Time to Move On (16 page)

‘I believe that if you really want something, then all you need is determination
and a small pinch of luck.’

‘My parents said this is a perfect time for making plans. It’s
coronation
year, we’re now in the new Elizabethan age.’

‘Maybe they’re right and it’s a time to be bold. There’s excitement in the air although the coronation is a couple of months away. Already the streets are planning the decorations and the street parties. We could pretend they are for us too, Babs.’

‘I’m so glad I came here tonight, or I’d have flopped on the bed bemoaning my misfortunes, and waking up in the morning convinced I’ve been cruelly treated.’

‘It’s this house,’ Seranne told her. ‘Badgers Brook takes away all
negative
thoughts and gives you a chance to think things out clearly.’

They sat silently for a while, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere of the house. Its walls issued warmth and comfort and they both knew that it was this which had helped them make their important decision and was assuring them that everything would be all right.

Betty and Alun tried several times to talk about Ed’s shock and
disappointment
at his wife’s surprising decision. It wasn’t an easy subject as each thought they could guess what the other was thinking. Alun believed that with her brother Ed back at the Ship, Betty would no longer need him. She was certain to want him to leave, even if she found it hard to tell him so. He had to make it easier for her by telling her he was going away.

Betty was convinced that Alun had stayed as long as he had just for her benefit and would be relieved to be able to leave and find a place where he could return to what he did best, running a restaurant. They skirted around the subject in a casual way, neither able to explain how they really felt.

Ed was still bitter about Elsie’s treatment of him and made it quite clear he wanted – and expected – to come back, but Betty insisted he had to stay at the guest house until Mary Anne Crisp was found and the place was claimed. He reacted like a child when she tried to remind him that the Ship was hers alone and no longer his home.

‘You left me without a thought when you and Elsie decided to marry and I understood. After all, you had your own life to lead and only stayed because there was nowhere else you wanted to be. Until Elsie.’

‘But it’s my home, Betty. I haven’t known anywhere else.’

‘Until Elsie,’ she reminded him again. ‘You chose to take your share of the place and I became sole owner many years ago.’

‘You’ll come and help with the breakfast?’ he asked.

‘Not permanently. Just until you find someone else to help.’

It was very late when he went out muttering that the Ship was still his home, refusing to accept that he no longer owned a share of it.

Alun listened and was sad. He stepped outside leaving Betty to her thoughts. A heavy mist had fallen, blanketing the houses and reducing the street lights to hazy lollipops. It was late and his footsteps sounded extra loud as he walked along the street, past the post office and the houses where only a few lights showed. With no destination in mind he walked along the path leading to the allotments, the planting in precise rows hardly visible. A rabbit hopped across his view and he wondered if the gardeners would lose a few treats, but he didn’t attempt to chase it away. An owl hooted and its melancholy sound persuaded him to return to where there were at least signs of people.

Walking past the guest house, still avoiding going back to the Ship, he was startled to hear someone call his name. ‘Ed?’ he answered. ‘What are you doing out so late?’

‘Same as you I expect, trying to decide what to do.’

‘You have to stay on, at least until the new owner is found, don’t you?’

‘Do I? When Betty wants me to go back home?’

‘Is that what she wants?’

‘Of course it is. We worked together for years until I gave it up to marry Elsie. If only I’d known.’

‘What would you have done differently?’

‘I loved her you know.’

‘Then you would still have married her and looked after her, so what have you really lost?’

‘I don’t expect you to understand.’ Ed turned and went in, banging the door loudly.

Alun stared after him for a long time, the mist beginning to move in swirling patterns as the wind began to rise. He was chilled, having worn insufficient clothing for the late hour but the chill inside was the worst.

He knew he had to leave. Betty was showing anger towards Ed but her anger was misplaced, she was angry with herself for not agreeing to have him back at the Ship. She wants to help her brother but is hesitating because of me, he told himself. I have to help her by walking away. Even if it breaks my heart.

