Chapter Eighteen

‘Do you think Bella will model for me today? I’ve painted the background, so all I need is her figure; the sketches shouldn’t take long, an hour or two at most,’ Toby said.

‘I have absolutely no idea,’ Harry snapped, exhaustion and pain making him irritable.

‘What happened between you and the Snow Queen last night? You’ve done nothing but snarl since breakfast, which is not surprising given your bruises -’

‘I have a photograph of Bella, if it will help.’ Harry wished Toby would stop talking so he could think about his grandfather – and Mary.

‘A photograph?’ Toby sneered. ‘I need to put her in position in the light, to see the dappled sunshine cast the shadows of the woodland leaves on her face -’

‘Please, Toby, no artistic flights of fancy, not now,’ Harry begged.

‘Sorry, I know you’re worried about your grandfather,’ Toby apologized.

‘I am.’ Harry parked the car in the yard outside Penwyllt station. He waved to Alf, who had travelled ahead of them in the inn’s carriage. ‘You’ll wait in the car?’

Toby nodded. Harry went inside as soon as he saw the signal drop.

Bella was the first off the train. ‘Great news, Harry,’ she said, kissing his cheek. ‘Edyth is going to be fine. She’s coming home next week.’

Harry looked to his parents for confirmation.

‘It’s true, darling.’ Sali hugged him. ‘The doctor said her back will be stiff for a while and she may suffer from headaches for a few months but she will make a complete recovery.’

‘It would appear that your sister has more lives than a cat,’ Lloyd added, his relief evident in his smile.

‘That’s wonderful news.’ Harry noticed new lines around his stepfather’s eyes that he suspected stemmed from the strain of having both his father and daughter ill at the same time.

Harry led the way out of the station. The moment Toby saw Bella, he left his seat, ran to the boot of Harry’s tourer, opened it and, when she approached, thrust an enormous bouquet of red roses into her hands.

‘A small bribe for my beautiful and heartless Morgan le Fay.’

‘Heartless?’ Bella looked confused.

‘Heartless to have left me with your brother for an entire week when you knew full well how much I burned to start painting you.’

‘I haven’t said I’d model for you yet,’ Bella reminded him.

‘You see?’ He appealed to Harry. ‘Cruel, just like the real Morgan le Fay.’

‘When you’ve stopped flirting with my sister and playing clown to the non-existent gallery, Toby, perhaps you’ll allow me to introduce you to my parents and aunts. You know my uncles.’

Toby kissed Sali’s cheek, shook Lloyd’s hand and was introduced to Megan and Rhian. While they were talking, Harry stepped back alongside Lloyd.

‘Because there are more of us than my car will hold, I asked Alf Edwards to bring the carriage from the inn.’

‘So I see. You all right, Harry?’ Lloyd asked, eyeing him keenly.

‘Of course, why do you ask?’

‘Because you’re walking as if you’ve come off a horse head first, and there are bruises on your chin,’ Lloyd answered.

‘I fell over.’

‘Fell or pushed by a fist?’ Lloyd raised both eyebrows.

Harry didn’t answer. ‘The carriage holds six. Alf is happy to drive you to the sanatorium, wait while you visit Granddad and drive you back to the inn afterwards. But the length of the visit will depend on how Granddad is today. And,’ Harry looked at his sister, ‘after last week, the doctor won’t let you in, Bella,’ he said tactfully, not wanting to tell her that it was their grandfather who’d rather she didn’t visit.

‘The last thing I want to do is make him ill again.’

‘You didn’t make him ill last time,’ Victor consoled. ‘He would have had that coughing fit whether you’d been there or not.’

‘I could take Bella down the garden towards the river, while you go into the sanatorium,’ Toby suggested. ‘If your grandfather is out on the balcony, she could wave to him from there and Doctor Adams couldn’t possibly object because it’s nowhere near the patients’ terrace.’

‘And your uncle?’ Harry asked.

‘I’ll see him afterwards.’

