‘We can really get married in six weeks?’ Katie took John’s arm as they walked slowly along the beach.
‘We have a lot of plans to make.’
‘And people to tell,’ she said thoughtfully, thinking of Jack and Helen and Joe.
He stopped and looked at her. ‘You’re absolutely sure?’
‘Positive.’
‘I don’t even mind you working in Lewis Lewis as long as I can come home to you every night,’ he joked.
‘I could come back to the warehouse.’
‘We have more important decisions to make, like where you want to go on honeymoon and where we’re going to live …’
‘You love the house in Carlton Terrace.’
‘I loved the house in Carlton Terrace,’ he said seriously. ‘I was happy there with my grandparents and miserable with Esme. Perhaps it’s time for a new start.’
‘Where?’
‘Anywhere you want provided it’s in easy travelling distance of Swansea. We could go further down the Gower or to Mumbles …’
‘I’d be happy to live in a shack as long as it’s with you.’
‘I believe you would.’ He stopped at the foot of the cliff path. ‘We could go on a luxury cruise for our honeymoon, to America or the Mediterranean.’
‘Is that what you want?’
‘I want whatever will make you happy.’
‘I don’t want to go anywhere where there’ll be other people.’
‘You want to be alone?’
‘With you,’ she qualified. ‘We could rent a cottage. Oh John.’ Her eyes gleamed in the darkness. ‘We could go to Cornwall. My mother went there once when she was a girl. She said it was beautiful. I know it’s a long way but …’
‘You’d prefer to go to Cornwall rather than America or the Mediterranean?’ He laughed.
‘Yes please.’ She hesitated, ‘But only if you want to.’
‘We’ll go to Cornwall, my love.’ He scarcely dared to believe that someone so beautiful and unspoilt was going to be his wife. He offered her his hand as they began to walk up the path. ‘There’s so much we don’t know about one another. I don’t even know how you feel about children.’
‘You want them?’
‘If you do.’
‘But you have Joe and Helen.’
‘And if I had my way I would have had a lot more. But we have all the time in the world to think about it.’
‘I don’t have to. I’d love to have your children. They’ll be wonderful, just like you.’
‘Hopefully with their mother’s looks.’ Taking her into his arms, he gazed at her. ‘I’m going to find it very difficult to believe that someone as young, beautiful and adorable as you can love a man like me, Katie Clay.’
‘Then I’ll have to spend the rest of my life convincing you.’ Closing her eyes, she kissed him.
‘So that’s why Katie wouldn’t come to the Pier with us.’ Helen stared into the darkness as she, Lily and Judy opened her garden gate and walked up the path to her house. Katie’s silhouette, outlined in the light that spilled out of the hall through the open front door was unmistakable, but the man she was kissing had his back towards them. As they broke free, he turned.
‘You …’ Lost for words, Helen glared contemptuously at her father before storming into the kitchen. Lily followed her and closed the door. ‘Did you see that?’ Helen demanded. ‘My father and Katie …’
‘Keep your voice down, Helen,’ Lily pleaded. ‘Can’t you see that they love one another?’
Helen whirled round. ‘You knew about this?’
‘Only since Katie took the job in Lewis Lewis.’
‘I’m his daughter and you didn’t think to say a word!’
‘Katie asked me not to.’
‘I bet she did,’ Helen retorted viciously. ‘Pretending to be my friend so she can move in on my father … no wonder she threw over Adam Jordan. He hasn’t anything like the money …’
‘It’s not like that between them, Helen,’ Lily interposed swiftly. ‘She told me she fell in love with your father and he with her, just after she started working for him and that’s why she left the warehouse. Your father felt that because he was still married to your mother he couldn’t offer her anything and she couldn’t bear to see him every day …’
‘How many other people know about this?’ Helen asked coldly. ‘My brother, Martin …’
‘Martin knows.’
‘You told him.’
‘No, and he doesn’t know Katie’s confided in me. Katie mentioned that your father told Martin some time ago, but he wasn’t happy about it.’
‘I bet he isn’t. It’s disgusting. He’s nothing but a dirty old man and she’s looking no further than what she can get …’
‘I’m sorry you feel that way, Helen.’ John pushed open the door and walked in, holding hands with Katie.
‘How do you expect me to feel!’ Helen shouted. ‘You divorce my mother so you can go off with my friend …’
‘Your mother and me divorcing had nothing to do with Katie.’
‘So that came later, when Katie realised you’d be free and she could move in and be set up for life.’
