Swansea Girls (46 page)

‘Joseph, we have to leave ...’

‘Go with your friends, Joe.’

‘Lily ...’ Steeling himself to meet the hurt in Lily’s eyes, Joe finally stepped towards her.

‘Joseph, this is no place for the girls ...’

‘Shut up, Robin,’ Joe broke in savagely, taking his anger out on his friend.

‘Robin is right, Joe.’ Lily was astonishingly cool and composed. ‘This is no place for decent girls – or boys with ambition.’ Turning, she ran up the stairs, Roy following in her wake.

The telephone began to ring. Everyone ignored it. Joe looked towards Lily as though he couldn’t make up his mind whether to go after her or not. Sensing her brother’s dilemma, Helen tried to fight her way through the crowd in the dining room.

But before she could reach him Robin laid his arm on Joe’s shoulder. ‘I’ll take Em and Angie home but I’ll be back.’

‘You don’t have to.’

‘I want to.’

Angela slipped her hand into Joe’s as he followed Robin to the door to see them out.

‘Lily.’ Roy knocked on her bedroom door. ‘Please, Lily, love, let me in. I need to explain.’

‘I’d leave her for a while, Roy.’ Joy lit two cigarettes and passed him one as she sat on the first step of the stairs that led up to the attic.

‘We should have told her about her mother years ago.’ He took the cigarette and sat beside her.

‘You did what you thought was best at the time, like me with Bill and Judy. And just like me with Bill, if you’d looked for the right time to tell Lily about her mother I’d take bets on you not finding one – until now, when you’ve been forced into it.’

‘I had no idea Norah was paying Mary. If Norah had only told me I would have carried on paying the woman after she died. Oh, God! Did you see the look on Lily’s face?’

‘Yes.’

The telephone began to ring again.

‘I’ll get that and clear up downstairs. If Lily hears us talking she may not come out. Try again, Roy, in ten minutes or so. That girl needs you, now more than ever.’

‘And ten makes one hundred.’ John Griffiths handed over the final ten pounds. ‘And that’s it, there’ll be no more, so don’t try coming back.’

‘I won’t.’ Mary folded the notes into her bra.

‘But in case you forget, it might be as well if you sign something.’

‘Something legal? Don’t make me laugh. It was a bloody lawyer who sent me here in the first place.’

‘What lawyer?’

‘Norah always said if anything ever happened to her she’d see me all right in her will. I never got a bloody penny. When I went to see about it the toffee-nosed berk said there was something wrong with the papers and I wasn’t going to get what was mine by right. He gave me a fiver. A bloody fiver – and what’s that? Hardly enough to get pissed on. It was him who suggested I call in person ...’

‘What lawyer?’ he repeated.

‘Richard Thomas. Thinks he’s so bloody hoity-toity. I know his sort and what they’re like once they’ve got their knickers down around their ankles.’

‘Did he tell you when to call?’ John’s blood ran cold as he recalled Esme’s reaction to the news about Joe and Lily. Richard was her lawyer ... surely she wouldn’t have ...

‘You think I would have walked up here on spec? My room’s the other side of town; it’s a long haul ...’

‘Quite.’ John cut her short. ‘You’ve got what you came here for, Mary. We don’t want to see you around here again.’

‘You’ll come calling when you want your next divorce, ducks,’ she cackled.

‘I need to see her, Mr Williams.’

‘You’re welcome to try, boy. I only hope you have better luck than me.’ Roy rose to his feet and moved to Lily’s door. Knocking on it, he murmured. ‘Joe’s here, love.’

‘Tell him to go away.’

Roy looked at Joe. ‘That’s the first time she’s spoken since she locked herself in there.’

‘I won’t go, Lily.’

‘Yes, you will.’ Lily wrenched open the door. Her face was white, her eyes puffy from shock and tears, but she looked him in the eye. ‘Go away, Joe. I don’t want to see you again.’

‘Lily ...’

‘Just consider the reaction of your fine university friends. They couldn’t get out of the house quick enough. It wasn’t good when they looked down their noses at me last Saturday night. Then I was only a nobody, now they know I’m the daughter of a common prostitute think what that will do to your ambition and the fine career you’ve mapped out for yourself.’

‘You said it didn’t matter who your real parents are,’ he murmured, conscious of Roy Williams standing behind him.

