CHAPTER 24
Mam sat in silence for almost a minute, her breath catching each time she drew air in, before she turned to me again.

“Enfys, love: there’s a lot of rubbish written about this sort of thing. Stuff like ‘fate worse than death’, crap like that. The thing… Start again, Penelope. Love, what is important right now is how Alys feels about it all. It will make sense to her, even if everyone else thinks it’s completely wrong. You will have to listen, find out where she is, and if it’s wrong… You won’t be able to tell her she’s wrong; you will have to show her. Now, Sali Masters: do you trust her?”

“I think I do, Mam. She was. I don’t know; she was really good today”

“Right. How many classes does she share with Alys?”

“Um, most of the ones I don’t”

“Thanks, love. Gives us a possible safety net, or at least something to start with. Now, Alys is likely to be asleep when we get there, so no waking her up. I have an idea as well, if you are up for it, but not tonight. I need to call in some favours first”

“What?”

“See what the doctors say, but if they keep her in, more than a couple of days that is, we can set you up with a sleeping bag in my office. Five or ten minutes gets you to a bus to the hospital”

She shook her head again, that losing-a-fly motion, and then pulled out onto the road once more, not another word until we were parked up at the hospital. It wasn’t until I heard the sound of her shoes on the floor of the corridor that I realised she was still in her work clothes, a skirt suit and low heels. Everything was out of time, out of joint, but she knew the way.

It was a woman’s ward, which pleased me, and there was a private room, and then… There are so many stories about hospital visits, so much rubbish about people looking small in hospital beds, and she didn’t. It was the right size, she was the right size, she was the right woman, I knew that, but she looked faint, like a badly developed photograph; not entirely there. There was a dark circle under her right eye, because the swelling and bruising around her left one was too livid for that, and her mouth, those lips, they were swollen, with a couple of splits. A plastic valve thing in her inner elbow was connected to a drip of clear liquid, and she was lying on her back as if dead. I found me eyes burning, and turned to my mother for the comfort she always held for me.

“Mam…”

There was a groan, and then a croaking “Enfys?”

I was by the bed in a second, her hand in mine, the grip weaker than it had ever been, but she was there and she was talking. I said a few stupid things about love, and terror, and she just raised our linked hands until she could put a finger to my own lips.

“Shush, love. Sorry; tired. Got so cold, so thirsty”

I spotted some red marks round her wrists, and looked sharply back to Mam, who mouthed “Rhaf” at me. ‘Rope’. The bastards had tied her hands, clearly. I turned back to my lover, and she was away, asleep once more, but she had woken for me, found words for me, found one particular word, just for me.

I stayed there for another two hours, until Mr and Mrs Edwards returned from wherever they had been, and when they showed me a sleeping bag and camping mat, I realised that Mam must have been making calls I hadn’t noticed, for all of my attention had been bound up with a slim, faint figure on a drip. Vic Edwards was the first to hug and kiss me.

“How are you doing, love?”

“I’m not the one in a hospital bed, am I?”

“Yes, but she’s got doctors all around her”

“She woke up for me”

He was still holding me as it started, and then it was all “It’s okay, crying is good for you, let it out”, until I could find my focus again. That move around the flake on Valkyrie was easier to do, and far less frightening. Mr Edwards called across to Mam.

“Going to take Enfys for a cuppa, Pen”

Eh? He hustled me out of the door, and once it had closed, he murmured in my ear.

“Chance for a chat out of earshot, love. Things you need to know”

There was a little café, where he bought two teas and two Eccles cakes, and as I stared at the thing on the plate in front of me, he tried a grin.

“Simpler tastes, love. Tastes of my childhood. Comfort thing, you know?”

I had a sudden rush of confidence.

“What was it you didn’t want her to hear?”

He put down his pastry, one bite leaving a gap in the sugary circle.

“I didn’t want her hearing what she told us. Hearing it told to you”

“It was Ifor Watkins, wasn’t it?”

“Yes”

“And did he… Mam says she wasn’t raped”

“No”

I found myself out of questions, but he wasn’t out of answers.

“She says it was because of what one of the girls said, but she won’t tell us what it was. Whatever it was, it worked, because he had his flies open ready”

A deep breath, then a sudden headshake.

