This Chapter describes the first major attempt by Arfon to force Briony and the children to return to the marital home. The first inklings of Dave's transgenderism are starting to ripple through the local community as Arfo's assault involves the police and Daphne having to give evidence.

The Welsh Mountain Ram 26.

Briony... Betrayed wife and mother.
Sion... Her eight-year-old son.
Ellairy... Her nine-month--old daughter.
Arfon... Brionys’ abusive and unfaithful husband.
Dave Cadwalloder... Welsh bachelor hill-farmer.
Jenny and Lassie... Daves’ sheepdog bitches.
Laddie... Daves’ sheepdog.
Jessica and Pansy... Daves’ sows.
Angel... Daves’ mare.
Gabriella (Gabby)... Angels’ foal (Gift to Sion.)
Elsbeth... Briony’s sister.
Daphne... Daves’ ‘girlfriend’
Cledwyn... Farmer further down the valley (Neighbour.)
Blodwen... Cledwyn’s daughter.
Rachel... Daphne’s TV friend.
Shirley... Rachels’ GG wife.
Fajita... The maid.
James & Tara... Rachel’s teenaged children (16 & 15)
Billy and Janet... Manager and accountant at Daphne’s club.
Terry... New Zealand Shepherd.
Wendy... Blodwens best friend at school. Also Dave’s friend.
Jane... Machynlleth WPC (2 years below Dave & Blodwen at school.)

The Ram 26.

As Arfon spotted Briony his expression turned almost to a snarl of rage and Briony squealed in Panic.

“Start the car! Start the car, let’s get out of here!”

Blodwen cursed and explained.

“I can’t just take off. The trailer’s parked up tight in this bay. It’ll take several back-ups to get out now. Besides, his car’s partially blocking the entrance, I can’t get past with or without the trailer.”

“He’ll attack me I know he will.”

Briony started to physically cower behind Shirley as James realised he was the only male in the car, for Daphne looked nothing like a man. James also cursed that they had left the dogs at Elspeth’s house to occupy Sion and his cousins.
‘The dogs would have been useful now.’ He surmised.

As the fear in the car became palpable Daphne had secretly speed-dialled the police station and the phone was answered immediately; even before Arfon had crossed the car-park. As the station sergeant answered Arfon started banging furiously on the side window were Briony cowered. Blodwen wound down the driver’s window a fraction and asked.

“What do you want?”

“I want to speak with that bitch!” Arfon roared.

Blodwen made a point of turning to ask Briony who screamed that she did not want to speak to Arfon. There was no doubt about Briony’s terror. Blodwen resumed speaking to Arfon.

“I think the message is clear, she doesn’t want to speak to you.”

Arfon gave a bellow of rage and thumped hard against the side window. It cracked slightly and showed every sign of breaking inwards within a few blows. Arfon was a powerful man. Blodwen screamed for help as Arfon yanked hard at the door handle.

“If you don’t open this door, I’ll fucking smash your bloody car window here and now.”

Blodwen shouted as loud as she could.

“I’m not opening any bloody door; I’ll wind down the window if you’ll step back.”

“Just tell that bitch to step out!”

“No!” Briony screamed. “No bloody way.”

By now, Shirley had realised what Daphne was doing with her mobile so she took out her own mobile and handed it to James who had a camera shot invisible to Arfon from his side of the car. She whispered urgently.

“Video this! Don’t let him see you.”

James fully understood his step-mother’s instruction and her phone was the same model as his. He switched on the video and shielded it from Arfon’s view as he videoed Arfon sticking his head uninvited through the opened window and bellowing abusively in Blodwen’s face.

“If you don’t open these doors you fucking bitch. I’ll smash my way in.”

Blodwen shrank as Arfon’s spittle splashed into her face. She was terrified but she stuck doggedly to her efforts to reason with the brute.

“I’m not opening any doors until you calm down. This woman’ in the back is terrified.”

Arfon thumped the door and reached in to release the catch. Blodwen struggled to stop him and he crushed her wrist in his powerful grip. She screamed in pain and cursed him as a sneer of victory spread across his snarl.