‘Remember telling us that you knew Jack was the right one for you and that it was your time?’ Katie’s calm, clear voice silenced Helen where John and Lily had failed. ‘Well, it was like that for me with John. He’s the kindest, gentlest, most generous man I know and I don’t mean about money. I would love him if he had nothing. In fact I’d prefer it because then no one could accuse me of wanting anything from him except his love. And he does love me, Helen, yet he was prepared to give me up because he was afraid of what the gossip would do to you and your brother.’
‘You disgust me. Both of you. Get out of my house …’
‘My divorce will be finalised in six weeks. The day after I intend to marry Katie,’ John said quietly. ‘I’m sorry you feel the way you do about us. If you change your mind, you’ll be welcome at our wedding. And no matter what, I want you to know that I’ll always be there if ever you need me.’
‘I never want to see or speak to either of you again.’
‘If putting my own happiness first has caused you pain, Helen, I apologise.’ He turned to Katie. ‘Are you coming?’
‘To where?’ Helen snapped.
‘Does it matter, Helen?’ he asked. ‘You’ve made it impossible for her to stay here.’
‘Is he …’ Trembling and more sober than anyone had a right to be after what he’d drunk, Robin turned a terrified face to his father.
‘Hardly a scratch on him.’
‘Honestly?’ Angela broke in fearfully, too afraid to look at Joe who was stretched out on the pavement behind them. ‘You’re not just saying that, Pops?’
‘No.’ Dr Watkin Morgan looked sternly at his children. ‘But he deliberately walked in front of that bus. It was pure luck he went down between the wheels. There’s no doubt that he tried to kill himself.’
‘That’s ridiculous. I saw him fall.’ Hilary Llewellyn who’d been kneeling beside Joe rose to her feet and walked towards them. ‘It was an accident.’
‘It didn’t look like it from where I was sitting,’ the driver contradicted, as he huddled under a blanket in the gutter, sipping the hot sweet tea someone had given him for shock.
‘He’d just taken part in a stupid drinking competition.’ Hilary turned to the doctor as an ambulance arrived. ‘Surely he doesn’t need to go to hospital if, as you just said, there’s hardly a scratch on him.’
‘He needs psychiatric evaluation. I’ve arranged admittance to Cefn Coed.’
‘Joe needs to sober up at home, not in a psychiatric hospital.’ Hilary returned to Joe as the ambulance driver leaped from his cab.
Dr Watkin Morgan confronted her. ‘I won’t take responsibility.’
‘Then I will. My car’s parked round the corner. I’ll take him home.’
‘You know where he lives?’
‘Yes.’ She turned to the ambulance driver and his mate. ‘Will you give me a hand to get him into my car, please.’
Angela and Robin stood back and watched while Hilary took charge and loaded Joe into her car.
As she drove away, their father drew them aside. ‘Hilary Llewellyn is a capable woman but I suspect that this time she has bitten off a great deal more than she can chew.’
‘Pops, you don’t really think Joe tried to top himself,’ Robin muttered nervously.
Dr Watkin Morgan looked over to where the bus driver was still arguing with the police. ‘Until this thing is settled one way or another, I strongly advise – no, insist, absolutely insist – that you both stay away from Joseph Griffiths.’
‘But he’s tipped for a First. He has a brilliant future …’
‘Perhaps not any more,’ the doctor broke in harshly. ‘How did he behave before he went outside?’
‘No different from any of the rest of us, we were having a good time.’ Robin was having difficulty in blocking the image of Joe, bent double, a red blanket draped over his shoulders, being helped into the back of Hilary’s car, from his mind.
‘And that is exactly what you’ll tell the police if they question you. I suppose he was sitting at your table.’
‘He was escorting me.’
‘That’s something you need to play down; better still, don’t mention it, Angela. From now on Joseph Griffiths was never more than a boy on the edge of your crowd. You really didn’t know him that well at all. Understand?’
Robin was the first to recover. ‘Yes, Pops.’
‘Now go back in there and carry on as if nothing’s happened.’
Setting her face into the wide-mouthed smile she had practised so often in front of the mirror, Angela followed her brother inside.
‘Jack and Adam are lucky.’ Roy sat beside Martin and Sam in the waiting room. ‘The manager of the Pier is content with a warning and a ban, which will affect Adam more than Jack, seeing as how Jack will be away for the next couple of years. The sergeant won’t give the go-ahead for a prosecution as the manager is content to let all charges drop in the hope of avoiding adverse publicity, and as Adam isn’t seriously hurt, I’ve succeeded in talking him out of pressing charges against Jack.’
‘He tried?’ Martin questioned indignantly.
‘He did, but I pointed out that there is such a thing as provocation,’ Roy said grimly.
‘What happens now?’ Martin rose to his feet.