‘That sounds like a good idea,’ Lloyd agreed.

‘Bella, you go in Harry’s car with him and Toby.’ Sali took charge of the arrangements. ‘The rest of us will ride in the carriage.’

‘Granddad’s dying, isn’t he, Harry?’ Bella asked when they stood in the yard watching the carriage drive away.

‘You know he is, Belle.’ He helped her into the passenger seat, leaving the back seat for Toby.

‘What I mean is, it’s going to be soon.’

‘I’ve seen Granddad every day this week, Belle. And whenever the subject comes up, which isn’t often, he insists that he’s said all he wants to say to all of us. And, if you think about it, what else is there for any of us to say to him?’

‘That we love him.’ Bella opened her handbag and scrabbled blindly for her handkerchief.

‘He knows we love him, and we know how much he loves us. He doesn’t need to be told that we’re going to miss him unbearably when he’s gone.’

‘I can’t stand the thought of him not being here …’

‘None of us can, Belle.’ Harry gripped her hand. ‘But you have to be brave, and think about Granddad and how he must be feeling. He knows more about loss than any of us. From what Dad and the uncles have said, half of him died with our grandmother. You only have to look at the way he smiles whenever he speaks about her or gazes at her photograph.’

‘He obviously adored her.’ Bella blew her nose.

‘He’s been a strong man most of his life, Belle, and he’s always been there for us when we’ve needed him. Now he’s ill he hates it, and he hates us seeing him sick and in pain. It would be different if it was a disease he could fight. But he can’t, and I think all he wants to do now is die while he still has the strength to do it well.’

‘You think he wants it to happen soon,’ Bella said quietly.

‘I do.’

‘I need to see him – just one last time.’

‘From the garden. Today belongs to Dad, Mam and the uncles and aunts.’ Harry pressed the ignition, pulled out and followed the carriage.

Toby, who’d remained tactfully silent in the back of the car, leaned forward and handed Bella his sketchbook. ‘I made a few notes from the corridor outside your grandfather’s room.’

Bella turned over the page and cried out in surprise. She was looking at a pen-and-ink wash that was a lifelike and perfect portrait of Billy Evans.

Dr Adams was sitting in his office, with the door open. He left his desk when he saw Harry walk in with his family.

‘Mr Evans.’ He nodded to Harry. ‘You can all go up to the ward to visit your grandfather today.’

‘He’s well enough?’ Lloyd asked.

‘When I spoke to him this morning, he said he wanted to see whoever came.’ The doctor evaded the question. After slipping on gowns and masks, they all went up in the lift to the ward. They found Billy sitting, propped up in bed, a book in front of him, just as Harry had seen him nearly every day since he’d been in the sanatorium. He was looking out over the garden and waving to Bella and Toby below.

‘They make a handsome couple,’ he teased Lloyd when he walked in.

‘Bella’s too young to be a part of any couple.’ Lloyd gazed down at them.

‘I dare say I would have felt the same way if I’d had daughters instead of sons.’ Billy looked at them all. ‘How nice of you to come all this way. I asked the nurses for chairs but they only brought three; at least the ladies can sit down. Now, I want to hear all the news from home. Tell me, how are all my grandchildren?’

‘Well,’ Sali answered. ‘Even Edyth, apart from the arm that’s still mending.’

‘And as soon as it has, she’ll be up to more mischief,’ Billy said philosophically.

‘I hope it will slow her down,’ Lloyd said seriously.

‘The boys are well, busy on the farm, and they send their love.’ Victor drew close to his father’s bed.

‘Has working for you in the school holidays changed Jack and Tom’s minds about becoming farmers?’

‘Not yet, Dad, and I don’t think it will. Both of them take too much after their father.’ Megan pulled her chair close to Billy. ‘We’ve given the nurse some fruit and homemade cake and bread for you.’

‘And books.’ Rhian forced a smile, although her lashes were suspiciously wet.

