Goodbye to Dreams (9 page)

‘Sorry.’

Ada walked to the door, a wide smile disguising her dismay at seeing her sister and Gareth walking side by side up the hill to the bus stop.

‘Come on, Van,’ she said to the little girl who had been allowed to stay up to see Cecily in her new clothes. ‘We’ll have a game of Snap before I tuck you in.’

When Van was in bed, Ada picked up some knitting and turned on the wireless for entertainment from Savoy Hill. She hoped to hear her favourite, John Henry, with his wife Blossom, a popular comedy act. In his lugubrious voice he told stories abut married life. And the audience laughed as soon as he began in a low voice, with ‘Hello everybody’.

Married life was a regular source of fun but tonight Ada didn’t smile quite as much. Married life was something she was unlikely to experience. Dorothy’s spiteful words remarking on the improbability of anyone wanting to marry her had rankled ever since, and had left her with a sense of emptiness and dismay.

The restaurant where Gareth finally took Cecily was far from grand. In fact it was little more than a cafe offering only simple fare, which was a
disappointment
to her. Overdressed and underfed was the theme for this long-awaited date, she thought with rising irritation. Gareth seemed
unperturbed
by the limited choice and settled for mashed potatoes, cabbage and sausages over which he enthusiastically poured the glutinous gravy the waitress supplied.

‘Nice, this,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Sort of home cooking.’

Cecily picked at a greasy omelette and was glad when Gareth had finished his disgusting meal. The waitress hovered near and would have come to the table to collect the money but Gareth elected to go to the kitchen door where he counted coins into her hand with his back to Cecily. Her irritation rose dangerously again.

He surprised her then by admitting that the food was not what he’d hoped for. ‘I was planning something far better,’ he said as they left the warm, moist air of the cafe and were walking back to the bus stop. ‘It was so late, see. I’d booked at a hotel but being so late I just went for the first place I saw.’

‘I’m relieved,’ Cecily said, unconvinced. ‘I was beginning to think I’m not worth your time or your money.’

‘You’re worth everything I’ve got in the world.’ The statement was a surprise almost as big as the meal, but there were more surprises to come.

She didn’t know Cardiff very well but enough to realize they were not heading for the bus stop. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked, taking his arm.

‘To get a drink. All right with you?’

‘Of course, but I don’t want to be too late. We have an early start, remember.’

‘That doesn’t stop you when you go dancing. Not worth
your
time, am I?’

‘Of course you are. I wouldn’t have come otherwise.’

‘D’you still see Danny Preston?’ he asked. ‘All the gang thought, even after the wedding was cancelled, that you and he would eventually marry.’

‘So did I for a while, but we were like hot fat and water, spitting and fussing all the time. Better off apart. Anyway, he’s married to Jessie, isn’t he?’

He didn’t answer as he guided her across the road. It was a clear, frosty night and there were plenty of people about so he held her close as they pushed their way past others on the narrow pavements. Cecily felt warmth for him swell as his hand tightened on hers. Could she learn to love Gareth? she wondered as he led her towards the lighted doorway of a public house.

‘Willing to go in there or shall we find another cafe?’

‘Not another cafe!’

He looked in then frowned. ‘This place is crowded.’ They tried five. Some too crowded, some too seedy and others he declared too swanky. Cecily longed to get back to the bus stop. Her feet were cold, and wandering around searching for a place to have a drink she didn’t want was not her idea of a good evening out. What on earth was the matter with him?

When they finally went inside one, there was the usual raising of heads and faces showing disapproval of the woman’s presence. Two men walked out muttering complaints of the intrusion. Other faces just held curiosity and were lowered immediately on seeing that the new arrivals were not known to them.

Cecily was defiantly bold. She walked in and glared around as though those already seated were the intruders. But she was ill at ease. A public house was not the place she expected Gareth to take her. Why was he treating her this way?

He found them a corner seat and went to fetch the drinks. He didn’t ask what she wanted, returning with a small glass of beer for himself and an orangeade for her.

‘I would have preferred a port and lemon,’ she told him coldly. ‘Aren’t I allowed a choice?’

‘I don’t like to see women drinking,’ he said. ‘Different if we’re home.’

