Nothing is Forever (29 page)

He started to move off and she shouted at him, ‘I was just thinking that we could have a Halloween party in the barn!’ She turned and hurried off in the opposite direction. By the time he’d turned and followed she would be out of sight. Just as well or they’d have an argument.

Footsteps behind her made her turn and she saw Henry running to catch her up. She took a deep breath and prepared for battle. He caught hold of her arm and smiled. ‘Brilliant idea, I can’t think why I didn’t think of it!’

She felt her shoulders droop from the position of defence. ‘You think it’s possible?’

‘Just what’s needed to bring the place to the notice of the local people. Country-wide advertising is essential, but this first winter we’ll need something more. Will you help?’

‘I’ve planned quite a few for the—’ She hesitated, then said defiantly. ‘I know you don’t like me mentioning them, but I arranged all sorts of parties for my brothers and their friends, so your Country Walks Centre won’t faze me for a moment!’

‘Your expertise has never been in question. It’s your temper: you’re more stormy than the weather.’ He was smiling and she looked away, not wanting to back down.

‘We can discuss it when I come tomorrow,’ she said, beginning to walk away.

‘Why not now? There isn’t much time, is there, if we’re going to get the event advertised.’

She walked back to the car and he held the door for her. They drove to the edge of town, and parked outside a restaurant.

‘I can’t stay long,’ she warned.

‘Why? Who are you feeding now?’

‘Aunty Blod will wonder where I am.’

‘All right, just a drink and I’ll drive you back.’

She took out a notebook and began to write a list as he went to buy tea and cream cakes. When he came back she began to discuss the ideas she had noted. She looked up as he made no comments and saw that he was again, smiling.

‘I wish you’d stay at the centre, or will you learn to drive so you can get there easier?’

‘Drive?’

‘Yes, a motor car. You know, you must have seen some about the place,’ he said, clearly amused.

‘What are you laughing at?’ she demanded. ‘Have I got cream on my face?’

‘You. The way you question everything I say, with such suspicion. And yes, you’ve got cream on your face.’ Now she was laughing too.

They discussed the ideas she had written and agreed to make a firm plan on the following day and get the advertising underway. As it was the end of their first summer, Rachel suggested the profits should be given to a charity to encourage more supporters and they decided on a charity for sick children.

‘I walked past Ty Gwyn yesterday,’ Ruth told Rachel, ‘and I was surprised at how I have become accustomed to seeing a new family there. A young woman was in the garden brushing up leaves with a witch’s broom and the children and a huge dog were hindering her efforts and she was laughing. It seemed so right to see them there. Isn’t it strange? I thought I’d be unable to see strangers there.’

‘I’m glad, my dear,’ Rachel said. ‘Change is good for us so we don’t get too complacent, too satisfied with what we have, not realizing we can have so much more.’

Blodwen had been to the morning market in a nearby village and she had missed the bus back. Knowing she would have to wait for an hour for the next, she began to walk, confident that the bus would stop for her if she was between stops, if she waved her stick. A man approached and she stopped to stare at him, unsure at first, then she recognized Jack. He was in filthy clothes having just finished cleaning a yard for a farmer. He hated jobs that left him dirty but he didn’t refuse any opportunity to earn a few shillings. Seeing Blodwen made him wish he could turn around and walk in the opposite direction, It was too late, she had recognized him and was watching him, disapproval on her wrinkled face.

‘Missed the bus?’ he asked.

‘You won’t be allowed on a bus looking and smelling like you do!’

‘I’m walking through the fields. It isn’t far, come if you like.’

She shook her head. ‘I’ll wait.’ He shrugged and she saw him squeeze through a hedge and disappear in the direction of the town.

Jack, cleaned and wearing freshly laundered clothing, gathered from where he hid them, saw Abigail as he was about to walk through the park, presumably on her way back to work after the lunch break. She was passing the antique shop and, when he saw her cross the road as though going to see Tabs, he ran, calling her name, thankful he was tidily dressed. Tabs turned the corner and was about to open the shop door. He didn’t want the two halves of his life to become close friends.

