Finders and Keepers (42 page)

‘Even if you paid off all our debts, it wouldn't make any difference. We'd only end up owing you money instead of the landlord.'

‘There'd be a great deal of difference. I won't rape you if you can't afford to pay me.'

‘I think I've known for some time that we can't afford to carry on living here, not with fewer livestock every season and no help to run the place.' She wrapped her arms around her knees and sank her head down on to them. ‘It's hopeless but I wouldn't accept it. David knew. He tried to tell me that there was no point in trying to carry on, but I wouldn't admit that he was right.'

‘You're worn out and no one thinks straight when they're tired.' Harry rose stiffly to his feet. His lungs were on fire and the bruises on his arm and back were aching unbearably. ‘Stay here. I'm going to see what Mr Pritchard has to say for himself.'

‘No …'

‘I'll be careful.' He pushed open the wooden door, walked outside and looked around the yard. The agent wasn't there and the trap had disappeared. He ran out on to the road. There was no sign of it in either direction.

‘He's gone?' Mary stood shivering in the doorway of the stable when he returned to the yard.

‘Yes. He must have left while we were talking.'

‘Dawn's broken.' She looked up at the sky. ‘Father used to say, “A new day, a new beginning”. But it won't ever be for me again, will it?'

‘You're a pretty young girl with her whole life ahead of her.' Harry had said it automatically, meaning to be kind, but when he looked at her he was overwhelmed by the strength of his own love for her. ‘I'm tired, Mary, and I'm going to be busy today. My family are coming down from Pontypridd to see my grandfather, but they'll be going back late this afternoon. After they've gone I'll drive up here. We'll talk.'

‘There's no point -'

‘I say there is,' he interrupted her. ‘You will talk to me?'

‘If you want me to,' she answered carelessly.

‘And you won't do anything silly before then?' he pressed.

‘Like kill myself?'

‘Like kill yourself,' he echoed.

‘I have my brothers and sister to think about.'

‘Then carry on thinking about them until I come back, Mary. Together we'll solve your problems. I promise.' He bent towards her, intending to kiss her cheek the way he did his sisters, but she backed away and looked up at him.

‘You know all there is to know about me and you're not disgusted?' She stared at him incredulously.

‘You're still you, Mary. The same person you were before the agent made you do things you didn't want to.'

Tears started into her eyes. He opened his arms and she fell into them. They stood locked together in the yard for as long as it took for the emotion she'd contained for so long to surface.

He led her gently back to the stable, sank to his knees, lifted her on to his lap and rocked her while she cried out all the hurt, anger and bitterness. And the whole time he held her, he fervently hoped that her tears were the kind that healed.

Harry woke with a start. It took him a few moments to recall the events that had led him to the farm and into the stable. He looked around. There was no sign of Mary but the sun had risen and it was light enough to read his wristwatch. The hands pointed to seven o'clock. Something sharp was digging into his leg. He felt in the straw beneath him and retrieved a silver pocket watch. He picked it up and opened it. There was an inscription engraved in the back: ‘For Robert Pritchard in return for ten years of faithful and loyal service, E&G Estates.'

He closed it and pushed it into his pocket before climbing to his feet. There were marks on the wall of the stable and he was trying to decipher them when he heard footsteps cross the yard. Mary Ellis joined him. Her eyes were still shadowed but they were dry, and she was dressed in her patched and faded black skirt and blouse, her hair pinned back by the old-fashioned tortoiseshell pins.

‘I came to see if you were awake. You said that you had to fetch your family from the station.'

‘Not until half past ten. How are you?' he asked solicitously.

‘Fine,' she answered in a tone that warned him not to mention what had happened in the night.

‘What are these?' He indicated the strange grid on the wall.

‘That's our tally line.'

‘What's a tally line?' He ran his fingers over the scratches etched into the stone.

