Tiger Bay Blues (25 page)

‘It sounds like your house is busy.’

‘It is. And we’re expecting Harry to arrive any minute, and Bella and Toby are coming in on the five o’clock train.’ After a quick glance up and down the passageway to make sure it was empty, she whispered, ‘Love you.’

He muttered, ‘Likewise,’ and she suspected that his visitor was close by. ‘See you in church.’

Edyth replaced the receiver and opened the sitting-room door. Maggie was sitting on the sofa, a picture of innocence, reading an article entitled ‘To Marry or Not to Marry’ in a copy of
Good Housekeeping.

‘The telephone’s free for your important call, Maggie.’ Edyth knelt on the window seat in the bay and looked out of the window.

‘I didn’t know that you were waiting for an important telephone call, Maggie,’ Sali said from her chair next to the fireplace where she was stitching together the pressed pieces of the baby’s layette she had finished knitting.

‘One of the girls in school said she was going to telephone me about homework,’ Maggie replied.

‘When are you going to stop annoying Edyth?’ Sali asked evenly.

‘I don’t annoy her,’ Maggie snapped.

‘You never stop,’ Edyth bit back, angry because she couldn’t stop shaking at the thought of what was going to happen in less than twenty-four hours.

‘Do you know what your trouble is, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes? Or should it be Mrs Vicar Goody-Two-Shoes? You’re oversensitive,’ Maggie crowed.

‘I do wish you two would stop squabbling.’ For once Sali allowed her own irritation to show.

‘Considering we’ll be living in different houses, we will after tomorrow,’ Edyth said quietly. She left the room. Before she closed the door she heard her mother say to Maggie, ‘Now look what you’ve done.’

But she knew that her arguments with her sister were only a symptom of the blight that had hung over the house since her parents had brought her back from Cardiff after her flight from college. No one in the family liked Peter, and try as she may, not even her love for him, his for her, and the thought of the new life they would make for themselves down in Tiger Bay could entirely make her forget their disapproval.

Chapter Thirteen

‘Can you believe it, our taxi turned in the drive at the exact same moment as Harry’s car …’

The sound of Bella’s voice in the hall brought Edyth running down the stairs, Sali, Maggie, Beth and Susie out of the sitting room, and Lloyd from his study.

‘Belle, I couldn’t believe it when you wrote that you and Toby would come back in time for my wedding.’ Edyth flung her arms around her sister’s neck.

‘You didn’t think Toby and I would have stayed in America and missed it, do you? Besides, we only had to cut our visit short by a week and by then even Toby was sick of New York. The sights are wonderful and the museums and art galleries heavenly, but it’s so big and noisy. We hardly slept a wink.’

‘Really, sis?’ Harry lifted one eyebrow suggestively after dropping two suitcases at the foot of the staircase.

‘Because of the traffic.’ Bella’s cheeks flamed crimson, but Toby laughed.

‘Don’t you dare lift a single thing out of that car except yourself, Mary Evans,’ Harry shouted to his wife over his shoulder. ‘Davy, help your sister in here this minute. I warned you, that you could only go to Edyth’s wedding if you promised to behave yourself and not lift a finger more than necessary.’

‘I’m having a baby, not knocking on death’s door, Harry.’ Mary hugged Sali, Edyth and Bella in turn.

‘You’re huge, Mary. The baby looks as though it’s about to arrive any minute,’ Bella said tactlessly.

‘Mary, sit down before I have a heart attack,’ Harry ordered, stepping out of the way when his two young brothers-in-law galloped through the hall to the kitchen in search of Mari, or what was more likely, orange juice and biscuits.

‘Come into the sitting room and sit down out of this crush.’ Sali slipped her arm around Mary’s shoulders and led her out of the hall. ‘You must be parched after that long journey. I’ll get us some tea.’

‘I’ll go next door with the taxi driver and drop off our luggage, Mrs Ross.’ Toby kissed Bella’s cheek.

‘Don’t forget to leave Edyth’s wedding present here.’ Bella hugged Edyth again. ‘I can’t wait to see your gown.’

‘Edyth, where are you displaying your presents?’ Harry asked, when David walked in from the car carrying a large, and by the look of strain on his face, heavy box.

‘They’re in the conservatory.’

‘Congratulations, Edyth.’ David said flatly. ‘The vicar’s a lucky fellow.’

‘Thank you, Davy.’ He looked so devastated Edyth was glad to follow Bella up the stairs and into her bedroom. Negotiating the packing cases that littered the floor, she closed the door and pointed to the gown hooked on to the outside of her wardrobe.

Bella unbuttoned the calico cover. ‘Oh my, it’s velvet.’

‘Just as well the weather’s gone cold. It was horribly expensive, but Mam said it cost about the same as yours, and she kept insisting she couldn’t treat any of us differently to the others.’

‘You’re wearing Grandmother’s veil and tiara.’ Bella picked them up from the dressing table.