Harry hung back, watching Billy steer the conversation on to the everyday affairs of the family, lightening the atmosphere until all three of his sons and their wives were able to laugh.

He glanced at his watch, an old one because he hadn’t had time to take the gold one he’d soaked in the lake to the jeweller’s for repair, and to his surprise realized that they had been in the room for twenty not ten minutes. He turned and saw the ward sister behind him. Her attention was fixed on his grandfather and, when Billy leaned back against his pillows and pressed his handkerchief to his lips, she stepped forward.

‘And that, Mr Evans, is quite long enough.’

‘See how I’m bullied?’ Billy appealed to his sons.

‘If you behaved we wouldn’t have to bully you, Mr Evans.’ She went to his bed and took his pulse.

‘It’s strange to say goodbye without kissing you, Dad,’ Sali complained.

‘No kisses, no touches,’ the sister warned sternly.

‘But we can blow kisses.’ Rhian touched her fingers to her lips. ‘See you again soon, Dad.’

Megan followed suit, and Sali went outside with them.

‘See you tomorrow, Granddad.’ Harry waved.

‘It’s good of you to want to stay, Harry, but I’d rather you went to Paris,’ Billy said seriously.

‘I wouldn’t get individual tuition from Toby in Paris.’ He joined his mother and aunts in the corridor, pulling the door to behind him. Lloyd, Joey and Victor joined them a few minutes later.

They hadn’t had time to say much to their father, but then, Harry reflected, it was as Billy had wanted. Everything that needed to be said had been. His grandfather would leave no unfinished business.

‘I believe Bella thought modelling for a book illustration would be more glamorous,’ Sali commented when they all went into the orchard at the back of the inn after lunch to watch Toby paint Bella.

He had given her a long purple velvet gown that Frank had bought in a Parisian flea market, and draped a gold curtain over her shoulders to act as a cloak. After festooning her with brass necklaces and brooches and a pair of enormous brass earrings, which he’d assured her he’d paint as gold, loosening her long dark hair and ‘crowning’ her with a paste tiara that looked as though it had been made for Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he had taken in the gown at her waist with pins that dug into her every time she moved.

Oblivious to her discomfort, he ordered her to hold the hem of the skirt off the ground, which meant she had to stretch out her arms at an uncomfortable angle. As a final indignity he’d twisted her head to make it look as though she were glancing over her shoulder at an imaginary suitor.

He then spent five minutes barking commands at her before he had begun to sketch like fury. The only time he broke off was to shout if she moved a fraction of an inch.

‘I should have warned Bella that Toby is demented when he’s working.’ Harry set a tray of drinks that he had carried out of the bar on to one of Alf’s garden tables. He had brought beer for his father, uncles, Toby and himself, and lemonade for his mother, aunts and Bella.

‘I think Bella’s found out for herself what Toby is like when he works. Thanks, Harry.’ Lloyd passed around the lemonades to everyone except Bella, before taking a glass of beer.

‘I’d forgotten how quiet this valley is.’ Megan sat next to them on the wooden bench and looked up at the hill behind the inn. ‘No traffic to stop you from hearing the birds, more horses and carts and carriages than cars on the road, more sheep than people everywhere you look, and not a gramophone or radio to be heard for miles.’

‘It’s certainly peaceful,’ Harry agreed.

‘Did you find out any more about my family?’ she enquired.

Harry looked uneasily at his uncle.

‘It’s all right, Harry,’ Victor reassured him. ‘Everyone here can remember Megan’s father with the exception of you and Bella. But a word of warning. Megan and I would rather the boys didn’t know about him, because we don’t want to burden them with the knowledge that their other grandfather is someone they’d be better off not knowing.’

‘I meant to tell Dad on the telephone that I met him,’ Harry confessed.

‘I trust you didn’t tell him that you were related to me?’ Megan asked.

‘No.’

‘Where did you see him?’ Her hand shook, and Victor took her glass of lemonade from her.

‘In chapel.’

