‘What?’ Bobby said.
‘What are you looking at? Your eyes have gone funny.’
‘Just… this place, I suppose. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?’
Dilys turned an unimpressed gaze on the rolling country around them. ‘This? It’s just fields. Bright lights, busy theatres, Piccadilly Circus at Christmastime – that’s what I call beautiful. That’s where I’d have wanted to be when they turn the lights back on.’
‘Well, and who says you won’t?’
‘Richie wouldn’t ever take me to London. He’s never even left Swansea. He just wants to stay there the rest of his life and play darts in the pub every night.’
Bobby shrugged. ‘Then go without him. Go with someone else, or by yourself if you like, and tell Richie he can jolly well go hang.’
A reluctant smile appeared on Dilys’s face. ‘You’d do that, I bet.’
‘If that was where I wanted to be.’ Bobby drew in another deep breath. ‘Nothing beats this for me though. The freedom of it. Now, my twin sister Lilian, she’d be off with you to the brightlights. Lil’s all about the good times. You’d never have called her a prig.’
‘I’m sorry I called you that,’ Dilys murmured. ‘You’re not a prig. I thought you were dead stuck-up, but you’re not really, are you?’
‘No. Just a bit odd and shy,’ Bobby said, smiling. ‘I’m sorry if you thought I didn’t like you. I mean I didn’t much, but only because you were mean to me, not because I think I’m better than you or any of that. I’d much rather be friends.’
‘Does she have a lot of boyfriends, your sister?’
‘Not any more,’ Bobby said quietly. ‘She… she found out she was going to have a baby. Now she’s married to the father.’
Dilys lowered her head. ‘Me too,’ she whispered.
Bobby stared at her. ‘Oh, Dilys, no.’
‘I think so. I haven’t seen the quack, but I should’ve got my curse a week ago. That’s what the letter I’m writing’s about. I have to tell Richie, don’t I? I mean, it’s his. I’ve never been with any other lad, though he must’ve accused me of it a hundred times when he was tight.’
‘Oh, sweetheart.’ Bobby put an arm round her and gave her a squeeze.
‘You won’t tell anyone, will you? I told Mike about it, and I don’t mind Carol knowing, but I don’t want it to get around camp. I’ll see the MO if it doesn’t come this week, but I want to keep it quiet as long as I can.’
‘Of course not.’ Bobby leaned round to look at her. ‘But please… if this Richie is violent with you, I wish you’d think again about going back to him. You don’t have to, even with a baby coming.’
‘How can I not, when he’s the dad? At least Rich doesn’t hit as hard as some of them. He’s never broken anything. Always keeps it where no one’ll see.’
Bobby swore under her breath.
‘He’s a brute,’ she muttered. ‘Please, Dilys. For your sake and the baby’s, run away from him. He won’t stop, whatever he might promise.’
‘What, and be an unmarried mother?’
‘Better that than a battered wife.’
‘Who’d look after us then?’ Dilys swallowed. ‘My mam’s strict Chapel. She won’t let me in the house if I go back with a baby and no husband.’
Bobby sighed. ‘I wish I knew the answer to that. You really shouldn’t have to make that choice.’
Dilys looked up at her. ‘What’s your man like? He ever raise his hand to you?’
‘If he did, I can promise he wouldn’t be my man for long.’ Bobby smiled. ‘He’s sweet. Funny. Brave. Good with children and animals. He respects me, and the things I want to do with my life. He’s… apart from my sister, I suppose he’s my best friend.’ She sighed. ‘At least, he was.’
‘Because he’s not been writing, you mean?’
‘Yes. He’s always written regularly, then suddenly, nothing for weeks. It’s possible they’ve been held up, but if there’s nothing again this afternoon… that’ll be five weeks without a word, although I know he’s been writing to his brother and sister-in-law as usual.’
