Finders and Keepers (43 page)

‘I fell over.'

‘Fell or pushed by a fist?' Lloyd raised both eyebrows.

Harry didn't answer. ‘The carriage holds six. Alf is happy to drive you to the sanatorium, wait while you visit Granddad and drive you back to the inn afterwards. But the length of the visit will depend on how Granddad is today. And,' Harry looked at his sister, ‘after last week, the doctor won't let you in, Bella,' he said tactfully, not wanting to tell her that it was their grandfather who'd rather she didn't visit.

‘The last thing I want to do is make him ill again.'

‘You didn't make him ill last time,' Victor consoled. ‘He would have had that coughing fit whether you'd been there or not.'

‘I could take Bella down the garden towards the river, while you go into the sanatorium,' Toby suggested. ‘If your grandfather is out on the balcony, she could wave to him from there and Doctor Adams couldn't possibly object because it's nowhere near the patients' terrace.'

‘And your uncle?' Harry asked.

‘I'll see him afterwards.'

‘That sounds like a good idea,' Lloyd agreed.

‘Bella, you go in Harry's car with him and Toby.' Sali took charge of the arrangements. ‘The rest of us will ride in the carriage.'

‘Granddad's dying, isn't he, Harry?' Bella asked when they stood in the yard watching the carriage drive away.

‘You know he is, Belle.' He helped her into the passenger seat, leaving the back seat for Toby.

‘What I mean is, it's going to be soon.'

‘I've seen Granddad every day this week, Belle. And whenever the subject comes up, which isn't often, he insists that he's said all he wants to say to all of us. And, if you think about it, what else is there for any of us to say to him?'

‘That we love him.' Bella opened her handbag and scrabbled blindly for her handkerchief.

‘He knows we love him, and we know how much he loves us. He doesn't need to be told that we're going to miss him unbearably when he's gone.'

‘I can't stand the thought of him not being here …'

‘None of us can, Belle.' Harry gripped her hand. ‘But you have to be brave, and think about Granddad and how he must be feeling. He knows more about loss than any of us. From what Dad and the uncles have said, half of him died with our grandmother. You only have to look at the way he smiles whenever he speaks about her or gazes at her photograph.'

‘He obviously adored her.' Bella blew her nose.

‘He's been a strong man most of his life, Belle, and he's always been there for us when we've needed him. Now he's ill he hates it, and he hates us seeing him sick and in pain. It would be different if it was a disease he could fight. But he can't, and I think all he wants to do now is die while he still has the strength to do it well.'

‘You think he wants it to happen soon,' Bella said quietly.

‘I do.'

‘I need to see him – just one last time.'

‘From the garden. Today belongs to Dad, Mam and the uncles and aunts.' Harry pressed the ignition, pulled out and followed the carriage.

Toby, who'd remained tactfully silent in the back of the car, leaned forward and handed Bella his sketchbook. ‘I made a few notes from the corridor outside your grandfather's room.'

Bella turned over the page and cried out in surprise. She was looking at a pen-and-ink wash that was a lifelike and perfect portrait of Billy Evans.

Dr Adams was sitting in his office, with the door open. He left his desk when he saw Harry walk in with his family.

‘Mr Evans.' He nodded to Harry. ‘You can all go up to the ward to visit your grandfather today.'

‘He's well enough?' Lloyd asked.

‘When I spoke to him this morning, he said he wanted to see whoever came.' The doctor evaded the question. After slipping on gowns and masks, they all went up in the lift to the ward. They found Billy sitting, propped up in bed, a book in front of him, just as Harry had seen him nearly every day since he'd been in the sanatorium. He was looking out over the garden and waving to Bella and Toby below.

‘They make a handsome couple,' he teased Lloyd when he walked in.

‘Bella's too young to be a part of any couple.' Lloyd gazed down at them.

‘I dare say I would have felt the same way if I'd had daughters instead of sons.' Billy looked at them all. ‘How nice of you to come all this way. I asked the nurses for chairs but they only brought three; at least the ladies can sit down. Now, I want to hear all the news from home. Tell me, how are all my grandchildren?'