‘My father started it after the Estate bought the farm back from the bank. Because he couldn't read and write he couldn't list everything the agent took to pay our rent. So he drew this.' She stepped closer to him. ‘Those egg-shaped marks with squiggles on the top are live chickens, and those without are the ones the agent took that were plucked and trussed ready for the butcher. These long lines separate the months and at the top is the year. So you can see eight columns of years divided by twelve lines of months. And we're now in the eight month of the eighth year since we lost the farm. Every mark represents ten animals. Next to the chickens, the ones with little straight lines sticking up are the bullocks and these are the pigs' snouts, those with eyes are the lambs, those without the fleeces.'

‘So you have a complete record of everything that Robert Pritchard has taken from you to pay the rent?' Harry asked in excitement, hoping that it might give the Ellises the proof they needed to convince the owner of the Estate that the agent was stealing from them. He didn't doubt for one minute that Mary and David's suspicions were correct. And after what the man had done to Mary and all the other women, he'd like to make Robert Pritchard suffer in any way he could.

‘Yes, not that it does us any good because we can't match it to the writing Mr Pritchard puts in his book because we can't read.'

‘But I can. And I can write this out for you properly. Why didn't you tell me that you kept this record?'

‘You didn't ask. And because we didn't want to trouble you with our problems.'

‘You'll explain this to me when I come up this afternoon so I can make a proper account book for you?'

‘If you want me to. The others are all out. David and Matthew have gone to fetch the cows in for milking, and Martha and Luke are looking for eggs in the barn. They've eaten, but I could make you breakfast, if you like.'

‘I'd like that very much, thank you.' He followed her into the kitchen and watched her beat eggs in a bowl and take down a frying pan from the shelf. ‘Do the others know that I fell asleep in the stable?'

‘Yes, they saw your car parked down the road.'

‘What did you tell them?'

‘That it broke down in the night and you woke me and asked if you could sleep in the stable until the morning when it would be light enough for you to see to mend it.'

‘You didn't mention the agent?' He sat at the table.

Tight-lipped, she shook her head, and he realized she had kept the secret for so long that it was easier for her to blot Robert Pritchard's visits from her mind than acknowledge they happened – until his presence forced her to do just that.

‘But David did ask me why you came here again in the night, Mr Evans.'

‘I'm Harry, not Mr Evans, so please don't ever call me that again, and you are Mary.'

‘Were you trying to paint another picture – Harry?'

‘No. I thought you knew I've given up painting pictures to take up carpentry,' he joked.

‘You just thought you'd rescue me again?' There was no irony in her question.

‘I wasn't expecting to see you. I'd been out.'

‘Dancing in Swansea with Miss Adams, Martha told me.'

‘I had no idea she knew.' It was a leading question but he had to ask it. ‘Do you mind?'

‘It's not my place to mind anything that you and Miss Adams do.' She scraped an ounce of dripping from a bowl and dropped it into the frying pan she'd put on the open hob.

‘I was with her, but I spent most of the evening thinking of you.'

‘Why?'

‘I didn't know at the time but I do now.' He choose his words carefully so as not to frighten her. ‘I like you very much, and I'd welcome the opportunity to get to know you better.'

‘And that's why you decided to visit me in the middle of the night?'

‘No,' he laughed. ‘I came because Swansea was hot, noisy and dirty, like you said. I wanted peace and quiet and I couldn't think of anywhere more peaceful or quieter than these hills, this farm and the reservoir.'

She tipped the eggs she'd beaten on top of the melted fat and stirred them. Leaving the pan, she went to the table and cut him a slice of bread from the loaf. ‘Tea?'

‘Please.'

She poured two cups and took hers over to the stove.

‘I could take you to a Swansea hotel for dinner and dancing, if you like?' he suggested lightly.

‘Me?' She blushed crimson. ‘I can't dance, I have nothing to wear and I wouldn't know how to behave in a hotel.'

‘I'll buy you a dress and teach you to dance. As to how to behave in a hotel, I'm sure you wouldn't disgrace yourself.'

‘I couldn't let you buy me a dress.'

‘Yes, you could. It would be a present.'

‘No, Mr … Harry, I couldn't take an expensive present from a man. It wouldn't be right.'

