New Year, 1950, was a time of celebration. It was the beginning of a new decade and everyone seemed thankful to leave behind the forties, and the long shadows of war, and were looking forward to better times. As New Year was a Sunday, the whole weekend and the days that followed were an excuse for many parties. It was a time to reassure everyone that good times were coming and the painful memories of the many tragedies so many families had suffered were beginning to fade.
The tenants of Badgers Brook were one of the last to invite friends round and call it a New Year party, even though it was a week after the start of the New Year. True to tradition, a few were invited and many turned up. As it was Sunday, even Betty Connors from the Ship and Compass came and she brought her brother, Ed, and his wife, Elsie, who ran the local bed and breakfast establishment. Leo brought his mother and although the intention was to drive home later, they didn’t need much persuasion to stay.
It was after two a.m. before the party ended. Walter and Lynne slept in the spare room while Leo and his mother settled into Meriel’s and Lucy’s rooms, leaving them to sleep downstairs.
Nothing was said about Meriel losing her job and she was thankful that, in the lively crowd, she could avoid conversation easily. She would find a job first, then tell them. She knew that, being so badly hurt by her treatment, she’d have found it difficult to resist their pleading for her to return home.
It was Leo who helped serve breakfast, a sorry meal of stale bread – toasted and spread with a mixture of margarine mixed with the top of the milk, whisked to make an imitation butter. It was helped down with some home-made plum jam brought by Stella, from the post office.
Lucy met a few of Meriel’s friends and the time went very fast. After another huge meal, and having been given packets of food to take with them, they left. Walter and Lynne kissed them both on the cheek, and wished them a ‘Happy New Year’ as they departed.
‘I just know the fifties are going to be great,’ Meriel said.
Lucy enthusiastically agreed. ‘This weekend is the start and it will get better and better, I just know it.’
‘I hate lying to Mam and Dadda,’ Meriel admitted as they drove back to Cwm Derw. ‘But if I tell them I don’t have a job, my not wanting to go back home would be impossible for them to understand. They’d be hurt, wouldn’t they?’
‘I wish I’d made the break during the war. It was easier to explain about leaving home then. I had my chance and I didn’t take it. Most of my friends escaped by joining the forces or the Land Army or the NAAFI. I was too nervous. Then taking the flat with Jennie didn’t work out, and now I feel I’m stuck at home for the rest of my life.’
‘Won’t you marry?’
‘I’m twenty-nine years old, that’s something else I've left a bit late. Jennie and I were having such fun you see. When life is good you don’t look ahead and think of it ending.’
‘As an experienced hair stylist you could move away, get a job somewhere else.’
‘My wages aren’t enough to buy independence.‘
‘Mine would be – if I could find a job! But my experience is not something many people want. I’m a woman doing a man’s job – which makes me unacceptable. Crazy, but there it is. So although I’ve more to offer than many of the men in similar jobs, my knowledge of the work is useless, unless I go back to my father’s business – which incidentally will be mine one day.’
‘Isn’t it a pity we can’t be our own boss,’ Lucy said.
‘It sounds silly, but besides wanting to break away from the security of home, I’d find it hard now to leave Badgers Brook.’
‘There is something special about the place.’
‘It’s soothing and friendly. It’s the strangest thing, it’s the coldest month of the year yet there’s always a welcoming warmth when I walk in. Even though there hasn’t been a fire lit for three days it won’t be cold. Come back and we’ll find something for supper. You’ll see what I mean.’
While Lucy prepared a meal from the package of food Meriel’s mother had given them, Meriel dealt with the fire. It had been laid ready and the first match soon had it roaring up the chimney. They sat and ate cold, roast goose with mashed potatoes and a few leeks and tinned carrots from trays on their laps, the warmth making them sleepy.
‘It’s so good to be home.’ Meriel sighed. ‘I wish Leo were nearer though. He’s so easy to talk to and he always manages to get to the nub of a problem and say all the right things. It helps me to see things more clearly.’
‘I sometimes wish I could see Gerald, although too much time has passed for us to get back together. If we met again I might not feel the same as I once did anyway.’
‘There’s nothing like that about Leo. He’s my father’s friend, and my friend, not a love interest,’ Meriel protested sleepily.
Lucy returned to the hairdresser’s shop on Tuesday morning and Meriel went job hunting with a determination to accept anything that would help pay the rent. She began by considering her options which included using the car. Deliveries were something she might try, but where to start? She parked outside the post office and began calling on shops and businesses. By offering her services to several shops she found sufficient to at least pay the rent and feed herself and her continuing stream of visitors.
