Winners and Losers (38 page)

‘You worried?' Betty asked.

‘Have you heard anything?'

‘Not since I met you on my way home from the lodging house this afternoon. But as I said to you then, they were sending as many police as they could to Penygraig. I tried telling the sergeants that a glimpse of a uniform is all that's needed to drive a collier crazy these days, but neither of them would listen to me, no more than either side is prepared to listen to common sense. If you ask me, I think the whole world has gone mad.'

Not wanting to think about what might be happening on the picket lines, Sali asked, ‘Would you like a cup of tea?'

‘I wouldn't mind.' Betty knew she was more likely to hear any news if she remained in her doorway, but she sensed that Sali was in need of company. Sticking her needles into the ball of wool, she left her chair, picked it up and carried it back down her passage. Closing her front door, she walked across the road into Sali's kitchen.

‘The kettle will take another five minutes or so to boil, Betty,' Sali apologized, ‘we haven't the coal for a big fire.'

‘Daft, isn't it?' the older woman said. ‘Here we are, sitting on one of the biggest coalfields in the world and hardly anyone can afford to keep a fire in for more than an hour or two a day. And, when the men dig the outcrops on the mountains that are there for the taking, they get fines they can't pay and are put into prison where they are given three meals a day while their families carry on starving and freezing.'

‘When you put it like that, I have to agree with you. The world is mad.'

Betty saw the frown on Sali's face. ‘Worrying about them isn't going to do that baby you're carrying any good. I've known Billy Evans for close on thirty years and those three boys of his since they had the first nappies put on them. They know how to watch out for themselves and each other.'

‘They haven't been doing so well lately. Mr Evans hasn't recovered from the train crash. Victor has a couple of cracked ribs from boxing, the last time the police arrested Lloyd they beat him, and Joey's temper flares ...'

‘Lloyd and Victor will keep him out of trouble. Who's there at this hour?' Betty shouted at a knock on the front door.

Quicker on her feet than Betty, Sali ran and opened it. ‘Constable Davies, is Lloyd or -'

‘No one is hurt, Mrs Evans.' He removed his helmet and his ginger curls shone in the fading light. ‘Can I come in?'

Sali opened the kitchen door wide, but although Huw Davies closed the front door behind him, he remained in the passage.

‘I can't stay. The sergeant doesn't know I'm here, and things still might turn ugly in town. There was trouble down the Ely colliery this afternoon. I'm sorry to have to tell you that your husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law have been arrested. The union solicitor has seen them and is doing all he can for them, but they'll be kept in the cells in the station overnight. They should make bail after their cases have had a preliminary hearing in Porth magistrates' court in the morning.'

‘This is becoming a regular occurrence,' Sali said bitterly. ‘What's the charge this time?'

‘Your husband and father-in-law have been charged with riotous assembling to disturb the public peace, your brother-in-law with assaulting a police officer,' Huw divulged uneasily.

‘Which brother-in-law?'

‘Victor. Joey followed us to the station with a crowd of strikers after the arrests and he's been there ever since so I guessed he hadn't been home to tell you what's been going on.'

‘It was good of you to call,' Sali said contritely, realizing that Huw had risked a reprimand or worse from his sergeant to give her the news.

‘There's over a hundred angry men outside the police station. I only hope we succeed in calming them down and moving them on before we have to arrest anyone else. The men on the picket line in Penygraig threw stones and injured a couple of constables from the Worcester force. There's a lot of anger on both sides. I'd better be getting back before I'm missed.' He opened the door.

‘Thank you, Constable Davies.' Sali offered him her hand and he shook it.

‘I wish I'd brought better news, Mrs Evans.'

‘It was good of you to come.'

Huw put on his helmet, straightened it and ran off down the street.

Betty Morgan joined Sali on the doorstep. ‘Have you noticed the Welsh coppers are the only ones in Pandy who dare walk alone around the town. The English coppers don't even go round in pairs any more, it's threes and fours.'

‘I haven't noticed, Betty, but now I come to think of it, you're right.' Sali looked at the old woman. ‘The kettle should have boiled. Do you still want that tea.'

