Winners and Losers (44 page)

‘Miss O'Leary.' The minister doffed his hat.

‘Can I help you, Mr Walker?' she enquired, glancing warily at Sergeant Martin.

‘We've come for Miss Megan Williams,' the officer informed her flatly.

‘Come for ... she's ill.'

‘She's in need of moral protection.'

‘And we're going to see that she gets it,' the small wizened man yelled.

‘I don't understand.' Annie gazed at the men in bewilderment.

Megan appeared on the stairs. She gripped the banisters tightly, barely able to stand.

‘That's my daughter,' Ianto Williams pointed at her. ‘You have her birth certificate, sergeant. She's not twenty years old. I am her father and she has to do whatever I say.'

The minister saw doors opening up and down the street and the neighbours leaving their houses. ‘The law is on your side, Mr Williams, but it would be better if we do this quietly,' he muttered anxiously.

Sergeant Martin took charge of the situation. ‘Miss Williams, you are in grave moral danger. By flaunting yourself, you have roused and provoked an unknown man to attack you. I myself have seen Mr Victor Evans in your bedroom when you were attired in only a nightgown. The neighbours are aware that you and the bachelor, Victor Evans, share a bedroom at night. You are a minor living in sin, and in accordance with your father's wishes, you will be removed to a place where you can receive moral and religious guidance.'

Brusquely warned by Sergeant Martin to stay out of affairs that did not concern her, Annie grasped Harry tightly while the officer, Ianto Williams and Mr Walker half bundled, half carried Megan into a hired brake. Crying tears of frustration and rage, furious at her own helplessness, she stood on the pavement and watched the vehicle drive away less than five minutes after the sergeant had knocked on the door.

Harry looked after the brake in confusion. ‘Auntie Megan's gone?'

‘She's gone, Harry, and I don't know what your Uncle Victor is going to say about it.'

‘He has no right to say anything,' Mrs Robinson shouted from across the road. ‘The Evanses are a disgrace and an affront to decent people. First Lloyd Evans lives openly with a woman before marrying her, and now Victor does the same. I am afraid to tell people where I live. It's got so a respectable person from this street can't hold their head up for fear of being tarred with the same mucky brush as the Evans women.'

‘Don't worry, Mrs Robinson.' Annie gave the fat middle-aged woman a contemptuous stare. ‘No one would ever mistake you for a woman a man would want in his bed.'

‘But Mrs Palmer told me that Lena had taken out a penny a week burial insurance,' Sali insisted, as she and Lloyd walked along the road towards  Trealaw cemetery with his father and brothers.

‘She may have taken it out, sweetheart, but the companies never pay in cases of suicide. Their argument against doing so is that too many people might see it as the only possible ticket to a decent funeral.' He covered her hand with his as she tucked it into his arm.

‘So who is paying for the funeral?' Victor asked.

‘Mrs Palmer, but she won't be too much out of pocket. Betty told me last night that the men in the lodging house held a collection that has covered the cost of the coffin and the grave, and Huw Davies insisted on paying the undertaker for his services and the carriages, which only leaves the headstone and the funeral tea. And because it's unconsecrated ground, the headstone will have to be small and simple.'

‘This has to be the largest gathering I've ever seen for a funeral outside consecrated ground,' Billy Evans commented, as they approached the crowd waiting on the path that led to the graves.

‘Every police officer not on duty must be here.' Victor scanned the twin lines of uniformed men lining the path from the gates to the newly dug grave outside the cemetery boundary. He recognized most of Mrs Palmer's lodgers among the hundreds in the line-up, but although the police presence was strong, there were few civilians. Three tradesmen who supplied Mrs Palmer were there, including Connie (who had driven over with her delivery driver in the cart, because with Annie absent she was reluctant to leave the shop for any length of time) and four colliers who had lodged with Joyce before the house had been taken over by the police. All sporting bruises, as he and his brothers were, picked up during the fighting that had erupted in the Empire Theatre.