‘Then if you won't let me take you dancing how are we going to get to know one another better?'

‘I thought last night would have solved that problem. I'm not worth getting to know.'

‘Yes, you are.' He straightened the knife and fork and plate she'd laid in front of him.

‘You don't have to be kind to me.' She carried the eggs over and scooped them on to his plate.

‘I'm not. And these eggs look perfect.' He smiled at her, and she blushed again. ‘So, tonight, when I come up for my talk, if you won't let me take you to Swansea, will you let me take you for a drive in the car?' he persevered.

‘I can't leave the little ones.'

‘David would look after them.'

‘He'd want to know what we were doing. He likes you but –'

‘But he's suspicious of me. In that case, we'll just sit and talk, here in the kitchen after I've given Martha and Matthew their reading lesson.'

‘What about?'

‘Ways to solve your problems – and what the future could be like, if you let it,' he said softly.

‘I'm afraid that the only future any of us will see is in the workhouse,' she said bitterly.

‘No. Whatever else the future holds for you and your family, Mary, I promise that none of you will have to go into the workhouse.'

He looked up at her. And for the first time since he had known her, she returned his smile.

Chapter Eighteen

‘Do you think Bella will model for me today? I've painted the background, so all I need is her figure; the sketches shouldn't take long, an hour or two at most,' Toby said.

‘I have absolutely no idea,' Harry snapped, exhaustion and pain making him irritable.

‘What happened between you and the Snow Queen last night? You've done nothing but snarl since breakfast, which is not surprising given your bruises -'

‘I have a photograph of Bella, if it will help.' Harry wished Toby would stop talking so he could think about his grandfather – and Mary.

‘A photograph?' Toby sneered. ‘I need to put her in position in the light, to see the dappled sunshine cast the shadows of the woodland leaves on her face -'

‘Please, Toby, no artistic flights of fancy, not now,' Harry begged.

‘Sorry, I know you're worried about your grandfather,' Toby apologized.

‘I am.' Harry parked the car in the yard outside Penwyllt station. He waved to Alf, who had travelled ahead of them in the inn's carriage. ‘You'll wait in the car?'

Toby nodded. Harry went inside as soon as he saw the signal drop.

Bella was the first off the train. ‘Great news, Harry,' she said, kissing his cheek. ‘Edyth is going to be fine. She's coming home next week.'

Harry looked to his parents for confirmation.

‘It's true, darling.' Sali hugged him. ‘The doctor said her back will be stiff for a while and she may suffer from headaches for a few months but she will make a complete recovery.'

‘It would appear that your sister has more lives than a cat,' Lloyd added, his relief evident in his smile.

‘That's wonderful news.' Harry noticed new lines around his stepfather's eyes that he suspected stemmed from the strain of having both his father and daughter ill at the same time.

Harry led the way out of the station. The moment Toby saw Bella, he left his seat, ran to the boot of Harry's tourer, opened it and, when she approached, thrust an enormous bouquet of red roses into her hands.

‘A small bribe for my beautiful and heartless Morgan le Fay.'

‘Heartless?' Bella looked confused.

‘Heartless to have left me with your brother for an entire week when you knew full well how much I burned to start painting you.'

‘I haven't said I'd model for you yet,' Bella reminded him.

‘You see?' He appealed to Harry. ‘Cruel, just like the real Morgan le Fay.'

‘When you've stopped flirting with my sister and playing clown to the non-existent gallery, Toby, perhaps you'll allow me to introduce you to my parents and aunts. You know my uncles.'

Toby kissed Sali's cheek, shook Lloyd's hand and was introduced to Megan and Rhian. While they were talking, Harry stepped back alongside Lloyd.

‘Because there are more of us than my car will hold, I asked Alf Edwards to bring the carriage from the inn.'

‘So I see. You all right, Harry?' Lloyd asked, eyeing him keenly.

‘Of course, why do you ask?'

‘Because you're walking as if you've come off a horse head first, and there are bruises on your chin,' Lloyd answered.