‘You went to chapel, voluntarily?’ Lloyd asked in amusement.

‘I passed one of the maids from the sanatorium walking there with her family, and as it was five miles from her house and she wasn’t feeling too well, I offered to take them. I waited to take the family back afterwards.’

‘Did you enjoy the service?’ Joey enquired.

‘No,’ Harry retorted.

‘Was his second wife with him?’ Megan continued.

‘Yes, and until someone said who she was, I thought she was your father’s granddaughter. I have asked various people about your sisters but no one knows any more than Mrs Edwards told Uncle Victor. One married a railwayman and they think she moved to the north of England. The other married a man from Brecon and died there a few years ago. If your father knows more he hasn’t confided in anyone I’ve spoken to.’

‘He never was what you might call the approachable type.’ Victor gripped Megan’s hand tightly. ‘Harry will drive us up to the farm if you want to visit him, Megs.’

‘No! I don’t want to see him.’

‘Then forget him.’ He slipped his hand around her waist. ‘I know it’s easy to say -’

‘You, the boys and your family have been family enough and more for me these past thirteen years, Victor.’ She looked from him to his brothers and Sali and Rhian. ‘Thank you for making enquiries, Harry, but coming back here has rekindled memories best forgotten. I know I had a lucky escape when I left my father and this valley. And now I would like to see this painting of yours that Toby told us about at lunch.’

Alf drove the carriage into the yard. Lloyd helped Sali, Rhian and Megan inside, but when he stepped back to offer Bella his hand, Toby was standing next to her, holding her elbow.

‘If you don’t mind, Mr Evans, I’ll travel to the station with the ladies.’ Toby wasted a brilliant smile on Lloyd, who scowled back.

‘Does your friend flirt with every young girl he meets?’ Lloyd asked Harry after Toby followed Bella into the carriage.

‘He’s always paying women extravagant compliments.’ Harry watched Alf drive away before walking to the barn to get his car.

‘He can pay as many compliments to other women as he likes. It’s the ones he pays to Bella that concern me.’ Lloyd followed him inside, opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat.

‘It’s difficult to know when Toby’s joking and when he’s being serious, but he says he’s in love with her.’

‘That’s ridiculous. Bella’s a baby!’ Lloyd glanced at his brothers as they ducked under the low lintel and joined them.

‘She’s older than you were when you started courting a certain older woman, big brother.’ Joey climbed into the back and moved along to make room for Victor. ‘And boys do not mature younger than girls, whatever you’d like to think.’ He opened his cigarette case and offered it around. ‘In fact, if my experience is anything to go by, I’d say the opposite is true. When I was a boy -’

‘You were the talk of Tonypandy and nothing in a skirt was safe from you.’ Lloyd flashed a look at Harry, and realized from the grin on his face that his stepson knew more about his and Joey’s past than they had told him.

‘Leave ancient history where it is, Joey. Compared to you, I lived like a monk before I married Sali. And Bella’s still in school. She has college ahead of her. There’ll be time enough for her to meet boys after that.’

‘Plenty of girls her age and younger are working. Some are even married.’ Joey closed his cigarette case after they had all taken one. ‘Besides, Bella may change her mind about going to college when the time comes.’

‘She won’t. She’s been planning a career in teaching since she read her first book.’ Lloyd took his lighter from his pocket.

‘That’s what she says now -’

‘Stop tormenting Lloyd, Joey.’ Victor leaned forward so Lloyd could light his cigarette. ‘Don’t forget you have three girls of your own and they won’t be in primary school for ever. Given your history, I can’t wait to see how you’ll react the first time a boy comes calling on one of them.’

‘I’ll lock the front door, shut all three in the attic and set their brothers to guard them while I watch the windows.’

‘They’ll love you for that, Uncle Joey.’ Guessing that the carriage was well ahead of them by now, Harry drove out of the barn.

‘As if Rhian will let him do anything of the kind.’ Lloyd returned his lighter to his pocket. ‘Do you know that your mother invited Toby to stay with us?’

