The Homecoming Read online

  The Homecoming

  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

  Copyright

  The Homecoming

  Grace Thompson

  Chapter One

  From the gate of her Aunt Stella’s cottage, Lydia looked up at the ruined castle, impressively large from where she stood. It had been there, looking out over the sweep of the bay, for more than seven centuries and looked solid enough to last another seven. Behind her she could hear her mother and aunt arguing. Auntie Stella pleading, her mother tearful and determined.

  ‘But Annie,’ Stella said patiently. ‘I have to do my shopping. And I always meet my friends for a chat on a Wednesday, you know this, so why are you so difficult? And what about your Lydia? This is her half day and she’s got things to do. Working all the hours she does, you should consider her time if not mine!’

  ‘I don’t feel well enough to travel home without Billy. I’ll wait here until Billy comes and fetches me.’

  ‘You’ll have to sit on your own then. I’m off to the shops. Lydia, if she has any sense, will go home without you!’

  Annie Jones smiled. She knew Lydia wouldn’t leave her alone.

  Lydia’s mother was what many secretly called a ‘willing invalid’. There wasn’t an apparent reason why she was unable to walk far, or why she had to spend so much of the year in bed, but since Lydia, her only child, was born, she had been ‘indisposed’.

  Lydia listened to the exchange and sighed, her deep blue eyes lacking their usual cheerfulness, her long, light brown hair screening her dismay from her aunt. Dad would be disappointed not to see her when he got home from work. He’d have to change – because Mam didn’t like him to come in his working clothes – and come to fetch her, when he had hoped to go straight to the allotment for an hour or two. It seemed that even her father’s brief Wednesday respites were to be lost.

  All winter, Annie stayed in her bed, with her sister, Stella calling in each day to check all was well and spending most of the day with her. During the all too brief summer, she was taken by taxi from her home overlooking the bay, to the home of her sister Stella, to stay there until Billy went by taxi to collect her. Auntie Stella, Lydia thought, was a saint!

  Without the assistance of that patient lady, Lydia would have been unable to work. She had stayed at home looking after her mother since leaving school until one day, when she had reached the age of eighteen, her father had insisted they found a different way of dealing with their problem. Stella willingly agreed to help them and during the winter months taxied to their home and stayed with Annie until Billy returned from work.

  Every day during the summer, apart from weekends, Annie was taken by taxi to Stella to stay until Billy arrived by taxi to take her home again. She refused to go with anyone but Billy except on Wednesdays, when she allowed her daughter to escort her. Now Wednesdays were no longer a break in routine, for either Stella or Billy.

  Because it was easier for Stella, the summer regime continued as long as they could persuade Annie it was still summer. It was already October and they all knew that it wouldn’t be many more weeks before Annie refused to leave her bed, and Stella would have the extra work involved in coming to stay with her.

  ‘At least I can get on with my own work while she stays with me,’ she had confided to Lydia. ‘Having to come to you means so much of my time spent out of the house.’

  ‘Luckily it’s a mild Autumn, we should manage for a while longer.’

  Lydia sighed as she watched her aunt set off to do her shopping. They both knew that the stubborness of Wednesday was the beginning of the end of their summer arrangement and any day now, Annie would settle herself into her winter hibernation.

  ‘Lydia, can you fetch a drink? A glass of water will do if you haven’t time to make a cup of tea,’ Annie called. Lydia made the tea and returned to stare out over the road to the castle. She didn’t often become irritable with her mother but today she had planned to do so much. With Glyn coming home soon, she wanted to catch up with her work so she was free to be with him. Or as free as her mother’s ‘illness’ would allow.

