A Shop in the High Street Read online

  A Shop in the High Street

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Read More

  Copyright

  A Shop in the High Street

  Grace Thompson

  Chapter One

  Edward Jenkins of Montague Court Hotel and Restaurant stood in the pouring rain on an April evening, staring through the grimy window of an empty shop. It wasn’t much on which to build a dream, but he envisaged the window clean, freshly painted, and filled with a display of sports equipment such as the small Welsh seaside town of Pendragon Island had never seen.

  Until recently, when his parents had died leaving him a half share of Montague Court, he had pushed the dream of owning and running a sports shop far from his mind. With his commitment to the family business, and his sister Margaret determined he would never forget his responsibilities, he had given up all hope. Now, everything had changed. He had changed and the idea was no longer a fanciful dream, but a possibility. This tatty-looking shop was the chrysalis from which the butterfly of his future life would emerge.

  He smiled at the well-worn metaphor, his thin schoolboyish features softening, the mouth relaxing from its usual tautness. He was a tall man, wearing a riding mac over a well-cut suit, a trilby protected from the downpour by an ancient umbrella. Like his conventional clothing, Edward had formal attitudes and an accent that clearly showed his background and schooling had been expensive.

  Until very recently he had done everything expected of him: supported the family in their efforts to hold back the tide of progress; doing his duty and hating it. Then he had suddenly rebelled – stepped aside from a family entrenched in the traditions of monied background – and told his sister he would uphold the family business no longer.

  It was exhilarating, but also frightening, to be completely alone, belonging nowhere and with no one.

  Edward brought his thoughts back to the present and stared at the dilapidated shop in front of him, the appearance of which was worsened by the dark, wet, dreary evening. The name above the rain-spattered window was faded but he could still make out the words: William Jones, Draper.

  The weather over the years had taken its toll, and mildew had added its camouflage colours. Water had made its relentless way through rotten wood and lay in an ever widening pool on the floor inside. The confidence that had spurted long enough for him to outsmart his strong-minded sister Margaret had quickly faded. As he stood there, hardly aware of the rainwater running down the large black umbrella and dripping onto the bottom of his trousers, seeping into his socks and the expensive leather shoes, he felt the last dregs of it fading away.

  He was so alone. If only he’d found someone to share it, to be his partner, but, he admitted sadly, he wasn’t that good at making friends. Once, a long time ago there had been Rachel, but Margaret had made sure she hadn’t been waiting for him on his return from Egypt when he left the RAF. More recently there had been a rather foolish involvement with a woman called Maisie but she had left him too.

  How could he consider running a business when he had no one to help or even with whom he could discuss his plans? It was hopeless. He was hopeless.

  He heard someone running towards him and began to move away. But, as the approaching footsteps slowed to a walk, he turned back for one last look at the mess that was to have been the beginning of his splendid new life. He had been a fool to think he could do it.

  The footsteps drew nearer then stopped and he heard a woman’s voice mutter, “Damnation!” He turned to face the woman, now wildly waving her umbrella as she hopped about on one foot, trying to deal with a problem shoe.

  “Can I help?” he asked hesitantly. Even from the single word he’d had the impression this was no helpless female desperate for a man to offer assistance. Then, as both umbrellas were tilted back to reveal the two people to each other, he recognised Megan Weston, once wealthy, spoilt and very confident, and wished he hadn’t spoken. Megan Fowler-Weston was certainly no helpless female; in fact, with her overbearing, dogmatic personality, she was someone who unnerved him completely.

  “Miss Weston. Have you hurt your foot?” he asked.

  “Broken the blasted heel!”

  Edward wanted to run away, make some excuse about an important appointment, but he couldn’t. Unwillingly, he offered his arm. “I’ll be pleased to help you to a phone box,” he suggested, “or, if you don’t mind accepting a lift from me, my car is not far.”

  “Your car,” she said peremptorily. “And why should I mind?”

  He didn’t reply.

  She walked on one foot and one toe tip as they made their way around the corner to where he had parked his Morris Minor. He almost apologised for the smallness of it, remembering that her grandfather had once owned a Jaguar. Then he reminded himself that Arfon Weston – in fact all the Westons, Megan included – had since come down in the world and he now drove a more modest vehicle.

  With the engine humming, she settled into the passenger seat, threw her sodden umbrella behind the back of the seat and kicked off both her shoes before offering a belated, “Thanks.”

  “Where would you like to be taken?” he asked as he took a cloth and wiped the misty windscreen.

  “Somewhere miles from Pendragon Island, from choice!”

  He hesitated, his hand on the indicator. “North? South? East or west?” he smiled.

  Edward was rewarded with a rueful smile. “Sorry, I’m fed up with doting families if you must know. Drive me home, will you?” He was given directions to Glebe Lane where Megan lived with her parents, and set off through the heavy rain, which had emptied the streets of traffic.

  He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but didn’t know how to begin. He knew she was expecting a baby out of wedlock, of course. That had been the source of gossip in the kitchens of Montague Court for weeks.

