Such Sweet Sorrow (37 page)

‘You really think so?’

‘I think so,’ Bethan reiterated. ‘After all, we can’t have the boys coming home to closed cafés at the end of the war, now can we?’

By the time the day shift had ended in the pit, Huw’s secret whisper to Tina and Gina had spread from one end of town to the other, and multiplied. The first thing Luke heard after the cage doors opened at the top, was that the Ronconis were being shipped out of Pontypridd within the hour. Refusing to be dissuaded by Evan or Alexander, who wanted him to wait until he’d bathed and changed out of his working clothes, he ran down the hill to the Tumble café. He flung open the door to find Tina, not Gina, standing behind the counter.

‘We don’t serve miners in working clothes,’ she snapped tartly, looking no further than the coating of coal dust.

‘It’s me.’

Recognising the Cornish accent, she peered into his face. ‘Well seeing as how it’s you, I suppose I’d better let you in. Just stay there,’ she pointed to the doormat, ‘and don’t touch a thing.’

‘Is it true?’

‘Is what true?’ she asked irritably.

‘That your whole family is leaving Pontypridd for the Midlands immediately?’

‘Not in the next five minutes.’ She relented when she saw the anguished expression on his face. ‘But we’ve been warned we’ll have to go soon, probably next week. The families of all enemy aliens are going to be resettled away from coastal areas, and although you might not credit it, for war purposes Pontypridd has been designated a coastal area.’

‘Do you know what day you’re going?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Where’s Gina?’

‘The restaurant, she should be here any minute.’

‘I’m really sorry about your father, Tina. Everyone up at the pit has been saying it’s rotten luck. No one believes he’s a Fascist.’

‘Except the government.’

A tram driver opened the door and tried to edge around Luke without touching him. Pointing to a spot behind the door, Tina said, ‘If you stand in that corner there’s no danger of anyone brushing against you, and I’ll give you a cup of tea while you wait for Gina.’

He shook his head ‘I’m making a terrible mess. I only wanted to make sure Gina hadn’t already been sent anywhere. Now I know she’s still in Pontypridd, I’ll be back down later to see her.’

‘Speak of the devil and she arrives.’ Tina watched Gina walk past the window. ‘But looking the way you do, I doubt she’ll want to see you. Even love isn’t that blind.’

Gina opened the door, recognised Luke beneath the layer of coal dust, and flung herself into his arms.

‘God, you two really have got it bad, and you’re hopeless, Gina. Now you’re going to have to go home and change, which means I’m not going to get a break for hours,’ Tina complained angrily. ‘Go on, off with you, and take that filthy thing with you.’

Ignoring Tina’s moans and Luke’s state, Gina grabbed his hand and pulled him out through the door.

‘I’m sorry about your father,’ he murmured as they began to walk up the hill. ‘Do you know what will happen to him?’

‘Mama and Laura came into the restaurant after they’d been to the police station. The sergeant seemed to think they’re going to put all the Italians in an internment camp in the country, somewhere remote like North Wales, or Scotland. The last thing Papa said to us before he was taken away, was to look after each other and the business, but now Mama is going as well …’ She tried and failed to control her tears. Balancing his snap tin under his arm, Luke held her tight, wishing he was clean. ‘I’m sorry, I’m behaving like a fool, and I’m keeping you from your tea.’

‘Phyllis will probably put it in the oven, and if she hasn’t, I’ll buy something in the café. You don’t really have to go away with your family, do you?’ he asked anxiously.

‘I have no choice. They won’t let me stay. Laura tried arguing with the sergeant before she and Mama went to see some of the other families. Most of them aren’t as lucky as us. As Laura’s married to Trevor she will be allowed to remain in Pontypridd, so at least we’ll have one member of the family here to keep an eye on the business for us.’

‘But who’s going to run the cafés? Laura can’t possibly manage all three places on her own.’

‘We know, and that’s what’s worrying Mama, because if the cafés close we’ll have no money to live on. And Mama’s going to have the added expense of paying rent wherever we’re sent …’

‘Laura can stay because she’s married to Trevor, right?’ he broke in urgently.

‘Yes.’

‘Then if we get married you’ll be allowed to stay and carry on running the café?’

‘You been talking to Tina about this?’

‘No. What’s the matter, don’t you want to marry me?’

‘Of course I want to marry you, but whenever we’ve talked about getting married it was always years from now.’