Ed reopened the door of the guest house and stood in the misty darkness looking out at the garden he had tended, making the guest house an
attractive first impression for visitors. The lawn was neatly cut and the flower beds dug and raked ready for the annuals he had growing in the greenhouse at the back.

What hadn’t he done? How had he failed her that she could cut him out like this? Her treachery was worse by not warning him. Perhaps if they had talked about it she would have reconsidered. She might at least have tried to make him understand, given him the chance to make plans. Then he shrugged. What could she have said that would make sense of what she had done?

Shivering, he went inside and up to his room, dejected and conscious of being completely alone. What price love? Cheated by his wife whom he had loved, and not wanted by his sister, who said she loved him!

Another man staring unseeing into the mist was Luke. He sat in his car, lights turned off and stared up at the puny lights showing in the flat above the the tea rooms. What was going on? This successful business had been destroyed and Paul Curtis had rented a shop in Barry which was promised to be opened in two months time to sell fine china. So far as he could ascertain, the man wasn’t earning any money. He thought of the china that had belonged to Jessie’s tea rooms that he had sold. What else had he taken from Seranne’s mother to get his business idea started? And if money was his priority why had he ruined the business that had kept Seranne and Jessie in comfortable ease?

From his enquiries he had discovered that Paul had been borrowing wildly for months. When he had left the forces at the end of the war he had taken on a partner in the business left to him by his father. He had presumed the business ran itself as he had never done anything while his father had been alive and it soon suffered from his inability to do the necessary work. Money had been spent giving the impression of a wealthy man with no real need to worry about finance. Orders had fallen as he had neglected to take on the necessary work of running the place and all his best employees had gone.

Luke was almost certain Paul had used Jessie’s money to narrowly avoid bankruptcy, which would have meant he’d be unable to start again. What was curious was the way he had persuaded Jessie to neglect her own business and instead spend time and money having fun.

An outside light came on and he watched as Paul came out and hurried around to where his car was parked. Cautiously, Luke followed. It was late and there were few cars on the road, which made it difficult not to be seen following. Illegally shutting off his lights for brief moments and slowing right down, then speeding up again, was all he could do. He
hoped Paul was too intent on getting to wherever he was going. He stopped when he guessed where the man was heading. Then he waited until the rear lights were out of sight and slowly headed for the house where Pat Sewell lived. Paul didn’t stay long and, reminding himself of his own rule about not jumping to conclusions, Luke drove away.

When Betty finished clearing the dishes from Ed’s breakfast she picked up the letter she had taken from Mark Lacy and tried to persuade him to open it. As on several occasions before, he’d refused and in desperation, Betty tore it open and read it aloud. Then she read it again, more slowly.

Without an apology for not leaving the property for him, Elsie explained that having been left a large sum of money by an aunt she hardly knew which had changed her life, she had determined to do the same for someone else when her time came. She had been working as a cleaner in an hotel on the seafront in Tenby when she had been informed of the gift. Besides being unexpected, the money came with no
stipulation
about how it should be spent apart from the hope that the money was used to invest in a business and in turn would be passed on in the same unannounced way. The unexpected legacy had enabled her to buy the guest house and had made her financially secure for the rest of her life. Such a wonderfully generous gift was something for which she had never ceased being grateful and she determined to do the same for
someone
else. She explained, again without apology, that their marriage, when she knew she was seriously ill, hadn’t altered her resolution.

‘Right. I’m closing the guest house,’ Ed said firmly. ‘Why should I sit here like a lemon looking after it for someone I don’t even know? I’ll cancel the rest of the bookings, there aren’t many for April anyway. And I’ll move back next week.’

Filled with guilt at what she had to say, she shouted the words,
startling
Ed with their ferocity. ‘No, Ed! Why should you expect to walk back into the Ship? Alun and I manage very well, he works harder than you ever did, and I don’t want things to change.’

‘It’s my home,’ he insisted.