Over the next couple of weeks, she delivered groceries, office supplies, the occasional bouquet, even bread when the baker’s boy fell ill. The money slowly filled her purse but she was frustrated at the way her plans had fallen apart. ‘They didn’t fall apart, they were pushed, by stupid Frieda Dexter,’ she grumbled to Lucy one day when they were on their way to the pictures.
‘Talk of the devil,’ Lucy whispered, gesturing to the people ahead of them in the queue. ‘Or his son!’ she added with a giggle. Teifion Dexter was on his own a few yards ahead of them, moving slowly as the patient queue of people shuffled towards the ticket desk. He saw them and managed to sit next to Meriel.
She leaned firmly away from him toward Lucy but he said, ‘Don’t be angry with me, I didn’t want you to leave and I don’t think Dad did either. It was Frieda. She has sudden likes and dislikes and there’s no arguing with her.’
‘It was most unfair and you know it. A few enquiries would I have proved her wrong. My reputation is excellent.’
‘I know.’
‘I didn’t see you supporting me at the time!’
‘Sorry, but it was difficult.’ he said. ‘I couldn’t disagree with my father and my stepmother. Loyalty isn’t compatible with honesty, is it?’ he added sadly.
‘That’s very perspicacious of you,’ she replied.
‘Er, is it?’ he asked, pretending not to understand.
‘He’s such a bore,’ Meriel said as they drove back home. ‘I think he’s been belittled all his life by his father and hasn’t the sense to get away. He still tries desperately to please him. I think he wants a kick up the you-know-what!’
‘Why did you really leave Dexter’s?’ Lucy asked. ‘No one believes the story about you stealing.’ After a brief hesitation, Meriel told her about meeting Mrs Dexter, dressed like a tart, and with a man, outside a seedy hotel when she was supposed to be with her sister in Brighton.
‘But she took such a chance telling you to go. How did she know you wouldn’t tell Mr Dexter the truth?‘
‘She was confident she would be believed. D’you know, Lucy, that woman is two different people: the brazen, tarty creature I first met, and the demure, butter-wouldn’t-melt Mrs George Dexter. If you had seen the way she was dressed when I first saw her, red lipstick and heavy eye make-up, wild hair and awful clothes including a startlingly short skirt and high-heeled red shoes, and then compare that with the vision of shy, simpering loveliness she displays for her husband, well, you wouldn’t believe it and neither would he. How could he look at her and not laugh at what I told him? He’s daft on her. She knew she was safe. But whatever she does, she isn’t going to drive me away from Cwm Derw.’
Walter Evans knew something was wrong and over the past weekend, as they had sat together, shared anecdotes and laughed at each other’s experiences, he had waited patiently for Meriel to tell him. News always got around, through the various firms in the same line of business as himself, and he knew Meriel had been asked to leave. There was much speculation about her sudden dismissal. What he had heard he had ignored or had flared in her defence. He knew how easily supposition became rumour, and how quickly rumour became accepted as the truth. No, he wanted to be told by Meriel before he believed any of the stories he’d heard. Whatever he was told he knew that George Dexter’s long-standing dislike of him was the real reason for his adored daughter being hounded and disgraced. But he could do nothing until Meriel told him exactly what had happened.
Leo Hopkins was late one morning and explained that his mother had been unwell during the night. Later, Walter called him into his office and asked him to make an excuse to call on Meriel. ‘Will you go there, see what you can find out? I don’t want her to know, so can you just be in the area on business and look her up?’
It was arranged that Leo would call at Badgers Brook on the pretence of visiting a distant cousin living a few miles further west. But his mother’s illness and extra work delayed him and several days passed before the opportunity arose. They were days in which Walter continued to worry and to wonder why his daughter, with whom he had always shared complete honesty, wouldn’t tell him the truth.
Leo eventually walked into Badgers Brook as Meriel was returning home at six o’clock. Lucy was already there, having planned an evening listening to music played on a gramophone given to Meriel by Betty Connors. The music met him at the door, ‘Tico Tico’, played by Ethel Smith on her electric organ, and he laughed as Lucy opened the door swinging to the lively beat.
He was invited to stay for a meal and although he tried to persuade them to talk they were as tight-mouthed as the proverbial clam. He left about eight o’clock and instead of driving back to Barry he called into the Ship and Compass. A young man was drinking alone, whom he heard being called by name when ordering a drink. George Dexter’s son, he thought.
‘Teifion? Can I join you?’ he asked.
It was soon apparent that Teifion had been drinking for a while. He was maudlin and his voice was slurring over some words. Leo encouraged him to talk, playing the role of sympathetic listener.
‘My father has never understood me,’ Teifion said. ‘All my life I’ve tried to please him but I’ve let him down.’
