‘It’s not nonsense. Judy just heard it in Frank Clayton’s radio shop.’
Tina looked across the road at Frank Clayton’s electrical and record shop. He always had a radio blaring inside. Without stopping to take off her apron or overall, she left the restaurant and ran across the road.
‘It’s true.’ Frank was standing on his doorstep, Alma Rashchenko next to him.
‘Mussolini really has joined forces with Hitler?’
Alma nodded gravely. ‘But no one’s going to think any the worse of you or your family, Tina. Not with the boys in France. Look at Charlie, he was registered as an alien …’
Tina didn’t wait to hear any more. She glanced back at the restaurant. There weren’t many customers at the tables and there was hardly anything left to sell on the shelves. The ladies of the crache who comprised most of the restaurant’s clientele were on their way home to supervise their maids and cooks in the preparation of the evening meal; but then the restaurant’s customers always had been far more ‘select’ than those who patronised the Tumble café.
‘Do me a favour, Alma, ask the cook to lock up the restaurant for me?’
‘Of course, but ·where are you going?’
‘The Tumble.’ Tina ran full speed up Taff Street. Where the pavements were crowded she ran into the road, dodging trams and vans. She bowled into an elderly woman, knocking her shopping bags from her hands. Without stopping to apologise she dashed on, barely registering the indignant cries behind her.
She heard the noise first. An ominous rumble like the heavy rolling sound of thunder before a storm breaks; then she saw the crowd, mainly men, fists raised, faces and voices contorted with anger. Gina must have bolted and barred the doors of the café, because half a dozen men were hammering on them. Just as she drew level with the gathering, she heard the sound of breaking glass.
Without thinking what might happen if someone recognised her, she tried to push her way through the throng. An elbow thudded into her chest and sent her flying backwards over the step of the White Hart. Still fighting her way forward, she looked up and saw Wyn Rees leaning on his crutches with his back to the door of the café, Diana at his side as he faced the ugly mob head on. She continued to battle her way towards them, but it was hopeless: an impenetrable wall of noisy, sweating, male flesh blocked her path. She tried elbowing and kicking, to no avail.
‘Kill the bastards!’ a voice screamed. ‘The whole family are bloody Fascists …’
‘They’re no more Fascists than you or me!’ Wyn shouted, struggling to make himself heard above the noise. His voice was loud and steady, but Tina could see a nervous pulse throbbing at his temple.
‘Joined the Fascists have you then, queer!’ The gibe was followed by a second brick that hurtled through the air and shattered the splintered remains of the plate-glass window in front of the café.
‘If the Ronconis are Nazis why are Tony and Angelo fighting in France alongside my brother and cousin? I don’t see any of you beating your way to the recruiting office.’
A murmur went up from the crowd and Diana knew her point had struck home. She lifted her chin and stared defiantly at the mass of men, nodding slightly as she caught sight of Tina out of the corner of her eye. A few people moved away from the outer edges of the crowd. Tina turned and saw a tide of blue-coated policemen walking up from the town, Huw Davies in the lead. She ran up to him.
‘It’ll be all right, love. No one’s going to do anything to you, or your family. You have my word on it.’ He caught her and put her behind him. He stopped outside the White Hart and addressed the assembly.
‘I’m telling you to disperse quietly. I’m only giving one warning and this is it. You have two minutes before we wade in with our truncheons. Just one thing before you go. If one of you would like to tell me who broke that –’ he pointed to the window – ‘and you’d like to have a whip-round to replace it, we’ll say no more about the damage. If no money’s forthcoming, I’ll be getting out my little black book. What’s it to be, boys?’
Like a rapidly ebbing tide the body of men fragmented and dispersed, down Broadway, the old tram road, Taff Street and beneath the railway bridge. Before one minute of Huw’s two minutes had ticked past, the Tumble was deserted. Huw lifted his helmet and scratched his head. He’d succeeded in scattering the mob but no one had volunteered the name of the brick thrower or offered to set up a collection to replace the broken window. Yet another headache to add to his list of problems.
Wyn turned and knocked on the door behind him. He had to knock three times before a tearful Gina finally opened it. A tram crew stood behind her, armed with frying pans and ladles from the kitchen.
‘We wouldn’t have let anyone hurt her,’ the leader of the group boasted.
Gina saw Tina and ran to her. She looked up at Wyn and Diana.
