Sinners and Shadows (26 page)

‘Yes, sir, and thank you.'

‘You have nothing to thank me for, Rhian. Not after everything you have done for my family during the years you've worked for us. Try to get some sleep.' He smiled at her and left the room, closing the door behind him.

‘Come in, Uncle Billy.' Connie left the breakfast table when Annie showed the men into the dining room.

‘Tonia not up?' Billy noticed that the table was set for three but one place setting was untouched.

‘I'll get her.' Annie left and a few seconds later they could hear her hammering on Tonia's door.

‘Would you like tea or shall we go into the drawing room?' Connie continued to ignore Joey.

‘In the other room, I think, Connie,' Billy suggested.

Joey hadn't said a word since they had left the house, and he continued to remain silent, his brooding presence heightening the fraught atmosphere.

‘Sit down.' Connie took one easy chair, Billy the other. Joey went to the window. Brushing aside the net curtains, he stared down at the street. The ash cart was out, and men were emptying dustbins into the back, clattering and banging them when they returned them to the pavement.

The door jerked open and Tonia stumbled into the room. Annie followed and it was obvious that she had pushed Tonia in. The dark circles beneath Tonia's red-rimmed eyes were even more pronounced than Joey's. She was wearing her Gwilym James uniform, but it was so creased and crumpled it looked as though she had slept in it.

‘Antonia,' Connie turned to her daughter, ‘I went to see Joey last night –'

‘He told you, didn't he?' Tonia burst out hysterically. She turned on Joey. ‘You promised you wouldn't tell! You promised!' Then, realizing what she'd said, she screamed, ‘It's all a pack of lies! You can't believe a word he says! You can't! You can't –'

Connie left her chair and went to her daughter. ‘Pull yourself together, or I'll slap you.'

Tonia buried her face in her hands and her screams subsided into soft whimpers.

‘What did Joey promise you and what is all a pack of lies?' Connie demanded. ‘Answer me, Tonia.'

‘Why ask me? You were the one who spoke to him.' Tonia's voice wavered precariously.

‘I didn't tell your mother anything last night, Tonia, but after what you did to Rhian and me yesterday I will,' Joey said quietly.

‘I didn't do anything –'

‘You came crying to me because Geraint Watkin Jones had eloped with Julia Larch.'

‘What's that got to do with Tonia?' Connie asked in bewilderment.

‘Do you want to tell your mother, Tonia, or shall I?' Joey asked.

Tonia sank down on the floor, curled into a ball, wrapped her hands around her knees and buried her face in her arms. She began to cry again, not the high-pitched hysterical screams of when she had first entered the room, but self-contained, throat-rasping sobs that racked her shoulders and sent shudders through her body.

‘Tonia,' Connie said angrily, ‘I will have the truth.'

Tonia clamped her hands over her ears in a final, last ditch attempt to block out what Joey was about to say, and she remained on the floor while Joey told her mother, Annie and his father how he had stumbled across her and Geraint making love in the stockroom in Pontypridd. How Tonia had pleaded with him not to tell anyone and the promise he had made to her that he had regretted making several times since. How she had visited him in his office the day before. And when, against his better judgement, he had offered her a shoulder to cry on, she had unbuttoned his trousers and told Rhian they'd been having an affair and she was carrying his baby.

When Joey finished talking, no one said a word. He turned back to the street. Silence grew in the room, dense and oppressive.

‘Is this true, Antonia?' Connie asked, finally breaking the tension.

Tonia whimpered like a puppy being whipped.

Joey turned around. ‘I have told you the truth, Connie, but frankly, I don't care what you think of me. The only person I care about right now is Rhian and I'm going to see Edward Larch. If he won't tell me where she is, I'll give him a letter I wrote to her last night. Hopefully, she will read it and believe my side of the story even if none of the rest of you do.' He left the room and closed the door behind him.

‘Tonia? Is what Joey said true?' When her daughter didn't answer, Connie yanked her violently to her feet.

Tonia stared at her mother, burst into tears and ran from the room. Her bedroom door slammed and the key turned in the lock.

‘I take it that's a yes.' Billy reached for his stick and rose stiffly and awkwardly to his feet.