If Abigail learned the truth about him being the father of Tabs’s child he would never see her again and that was too awful to contemplate. He loved her and if only he could solve the mystery of his inheritance, or forget all about it, he’d settle down to concentrate on looking after her. She had been so wonderfully understanding, accepting that he needed to find the truth, content to give him time, but even he knew he couldn’t ask her to wait much longer. ‘Abi,’ he shouted and she turned as her hand was about to touch the shop door handle and walked towards him. He quickly led her away. Tabs was inside, taking off her coat and didn’t see either of them.

‘Jack. Just the person I want to see,’ she said, and he was alarmed to see a frown on her face.

‘Is everything all right, love?’ he asked. He put an arm around her waist but she slid away from him. ‘Abi? What’s wrong?’

‘Are you the father of Tabs’s baby?’ She looked at him, her eyes cloudy with doubts.

‘What? Me and Tabs? Who’s been talking rubbish? I love you, Abi, and you only have to look at Tabs to know there’s no chance me doing anything more than a kiss to keep her sweet. I needed her help, you know that, but a baby? Abi, how can you think such a thing for a moment.’ He pushed her gently into the doorway of an empty shop and held her close. ‘Look in a mirror and you’ll see a beautiful young woman, then compare yourself with poor Tabs. She’ll never find a man to look at her with anything more than pity.’

Slowly convinced she asked, ‘Do you know who the father is?’

‘Yes, I know, but I can’t tell you. Too many people will be hurt if the truth comes out.’ His eyes slid in the direction of the antique shop and back to her face. ‘I can’t tell. Not even you.’

‘Henry!’ she gasped. ‘It’s Henry Owen, isn’t it?’

‘Don’t make me say it, Abi. Please don’t make me say it. Think of Tabs and Ruth and Henry’s mother. So many people being hurt.’

‘I’m so sorry, Jack. Mum really thought—’

‘That I could lead the poor girl on and risk losing you? How could I look at anyone else when I have you?’

‘Come with me now and talk to Mum. She’s in the café waiting for me. Make her see she’s mistaken.’

Gloria was not swayed by anything he said. ‘He might convince you, Abigail, but I’m not so easily fooled. Haven’t you realized how much time he’s spending with Tabs? Face facts and tell him to go,’ she said, staring into her daughter’s eyes desperate to convince her.

‘Leave it, Gloria,’ Jack said wearily. He turned to face Abigail. ‘You have to believe me. How can you think even for a second that I’d leave you? And with that poor Tabitha? Tabitha Bishop?’

She shook her head dejectedly but didn’t offer him any assurances.

Late as she already was for work, Abigail waited until Jack had gone then went to see Tabs. ‘Keep away from Jack!’ she shouted, as she opened the door.

Tabs lowered her head. ‘So you know then, about the baby? That it’s Jack’s?’ she spoke in a whisper. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t ask for anything from him. I’ll manage somehow. I’m not the first nor the last to find myself abandoned.’

It was true. The quiet conviction of Tabs’s words was far more telling than her mother’s outrage. Abigail stared at her for a few seconds, then ran off in tears.

‘About time the truth was out,’ Megan said, when Tabs told them.

‘Glad I am, if it makes Abi come to her senses,’ Mali added. ‘She’s put up with him wandering around the place not attempting to support her, believing he’ll marry her next Easter and all the time, you and he …’ She shrugged.

‘Best without him, both of us,’ Tabs summed up, brushing her hands together as though wiping the past months out of her life.

News sped around the town in days. Jack was shouted at and rudely pushed aside by men and women as he walked along the street. Martha and Tabs’s father stopped him in the middle of the town and demanded to know what he was going to do. ‘You’ll pay for this,’ George Bishop shouted and a crowd gathered. ‘Taking advantage of poor simple Tabitha. You’ll pay for this.’

Jack tried several times to talk to Abigail but she refused and eventually warned him she would talk to the police and tell them he was threatening her. Tabs ignored him when they met and he was in despair. The money was what he still hoped to find. If he had money he’d persuade Abigail to come back to him. Then he saw the To Let notice appear in the window of the flat above the antique shop. Henry had definitely moved out and Tabs was working for the new owner. He waited until he was sure Peter James was not there and went into the shop and locked the door.

‘Tabs, please don’t tell me to go away. I want to forget Abigail and stay with you. I’m longing to see our baby and if you’ll come back to me, make a home for us all, I know we’ll be so happy. I was caught up in affection for Abigail but it’s you I love. I tried to look after them as I’d promised my friend but it all went wrong.’