‘Yes. But Toby is hardly likely to do anything untoward with you and Mam in the house.’

‘If he comes, I’ll warn your mother not to leave him alone with Bella.’

‘Don’t you think you’re over-reacting, Lloyd?’ Victor asked. ‘Bella’s a sensible girl and well able to put any boy in his place, if she’s a mind to.’

‘It’s the “if she’s a mind to” that bothers me. She wouldn’t be the first sensible girl to accept the attentions of a man not worth bothering with,’ Lloyd answered tersely.

‘I know three sensible women in our family who prove that point, Lloyd,’ Joey laughed.

Harry dropped his speed when he saw the carriage on the road ahead of them. ‘None of you have said anything about Granddad.’

‘You see Dad most days, so you know his condition better than us.’ Victor flicked the ash from his cigarette outside the car. ‘Although I’m surprised how much weaker he’s become in seven days.’

‘He wasn’t cut out for an invalid’s life,’ Lloyd said seriously.

‘He’s certainly not making it easy for the nurses to look after him,’ Joey chipped in.

‘Despite the banter, they’re fond of him and they don’t take his grumblings any more seriously than he takes theirs. After I’ve visited him tomorrow, I’ll telephone to let you know how he is.’ Harry parked alongside the carriage in the station yard.

‘Please telephone every day from now on, Harry.’ Joey left the car and held the door open for Victor. They went to the carriage to help their wives but Lloyd stayed behind.

‘You should know that Dad told us he doesn’t expect to see us again. He also repeated what he said he’s already told you.’

‘That he has nothing to say to any of us that he hasn’t already?’ Harry guessed.

‘You took on a man’s load, Harry, and you’ve carried it well. You’ll telephone?’

‘Every day, and the moment I’ve any news, I promise.’

‘It’s going to be odd without him.’ Lloyd ground out his cigarette in the ashtray. ‘He’s been part of mine and your uncles’ lives ever since we can remember. And unlike most men with their fathers, we’ve remained close. I can’t imagine making a decision without discussing it with him first.’

‘Neither can I.’

‘There’s no point in facing tragedy until we have to, or railing against what can’t be changed.’ Lloyd moved the conversation on. ‘When you’re no longer needed here, you’ll go to Paris?’

‘I don’t know.’ Harry took a last puff of his cigarette. ‘I have to do some serious thinking about my future.’

‘I know I’ve been nagging you to work in your businesses, but I took a good long look at that painting you did today. It’s very good, as are your sketches. So, if you’re serious about becoming an artist, perhaps you should follow your dream. And that, by the way, is as close to an apology as you’ll get for all the pep talks I’ve given you over the years.’

Harry thought of the plans he’d made only the night before to marry Mary Ellis. The domestic bliss he’d imagined and the problem of finding the ideal profession for himself. ‘I don’t know what I want to do.’

‘It is time to make a choice, Harry.’ Lloyd didn’t raise his voice but Harry knew he was irritated by his indecisiveness. ‘Like it or not, they are your businesses and hundreds of people depend on them to pay their wages.’

‘The trustees run everything perfectly well.’

‘To the best of their ability – yes, they do. But the people appointed by the bank and the solicitor’s office hardly have a personal interest,’ Lloyd observed. ‘And you can’t expect the board to look after your affairs for ever. In nine years it will be disbanded, and some of the members appointed by your mother’s Great-aunt Edyth may not live that long. Apart from your mother and Joey, most of them are well over seventy. I doubt you’ll find anyone with the same sense of dedication to replace them if you do try to keep the board going.’

‘I wasn’t thinking of doing that.’

‘Nine years can go very quickly,’ Lloyd advised. ‘Especially when you are learning how to manage something you’re not familiar with. I hate to keep lecturing you, but it’s time to face your responsibilities, and as I see it, you can do one of two things. Either call a meeting of the board of trustees, tell them that you aren’t interested in running the companies and ask them to sell them to someone who is.’