“No. Not now. The rest, well. She was working where she told us she was, and she was on her knees doing one of those metre-square things she does, and there was Ifor. He got violent, she was dragged to the car, off to the quarries. Into the hut, stripped, tied her hands, and then… there was an argument, and then they all fucked off and left her, hands tied behind her back. Sorry for the language, love”

I reached out for his hand.

“Understandable, Mr Edwards”

“Vic, please. Bit silly otherwise, given, well, stuff. Your mate Neil: he will need some support of his own”

“Eh?”

“He thought she was dead, so he went all calm and professional. He took pictures of her when he got the shed open. He… He thought she was dead, wanted to record the scene in case there was, in case a coroner, okay?”

Vic was crying.

“We owe him a huge debt, love, all of us. Sorry for this”

I held his hand until he found his control again, and then tried to eat the cake he had bought, which turned out to be rather nice. As I licked the last crumbs from my fingers, Mam appeared.

“You two okay?”

I looked at Vic for an answer, and when he nodded, I turned back to Mam. Strength, girl.

“What’s the plan?”

She sat down at our table.

“Such as it is, Nansi is staying overnight. We have some shuffling of cars to do, and thank god for Neil’s bike, but my security people have agreed you can use the office. We are off there in a bit. There’s a canteen for the staff, even out of main term time. I’ve sorted them for breakfast, and I will show you where the bus stop is. Open-ended, love. Please don’t come here before three tomorrow, because the police want to do some---no! Second thoughts: Nansi is off home at eleven, you get here when you can, and if the plod get silly, be there for your girlfriend, right?”

“You think…”

“I don’t ‘think’, love: I know. So does Neil, so leave that one here. Tell you one day. Now, ready for off? Eccles cake? Vic, you are so bloody predictable!”

“Mam?”

“Yes, love?”

“Have you got the recipe?”

That worked, drawing laughter from two people before we did the car ride and this-is-your-bus-stop trip, and I settled down in the space between Mam’s desk and the door to her office. I thought I was going to be awake for hours, but after settling down in my bag, the next thing I saw was the sun burning through Mam’s venetian blinds.

The canteen was fine, the walk to the bus stop took only six minutes, the bus was on time, and my lover was awake.

Thank god, yet again.

Alys was asleep, but Nansi Edwards was sitting up next to her, a mug of tea in hand and a weak smile on her face.

“Shift change, Enfys?”

I dredged for my own smile.

“Or reinforcements? Your mileage may vary”

She reached out to squeeze my hand.

“I should have known to trust my daughter’s judgement, shouldn’t I? Good thing I did. Enfys, you need to know that the police are due in at eleven. Could get nasty; how are you bearing up?”

I shrugged.

“Not me that’s in the bed, is it? I am here. End of”

Alys answered that one, as she woke without either of us noticing.

“I know, love. Mam’s right: sometimes I choose the right path, make the right choice. Fall in love with…”

I held her till the sobs were over, before settling back in the chair by the head of her bed, her hand in mine. Nansi Edwards was smiling, but her tears were still falling.

“Yes, love. Always the right choice, no matter how hard, no matter how wrong me and your Dad might have been. Got it right now, though, haven’t we? Enfys?”

“Yeah?”

“Alys told me about the shortcake, and both Penny and Vic told me about the Eccles cake. I think we need a family baking session once this is all sorted. Oh, yes: family. That includes you now, love. That all right with you?”

Alys squeezed my hand, because it was, naturally, in hers. We smiled together, and then, at ten fifty, the police were there, two of them, in suits, a man and a woman. They were polite, courteous, and absolutely distant.

“Good morning bore da Alys, Mrs Edwards, Cymraeg neu Saesneg?”

We all agreed to Welsh, and the two coppers stared at me, the woman breaking the silence.

“Can we ask who you are, please?”

Alys spoke before I could.

“This is Enfys Hiatt, She is my girlfriend, partner, whatever term you want. Is that okay?”

The lady copper nodded, after a quick check-glance at her colleague.

“I understand, we understand, both of us, that this is painful. We apologise if this interview opens wounds, but, well, needs must. Some introductions first, as we have Ms Hiatt with us. I am DC Hollins, this is DC Baillie. Now, Alys, please talk us through what happened. We may ask you to pause for clarification now and again