Moonlight and Ashes (45 page)

She waved Maggie and Jo off from the front doorstep and then scurried away to try and get the house back into some sort of order again.

 

As Maggie and Jo walked towards the centre of the city, they were appalled to see the extent of the latest devastation. Areas were cordoned off as troops worked on unexploded bombs. Their journey took twice as long as it should have done as they clambered over piles of rubble and followed the Diversion sign, glad to be wearing warm coats and flat shoes, but at last the station came into view.

After making enquiries, Maggie was relieved to be told that, although many of the trains had been cancelled, there was one to Wales due within the hour. Turning to Jo she told her, ‘You get yourself home as soon as you can. There’s no point you standing about here.’

‘Well, all right then, if yer sure.’ Jo suddenly clung to her as if she was never going to see her again. Maggie had kept her going, body and soul, over the last few months and she could hardly bear to let her go. She was all the girl had left now.

‘Now come on, less of that,’ Maggie told her, and there was a catch in her voice too. ‘If you start blartin’ you’ll set me off.’

‘Sorry.’ Jo dragged a large white handkerchief around her pale face and managed a false smile. ‘I’ll see yer when yer get back then.’

‘You certainly will. Now go on, and make sure you look after Beryl and David for me while I’m gone.’

She watched Jo walk away and then, lifting her small suitcase, she settled on the platform to wait.

 

‘Danny, come on! Your breakfast is on the table. Don’t let it get cold now.’ Eric stared up the staircase, waiting to hear the sound of movement, but when none was forthcoming he sighed and began to mount the stairs. The boy must still be sulking.

Pushing Danny’s bedroom door open, he opened his mouth to speak but then closed it abruptly. The bed was neatly made and there was no sign of the child. Thinking that perhaps he’d gone out to play in the snow for a while, he closed the door and made his way back downstairs. After hastily pulling his boots on he opened the back door and Samson frolicked out into the drifts. Apart from Samson’s paw-prints the snow outside was untouched, which told him that wherever Danny was, he must have been gone for some time.

Returning to the kitchen, he checked the hook on the back of the door. Danny’s warm coat was gone, as were his Wellington boots, hat and scarf. Eric was beginning to feel anxious. It wasn’t like the boy to just disappear. Lately he’d been very good about telling Eric where he was going, and he’d certainly never ventured out of the house this early before, even on a school morning. The lad wouldn’t have missed his breakfast.

Making a hasty decision, Eric began to drag his outdoor clothes on. Perhaps Danny had gone to call for Gus? There was only one way to find out so after quickly throwing some logs onto the fire, and taking the bacon off the range, he set off in the direction of
Derwen Deg
.

Olwen Thomas opened the farmhouse door on his first knock and glared at him. The plump, ruddy-faced woman was known for being outspoken, and now she lived up to her reputation as she barked at him, ‘Is Gus with your Danny? I cooked him a lovely breakfast but he’s nowhere to be found, the little imp. I’ll tan his arse for him when he decides to come back, so I will. All that good food gone to waste.’

Eric shook his head. ‘I’d actually come to see if Danny was here,’ he told her, trying to keep the concern from sounding in his voice. ‘It doesn’t look like his bed has even been slept in, so where do you think they could have gone?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ Olwen replied. ‘There’s no saying what those two might get up to when they’re together. I wonder - might they have gone down into the village to see that sister of Danny’s.’

Eric thought it highly unlikely at that time of the morning, but having nothing better to go on, he decided to go and find out.

‘You just tell that little devil he’ll be in trouble when he does bother to show his face,’ Olwen shouted down the path after him. ‘I had a list of jobs as long as your arm ready for him to do, which is probably why he’s decided to clear off.’

Too worried to be amused, Eric began the treacherous descent down the hillside. The fresh fall of snow on top of the frozen stuff had made the path dangerously slippery, so by the time he reached the village, he was frozen through and irritable. Nevertheless, he set off through the streets until he reached
Ty-Du
, where a plume of smoke was snaking up into the eerie grey sky from the cottage chimney.

