Such Sweet Sorrow (28 page)

Chapter Sixteen

‘Leave the blinds,’ Gina ordered as Luke stepped behind her into the café. ‘Let’s go and see what’s in the kitchen.’

‘Won’t your father miss the food?’ Luke asked nervously, afraid of being found out. He could imagine his own father’s reaction if he’d discovered that one of his sisters had sneaked off to be alone with a boy, and he felt that the Papa Ronconi of formidable reputation and legendary temper would have every right to be just as furious.

‘Papa doesn’t know what’s here from one day to the next. Oh fantastic, there’s eggs. Thank goodness for all the people who keep chickens on the Graig, and there’s bread. It’s a bit hard but I can toast it. How does fried eggs on toast sound to you?’

‘Wonderful if you’re sure the eggs won’t be missed.’

‘Tea, coffee or hot chocolate?’

‘I’ve never tried coffee or hot chocolate.’

‘It’s time you did. Come and talk to me while I cook.’

He followed her into the kitchen. She slipped a white overall over her clothes and began by breaking eggs into a bowl. A frying pan was already smoking lightly on the gas as a lump of lard dissolved over the heat.

‘Can I do anything?’

‘Slice the bread if you like. You do know how?’

‘My mother taught us all to cook, boys as well as girls. She said it might come in useful if no one wanted to marry us.’

‘Wise woman.’ Gina tipped the eggs into the pan. ‘This is more fun than mass.’

‘I haven’t been to a meeting since I came here. I don’t even know if there is a Quaker meeting house in Pontypridd.’

‘We’ll have time to make up for our sins of omission when we’re old and grey.’ She took the bread and pushed it under the grill.

He summoned all his courage. ‘Together?’ he ventured uncertainly.

‘Of course.’

‘I love you, Gina,’ he blurted out clumsily.

‘I know,’ she assured him blithely. ‘I knew it the first moment I saw you.’

‘And you?’

‘Can’t have you getting big-headed, now can I?’

‘That was a good dinner, Diana.’ Evan took his pipe and sank back into his chair. Brian, still clutching the tin car Eddie had given him, climbed on to his lap and reached for a picture book on the windowsill. He opened it out and looked expectantly to his father.

‘No peace for the wicked,’ Phyllis smiled as Evan turned to the first page.

‘I agree with Dad, that wasn’t bad, Di,’ Eddie complimented her as he pushed his chair away from the table.

‘Not bad? I’d like to see you do better,’ she retorted.

‘It’s almost like the old days with you two arguing.’ Bethan handed Rachel to Megan so she could help Phyllis and Diana with the dishes.

‘Thank you for the meal, Mrs Powell. If you’ll excuse me I think I’ll go for a walk down town.’

‘To the café?’ Diana teased.

A deep blush spread over Luke’s cheek. He wondered if Diana had seen him and Gina leave the High Street café. Not that they’d done anything wrong. He hadn’t attempted to kiss Gina and she hadn’t kissed him again after that once on the mountain, but he still felt guilty, sensing that he’d done something Mr Ronconi would have every right to be furious about.

‘If you hang on, Jenny and I will walk down with you.’

‘I thought you two would be a bit past courting in the café.’ Diana stacked the plates and carried them through to the wash-house.

‘I have a letter for Tina.’

‘I’ll give it to her,’ Alexander offered.

‘No, it’s all right, the park’s open until dark.’ Eddie winked at Jenny. ‘We thought we might do a spot of remembering.’

Evan pretended he hadn’t heard, but he didn’t fool Bethan. She could see the smile hovering at the corners of his mouth. She only hoped that her father’s faith in Eddie was justified. Haydn might be the one on stage, but both her brothers had proved themselves consummate actors in the past.

‘Why don’t you come to the café, Diana?’ Alexander said persuasively. Diana had walked down the hill with them, but not to visit the café. She had promised to call in on Wyn’s sister, and intended to do just that.

‘Come on, Di, I’ve hardly seen you since I’ve been back, and I’m leaving the day after tomorrow.’ Eddie added his voice to Alexander’s.

‘Just one coffee,’ she capitulated, ‘then I really must visit Myrtle.’

‘How is Wyn?’

‘Not very good. He’s finding it difficult to come to terms with his injuries, but I think he’s even more devastated at not being able to join the army.’

‘Tell him he’s not missing much. The army’s not all it’s cracked up to be.’ Eddie pushed open the door.