‘Well,' Sali answered. ‘Even Edyth, apart from the arm that's still mending.'

‘And as soon as it has, she'll be up to more mischief,' Billy said philosophically.

‘I hope it will slow her down,' Lloyd said seriously.

‘The boys are well, busy on the farm, and they send their love.' Victor drew close to his father's bed.

‘Has working for you in the school holidays changed Jack and Tom's minds about becoming farmers?'

‘Not yet, Dad, and I don't think it will. Both of them take too much after their father.' Megan pulled her chair close to Billy. ‘We've given the nurse some fruit and homemade cake and bread for you.'

‘And books.' Rhian forced a smile, although her lashes were suspiciously wet.

Harry hung back, watching Billy steer the conversation on to the everyday affairs of the family, lightening the atmosphere until all three of his sons and their wives were able to laugh.

He glanced at his watch, an old one because he hadn't had time to take the gold one he'd soaked in the lake to the jeweller's for repair, and to his surprise realized that they had been in the room for twenty not ten minutes. He turned and saw the ward sister behind him. Her attention was fixed on his grandfather and, when Billy leaned back against his pillows and pressed his handkerchief to his lips, she stepped forward.

‘And that, Mr Evans, is quite long enough.'

‘See how I'm bullied?' Billy appealed to his sons.

‘If you behaved we wouldn't have to bully you, Mr Evans.' She went to his bed and took his pulse.

‘It's strange to say goodbye without kissing you, Dad,' Sali complained.

‘No kisses, no touches,' the sister warned sternly.

‘But we can blow kisses.' Rhian touched her fingers to her lips. ‘See you again soon, Dad.'

Megan followed suit, and Sali went outside with them.

‘See you tomorrow, Granddad.' Harry waved.

‘It's good of you to want to stay, Harry, but I'd rather you went to Paris,' Billy said seriously.

‘I wouldn't get individual tuition from Toby in Paris.' He joined his mother and aunts in the corridor, pulling the door to behind him. Lloyd, Joey and Victor joined them a few minutes later.

They hadn't had time to say much to their father, but then, Harry reflected, it was as Billy had wanted. Everything that needed to be said had been. His grandfather would leave no unfinished business.

‘I believe Bella thought modelling for a book illustration would be more glamorous,' Sali commented when they all went into the orchard at the back of the inn after lunch to watch Toby paint Bella.

He had given her a long purple velvet gown that Frank had bought in a Parisian flea market, and draped a gold curtain over her shoulders to act as a cloak. After festooning her with brass necklaces and brooches and a pair of enormous brass earrings, which he'd assured her he'd paint as gold, loosening her long dark hair and ‘crowning' her with a paste tiara that looked as though it had been made for Titania in
A Midsummer Night's Dream,
he had taken in the gown at her waist with pins that dug into her every time she moved.

Oblivious to her discomfort, he ordered her to hold the hem of the skirt off the ground, which meant she had to stretch out her arms at an uncomfortable angle. As a final indignity he'd twisted her head to make it look as though she were glancing over her shoulder at an imaginary suitor.

He then spent five minutes barking commands at her before he had begun to sketch like fury. The only time he broke off was to shout if she moved a fraction of an inch.

‘I should have warned Bella that Toby is demented when he's working.' Harry set a tray of drinks that he had carried out of the bar on to one of Alf's garden tables. He had brought beer for his father, uncles, Toby and himself, and lemonade for his mother, aunts and Bella.

‘I think Bella's found out for herself what Toby is like when he works. Thanks, Harry.' Lloyd passed around the lemonades to everyone except Bella, before taking a glass of beer.

‘I'd forgotten how quiet this valley is.' Megan sat next to them on the wooden bench and looked up at the hill behind the inn. ‘No traffic to stop you from hearing the birds, more horses and carts and carriages than cars on the road, more sheep than people everywhere you look, and not a gramophone or radio to be heard for miles.'

‘It's certainly peaceful,' Harry agreed.

‘Did you find out any more about my family?' she enquired.

Harry looked uneasily at his uncle.