‘Sell them?’ It was the first time Lloyd had suggested he sell Gwilym James and the subsidiary companies he owned, and Harry was shocked by the idea.

‘Or you can go into the office and make an effort to get to know the people you employ and learn enough to take control.’

‘I promise you, I will begin to think seriously about my future.’ Harry was still reeling at Lloyd’s proposal that he sell the businesses.

‘Thank you. And I’ll thank you even more if you don’t tell your mother how much I have badgered you and keep on badgering you about this. You know how protective she is of all you children.’

‘Yes.’ Harry smiled. ‘Which I why I appreciate you giving me a kick in the right direction now and again.’

‘No hard feelings?’

‘None,’ Harry said sincerely.

‘I trust you to make the right decision.’

‘Really?’ Harry eyed Lloyd sceptically.

‘Put it this way, I’ll tell you if you don’t.’

‘I’m sure you will.’

‘And if I don’t get a move on, I’ll miss the train.’

They left the car and followed the rest of the family into the station and on to the platform. To Lloyd’s annoyance, Toby was holding Bella’s hand and gazing into her eyes.

‘Let me,’ Harry whispered, ‘Checking the colour of Bella’s eyes, Toby?’ he asked slyly.

‘It’s going to be difficult to capture that exact shade of ripe mulberry,’ Toby replied implausibly.

‘I could mix it for you.’

‘Bella, the train’s coming,’ Lloyd called out, when it rounded the curve in the tracks and steamed into view.

The next few moments passed in a blur of kisses, handshakes and goodbyes. The stationmaster had finished closing all the doors to the carriages and was lifting his whistle to his lips when Lloyd leaned out of the window.

‘Don’t forget to telephone, Harry.’

‘Every day,’ Harry called back.

‘We’ll see you next week.’

If he’s still alive. It remained unspoken but Harry sensed that every one of them was thinking the same thing. He lifted his hat. ‘Give my love to Glyn, the girls and my cousins.’

‘Take care of him, Harry.’ Bella stuck her head out alongside Lloyd’s. ‘Promise me that you will take care of him.’

‘So, my mother invited you to visit us?’ Harry waved to Alf, who had picked up two passengers for the village and was turning his carriage in the yard.

‘Yes,’ Toby confirmed smugly. ‘It was kind of her. She did say “anytime I can make it.” But I told her it wouldn’t be until after I finish all the illustrations. And then I can’t really leave Frank, although if I visit him early in the morning, say eight o’clock, I should be able to catch the nine o’clock train to Swansea. Supposing there’s a train within half an hour or so, what time will I reach Pontypridd?’

‘With luck you’ll be there by half past eleven or twelve.’

‘So maybe I could visit for just a day and a night, and provided I came back early enough the following morning to visit Frank, I wouldn’t miss seeing him.’

‘Did Bella comment on the invitation?’ Harry probed.

‘She said any Wednesday or Thursday would suit her.’

‘Did she?’

‘Why the all-knowing smirk?’ Toby questioned suspiciously.

‘I knew she wouldn’t invite you at the weekend. Saturday night is the night in Pontypridd for concerts, dances and parties. Bella’s been booked months ahead since she turned fifteen. And take a tip: if you ever want to paint her again don’t make it quite so obvious that you’re mooning over her.’

‘It was noticeable?’

‘My father asked if you were always like that. And if so, what I thought he should do about it. Bella is only -’

‘Sixteen,’ Toby chimed in irritably. ‘But hell, a fellow can make friends with a girl, can’t he?’

‘He can, but he can’t blame her family for being wary when he’s already told her brother that he’s in love with her.’ Harry opened the car.

‘All right, I got a bit ahead of myself, but supposing that friendship turns to something more -’

‘I agree with my father. The “something more” can wait five years until Bella is twenty-one.’

‘That’s ridiculous!’ Toby exclaimed.

‘I warned you that my father will never give his consent to Bella marrying anyone until she reaches her majority.’