‘Eddie!’ Tina ran from behind the counter and kissed him on the cheek. ‘I heard you were home, but I didn’t think you’d have time to call in here,’ she said with a sly glance at Jenny.

‘William would have shot me if I hadn’t.’

‘You’ve seen Will? But I thought you were in France?’

‘I was, but I came home via the base camp. Here.’ He produced a letter from his tunic pocket and handed it to her.

‘That’s the last we’ll see of her for an hour,’ Gina complained as Tina disappeared into the kitchen.

‘I’ll give you a hand.’ Luke went behind the counter as though he worked there every night.

‘It’s easy to see what you two have been doing since you’ve come to Pontypridd,’ Eddie commented as he watched Gina squeeze Luke’s hand. He eyed Alexander, waiting to see if he’d follow Tina into the back, but he stood in front of the counter and put his hand in his pocket.

‘Coffee all round?’

‘Just one, then Jenny and I have to go.’

A man lurched out of the back room. Staggering to the counter he elbowed Alexander aside. Diana turned pale and Eddie gave the drunk a hard look, recognising Dai Station.

‘I want to pay,’ Dai slurred, swaying on his feet.

‘Be with you in a moment,’ Gina answered as she continued pouring out coffees.

‘I said I want to pay,’ he shouted contentiously.

‘I’ll be with you right away, sir.’ Gina left the coffees to Luke and went to the till.

Eddie had been watching Luke, but to his amazement it was Alexander who stepped in front of Dai.

‘May I suggest you pay your bill, and leave quietly, sir?’ Alexander asked politely.

‘Bloody conchie, I don’t have to ask what you’re doing here with these bloody foreigners. Mussolini’s arse-lickers …’

‘Less of your language, you’re in mixed company,’ Eddie warned, pushing Jenny behind him as he walked to the counter.

‘That will be two and threepence please, sir,’ Gina murmured nervously as she opened the till.

‘Bloody people like you should pay us Welsh to come in your cafés.’ Dai lurched towards the till, fingers spread as though he intended to scoop the coins out of the cash drawers. Alexander held him back just as Eddie drew alongside them.

‘Shut the till and go into the kitchen, Gina,’ Alexander ordered softly.

‘What’s going on?’ Tina was standing in the kitchen doorway trying to sound braver than she felt.

‘And who do you think you are? Bloody…’

‘I’ve told you once. Gentlemen don’t swear in front of ladies.’

Dai turned to Eddie, seeing his uniform for the first time. ‘You’re a soldier?’

‘That’s right.’

‘You shouldn’t be in here. These people are foreigners. You could give away secrets,’ he mumbled.

‘These people are as Welsh as you and me, Dai,’ he replied with a coolness that amazed Diana and Jenny. Hot-headed, angry with the world Eddie had finally learned to keep his temper in check.

‘They’re not!’ Dai protested.

‘I promise you they are, and I’ll tell you something else, I think you’ve had a skinful. Now why don’t you go home and sleep it off before a copper runs you in.’

‘You can’t tell my mate what to do just because you’re wearing a bloody uniform.’ Three porters from the station were standing in the archway that separated the front of the café from the back.

‘Just giving him some advice.’

‘Doesn’t sound like it to me,’ one of them said belligerently.

‘No one wants any trouble,’ Eddie replied.

‘Then why don’t these buggers go back where they belong? They’re not wanted here.’

‘You don’t like the café, you stay away,’ Tina intervened forcefully.

‘You’ve no right to be here, taking money out of honest Welsh people’s pockets.’ Without warning Dai swept his arm across the counter, knocking over the four-tiered glass case that held the cakes. It shattered, sending glass splinters showering across the floor. Women screamed as they jumped up and ran from their tables, adding to the general confusion.

Eddie grabbed Dai. Pinning his arms behind his back he held him face down over the nearest table.

‘No one, soldier or not, does that to my mate.’ One of the porters swung a punch at Eddie that Alexander intercepted. Diana ran to the door, opened it and shouted ‘Police!’ She turned in time to take the full force of a blow that one of the men had intended to plant on Alexander, who’d ducked to avoid it.

Until then Eddie had kept his temper under control. By the time Huw Davies had run up from the Criterion doorway where he’d been talking to the minister of Penuel chapel, Eddie had knocked out the porter who’d hit Diana. Realising he was no longer restrained, Dai Station picked up a chair and smashed it against the wall. Wielding a broken leg like a club, he turned on Eddie. Diving forward, Luke picked up another chair and pinned Dai to the wall with the legs.

‘Lion tamer act?’ Huw asked Luke after he’d blown his whistle to summon assistance.