‘Please.' Betty laid her gnarled, calloused hand over Sali's. ‘I can stay the night if you want me to.'

‘I won't sleep,' Sali warned.

‘My Ned might have gone but that doesn't mean I've stopped caring about the strike and the men. We'll sit up together.'

‘As it looks like we won't be seeing our beds until morning, it's good to have a warm night for it.' Luke threw his head back and stared up at the night sky. A full moon and a million pinpricks of starlight shone down on him. The vastness made his head swim and he reached out and grabbed the nearest shoulder.

‘Watch who you're mauling, Thomas.' Joey brushed Luke's arm aside.

‘Touchy tonight, aren't we?' Luke jibed.

‘Layoff him, Luke.' Alun Richards leaned against the wall behind him. The lower end of Dunraven Street was outlined in ghostly blue-black shadows and the men around him, standing strained and silent, seemed to merge into the scene, casting a peculiar and dreamlike atmosphere.

‘It feels like we've been waiting here for bloody years not hours. Anyone got the time?' Luke looked around. ‘Sorry, dull question. The only honest men in Pandy who can answer that are the pawnbrokers, seeing as they've got all our watches.'

‘It was gone midnight when I called in my house and that was hours ago,' a muffled voice answered.

Joey paced impatiently to the edge of the pavement. ‘If they've beaten my father or brothers the way they beat Lloyd last time ...'

The door of the police station across the road opened. Bright yellow lamplight flooded out and a dozen constables marched out of the building. They stood on the steps for a moment before two figures broke away and crossed the road. Ignoring the officers walking towards them, Joey continued to watch the constables standing outside the station. They were holding batons and he suspected there were others inside preparing for a charge.

‘Get ready, boys,' he muttered out of the side of his mouth.

Sergeant Lamb was the last to leave the station. He stood, hands behind his back in the doorway, staring directly at Joey who remained in the front line of the colliers.

‘Joey?' Gwyn Jenkins approached him, Huw Davies walking closely behind. ‘I'm sorry, son-'

‘I'm not your son,' Joey snapped belligerently. He squared up to Gwyn.

‘I've just spoken to your father and brother -'

‘You beaten them up yet?' Joey's question prompted an angry murmur from the men behind him.

‘No one is going to touch a hair on their heads.'

‘It's not their hair I'm worried about.'

‘They won't be harmed,' Gwyn assured him. ‘The local sergeant is on duty tonight and he's looking after them. Look,' Gwyn parried the angry glares of the men standing around Joey, ‘the last thing, Billy, Lloyd, Victor or any of us want is more trouble, or for any more colliers to get arrested.'

‘You can't arrest the whole bloody lot of us.'

‘Isn't one fine enough for you, Luke?' Gwyn asked. ‘If any officer other than Huw or me hears you using language like that, you'll find yourself back in court for swearing.'

‘Please, have a bit of common sense,' Huw pleaded, when he saw a collier pull a stick from his sleeve. ‘One glimpse of a weapon and the sergeant will roust a couple of hundred officers from their beds and order a baton charge.'

‘You have my word that Billy, Lloyd and Victor Evans are being well looked after,' Gwyn reiterated. When the men facing him remained hostile and silent, he added, ‘You saw Geoffrey Francis leave the building. Didn't he tell you they were fine?'

‘That was hours ago,' Luke shouted. ‘Anything could have happened to them since then.'

‘The only thing that's happened to them is they've been given a fish and chip supper,' Gwyn retorted.

‘After you charged them and put them in a cell,' Joey reminded.

Gwyn and Huw waited for the chorus of catcalls, derogatory whistles and groans to subside.

‘What I'd like to know is why you're not charging the whole damned lot of us,' Alun Richards demanded.

‘We'd clog up the courts if we did that,' Gwyn said patiently.

‘So, it's easier to pick on our leaders than all of us?' Luke taunted.

‘Victor isn't a strike leader,' Joey argued.

‘Victor has admitted that he tried to prevent a police officer from arresting your father, Joey,' Gwyn said.

‘My father's just come out of hospital, he's a sick man -'

The sergeant barked an order and the constables standing on the steps marched forward. Another dozen moved out of the station behind them, and another dozen and another dozen after that.