‘If it’s down to a choice between losing you, and marrying you now, there’s no decision to be made. I’d hate to live here if you were somewhere else.’

‘But we’re both under twenty-one. Papa isn’t even here to say no, which I know he would. Mama will never give us permission, and aside from my family, what about your father? You said yourself he wouldn’t want a Catholic daughter-in-law.’

‘I’ll write to him tonight,’ he interrupted, keeping quiet about the sure and certain knowledge that his father would sooner cast his eldest son out of the family than give his blessing to a union between him and a Catholic. And that was without bringing the question of age into the equation. His father had always advocated marriage at twenty-five for women and thirty for men. Twenty-one would have been difficult, eighteen an impossibility.

‘Even if you manage to convince your father, there’s still Mama. We’ll never persuade her to give her permission.’

‘Wait for me in the Powells’ while I wash and change, then I’ll go home with you and we’ll find out whether she can be persuaded or not.’

Evan and Alexander were just sitting down to their meal when Luke walked in with Gina. As Megan had already brought down his evening clothes he dived straight into the wash-house to bathe and change, leaving Gina with the family.

‘You heard anything from your brothers today, Gina?’ Megan asked after offering her a place at the table.

Gina shook her head. ‘We can’t understand it. The first troops came back from Dunkirk ten days ago.’

‘The Guards could have been stationed much further inland.’ Bethan busied herself with Rachel. The last thing she wanted to listen to was any further speculation as to where Andrew or the boys could be, because wondering in her experience inevitably ended in all too vivid imaginings of them lying dead on a forlorn battlefield, or in a ditch at the side of the road being strafed by machine-gun fire.

‘You sure you don’t want a plate of stew, Gina?’ Phyllis asked. ‘You’re more than welcome.’ She cut more bread to stretch the pot in case Gina accepted.

‘No thank you. I have to go up the house and change so I can get back down the café. Tina will need help with the early evening rush.’

‘Don’t forget to tell your mother if there’s anything we can do to help her pack, she only has to ask,’ Megan reminded her.

‘Doesn’t he clean up well?’ Bethan joked to Gina as Luke emerged pink and scrubbed from the wash-house.

He was dressed in his second-hand suit, a collar buttoned on to his best shirt. He was even wearing a red and white striped tie he’d filched from Alexander’s peg on the wash-house wall.

‘He’ll do.’ Gina smiled despite her misery at her family’s predicament.

‘I’ll dish out your stew, Luke.’ Phyllis picked up the ladle.

‘If you don’t mind, Mrs Powell, I’ll skip tea tonight. I’d like to go and see Gina’s mother.’

‘I’ll walk up with you.’ After Tina’s comments yesterday, Bethan had guessed what was coming, and thought she might be needed.

‘Tell your mother if she wants a van to take her boxes down to the station I’ll have a word with Fred Davies for her. He owes me a favour or two from some carting jobs I did for him.’

‘I’ll tell her, Mr Powell.’

‘Here, give me that little darling.’ Megan held out her arms and took Rachel from Bethan. ‘Don’t forget to give Mrs Ronconi and the children our love.’

‘I won’t,’ Bethan answered, as she followed Luke and Gina down the passage.

Mrs Ronconi was presiding at the family table when Bethan, Gina and Luke walked into the kitchen. Everyone had finished eating, and Mrs Ronconi was sitting drinking coffee with Laura. Eleven-year-old Theresa had assumed authority, and was standing in the washhouse doorway supervising her younger brother and sisters as they cleared the table and washed the dishes.

‘Gina!’ Mrs Ronconi frowned at her daughter after greeting Bethan and giving Luke a suspicious look. ‘Your dress is black. Are those handprints I see?’

‘Just smudges, Mama,’ Gina prevaricated as she examined the marks Luke had made when he’d embraced her on the hill. ‘That’s why I came home to change.’

‘And how exactly did you get into this state?’ Mrs Ronconi demanded, staring hard at Luke.

‘Someone came into the café in working clothes and made a bit of a mess,’ Gina replied, not entirely untruthfully. ‘Mama, this is Luke.’

‘Pleased to meet you, Mrs Ronconi.’ Luke stepped forward, hand outstretched, but Gina’s mother pretended not to see it. ‘You were here last night. You’re one of the conscientious objectors who lodge with the Powells?’

‘That’s right, Mrs Ronconi.’