Ten minutes later, the black top hat of the undertaker came into view as he walked slowly up the road in front of the hearse pulled by a matching pair of sleek black horses with black plumes fixed to their heads. A single mourners' carriage followed. Six police officers in uniform stepped out of the lines, all tall and well-built with ginger hair. They bore a strong resemblance to Huw Davies and Victor assumed that he had asked his brothers to act as bearers. The undertaker opened the glass panel at the back of the hearse and supervised the removal of the coffin. The men shouldered it.

Huw Davies left the carriage and helped Mrs Palmer, Mrs Morgan and a girl down. She slipped her small hand into Huw's and Victor recalled Megan telling him that Huw had a young sister. The undertaker led the way, the bearers with the coffin followed. Huw, Mrs Palmer, Betty Morgan and Huw's sister took the position of chief mourners along with Father Kelly and the Reverend Williams, who walked behind the coffin as ‘friends of the deceased', the position forced on them by the edicts of their respective churches.

As the cortège moved slowly down between the lines of police to the open grave, the officers lining the route joined it. The coffin was lowered on to the carefully positioned ropes beside the newly dug pit and the officers removed their helmets. They grouped together in an obviously rehearsed stance. Sergeant Martin faced them in much the same way that a conductor faces a choir and, at a signal from him, they began to recite the Lord's Prayer.

Sali was glad of the veil that covered her face and hid her tears when the men followed the prayer with two beautifully sung hymns, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd' and ‘Love Divine'. The silence that followed was punctuated by sobs from Mrs Morgan and Huw's sister. Father Kelly and the Reverend Williams exchanged glances. The Catholic priest nodded to the undertaker, who signalled to the gravediggers. Four men moved either side of the pit, lifted the ropes and began lowering the coffin.

‘All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one,' Father Kelly recited in his rich Irish brogue. ‘But we should not forget that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'

The ‘Amen' that followed resounded in the still air, muffling the sound of the coffin hitting the earth at the bottom of the grave. Mrs Palmer, Betty Morgan and Huw's sister each threw a rosebud into the grave and Sali dropped the posy of rosebuds she'd cut that morning.

‘Well,' Billy Evans said as he limped alongside Sali and his sons back towards the road, ‘that was some funeral service, but I don't think it could be said to be Catholic, chapel or Anglican.'

‘It was beautiful.' Sali laid her hands over her stomach. She could feel her baby moving within her and, remembering Megan's story of how Lena had been orphaned, prayed that she'd be able to give it a better life than Lena's parents had given her. She stopped and looked back from the gate. Huw Davies was standing alone at the edge of the grave watching the gravediggers filling it in. ‘He shouldn't be by himself.'

‘He's not,' Lloyd reassured. ‘Look behind him.'

Huw's father, brothers and sister were waiting for him.

‘Let's go home.' Victor felt that he had never needed Megan quite as much as he did at that moment.

‘The bloody minister must have planned this,' Billy swore angrily as Annie fought back tears. ‘He knew we'd be at the funeral, that there wouldn't be a man in the house.'

‘Victor,' Lloyd stood in front of the door, blocking his brother's path, ‘where are you going?'

‘To see Mr Walker to find out where her father's taken her.'

‘You confront Mr Walker in this mood and you'll be spending the next ten years in gaol,' Lloyd warned.

Victor eyed his brother then turned on his heel.

‘Joey, stop him!' Lloyd shouted, as Victor headed for the basement door.

Joey did his best, but at six foot, he was six inches shorter and three stone lighter than Victor, who picked him up and set him to one side before opening the basement door and leaving.

Mr Evans reached for his cap. ‘I still haven't got the hang of this leg. You boys run on ahead to the minister's and try to stop Victor from doing something he'll regret. Sali, you stay here,' he ordered, as she exchanged the veiled hat she'd worn to the funeral for her everyday one. ‘We can't risk you getting involved in anything in your condition.'

Sali looked at Annie, who was still tearfully clutching Harry.

‘I shouldn't have let them take her ...'

‘You couldn't have stopped them, Annie,' Sali comforted her. ‘Megan's father had the law on his side, a police sergeant to enforce it and Mr Walker as his witness.'

‘What do we do now?' Annie asked.

