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Chapter Twelve

Llywelyn

I had some work to do in G&G’s, so I pulled up outside, cut the music off and stomped a bit childishly into the shop. Geraint was as smiley, round and red-faced as ever. “Nice and early I see. How are things, Llywelyn?” he asked.

“Fine.”

“Good, good…so this is the problem.” He led me to the back of the store where a wall was showing cracks. I had the plaster in the back of the van, so it shouldn’t take too long.

“How long do you think this will take?” Geraint asked.

“Only a couple of hours.” It was a simple enough job. “Who did you have in to plaster originally? Looks like you’ve had cowboys in here.”

“Some big company from out of town. We’d have asked you, but…”

“But what?” I did my best not to sound offended. I may not have had the qualifications, but everyone knew that I was a dab hand with a skimmer.

“But…oh, it sounds stupid now. We didn’t want to take advantage of you.”

“Take advantage of me?” I wanted to laugh, but my mood still wouldn’t allow that. “How could you possibly do that?”

“You always quote very low. I haggle with my suppliers to no end but if I haggled you any lower you’d be paying me.”

“So if I charged a higher rate, you would have hired me?”

“Well…yes. Come and take a look at what they left us with. We haven’t had anyone round to the flat in months…”

Geraint led me through the back room and up the set of stairs I knew led to their flat from the couple of times I had been there before. “This is what they’ve left us with,” he said as he gestured around their living room.

The walls were uneven and I could see stress cracks forming already. The ceiling was even worse, and I could see in the corners where the plaster had chipped or fallen away. “We refused to pay them the final amount of course, but they had already taken half as a deposit up front.”

He gestured toward the other open doors off the hallway. The bedroom was exactly the same and the tiling in what looked to be a newly tiled bathroom was uneven without the grouting having been finished.

“Take a look in here,” he said and opened the last door.

Where the kitchen had been was a total mess.

The units had been ripped from the walls and the walls hadn’t yet been plastered.

In one corner I could see what looked to be the new units all covered in tarpaulin, some put together and still in their cardboard boxes and flat packed.

“When we told them we weren’t satisfied with the work so far and wouldn’t pay them the other half ‘til it was fixed, they just up and left. We’ve been surviving on takeaway meals, microwave dinners and cold sandwiches for ages!”

“Bloody hell, Geraint.” I surveyed the mess.

I had put bigger kitchens together in my time.

And my plastering skills were a damn sight better than whatever mess had been left in the rooms of the house.

And Alaw and James’ words echoed in my head.

And even if I was hurting that James had decided not to see me for whatever reason, I was going to do my best to make myself worthy of him, or any man who might come my way.

I cleared my throat. “Looks like about 2 days’ work per room with the plastering, and a few days extra in the kitchen to plaster and then put it all together. I can do it all for a hundred a day.”

“A…yes, that works for us I think. Let me talk to Gwyn. When can you start?”

“Tomorrow, if you like. I’ll get your plastering downstairs done today and I’ve got some stuff to do up at the school but I should be able to work on yours pretty consistently after that.”

“Bloody hell, thank you Llywelyn. I should have asked sooner.”

“Well ask me first next time.” I felt pretty proud of myself for the rest of the morning as I worked at the wall at the back of the shop and when I’d finished and Geraint pressed a fifty pound note into my hand for one morning’s work I managed to nod and smile rather than insist on twenty.

It was only when I exited the shop into a crisp, sunny and cold early afternoon that my mood soured again.

“Llywelyn!” called a voice from across the street, and my mood lowered even further. Glynis looked both ways before shuffling as fast as she could over the road.

“I’m a bit busy at the moment, Glynis.” I hauled the bag of dry plaster into the back of the van and tried not to look her in the eye.

“Well someone needs to give you a bloody talking to.” To my surprise, she sounded furious and when I looked down at her she looked like she was ready to clobber me. “Kidnapping my grandson like you did.”

“Kidnapping? What do you-” she swatted at my arm and I shut up quickly.

“He was meant to come back last night to pick up his things and never did, so I can only presume he went straight to yours to canoodle .” She had said the last word like it was a swearword.