  His sister Margaret Jenkins was having an affair with Megan’s Uncle Islwyn, which was another source of kitchen gossip, but only when his sister was not around.

  Groping around for a safe subject he dared to ask, “When is the baby due?” then wished he hadn’t.

  “August,” she answered easily. “It seems a long way off. Too far off to start worrying about it yet, but my mother and Grandmothers Weston and Fowler are fussing as if I were the first person ever to produce without the supporting arm of a husband.”

  “You don’t want to marry my cousin?”

  “Edward! You’ve just gone up in my estimation!”

  “Why? What have I said?”

  “Everyone presumes that it was I who was ‘left in the lurch’, whatever that means. No one has considered that I did not want to marry Terrence. You are the first to suggest it. Thank you!” Embarrassed, Edward said, “To be perfectly truthful, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to marry Terrence. He’s far from my favourite person. I’d hate to think you married him for the sake of giving the baby a name.”

  “What were you doing staring into an empty shop, Edward?” she asked a moment later.

  “Oh, I was just, I was—”

  “It’s all right. You don’t have to tell me. Just because I unburdened my soul to you, doesn’t mean you’re obliged to reciprocate!” Her loud, confident voice made her sound irritable even when she wasn’t. This time she took
the sting out of her sharpness with a smile.

  “All right, if you want to know, I want to open the depressing-looking place as a sports shop. There, aren’t you going to tell me how stupid I am? That the town doesn’t have the need of one? That I’ll fail because I’m not friendly enough? That I’ll end up destitute, having lost all my money?”

  “I think it’s a brilliant idea. If it weren’t for The Lump,” she patted her slightly extended stomach, “I’d offer to help!”

  “My turn to say thanks,” he grinned.

  Megan was surprised by the difference the smile made to his bland face. He normally wore a sombre, slightly nervous expression and appeared ready to apologise the moment some­ one approached him. Now this unexpected encounter seemed to have relaxed him. His eyes glinted in the darkness and his teeth showed even and white. She realised that he was much younger than she had previously thought.

  “To take over the old draper’s shop and transform it will be costly,” she coaxed and waited for his reply. She watched him in the gloom of the evening, guessing from his slight frown that vanished the smile without trace, that he was undecided whether or not to continue to discuss it. “Starting from nothing – in fact, less than nothing, seeing the awful state of the place.” Still no response. “You’ll need an awful lot of capital to buy the property, clean it up and stock it sufficiently to attract buyers. It isn’t an impossible dream though.”

  She knew she had said the right thing; his frown lifted and he turned to her and asked, “Megan, will you come with me tomorrow and look at it?” Then, regretting the impulse he quickly added, “but there, I don’t suppose you have the time, a busy young woman like you. Sorry I men­tioned it.”

  “Why me?” she enquired, ignoring his retreat.

  “I shouldn’t have asked you, but I need a second eye on the place. I don’t think I see clearly because I want it so much.”

  “What fun!” she smiled. “Shall we say two o’clock? I have a ghastly visit to the doctor in the morning, to make sure The Lump is making good progress.”

  “You’ll come?”

  “Try and stop me!”

  Edward watched her walk away, limping up the path on her broken shoe to her front door and letting herself inside, while he idled the car engine and held back from letting in the clutch. He felt slightly embarrassed, wondering what the forthright Miss Megan Fowler-Weston would think of the almost derelict property. It looked even worse inside. He sighed, accepting the inevitable, that he would walk away after their two o’clock appointment convinced that he would never succeed in creating his own little empire. He could almost hear his sister Margaret’ s laughter at his failed and costly efforts.

  He drove back to Montague Court in time to clear the last of the dishes and set the tables for breakfast, wishing he were miles away from the seaside town of Pendragon Island. But where he would like to be, he had no idea. A ship without a rudder, that’s me, he sighed.

  * * *

  Megan was waiting for him when he reached the old drap­er’s shop the following day. Edward was tense, having had an argument with Margaret about his refusal to finish his lunchtime duties and, seeing an offended frown on Megan’s face – probably because he’d had the audacity to keep her waiting – he showed less than his usual politeness as he said, “Don’t start. I was unavoidably held up.” He felt a frisson of excitement as she opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again without uttering a word. For a moment he wanted to apologise but held it back. The next few minutes would give her plenty of chances to get her own back!

  To his surprise she didn’t react unfavourably at once, but walked around the double-fronted premises in silence. She followed him into the back room where the draper had once kept his stock but which was now a mess of broken shelves and unrecognisable clutter.

  A door which squealed its protest on the red and black tiles was opened to reveal a kitchen which, in turn, led down rickety steps to a small, completely overgrown garden.

  “Hard to imagine, Edward,” Megan said then, “but this faces almost due south and would be a sunny and a pleasant place to sit.”

  “I always feel there’s something sad about an abandoned garden, although heaven knows why I think so. I’ve never so much as cut a blade of grass, and I wouldn’t know which way up to plant anything. I can’t even name these trees.”

