‘I didn’t think it would be so soon.’
‘It can’t come quick enough for me.’
‘About you and Diana …’ William began awkwardly.
‘She asked you to come here?’
‘No, but she told me it was over between you two.’
‘Did she say why?’
‘She said neither of you wanted to wait for the other, but that’s a load of rubbish. You’re as keen on her as I am on Tina. I know it’s none of my business, but I –’
‘You’re right, Will, it is none of your business,’ Tony broke in brusquely. ‘Stay out of it.’
‘That’s what Diana said. But don’t you see, it is my business? She’s my sister, you’re my friend …’
‘And we’re entitled to our privacy.’
‘I’m sorry.’ William was taken aback by the vehemence in Tony’s voice.
‘Do me a favour?’
‘Name it.’
‘If you value our friendship don’t bring this up again.’
‘Diana would kill me if she knew I’d brought it up this once. You won’t tell her?’
Tony shook his head. The only consolation he had was that it was going to be a lot easier to put William’s confidences out of his mind, than Diana’s.
*……*……*
‘So you see I’ll only be able to work today and tomorrow.’
‘Thanks for stopping by to tell me.’ Charlie picked up a tray of sliced, pressed ox-tongue and slid it beneath the counter.
William wondered what it would take to raise an eyebrow on his boss’s calm, implacable face. Perhaps Charlie would show some reaction if he announced the Germans had parachuted into Ponty park? He was almost tempted to try.
‘Monday morning?’ Alma chipped in. ‘They didn’t give you much time to pack.’
‘I thought I’d get more.’
Alma looked at Charlie. ‘You’ll have to give up the market stall.’
‘I’ll telephone Cardiff when we finish this.’
‘Can I telephone Bethan please, Alma?’ William pulled a handful of change out of his pocket.
‘Of course. Nothing wrong, is there?’
‘No, it’s just that my mother came home yesterday.’
‘Your mother!’ Both Charlie and Alma smiled.
Megan had been Charlie’s landlady before she’d lost her house along with her freedom, and Megan had been one of the few people in Pontypridd who’d had a kind word for everyone. That in itself had been enough to endear her to Alma. ‘Is she well?’
‘I’ve seen her looking better.’
‘Would it be all right for us to call in this evening to see her?’
‘You know Uncle Evan, open house where you two are concerned.’
‘Tell him we’ll be up as soon as we finish here.’
In the event it was Andrew, not Bethan, who came to the telephone. William passed on the message, left the shop and walked through the indoor fruit market to the butcher’s market. Tonight his mother, Charlie, Alma, his uncle and Phyllis would enjoy a nice social evening. He wished he could join them instead of facing Mr Ronconi. What possible defence could he put up if Tina’s short, fat, elderly father tried to throw him out of the Ronconi house?
‘I hear you’re going to be my fiancé-in-law?’ Trevor Lewis grinned as he approached William’s stall.
‘Who told you?’
‘Tina, she’s been calling in on Laura on her way to work for the last month. I think she’s hoping to find a niece or nephew there one morning.’
‘No luck?’
‘If he or she doesn’t appear soon I might have to admit Laura to a lunatic asylum. But it can’t be much longer, that’s why I’m doing the shopping.’ He studied the trays of offal, scrag ends of lamb, belly pork and tripe that covered three-quarters of the stall. The better cuts were furthest from the edge, zealously guarded by William who knew how few people could afford not only the money but the coupons to buy them, and how many might be tempted to slip a choice steak or chop into a bag of sheep’s brains.
‘What can I do you for?’
‘Better make it something even I can cook, in case junior does decide to move.’
‘I’ve got some sausages off the coupon.’
‘What’s in them?’
‘Do you really want to know?’
‘No. But tell me,’ Trevor smiled maliciously, ‘you renting a suit of armour to protect yourself against Papa Ronconi’s wrath, or just wearing a tin ARP hat?’
‘He’s really that bad?’ William cut a string of sausages in half and pushed them on to the scale.
‘It took six months to recover from the hiding he gave me.’
‘It’s not a joking matter. What can I do if he refuses to give us his permission?’
‘You’ll live. Ronnie, Maud, Laura and I did.’
‘The question is will I live engaged to Tina, or not?’ William muttered as he wrapped the sausages.