“I hadn’t seen him! I thought he had stayed at yours and forgotten about me!” My mind was racing, and I had no idea what was going on. Where was James, if not with Glynis?

“Oh, cariad . He could never forget about you.” Glynis gave a small smile and reached out a hand to brush against my sleeve. “But that leaves the question. Where is James?”

“Well where was he when you last saw him?”

“Right here, on this street. As far as I knew he would be coming back to pick up his things and then going to you. Can’t you call him?”

“I don’t-I don’t have his number,” I admitted.

“Don’t have his bloody number? I thought all you young people did was text and bookface?”

“Facebook—anyway, that’s not the point. We were inseparable for 3 days, I honestly didn’t think to. Don’t you have your grandson’s number?”

“Yes, his old one. The stolen phone.” Glynis shook her head. “I hope he didn’t take a walk along the cliffs…”

“What?” My blood ran cold. Surely he wouldn’t take that kind of risk by himself.

I thought back to the night in the cave, and I could feel the fear seeping in.

Had he taken a walk along the sea and gotten caught by high tide?

There were so many coves along the seafront that it would be easy to get caught in.

“Or,” said a familiar voice, “he might have had to rush back quicker than any of you thought.”

“What do you know, Prentis?” asked Glynis, turning on the old man stood behind us. “Where is my bloody grandson?”

“London. Police had suspects in custody and only so much time to convict before they had to set them free. He called the taxi service and rushed out of here before I could blink. Said he’d call both of you, though.”

“Well, he doesn’t have my number,” I said, glaring at Glynis.

“Bloody answering machine.” Glynis muttered.

“The young man should be back in about 3 weeks, notice served, if I recall,” said Prentis.

“Coming…back?” I asked.

“Yes, back here. To Hiraeth. I daresay he’ll want to talk to you about how long for.” Prentis smiled knowingly.

Something in my brain shifted. “Do you know his address, Glynis?”

Glynis pulled a little pocketbook out of her bag and flicked through, ripping out a page. On it were James’ number — his old one, I presumed — and an address for a flat in Central London. “Want to send him something, do you love?”

“Something like that…thank you, I’ll see you both later.”

Without another word or look back I got into the van and started the engine. If I sped a bit in the country lanes, I could make it to the London-bound train in time. I had 10 minutes.

I pushed down hard on the accelerator and begged the old van to go as fast as it could.

I could see the little piece of paper on the passenger seat out of the corner of my eye, the address already seared into my memory.

If he wasn’t coming back for another 3 weeks then I would go to him.

I needed him to know that if he planned on holidaying in Hiraeth in the near future then I wasn’t just some one time fling who would crawl out of the woodwork for a shag each time he wanted to visit.

Bloody hell, I’d move to London for him if that’s what it took.

After a couple of near misses with tractors in the country lanes I could see the roof of the train station ahead.

I parked up as quickly and messily as I could and ran out to the platform.

Had I missed it? No, the sign on the platform said it was a minute away.

And sure enough, there in the distance was the train heading in to the station.

The last stop on its way from London before it headed back.

I tapped my foot on the ground as I waited, ready to run onto the train the second it pulled into the platform, as if it might somehow leave me behind if I didn’t jump on quickly.

The train’s approach seemed to be agonisingly slow and the brakes screeched forever before it pulled to a stop.

I jogged to the nearest set of doors, intent on pressing the button to open them until it broke under my finger.

I jabbed at it multiple times until the doors opened and stepped onto the train without even looking up, bumping into someone smaller than me with such aggression that they fell back into the train.

“Sorry, I-” I started, before realising. It was him. He who had consumed my thoughts and dreams since the day I had met him. The man I wanted more than anything else. “James, what the fuck are you doing here?”

“I wanted, I needed, I…” but he didn’t have to finish the sentence. I knew what he wanted, or at least thought I did. I offered him my hand to pull him up, and he took it. I felt the sparks of electricity that passed between us as I pulled him up and into my arms.

“Fuck, I was so worried about you. About us…” I said.

I leaned down to kiss him and our lips touched.

He leaned into the kiss so that his whole body was pushed against mine and I could feel the same arcs of electricity jumping between us.

I deepened the kiss, my tongue touching his and I pushed him up against a plastic divider.