Blodwyn must have seen him coming, for she opened the door before he had the chance to knock. ‘What do you want
now
?’ she demanded, and for a moment he was at a loss for words as he stared back at her. Her grey hair was unkempt and there was a strange look in her eyes. He noticed that the buttons on her cardigan were done up wrongly and she had odd slippers on her feet.

‘I er . . . was wondering if Danny was here?’ he dared to ask.

She frowned. ‘And why would Dannybright be here? Is it not you he should be staying with?’

‘Yes - yes, it is. But the thing is, he went out earlier without telling me where he was going so I’m just looking for him.’

‘Huh! Well, you’re looking in the wrong place. Now, I’ll wish you good day.’ And with that she closed the door in his face.

Eric scratched his head in bewilderment as he stared up and down the deserted street. It was now fairly obvious that Gus was missing too, so he could safely assume that wherever they were, they would have gone together. But where?

After a time he decided that the best thing to do would be to go home and wait for Danny to show up. But first, whilst he was in the village, he might as well pay a visit to the post office and check if there was any mail for them.

With a smile, the postmistress handed him a small brown envelope addressed to Danny and Lizzie. After thanking her, Eric ventured out into the bitterly cold streets again. He supposed that the letter would be from their mother, and if it was, there would probably be one for Lizzie tucked inside the envelope. Pausing, he wrestled with his conscience. He had never opened anyone else’s mail before, but it made sense to give Lizzie hers while he was down in the village. Otherwise it would mean yet another trek down the hill when Danny eventually returned.

He quickly slit the envelope open and just as he’d thought, found a sheet of paper with Danny’s name written on it and another sheet addressed to Lizzie.

As he once again approached
Ty-Du
, his steps slowed. He had no wish to have yet another confrontation with Blodwyn, so taking the coward’s way out, he slipped the paper through the letter box and hurried on his way.

Lizzie was in her bedroom when the letter arrived but Blodwyn heard the rattle of the brass letter box, and hurrying across to the doormat, she lifted the sheet of paper and stared at it. It was addressed to Lizzie - but who could it be from?

Glancing towards the stairs door she made sure that Lizzie was out of the way as her eyes began to race across the page, and as they did, her stomach dropped into her shoes. It was yet another one from the child’s mother telling her that she was coming to see her on Monday. Monday! Panic set in as she realised that it was Monday today.

If the woman came, she might well decide to take the child home with her. But Blodwyn couldn’t allow that to happen. Megan was
her
child and no one would take her from her, not now that she had found her again.

With a quiet determination she thrust the letter deep into the pocket of her pinny and climbed the steep stairs, calling out to Lizzie as she went. There was no time to be lost. Her mother might appear at any moment.

‘Megan! Collect your warm clothes together, there’s a good girl.’

Lizzie appeared in her bedroom door, her face pale and frightened. Mrs Evans never called her by her own name any more and the girl was by now more than a little afraid of her.

‘What do I need warm clothes for?’ she asked nervously.

‘Because I’ve decided we both need a little holiday, and what better time than the present?’

‘But I don’t
want
to go on holiday,’ Lizzie protested feebly.

‘Nonsense,
cariad
. You’ll love it, so you will, once we get there. Now come along. There’s not a moment to be lost.’

‘But where are we going?’

‘Somewhere no one will find us,’ Mrs Evans told her, and Lizzie felt alarmed. However, she had no time to argue even if she had dared to, for the big woman had already bustled past her and was bundling an odd assortment of clothes into her small suitcase. Lizzie watched her silently. What would Danny think if he came to see her and she wasn’t there? And how long would they be gone?

The questions stuck in her throat as she saw Blodwyn snap the lock shut.

‘Now you go downstairs with this, get your warm things on and wait by the door, there’s my sweet girl. We’ll be off in no time, so we will.’

Lizzie miserably lifted her small case and went down to stand by the door as she was told.

‘Now then. Wasn’t this a good idea, eh?’ Blodwyn grunted as she hauled Lizzie along behind her through the village streets.

Lizzie didn’t answer. With every step they took her anxiety grew, but there was nothing she could do about it. They went past the village school, locked up and deserted, and Lizzie was confused to see that Mrs Evans was leading her towards the clifftops.

‘Aren’t we going on a bus or a train?’ she ventured breathlessly.

