orders.’

Eline served the ladies eagerly and when at last they left the shop, each of them was carrying several parcels of new shoes.

William smiled down at Eline. ‘It was my lucky day when I first set eyes on you,’ he said softly.

It was drawing near to closing time and Eline was just clearing up after the last of the customers had departed when the door was flung violently open. She looked up startled to see Joe standing in the doorway framed by the evening sunlight.

‘What in God’s name do you think you are doing, woman?’ Joe stomped over the polished floor regardless of the clinging sand and mud on his boots.

William stepped forward at once. ‘How can I help you, sir?’ he asked and there was an edge of anger to his voice.

‘There’s nothing I want from you.’ Joe stared past him at Eline. ‘Come on home and don’t you ever do this sort of thing to me again.’ His voice rose. ‘Do you think I’m not capable of earning a living for us now?’

‘Joe,’ Eline said anxiously, ‘don’t make a fuss, I’m not doing any harm.’

‘Not doing any harm; do you think I want you working in a shop when I wasn’t even willing for you to work on the oysters like the other women? Spoiled you’ve been, Eline. Ever since you were a child I’ve given in to you readily, but not in this, Eline, oh no! Get your things, we’re going home.’

William turned to Eline. ‘Who is this man?’ he asked quietly. ‘Is he your father, your elder brother, what?’

Joe’s face reddened and Eline felt the breath leave her body as, shoulders hunched, he moved forward aggressively.

‘I tell you who I am, you young whipper snapper, I’m her husband, that’s who I am.’ Joe caught Eline’s arm and drew her towards the door.

Eline had time only to glance quickly over her shoulder, but that brief look was all she needed to tell her that Will was devastated by the news. With a mingling of joy and despair, she realized that William Davies had been drawn to her, perhaps was even beginning to fall a little in love with her. But at what cost? Her silence had made her a liar and now William could never ever trust her again.

‘How could she do it to me, Hari?’ William rubbed his hand through his hair so that it stood up on end. ‘I was falling in love with her and all the time she was married to an
old
man!’

He looked at Hari, wondering why she was not agreeing with him, but she was staring silently down at her hands.

‘You knew, didn’t you?’ he said accusingly. ‘You
knew
she was married.’

Hari nodded miserably. ‘I saw the gold ring on her finger, I’m sorry, Will.’

He sank down into a chair, and took Hari’s hand in his own. ‘How could you tell me? It wasn’t your place to destroy my dreams, was it?’

‘She could have been a widow, Will,’ Hari said softly. ‘Although she is very young, the fishermen risk their lives every day.’ Hari shrugged. ‘Anyway, I couldn’t hurt you.’

William rose to his feet and thrust his hands into his pockets. ‘I don’t understand it, the way the man was talking, it was as though he’d known her since the day she was born. I thought she was his daughter or at least his young sister.’

He paced around the room. ‘It must have been an arranged marriage, one of convenience. I expect Eline was more or less forced to marry the man – there’s no other explanation.’

‘Why couldn’t she have told you about it?’ Hari said softly. ‘Then at least it wouldn’t have been such a shock.’

Will rubbed his hand through his hair. ‘I think she was embarrassed,’ he said. ‘I
know
she feels the same
way about me as I do about her, so she must have had good reason for remaining silent.’

‘Don’t let a pretty face blind you to the truth, there’s a good man,’ Hari said rising and putting her hand on Will’s arm. ‘Eline is a sweet girl, but she’s married and whatever the reason for her marriage, it is legally binding, nothing can change that.’

‘I must see her.’ Will felt the blood rush to his face at the memory of the way the man had dragged Eline unceremoniously from the shop. ‘I must talk to her.’

‘Look,’ Hari spoke quietly, placatingly, ‘find out all you can about the two of them but be discreet.’ She looked up at him and Will could see her eyes imploring him to be careful.

A feeling of warmth washed over him. Hari was the one person in the world who loved him without reservation, she would do anything for him, he knew that, and her words to him now held a certain wisdom.

‘It may be that your guess is right about Eline being pushed into the marriage and, on the other hand, perhaps she was very happy to be the wife of a self-sufficient fisherman, but whatever the truth, don’t do anything reckless.’

The door opened and Craig Grenfell entered the drawing room, his dark hair sweeping back from his high, intelligent forehead.

‘Good heavens! It’s like winter out today with that easterly breeze coming in off the sea. Oh, hallo William, good to see you, how’s the new store coming along?’

Will squared his shoulders, he had always been a little in awe of Hari’s husband and never more so than now when the Grenfell and Briant Leather Company was a flourishing concern with branches all over the country. It made his venture in Oystermouth seem very small indeed.

‘Fine, it seems to have started well enough, I’ve even been patronized by Emily Miller, though by accident
rather than design.’ He smiled down at Hari as she pouted in a pretence of anger.

‘Didn’t I tell you?’ He smiled at Hari’s raised eyebrows. ‘It was only that her shoes pinched and the heels were too high, so she bought a pair of practical shoes made for comfort from me.’

Craig sank into a chair, his long legs stretched out before him, a big, handsome man with breeding in every line of his face and in the casual elegance of his body.

‘Can’t ask for a better patron than that.’ He smiled broadly. ‘The owner of the biggest emporium in Wales buying at William Davies’s shop is an accolade not to be sniffed at.’