‘I came up to see if anyone in our family can help with anything.’ Bethan braved the awkward silence that fell as soon as Gina left the room to change.

‘Laura and I have discussed what needs doing.’ Mrs Ronconi couldn’t have been more different from the hysterical woman who’d had to be physically torn from her husband’s arms the night before. Calm and collected she’d clearly assumed her husband’s mantle of head of the family, and appeared to have adopted his personality along with the role. ‘We have decided that the best thing we can do is put all the businesses in Laura’s name as she is the only one who will be allowed to remain in Pontypridd for the duration. Thanks to your father-in-law, Bethan, Tina will be able to stay with her for six months. Between them they will have to do the best they can with the cafés. We’ll have to close one of them, and we decided that as High Street is the smallest –’

‘I don’t see why I can’t stay to run that,’ Alfredo broke in sulkily.

‘Because you’re twelve years old and too young to leave school, and because if you stay there and work hard you might make something of your life,’ Laura retorted.

‘Ronnie was working in the cafés at my age.’

‘Ronnie worked, because we had no choice in the matter. There were too many mouths to feed and not enough hands to help in the early days,’ his mother informed him. ‘And I’ve already explained why you have to come with me. I need a man to help me with the little ones, the heavy lifting, all the work of the move, and the decisions that will have to be made when we get there. You’re going to have to take your Papa’s place until he is allowed to live with us again.’

‘There is one way you can keep all three cafés open, Mrs Ronconi,’ Luke proposed courageously. ‘If Gina marries me, she can stay in Pontypridd with Laura and Tina.’

Gina chose that moment to walk through the door. Although she hadn’t heard a word Luke had said, the fact that he was screwing his cap into a ball told her that he’d spoken to her mother, and was waiting for a reply.

Expecting an outburst, Laura handed her baby to Bethan and went to the wash-house, closing the door to shut out the younger members of the family.

Mrs Ronconi looked from Luke to Gina, not saying anything for what seemed like an eternity. When she did finally speak, it was in a quiet, controlled tone that neither Luke nor Gina had expected to hear. ‘How long have you known my daughter, Mr …?’

‘Luke, Luke Grenville. The time doesn’t matter, Mrs Ronconi. I love her. Very much,’ he added resolutely.

‘How old are you?’

‘Eighteen, but …’

‘Both of you are very young. You may change your mind about one another in a year or two.’

‘I’ll never change my mind, or my feelings about Gina, Mrs Ronconi,’ he asserted forcefully.

‘I know nothing about you, Mr Grenville apart from the fact that you’re a conscientious objector. And I don’t mind telling you that isn’t something in your favour, particularly when I think of my Tony and Angelo.’

‘I’m … my whole family are Quakers, Mrs Ronconi. We don’t believe in taking life, but we’re all prepared to work for the war effort, which is why I’m in the pit.’

‘A Quaker. Ronnie marries a Baptist and you find a Quaker! An eighteen-year-old Quaker!’ Mrs Ronconi railed at Gina, momentarily forgetting that the Baptist her son Ronnie had married was Bethan’s sister.

‘We’re exactly the same age you and Papa were when you married,’ Gina pointed out, concentrating on what she felt was the lesser of Luke’s two faults in her mother’s eyes.

‘I know, which is why I haven’t said no – yet. But I’m your mother, Gina. Do you know what that means? It means that I love and care for you, and it’s my duty to ensure that when you make an important decision, like who and when to marry, it will be for the right not the wrong reasons. And with this terrible war forcing us into situations we can’t control, it’s not always easy to see the right reasons any more.’ She faltered for a moment, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, but she struggled to compose herself. Darting a quick glance at Luke, she asked, ‘What will your family say to this?’

‘When I explain the situation to my father I’m sure he’ll give us his blessing and permission to marry. I intend to write to him tonight. I know I’m only getting a butty’s wages at the moment –’ the Welsh term rolled oddly off Luke’s Cornish tongue – ‘but there’s always the chance that I’ll get promoted to miner, and you can be sure that I’ll do everything in my power to look after Gina, Mrs Ronconi.’

‘Gina, what do you say to this?’

‘I love Luke, Mama. We planned to marry when he was twenty-one and I was nineteen anyway. This just brings it forward by a few years.’

‘Three years are a long time in a young girl’s life. You’ll be spending, some would say wasting, your youth as a married woman. There’ll be no more dances or parties, only housework and drudgery.’