A market day had never dragged so long for William. It didn’t make any difference that tomorrow was going to be his last for the duration, whatever ‘the duration’ was going to be. Every few minutes he found himself studying the crowds flocking around the stalls, wondering if he’d ever see this customer, or that one – or even work on the market – again. He kept watching the door, wishing Tina would appear so he could tell her how sorry he was that they had so little time left. She finally turned up at six o’clock, her face flushed, her hair and clothes adorned by a sprinkling of raindrops.
‘You’re soaking you silly girl,’ he scolded. ‘Where’s your coat and umbrella?’
‘In the café.’
‘They’re not doing any good there.’
‘I had to see you. Any chance of you finishing early?’
He eyed the stock on the counter. ‘I might if I start knocking the odd penny a pound off what’s left. Why?’
‘I told Papa you wanted to see him.’
‘You did what?’
‘I thought he might be nicer to you if he had some time to get used to the idea of you being in our house.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘You know Papa.’
‘Only by reputation, and something tells me I might not get to know him any better.’
‘Mama’s invited you to tea.’
‘I’ll have to call in home on the way.’
‘You don’t have to change.’
‘My mother’s home.’
‘I thought she had years left to serve.’ Tina lowered her voice, realising Megan’s sentence wasn’t the sort of thing she should be discussing in public.
‘Looks like they’re emptying the jails to make room for Old Nasty and his Nazis. You got to get back to the café?’
‘I told Tony he’ll have to manage without me for the rest of the evening. You heard about him and Diana? He’s as touchy as a winkle that’s lost its shell about it.’
‘So I’ve heard.’ He lifted the flap set in the counter. ‘How about giving me a hand? Sooner we sell this lot and I drop the takings off to Charlie, the sooner we can go.’
William hardly said a word to Tina as they walked up the hill. Deciding to get engaged was one thing; asking Mr Ronconi for his daughter’s hand, quite another. He wasn’t
that
afraid of the man, but he’d seen him lose his temper with Angelo in the High Street café, and he’d rather Mr Ronconi’s rage was directed at someone else’s head.
‘Penny for them?’ Tina hugged his arm.
‘They’re not worth a farthing. Come and see my mother.’ He led her around the corner and up Graig Avenue.
‘Does she know about us?’
‘All that Diana knows. How much have you told your father?’
‘That you’re out to seduce me.’
‘Tina …’
She ran up the steps to his uncle’s door, opened it, and dived through the blackout curtain. William caught up with her in the folds.
‘It’s like being smothered by a nun’s skirts,’ he whispered as he stole a kiss.
‘And what would you know about a nun’s skirts?’
‘They’re the same as any other woman’s only bigger.’
She lashed out trying to hit him, accidentally swinging the curtain wide. The cry of ‘Put that bloody light out’ resounded from the street below.
‘Careful,’ William said as he switched off the hall light, ‘we don’t want to have to sell the ring to pay a twenty-five-bob fine.’
‘Any more talk about nun’s underwear and there won’t be an engagement.’
‘Skirts, not underwear. You didn’t really tell your father I was out to seduce you, did you?’
‘I didn’t have to, he suspected it all along.’
‘Someone should enlighten him on the differences between Welsh and Italian boys’ intentions. Ours are strictly honourable.’ Scooping the vast folds of the blackout curtain into his arms he finally managed to shut the door.
‘What if your mother doesn’t like me?’
‘Unlike your father, my mother likes everyone.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘I’ve been talking to Trevor.’
‘Papa gave him a rough time over Laura, but then she was the first one of us to get married. I think Papa just doesn’t like the idea of any of us growing up.’
‘Ronnie was heading for thirty when he married.’
‘But Maud was only sixteen, and it wasn’t long after Trevor and Laura. There hadn’t been enough time for Papa to calm down.’
‘Trevor’s a doctor. Compared to him, what prospects have I got to offer? Not even a steady job after Monday.’
‘Charlie will keep your job open for you.’
‘Charlie might not be able to keep the shop open for himself if rationing gets any worse,’ he prophesied gloomily. He helped her off with her coat, shouting, ‘It’s only me,’ before leading her to the back kitchen.
It was warm, bright and cheerful after the damp, dark hill. Megan was sitting in Evan’s chair, Bethan at the table beside her nursing her baby. Phyllis was bustling around making tea and, judging by the splashes coming from the wash-house, Evan was bathing after his shift down the pit. There was no sign of Diana.
‘It’s good to see you, Tina. Come and sit down,’ Megan said as soon as the initial greetings were over.