‘Do you mind?’

‘Not at all. I think it’s lovely. I hope all the others wear them, too. It’s the something old and the something borrowed, as well as a bit of Granddad and Grandma carrying on down the family. A new family tradition that started with us.’

‘With you,’ Edyth corrected. ‘You were the one who found them when we cleared Granddad’s house.’

‘Just think, around twenty years from now our daughters could be wearing them on their wedding days. And in between there’s Uncle Joey and Auntie Rhian’s girls as well as the rest of our lot.’ Bella replaced them on the table. She sat on Edyth’s bed, wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees. ‘When I read your letter telling us that you were getting married – and to a vicar – I checked my diary to make sure it wasn’t April Fool’s Day. When we left, you were set on going to college.’

‘The Bishop told Peter he would only be given the parish on Cardiff docks if he was married,’ Edyth interrupted. Not wanting to discuss the events that had led to so much upset and argument, she picked up the tiara and polished it absently with her handkerchief.

‘But you do love Peter?’ Bella asked.

‘Very much,’ Edyth said seriously. ‘And I’m certain that he loves me.’

‘That’s all right, then,’ Bella returned her smile. ‘And,’ she added archly, ‘you can’t keep your hands off one another?’

‘Peter’s a vicar –’

‘Don’t tell me he prays first?’ Bella joked.

‘I’ve only seen him once in the last month. He’s been so busy in the parish. The last vicar has been ill …’

The sound of footsteps thundering up the stairs interrupted them. ‘Belle, where are you?’ Toby shouted.

‘In Edyth’s room and she’s dressed, so it’s safe to come in,’ Bella called back.

‘Which door is it? There’s a whole pile of them out here.’

‘Making me move just when I was comfortable,’ Bella grumbled, but she left the bed. Toby was standing in the middle of the landing.

‘There are two parcels with Edyth and Peter’s name on them. Are they both supposed to go with the wedding presents?’

‘That’s men for you,’ Bella sighed dramatically. ‘They can’t do a thing without you giving them precise and exact instructions. Be warned, you’ll have to run around after Peter from morning till night.’

‘That’s charming, Belle; you make us sound like untrained dogs.’

‘Aren’t you?’ Bella asked innocently. ‘Of course both parcels are for Edyth and Peter, darling. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t have written their names on them.’

‘I’ll put them in the conservatory. David’s helping Mari to carry in more trestle tables. Looking at the size of the pile waiting to be unwrapped I do hope that Peter has been given a large vicarage, Edyth. Must go, the taxi driver’s waiting.’ He ran off whistling ‘Ten Cents a Dance.’

‘I hate that song and everyone in America seemed to be singing it all the time, not just on the radio but even the doorman at the hotel and the elevator boy. Listen to me I even sound like an American. Oh, it is good to be back in Ponty!’ she exclaimed fervently. ‘I’ve missed all of you and I can’t wait to move into the new house and get it exactly as I want it. Toby’s looking forward to working in his studio, too. It will be the first he’s designed from scratch.’ Bella went to the window and looked down on her husband who was climbing into the taxi. ‘Is it big?’

‘What?’ Edyth was engrossed in buttoning the calico cover back on to her dress.

‘Your vicarage? Is it big?’

‘I’ve only seen it once but it seemed huge. It’s been redecorated and builders have installed new kitchen and bathroom fittings. As soon as we’re settled, you and Toby must come and stay.’

‘I read between the lines of your letters, Edie. I know that you must have had a difficult time persuading Mam and Dad to let you give up college to get married. I didn’t make it easy for you. They were horribly disappointed when I insisted on marrying Toby instead of completing my education.’

‘Worst of all was knowing how much I was upsetting Dad,’ Edyth confessed.

‘But you love Peter and loving someone is everything. Dad only wants the best for us, but sometimes I think he’s forgotten what it’s like to be young and in love.’

Bella turned to the door. ‘Come downstairs and see what we bought you in New York. I hope you like them.’

‘Them?’ Edyth asked warily.

‘Toby and I had such fun choosing them.’

‘China figurines?’

Bella laughed. ‘Your taste was just like mine when we were small.’

‘Only because you hit me every time I tried to disagree with you,’ Edyth reminded her.

‘Never that hard.’

‘That is debatable.’

‘I suppose it depends on whether you were on the giving or receiving end of the blows. But this time there isn’t a china figurine in sight. And I won’t hit you, even if you don’t like our presents; I’ll keep them for myself.’

Much as Edyth adored her father’s brothers and their wives, she occasionally found her cousins, especially the younger boys, exasperating. And when the entire extended family of uncles and aunts and their children descended on the house that evening, along with a few of her parents’ closest friends, she found herself longing somewhat guiltily and ungratefully – for the peace and solitude of her own room.