Daphne had seen enough, she took her comb with its pointed handle and jabbed the comb as hard as she could into the back of Arfon’s hand. It went deep and drew blood causing Arfon to curse but it hardly even slowed him down.

“You bitch! You’ll pay for that.”

His hesitation gave Daphne a chance to re-lock the door but it would hardly delay the brute for long. It did however give James an idea. He sneaked the camera back to his mother after directly connecting it to U-tube and his own laptop that Rachel had indulged him that Christmas. He whispered back to Shirley.

“Keep videoing auntie; this is going out to U-tube and my lap top. Even if he snatches it, it’s on record now. I’m going to get help.”

Before Shirley could stop him, James erupted from his door on the rear passenger side and Arfon was momentarily distracted as he realised the boy was obviously going to get help. Arfon roared after the boy to stop or he’d get him but the sixteen-year-old James was too fast. Whilst Arfon was big and powerful, he wouldn’t catch the faster boy who was already exiting the car park and shouting out his alarm. He dashed into the restaurant of the White Lion and begged them to call the police. Two farmers recognised him as the boy who had accompanied Dave at the market and they asked him what was wrong. The waiter was already calling nine-nine-nine as the farmers accompanied James into the street. They lumbered after the boy back to the car park to find Arfon dragging Briony back to his own car. James screamed when he saw what was tantamount to kidnap and he dashed ahead of the men to try and interfere.

Arfon lunged out with a blow that would certainly have disabled James had not Briony struggled violently when she realised ‘back-up’ was arriving. Arfon’s blow only glanced off James’s shoulder and caused him to slam against the car as he clung desperately onto Arfon’s jacket. Arfon cursed and struggled to free the limpet-like boy as finally Daphne, and both Farmers arrived. In another vicious swipe he slammed James against the car again and the boy bounced to the ground.

Seeing that he was likely to be caught, Arfon cursed loudly, released Briony, then flung himself into his car and tore off scattering gravel everywhere including the pursuer’s faces.

As the car hurtled through the narrow exit, it screeched left on Heol Pentrerhedyn towards the clock tower and disappeared from view. Seeing James groaning on the gravel, everybody except Daphne was too shocked to dash into the street to see which way Arfon had gone.

Daphne tried to get to the street in time but her stylish heels were not made for running. When she emerged from the exit onto the street, Arfon was out of sight.

“Damn! Damn! Damn!” She cursed as two people who were coming out of The White Lion stared in shock. “Did you see which way it went?” She asked them.

“Sorry Miss, we were inside when we heard the tyre squeal.”

Daphne searched around but on a half day closing, Machynlleth was virtually empty. There were no other witnesses. She returned to where James was now sitting up with a nasty cut to his scalp and tears in his eyes. Shirley and Briony were kneeling over him and Blodwen was talking to the two farmers. Daphne joined Briony and Shirley as they tried to stem the blood.

“There’s a first aid kit in the winter locker behind the right hand passenger door of my car, I’ll get it.”

She returned with the box just as a police car arrived. Shirley looked up.

“Here they come, day late and dollar short.”

Dave looked at his watch and censured her kindly.

“Oh I don’t know Shirl’ It’s only three minutes since I speed dialled them. That’s a pretty good response.”

“A lot can happen in three minutes.”

“Yeah, a person can be shot in a second. A lot’s happened here in three minutes. They did pretty well.”

The police went immediately to Jamie’s side and asked if the ambulance had been called. Daphne cursed, she had just been getting out of her side of their car as Jamie had been slammed against Arfon’s car. In her haste to see which way Arfon had gone she had not realised how much Jamie was hurt.

“We’ll call them now,” the policewoman advised as her sergeant bent over Jamie. He watched Shirley expertly checking Jamie over and realised there was little more he could do.

“Are you medically qualified?”

“I’ve got medical training,” Shirley replied almost as a casual aside.

“Oh thank God for that. Is he badly hurt?”