‘He expects too much of you,’ Leo said soothingly. ‘Too much of everybody, not just you.’ He listened some more and when he thought the moment was right he said, ‘Telling Meriel to go must have been hard for you too. I bet you couldn’t understand what she’d done wrong.’
‘She didn’t do anything wrong,’ Teifion said, struggling with the words. ‘She shouldn’t have been sacked. She didn’t do anything bad. She’s a lovely, lovely woman. Truth is, the real villain is—’
‘Teifion!’ George came into the bar and called to his son before marching across pulling him out of his seat.
As he was led out, Teifion called back. ‘See? I’m always letting him down. I’m useless, aren’t I, Dad?’
Leo smiled, he already knew the name Teifion had been about to utter. He went back to Walter and told him the truth – albeit distorted – that Teifion had almost blurted out what had happened, but not quite.
On three separate occasions Meriel was asked to advise on buying a house. Geoff’s niece, Joyce, was getting married and, while they intended to rent two rooms to start, Joyce had discussed the possibility of buying a place of their own with Geoff and Connie. They sent her to Badgers Brook to talk to Meriel. Kitty and Bob also sent someone to her for guidance before going to Dexter’s to see what houses were available to rent or buy. Meriel was able to show them their various choices, work out general costs and promised further help if they needed it. She also valued the properties they had seen and recommended a price on which to begin their negotiations. A third person called to explain that he wanted to sell his mother’s house and buy something larger. Business seemed to be coming to her and she wondered idly how she could benefit.
There were few evenings when there were no knocks on the door; people continued to call for the most feeble excuses and stay for a while. A stranger called one day, having heard of her reputation, and said they wanted to sell their house as they were moving to London. Meriel loved the business of property deals and she offered to help but couldn’t bring herself to suggest they went to George Dexter. ‘Come back tomorrow and I’ll see what I can arrange,’ she said, without an idea of what she was going to do.
She was still making notes on all property for sale or to rent in the area, mainly out of habit, and the following morning she was surprised to notice a house with a shop front that she hadn’t seen before. It was sadly neglected and had obviously been empty for some time. She went to the butcher next door to ask who owned it and walked around the outside. There was a small front garden, and its overgrown privet – once a neat edge to the property – had recently been cut back to reveal the property of which she had not previously been aware.
A feeling of excitement filled her as she began to see possibilities. Lucy’s words, about it being a pity they couldn’t be their own boss, burst out from the back of her mind. She discovered the name of the owner and went at once to see him. That evening she and Lucy went to have a look.
The dampness hit them like a blow as they opened the door and stepped inside. Oddments of linoleum covered the wooden floor and wallpaper was slowly leaving the walls. The woodwork was all dark brown and the windows were streaked with dirt, reducing the light to an eerie gloom.
An examination of the floor suggested that once the floor covers had been discarded the place might dry out satisfactorily. She thought the place suffered mainly from the lack of fresh air blowing through. It had probably been closed up for years. She climbed into the loft and examined the beams and slates with a torch she had brought. It all appeared to be remarkably sound. They struggled to look outside where the garden was seriously overgrown.
‘What d’you think, Lucy?’ she asked, her blue eyes glowing with excitement in her dirt-smudged face.
‘You mean take it? Live here?’
‘No, I mean you and I could open our own business here, be our own boss. What d’you think?’
Lucy laughed, convinced her friend was joking.
‘I’m serious, Lucy. I think we could make a success of it, and it’s very cheap because it’s been empty for so long.’
‘But I don’t know anything about business, I’ve done nothing except work in the hairdresser’s shop. And Jennie doesn’t even let me deal with the books. How can you even consider me as your partner?’
‘We get on well together and you’re very bright, quick to understand, interested in anything I say. Most importantly you’re very good with people. I know we can make a success of things.’
‘What would I do?’
‘Everything I do. We’ll deal with clients, value property, plan advertising, do everything together. I don’t just want you as a drudge to do the boring bits. I know we’d make a good team. Come on, what do you say?’
‘It’s very exciting. But I’d be afraid of letting you down.’
‘Impossible.’
They discussed the idea for a while and Lucy became more and more excited. ‘Something is telling me this is right for us,’ she said. ‘The shop appearing when we need it, the people coming to you for advice, my restlessness—’
‘That’s how I feel, that this was meant for us.’
‘I was saving up for when Gerald and I were married, I’ll willingly offer all I have.’ They discussed finances for a while, each honest in their commitment. ‘But isn’t there a lot of work to do before we can make plans?’ Lucy asked. ‘We don’t just open the shop and sit there smiling, hoping someone will come in.’
‘In the last half an hour my plans have been made! In fact I can find us several clients straight away. It’s up to you whether you want to take a chance on me.’
‘The mess? The damp? The forest that was once a garden?’