‘I was wrong. Do you think you’ll have any friends left if you get engaged to me now? Do you think you’ll still be able to take that job with the BBC? And don’t say it doesn’t matter to you, because I know it does. You’ve talked about nothing else for weeks. We’re over, Joe. It’s finished between us.’ Looking past him, she murmured, ‘Uncle Roy, I need to talk to you.’ She held the door open. Roy glanced at Joe, then stepped inside and closed it.

By the time Joe returned downstairs most of the guests had left. Helen, Judy, Katie and Joy were clearing the food and dishes while Brian, Martin and Jack were moving the furniture back into place. He gave them a hand.

They had just restored the dining room to order when Robin returned. ‘Sorry sounds pretty inadequate,’ he muttered as he followed Joe into the hall.

‘Lily told me to go. Said I should think about my friends and career at the BBC. She won’t even talk to me, Robin, and I haven’t a clue how to make her.’

‘Seems to me there’s nothing you can do around here for now. Why don’t we go for a drink? You never know, talking it out might help.’

Too miserable and wretched to think straight, Joe followed him out of the house.

John walked in and looked around the parlour and dining room before going into the kitchen where Helen was drying dishes. ‘Where’s Joe?’

‘His friend Robin Watkin Morgan came back and took him out for a drink. Lily wouldn’t talk to him ...’

‘So he thought getting drunk would help.’ John didn’t bother to conceal his disgust. Furious, he returned to the hall. He found the telephone directory in the top drawer of the Georgian chest Norah and Roy used as a telephone table. Flicking through the pages, he found Dr Watkin Morgan’s number, but before he could dial the telephone rang.

‘Roy Williams’ house,’ he answered tersely.

‘Swansea police station here, tell him to ring in as soon as possible.’

‘He’s busy at the moment.’ Cutting the line, John dialled out. It was picked up on the third ring.

‘Watkin Morgan residence.’

‘I need to speak to Joe Griffiths. It’s urgent.’ He could barely conceal his irritation or impatience.

‘There is no one of that name here, sir.’

‘He is a friend of Robin ...’

‘Mr Robin is not at home. If you’d leave a message and a number, sir ...’ John slammed the receiver down, before the woman he assumed was the housekeeper finished speaking.

‘Who was that, Angie?’ Robin called from the den where he was sitting with Joe and Emily.

‘Someone for Pops. I gave them the number of his surgery.’ She walked in with the whisky bottle. ‘Top up, Joseph?’

‘Getting drunk isn’t going to help.’

‘I couldn’t agree more, but neither will you going back to Carlton Terrace when Lily doesn’t want to see you.’

‘I need to see her.’ He left his chair.

‘Think about it from her point of view, Joe,’ Angie coaxed persuasively. ‘She’s had the most terrible shock. She’s ashamed, embarrassed. She made it clear to you that she doesn’t want to face anyone just yet.’

‘I’m her fiancé.’

Robin flicked his head towards the door.

Taking the hint, Angie pushed the ice bucket at Emily. ‘Give me a hand in the kitchen.’

‘Love to.’

After the girls left, Robin sat forward in his chair and confronted Joe. ‘The house was packed. Half Swansea saw that woman claim Lily as her daughter, Joe. You have to think of yourself. Once word gets out that Lily’s mother is a streetwalker, Lily will be finished socially and so will you, if you insist on getting engaged to her.’

‘It’s not important who her mother is ...’

‘That’s rubbish and you know it. Why do you think I got the girls out of there as fast as I could? No decent man will allow his wife or daughters to associate with the daughter of a woman who can be bought for a few bob down the Strand.’

‘That’s Lily’s mother, not Lily!’

‘Of course it is, but Lily’s mother has just made a scene at
your
engagement party. If she can do that without a qualm of conscience, think what she’ll do at your wedding or any dinner or cocktail party you organise to entertain your boss when you have one. Joe, Lily no longer has a reputation worth speaking of. Stay with her and you’ll be tainted too. Especially at the BBC. You’ll lose that job before you even get it and that means kissing everything you’ve worked for goodbye.’

‘That’s what Lily said but do you really think it will happen?’ Joe pleaded, wanting to hear otherwise as he turned an anguished face to Robin’s.

‘I know so. There’s no way you can marry Lily and have the life you dreamed of. It’s Lily and obscurity, and I mean obscurity – no Swansea school will take the husband of a girl with Lily’s parentage on to their staff. Or a degree and a high-flying career in broadcasting.’

‘That look on her face ...’