‘For Christ's sake, go home, boys,' Gwyn pleaded.

‘And the minute we've gone you'll beat my father and brothers just like you beat Lloyd the last time he was in here.'

‘You have my word, Joey. They'll be fine. Please, go,' Gwyn begged.

Gwyn and Huw stood impotently watching the strikers produce more sticks they'd hidden in their clothes. Some of the men raised their hands and the officers saw the dull gleam of stones. Missiles were thrown at the advancing line of constables across the street.

‘When are you going to see sense?' Gwyn shouted in desperation.

‘Haven't you heard?' Joey yelled back. ‘Sense was the first casualty of this bloody strike.'

‘Were any of the officers badly hurt last night?' Victor asked Megan and Mrs Palmer the next morning when he sat in the kitchen of the lodging house drinking the tea Mrs Palmer had poured for him. He'd called in on his way home from the magistrates' court and every time he looked at Megan, clean and pristine in her freshly laundered cotton dress and white apron, he was all the more conscious of his unwashed and crumpled state.

‘Cuts, bruises, nothing serious,' Joyce revealed. ‘Which, from what I've heard, is about the same as most of the strikers got for their trouble.'

‘Seems to be, or so I heard someone say in the court today. Our Joey has a new lump on his head, as well as a black eye. But he'll live.'

‘You going to get another fine?' Megan asked Victor anxiously, wondering if he would ever be able to give up boxing.

‘Probably.' Victor decided there was no point in worrying Megan by telling her that half the constables down at the colliery had seen him push a police officer to the ground. His only defence was his concern for his father. An officer had grabbed him, causing him to lose a crutch. He sensed the excuse wouldn't sway any court in his favour.

‘The whole town is sick of this strike, police as well as colliers.' Joyce Palmer pushed the sugar bowl towards him.

‘I agree with you there, Mrs Palmer. The end can't come soon enough. No thank you.' He left the sugar bowl in the middle of the table. ‘We've done without sugar for so long now, I'm used to the taste of tea without it.'

‘So, what happens now?' Megan rose to her feet as he left his chair.

Victor finished his tea and set his cup back on its saucer. ‘We wait for the case to come to court and I try to fit in as many boxing matches as I can in the meantime to pay our fines.'

‘There has to be another way ...'

‘Tell me what it is and I'll do it. Thank you for the tea, Mrs Palmer.'

‘You're welcome, Victor.' She cleared his cup and saucer.

‘Pick you up on Saturday, Megs?' he asked, as she opened the door for him.

‘Can I walk Victor out, Mrs Palmer?'

‘Be my guest, Megan. Take care, Victor. And tell your father and Lloyd to be careful. The men need their strike leaders. That's why your family is being targeted. Everyone knows they are the brains of the union and the strike committee, and the authorities aren't stupid. They realize that if you cut off the head the rest of the body is useless.'

‘They're aware of it, Mrs Palmer, but thank you for your concern. Good morning.'

‘And a good morning to you, Victor.' Mrs Palmer watched him step through the doorway that seemed far too small for a man of his size. Megan went after him and closed the door behind her.

‘I worry about you.' She wrapped her arms around Victor's waist.

‘There's no need, Megs, I can take care of myself. And now,' he gently disengaged her arms and kissed the top of her head, ‘I am going to go home and have a bath, in cold water if there's no warm. I always feel filthy after a night in the cells.'

‘The way you're talking anyone would think that you spend every night in the police station.'

‘Believe me, love, two nights in one lifetime are two too many.' He kissed her again and walked down the lane.

‘Victor?' Huw Davies ran after him as he emerged into the street. ‘I'm sorry about yesterday ...'

‘Joey told us this morning what you and Gwyn did to try to calm the situation outside the police station last night. I'm only sorry you didn't succeed,' Victor said earnestly. ‘Our Joey has a hot temper, particularly when he feels our father is being threatened, but if it's any consolation to your injured colleagues, he's suffering for losing it this morning.'

‘At least Joey hasn't been charged with an offence, unlike you, your father and brother. Look, I have four tickets for a chapel concert on Sunday and I know Megan gets time off. I thought that we could take Megan and Lena ...'