The Homecoming Read online

  They met several time during the following week, and although Lydia extolled the wonders of his company to Molly, the relationship was not as perfect as she described. It didn’t take more than a few dates for her to realise that, although they talked a lot, it was she who imparted information, and he who listened. Matthew chattered easily about when he was young, telling her things about her father she hadn’t known, including that he had courted her Aunt Stella before marrying her sister Annie. But of the years since he had left the village she learned little. She learned no more about him than what she and her father had guessed when they first saw him standing on the foreshore. And most of that had been wrong.

  ‘How long have you been teaching?’ she asked on one occasion.

  ‘Since I left the army,’ was the brief reply. ‘At least, after college.’

  ‘Have you ever done anything else?’

  ‘Not much, I’ve had a half-year off to travel.’

  ‘Oh, really? Where have you been?’

  ‘Here and there.’

  It was impossible to ask further questions when none were allowed to develop into conversation or discussion and she felt uneasy, there was a closed-in look on his face that made her feel guilty of prying. Then he would smile and look at her with those deep, hooded eyes and say, ‘Lydia, I want to talk about you. My life has been boring. At least it was, until I came here to kick about a few old memories, and found you.’

  He asked about her plans for the future and was surprised when she admitted she had none.

  ‘I, well, Glyn and I always thought we’d marry and I saw no further than that. I thought I’d work on the market stall until the babies came then settle into being a housewife and mother. I’ll always have to look after Mam, too. I’ve never thought any further than that.’

  ‘Is that enough for you? Don’t you have anything burning inside, something you’d love to achieve?’

  ‘I suppose my expectations are low, compared with yours, but I was content to work at the stall, earn a little extra with what I could make and—’

  ‘You said, “I was content”,’ he said, pouncing on the words. ‘Does that mean you’re no longer content to accept what you presently have?’

  ‘I haven’t made any plans,’ she said hesitantly.

  ‘For a start, why work for someone else?’

  ‘What alternative is there?’

  ‘Giving most of the profit for the things you make to your boss seems like idiocy to me. Sell them yourself and get a bigger bite of the cherry.’

  ‘How can I do that?’ she laughed. ‘Carry them around on my back and knock on doors looking for customers?’

  ‘You wouldn’t be the first to start that way. Besides, getting a shop isn’t that impossible. What about that house where your aunt lives? That was a shop once, why not reopen that?’

  ‘It was a hairdresser’s.’

  ‘So?’ He was staring at her so intently she began to feel uncomfortable. ‘Don’t underrate yourself, Lydia.’

  ‘I couldn’t,’ she said. ‘I’m not the type to run a business, learn something new.’ Thinking of Stella’s shop she envisaged becoming a hairdresser and, knowing it wasn’t what she wanted to do, his words were forgotten almost as soon as they were uttered. Besides, his lips, so close to her own, threw all serious thought out of the window. All her mind could grapple with was the kiss that hovered between them. The kiss when it came engulfed her. She felt herself drifting out of her depth, and fast.

  Their need to see each other grew and Stella occasionally helped them to steal a few hours together by sitting with Annie for an hour while Billy went out for his usual couple of pints. On those occasions Billy didn’t always go to The Pirate to meet his friends. Sometimes Lydia returned to find him sitting talking to Stella, sharing a pot of tea.

  Matthew seemed very anxious not to annoy her father. ‘He remembers the old Matthew Hiatt and I have to prove to him that the wild boy has gone for ever.’

  Whenever they went out for the evening, she was always brought home by ten o’clock. ‘He treats me like something fragile and precious,’ she confided in Molly. ‘So different from Glyn.’

  Each night after they parted she would lie awake, re-living their kisses and the way he looked into her eyes so her insides melted, and wondered at the magical way her life had been transformed since she had first spoken to him the night they had rescued Molly and Tomos from the castle. Sometimes, between the dreamlike repetitions of past meetings and dreams of the next date, she thought of Glyn and felt a tiny sensation of remorse and sadness that it was this fascinating stranger and not Glyn who was filling her mind and awakening her body.

