Broken Rainbows (28 page)

‘No, now that I've found out that you've come over here to do more than sit around on your backsides in Pontypridd, I'll even give you a cup of tea on the house.'

‘I don't suppose you'd stretch that to coffee?'

‘No chance, unless you pay the extra twopence. Tell me, when are you leaving?'

‘Ah, the coffee's a goodbye present?'

‘Intelligent too. What more could a grateful civilian want from an American soldier than his absence?'

He was rummaging in his pants pocket for the coins when Jenny walked in with Judy.

‘Hi, sweetheart.' He left the stool to kiss her cheek.

‘As you can see, the lieutenant's still here. For now,' Tina added, as Jenny sat on the stool next to Kurt's.

‘I heard some of the regiment shipped out.' Jenny took a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and helped herself.

‘That information's supposed to be classified.'

‘With half the girls in the factory crying over their benches because their boyfriends have gone, who do you think you're fooling?'

‘Evidently no one.'

‘So when is it going to be your turn?'

‘Can't wait to get rid of me, can you, Tina?'

‘No.'

‘You disapprove of my fraternising with the natives?' he asked, trying to keep the conversation light.

‘Only the natives I care about, like Jenny.'

Jenny laughed. ‘Come on, Tina, I can take care of myself.'

‘Can you? This is the sixth time I've seen you two together in here in the last month.'

‘So?'

‘Take a good look. He's here today, but he'll be gone tomorrow, and in my opinion the last thing you need is a Yank who only wants to brighten up his evenings while he's in town.'

‘Perhaps I only want to brighten up my own evenings,' Jenny responded carelessly.

‘It's your funeral.' Tina banged a couple of cups down in front of them.

Kurt glanced at the enlisted men who were taking too much of an interest in their conversation for his liking. ‘We're both adults, Tina. Don't you think Jenny's old enough to make her own decisions?'

‘Frankly, no. Not when she's decided on a “love them and leave them” Romeo like you.'

‘You don't know the first thing about me.'

‘I know all that I want to.'

Kurt dug in his pocket for enough money to cover the cost of the coffee. ‘You're wrong, Tina,' he said as he handed her the coins.

‘Time will tell,' she bit back as she rang up the till.

‘You're not going. I absolutely refuse to let you.' Diana stood with her back to the door.

‘Di,
I
don't want to go, but there's a job that needs doing.'

‘And I refuse to believe that you're the only man who can do it.' She eyed Ronnie sceptically. ‘It's dangerous, isn't it? You'll be fighting again …'

‘Diana, they won't allow me to tell you where I'll be going, or what I'll be doing, but I promise you it's safe. And no, I won't be fighting.'

‘And that's supposed to make it all right? You're leaving me when I'm about to have your baby, and it's fine because you'll be safe?'

‘I wouldn't go if I didn't have to.' He laid his hand on her stomach before kissing the tears from her eyes.

‘You'll come back when the baby is born?' she pleaded.

‘If I can, but I've no idea how long this will take.'

‘Ronnie …'

‘I know, Di.' He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. ‘I feel the same way too. Come on, let's pack your things and I'll get a taxi to take you and Billy to your mother's.'

‘In Myrtle and Huw's house? Ronnie, I can't live there. It would feel strange to move back in with my first husband's sister after being married to you.'

‘Someone has to look after you, and I won't leave you here on your own with Billy.'

‘Good. In that case, I'm not going anywhere.' She manoeuvred her swollen body into the armchair next to the range.

‘Very funny,' he smiled. ‘Come on, you have to go somewhere. Where's it to be? Bethan's?'

‘Her house is full to bursting now that Jane and Anne are living there.'

‘Graig Avenue?'

‘It's as much as Phyllis can do to cope with Uncle Evan the way he is.'

‘You're being deliberately difficult.'

‘No, I'm not. I suppose I could ask Mam to come here.'

‘And Myrtle?'