  “You have bramble, nettles, some optimistic ash and syca­more trees and the ubiquitous buddleia,” she said with auth­ority.

  They left the tangle of vegetation and went back inside. “Pretty hopeless, eh?” Edward said with a shrug, feeding her with words.

  “D’you think so? I was imagining it once someone like Mrs Collins – Victoria’s mother – had had a few days here. It really wants little more than a good clean. Then there’s the Griffithses. Good at odd jobs they are. Get them to clear out all the rubbish first, then get them back to do some painting and you’d have a place burgeoning with possibilities.”

  “I thought you’d tell me to forget it.”

  “Well if you’re that defeatist you might as well,” she said, the sharpness returning to her voice.

  “You’re right. I expect to fail. It’s time I changed all that, isn’t, it?”

  “I should say so.” She looked at him, staring in a way that made him edgy, like a pupil before a headmistress’s accu­sations. “I can’t do anything really useful, Edward, because of The Lump, but I’m bored and I’d enjoy helping with the planning. In fact, if you decide to go ahead, I’ll go with you to see Frank Griffiths and get him to agree to the cleaning-up process. Phone me when you decide.”

  “We haven’t sold Montague Court yet. There have been viewers but I suspect most of them have been local people curious to see inside what was once a manor house and is now in the reduced circumstance of a restaurant and hotel. I also suspect,” he added slowly, “that my sister is discouraging those who do show interest.”

  “Then be there yourself. You can find out from the agent when to expect prospective buyers if Margaret is devious.”

  “Yes, of course. That’s, what I’ll do. And there are ways of getting started without waiting for a sale. The agent explained it all to me.”

  “So?” Megan said with a touch of impatience, “So will you continue to think about it? Think and think until the opportunity is gone?”

  “I have decided,” he said and it was as though he was listening to someone else talking. “I am going to do it.”

  She didn’t enthuse or even show surprise, she just said, “We’ll go and see Frank and Ernie Griffiths this evening. Call for me at seven.”

  Going back to the estate agent, Edward explained that he wanted to buy the shop but until the estate was settled he wasn’t able to commit himself, and after long negotiations with the owner, a contract was drawn up for one year’s rental during which time he had the opportunity to buy. He went home feeling more drunk than sober even though he hadn’t touched a drop. He left the office trembling with that now familiar mixture of fear and excitement.

  * * *

  The rain had stopped and a weak moon showed itself as Edward knocked on the door at seven o’clock. Megan didn’t invite him in, she was waiting for him and came out immediately.

  “We’ll walk, it isn’t far and I feel the need to stretch my legs after a day of rain.”

  He locked the car and they set off together, chatting easily about the work needed and the sequence in which it should be done. He had some letters to post and they were passing her grandparents’ house on the way to the main post office, when they heard shouts. A man ran out of Arfon and Gladys Weston’s gate and pushed past them. Edward steadied Megan before seeing her grandfather shouting and gesturing for him to chase the man. He ran a short distance down the road and amazingly caught up with the man, who was of equal height as himself and about the same weight.

  “Get off me you damned fool,” the man muttered, his voice surprising Edward by its well modulated tone. He grabbed the man’s s
houlder and tried to swing him around; he wore a mask, and as Edward made an attempt to remove it, he lost his grip. The man wriggled violently and made his escape.

  “Sorry, but he got away,” he apologised. “But I heard him speak and he didn’t sound like a working-class chancer. He was educated and from the way he struggled, very fit.”

  Arfon was hugging Megan and he said gruffly, “Are you all right my dear? Not hurt? You’d better come in.” Arfon peered at the man now standing beside his granddaughter and added, “Edward Jenkins isn’t it? You’d better come in too. Hurry Megan, I need to call the police and you can help settle your grandmother.”

  “Police? Grandfather! For goodness sake tell me what happened?”

  “Someone tried to rob us that’s what, but we’re all right. No one harmed. What cheek! At this time of an evening too!”

  Going into the large, well-furnished house overlooking the docks, Edward felt uneasy. This wasn’t his affair, and it would be best if he left. He began to excuse himself from staying, but Megan insisted he waited until the police arrived, so he went into the kitchen and made tea while Megan comforted Gladys and Arfon who were complaining loudly.

  * * *

  The thief stopped not far from where he had lost sight of Edward and took a breath. Then he walked slowly and casu­ally through the streets back to the house he shared with Barbara Wheel and their two daughters. The accent had been a sudden improvisation and it had given him an idea. Tomorrow he would go into Cardiff and buy himself a really smart suit, shirt and some shoes. The police investigating the robberies wouldn’t be looking for someone like Percy Flemming, assistant gardener, would they? Not if the intruder had been described as well dressed and with a ‘posh’ accent.

  * * *

  The police arrived and Arfon went into what Gladys called his public speaking mode, and in a pompous voice described how he and Gladys heard something and went to investigate and saw a man in the hall. Arfon made much of the way he chased the intruder; Gladys cried a little and Megan and Edward added what they knew, before they abandoned their intention to visit the Griffithses and Edward took Megan home.