‘She realised the score before you, Joe. Here.’ He handed his friend another whisky. ‘I’ll have a word with Mums and Pops; ask them if you can stay here for a couple of days, out of it. Then, when it’s blown over ...’

‘I can’t stay here.’

‘You can’t go back. Not yet.’

‘Lily ...’

‘As you said, she won’t even talk to you, so what’s the point of going home and trying, and upsetting yourself even more? You’re in shock and not thinking straight. At least wait until Pops comes home and takes a look at you. He’ll help you decide how to deal with this but it’s obvious to anyone in their right mind that you have to put yourself first on this one, Joe. Come on, sit back, finish your drink and try to put it behind you until tomorrow. Believe me, there’s nothing you can do about it until then.’

Joe found it surprisingly comforting to do as Robin suggested. It almost felt like regressing to childhood when his father had made all his decisions for him. Sit back, drink and try to forget the look on Lily’s face just before he had looked away, until such time as she allowed him to apologise to her.

Robin nodded to Angie as she walked through the door.

‘Ice.’ She dropped two cubes into Joseph’s glass before sitting beside him on the sofa.

‘It’s not all lies, Lily. You did come into Swansea on an evacuee train.’ Roy handed her a cup of tea as she sat, hunched in Norah’s favourite easy chair in the kitchen. ‘Norah saw you arrive with your mother. Mary may have been younger then, but it was still obvious what she was. Arrangements were made to billet the both of you in a room in Dyfatty Street. Norah was concerned enough to draw the attention of the senior WVS helpers to your situation and she also mentioned it to me. My beat covered Dyfatty in those days. It didn’t take long. Two nights after you arrived there was ice on the roads, it was freezing and I found you wandering the streets in the blackout with only a vest on. I picked you up, wrapped you in my coat and took you down the station. You weren’t just cold, you were starving. We fed you and at the end of the shift I took you home. I cleared it with the duty sergeant. There were so many evacuees in the town no one cared where they were, as long as they were reasonably well looked after.’

‘My ...’ Lily couldn’t bring herself to say the word. ‘... that woman. Did she come looking for me?’

‘We went looking for her to charge her with abandoning and neglecting a child but we couldn’t find her. Six months after Norah and I took you in she reported you missing in Cardiff. By then, Norah wasn’t the only one who loved you. We’d had a chance to get to know you and see how you’d been treated. When I brought you home you were filthy dirty, but that didn’t bother Norah, a lot of kids who came in from London were filthy, it was to be expected given the times the water was cut off there due to bomb damage. Only when Norah washed off the dirt, we saw the bruises. Norah took you to the hospital. The doctor said you’d been beaten. They X-rayed you and found several fractures that hadn’t been attended to. You hadn’t been fed properly either and Norah always worried that was why you remained short, although I kept telling her you were just perfect.’ He fought to control his emotion. ‘It was another three years before you stopped falling to the floor and crying every time someone raised their hands above their head. It was obviously something you associated with the beatings.’

‘I have a lot to be grateful to you for.’

‘No you don’t, love, you brought Norah and me far more happiness than we ever gave you. I only wish I could have spared you this. I’d like to say Mary reported you missing because she was worried about you, but it wasn’t that. She’d been arrested for soliciting, knew she faced a gaol sentence and pleaded she had a child to look after. The Cardiff police checked the address she gave them and found it was the room you’d been billeted in. When Mary was told you were with us she demanded you back and refused to give you up for adoption. Norah went to see her the day she came out of prison. On her return she told me she’d sorted it out and we were going to keep you. I was so pleased I didn’t ask any questions. I had no idea Norah had paid Mary or agreed to keep paying her.’

‘You would have stopped Auntie Norah if you’d known?’

‘I might have tried, but I never would have given you up. I’ve been thinking about it and it’s my guess Norah did it to protect you. You saw Mary; saw what she’s capable of. I think Norah hoped to keep her away from you. And she succeeded for a few years. I’m only sorry ...’

‘It’s not your fault, Uncle Roy.’ Lily left the chair and hugged him. ‘I told Joe only a few days ago that it’s not who your parents are that’s important but who brings you up. Now, I can’t believe I was so stupid.’

‘Love ...’

‘Didn’t you see the way everyone looked at me when she said she was my mother? How fast Joe’s friends left the house? They despise me and I can’t blame them. To be related to that ... that woman ... to know she’s my mother!’