  Matthew enjoyed the cinema and was quite knowledgeable about its stars. They laughed through comedies and hugged each other through thrillers and after a couple of weeks Lydia began to wonder if Matthew would be the man with whom she would spend the rest of her life. Then he disappeared.

  After a particularly happy evening during which he gave her a large box of expensive Lintz chocolates and a beautiful bouquet of roses and took her to dine at a rather splendid restaurant, they strolled home beside the sea. They stopped occasionally to kiss, their arms around each other in the privacy of the dark night. He told her she was beautiful and gentle and loving, all the things a true woman should be, then took out a small jeweller’s box. Inside she found a silver bracelet, with three lucky charms on it; a dolphin, a mermaid and a seahorse.

  ‘Matthew, thank you! It’s beautiful!’

  ‘So are you.’

  They delayed going home and instead walked along the front to the next beach. There, sitting on the rocks, with only the sound of the sea as accompaniment, he told her he loved her.

  The next day he was gone.

  It had begun to be a habit for him to walk with her to the bus as she set off for work and this morning he wasn’t there.

  ‘I bet he’s overslept and is still peacefully sleeping,’ Lydia smiled as she and Molly found their seats.

  ‘What were you doing to him last night then?’ Molly teased and saw a flush of embarrassment flood her friend’s face. ‘Serious, is it?’ she whispered.

  ‘I don’t know. It might be,’ Lydia said hesitantly. ‘Too early to say. I know I like him, he makes me feel that life is good.’

  ‘But you still have regrets about Glyn?’ Molly asked.

  ‘No,’ Lydia replied. But the answer was not completely true. Although she and Matthew were happy together and laughed a lot, and he had told her he loved her, there was a residue of doubt. She knew he was holding something back, that he was not showing his true self. She smiled and added, ‘He mentioned taking me to a dance on Saturday. Dad’s giving me the money to buy a new dress.’

  ‘Lucky old you. For my dates I have to put on my oldest clothes and heavy boots,’ Molly chuckled.

  ‘You’re still seeing Tomos then?’

  ‘Not at the castle, mind!’ She smiled secretly. ‘Found somewhere new we have and I’m not telling a soul where it is. We don’t want any more frights like the last one.’

  * * *

  Gimlet showed his unease whenever Matthew Hiatt was mentioned. ‘He bothers me,’ he told Billy one evening when they were sitting in The Pirate. ‘You ought to know why.’

  ‘Because of Rosie, you mean?’

  ‘Of course because of Rosie.’

  ‘It’s all so long ago. Matthew is curious to see the place where he was born and spent the first sixteen years of his life, there’s no chance he’s going to stir up gossip. Not after all this time.’

  ‘I remember the day she left,’ Billy said. ‘I’d seen her the previous evening, remember? You and Mary were sitting with Annie and me pretending to go and visit old Henry Golding who was in hospital.’

  ‘I remember,’ Gimlet said. He was staring intently at Billy. ‘You had a row.’

  ‘She wanted me to leave Annie, and when I said I wouldn’t she asked for money so she could go away and make a fresh start.’ Billy’s e
yes were sad as he brought the scene back to mind. ‘She told me she was pregnant, but I didn’t believe her.’

  ‘You have no idea where she went?’

  ‘None,’ Billy shrugged. ‘I did try and find out, mind, but she covered her tracks well. Didn’t want to be found, that’s my guess.’

  ‘You really haven’t an idea?’

  Billy looked curiously at Gimlet. ‘Of course I haven’t! I’d have said, wouldn’t I? Young Matthew was demented, searching for her. He was a troublesome child but I was sorry for him when she left. He didn’t have anyone else, except that grandmother out in Bridgend. He went to live with her, I remember, but moved on as soon as he could arrange it, and joined the army. I didn’t like the boy, but I’d have helped him find his sister if I’d known where she went.’ He looked at Gimlet who still looked unconvinced. ‘I’d have said!’

  ‘Yes,’ Gimlet nodded. ‘You’d have said.’

  The Pirate was filling up and Glyn and Tomos pushed through the doors and struggled through the crowds to join them. Tomos ordered drinks and the brothers at once began arguing.