‘I don’t know how we’re ever going to thank you.’
‘There’s nothing to thank us for. You would have done the same for us.’ Diana turned to view the damaged window.
‘We heard them come across from station yard. It’s just war fever,’ Wyn said dismissively. ‘It will soon be forgotten. ‘
‘We hope.’ Huw pulled out his notebook. ‘I’ll send one of the boys for a carpenter; the sooner you get that window boarded up the better. I reckon you were a whisker away from being looted here. And if I were you I wouldn’t bother to open up tonight.’
‘We won’t,’ Tina replied. ‘I’ll give Gina a hand to clear up and then we’ll go home.’
‘Can I do anything?’ Diana asked.
‘Be a darling, go down to the restaurant and make sure the cook’s closed up for me.’ Tina handed over her keys. ‘Tell the staff to clear the place. If anyone makes a fuss, give them their money back. I know it’s half an hour early, but I think we’ve all had enough for one day.’
‘You know what to do, constable?’ the sergeant asked Huw Davies.
‘I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.’
‘Take half a dozen men, the Black Maria and a driver.’
‘And I’m in charge?’
‘Handle it any way you want, just try to avoid trouble at all costs. Here’s the list.’ Unable to look Huw in the eye the sergeant walked through the door that led down to the cells. He’d given Huw a foul job, but the way he viewed it, he had little choice in the matter. Huw was the oldest, steadiest and most level-headed of the constables on the Pontypridd force, and consequently the one most often landed with the worst tasks. Unfair on Huw, but it made for fewer choices for him.
Grim-faced, Huw pushed his helmet on to his head and left the station. Six constables and a driver were standing alongside the black police van in the car park.
‘I’ll need four of you.’ Huw looked at the men. Handel Jones, a young constable who’d only joined the force three months ago, was the least threatening. ‘You,’ Huw pointed at him. ‘Sit alongside the driver in the front of the van, the rest of you in the back with me. And none of you as much as breathe without my permission. You two –’ he turned to the men he’d rejected – ‘I want you patrolling Taff Street with the beat coppers. One of you to be within hailing distance of every Italian café in town at all times.’ He looked back at the clock on St Catherine’s church tower. The sergeant had waited until dusk before striking, deciding that operations like the one they were about to embark on were preferably done under the cover of night, but it was still light enough to see the hands on the clock face. Nine o’clock. There was a lot to do before dawn.
‘Where to first?’ the driver asked as he opened the door.
Huw checked the list. ‘Graig Street.’
‘There’s no one on that list who lives in Graig Street.’
‘I know, that’s why I want you to go there.’
‘It seems funny to be out in the evening like this.’ Gina picked a sprig of purple heather from the clump beside her and wound it around her finger.
‘Did you tell your father you were meeting me?’ Luke asked.
‘On top of everything else that’s happened? He would have had a heart attack. Fortunately he doesn’t know you exist, otherwise he would never have let me go down the Powells when I said I wanted to see Bethan’s baby.’
‘I’m glad you came.’ Luke dared to move a little closer to her. They were sitting on the side of the Graig mountain on a rug Gina had brought from her house. Below them shadows were lapping around the town, immersing it slowly but surely in darkness as twilight fell. They’d been enjoying the panoramic view as well as the beautiful late spring evening, but Luke was conscious that in order to admire the vista spread out before them, they’d put themselves on display, and could be seen by anyone who cared to look up at the mountain. ‘It would be marvellous if we could do this every night,’ he murmured softly.
‘You miss the countryside?’
‘More than ever after a day spent underground.’
‘Then we’ll have to find you a different job when the war is over.’
‘Do you ever wonder what it will be like for us then?’
‘All the time.’
‘I know it’s sinful, but I wish I could see into the future.’
‘It’s funny, here I am up to my neck in work in the café, and you working every day as a miner, and whenever I picture us married we’re living on a farm.’
‘You never said you wanted to live on a farm.’
‘I didn’t until you told me about Cornwall. I’ve come to like the idea.’
‘It’s hard work.’
‘Neither of us are afraid of that.’
‘No,’ he smiled.
‘It’s dark enough for you to kiss me,’ she prompted.
He leaned over and grazed her cheek with his lips. ‘If we don’t make a move your father will be pounding on the Powells’ door.’