‘It looks awful but the work is superficial. A builder and a decorator could make it liveable in a few weeks. Lighting fires will help dry it out. All it needs is a bit of love. We could lease the rest of the house eventually, that will provide a small income to help us while we get established.’
Lucy hugged her, aware that the moment was an important one.
‘Well?’ Meriel urged.
‘Well, a week’s notice should suffice, so I’ll say nothing until it’s ours! Oh Meriel, it sounds wonderful. Are you sure I’m the one to help you?’
‘Absolutely sure.’ She hesitated then added, ‘There is one thing I’d like to do, ask my father to come and look at it. He won’t change my mind,’ she added hurriedly. ‘But he’d help us decide on the work that’s needed. He might have a few ideas about how we arrange the office, that sort of thing.’
‘I agree. You’ll have to tell him you lost your job though.’
‘I suppose I should. We’ll see. Could I just suggest that I sacked them rather than they sacked me?’
‘Tell him the truth, it’s always best,’ Lucy advised.
They spent several hours in the telephone box on the lane, arranging an appointment to view, making an appointment with the bank manager, and a brief call to tell Meriel’s parents what they were planning.
‘Write everything down,’ Walter told her. ‘I want to look at your ideas and assessments before I see the place. From what you’ve told me I already believe you two can make a success of this, so don’t worry that I’m going to look at it and try to discourage you.’
He laughed then as Lucy, who was also listening, whispered, ‘Fat chance.’
‘All right, I know you too well to believe I could stop you. You’re too much your father’s daughter for me even to try and change your mind once it’s made up.’
Meriel and Lucy went back to Badgers Brook filled with excitement to write down their plans. Meriel wrote to her father, Lucy helping to compose the letter. Two days later his reply arrived, promising to come and inspect the property, which was at 43 Forge Street. He dealt with the purchase and managed to get a small reduction and he also arranged for quotes from builders and decorators. He promised them a typewriter, some office files, a desk and a couple of chairs.
Lucy was thrilled. It became impossible to keep the news to herself and, just before the deal was complete, it burst out of her when her ex-friend, Jennie, now her boss, came in to collect the day book with its appointments and money.
‘You’re leaving us?’ Jennie said, in surprise. ‘But why? I thought you were happy here?’
‘I’m going in to business, a partnership with someone called Meriel Evans, isn’t it amazing?’
‘Meriel Evans, isn’t she a customer?’
‘Yes, it’s how we met and became friends.’
Jennie frowned. ‘I remember now, she was sacked for dishonesty wasn’t she?’
‘No she wasn’t! That woman told lies and I know why but I can’t tell you!’
‘What d’you mean, Lucy? I’m your friend, you can tell me anything,’ Jennie coaxed.
‘Not this, I can’t. Just remember that Meriel isn’t dishonest but Mrs George Dexter is!’ She refused to say any more, being careful not to tell her the full story or explain exactly what they were planning. She suspected that George Dexter would try to prevent it if he heard rumours. ‘So I’ll be leaving towards the end of February. That will give you plenty of time to find my replacement.’
‘Oh no. I can’t have that. I’ll make up your wages and you can leave right now!’
‘What?’ Lucy was aghast.
‘I’ll get your cards and money, if you’ll just wait here.’
‘Jennie! You can’t do this.’
‘Watch me! And don’t think I won’t be glad to find someone else. Mediocre you are, Lucy Calloway. You never had any flair.’
Ten minutes later Lucy was holding back tears as she hurried home through the drizzle of the early February evening, clutching a wage packet and her employment card. When she had thought of leaving she’d imagined it would be with a gift and a thank you, as she was showered with good wishes; not this, sent away with Jennie saying she was glad to be rid of her. She knew even more clearly how Meriel must have felt.
She told something of her new venture to her parents but declined to tell them any details. Again she was careful to avoid any hint of what they were planning getting to George Dexter. If she had tried to explain the reason for their secrecy they would have accused her of everything from paranoia to watching too many mystery films.
When Meriel finally told her father exactly what had happened to her at Dexter’s, he was very angry. ‘I can understand the woman’s alarm, but to say you were dishonest. That’s criminal! In our business, going into people’s homes, being trusted with their private finances, such lies could mean the end of a career! How could George Dexter had believed such a thing?’
‘He probably didn’t. He’s just daft about his baby-doll wife,’ Meriel said glumly. ‘She’s much younger than him and such a pretty thing to carry around like a badge of success, how could he risk losing her? Far better to let me go.’
‘What d’you want me to do?’
‘Nothing, Dadda. I’ll build a business to rival his, that’s the best way of getting revenge.’
‘I’ll go and see him.’
‘No, please don’t. No one will believe him anyway and already people are coming to me for advice, even though I’m not yet in business. You’ll see, I’ll beat him with my business prowess.’