  ‘I’m giving you all the work I can! I have to live too!’ Tomos said. ‘It would be different if you’d come on a permanent basis as we’d planned, but now, well, you made your choice and you’ll have to live with it. If you’d put all this money you’re stashing away into the business instead of grabbing your wages like a junky after his fix, and putting it into some secret deal of your own we might sort something out.’

  ‘I don’t have the money,’ Glyn insisted.

  ‘What have you done with it? All those years at sea and now working for us and doing a few shifts at the pub cleaning the cellars, even stacking shelves in the shop after closing. You must be rolling in it boy. Living home with Mam and Dad and from what I hear giving as little as you can get away with, what are you doing with it? Salting it away for a world cruise?’

  ‘I’m broke,’ Glyn said tightly, ‘that’s all you need to know.’

  ‘Is that why you finished with our Lydia?’ Billy asked.

  ‘There’s no Cath in London, I’m sure of that,’ Tomos said, banging the glasses onto the table and slopping some liquid. ‘Never no letters, and you haven’t been to see her. So what is it, Glyn?’

  ‘We talk on the phone,’ Glyn said.

  ‘You don’t use the one at home and you’re too mean to phone London from a phone box!’

  ‘My business! That’s what it is!’ Glyn stood up, pushing the table with the force of his anger. ‘My business. Right?‘

  ‘If you’re living home with Mam and Dad it’s their business too!’ Tomos shouted back.

  ‘If you’re in trouble you know we’ll help,’ Gimlet said more quietly. ‘Not gambling is it? Fools game gambling is, for sure.’

  ‘I’m just broke, that’s all. Cath is – well, she’ll wait for me.’ He looked at Billy and asked more calmly, ‘Is Lydia all right? I understand she’s been seeing a lot of that Matthew Hiatt.’

  ‘What if she is?’ Billy said with unaccustomed anger created by Tomos’s concern. ‘What Lydia does is nothing to do with you, remember! Let her down you did or she wouldn’t have looked at anyone else and you know it!’

  ‘I don’t trust him,’ Glyn persisted. ‘He doesn’t say why he’s here and doesn’t open up when people try to be friendly. Watch him, Billy, Lydia might be too trusting.’

  ‘You’re right there,’ Billy said glaring at him. ‘She trusted you, didn’t she?’

  * * *

  Glyn was worried about Lydia’s obvious infatuation with Matthew and he waited for her when the stall closed on the following day and offered her a lift home. ‘I was in town dropping off a fare, so I thought I’d try and get here before you left,’ he explained.

  ‘Yes, it will save me some time.’ She was glad of the lift but pride made her accept with only the minimum of thanks.

  ‘Going out tonight?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. But she didn’t explain that she was going to see her Auntie Stella and not meeting Matthew, which she knew was the reason for Glyn’s question. She looked up at him, bright-eyed with defiance, and a feeling of guilt, foolish but real, invaded her with discomfort. She hadn’t seen Matthew but was too unhappy about his disappearance to tell anyone, especially Glyn. ‘Matthew took me to dinner in the Chelsea Parlour last week.’ She forced a smile, refusing to show Glyn she was unhappy.

  ‘That’s expensive,’ he said.

  ‘He can afford it and he thinks I’m worth it!’ she snapped, wishing he would go away and not disturb her and spoil her mood. ‘He buys me flowers and expensive chocolates and treats me like I’m someone very special.’

  ‘You are,’ he said with a hesitant smile.

  ‘He thinks so and can afford to show me,’ she replied.

  ‘Lucky old him!’

  She touched the bracelet she had worn every day since Matthew disappeared but didn’t mention it. ‘Sorry, Glyn, I’ve got to go, I’ve got to get the meal ready for Mam and Dad and I have to be out by half-seven.’

  ‘Watch him, Lydia,’ Glyn warned. ‘Better still, stay right away from him. He’s trouble that one, always was. I can feel it every time I look at him.’

  ‘Go away, Glyn!’ she snapped. ‘Stay out of my life, it was where you chose to be, remember? Out of my life?’ Hurriedly pushing him aside, she ran up the steps and into the house.