Sali set her mouth into a thin grim line. ‘We wait.'

‘The minister isn't in,' Mrs Walker snapped when she opened her front door to see Victor filling her small porch.

Victor pushed his foot in the doorway when Mrs Walker tried to close the door. ‘Then I'll wait until he comes back.'

‘Not in this house, you won't, I don't allow strangers inside.'

‘What time are you expecting him?'

‘I'm not. Jenny?' Mrs Walker shrieked to her maid of all work. ‘Go out the back door and run to the police station to fetch a constable. Tell him we have trouble at Mr Walker's house.'

‘I need to see the minister urgently,' Victor pleaded. ‘He has taken my fiancée ...'

Lloyd looked up the hill and saw Victor shouting at Mrs Walker on the porch of her detached villa.

‘You know what he's like when it comes to anything to do with Megan. We'll never calm him down.' Joey ran alongside Lloyd as he quickened his pace.

‘I doubt that Mr Walker took her to his house. I'll see what I can do here. You go down to the station and see if they've already left Tonypandy by train.'

‘They could have gone by tram.'

‘Whatever,' Lloyd countered impatiently. ‘Annie said they left the house in a hired brake. Someone must have seen them.' He charged up the hill towards Victor, who was still shouting at Mrs Walker. Lloyd lifted his hat and slowed his step as he walked up the steps to Mrs Walker's front door.

‘I've sent for the police.' She tried to slam the door again, but Victor refused to move his foot.

‘Victor,' Lloyd touched his brother's arm, ‘I think Mrs Walker wants to close her front door.'

‘And I want to see Mr Walker,' Victor repeated obdurately.

‘I am sure that Mrs Walker can have no objection to us waiting on the road for her husband.' Lloyd smiled at the minister's wife.

Victor looked at the woman and realized he'd terrified her. He moved his foot and lifted his cap. ‘I'm sorry, Mrs Walker but -'

The door slammed in his face.

‘I sent Joey to the station to see if he can find out where the hired brake took Megan and her father.'

The anger that had sustained Victor ebbed and he sank down on the doorstep in despair. ‘It's as Annie said. Megan's father had Sergeant Martin with him. That man does everything by the book. The law is on their side. She's her father's daughter and he can do whatever he wants with her.'

‘Whatever we think of Mr Williams, or however misguided he is, he must care for Megan and sincerely believed that he is doing what is best for her.'

‘Do you really think that?' Victor questioned acidly. ‘You heard Annie. The Sergeant said Megan was in need of moral protection. You know what that means. They could put her into a correctional ward in a workhouse and even if I find her I'd have no right to take her out. Not until she is twenty-one and perhaps not even then if her father has had her committed.'

‘He could have taken her home.' Lloyd sat beside him.

‘And pay for her keep?' Victor dismissed cynically. ‘All he's interested in, all he has ever been interested in, are the postal orders Megan sends him.'

‘Well, there won't be any more of those.'

‘If I had money I could try to buy him off, but as much as he loves money I doubt he'd take it from a Catholic.' Victor rose to his feet and dusted off the back of his trousers when he saw the maid, Jenny, walk up the steps accompanied by a constable.

‘We've had a report of a disturbance here,' the constable informed them officiously.

‘We are waiting for Mr Walker. He removed a young girl from my father's house this morning,' Lloyd interposed. ‘And we are concerned for her safety.'

‘Constable.' Mr Walker opened his front door and joined them.

‘Mr Walker,' Victor crossed his arms and looked at him. ‘Mrs Walker said you weren't in the house.'

‘I have just walked in through the back door.' He turned to the constable. ‘Sergeant Martin, whom I'm sure you know, and I helped a young girl's father to remove her from Mr William Evans' house this morning because she was in a morally precipitous situation. Her father is her legal guardian.'

‘How old was the girl?' The constable unbuttoned the breast pocket on his tunic and removed a notebook and pencil.

‘Under twenty and she was in moral danger.'

‘And she is now with her father?' The constable scribbled a note.

‘She is.'

‘Where?' Victor demanded.

‘Somewhere where she will receive care and Christian guidance and you will never find her.'