‘Thank you for taking such good care of my morals, Gareth!’ She poured the drink into a convenient ash tray and stood up. ‘I’m going home.’

Walking briskly away from the public house, she heard him running after her. She had no idea where she was, or even if she was walking in the right direction. Gareth caught up with her and dragged on her arm. ‘Stop, Cecily, please.’

‘If I ever see you again, please don’t expect me to speak to you. Now, where’s the nearest bus stop?’

‘Please, Cecily. I’m sorry.’

‘How lovely it will be never to hear you say that stupid word again!’

To her alarm he dragged her around to face him then, with eyes lowered, he said in a rush, ‘Mam found out I was seeing you and she hid my money. There. Now you have it. I’m a weak bullied idiot, scared of my mam. That’s
why the evening was such a disaster.’ He slowed down and explained more calmly but still unable to look at her. ‘I spent an hour trying to find it and another half hour searching for the shop keys so I could borrow from the till, but she’d hidden them too.’

Cecily felt the tickle of laughter touch her cheeks.

‘In the end I went to the tobacconist in The Wedge and borrowed from him, but it was all in threepenny pieces.’ He pulled out a handful to show her, the coins glinting mockingly in the light of a street lamp. ‘The larger the bill the dafter I looked, see. They’ve been frowning at me convinced I’d robbed a child’s money box.’

Cecily began to make strange noises and Gareth was alarmed until he realized she was choking back laughter. He grinned, his face losing its glumness, laughter lighting up his face and making him once again the attractive companion Cecily knew. Their laughter rang out as they walked, arm in arm, back to the bus stop.

Cecily was still smiling when she went back into the shop and again Ada felt the prickle of jealousy but she greeted her sister with a smile, demanding to know all about the evening, and when she was told the tale, she laughed with genuine enjoyment.

Cecily and Gareth went out together several times in the following weeks and gradually he became less embarrassed at the prospect of teasing and began taking her to local places. When they went dancing, Ada always went too. Van would stay with Bertie and Beryl, or occasionally stayed overnight with Waldo and Melanie. Cecily and Gareth were accepted as a couple.

Mrs Price-Jones was not thrilled with the development although less against it now it was common knowledge that the girls had their father’s money.

‘Find out what their long-term plans are, mind, before you say
something
you’ll regret,’ she warned her son. ‘I wouldn’t put it past that Dorothy Owen to make them promise to leave it to her son one day. You don’t want to marry an heiress and find she’s given it all away.’

‘Hardly an heiress, Mam. Besides, if I can buy the two shops in The Wedge and take on an apprentice, I won’t be exactly poor, will I?’

‘If and buts won’t feed the baby!’

‘Too early to talk about weddings and babies,’ he replied. But not too soon to think of it, he added silently.

Somehow, the disastrous evening with Gareth had changed Cecily’s
attitude
of him. She smiled affectionately at the memory of his huddled attempt to pay without her seeing the small coins he was using. He really was rather a dear, and when she saw him talking animatedly to one of the
girls at the dance she felt a surge of dismay. She knew at that moment that thoughts of Danny were fading and Gareth was finding a place in her heart.

The shop was busy, business growing all the time. They began to stock the many items their father would never allow. Paraffin, cleaning
equipment
, household dyes, washing powder, blacking for grates, soda to soften the water, and barrels of vinegar sold by the pint into customers’ own bottles. They increased their stock by vast amounts, storing it in the cellar below the stable, ready for the new orders they hoped to get from the beach traders.

Cecily had begun to discard any stock that was not completely fresh, selling it cheaply at the end of each day with a final clear out on Saturdays. This had created a small band of customers looking for bargains to feed their families and resulted in the shop getting a reputation for selling only the best.

Ada was worried about the extravagance. It did cost a lot of money at first but it was now beginning to show results in extra trade and the stuff they sold cheaply was never a complete loss. Both girls were beginning to feel optimistic about the way their lives were shaping.

Because they were tied up in the shop for so much of each day, they decided to employ a servant to look after the house and prepare their evening meal. Gaynor, the Richards’ maid, had a sister and it was she whom they agreed on after a series of interviews at which both Melanie Watkins and Beryl Richards were present to give the girls the benefit of their experience. So Winifred Rees came to work for them one sunny day in April.