  Glyn Howe was the brother of Tomos who, with his father Gimlet Howe ran the local taxi service. Her family and theirs had always been close. Her father, Billy Jones, had been friends with Gimlet Howe since they were children and all her life, Gimlet’s sons, Tomos, who ran the taxi service, and Glyn, who was in the navy, had been an important part of her life. The romance between herself and Glyn had evolved out of a contented childhood in which the brothers were her protectors. She loved the Howes dearly but Glyn was the dearest of all and tomorrow he would be coming home to marry her. She was irritated at the change in her plans for the afternoon. She had intended washing her hair and generally preparing for his return.

  From her pocket she took Glyn’s most recent letter. Received more than a month ago, it had been read and re-read so often she could have recited the four pages without unfolding them, but she read it again, trying to see if there was something she had missed, some reason for his failing to write. His words were less loving and there was none of the usual talk about their future.

  Lydia was a small, slim twenty-two-year-old with masses of light brown curling hair and large blue eyes which showed latent humour, and the innocence of youth. She had no experience of flirting and no long list of boyfriends. For as long as she could remember she had loved Glyn Howe.

  She heard voices and walked to the middle of the road to look up at the castle gate. A group of workmen were walking along the top of the high wall, looking through the battlements, pointing, discussing something which she guessed were repairs. The local paper had reported that the place was to be closed for several months while the structure was reinforced and railings added. Fears had been expressed over the safety to the public and work was due to begin the following Easter.

  The men came down towards the gate near her aunt’s house as a council lorry arrived and one of the men removed a roll of wire netting. As she watched, they fixed the wire netting over the top of the gate which they then locked with a pair of padlocks, before climbing onto the back of the lorry and being driven off. When Stella returned from her brief shopping trip, Lydia told her what had happened.

  ‘So, the castle ground is no longer a place for people to kiss and cuddle, walk their dogs or to sit and eat lunch.’

  ‘Nor a place where children can play,’ Lydia said.

  ‘Oh, you’re wrong about that, love. Look up by there.’ Stella pointed to the towering outer wall of the castle below which were allotments. Walking along the narrow path outside the castle and a little above the neat allotments, pressing themselves against the walls was a group of children armed with home-made bows and arrows, and long, pointed sticks. ‘Neville Nolan and his gang for sure,’ Stella laughed. ‘Take more than a few workmen and a couple of padlocks to keep that lot out!’

  ‘Is there any chance of us going home d’you think?’ Lydia asked.

  Stella shook her greying head. ‘I tried again to persuade her but she’s insisting on waiting for your dad. Billy hoped to spend a couple of hours on the allotments didn’t he? Fat chance he’ll have by the time she’s home and sorted. I’m just off to see my friend for an hour, you’ll be all right, love? Promised her I did.’

  ‘Mr Howe is working there already. Clearing a plot for planting his broad beans no doubt. I’d better go and tell him Dad won’t be coming. Mam wo
n’t miss me for a minute or two.’

  Stella slipped on her coat again and chuckled. ‘I wouldn’t bet on that, love.’

  Gilbert Howe, or Gimlet, as he was usually called, had an allotment next to Billy’s and they were friendly rivals for the first and best produce. It was exciting to think of Gimlet Howe being her father-in-law in a few months time. Glyn, who was his youngest son, was leaving the navy for good and the young couple planned to marry within the year.

  Lydia walked up the lane to the smaller gate which opened onto the allotments, and walked towards Gimlet, who was shouting at the group of boys led by Neville Nolan.

  ‘Clear off the lot of you! I won’t tell you again, mind!’ he was shouting. Jeering, blowing raspberries and making thumb-to-nose gestures the boys of Neville’s gang were defying him.

  ‘Over the fence they came, traipsing right across your dad’s allotment and kicking at his winter cabbage. They walk through the place as if they own it and them just been told to stay away from the castle by the men from the council,’ Gimlet said angrily. ‘Fat lot of good putting locks on the gates, it’s them boys they ought to padlock, mind!’

  ‘I don’t think Dad will have time to join you today, Mr Howe,’ Lydia said. ‘Mam’s playing up again. Won’t go home with me, insists on waiting for Dad.’

