‘You know what you’re saying to me?’
And she said very slowly, carefully, ‘Yes … I do know.’
‘Then you’re no longer my sister,’ he said.
‘It will not stop you from becoming a fool,’ she said.
The sudden break in his voice, the trembling lips, quite shocked her.
‘Why are we doing this to each other, Margiad?’ he asked.
‘I wish I knew.’
‘It simply cannot go on.’
‘I know that, too,’ she said, and got up, and left him, and left the house.
6
Jones had been sitting alone in The Lion for an hour now, and though there were three other men sitting about, they had not spoken to him, and it did not worry him. The licensee stood behind his counter and slowly polished the glasses. In The Lion Jones was known as Mrs Gandell’s dog. And one after another the three men went out, but not without boisterous good nights to the man behind the counter.
‘Night Tegid.’
‘Night.’
And Jones, staring into the fire, heard the three separate slams of the door.
‘Drinking slow this evening,’ Tegid said, and put away the last of the glasses, but Jones appeared not to have heard, and sat quite still, the glass in his hand.
All the way to the pub the questions had nagged at Jones, circled round and round his brain. Was Miss Vaughan just imagining the whole thing? Had Mrs Gandell let him in? Would she do anything for money? The more he thought about it, the more certain he was that he had locked up that night. Tegid Hughes joined him, a glass of beer in his hand.
‘You look thoughtful tonight, Jones’ he said.
‘Do I?’
‘Yes,’ and he gave him a cigarette, then lit his own.
‘Thanks.’
‘Done your duty then?’ Tegid asked, and Jones grinned, and nodded. He had read her a whole chapter from The Three Musketeers, he had given her a cup of hot milk to help her sleep, told her he wouldn’t be late. Her whole manner during the day had made him very nervous. Was she lying to him, was she planning to sell out?
‘How are things?’
Jones at last looked up. ‘Same as yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that one.’
‘Think she’ll make a go of it?’ asked Tegid.
‘Yes.’
‘No need to bloody shout,’ Tegid said.
‘Sorry,’ Jones said, ‘ah, I’m always being sorry about something.’
‘There’s rumours about her, thinking of going .…’
‘Rubbish!’
‘Never paid even when the Owens had it,’ Tegid said, ‘wrong situation, too far away from the town, Jones.’
‘She’s all right,’ Jones replied, and offered his glass, which Hughes took and went away and refilled.
‘Here,’ and pushed it into his hand. ‘Got a mood on tonight then? Never opened your mouth since you came in.’
‘Do I have to? How wide shall I open it?’
‘OK, OK. It’s a free country. Understood.’
And the sudden short laugh broke the chill in the air.
‘Actually,’ he continued, ‘you’ve only had three people there since just after Christmas.’
‘Telling me.’
‘The one she’s got now seems a queer sort of bird,’ Tegid said.
‘How queer?’
‘Oh … people talk.’