Walter nodded, but he knew he couldn’t let it rest. His daughter hadn’t deserved George’s treatment of her, whatever his reasons. George’s hatred of him should be left in the past where it belonged, not be used to harm his daughter. How could the man hold on to his anger and resentment for so long?
When they had first looked at the property on Forge Street together he had instantly agreed with the purchase, even though it would leave Meriel with very little money. He recommended a small mortgage or taking a third partner. ‘Then you’ll have plenty to pay for the repairs and modernization,’ he had explained.
‘No, Dadda,’ Meriel had insisted. ‘It has to be just Lucy and me.’
‘I can help in small ways, can’t I?’ he said as they peered through the white-washed windows. ‘Print leaflets and pay for some advertising to get you started,’ he said. Glancing at her he quickly added, ‘That’s all I mean to do, just a few small things to start you off. You two will soon be on the way. Just remember I’m always available if you have any problems.’
Leo came and helped them to clear the place of abandoned rubbish and help pull the wallpaper off the walls ready for decoration. He even used some of his time off to paint and paper the office enabling them to open at least a week sooner than planned.
They hadn’t taken out a mortgage. Instead, Walter had lent them the money, assuring them it was strictly a loan and he looked forward to repayment when they could afford it. He also promised to only visit when invited.
‘I feel sure they’ll succeed,’ he told Lynne. ‘Our Meriel is a business woman through and through. I think she made a good choice taking on Lucy, too, even though I doubted it at first. She’s reliable and very determined to do her best. I just hope they’ll tell us if they have any problems.‘
‘I’m sure they will, darling. You and Meriel are as close as father and daughter can be.’
Now, as Meriel held the keys of the property in her hand, he hugged his daughter and Lucy, saying, ‘Good luck, you two. I know this will be a success.’
Meriel and Lucy celebrated their acquisition by going to Gwennie Flint’s and buying a fish and chip supper, rushing back to Badgers Brook with the hot, steaming packages like excited children.
‘You know we’ll be seriously broke, don’t you?’ Lucy said. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t consider leaving here and living behind the shop?’
‘No, this is where I live and where I’m happy. There hasn’t been a day when I haven’t run the last steps to get inside. I love this place and it’s my haven when things go wrong.’
‘Then I think one of us should work to bring in survival money. And,’ she added before Meriel could disagree, ‘I think it should be me, as you’re the one with the knowledge.’
‘Go on?’
‘First of all, I would like to learn to drive, then I can be more use generally, but if I learned now, couldn’t I do what you’ve been doing? Deliver flowers and groceries and all that?’
‘It costs money and time. We don’t have enough of either at present, but I do agree with you. Being able to drive is essential.’
George watched the progress with increasing anger. Of all people. Walter’s daughter hadn’t the right to muscle in on his town and challenge him on a business level. A part of him secretly wished he’d ignored Frieda’s complaints and kept her on. She was good at what she did and her ideas for his office had already been implemented. But to please his adored wife he had sent her away and now she had the audacity to open up in opposition. Somehow she had to be stopped.
‘Teifion,’ he called to his son the following morning. ‘What are we to do about Meriel Evans and this Lucy Calloway?’
‘What can we do? She has the right to open an estate agency, although I doubt she’ll make a success of it, competing with you is a bit optimistic.’
‘You know she’s stealing my clients? Going to see people and persuading them I’m not the best one to deal with their sale?’
Frieda came into the office, sobbing prettily. Beside her was a suitcase, which, George explained, was because this had upset her so much she was going to her sister’s in Brighton for a rest.
‘After all the lies she told and now trying to rob your father of his customers, you have to do something, Teifion,’ she sobbed. ‘It’s your firm too and one day when your father retires, you’ll find there’s nothing to inherit unless she’s stopped.’
‘I wouldn’t want to hurt her – or Lucy,’ Teifion said anxiously.
Guessing the attraction, George said, ‘Get them out of that office and you can offer Lucy a decent, secure job here, with you. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, son?’ As Teifion hesitated, he added coldly, ‘Need I remind you that the alternative is for you to have nothing to inherit?’
Over the following days Meriel suffered a few setbacks. The builder called at the office and instead of being dressed to continue with the work he was doing, he asked for full payment.
‘There’s been a few rumours, like,’ he said, embarrassment covering his face with a red glow. ‘Some say I won’t get my money and I can’t risk that. Only a small family business mine is, see, and I can’t take risks.’
She argued for a while then, anxious for the work to be completed, offered him a post-dated cheque on condition he finished two days sooner than promised. ‘Well, thank you Mr George Dexter,’ she said to an amused Lucy. ‘I think we won that round.’