Mrs Evans shook her head. ‘No,
bach
. We’ll have no need of buses or trains where I’m taking you.’

It was at that moment that Lizzie spotted Sparky, who was halfway through building a snowman. He waved as she drew closer and looked curiously at the small suitcase she was clutching.

‘We’re going on holiday,’ she shouted to him as Mrs Evans dragged her past.

Sparky chewed on his lip. Why would they be heading for the hills if they were going on holiday? There was nothing up there but some derelict miners’ cottages that hadn’t been lived in for years. And why had Lizzie looked so frightened?

Waiting until they were some way ahead, he began to follow them, keeping to the shelter of the trees and bushes so that he wouldn’t be seen if Mrs Evans should chance to look behind her.

 

By the time the train pulled into the station at Pwllheli, it was late afternoon. Maggie was exhausted and darkness was falling. The train had been forced to stop numerous times and had also been diverted more often than she cared to remember, which had put hours on the journey, but at least she was here now.

Throwing her case onto the deserted platform she climbed stiffly down from the carriage and looked around her. Eventually she spotted the stationmaster, who was just about to disappear back into his warm office, and hurrying across to him, she asked, ‘Could you tell me where I might get a bus to Sarn-Bach, please?’

Scratching his head, he frowned back at her. ‘Why, you’ll get no buses there tonight, madam. Nor tomorrow, if it comes to that. The village has been cut off by snowdrifts. But I
could
tell you where you might get lodgings in Pwllheli for the night, if you’d like me to.’ He could have added that he would direct her to his sister-in-law’s boarding-house, which had been sadly lacking in holidaymakers since the beginning of the war, but of course he didn’t.

Maggie shook her head, setting her fair curls dancing around her pale face.

‘Thank you very much - it’s very kind of you, but if there are no buses then I shall have to walk. My children were evacuated to Sarn-Bach a few months ago and I’m desperate to see them.’

His face became sympathetic as he told her, ‘I can well understand the need to see your children but you’ll never make it to Sarn-Bach on foot, especially in the dark. There are six-foot-deep drifts along the way.’

‘That’s as may be,’ Maggie replied, becoming cross now. ‘But I’ll have to take my chance, won’t I? Because one way or another I
am
going to see my children tonight! Now, would you kindly give me directions?’

He shook his head, thinking that she must have taken leave of her senses, but then, that was the English for you. Walking to the exit of the station with her he pointed ahead. ‘Now then, follow this road through the town and eventually you’ll come to . . .’

His voice droned on as Maggie listened attentively, and when he had finished she thanked him and lifted her case.

‘Good luck!’ he shouted, and as he turned away he muttered beneath his breath, ‘You’ll need it.’

She walked through the unlit streets, glancing at the windows of the houses as she passed. There was hardly a light to be seen, and she felt as if she was walking through a ghost town. When she neared the end of the main street, the ocean could be heard crashing onto the beach, and as she had been instructed, she turned and began the long climb up the steep hillside. Just as the stationmaster had told her, the snow was so deep here that every now and again she found herself up to the waist in it and forced to drag her case along behind her. But Maggie was a determined woman when she set her mind to something, and right now she was determined to see her children.

She didn’t become really afraid until she turned a bend and left the village behind her - and then suddenly she realised that she was in the middle of nowhere. She had been told that it was a two-mile walk to Sarn-Bach but felt as if she had done ten already. Added to that, the weight of her case was making her arm feel as if it was dropping off. She was very aware that the path ran dangerously close to the edge of the cliffs, and with every step she took, she expected to feel herself hurtling to the beach far below. And yet, with a picture of Lizzie and Danny in her mind she kept doggedly on until at last she crested the hill and saw the outline of a small village in the valley far below her. The descent was almost as precarious as the climb and she slipped and slithered her way down the other side of the hill to land in an undignified heap at the bottom. She was on what appeared to be the main road through the village and by now her fingers were so cold that she could scarcely feel them as she fumbled in her pocket for the scrap of paper with Lizzie’s address written on it. When she did find it, she had to peer at it closely, for the street was deserted and unlit.
Ty-Du
, The Green, Sam-Bach, that was it. Lifting her case again she set off with a spring in her step now. Within minutes she would see her beloved Lizzie.