‘It's all right, Harry,' Victor reassured him. ‘Everyone here can remember Megan's father with the exception of you and Bella. But a word of warning. Megan and I would rather the boys didn't know about him, because we don't want to burden them with the knowledge that their other grandfather is someone they'd be better off not knowing.'

‘I meant to tell Dad on the telephone that I met him,' Harry confessed.

‘I trust you didn't tell him that you were related to me?' Megan asked.

‘No.'

‘Where did you see him?' Her hand shook, and Victor took her glass of lemonade from her.

‘In chapel.'

‘You went to chapel, voluntarily?' Lloyd asked in amusement.

‘I passed one of the maids from the sanatorium walking there with her family, and as it was five miles from her house and she wasn't feeling too well, I offered to take them. I waited to take the family back afterwards.'

‘Did you enjoy the service?' Joey enquired.

‘No,' Harry retorted.

‘Was his second wife with him?' Megan continued.

‘Yes, and until someone said who she was, I thought she was your father's granddaughter. I have asked various people about your sisters but no one knows any more than Mrs Edwards told Uncle Victor. One married a railwayman and they think she moved to the north of England. The other married a man from Brecon and died there a few years ago. If your father knows more he hasn't confided in anyone I've spoken to.'

‘He never was what you might call the approachable type.' Victor gripped Megan's hand tightly. ‘Harry will drive us up to the farm if you want to visit him, Megs.'

‘No! I don't want to see him.'

‘Then forget him.' He slipped his hand around her waist. ‘I know it's easy to say -'

‘You, the boys and your family have been family enough and more for me these past thirteen years, Victor.' She looked from him to his brothers and Sali and Rhian. ‘Thank you for making enquiries, Harry, but coming back here has rekindled memories best forgotten. I know I had a lucky escape when I left my father and this valley. And now I would like to see this painting of yours that Toby told us about at lunch.'

Alf drove the carriage into the yard. Lloyd helped Sali, Rhian and Megan inside, but when he stepped back to offer Bella his hand, Toby was standing next to her, holding her elbow.

‘If you don't mind, Mr Evans, I'll travel to the station with the ladies.' Toby wasted a brilliant smile on Lloyd, who scowled back.

‘Does your friend flirt with every young girl he meets?' Lloyd asked Harry after Toby followed Bella into the carriage.

‘He's always paying women extravagant compliments.' Harry watched Alf drive away before walking to the barn to get his car.

‘He can pay as many compliments to other women as he likes. It's the ones he pays to Bella that concern me.' Lloyd followed him inside, opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat.

‘It's difficult to know when Toby's joking and when he's being serious, but he says he's in love with her.'

‘That's ridiculous. Bella's a baby!' Lloyd glanced at his brothers as they ducked under the low lintel and joined them.

‘She's older than you were when you started courting a certain older woman, big brother.' Joey climbed into the back and moved along to make room for Victor. ‘And boys do not mature younger than girls, whatever you'd like to think.' He opened his cigarette case and offered it around. ‘In fact, if my experience is anything to go by, I'd say the opposite is true. When I was a boy -'

‘You were the talk of Tonypandy and nothing in a skirt was safe from you.' Lloyd flashed a look at Harry, and realized from the grin on his face that his stepson knew more about his and Joey's past than they had told him.

‘Leave ancient history where it is, Joey. Compared to you, I lived like a monk before I married Sali. And Bella's still in school. She has college ahead of her. There'll be time enough for her to meet boys after that.'

‘Plenty of girls her age and younger are working. Some are even married.' Joey closed his cigarette case after they had all taken one. ‘Besides, Bella may change her mind about going to college when the time comes.'

‘She won't. She's been planning a career in teaching since she read her first book.' Lloyd took his lighter from his pocket.

‘That's what she says now -'

‘Stop tormenting Lloyd, Joey.' Victor leaned forward so Lloyd could light his cigarette. ‘Don't forget you have three girls of your own and they won't be in primary school for ever. Given your history, I can't wait to see how you'll react the first time a boy comes calling on one of them.'

‘I'll lock the front door, shut all three in the attic and set their brothers to guard them while I watch the windows.'