‘When he gets to know me and discovers what a thoroughly nice and charming chap I am, he’ll change his mind.’

‘Or lock Bella up.’ Tired of the conversation Harry changed it. ‘I’m going up to see the Ellises. Do you want me to drop you back at the inn?’

‘More reading and writing lessons, and on a Saturday night too, when Doctor and Mrs Adams will be in Swansea,’ Toby mocked. ‘I thought you’d be haunting the bar, waiting for a telephone call from the love of your life.’

‘If you’re talking about Diana Adams, she’s going back to London soon and we’ve agreed not to see one another again.’

‘You quarrelled?’

‘On the contrary.’

‘Yet you stayed out all night. And Enfys noticed that your bed hadn’t been slept in and you weren’t at breakfast this morning.’

‘Enfys wouldn’t notice if a crocodile came down for breakfast instead of me.’

‘Perhaps we should go to Bristol Zoo and steal one just to find out. So, tell Uncle Toby all about the problems between you and the Snow Queen.’

‘There are absolutely none,’ Harry replied airily.

‘Then you lied and you will be seeing the gorgeous Diana again.’

‘Tomorrow morning at the sanatorium.’

‘That’s not what I mean, and you know it.’

‘Then what did you mean?’ Harry changed up a gear.

‘I meant privately – the two of you alone, in the romantic sense.’

‘I told you, she’s going back to London.’

‘What about my Guinevere?’ Toby sounded alarmed.

‘You have a few days left to persuade Diana to sit – or stand – for you, depending on how you want to paint her.’

‘You could -’

‘Do absolutely nothing,’ Harry interrupted. ‘You’re the one who wants her to model for you.’

‘I was about to say, if you’d let a fellow get a word in edgewise, that you’re footloose and fancy-free. Why don’t you follow her up to the Smoke? You could see the sights, study at the Slade -’

‘One, I haven’t applied to the Slade. Two, I don’t want to follow Diana Adams anywhere.’

‘Tetchy, aren’t we.’ Realizing that Harry was probably on edge because of the deterioration in his grandfather’s condition, Toby said, ‘All right, you’ve talked me into it. I’ve done enough work for one day to earn a reward and a walk down to my Arthurian lake would probably do me good.’

‘I thought you’d finished both lake paintings.’ Harry turned right and drove up the valley towards the hills. ‘I have, but there’s something about the archway into the farmyard.’

‘I love it,’ Harry enthused. ‘It’s as if it’s part of a time warp. Step through it and you’re back in -’

‘Sixteen twenty-four, when the first David Ellis built it.’

‘I doubt he was the first, given the number of Ellis graves in the churchyard.’

‘I want to take another look at it. I’m not at all sure where it would fit into Camelot, or even if it will, but given time I might think of something or someone relevant that I could put in the foreground.’ Toby took a threepenny bar of chocolate from his pocket. ‘If you are going to give the children lessons, you can reward them with this.’

‘Chocolate from the man who warned me about distributing largesse?’ Harry couldn’t resist sticking a pin.

‘It is only chocolate and a very small bar for five children at that.’

‘I might give them a lesson, but I’m going there because I told Mary that I would call in after I had taken my parents to the station.’

‘First Diana Adams, now Mary Ellis. And you told me you were no good at seducing women.’

‘If I thought it would have the slightest effect, I’d ask you to stop talking about Diana and Mary. Instead, I’ll draw your attention to the afternoon. Glorious, isn’t it?’ Harry gazed at the hill that rose steeply on their right.

‘Yes, it is.’ Toby looked up and fell in with his mood. ‘It really is. Have you ever seen such a pale-washed sky? It could have been painted by a water colourist.’ He slid down in the seat and studied the expanse of blue. ‘What would you call those wisps of water vapour? They’re too thin and gauzelike to be graced by the name of clouds.’

‘I have no idea.’