An order for a sign to be made to go over the shop front was returned by post together with a complaint about the time already wasted on the project. An enquiry led to them being told that the order had been cancelled by telephone. This time it was Lucy who dealt with it, insisting that the work was done and delivered without delay after being so unbusinesslike not checking such a change of plan with them.
Having heard of these irritations, which Meriel told him in a light-hearted way, pleased at the way the tables had been turned, Walter went to Cwm Derw but not to see Meriel. Unable to resist a moment longer, he went to see George Dexter.
The result of the conversation left George devastated. Walter hadn’t tiptoed around but had told him he knew exactly what had happened to cause Frieda to ask Meriel to leave. At first George bluffed and refused to listen but as Walter added a clear description of the hotel and its location, he collapsed like a deflated balloon.
‘You knew, didn’t you?’ Walter said.
George nodded.
‘I didn’t know for certain, but so many little details have crowded in and built a picture that I didn’t want to see. What you’ve told me only confirms it. What shall I do? I love having her as my wife, being envied by my friends. The humiliation if she leaves me is something I can’t imagine.’
‘I’ll say nothing, but you have to make sure you don’t hurt my daughter any more than you already have. No rumours, except about her excellence, help her get started and we’ll forget this conversation. Right?’
George nodded, then offered his hand. So when George heard that Lucy needed to learn to drive, he sent his son to teach her. That should keep Walter quiet, he thought, as his ever-willing son ran to do what he asked.
Meriel and Lucy were delighted at the way everything was falling into place for them, unaware of the hatred George Dexter was really feeling. George discussed the situation with Teifion and persuaded him that one serious effort would rid them of Meriel for good, leaving his way open to offer Lucy a job. He flattered his son, tried to turn him against Meriel and increase his sympathy for his stepmother. ‘Just one more effort and it will all slip into place,’ he promised. ‘I know you can do it. You’ll be head of the company and Lucy will be your partner. Working with Meriel has been useful. Just think, it will be perfect, son.’ He watched the expressions passing over Teifion’s face. Heavens above, the boy is so weak, he thought with disgust. How could I have produced a son like him? He piled on the persuasions, increasing his allowance, buying him a new and better car, promising him Lucy as a partner in the business. Then, as doubt still shadowed Teifion’s face, he began to warn him of what might happen if he refused to do what he demanded. With his face white with anguish but fearful of upsetting his father any further, he agreed.
As Meriel predicted, Lucy took to driving without any difficulty. She really wanted and needed to drive, and, with her quick mind, the new skill was easily accomplished. She took over the deliveries from Meriel and in the first three weeks after they opened they had arranged the sale of two properties and the purchase of a third.
By the end of the first week they had their name over the door of their clean and smart new office, Evans and Calloway. Decorators had been working on the rest of the house and they hoped that they would soon be advertising for tenants.
‘Shall we ask Dexter’s to find us some tenants?’ Lucy joked.
Meriel growled, then showed her friend the new advertising on which she had added, “Letting agents for houses, flats and rooms”. ‘Well, once the upstairs is finished we’ll have at least one flat on our books,’ she said.
Teifion had called regularly for Lucy, to give her driving lessons, but had never come in. Neither had he spoken to Meriel since the time they had met in the picture house. So it was a surprise when he came into their office when Lucy was out, and invited Meriel out for a meal.
‘I’m grateful for the help you’ve given Lucy,’ she said firmly, ‘but there’s nothing that would tempt me to spend even a minute with anyone called Dexter.’ She opened the door to the street. ‘Goodbye, thank you for calling.’
‘Please, Meriel. None of this is my fault, and anyway, wasn’t it a good thing, giving you the opportunity to start your own business?’
‘You really think I’m glad your father sacked me and told lies about my honesty? If I’d been less well known he could have ruined my life. Go away!’
He didn’t go. He sat down on the chair where clients sat and stared at her. He really was rather good-looking, she thought with a flash of weakness. His expression showed no sign of regret, in fact his brown eyes were shining with a hint of amusement. The little-boy-lost expression no longer there. ‘Come on, say yes,’ he coaxed. ‘You know we could become friends. Just you and me, no George Dexter and no Walter Evans. You –’ he said slowly – ‘and me.’ Meriel wondered cynically whether the idea had come from George, but curious, she went anyway.
They met at the edge of town. She parked her car and he drove her to a place a long way from Cwm Derw in a small village close to the sea in the Vale of Glamorgan. The fourteenth-century thatched building where they stopped surprised her. ‘We’re eating here?’ she asked doubtfully.
‘A drink first, then we’ll go to the place where I’ve booked a table.’