“I don’t think so; fortunately the side of the car was a flat surface so there seems to be no fractures. He’s split his scalp and he’s a little concussed.”

“He’s bleeding though.”

“Yes, scalp wounds can bleed heavily he’ll need stitches. Fortunately, he doesn’t appear to bleeding from his ears.”

The officer heard the ambulance crew on the emergency frequency and he handed the radio to Shirley. She explained the situation and they had only to wait.”

The others were giving statements and the mobile video was shown to the police. They asked to keep the phone and Shirley explained.

“The lad sent it out on U Tube just in case the man tried to destroy the phone. I’m afraid it’s hard evidence but it’s already in the public arena. It’s actually my phone, he left his at home.”

“No matter, we deal with that all the time. Once we’ve got the details of the phone and downloaded the chip, you can have it back before any legal proceedings.”

“Oh there are certainly going to be legal proceedings.” Blodwen declared. “He’s smashed the window and terrified us all. Not to mention his attacking Briony. She’s got bad bruising as well, look.”

The police woman was studying the video and nodded as she handed the phone to her colleague as she inspected Briony’s arms, shoulder and face.

“All the evidence we’ll ever need sergeant.”

“Good. I’m afraid we’ll have to keep the phone temporarily miss.”

Shirley bridled at the imposition. There was stuff on her phone that she held strictly confidential.

“I’d rather you didn’t officer, there’s confidential stuff on there.”

“I’s sorry madam. We have to confirm the video came from this phone and we can only do that down at the station with an I.T., Expert."

“And what about my confidential stuff?”

“We can always delete it.”

“No you can’t. It’s taken me years to accumulate all the stuff on my phone.”

“Haven’t you sent it to your computer?”

“Not all of it. The children might see it.”

“Oh.”

“What d’you mean; oh?”

“Well is it stuff that might ... you know, be sensitive?”

“Only to me. There’s no kiddie porn or anything like that. Just pictures of me and my partner ... and friends who might not like to be outed.”

“Outed?”

Shirley was becoming exasperated.

“Oh stop playing dumb sergeant. You know what I mean. They’re private pictures; some of our friends would not like the pictures of them getting into the public arena.”

“Why?”

Shirley cursed softly.

“Are you deliberately being obtuse? Okay then I’ll tell you bluntly, in front of all my friends here. My husband is ‘LGBT,’ there are pictures of him on there. That’s not an issue, my husband is out as a transgendered person but there are friends in the background who would not want those pictures made public! They’re not illegal, transvestism is not illegal but you can bet your bottom dollar they would be pilloried and victimised if it became public. They’d possibly lose their jobs. If those pictures become public, I will sue the police and I’ve got five witnesses here.”

The sergeant frowned thoughtfully until Daphne made a suggestion.

“Sergeant, might I suggest the lady be allowed to take her phone home and download the video to her computer then give you a memory stick. It’s hardly likely to matter is it?”

The sergeant was about to explain when his radio went off. He frowned as he dug it out.

“Sergeant Hughes.” ...... “Yes.” ...... “Damn!”

He turned to the WPC.

“We've got another emergency Jane! The ambulance crew have got this in hand, we’ve got a kidnapping.”

All the friends made the same connection. Arfon must have realised his son Sion wasn’t in the car and surmised that he had been left with Briony’s sister Elspeth. Daphne asked the Sergeant.

“Would that be in an Elspeth Wilkins in Cae Crwn Sergeant?”

Sergeant Jack Davies looked hard at Daphne and asked.

“How did you know?”

Briony explained as Daphne decided to disconnect the trailer from her Landrover county. At that moment, the ambulance arrived for James so Briony and Daphne clambered into their own Landrover to follow the police while Shirley, Tara and Blodwen stayed with James as he was loaded into the ambulance.

The police car arrived outside Elspeth’s house with a wail and Daphne arrived a few seconds later to find the whole street in uproar. Elspeth was standing in the street hysterical with fear and remorse while the police woman was trying to calm her down as she kept repeating.

“I couldn’t stop him he was crazy with anger! I couldn’t stop him, I couldn’t!”