‘No! It isn’t! I own it and I run it and you’ve never been more than a passenger!’ Her voice rising even louder in anger, she stood and glared at him. ‘If you do come back – and I’ll have to think about that – you’ll rent a room and find a job to pay for it. I’m your sister, for heaven’s sake. Not a stupidly tolerant mother!’

Betty told Alun what had happened and asked whether he had any objections to Ed coming back as a paying guest. ‘He’ll have to find a job,’
she said. ‘I don’t want him thinking he can come back and do a little work in the bar and be kept by me. Those days are gone and they went on too long anyway.’

‘He’s your brother. You must want to help.’

‘Help, yes. But keep him? Like an overgrown child? No’

‘What will he do?’

‘Mark Lacy has asked if he’d stay at the guest house and keep it running for when the new owner is found. I’ve explained the simple accounts system. He’d have a home and a wage. But he’s refusing to stay longer than a couple of weeks. He wants to come back here to wallow in self-pity.’

Betty went to the guest house each morning to help with the
breakfasts
but she was aware that Ed was leaving more and more of the work to her. While Elsie was alive he had coped with the routine of bed and breakfasts efficiently, but once Betty was back in his life, he had relaxed, and allowed her to do more than she had originally offered. She returned to the Ship a few mornings later, leaving her brother sitting and staring at the pages of Elsie’s letter as though they might read differently if he willed it so. She forgot his concerns as she walked back into her home, where Alun was whistling cheerfully as he set out the tables and chairs in the bar, where a fire burned brightly. It was time to make her own plans clear.

‘Alun, come and have a coffee, I think there’s something we need to discuss.’

‘Two minutes, Betty,’ he called.

To her disbelief, when he came in for their usual morning break, he was wearing outdoor clothes and carried a small shoulder bag.

‘It’s all right, you don’t have to tell me or make it harder on yourself. I’ll leave so Ed can come back.’

‘Alun! I don’t want Ed back. I really don’t. I hoped you’d stay and….’

‘He’s your brother and he needs a home and a job. You aren’t capable of turning him away. Please don’t be sad. It’s time I moved on anyway.’

Betty was speechless. She knew if she tried to talk she would burst into tears.

‘I want you to know that I’ve never been happier than I’ve been
working
here with you.’ He leant over and kissed her cheek, she moved, tried to think of words to delay him, allow her to say her piece and their lips met. He hastily moved away and they stared at each other for a long moment before he turned and left the building.

‘Where will you go,’ she called. ‘Where can I contact you?’

This time it was Alun who was unable to speak. Betty had been upset but he guessed that the tears were from guilt having to ask him to leave. With her brother back she must have been relieved at not having to ask him to go. He had helped her, made it easy but walking away was the worst thing he’d ever had to do. Worse than closing his restaurant and giving the keys to a stranger. He felt a furious dislike of Ed. The man was selfish and weak and depended on his sister’s generosity instead of being strong and making his own way. At that moment if they’d met it would have been hard not to punch him.

Betty sat at the table and grieved for something she might have had. Alun must have wanted to leave. The affection they shared, which she thought was growing into love, must have been nothing more than
kindness
and friendship. He must have been waiting for an opportunity to walk away, and Ed’s stupid insistence that the Ship and Compass was still his home had given it to him. If Ed had walked in at that moment, like Alun, she’d have wanted to hit him.

Ed’s misery was increasing. He sat at the table in the kitchen of the guest house and glared at the pages of the accounts book. Picking up Elsie’s pen, a gift he had bought for her, he scored the pages furiously, ruining the gold nib and tearing several pages. He threw pen and book across the room. Then he went to see Mark Lacy.

‘I’m not willing to stay running that place any longer,’ he shouted.

‘Will you stay for another week? It would be a great help, give me time to find a caretaker and maybe by then we’ll have heard from the owner.’

‘All right, I’ll see the guests in and be here to get their breakfast but I won’t stay. I’m needed to help my sister in the bar,’ he said.