A Perfect Christmas

Chapter EIGHT


‘Well, you seem like a nice couple so the flat is yours, if you want it.’

Jan had already explained to Glen that until they were both earning enough to support themselves separately, they would have to share accommodation or the money she had helped herself to from her husband’s fund wouldn’t last five minutes. Glen’s opinion was that if sharing with Jan for however long meant he didn’t have to return to his vagrant life, then he would do what it took.

The small two-bedroomed flat they were viewing wasn’t in the best of areas and its condition was poor. It had a small kitchen, the grubby gas stove not appearing to have been cleaned since the day it was installed. On it sat a battered, blackened aluminium kettle. Under the window that looked out into a small cluttered back yard stood a cracked brown pot sink with one large cold water tap, turned green with age. Against a wall stood a grubby-looking yellow kitchenette which would hold all their eating and cooking utensils plus their food. Jan wouldn’t be able to bring herself to prepare anything in here until she had given all the appliances a good scrub. There were two small bedrooms, each holding a metal-framed bed, rusting in parts, with a thin mattress and tallboy and in a recess by the boarded-up fireplace a clothes rail where they would hang clothes. The toilet was outside in the yard. The wallpaper in all the rooms was very faded, coming away from the wall in places, and the paintwork was chipped and needing a scrub. The furniture had seen far better days. But it was reasonably priced and vacant, and certainly the best out of the four places they had already viewed.

Glen was aware that living here would be a vast comedown for Jan, having seen the home she had been forced to leave, but to him the thought of a chair to sit in, a bed to sleep in, the means to cook a hot meal, and all undercover . . . this place was like a palace. He was just terrified it could all be taken away as quickly as it had been handed to him, and that he’d find himself back on the streets. He was also surprised by the fact that after spending so many years keeping himself to himself, he felt comfortable enough with Jan to drop his guard and be open and honest with her, have faith that her only motive in doing what she was for him was because she sincerely wanted to try and help him get his life back on track. She could so easily have used all the money she had taken for herself. She was indeed a special person and he felt it a great pity that her husband hadn’t realised that what he had caught her doing was in fact a cry for help from him, to recognise that his wife was a woman with needs of her own, which he seemed to have forgotten in his grief.

‘We’ll take it.’ Without consulting Glen, Jan clinched the deal with the portly, ruddy-faced landlord, who lived in the flat downstairs with his equally rotund wife. They did seem a nice enough couple, though, and not likely to give their tenants any bother unless they didn’t keep up with the rent.

‘Good, then I’ll get you a rent book, you pay me the necessary and you can move in when you like, Mr and Mrs . . . er . . .’

‘Trainer,’ ‘Clayton,’ Glen and Jan told him in unison.

With the landlord eyeing them both suspiciously, Jan quickly laughed and told him, ‘Don’t take any notice of me. It’s Trainer. We’ve only been married twenty years and I still keep referring to my maiden name. Give me another twenty and I might accept the fact that I’m not Clayton any longer.’

The landlord laughed then. ‘There’re times when I wish my wife would forget she’s married and where she lives. Anyway, I’ll leave you to have another look round while I sort the rent book out.’

Glen and Jan were both extremely grateful that their new landlord was taking them both at face value and not asking for any references.

A few hours later, Jan handed Glen a cup of tea and sat down wearily in the worn brown moquette armchair opposite him, sipping from her own cup. ‘Ah, that’s better,’ she sighed. ‘Tea to your liking, husband dear?’ she jocularly asked.

He smiled back at her. ‘Perfect.’ He leaned back in his chair, resting his feet on the hearth of the tiled fireplace. ‘I could get used to this.’

She gave a snort. ‘I bet you could! I’m not your real wife, though, so housework is shared between us. All right, Mr Trainer?’

‘I didn’t need to be asked to help you give this place a scrub, did I? It certainly needed it. When I lived rough I’d nothing to clean up but I did my fair share of sweeping, mopping floors and preparing food in the kitchen when I was in prison. Oh, not to forget the latrines and showers. That wasn’t a job for the faint-hearted, believe me.’

Jan shuddered at the thought. There was a twinkle in her eyes, though, when she told him, ‘Well, in that case, you can prepare our evening meal because after all that shopping we did for our bits and pieces after we signed for this place, and then setting to to rid it from its dust and dirt, I’m fair whacked out. While you’re doing it, I’ll put away all that stuff we bought from the second-hand and jumble shops. I really would have liked to give the sheets and blankets we got a wash before we use them tonight, but we’ll just have to grin and bear it until I can get down the launderette with them.’ She gave a laugh. ‘They can’t be compared to that dreadful thing you loaned me to keep warm in last night, can they?’ Then she cast a glance around the bare walls and shelves. ‘I would have liked to have bought a few bits to make this place more homely, but at least we’ve a roof over our heads. I thought we’d have egg and chips for supper. That suit you?’

‘Sounds like a feast to me,’ Glen said. ‘I assume the plan for tomorrow is that we go hunting for work. I suppose the best place to start is the Labour Exchange. I just hope they don’t want to delve too deeply into my past. I don’t know what kind of jobs they put an ex-con and vagrant forward for.’

‘Most people have some sort of skeleton in their cupboards. I doubt they’ll want to know what you were doing twenty years ago, but for the last ten you can tell them that you worked for a firm doing . . . I don’t know . . . whatever comes to mind . . . but the owner died and the firm folded so that’s why you can’t provide any references. It’s a lie but told with the best of intentions.’ Jan looked thoughtful then. ‘I’ve been thinking about the work situation. Since what we’re doing is all in aid of trying to come up with a way for you to get your business back and find your daughter too, would it not be a good idea to check out if there’s any work going at your old firm? We might be lucky. After so many years, I doubt there’s anyone still working there who would recognise you. But if one of us was working there we might be able to fathom out a way to get ourselves into the boss’s office and have a look through his private files for information on your ex-wife’s whereabouts. If she has sold the business on, we’d still need the new owner’s personal details so we could pay them a visit, using some excuse or other, and get them to part with information about the person they bought the business off.’

Glen looked back at her thoughtfully. ‘Mmm, I see your logic. I don’t know how I’d feel, working in the firm I once owned, but I’d lump it if it meant I found out where Lucy was. I still don’t think I’ve a chance in hell of getting my business back, though.’

‘Well, you never know, we might find out something about your ex-wife we can use against her – blackmail her into handing everything back. My old gran used to say, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”,’ Jan told him.

He smiled. ‘Your old gran used to have a lot of sayings, didn’t she?’

Jan smiled back at him. ‘She was a lovely old dear. Kind-hearted and very compassionate. I miss her so much. She wouldn’t have called me a harlot and turned her back on me without hearing my side of the story, like my mother and sisters did. Mother certainly doesn’t take after Gran, that’s for sure. But as my old gran used to say, “Every cloud has a silver lining”. In your case that’s true, isn’t it? If my mother hadn’t done what she did then I wouldn’t have been seeking shelter under the arches last night and met you.’

Glen whole-heartedly agreed with her. As he sipped his tea a feeling of trepidation mingled with excitement filled him. Tomorrow could prove another red-letter day for him, should luck be on their side and his old family firm have a vacancy he’d be deemed suitable for. He could, in fact, do any job that was being offered there as after all he used to run the place, but of course they must never become aware of that or it could scupper his chances of finding out any information about Nerys and his daughter.