‘This isn't just Tonia's fault,' Connie said defensively. ‘If Joey hadn't behaved the way he has over the years, none of us would have believed that he'd assaulted Tonia in the first place.'

‘Are you making excuses for your daughter's behaviour, Connie?'

Ashamed, Connie fell silent.

‘It seems to me that neither of them has behaved particularly well, Joey for years and Tonia yesterday afternoon. But just when I hoped that Joey was finally putting his past behind him, it looks like Tonia might have put paid to his future. I won't argue that Joey had a right to the happiness he found. I've always thought that Rhian was too good for him, and that's coming from a father who loves all his sons, even the wayward one. But one thing that I am certain of is that Rhian didn't deserve to see the pantomime Tonia staged for her benefit. No wonder she's hiding. The poor girl must be crushed by the thought of Joey's betrayal. I'll see myself out, Connie, Annie. Between the shop and Tonia it looks as though you're going to have a full day.'

At one clock, Edward Larch left his desk and walked through the connecting door into his rooms. He smiled when he entered his sitting room. The table had been laid for one and there was a cold ham, a bowl of salad, a loaf of fresh bread and a half-pound of butter set out on a clean, pale-green linen cloth. Rhian walked out of the kitchen with a jug of barley water and a glass.

‘Thank you for laying the table.'

‘The boy brought the food an hour ago, sir. Mrs Ball took the hamper in. All I had to do was set the table.'

‘There's just one thing wrong, Rhian.'

‘What, sir?' she asked apprehensively.

‘It's set for one, not two.'

‘I couldn't eat with you, sir. It wouldn't be proper.'

‘Proper or not, I won't eat without you. We have a lot to discuss and talk is always better accompanied by food, so the sooner you get yourself a plate, knives and a fork, the sooner we can begin.' Feeling as though he'd come home after a very long journey, Edward removed his jacket, hung it on the back of a chair, unbuttoned his waistcoat and sat at the table. Then he remembered the visitor who'd called into his office that morning. He felt in his jacket pockets and removed the envelope Joey Evans had given him to pass on to Rhian. He set it in front of her plate.

She picked it up, visibly flinching when she turned it over and recognized the handwriting.

‘He came in the moment the office opened. He wants to see you.'

‘You didn't tell him where I am?' she asked in alarm.

‘No, but as I said earlier, if you stay in Tonypandy you are going to have to face him sooner or later.'

‘I know.' She stared at the envelope, before slowly and deliberately tearing it in two. Aware that Mr Larch was watching her, she continued to tear it and the paper it contained into tiny shreds. She didn't stop until it was no more than a pile of confetti. Only then did she scoop the fragments into her hand. Leaving the table, she carried them into the kitchen and dropped them in the waste bucket.

Her smile was too bright, too brittle when she returned, but he didn't pass comment. Instead he changed the subject.

‘This looks a fine ham; would you like two or three slices?' He waited until they had finished eating and she had made and served coffee before broaching the subject uppermost in his mind. ‘As I said, we have a lot to discuss. Starting with your salary for managing the shop.'

‘I'd be happy with whatever is the usual rate, sir.'

‘Two pounds a week.'

‘Two pounds a week, sir?' she gasped.

‘Plus free accommodation and food. Is that all right?'

‘It is too generous, sir.'

‘Then it's settled.'

‘There's nothing I can say except thank you, sir.'

‘I have been thinking about another vacancy that you might consider. And before I tell you what it is, I want you know that I won't withdraw the offer to manage the shop or think any the less of you if you refuse it. You know what my marriage is like. There's no need to be coy,' he added, when she blushed. ‘The way Mabel behaves, everyone in Llan House knows it barely exists in name, let alone anything more intimate. I decorated these rooms so I could have some peace, and also so I could meet women here. I never thought of setting up another permanent establishment but if you were willing to live with me, I would take care of you. Good care.' He stopped talking, scarcely believing that he'd found the courage to say what he just had to her.

She was staring down at her hands and he found it impossible to gauge her reaction. ‘You do understand what I'm suggesting, Rhian?'

‘Yes, sir,' she mumbled.