‘For Christ’s sake they’re only bleeding, bloody Eyeties …’ Dai mumbled, his voice slowing like a gramophone in need of rewinding.

Huw looked from Dai to the two men Eddie had cornered, and the one laid out cold on the floor. His experienced eye missed nothing: the broken glass and squashed cakes littering the café, the wrecked furniture, the bruise spreading darkly across Diana’s cheek. Pulling out his notebook he began to write slowly and ponderously, detailing the charges as he inscribed them. ‘Criminal damage… drunk and disorderly … swearing … blaspheming – and on the Sabbath, tut tut,’ he shook his head as he looked at Dai before continuing: ‘conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace … assaulting an innocent bystander …’ he studied Diana who was sitting in a chair being tended to by Tina and Jenny. ‘Are you going to have a shiner tomorrow, sunshine! Call out Dr John,’ he directed one of the younger constables who appeared in the doorway.

‘There’s no need. I’ll be fine,’ Diana protested.

‘Routine, love. That injury is evidence. Trouble seems to follow you, Eddie. You haven’t been home twenty-four hours and look what you’ve got yourself into.’

‘It was all Dai Station’s doing,’ Gina said warmly. ‘He wouldn’t pay his bill and he made a grab for the till when it was open. Then he smashed the cake case.’

‘Attempted theft …’ Huw continued scribbling. ‘Boy, we’re going to throw the book at you, Dai, and toss away the key.’

‘Has this sort of thing happened before?’ Eddie asked after Huw and two other constables had loaded the drunks into the Black Maria and Dr John had come and gone.

‘Insults because we’re Italians?’ Tina asked as she saw the last customer out of the café and locked the door.

‘There’s been a bit of trouble,’ Alexander admitted.

‘So that’s why you and Luke come down here so often?’

‘Luke has his own reasons.’ Alexander swept the last of the broken glass into a dustpan Luke was holding for him.

‘You’re handy with your fists. Glad you were on my side.’

‘A public school education has some advantages.’

‘Perhaps you and I should have a match some time.’

‘Eddie was on the point of becoming a professional boxer before the war,’ Jenny said proudly.

‘You all right, Di?’ Eddie asked, concerned at the swelling that was still rising on Diana’s cheek despite the ice-cream poultice Dr John had suggested.

‘You heard the doctor. It’s just bruised. I’ll be fine tomorrow.’

‘I’ll walk you home.’

‘No, I really must see Myrtle. She’s expecting me, and –’ she glanced up at the clock – ‘she’s going to be wondering where I’ve got to.’

‘Then I’ll walk you over there.’

‘No really. You and Jenny have so little time, and I’m perfectly capable of walking through town on my own.’

‘Not after what’s just happened.’

‘I’ll take Diana to the Rees’s, wait for her and walk her home afterwards,’ Alexander offered.

‘That’s silly,’ Diana complained. ‘I’d much rather go by myself.’

‘And we’d rather you didn’t,’ Eddie insisted.

‘But Dai and the others are locked up.’

‘They might have been drinking with others who aren’t,’ Alexander pointed out logically. He turned to Eddie. ‘Do I have your permission to walk your cousin home?’

‘It’s her you should be asking,’ Eddie answered without a glimmer of a smile.

‘I don’t need an escort.’

‘You’re not going without one.’ Eddie had a stubborn look on his face that Diana had seen before. She knew what it meant. Turning to Alexander, she said, ‘I’m going. If you’re intent on coming with me you’d better make a move.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me that anti-Italian feeling was running so high in the town?’

‘I’ve been out so seldom since you left, I had no idea.’ Jenny opened the door to the shop.

‘It’s tough on the girls.’

‘I don’t think Tony and Angelo thought of everything before they joined up.’

‘I wouldn’t like to be Dai Station if they get to hear about tonight. Do me a favour, keep an eye on things down there and write to me if anything happens.’

‘What good would that do?’

‘I’d know about it.’

‘But none of you would be able to come back from France to punch the next one on the nose.’

‘No, but we know some of the bruisers who train in the gym with Joey. A nod and a wink and they’d do some sorting out for us if we asked them, and then again, Alexander packs a good punch for a conchie. Perhaps it’s just as well Dad took him in.’

‘Both he and Luke seem very nice.’

‘Fancy one of them, do you?’

‘You know better than to ask that. Alexander’s crache,’ she put just the right amount of contempt into the Welsh expression, ‘and Gina would kill the first girl who dared make a play for Luke.’