  ‘Poor old Billy. His weeds will be hiding those leeks completely if he doesn’t get here soon.’ He handed her a hoe. ‘Come on, girl, there’s no point in you standing around too. That chickweed is growing as we watch! If she shouts for you she can’t be heard from here.’

  Lydia tied back her long hair with a scarf and for a while they worked together, exchanging the latest news of Glyn, who was most lax with his letter-writing of late.

  ‘Coming home soon he is,’ Gimlet explained, ‘so there’s less need to write when he’ll be able to tell us himself.’

  ‘I can’t wait,’ Lydia smiled. ‘This is the longest he’s been away. Seven months is a long time.’

  ‘The longest and the last, love. A few weeks and he’ll be settled in his job with Howes’ taxis and home every day so you’re sick of his ugly face.’

  ‘Never. I’ll never be anything but glad he’s back home.’

  It was six o’clock before Lydia, Billy and Annie were back home and almost eight before Annie was settled for the evening. They ate a scratch meal, as Lydia hadn’t been home in time to prepare properly and at nine, Billy said, ‘Will you be all right if I slip out for a pint with Gimlet?’

  ‘Go quiet so Mam doesn’t hear or she’ll be on all the time you’re out,’ she said. She smiled as he tip-toed down the stairs to the kitchen and down the steps to the seafront. From the bay window she waved as he hurried to The Pirate to join Gimlet Howe and their friends.

  * * *

  Woodland skirted the castle on two sides, broken in places by paths and opening out where the allotments had encroached. On the side that faced the sea, a tall man climbed up through the thickly overgrown trees and brambles. He moved slowly and with hardly a sound, following a path regularly used by walkers and children. The fencing was new, placed with the intention of keeping people out, but it was already sagging where people had climbed over, and he vaulted it with ease.

  The tall, well-built man was almost invisible in the darkness. His face, half hidden by a raised collar, was camouflaged by shadows. His feet made hardly a sound. He walked without showing a light; his eyes catlike, observing the bumps and irregularities so he moved without stumbling. He skirted the castle field using the bushes and the low walls for cover.

  On reaching the Chapel block he climbed up and moved close to the wall and worked his way right around the great stone building. Then he stopped and stared upwards, frowning. He had to get inside. If workmen were going to start disturbing the ground he had to get there first and move something that had lain there for years.

  He wondered if he would remember the place. The trees had grown making the exterior of the castle look different, so perhaps the inside had changed too? Would he know the actual spot where he had buried his secret? He had to. If it was found by the workmen there would be an enquiry which would lead unerringly to him. A police investigation was something he could well do without.

  The night was utterly dark, low clouds obliterating the sky and the dampness creating a fog which made hazy puffballs of the street lights. He moved down to the gate opposite Stella’s cottage, abandoned an attempt to climb it because of the freshly fixed netting, and returned the way he had come. Something would have to be done to discourage those boys whom he had seen earlier. Something effective and soon.

  * * *

  Lydia Jones loved the scene from the front window of the bay-fronted cottage high above the sea shore. She could see the whole of the great curved bay, looking over the houses and hotels along the seafront, the boats lying alongside the footpath and beyond, the sea and the steel town opposite. Further still the hills showed; range after range, into the distance where they finally disappeared into the blue haze. She knew she would never tire of it and that was one reason she wanted to live with her parents after she and Glyn married. The bedroom which would be theirs was above this room, with the same view.

  The day was dying, the colours fading. Already, as she watched, the hills were slowly melding into each other and taking the colour of the evening mists. Lights around the pier were beginning to prick the scene, artificially bright in the approaching darkness. She felt no sadness at the departing light and the disappearance of the view. This would be the last day without Glyn. Tomorrow, he was coming home.