  She was early, not having to wait for a bus and glad her parents were not yet home from Auntie Stella’s. Tears ran down her rosy cheeks. Were they tears of anger at his impertinence? Or frustration? Or regret? She couldn’t decide which. She only knew that with Glyn telling her to stay away from Matthew, and Matthew, for reasons of his own, deciding to stay away from her, it had made his absence more difficult to cope with. What was wrong with her that first Glyn then Matthew told her she was wonderful then dropped her like the proverbial hot brick?

  Banging the saucepans about to express her annoyance for the tears which came too readily, she peeled the potatoes roughly and put them on to boil. It would have to be a fry-up: eggs, bacon and boring old potatoes, boiled then fried with some vegetables added. Mam hated it and Dad wasn’t too keen but she lacked the enthusiasm to do more.

  Slapping down the bacon and cracking the eggs so fiercely on the side of the pan the yolks broke, she suddenly stopped and asked herself, why was she angry? Was Matthew’s absence of two days so devastating? He hadn’t let her down on a date, left her standing waiting for him to turn up, feeling and looking foolish, had he? He’d just gone off about his own business for a day or two. She had no reason to doubt he’d be back. Or was it Glyn making her restless and filling her with inexplicable frustration? Did Glyn still mean that much to her?

  She fingered the bracelet again. Had it been Matthew’s parting gift, wrapped up in talk of loving to make her remember him?

  More calmly she extravagantly threw away the unattractive eggs and over-cooked bacon and the half cooked potatoes. She decided on sausages instead. Sausage and mash wasn’t exactly cordon bleu but her parents would prefer it to her first effort which showed her ill-temper so clearly. Glyn was no longer a part of her life, his wishes were not important. Suggesting she gave up Matthew was an impertinence. She mashed the potatoes with enthusiasm, achieving feathery splendour, and felt calmer by the time Tomos and Billy brought her mother home.

  Matthew failed to appear again that evening although she sat there sewing until long after midnight in case he came. On the following day there was still no sign and Lydia allowed her imagination to build up her fears. She stopped pretending she knew where he was, and when he was returning, and told her father he had gone.

  ‘What could have happened to him? He’s vanished,’ she told her father. ‘Just like his sister did all those years ago.’

  ‘Don’t be soft, girl,’ Billy said. ‘How could he? Besides, Rosie Hiatt didn’t vanish like some conjurer’s trick, she left the town.’

  ‘What happened to her, Dad?
’

  Billy shrugged. ‘No one knows for certain. I know the police were interested in Matthew, they had him in their sights for several petty crimes in the area, but Rosie…’ he hesitated, about to explain about her summonses for prostitution, but decided that Lydia wouldn’t be happier knowing, so instead he shrugged and said, ‘Rumours abounded. She was off to marry a wealthy man in England. She was joining the Salvation Army and repenting her wicked ways. She went to live on a Kibbutz. One story was that she went off with a band of Gypsies!’

  ‘What wicked ways?’

  ‘Oh, she was a bit of a flirt, that’s all.’ He patted Lydia’s hand. ‘Don’t worry, love, if he’s right for you he’ll be back.’

  ‘Will he?’ she asked Molly wistfully as the bus trundled along taking them home from work the following day. ‘I wish I could believe that.’

  * * *

  The tall man was careful to enter the castle ground only when it was too late for anyone to be around, or when darkness and rain impeded the view. He had seen Stella once or twice, staring up at the ruin as if watching him, and he wondered superstitiously if the woman had second sight or had eyes that could penetrate the darkness, but decided she was just taking a breath of air before retiring. Although there was no possibility of her seeing him, let alone being able to identify him later, being such a distance away and in darkness, he still waited until he saw the light go on in her bedroom before shinning up the rope and dropping almost silently into the castle to begin his night’s work.

  On two occasions he had a narrow escape. A man with a dog on a lead, walked through the wood and up to the fence as he was about to climb over and enter the castle grounds. The dog growled and the owner stood for a moment, looking towards the tree where the tall man stood flexing his muscles and slowly raising the branch he held. Then the dog was distracted by a movement further away and dog and owner turned towards the quarry edge, and the tall man breathed out slowly between clenched teeth.