Craig looked at Hari and there was a world of love in his dark eyes. ‘Where’s that son of mine?’ he asked softly and Hari reached out and touched her husband’s hand.

‘David is having a nap.’ She spoke the ordinary words as though they were a caress and Will envied the couple their obvious happiness. That was just the sort of happiness he might have had with Eline.

‘
Duw
,’ Hari continued, ‘the poor boy was worn out from running along the beach, that nanny of his is a great believer in fresh air!’

Will suddenly felt an outsider, looking in on a world of warm fires and even warmer emotions. He moved to the door. ‘I’d better get back to Oystermouth,’ he said, forcing a smile. ‘Mrs Marsh will be sure to have a hot meal ready for me.’

Hari was on her feet in a moment. ‘Oh Will,’ she said catching his arm, ‘I thought you might like to stay and have supper with us.’

Will covered her hand with his own, ‘That’s very generous of you, Hari, but I want to go over the books this evening. Another time?’

Hari rested her head against his shoulder for a brief moment. ‘I love the way you talk, all posh-like. Have I ever told you, Will, how proud of you I am?’

‘Then be proud of yourself,’ William said gently. ‘Craig too. Between the two of you I’ve become what I am today.’ He laughed, suddenly rueful. ‘A hybrid, half-gent half-working man.’

‘Nonsense!’ Hari said, ‘you are a real gentleman in every sense of the word, my boy, and don’t you forget it.’

As William strode away from Summer Lodge, he looked back at the large gracious house with its sweeping lawns and large wrought-iron gates and wondered that he, William Davies from the slums of Swansea, was welcome in such a place.

There must have been a star above him when he was born for, by rights, he should have spent his days in squalor and poverty in the hovel of a house at World’s End. It was only through Hari’s love and kindness and on the coat-tails of her vision and foresight that Will had been lifted out of all that and given a chance for a better life.

And yet he was not happy, well, not completely. He wanted a wife, a woman whom he could love and honour until the day he died, the way Craig Grenfell felt about Hari. In other words, Will wanted Eline Harries.

‘I can’t be held a prisoner like this, Joe.’ Eline’s voice was low and tears trembled on her lashes. ‘Can’t you see I’ll pine away and die if I spend another day in this house with nothing to do but clean and cook for you?’

Joe turned on her. ‘Well, have some children then.’ His voice was rising with anger. ‘Have sons for me so that they can grow and thrive and one day inherit my business.’

Eline hung her head, she didn’t know why she hadn’t conceived. It couldn’t be Joe’s fault; she must be responsible, she must somehow have failed, but she couldn’t understand why.

She had come to be Joe’s bride knowing nothing about
contact between men and women. Of course on the farm she had seen animals procreate, had taken it all for granted, but to translate those acts of nature into human terms had been beyond her.

It had been a terrible shock when Joe had come to her bed that first night. It had been a painful, almost bitter, experience. Even though Joe had tried to be kind, he had a passionate nature and his emotions had been roused to fever pitch because he had wanted and waited for her for so long and now he had her in his arms.

Eline had tried to understand that this was the way men were; she heard the village women talking often enough about preferring a tune on the fiddle to a night of passion and so she assumed they all felt as she did, that to give in to a husband was a duty rather than a pleasure.

And then Will Davies had come into her life and when he was near her, she experienced feelings and emotions that she had never known before. She wanted to be in his arms, to have him take possession of her body and yet such feelings could not be right.

‘How could you expect me to let you work alone in a store with a strange man?’ Joe seemed to pick up on her thoughts. ‘Have you no shame, woman?’

‘There would have been other assistants when Mr Davies had time to engage them,’ Eline protested. ‘In any case, the shop has two huge windows looking out on to the street, what could anyone make of that?’

‘Don’t argue with me,’ Joe said sullenly. ‘I am a plain man and I have spoken my last word, you are not to work for Davies or anyone else, so get that into your head right now.’

‘Joe,’ Eline said softly, ‘I was born to be a working woman, couldn’t I at least spend time on the oyster perches the way the other women do? I’m not a china doll, mind, to be stuck in a doll’s house all day alone.’

‘I have workers for the oysters as you well know,’ Joe
said. ‘I don’t want you to work, Eline, are you deaf or stupid?’

Eline was suddenly stung to anger. ‘No, I’m not deaf or stupid!’ she said in a low voice. ‘I know that something is going on between you and Nina Parks,
that’s
how stupid I am.’

Joe jerked around to look at her. ‘And who’s been spreading vicious lies about me?’ he thundered and, for a moment, Eline quailed before his anger.

‘No one has been spreading anything,’ she said, summoning her courage and lifting her head defiantly. ‘I’ve always known there was something strange about the way you have kept going around there to
her
house every week.’

‘Strange? What’s strange in giving Nina and her girls the wages they have earned?’ Joe demanded.

‘The whole thing is odd,’ Eline persisted, ‘a debt to an old friend does not usually extend to keeping his entire family. If you ask me, Nina always was and still is your mistress, that’s the debt you owe, conscience money and not an act of self-sacrificing goodness.’

Joe grasped her arm. ‘Wash your mouth out!’ he said and his face was red with anger. ‘I love you, girl, I always have, but do not push me too far, do you hear?’