  She saw her friend, Molly Powell, running past, back to the house she shared with Mr and Mrs Frank. Molly didn’t hear her knocking on the window and Lydia smiled. Her friend had been off meeting her mysterious boyfriend no doubt. She wondered vaguely why Molly refused to tell her who he was. Molly Powell and she had been friends since their first day at school and had shared each other’s most confidential secrets. This was the first time Molly had held a secret from her. Her mystery man must be very special.

  Closing the curtains with regret, she turned away from the view and glanced at the old brass-bound box in the corner behind the piano. It had been her grandfather’s sea-going chest now doing duty as her ‘bottom drawer’. Inside was a collection of household linen; tablecloths, sheets, pillowcases and towels; all gathered ready for her wedding day. There was also a set of underwear, carefully wrapped in blue tissue. Pure silk and brought for her from Hong Kong by one of her father’s sailor friends. She shivered with excitement at the prospect of wearing it for Glyn.

  After running down to the kitchen to check that the cawl she was making for supper was simmering nicely on the stove, she glanced once more out of the window, pulling the curtains around her face and peering into the now artificially lit street. The lights made it possible to recognise the familiar figure of Tomos Howe, Glyn’s brother who ran the taxi service, walking past. He would be on his way to collect his father, Gimlet, from The Pirate. Dad would be walking back with them. Time to set the table.

  The smile faded from her face as a plaintive voice from upstairs called, ‘Your father not home yet, Lydia? Time he was home.’

  How did she always know when Dad was out? Lydia marvelled. Crept down the stairs like a breath of air he had. ‘Not yet, Mam. I saw Tomos going to fetch Mr Howe, so I expect Dad’ll come now soon. Supper’s ready,’ she added.

  ‘I couldn’t eat a thing. I feel so tired today, love. I didn’t sleep last night. Will you fetch one of my tablets?’

  ‘Mam, you can’t have a tablet. The doctor says you can only have three and you’ll want one at bedtime.’

  ‘I can’t hear you, you’ll have to come up. It wears me out, shouting down the stairs all the time.’

  ‘In a minute, Mam,’ Lydia shouted back. ‘I’m just stirring the cawl.’ Ignoring the request, Lydia went once more to look out of the window. Since coming home from work two hours ago she had been up to her mother seven times and ev
ery time it was unnecessary. Thank goodness Dad would soon be home. Mam would settle then.

  She saw Gimlet Howe and her father approaching and besides them, Tomos. But, she realised with a great lurch of shock and delight, it wasn’t Tomos, but Glyn! How could she not have recognised him before? He no longer wore naval uniform, of course, and in her mind’s eye she still had him dressed as a sailor. How stupid of her not to know at once it was him. A day early and him not giving word, so he could surprise her.

  She felt flustered now he was actually here and she rushed to touch up her lips and add a little colour to her cheeks, and there was time for a swift comb through her hair. She fluffed her curls out a little, stood on tiptoe to check briefly in the mirror over the fireplace, then ran down the stairs through the small kitchen on the ground floor. She realised she was holding her breath, listening to the group approaching. Feet ringing on the stone steps, men’s voices, laughter, the door opening and he was there, smiling and looking so handsome she forgot to breathe again.

  She wanted to run into his arms and feel his lips on her own, but her father was bustling them all in.

  ‘Is there enough supper for a couple more, love?’ Billy asked.

  ‘Plenty, Dad. Welcome, Mr Howe.’ Then she saw that Tomos was with them. ‘Come in, Tomos, unless your wife is expecting you back?’

  ‘Off visiting her mam, as usual,’ Tomos said, glancing at his father, exchanging disapproval.

  Lydia hardly heard what was said, she was looking at Glyn, waiting for his smile that was hers alone, but he seemed to be ignoring her. He looked everywhere except at her eager face, going up the stairs to the living room and standing against the velvet curtains like a stranger.

  ‘Try and persuade your Mam to come down, Lydia,’ Billy said. ‘We’ll make it a party.’

  ‘I’ll get some beer, shall I?’ Glyn suggested. Lydia’s spirits fell. Only now he was come and already he was making excuses to get out.