Everyone had come out of kindness and a desire to help with the last-minute preparations, and they all brought embarrassingly generous wedding gifts along with their congratulations and good wishes for her and Peter’s future. The gifts were so numerous it took the combined efforts of her, Bella, Mari and her mother to arrange them for viewing in the conservatory.

Supper was a long and noisy affair. Afterwards her father, his brothers, Harry and Toby retreated into the study, ostensibly to smoke, although the clink of glasses soon echoed from behind the closed door. Wishing for peace and quiet more than ever, Edyth helped Mari and her sisters to clear the table and carry in the trays of greenery and boxes of white carnations that Sali had ordered from the florist.

They set to work making buttonholes and Edyth recalled the evening before Bella’s wedding when they had done the self-same thing. She wondered if it were her imagination, or if they really had been happier then? The only emotion she felt when the last carnation and sprig of fern had been twisted into silver paper was relief. Her mother must have sensed her mood, because she reminded her that she would have to be up early the following morning.

Edyth kissed her aunts and cousins goodnight, hugged Bella and exacted a promise from her to arrive early the next morning to help her dress, shouted a ‘goodnight’ through her father’s study door and climbed the stairs.

She undressed, climbed into bed, switched off the bedside lamp and waited, but sleep eluded her. She continued to lie tossing and turning on the mattress, physically and emotionally exhausted, yet unable to stop her mind from racing as she listened to the distant hum of conversation emanating from downstairs. The sound was too faint for her to make out individual voices, except for the occasional eruption of laughter, and there were more of those from the study than the sitting room.

It seemed odd to hear Harry and Toby’s laughter join that of her father and uncles, and she realised that whereas marriage had elevated them to the world of male adulthood, there was no such marked distinction for women. Bella still sat with their mother, aunts, younger sisters and cousins just as she’d always done at family gatherings. She was still wondering why that should be, when she heard the front door open and Toby and Bella calling, ‘Goodnight.’

Shortly afterwards the hubbub intensified, the door opened again and her Uncle Joey’s and Uncle Victor’s cars roared into life in the drive below her window. There were more shouts of ‘Goodnight’, they drove away and the family began to troop up the stairs in twos and threes. She heard Harry whisper in concern as he helped Mary; and David hush his younger brothers as they piled into Bella’s old room. Martha and Susie ran up giggling, and from the length of time that elapsed before they turned off the light in Susie’s room, she guessed they’d tried on their bridesmaids’ dresses before they went to bed.

She turned on her side and watched the hands move round the radium dial of the travelling alarm clock her Uncle Joey and Aunt Rhian had bought her as a congratulatory present when she had passed her matriculation. One o’clock came and went. Shortly afterwards she recognised the light tread of her father on the stairs. He was always the last in the house to go to bed. She heard the click as he closed her parents’ bedroom door.

Half past one … two o’clock … half-past two …

She remembered Bella’s wedding, how tears had come to her eyes when Bella had taken her vows.

… 
To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part
 … 

Till death us do part.
Marriage was such a serious and important milestone in life. Were her parents right? Was she too young to be taking such a momentous step? Was she doing the right thing in marrying Peter? Did he really love her or was he just saying that to get a parish?

She hated herself for even giving that thought consideration.

Peter had fallen in love with her the first moment he’d looked at her. He’d told her so, time and again. It had to be the truth. It simply had to be.

Unable to bear the doubts crowding in her mind a moment longer, she sat up, switched on her bedside lamp and looked at the framed photograph of Peter that he had given her the day after he’d asked her father if they could ‘court formally’. Of course he loved her. How could she even think otherwise? She was simply suffering from pre-wedding nerves, just as she’d done earlier when she had spoken to him on the telephone.

Restless, she decided to go downstairs and make herself a cup of hot milk - and not just milk, she’d put chocolate in it. And she’d investigate Mari’s tins to see if any of the macaroons or jumble biscuits the housekeeper had baked for the visitors that morning were left.

Glad to have a plan of action, she swung her legs out of bed and reached for her robe. She tied it around her waist, muffled the lock on her door with her fingers and stole out on the landing.

Wary of switching on the lights lest she disturb anyone, she felt her way down the stairs and along the passage into the kitchen. She closed the door behind her before turning on the lamp. Blinking hard to adjust to the glare, she stumbled, light-headed from sheer weariness. She filled the milk saucepan from the churn on the marble slab in the pantry, set it on the stove and lit the gas. While it was heating, she blended chocolate powder, sugar and cold milk into a paste in a cup. When the milk began to simmer, she poured it on to the chocolate mixture and carried it into the conservatory.

Even in the half-light that came from the kitchen she could see the trestle tables were groaning with gifts. Peter had been right to warn her to wait before buying anything for their home. Her parents had been generous with the wedding reception and bedroom suite. Her Uncle Victor and Auntie Megan had presented her with all the bed linen she and Peter were likely to need for the next twenty years, including two beautifully hand-crocheted double bedspreads and patchwork eiderdowns she recognised as her aunt’s handiwork.