The bruises on her arms and face told their own story, Elspeth had obviously tried to prevent Arfon but he was a powerful brute. When she saw Briony she almost collapsed with remorse.

“I’m sorry sis, I’m sorry!”

Briony reached out and held her sister who simply broke down into loud explosive sobs. With the police woman’s help, Briony finally managed to coax Elspeth back into the house. Daphne followed them in with the sleeping Ellairy in her arms. Sergeant Jack Davies just looked at the baby and wagged his head.

“How can she sleep through all this?”

Daphne just wagged her head uncomprehendingly.

“Don’t know sarge, any other time the slightest noise seems to wake her up.”

“Well I’ll leave Jane to see to the two sisters I’m wondering if you’ve any idea where he might have gone.”

Daphne wagged her head as she wracked her brains but had to concede she had no idea. It was unlikely that he’d take the boy back to his own house because that’s the first place the police would come looking. Then she explained to the sergeant.

“I’m thinking he might have received the court order banning him from approaching Briony and that might have triggered his rage.”

“Well if he’s broken a court order, he’s in big trouble.” The sergeant advised.

“He doesn’t seem to care about the niceties of law; he thinks he’s a law unto himself.” Briony said as she retreated back into Elspeth's house.

“That will change when he’s in Prison. We’ll start at his house and go from there.”

“He could anywhere though.” Daphne sighed.

“Don’t worry. We’ve got the car’s description and we’ll be despatching a patrol car to his house in Llanidloes.”

Daphne had a sudden thought.

“They won’t have to break the door down. If he’s as daft as I think, he won’t have bothered to change the locks. I’ll bet Briony’s keys still fit the doors.”

Sergeant Davies nodded approvingly and they went inside to collect Briony’s keys. She dug them out of her handbag and handed them over.

“Don’t lose them. The front door’s a bit stiff, the back door opens easily. If he’s not there, he might have gone around to his mothers’ or either of his brothers.”

She gave their addresses and as much other information as she could then continued sharing her misery with her sister. Daphne joined them in the house and started making tea. Whenever she was stressed or unsure of herself, Daphne made tea or coffee. They sat fretting in the house waiting for news but nothing came and the girls were getting seriously frightened. Whilst a police officer stood guard at the door in case Arfon came back for Ellairy, Daphne explained she had to return to her house. She told the police guard that she was leaving the girls in Elspeth’s house and making her way to Plas Graig Las. At that she whistled for her dogs which had been staying with Sion and his cousins at Elspeths house. They trotted obediently to the Landrover and Dave let them into the back. She was just about to climb in when Jane the Policewoman approached her

“You’ll need to finish your statement to us about the incident at the White Lion first, while it’s fresh in your mind.” Policewoman Jane advised her.

Daphne knew Jane well. She had been a couple of years below Dave, Blodwen and Wendy at school but Machynlleth was a small town and the school was quite small. There had been occasional events at the school where the classes had mixed and Dave had once even fancied Jane. Nothing ever came of it though. Now appearing as Daphne, Dave debated ‘coming out to her’ or waiting until he was forcibly outed in the family courts. She decided to remain Daphne and completed her statement. In the stress of the events Daphne had forgotten one thing; name and address!

Jane looked up as Daphne gave her last words and she smiled.

“Well thank you Miss uuuhmm ... Your full name and address please.”

Daphne cursed silently and shifted uneasily as her mind raced. She knew it wasn’t illegal to use another name provided it was not used to defraud or mislead people. Indeed, the bank had been more than pleased to issue her with two credit cards and she used them as and when. Now however she was in a dilemma. This was a legal situation and a police matter. She was pretty sure they would want and indeed need her full identity to make the statement legal in court. Her hesitation caught Jane’s attention and she looked up from her notebook.

“Is there something else?”

“Oh; uuuhm no ... well — yes there is. Can I speak to you in the privacy of the car?”

“Yours or mine?” Jane replied.

“Yours is best, the dogs might lick you to death in mine, although they’re separated by the grill.”

They sat in the police car and Daphne haltingly explained.