‘Don’t you just know that it was on an early evening exactly like this that Guinevere first rode into Camelot with Lancelot at her side? You can just see King Arthur standing on the battlements as the first delicate red-gold fingers of the dying sun smudged the western horizon behind them, touching the -’

‘You’ve overdosed on Le Morte d’Arthur.’

‘Philistine!’ Toby bit back before falling serious. ‘Do you think more about your grandfather at this time of day than any other?’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because I tend to picture Frank about this time every day. I think it’s association. Evening of day – evening of life. I imagine him lying out on the balcony of his room, looking at the garden and thinking of all the paintings he will never create.’

‘Why not concentrate on all the paintings he has completed that have given so much pleasure to so many people and will continue to do so for hundreds of years?’

‘You’re right; I should dwell on his achievements, not the might-have-beens. Did you know that your grandfather used to talk to him when he was still strong enough to leave his room?’

‘Yes, he told me.’

‘They – I mean, their situation – makes you think seriously about life, doesn’t it? Frank is only eight years older than me, yet he’s dying. And even seeing him every day hasn’t woken me up to the fact of my own mortality. I carry on as if I am going to live for ever.’

‘According to my grandfather, that’s the only way.’

‘You’re right, I should console myself with the thought that Frank has achieved his ambitions and left a legacy that will last as long as there are people who appreciate art.’

‘As will you,’ Harry said. ‘The illustrations in Le Morte d’Arthur are as much yours as Frank’s.’

‘They are Frank’s swansong, the culmination of years of study that will put him up there with the greatest painters of his generation. I’m dreading the completion of this book because Frank won’t have anything left to live for and I’ll be left to find my own commissions.’ He glanced across at Harry. ‘I’m terrified at the prospect. What if no one gives me any?’

‘Come on, Toby, that’s false modesty. I’ve seen what you can do.’

‘As a draughtsman. The actual painting and execution of an illustration is the easy part, Frank taught me that much. It’s the putting together and the creation of a scene that carries the truth and essence of a book and stays with the reader long after they’ve looked at it that’s the difficult part.’

‘The publishers know how much you’ve put into this project.’

‘The publishers are Frank’s publishers, and I couldn’t bear to think that I only received a commission from them because I’m Frank’s nephew. I need to make it on my own, Harry. I need to know that I am my own person, with my own talent. That I have something to give to life, and – the woman I love.’

‘Please, tell me you’re not thinking of Bella?’

‘I promise I’ll wait until she’s old enough before I tell her how I feel about her.’

‘What do you call old enough?’

‘Younger than twenty-one.’

‘I was afraid you’d say that.’

Toby looked up at the hills and, from the faraway look in his eyes, Harry could see that he was either imagining a painting or picturing his sister.

His thoughts turned to his own future and the embryonic plans he had made and discarded. What did he have to give a woman except his money? Money he hadn’t even earned. And what would he leave behind when he died? Not superb illustrations for classical books, or a legacy of union work like his grandfather who had changed so many colliers’ lives for the better. Billy Evans had won a place in history as a fighter for workers’ rights. Maybe, in the vast scale of the world, it wasn’t as big a place as he deserved but he would be remembered fondly by hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the Rhondda and Wales. He wondered if he would even be remembered by anyone when he died, and if so, what for.

Toby’s voice broke in on his thoughts. ‘There’s a lot of activity around the farmhouse.’

Harry looked ahead. ‘I’ve never seen so many vehicles parked on this road.’

‘Perhaps the Ellises are having a party,’ Toby suggested flippantly.

Harry made out a police car, half-a-dozen farm and livestock carts, a closed, high-sided black van with ‘Brecon Workhouse’ on the side painted in large white letters – and a trap. Although he couldn’t be absolutely certain it was the one he’d seen in the archway in the early hours of the morning, it looked suspiciously like it.

‘What’s the matter, Harry? You’ve gone the exact shade of white I painted my ghost lady.’

Harry didn’t answer. He stopped the car behind the trap, pulled on the handbrake, switched off the ignition, jumped out and started running.