The Quality of Love (24 page)

The only thing that worried Sarah was the fact that although Owen had told her a great deal about his childhood and what had happened while he had been growing up, so far she'd said very little to him about her own background apart from details about her parents.

She hesitated for quite a while before she told him the entire truth about her past and when she did summon up the courage to do so she wondered if it would be the death knell of their friendship.

She probably wouldn't have told him at all except that she realised that their friendship seemed to be gradually developing into something closer and she decided she had to clear the air. She'd already told her parents about him and she was anxious for them to meet him so that they could understand how different he was and why she considered him to be such a good friend.

Sarah and Owen were in their favourite restaurant having a meal when she broached the subject.

‘I thought you might like to come and meet my parents; perhaps on Sunday for tea?' she suggested.

His face lit up. ‘That would be very nice. You've talked so much about them that I feel I already know them.' He smiled. ‘Don't worry, cariad, I'll be on my best behaviour and I won't tell them any of your dark secrets, like how you invited me out before I had a chance to ask you,' he teased.

She didn't smile. ‘There are several things I think you should know before you accept,' she said slowly.

He looked puzzled but remained silent and took a long, slow sip of wine as he waited for her to continue.

‘It's about my past,' she said and her voice dropped to almost a whisper so that he had to lean across the table to hear what she was saying.

He stretched out a hand and took hers, holding it tightly. ‘You don't have to tell me anything you'd rather keep to yourself, you know, Sarah. I judge you on what you are today not on what you may have done in the past.'

Sarah smiled weakly, took a sip of her wine and nervously cleared her throat. Then in a low voice, and watching his face for his reactions, she told him all about her affair with Gwyn Roberts and how she'd had to drop out of university before she could take her final exams because she'd been pregnant.

‘So what happened after that?' he asked quietly.

‘We never married but we lived together in a squalid room in Tiger Bay.' Her voice was shaking as she began telling him about what happened and how her parents had refused to have anything at all to do with her.

When she reached the part where little Cladylliss had taken ill and died, she was so overcome with emotion that she had to stop speaking.

Owen refilled her glass and waited while she took one or two sips then looked at her expectantly. ‘Go on,' he said gently. ‘Tell me what you did after the child died.'

‘After that I made my peace with my parents and went back home. The university agreed to let me take my exams and so I eventually completed my studies. After I got my degree I went to work at the City Hall.'

‘So everything turned out well. That's where you first met Bryn Morgan, wasn't it?'

She nodded. ‘Yes, I was working in the Housing Department, as you probably know, and of course he often came in to discuss building plans and so on.'

‘I remember him saying something about it at the time. He seemed to be impressed by your efficiency even in those days,' he told her with a warm smile. ‘So why did you leave?'

Sarah took another sip of her wine. ‘That is something else I feel you should know about,' she said as she put her glass down.

He took a sip of his own wine and waited for her to go on.

‘I worked there for about two years and during that time I got to know a man called Stefan Vaughan,' she said bitterly. ‘After my previous experience I was so determined to live life to the full that when I discovered that away from the office he shed the mask of respectability and lived the high life I thought he was exactly the sort of companion I wanted.

‘Stefan loved dancing, especially jazz, he enjoyed drinking, and he was into drugs and everything else. To me it was an exciting new world and one I wanted to take part in.'

Owen listened quietly, nodding from time to time as Sarah told him how she'd become more and more friendly with Stefan. ‘When he suggested that I should move into his flat I agreed to do so, but only if we were married.'

Owen's face registered incredulity when she told him all about the bogus marriage that Stefan arranged.

‘So was that why you eventually left the City Hall, because you found out what an utter cad he was?'

‘Not exactly. I had already left because I was pregnant again. I was looking forward to having the baby although Stefan wasn't too keen on the idea. He still wanted to live the high life and stupidly I tried to keep up with him. I didn't take enough care of myself, I'm afraid, and the baby was stillborn,' she said forlornly.

He leaned forward and took her hand again, shaking his head sadly. ‘I'm so sorry.'

‘I was terribly upset but, even worse, I discovered that while I had been in hospital Stefan had been cheating on me. That was when I went back home again. My parents were shocked but very understanding.

‘It took me a while to come to terms with what had happened. The day I met Bryn Morgan I'd gone to the City Hall to convince myself that I could never work there again. He told me the whole story about Stefan Vaughan.' She shivered. ‘I expect you read all about it in the papers.'

‘Was this the woman who was with him on the night he was attacked?' Owen asked.

‘I can't be sure but I'm pretty certain it was the same woman.'

Owen smiled gently, his pressure on her hand increasing. ‘That meeting with Bryn Morgan was fate; you were destined to come and work at Morgan's,' he assured her.

‘Now that you know everything will you still be coming to tea on Sunday?' Sarah asked tentatively.

‘Of course! All that is in the past, but I'm glad you've told me.'

She gave a smile of relief; he was the first person apart from her parents who knew all there was to know about her and it felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Sarah found that both her parents were very concerned when she told them that she'd invited Owen Phillips to tea on Sunday.

‘Do you think that is a good idea, cariad?' Lorna asked in a slightly puzzled voice.

‘Isn't he the chap you work alongside at Morgan's?' Lloyd frowned.

‘Yes, he is, but he's become quite a good friend and I'd like you to meet him.'

‘When you go off out in the evenings are you telling us that's who you've been with, Sarah?' her mother asked sharply.

‘Yes. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?' Sarah asked, looking from one to the other in surprise.

‘I thought you said that you weren't going to get involved with any of the men you worked with ever again after what happened last time,' Lorna said in a disapproving voice.