‘Both of them are free to go. The only question is which one do we release first.’ Roy looked from Sam to Martin.
‘Might be as well to let Jack go first,’ Sam suggested. ‘After the way Adam behaved, and the things he said about Helen, Martin and I might be tempted to pick up where Jack left off.’
‘I swear to you, Jack, nothing has happened between Helen and Adam …’
‘And you’ve been with her every minute of every day since I left.’ A leaner, fitter Jack, with extremely short hair that gave him the appearance of a hard man, crossed his arms over his chest, propped himself against the dresser in the basement kitchen and glared at Martin.
‘Of course I haven’t, but I spend as much time as I can with Lily and Helen hardly ever leaves her house.’
‘Adam says he’s been up there. He even knew the colour of the bedroom curtains and bedspreads …’
‘He would, seeing as how he helped us to move the girls in there,’ Sam interrupted, attempting to support Martin.
‘And he’s been sunbathing there alone with Helen.’
Wishing the police had kept Jack and Adam apart, Martin continued, ‘Lily and I walked in on them. Helen hadn’t even allowed him in the house because she was afraid there might be gossip.’
‘She was dancing with him, she kissed him …’
‘Not because she wanted to. He forced himself on her.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because I know Helen and she said so,’ Martin snapped, coming the closest he ever had to losing his temper with his brother.
‘I don’t believe her.’
‘Look, you’re home …’
‘For a week.’
‘You have your orders.’ Sam set the kettle on to boil. The last thing he wanted was tea, but he had do something.
‘For Cyprus, minimum eighteen-month term.’
‘I’m sorry, Jack, but as I was saying, you’re home, you’re sober, here’s the keys to the garage and your bike, and by the way, thank you for lending it to me. You’ve been to Helen’s house?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then you know where it is. Ride out there, talk to her. If you only have a week …’
Jack glanced at the clock as he hung the keys back on to the board. ‘Anyone want a game of cards?’
‘Jack …’
‘I don’t want to talk about Helen, Martin. I’ve a bottle of rum in my pack; you, Sam and I can either sit down and have a boys’ night in, or I can leave right now.’
‘To go where?’ Martin asked in exasperation.
‘Back to camp.’
‘You have leave.’
‘So do all the boys but not all of them had somewhere to go, so I’ll have plenty of company.’
‘You stubborn …’
‘No matter what, I am leaving on the first train out of here in the morning.’ Jack picked up his pack. ‘Do we have this last night together or not?’
Martin looked at Sam; he knew what he was thinking. If they went along with Jack’s night in, there was a chance that they might talk him into staying and possibly even seeing Helen. What Sam didn’t know was that once Jack made up his mind to do something he did it, no matter what it cost him, because he was afraid of being considered weak if he didn’t.
‘I promised Lily I’d tell her if they let you go tonight,’ Martin demurred.
‘Have they a telephone in the house?’
‘No.’
‘Then it will have to wait until morning, won’t it?’ Jack pulled the bottle of rum from his pack and took three glasses from the cupboard. ‘You can go to Limeslade after you’ve seen me off.’
Hilary put a cup of strong black coffee in front of Joe as he sat slumped over the kitchen table in John’s house. ‘Want to talk about it?’
Joe shook his head.
‘I lied for you tonight, Joe. You do realise that if I hadn’t, you’d be in a psychiatric ward right now.’
‘Yes,’ he whispered hoarsely.
‘Suicides don’t have brilliant futures,’ she said callously.
‘I know,’ he mumbled, ‘and I’m grateful …’
‘Keep your gratitude. I don’t want it and I warn you now, I’ve no intention of letting you get off lightly.’ She lit two cigarettes as she sat opposite him and passed him one. ‘Is it money, or a girl?’
He lifted his head and looked at her. ‘No girl and too much money.’
‘I’m listening.’
Somehow it all came out, his love for Lily, her betrayal, his bastard status, his mother’s marriage to John Griffiths, Richard Thomas, his disgust at Robin’s and Angie’s morals … and all the while he spoke she listened quietly, only leaving the table to make more coffee or empty the ashtray that stood between them.
When he finally finished she sat back and studied him as she handed him yet another cigarette.
‘You think I’m pathetic, don’t you.’ He braced himself for her condemnation.
‘I think you’ve behaved like an immature idiot, but you’re hardly pathetic. Have you thought what you’re going to do with yourself now?’
‘Not walk under any more buses,’ he replied flippantly.
‘You’ve a whole summer ahead of you. You could put it to some use.’
‘And do what?’
She looked him in the eye. ‘I may have just the job for you.’
‘Job?’
‘Don’t look so horrified at the prospect of doing some real work, Joe. You never know, it might prove the making of you.’