The fascinating inn, with its history proudly told by the barman and displayed on posters on the ancient walls, interested her and they were late leaving. When they reached the restaurant the tables were all occupied but the waiter found them a place near the kitchen doors where people dashed in and out with steamily laden plates and wafting tempting smells towards them, but also those piled up with the messy dregs of meals. It was hardly a pleasant place in which to eat.
With little interest, wishing she hadn’t come, Meriel chose a meat pie and smiling, Teifion asked for the same. She looked at him, puzzled by the look of nervousness. He seemed restless and edgy. Was he going to be a nuisance on the drive home? She wasn’t too worried. She had successfully discouraged more than one over-eager boyfriend in the past.
A bottle of wine finally appeared and Meriel sipped appreciatively. She was hardly aware of him topping up her glass as they talked easily, sharing details about their lives previous to their meeting. She wasn’t aware of George sitting at another table watching and nodding encouragement to his son. It wasn’t until she stood to leave that she realized she had enjoyed the wine a little too much. Looking around she noticed they were the last to leave.
Outside, the car park was deserted and very dark. Then Teifion began to fondle her in a way that alarmed her and she pushed him away. ‘Stop that!’ she shouted, and staggered as she walked away, her legs stiff and awkward, her leaden feet stumbling over the uneven ground. He opened the car door and held her close as he helped her in and again she pushed him away. This time he tripped over her leg and fell. Instead of apologizing, she giggled.
He got into the driving seat and said, ‘Get in, you stupid woman, or I’ll go without you.’
‘Stupid woman?’ she said with a frown. ‘Who are you calling stupid?’
‘You, and myself, for imagining you’d be good company. No wonder you steal from friends, you need it for alcohol. You disgust me!’ he shouted.
To her utter disbelief he slammed the door and began to move off. He hesitated then, but behind her, he could see his father gesturing for him to leave. With a wide-eyed terrified glance towards her, he started to drive away. Meriel stared in disbelief, not aware of George and his friend getting into their car. ‘Come back at once!’ she yelled. The car reversed and the window rolled down. ‘Phone your father,’ Teifion said, his voice trembling with embarrassment. He threw a handful of coins towards her and drove away.
Meriel stared at the coins strewn at her feet, then at the now empty road. He was leaving her miles from home and she did not know where she was. Tearfully she telephoned her father.
Badgers Brook was silent when she went inside, seeming to disapprove of her behaviour. Walter was non-judgemental. ‘Can you tell me how much you drank, love?’
‘We had a bottle of wine and I can’t remember Teifion topping it up but he must have done. But I couldn’t have drunk that much, there was more than half a bottle left when we came away.’
‘I think you might have had a Mickey Finn,’ he told her, his eyes bright with anger. ‘Something stronger added when you weren’t looking. You could have been seriously hurt. Even if you’d got a lift or a taxi, you’d have had to drive the car back from the other side of town.’ he added grimly. ‘Was that to make sure no one saw you together? Or to make sure someone did? Whatever the reason, what he did could have resulted in a serious accident. It seems that George Dexter and his son haven’t forgiven you for finding out Frieda’s nasty little secret.’ He knew that the hatred between himself and George went back a lot further than that, and seemed unlikely to end.
He helped her to her room and, leaving a candle burning on the landing windowsill in case she got out of bed in the night, he went down and lay on a couch.
He didn’t know what to do. He’d agreed to say nothing about Frieda’s secret ‘other life’ but this evening’s behaviour negated any such promise. His darling daughter might have been seriously hurt. George’s campaign of spite had to be stopped. It might have been Teifion spiking the drink while pretending friendship but the idea was almost certainly his father’s.
Teifion wasn’t capable of thinking out such a malicious idea, although his pathetic need to impress his father obviously made him willing to carry it out. ‘Why, oh why had Meriel chosen Cwm Derw to settle?’ he said aloud.
He waited until he heard Meriel get up and made a tray of tea, leaving it outside her room. ‘All right, love? I’m just going out for a paper, I’ll come back and see how you are, then we can go and collect the car.’
He went out, knocked on George’s door and when George opened it he pushed him roughly inside and followed. ‘Touch my daughter again and you’ll regret it.’
George blustered and insisted he didn’t understand, but Walter, although a successful businessman, had come up the hard way and he could have fought with the man and won, but he didn’t. He simply warned him of the consequences if Meriel was harmed in any way, and from the look on his face, George understood.
‘Call yourself a man? Causing distress to a young woman of twenty-two? Putting her in extreme danger?’
At the top of the stairs Teifion cringed with shame. What sort of a man was he, doing his father’s dirty work, too afraid to refuse, trying to pretend to like it? How weak was he, allowing himself to be persuaded to do such a terrible thing?