“There uuuhm, there might be a problem with my name and address.”

“Why?” Jane asked innocently.

“Well ... I, I’m not, I’m not all that I uuuhm seem.”

“Go on.”

“Well, I, I’m ... oh to hell with it. Should I give a toss anymore?” He scolded himself.

Jane frowned and looked up from her poised pen and notebook.

“Is there a problem?”

Daphne was now reconciled to the issue she was about to reveal. Crunch time had arrived. She turned and dug out her driving license.

“That’s my name and address.” She handed the plastic ID license then dug deeper into her handbag to produce the green paper counterfoil.

Jane had only glanced at the photograph on the license then her jaw sagged ever so slightly. Daphne had to admire Jane’s aplomb as she glanced once at Daphne and took the counterfoil with the full ID and legal history. Then she turned it over and glanced at the little box at the very bottom of the counterfoil. There she found the name ‘Daphne Cadwalloder’ and she nodded thoughtfully.

“So, you’re Dave.”

Daphne nodded and nervously adjusted her skirt to ensure full modesty. She wasn’t sure how Jane might react. Jane simply wagged her head and sucked her pen thoughtfully.

“Well I don’t see the identity thing as a problem but I’m thinking you’re worried about being ‘outed’”

“Exactly.” Daphne replied. “I’m out to my friends in Birmingham and to my friends here today, but I’m not out — out in Machynlleth.”

Jane nodded and smiled.

“But you will be when this gets to court.”

Daphne nodded resignedly, “Yes.”

“Well you can be assured it’s not an issue with the police. You have assured me of your proper identity so your statement is acceptable. I should have realised when you called the dogs. They obviously know you and I recognise them as Dave’s dogs.”

Daphne breathed a sigh of relief as she added, “My dogs.”

“Pity they weren’t here when that man arrived.”

“Yes. I can’t understand that. Elspeth must have had them locked up in the shed. They can get a bit lively around other children but they’re perfectly okay with Sion.”

Jane got Daphne to sign the statement as Daphne and compared the signature with the one on the back of the License counterfoil. She nodded with satisfaction, put the notebook away then turned to look again at Daphne. After a brief study she smiled.

“You’re good. I still can’t see Dave in there.”

“Oh, he’s there,” Daphne assured her, “my other self is certainly Dave Cadwalloder.”

“Can I ask you some personal questions?”

“Why not?” Daphne smiled, ”They all do.”

“Yes; and I can see why. Is that a wig?”

“No. It’s all mine.”

“Well I have to say, you’ve got beautiful hair. It also explains Dave’s pony tail.”

Daphne’s smile turned to a grin.

“Yeah, but it takes a lot of caring for.”

“It’s what girls do.” Jane chuckled.

“Tell me about it. Difference is I like it. It reinforces my sense of femininity.”

“Well go for it girl. I’m impressed. I think we’re all finished here.”

Daphne went to unlock the police-car door when she suddenly remembered.

“Oh damn, I knew there was something else. In the dash of my Landrover; I left my comb; the one I stabbed Arfon’s hand with.

You’ll want that as evidence won’t you?”

Jane’s eyes lit up.

“Heck yes, of course! Thanks for remembering.”

They carefully collected the long-handled comb and put it into an evidence bag. Daphne signed an added note declaring the ‘pink, long-handled, lady’s comb with blood on the handle to be her comb and Arfon’s blood. As she bagged it up Jane smiled supportively.

“You did well to do that. It gives us a perfect DNA match.”

They parted satisfactorily and Daphne drove home with a promise to pick the girls up later that evening.
As Daphne picked her way up the mountain road it had been snowing again. The couple of centimetres proved no problem but it proved to be a blessing. As she arrived at her gate she noticed fresh car tracks in the otherwise virgin snow

Daphne quickly realised ‘Somebody had visited Plas Graig Las and they had not left.’

It was only then that Daphne realised that Arfon might have bullied his son Sion into revealing where his mother had been staying. A cold shiver rippled down her spine. Arfon was probably at the house!