‘Joy, I’m sorry for waking you …’
Joy rubbed the sleep from her eyes and turned on the hall light. ‘Have you any idea of the time, John?’
‘Yes, and I wouldn’t have disturbed you unless I had to. I’ve Katie in the car.’
‘The girls, Judy …’ She began anxiously.
‘They’re fine.’
‘Then why is Katie here?’
‘Because I’ve had an argument with Helen. I was hoping you could put her up.’
‘An argument …’
‘I want to marry Katie, Joy. And I won’t be able to until my divorce is final in six weeks. Tonight I told Helen about us, and she – let’s just say she wasn’t sympathetic. In the meantime Katie has to stay somewhere and I was hoping …’
Joy looked past him to his car. Katie was sitting in the front seat, staring down at her hands. ‘Bring her in.’
‘You’ll take her …’
‘For tonight. Now is not the time for a deep discussion. We’ll talk again in the morning.’
‘Miss Llewellyn.’ John barely recognised Joe’s tutor in her evening dress as he opened his front door and walked into his house. ‘Is Joe all right?’
‘He’s just gone up to bed. I’m glad I caught you. I’d like to have a chat.’
‘Please go in.’ He opened the door to his living room. ‘Can I get you a drink?’
‘After the example your son has just set, I shouldn’t, but I’ll have a small brandy if you have it.’
‘Joe was drunk?’ He poured her a drink and handed it to her.
‘Very. He … fell under a bus.’ She repeated the version of events she had given Dr Watkin Morgan. ‘But don’t worry, he was extremely lucky. Apart from a couple of scratches he’s fine.’
‘Really?’ John looked keenly at her.
‘You don’t believe me.’
‘I’ve been worried about him for some time,’ John acknowledged, as he poured himself a drink and sat opposite her.
‘He’s been working hard for his degree. Young people today see pressure everywhere, even where there isn’t any. But none of it is your fault; you’ve done a superb job of bringing him up, Mr Griffiths. And Joe admires and respects you. In fact, he told me a lot about you tonight.’
‘He did?’ John murmured warily.
‘We had a long talk. I thought, and Joe agrees with me, that it might be an idea for him to get away this summer. I’m driving down to France tomorrow. I run a summer school there for children who’ve lost one or both parents in the war. I can always do with an extra pair of hands. Joe’s the right age to get on with most of the children. He’s agreed to go with me.’
‘It’s good of you …’
‘Not at all. I’ll be here about ten o’clock to pick him up.’
‘Thank you.’ John offered her his hand as he walked her to the front door.
‘Don’t worry, Mr Griffiths,’ she said, as he helped her on with her stole. ‘I’ll look after him.’
Unable to bear the silence that had fallen between her, Lily and Judy since her father and Katie had left the house, Helen left her chair and paced restlessly to the window. Pulling back the curtains she stared at the empty road.
‘This is all my fault,’ Judy murmured wretchedly.
Helen turned round. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped tensely.
‘I knew something about Adam, I should have said and I didn’t …’
‘Should have said what?’ Helen demanded.
‘Adam’s still angry about that trick the boys played on him on Jack’s stag night. He wanted to get his own back on them – on all of us. He succeeded with me and Brian, and now he’s succeeded with you and Jack. I should have said something and I didn’t …’
‘Slow down, Judy, you’re not making much sense,’ Lily warned.
Judy sat forward on the edge of her chair and stared down at her hands. ‘Remember the night Adam asked me to go to the dinner dance with him?’
‘Yes.’ Lily nodded, conscious of Helen listening intently behind her.
Slowly, hesitantly, Judy began to tell them what had happened between her and Adam. How she’d almost passed out halfway through the evening, how he’d offered her coffee and she’d gone with him into his home expecting to find his parents there, how she fell asleep and woke believing Adam was Brian. How cheap, dirty and degraded she felt when she found herself lying almost naked on his sofa.
‘Adam must have got you drunk,’ Lily declared flatly. ‘The boys said he put vodka in Jack’s beer on his stag night; it sounds to me as if he put it in your Babycham the night of the dinner dance.’
‘I’ve never felt so awful,’ Judy concurred.
‘Everyone gets drunk at least once in their life,’ Helen said, in an attempt to make Judy feel better.
‘Not everyone wakes up practically naked next to a man who isn’t even her boyfriend.’
‘Had he …’ Helen looked intently at Judy.
‘Yes.’
‘You’re sure?’ Helen pressed.
‘Yes,’ Judy whispered miserably, ‘Do you want me to go into the sordid details?’
‘Don’t!’ Helen felt sick at the thought.
‘Are you pregnant?’ Lily asked.