‘Mam said she's been feeling a bit of a gooseberry since Myrtle's father died. Myrtle's coping better all the time, and she could stay here when Uncle Huw's on night shift if she wants to. I know this is your sister's house, Ronnie, but it feels like ours. And I'd rather stay in it until you get back. And so would Billy.'

‘I'll call in at your mother's and Tina's before I catch the train and tell both of them to keep an eye on you. I don't want you to spend a single night alone here.'

‘I won't.' She fought back her tears as she looked at him. ‘Just you be sure that you come back from wherever you're going in one piece, Ronnie Ronconi, or I'll brain you.'

‘The lady of the house all alone?' David Ford called out as he parked his Jeep in the drive of Bethan's house and walked over to the vegetable garden she was watering.

‘It's good to be alone sometimes.'

‘As I'm finding out.'

‘You don't have to keep driving yourself so Maurice and Dino can go out with Liza and my aunt.'

‘Yes I do. Who knows how much longer they'll be able to see one another? Three-quarters of the men shipped out this afternoon, but then you probably already know that. It seems to be the worst kept secret in town.'

‘And the rest?'

‘I don't make those kinds of decisions. Tomorrow I'll have another load of raw recruits to knock into shape. It's anyone's guess when they'll be needed.' He followed her to a small bench below the drawing room window.

‘You'd rather have gone with your men?'

‘I'd rather be doing some real soldiering instead of sitting up to my neck in billeting and supply lists and organising route marches. But then,' he gazed up at the setting sun, ‘on a lovely summer evening like this with a beautiful woman at my side it's difficult to imagine that there's such a thing as war.'

Bethan glanced up at the window of the bedroom where her children were sleeping. She had allowed all of them to run around the garden until nine o'clock and by then even the older ones were too exhausted to protest that it was bedtime.

‘I have a bottle of Maisie's elderflower wine that I've been saving for a special occasion. I can't think of a better time. Would you like to share it?'

‘I'd prefer bourbon.'

‘Too strong for me.'

‘Not if you water it down. Stay there, you look exhausted. I'll get it.'

She settled back, listening to his quiet tread on the stairs as he climbed to the top floor. She felt more at peace than she had since the autumn. Andrew might still be imprisoned in Germany, but she had other things to be grateful for. The house in Graig Avenue was secured for Phyllis and Brian, her father was crippled but alive, and looking forward to work that exercised more brain than brawn; perhaps he should have done something like it years ago.

Haydn's last words,
‘Enjoy what you have while you have it. That's what I do, sis',
still bothered her, as did his continued absence and Jane's reluctance to talk about him. But at least he was alive and working in comparative safety.

She looked across at the trees, their thick, summer leaves bathed in the soft golden light of the dying sun. Penycoedcae hadn't changed, and wasn't likely to. The vegetables were growing, a miracle of nature that never failed to thrill her: crops that would feed the whole household through the winter, raised from small, shrivelled roots and seeds. She and the children were well, she was too busy to see much of her mother-in-law, and relations between her and Andrew's father were better than ever. Life was bearable.

‘One bourbon and branch water for madam.'

David walked out of the house carrying a tray like an experienced waiter, a cloth folded over his arm, the tray laid out with a bottle, glasses, a jug of water and, miracle of miracles, a bag of peanuts.

‘Wherever did you get these?' she asked, fingering them.

‘Not one of your shops. And before you count them and divide them up for the children, there's a bag ten times that size in the kitchen, so you can eat them without feeling in the slightest bit guilty.' Setting the tray down on a low wall, he poured a large whiskey for himself and a smaller, weaker one for her.

‘To summer and light evenings.' He touched his glass to hers. ‘How is your father?'

‘I was just thinking about him and all the family. He's coping, thank you.'

‘Have you heard from your brother lately?'

‘You're thinking of Jane and Captain D'Este?'

‘I ran into them the other day in the New Inn. They seem to be spending a lot of time together.'

‘He works such long hours she hardly ever sees him except when he brings her home after her weekly visit to the hospital.'