She went to the door and opened it wide and stood there silently until he left.

Gloria went to the market the week following Blodwen’s visit, to buy vegetables and a new frying pan. As she sat waiting for the bus, on impulse she decided to walk. It was a brisk autumn day and she felt so well after all the illness of previous winters that the prospect of a walk cheered her. She knew the route through the fields and it was only midday, there was plenty of time.

She hadn’t bought much, so carrying was easy at first, but after a mile she began to regret her decision. She was on the point of hiding her shopping for her daughter to collect later, when Jack appeared. She adjusted the shopping bag on her shoulder and hurried on.

‘Gloria, don’t run away. I’m not angry with you any more, you were right to tell Abigail, I know that now. If I’d told her the truth instead of lying she might not have been so hurt,’ he said catching her up.

She didn’t deny his assumption that she had told Abi about Tabs’s baby. It wasn’t important what he thought of her. ‘Go away. You’ve ruined her happiness and after she trusted you and allowed you to go off chasing rainbows and fantastic day-dreams. Evil you are and I don’t know how you persuaded my daughter to believe you for so long.’

‘She knows I love her and no one else,’ he said. He took the shopping from her and carried it.

‘And Tabs’s baby, is that a fantasy too?’

‘No, that’s real. I was a fool. Just one mistake, that’s all. I needed her help, see, and it all got out of hand.’

They crossed three fields, edging around a field of lively young cattle, and walked through a patch of neglected woodland. At the stream he jumped across then pointed further up stream to where a bridge stood.

‘Just leave my shopping on the bank,’ Gloria said. ‘I don’t want people seeing me walking through the streets with you. They might think I’ve forgiven you, and that I’ll never do.’

He put the shopping on the grass a few yards from the stream and began to walk away. He was debating how he could find the money to go far away, forget the inheritance and Abi and Tabs and start again among strangers, when he heard a shout. He turned and there was no sign of Gloria. He ran back and saw that she had slipped on the mud at the edge of the stream and was lying half in the water, below a slide of mud marking her fall. He pulled her out of the water onto the opposite bank as the nearest was too steep, and sat her down to lean against a tree. He hoped she could walk. She was heavy and he wouldn’t be able to carry her.

‘Gloria, what happened?’

‘I looked down at the swirling water and lost my balance and slipped on the mud.’ He tried to help her up but she fell back with a shout of pain. ‘You’ll have to go for help, Jack. I can’t walk, my leg won’t hold me.’

He took off her coat and wrapped it firmly around her, then unpacked the shopping bag and used that to cover her legs. ‘Not much help but it’s the best I can do,’ he said anxiously.

On the way back to the town, running to find a telephone box to ring 999 he saw Tabs. He was about to tell her what had happened but something held back the words. This was perhaps his last chance to persuade her to listen to him, make her see that she needed to help him. She had money and the possibility of a flat. Gloria wouldn’t come to much harm in a few extra minutes. So he slowed his pace and walked back with her to the bungalow she shared with Mali and Megan. He believed that pleading his case was having some effect, he could see by her face that she wanted to believe him.

He stayed talking to her when they reached the bungalow and he was beginning to feel that there was some hope for him. He was about to leave her and get help for Gloria when he remembered the flat over the antique shop and he at once begged her to take it.

He tried with all his persuading skills to make her agree and when he glanced at her watch, he was alarmed to find that two hours had passed since he had left Gloria alone by the stream. Abigail would never forgive him if her mother became ill because of him. More alarming, it was already getting dark. As he went to call the police panic filled him. She’d be ill and he would be blamed.

‘Where did you leave the lady?’ the constable asked him and he pointed vaguely towards the fields behind the houses of the town. He didn’t mention the stream, it wouldn’t be so bad if he just mentioned her injured leg and said nothing about the fall into the water. He’d easily convince them it must have happened after he left her.

He went out with several others to where he said he had left her, but of course she wasn’t there. She was sitting in wet clothes beside the stream two fields away.

A search of the area drew a blank and he was wailing his dismay, ‘She’s a lovely lady, better to me than a mother could be and I can’t find her and it’s dark and cold and it’s all my fault.’ Several people comforted him and said she must have managed to walk, and tried to get herself home. More guilt and more comforting went on through the night.