‘I suppose so.’ She rose to her feet, lifted the blanket and shook it free from grass and heather. ‘Thank you for taking me for a walk tonight. The house was horrible. All they wanted to talk about was the mob outside the café. Mama ended up crying, Papa shouting, Tina and Laura arguing and the little ones were all being insufferable, as usual.’
‘You can’t blame them for being upset.’
‘Who’s blaming them? I had a right to be more upset than any of them. I was the one trapped inside.’
‘I’m just glad you’re in one piece.’ He put his arm around her, and guided her down the hill.
‘Papa’s devastated. After living here for nearly thirty years, he never thought anything like this would happen.’
‘Your brothers will be home soon, and when everyone sees them walking around town in uniform this will be forgotten.’
‘By the town perhaps,’ Gina said drily, ‘but not by Papa or Mama. After the way Papa talked today I doubt he’ll ever forget it.’
Huw Davies knocked at Laura Lewis’s door for five minutes before a neighbour emerged to tell him he’d find her at her mother’s. He was glad. He’d always found Laura to be the steadiest of the Ronconis after Ronnie, and the last thing he wanted to do was go into her parents’ house without her there to calm everyone down.
Climbing back into the Black Maria he directed the driver to Evan’s house in Graig Avenue. Bethan’s car was parked outside. Ordering the driver to turn around at the end of the street, he left the constables in the van and mounted the steps to the front door. Knocking once, he opened it and walked inside. Bethan and Phyllis started and Megan dropped the plate she was drying when he walked into the kitchen.
‘It’s not Will or the boys.’ He removed his helmet and put it on the table. ‘And if there was any news about them I doubt that I’d be bringing it. You’d get a telegram.’
Hearing voices, Evan and Alexander came in from the garden where they’d been fencing off a chicken run.
‘It’s not the boys,’ Huw said swiftly before they asked. ‘It’s the Ronconis.’
‘Don’t tell me they’ve had more trouble after that mob today?’
‘No.’ Huw looked at Evan, and Bethan. ‘I was hoping you two would come up to Danycoedcae Road with me. I’ve got to arrest Mr Ronconi.’
‘Arrest him?’ Megan stared at her brother as though he’d taken leave of his senses. ‘In God’s name why?’
‘Round-up of enemy aliens.’
Evan reached for his jacket which he’d left hanging behind the wash-house door.
‘You’ll take care of Rachel for me?’ Bethan handed her baby to her aunt without waiting for an answer.
Alexander unrolled his shirt sleeves and buttoned them at the cuff. ‘Luke and Gina went for a walk over the mountain earlier, constable. Would it help if I found them?’
‘It would.’ Huw recognised the need for everyone to feel that they were contributing in some way. ‘Get him to take Gina straight home, otherwise she might not be in time to say goodbye to her father.’
‘What about Laura?’ Bethan asked.
‘I called in Graig Street on the way here. A neighbour told me she’s already up Danycoedcae Road.’
‘You sure you’re up to this, love?’ Evan asked.
‘Laura and Trevor are our best friends, and Laura’s got her hands full right now with the baby without any of this. I’m up to it, Dad.’
Huw gave the police driver the address of the Ronconis’ house and told him to drive around via the main road and wait until he arrived. While Alexander went through the garden to the back lane and the mountain, he walked up Illtyd Street with Bethan and Evan. They saw Luke, Gina and Alexander at the end of Danycoedcae Road. Gina waved to them, and although they were too far away to read the expression on her face, it was obvious by the wave that she wasn’t worried.
‘Doesn’t look like Alexander’s told her what this is about,’ Huw commented.
‘Would you?’ Evan asked.
‘Probably not.’ The Black Maria was waiting in front of the house. The driver stepped out. ‘I’m not going to need you just yet,’ Huw addressed the men in the van. ‘But when I do, I expect you to do your job quietly and tactfully. That means putting everything back exactly where you find it. Provided you behave yourselves there won’t be any trouble, not in this house.’
‘It’s not one of the boys, is it, Constable Davies?’ Gina asked breathlessly as she ran up to him, Luke still holding on to her hand.
‘No, love, it’s nothing to do with the boys.’
Sensing trouble and not knowing what, Gina clung to Luke.
‘I think we’d all better go inside.’ Bethan had noticed curtains twitching in several front windows at the sound of the van. She knocked on the Ronconis’ door and walked in.