‘Your mam's right,' Lloyd agreed. ‘After what happened with that Stefan Vaughan we'd hoped you'd learned your lesson. That other chap, Gwyn Roberts, wasn't much better either. This may be 1927, and you younger women seem to think you can do as you like now that
you've got the vote, but I would have thought that it would have made you more responsible for your actions,' he said sternly.

‘Look, I know I made some bad mistakes in the past, but Owen Phillips is quite different from either of them,' Sarah said defiantly.

‘That's what you said the last time,' her father reminded her. ‘I grant you I was taken in by that Stefan fellow as much as you were, he seemed to be a very intelligent sort of chap, but look what a rogue he turned out to be.'

Sarah didn't bother arguing with him because she knew there was no point in doing so. She did wish, though, that she hadn't asked Owen to come to tea on Sunday but it was far too late to back out now.

Her mother made a great fuss about it all, claiming that she liked plenty of warning when she was expected to entertain people so that she could plan ahead.

‘The very last thing I want you to do is start making any special arrangements,' Sarah told her quickly. ‘Owen would hate to think he had inconvenienced you in any way so don't go making a fuss or doing anything special.'

She knew it was pointless saying this and wasn't at all surprised when her mother busied herself making a Victoria Sponge cake and worrying about whether there was enough cold ham left to make sandwiches.

As she changed into one of her prettiest dresses ready to greet her visitor Sarah herself
began to have qualms about what she was doing and wondered if she was on the verge of ruining a friendship she valued very much.

Owen arrived promptly at four o'clock and as he presented her mother with a bouquet of flowers she saw the look of pleasure on her mother's face and smiled to herself that at least he'd found favour in her eyes.

When she introduced him to her father she noticed that as they shook hands the two men studied each other carefully, as though they were two sparring partners weighing each other up.

Lorna had laid the table with her best china all carefully arranged on a lace tablecloth. As they took their places and she brought in the teapot, Sarah took a deep breath, determined to make the best of what looked as though it was going to be a disastrous occasion.

At first the conversation was very stilted. Owen was polite but withdrawn, and her mother nervous and on edge. She kept fussing over whether they wanted more to eat or their cups refilled instead of enjoying the meal herself.

Sarah realised that her parents were both concerned about meeting him because of all that had happened in the past but she found herself wishing it was all over and wondering how soon she could suggest that she and Owen went for a walk without her parents looking affronted.

They were drinking their second cup of tea when Owen seemed to be aware that things weren't going well at all. He made a special effort to talk to Sarah's father, asking him about his job.

Slowly, very slowly indeed, Lloyd started to relax. By the time the meal ended and Sarah started to clear the table they'd moved away into more comfortable chairs, still deep in conversation.

‘He seems a nice solid sort of chap,' her mother commented as they did the washing-up together.

‘He's certainly been a very good friend to me,' Sarah said quietly, ‘both at work and outside.'

He mother looked at her sharply. ‘You are sure you know what you're doing by getting involved again?'

‘I'm not getting involved, Mam. I simply asked Owen to come to tea because I wanted you both to meet him; there's nothing more to it than that.'

‘Are you quite certain about that?' her mother pressed. ‘It doesn't look like mere friendship to me. I suppose it could be worse,' she added with a sigh. ‘He's a fine-looking chap and he has a responsible job, but then so did that Stefan Vaughan.'

‘He's nothing at all like Stefan, Mam. Stefan was all out for a good time. At work he was head of a department and highly respected but
when he was out enjoying himself he was quite wild. Owen is nothing at all like that. He is always very quiet and reserved.'

‘Well, he and your dad seem to have plenty to say to each other,' she agreed.

Although Lloyd acknowledged that Owen was a quiet, industrious sort of chap, he did rather hold it against him that he wouldn't discuss trade unions or say whether or not he was a supporter of them.

‘Do you or do you not agree that they are justified in holding the bosses to ransom in order to be paid the sort of wages they think they're entitled to receive?' Lloyd probed.

‘It's a question that never arises at Morgan's even though we have a large number of men working there, because we make certain that they are all quite happy with their terms of employment,' Owen explained to Lloyd with a bland smile.

‘I'm not very interested in politics,' Sarah told her father when he mentioned the matter later that evening.

‘Then you should be. With the education you've had you could make your opinion heard. I shouldn't have to keep reminding you that women have the vote,' he told her frowning, ‘and therefore it is their duty to interest themselves in such matters.'

‘It's part of Morgan's policy that as a company they don't support or even recognise trade unions,' Sarah told him. ‘If any new employee
belongs to a union, they prefer him to keep his views to himself and not try to persuade his fellow workers to join.'

Although Lloyd seemed to approve of this he was curious as to what Owen thought about such matters.

‘Owen may advise them because that's what he's expected to do but I have no idea what his personal views are,' she told her father.

‘From the way he spoke when we were discussing the miners' strike he sides with his boss over such matters. He blames the miners for striking instead of negotiating and says that the root cause of the depression we're entering into now is the result of their disruption.'

‘Well, then, as General Manager and as Mr Morgan's right-hand man, it's no wonder he doesn't want to have anything to do with trade unions,' Sarah pointed out.

‘Yet he agreed with me that many of the improvements that have been made in the workplace or in the wages people are paid has come about through union intervention,' her father argued. ‘As someone who knows the law as well as you do you should also be aware of that.'

From then on Sarah avoided talking about Owen or getting involved in any conversation with her father that touched on trade unions or political matters of any kind. She noticed her mother had said nothing when they were talking about it and she wondered whether her mother was disinterested or whether she knew
from experience that it was one of her father's hobby-horses.