‘If I've offended you, tell me and I'll never broach the subject again. If you decide to accept this – extra position,' he said hesitantly, ‘I would like you to live in these rooms with me. If you decide against it you can live in the rooms behind the shop.'

She finally raised her head and looked at him. ‘People would find out, sir.'

‘They might guess but they wouldn't know. Not for certain, if we were discreet. There's a communicating door between this building and my office so I could see you any time I wanted without having to go into the street. And although all I am free to offer you is a position as my mistress, I'd treat you like a wife. I'm comfortably off. I could give you everything you've ever wanted. And, if it worked out between us, you'd never have to worry about me looking at another woman. I loved my first wife.' His voice wavered when he thought of Amelia.

‘The first Mrs Larch was lovely, sir.'

‘Yes, she was. And she'd be horrified if she'd heard the proposition I've just put to you.'

‘You wouldn't have made it if she'd been alive, sir.'

‘No, I wouldn't,' he said slowly. ‘And I've said more than enough for now. I'm truly sorry if I've shocked you. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, or force you into doing anything that you don't want to.'

He used almost the same words as Joey when she had offered to make love to him for the first time. She swallowed her tears.

‘I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. You're a decent young woman.'

‘If you want me, sir, I'll run your shop, keep your rooms and sleep in your bed. But I told you that I've been with Joey. If I have a child it might not be yours, sir.'

‘I wouldn't care.' He left his chair, took her in his arms and helped her up. The feel of his hand on her head as he stroked her hair was warm and comforting and she allowed herself to relax enough to rest her head on his chest.

‘There's all the time in the world, Rhian,' he murmured, fighting the urge to carry her into the bedroom. ‘I don't want to rush you into anything. We'll talk again tonight. In the meantime, think about my offer, but remember the last thing I want to do is take advantage of you after everything that's happened in the last two days. I wouldn't have said anything to you now if I hadn't seen you tear up that letter.'

She recalled asking Joey how he could make love to someone he wasn't completely in love with. ‘I don't have to think about it, sir.' Lifting her face to Edward's, she kissed him.

Edward tasted the salt tears on her lips, luxuriated in the sensuous feel of her smooth young body.

‘No … not yet …' He tried to back away, but she kissed him again.

‘Rhian, I warn you, it's been a long time for me, you have no idea what you are doing to me.'

Wanting to hurt Joey as he had hurt her, she whispered, ‘Yes, I do, sir.'

He finally picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. Dropping her on the bed, he kicked off his shoes, lifted his legs on to the bed and lay beside her. She helped him off with his jacket and shirt; he unclipped his braces and unbuttoned her dress. She lifted it over her head but there was no time to remove all her clothes.

He pulled her petticoats and bust-shaper above her waist, tugging at her corset laces to expose her breasts. Yanking down her drawers, he pushed her legs apart with his knees and abandoned himself to a passion that he hadn't experienced since Amelia had died.

Rhian lay back and absorbed the sensation of committing the ultimate intimate act with a man she didn't love. Even now, when she was practically naked in bed with him, she couldn't think of him as anything other than Mr Larch. He was skilled and considerate. His kisses were tender; his thrusts urgent. He whispered no endearments but his touch was gentle and she knew that he would keep his promise and take care of her.

It's like the difference between watching a colourless silent film and experiencing reality.

Joey was right, making love without being in love was just as he had described. But Mr Larch needed her, and she needed to be loved by someone who would never lie to her or betray her again.

So she returned the master's caresses, telling herself that she did so out of respect and gratitude. But even as she kissed and held him, she knew that she was being driven more from an all-consuming, burning desire to wound Joey as deeply as he had wounded her, than any consideration for Edward Larch.

Afterwards, Edward stripped Rhian of the rest of her clothes, lay back on the pillows and held her close beneath the single sheet that was all the cover they needed given the warmth of the afternoon. He didn't doubt that the world would see him as the wealthy middle-aged roué who had seduced a sweet young girl and reduced her to the ranks of fallen women. Yet he didn't feel guilty enough to regret what had happened. And certainly not enough to want to forget the experience, or send her away. He couldn't wait to repeat it – and often.