He went to the office to offer to bring back Meriel’s car, but saw it standing outside. With racing heart he went in and tried to apologize, but Meriel and Lucy threw him out, one each side of him, like a couple of crazy policemen. Feeling more embarrassed and miserable than ever before in his whole life, he stood there for an age, trying to decide on his next move.
Going back inside he asked Meriel the true reason behind his father’s dislike of her. Meriel refused to tell him, but Lucy had no such qualms.
‘He doesn’t deserve protecting, after what he’s done to you,’ she said to her friend, and told Teifion exactly why Meriel had been told to leave.
‘I can’t tell you how ashamed I feel. How could I have been persuaded to do such a terrible thing? I’ve been so anxious to get my father’s approval I’ve become a little mad, I think. He threatened to leave everything to Frieda, leave me penniless. I – I believed him and couldn’t face it. I’m so ashamed, but also in an odd way I feel free of him. Please believe me, Meriel, when I promise I will never ever do anything so stupid or cruel again. I feel as though I’ve just woken up from a nightmare.’
Meriel and Lucy stared at him throughout his speech without a word. When he finally stopped, Lucy said brightly, ‘Bye then. Close the door after you.’
At the door he paused. ‘I can’t expect you to forgive me, it stretches the imagination for someone my age to have acted so stupidly, but if I can ever do anything for you, anything at all, you only have to ask,’ he said in a choking voice.
Neither girl replied.
Teifion went back to his father. ‘Is it true?’ he demanded, after repeating what Lucy had told him. He didn’t need a reply, it was clear from his father’s expression that he wasn’t going to deny it. Two hours later he had taken a room in the guest house of Elsie and Ed Connors, and began looking for a job.
When Meriel learned of his leaving Dexter’s she took no pleasure in the news. ‘It’s that stupid father of his,’ she said to Lucy. ‘How can he be so besotted with that woman he can treat me, a stranger, so badly and watch as his son walks away?’
Lucy sighed. ‘Lucky Frieda. It must be good to be loved so much and treated as someone very special.’
‘Love? Rubbish! George Dexter uses her like a status symbol, better than the latest Rolls Royce she is, making him feel a heck of a great guy. I don’t think love comes into it at all.’
Lucy stared dreamily out of the window remembering how close she had once been to love, a home of her own and children. The damned war had lost her the only chance she’d ever have. ‘If only Gerald had thought as much of me, we’d have married and I’d have a couple of children by now.’
‘Why don’t you look him up?’
‘Too long ago.’
‘You think he might be married? Do you know what happened to him?’
‘Nothing much. I see his mother occasionally and apparently he went back to his job working with his father repairing motorbikes. And he still lives at home. Not very exciting, eh?’
‘Not like you, running a business and… look out, pretend to be busy, there’s someone coming in.’
Lucy began adding a few scribbles in her desk diary, so anyone looking would imagine they were doing better than they were. A young couple came in looking for a couple of rooms to rent.
‘Yes, we can certainly help you with rooms, but we also have something far better. Will you follow me?’ Happily, Lucy took them to see the flat above the shop, fingers crossed that they would manage the higher rent once they saw the clean and spacious, neatly furnished accommodation.
Lucy showed them around, dreamily describing how ideal the place was for newlyweds, in her mind seeing herself living there with the man in airforce uniform she had once loved so much.
They had a visitor later that morning. Leo called and invited both girls out to lunch. Not having seen him for a while, Meriel was aware for the first time of changes in the man she had known for so many years. He had always been neatly but poorly dressed, in clothes that were never a good fit. Second-hand or passed on from his father or someone’s older brother, she had assumed. With his mother and three sisters bemoaning the shortage of clothing coupons, Meriel had guessed he had been too generous towards them and had shared his allowance with them.
He was good-looking in a schoolboy kind of way, his hair was mid brown, very straight and difficult to style, always falling across his eyes. There was a serious expression in his grey eyes and he had the earnestness of a pupil listening to a teacher when he was in conversation. She always believed he was really interested in everything she had to say.
Now, although that hadn’t changed, his appearance had. Since clothes rationing ended the previous year he had begun to dress well. Today, he wore a pair of grey trousers and a good quality Harris tweed jacket. His shirt was immaculate and his shoes shone like glass.
He was attentive to them both, making sure they enjoyed the brief break from their work. Afterwards, Lucy said, ‘You know I said it must be nice to be thought of as someone very special? Well that’s how Leo thinks of you.’
‘Ridiculous!’ Meriel said at once. ‘He still thinks of me as a child.’
‘Not any more he doesn’t!’ Lucy was adamant.
Meriel laughed and shook her head but the thought remained with her for a long time. Teifion ashamed and wanting to make amends, and now Leo of all people noticing she was a woman. Whatever next?