Judy shook her head. ‘I was worried for a couple of weeks, but I couldn’t tell anyone, not you, not Katie, not my mother. I was so ashamed I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone else knowing what I’d done. But if I had said something, you wouldn’t have danced with Adam tonight, Helen, and Jack …’
‘You do realise Adam raped you,’ Lily interrupted, seeing the incident as she knew her Uncle Roy would.
‘I tried telling him afterwards that I was a virgin, that I hadn’t wanted to sleep with him and I hadn’t known what I was doing, but he said I hadn’t given him that impression. He pointed out that he hadn’t had to force me, or even undress me because I’d done that myself. And it’s true, I did help him to undress me because I thought he was Brian and you can imagine how that would look if I told the police.’
‘Lily’s right, that’s still rape,’ Helen said forcefully. ‘You have to go to the police right away, tell them …’
‘Don’t you understand, Helen, it would be my word against Adam’s and he said everyone at the dance saw him trying to peel me off him after I’d had a few drinks. Besides, even if I did go to the police and they believed me, not Adam, everyone would know about it. I’d be pointed out as the girl who was raped …’
‘Oh, Judy.’ Lily hugged her.
‘My life is ruined. No boy will ever look at me again once they know about this.’
Helen tried desperately to think of something she could say that would help Judy.
‘It could have happened to any girl, anyone of us …’
‘Neither of you would have gone to the dinner dance with Adam, let alone allowed him to get you drunk,’ Judy contradicted.
‘I might not have got drunk with Adam but I did once with Jack,’ Helen revealed.
‘With Jack, when you were alone with him?’ Judy asked.
‘Yes.’
‘That’s the difference, you love Jack, he loves you and you trust one another. He would never have taken advantage of you the way Adam did me.’
‘If you won’t go to the police, then you have to forget it ever happened,’ Helen advised.
‘How can I?’ Judy’s eyes were dry but anguished as if her pain went too deep even for tears. ‘I thought – hoped – that Brian and I would get married some day. And now I feel like one of those women who go to bed with men for money. I loved Brian, he’s left me and no one is going to want me ever again …’
‘You’ve done nothing,’ Lily insisted adamantly.
‘No man wants a girl who’s slept with someone else. I’m dirty … damaged …’
‘You can’t believe that about yourself,’ Lily persisted.
‘You’re the same person you always were.’ Helen reached for her hand.
‘No, I’m not. Adam made me feel like a slut. As if I make a habit of getting drunk and going to bed with men I hardly know. I wanted my first time to be with Brian, to be special. Something we’d both remember.’
Helen recalled her first time with Jack, how much it had meant to both of them and she burned with anger when she thought of how Judy had been robbed of that by a man who had used and abused her.
But far worse was the thought that Judy really believed that there was no one else in the world for her except Brian, and how she’d probably never see him again. She knew just how Judy felt. It had been that way between her and Jack – and Jack had seen her kissing Adam but, unlike Brian, he would come back to her. She just had to believe it.
They all started at a knock on the door. The letter box opened. ‘It’s Roy Williams. One of the patrols said they saw a light on here. Are you girls all right?’
Lily pulled back the bolts, opened the door and gave him a hug.
He walked into the living room. ‘It’s after one. Why aren’t you in bed?’
‘We’re worried about Jack.’
‘Jack and Adam were both released without charges hours ago.’ He saw the forlorn expression on Helen’s face and added, ‘Jack was so exhausted from travelling down here he almost fell asleep at the station. Martin and Sam took him home. I’ve no doubt he’s sleeping now and will be out to see you first thing in the morning, Helen. Not that he’ll find a bright and sparkling wife as she’s still up at this time of night.’ Seeing the girls were exhausted, he stepped back into the hall. ‘As I’m on duty I’d better be off.’
‘Thanks for stopping by and telling us, Uncle Roy.’ Lily followed him to the door.
‘Pull the bolts behind me, love.’ As he opened the door he said, ‘I’m on mornings on Monday. Do you fancy calling in after work?’
‘I’ll make you tea.’
‘Good, I miss your cooking. Helen looks upset.’
‘We’ll look after her.’
‘Look after yourself, love. You should have been in bed hours ago.’
‘Katie …’ She fell silent as she tried to think how to tell him about Katie and John Griffiths.
‘Yes,’ Roy prompted.
‘She had an argument with Helen. She left with Mr Griffiths earlier tonight.’ One look at his face told her he already knew about Katie and John Griffiths.
‘You don’t have to worry about Katie, love. John will see she’s all right. In fact, knowing John she’s probably asleep at Joy’s right now. You won’t forget to bolt the door behind me.’