‘Some would argue that's all it takes.'

‘I don't think there's any more to their relationship than there was with Alma and Chuck Reynolds, or us,' she added evenly.

‘The loyal sister-in-law?'

‘I've grown close to Jane. She would never do anything to jeopardise her marriage.'

‘She must have been very young when she and Haydn walked up the aisle.'

‘Eighteen, but that's not to say their marriage won't survive. Things will be different after the war.'

‘Perhaps Britain will acquire the same high divorce rate as America?'

‘You're a cynic.'

‘I wasn't when I was a kid, but you -' he shook his head admiringly. ‘I don't know how you do it. Looking after a house full of kids, taking on four orphaned girls as well as your own two, working full time, nursing your crippled father, surviving the loss of a brother and sister and your husband's imprisonment. Tell me, where do you get your serenity from?'

‘Serenity! Take a good look at me the next time I'm shouting at the children.'

‘I've never seen you anything but patient.' He sat beside her on the bench. ‘You remind me of my mother. She was an oasis of calm. All of us rushing around like madmen, my father screaming for a clean shirt, or his keys and papers, my sisters demanding new clothes, my brothers and I sportswear, and somehow, with no apparent effort she conjured everything we wanted, before returning to the swing on the porch and carrying on with her embroidery. I've seen you do the same thing. Walk in after a twelve-hour day that would flatten most men, and pick up conversations, solving domestic problems, soothing children …'

‘What a wonderful portrait you've drawn of me, Colonel. I assume you've only ever seen me at the beginning and end of the day when I'm less fraught than usual.'

‘No one in the house sees you any other time.'

‘True.' She sipped her drink. ‘This tastes like I'll regret drinking it in the morning.'

‘If you finished the bottle it might.'

She smiled at him, mischief glowing in her eyes. ‘Now that might be a hangover worth having.'

‘So, you didn't get sent out with the others?'

‘Don't you think I would have told you if I was going to be?'

‘It wasn't part of our agreement. “Love me and leave me”, remember?'

‘That's what you wanted, Jenny, not me.'

Following her around the side of the shop he stood back while she unlocked the storeroom door.

‘You coming in?'

‘Am I invited?'

‘For the present.'

‘What Tina said tonight about me loving and leaving …'

‘Is exactly what I want and expect from you.'

‘Maybe I did too, when I first met you,' he qualified, as he followed her inside. ‘But not any more.'

‘Not another word.'

‘You don't know what I'm going to say,' he protested indignantly.

‘No? You want to marry me?'

‘You guessed?'

‘I don't have to guess, Kurt. Eddie asked me once. Alexander used to propose at least twice a week. The last thing I need is another husband, particularly a soldier who is going to get himself killed.'

‘I love you.'

‘You love my body.' She brushed her hand over the front of his trousers.

‘No.' He gripped her hands and looked into her eyes. ‘I love
you.
Your mind, your soul … whatever it is that's inside your head …'

‘Thoughts of an empty stomach right now.' Turning, she ran up the stairs ahead of him. ‘What do you want, a dried egg omelette, or mock goose?'

‘Both sound disgusting.'

‘An omelette it is.'

He followed her into the kitchen. Leaning against the door frame, he watched as she opened cupboards.

‘I'm moving out of my billet,' he announced, giving up on trying to convince her that he loved her.

‘Mrs Llewellyn-Jones fed up with you?'

‘She's been fed up with me since the day I moved in.'

‘Where are you moving to?'

‘Ebenezer Chapel.'

‘With the men?'

‘There's a sort of private cubicle.'

‘How private?'

‘Not enough for you to visit.'

‘You could move in here.'

The offer came so quickly, so unexpectedly, he couldn't be sure he'd heard her correctly.

She continued to measure spoonfuls of egg powder into a bowl. ‘I have a spare bedroom, use of a bathroom and kitchen.'

‘What about the neighbours?'

‘What about them? I'm a respectable widow.'

‘And how long do you think you'll stay respectable after I move in?'