‘She’s like a little mouse about the place,’ Cecily reported when Melanie asked about the girl’s progress. ‘She scuttles through the door when we open it each morning and we hardly see her after that, but the place is clean and she seems quite happy with us.’

‘She spends some time making “sheep’s eyes” at our Willie,’ Ada chuckled, ‘but I don’t think it’s getting her very far.’

After a week, they had to admit that Winifred was a terrible cook. Besides ruining quite a lot of perfectly good food, she had broken three cups, four plates and destroyed a saucepan. She resigned and they settled for a once-a-week cleaner.

The business was growing and the beach orders, although the season hadn’t begun, were already keeping them busy with finding suppliers. Orders for the shop were increasing all the time and Willie was rushed, going out several times each day with deliveries on the horse and cart. One day, the sisters asked him to come and see them when he’d finished for the day.

‘Willie,’ Ada began. But she was stopped by Cecily.

‘Hush, Ada, love. I’ll tell him. You go all round the world sometimes and Gareth is calling for me in an hour.’

Ada sat back and waited for Cecily to speak. She was smarting with the reproach. Everything these days was how Cecily wanted it. The risks they had taken buying in all that extra stock, widening their ranges to include lines they rarely sold: she was like a runaway train and without a moment to listen to her opinion.

‘Willie, love, we have to find some help for you,’ Cecily said. ‘What d’you think of having an assistant to deliver some of the local orders? We thought of getting him a bike. You’ll still have the horse and cart and of course take the important beach orders. You’ll be responsible for training the newcomer too.’

‘I think that’s a good idea,’ Willie replied. ‘And while you’re thinking of it, why don’t you get a phone? It’s daft, me trotting all the way to the beach and coming back to find another order waiting for me. It would save a lot of my time and yours. What do you think, Miss Ada?’

Ada just nodded noncommittally. Even the stable boy thought more of her opinion than her sister, her so called partner.

‘Do you know anyone. A relation, perhaps?’ Cecily asked.

‘What about one of our relations,’ Ada gave a wicked smile, good nature returning. ‘What would Dorothy say if we invited Owen-Owen-named-
for-his
-grandfather to be our errand boy?’

‘We daren’t!’ Cecily said with a laugh. ‘But wouldn’t it be fun to ask!’

‘Mrs Dorothy isn’t fussed about Annette, is she?’ Willie said slowly. ‘I mean, she doesn’t think she has a right to the shop. What about asking her? She only works occasionally over the beach serving in a cafe. She stays home most of the time, seeing to things while her mother works. She’d be glad to get out for a few hours each day, for sure.’

‘A girl couldn’t be an errand boy!’

‘What if she puts up the orders, to take some of the work off you two and only delivers the very local ones that she can easily carry?’

The sisters looked at each other, nodded and agreed to talk first to Annette then Dorothy.

‘Go and fetch her now, shall I?’ Willie offered. ‘It’s half day but I haven’t taken the horse out of the cart yet, in case you wanted to go to the beach. Annette won’t mind that it’s not the trap.’

‘I’m going out in less than an hour,’ Cecily said hesitantly. ‘D’you think you can see her and explain?’

‘Of course!’ Ada’s voice was sharp. ‘I’m not exactly second in command here, am I?’

‘Of course not, you silly ha’porth. But we usually do things together, don’t we?’

Ada turned to Willie. ‘I’ll go with you and we’ll call on Annette, unless you have something you have to do?’

‘I’ll just change my coat,’ he said, hiding a smile of delight.

‘You’ll be back in time for Van?’

‘When am I not?’ Ada said the words quietly but in her eyes was a hint of censure. Every day it was she who was tied to meeting Van from school. No taking turns these days. Cecily sensed rather than saw the expression and added, ‘Oh, Ada, love. If you have time, will you call and collect the new price lists from Phil Spencer? We’ll take them to the beach next week. If we both keep next Wednesday free we can meet Van from school and all go.’

Slightly mollified at the thought of seeing Phil Spencer and his lovely mother, she began to set the table for their meal. The slightest of nervous glances passed between the sisters, each aware that a difficult moment had arisen.