‘You’ll have a cup of tea and something to eat, Tina?’ Phyllis offered.
‘I could murder a cup of tea, but we’d better not eat.’ She glanced slyly at William. ‘I promised my mother we’d have tea in our house.’
‘No doubt your father’s got me down for the first course.’
‘Sliced, battered and fried,’ Tina agreed. ‘It’s good to see you home, Mrs Powell.’
‘It’s good to be home. What’s this I hear about you and my Will?’
‘It’ll come to nothing if her father doesn’t like me.’ William crouched beside Bethan and poked his finger into the shawl-wrapped bundle on her lap.
‘This isn’t the great confident William Powell I used to know.’ Bethan pulled back the shawl to reveal a tiny, scrunched face and a mop of reddish brown hair partially hidden beneath a bonnet.
‘You know what he did to Trevor, and he threw Ronnie out of the house.’
‘Trevor was still alive the last time I looked, and so are Ronnie and Maud,’ Bethan reassured him.
‘I suppose I’d better wash and change. Sackcloth and ashes do?’ he asked Tina.
‘You sure you know what you’re doing?’ Bethan asked Tina after William had disappeared through the wash-house door.
‘I think there’s possibilities for improvement there,’ she said with mock gravity. ‘Mind you, I’ll be careful to keep him on a tight rein.’
‘I’m glad you’ve decided to wait until the war’s over before getting married, love.’ Megan reached over and took the baby from Bethan.
‘That’s William’s doing, not mine,’ Tina confessed. ‘I’d marry him tomorrow.’
‘If you do, you’ll avoid all the rows people usually have in the first year of married’ life,’ Bethan said practically.
‘How’s my granddaughter?’ Evan asked as he walked in, his face scrubbed pink.
‘Angelic, but then what do you expect with the mother she’s got.’ The front door opened and closed.
‘Diana?’ Evan asked.
‘No,’ Megan replied, a small frown creasing her forehead. ‘She sent a message up with Roberto Ronconi to say she’s stocktaking for Wyn and she’ll be home late.’
‘My brother’s really upset that it’s over between them,’ Tina contributed clumsily.
‘It could be just a lover’s tiff,’ Bethan said kindly.
‘I don’t think so.’ Megan lifted the baby on to her shoulder and rubbed her back. ‘But then Tony and Diana are very young.’
‘And they haven’t been courting anywhere near as long as Will and I’
‘They didn’t start in infants’ school, if that’s what you mean,’ Megan laughed.
The doors to the wash-house and passage opened simultaneously and Andrew walked in the same time as a spruced-up William. Bethan looked at her husband and William sensed the whole room lighting up. Registering the look on Andrew’s face he suffered an uncharacteristic pang of envy. It must be absolutely marvellous to look into someone else’s eyes and know their thoughts, as Andrew and Bethan so clearly did. He wondered when, if ever, that kind of intimacy would develop between him and Tina.
‘Hello, beautiful.’ Andrew walked over to Megan and planted a kiss on his daughter’s cheek.
‘See what I mean?’ Bethan complained to Megan. ‘All the books warn wives not to exclude their husbands from the family circle when the baby arrives. But this husband of mine totally ignores me in favour of Rachel.’
‘You’ve got to admit, she’s far less demanding than you,’ Andrew grinned. ‘It’s good to see you home, Megan. Sorry I didn’t have time to come in this morning.’
‘Bethan said you had ward rounds.’
‘And an endless queue of patients. This war has flushed out every hypochondriac in town, not to mention doting mothers who clog up the surgery asking how ill their sons have to be to avoid the call-up.’
‘You can’t blame them for wanting to hang on to what they’ve got,’ Megan said softly. ‘Not after last time. It cost Pontypridd dear.’
‘That depends on whether they’re worth hanging on to. Some of the darlings I saw this morning are liabilities, even for their mothers.’ He turned to William: ‘You’re dressed like a dog’s dinner.’
‘William’s braving Papa Ronconi to ask for Tina’s hand,’ Bethan announced.
‘Can I shake your hand while it’s still dangling from the end of your wrist?’
‘Very funny.’
‘Hope you get off lighter than Trevor, but then you’ve picked a good time. I think Papa Ronconi might be in a good mood now there’s imminent prospect of a grandchild.’
‘Laura’s in labour?’ Bethan asked eagerly.
‘Not exactly.’
‘First time I’ve heard of a woman being “not exactly” in labour,’ Megan observed.