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Living in two rooms had meant she had practically no furniture or even kitchen equipment, as she had used that belonging to Mrs Falconer. Even the bare minimum would be costly and she unfolded the statement again, stared at it as though it would magically change for the better, and wondered just how they would cope. Buying everything on hire purchase was a recipe for disaster.
    As those thoughts were filling her mind, she saw a notice on the community hall doorway advertising a sale of unwanted furniture. Perhaps, if Mrs Falconer didn’t mind, she might look for a few bargains. After all, it wouldn’t be long before Rhys was home and she would be moving out.
    She went to the post office and bought postal orders, which she put in brown business envelopes and sent to Rhys care of a café he regularly used. Surely there wouldn’t be many more payments? His second year would end soon and he wouldn’t need to stay in his digs once the exams were over. He could be here with her and Sadie while he waited for the results. ‘Oh, Rhys,’ she muttered aloud, ‘Please tell me you’re coming home.’
    ‘Talking to yourself, Sally?’ David Gorse asked, taking the handle of the pushchair from her and talking to Sadie.
    Startled, Sally wondered if he had seen her push the postal orders into the brown envelope. She relaxed. Even if he had, he would have been unable to see the name or the address. She was unaware that it wasn’t the first time he had watched her buy the postal orders and had guessed the reason for the regular arrangement.
    She approached the gate in School Lane and saw Mrs Falconer at the door. David Gorse helped her lift the pushchair inside.
    ‘Cup of tea?’ he asked, winking at Mrs Falconer. ‘I’ve got some biscuits, plenty for four of us.’
    He sat talking to Sadie while Sally made the tea and Mrs Falconerbrought cakes to add to the biscuits. When they had finished and Mrs Falconer had returned to her part of the house, David stared at Sally and said, softly, ‘I do admire you, Sally.’
    ‘Me? Why?’
    ‘The way you support Rhys. Oh, I know you pretend not to know where he is, but you send money, don’t you?’
    ‘It’s none of your business what I do.’
    ‘Knowing he committed those burglaries, and that the police want him for questioning, you still support him.’ Sally said nothing, and he went on, ‘He’s a lucky man and I just hope he knows it. You deserve so much better than a weak man like Rhys.’
    ‘Stop this,’ she said and she stood, implying that he should leave, but he stood with her and held her arms.
    ‘Sally, I know what he’s like. We’ve known each other all our lives and he’s weak. And you can add cowardly to that, sheltering behind a strong and brave woman like you.’
    ‘Please go, David. And keep your suspicions to yourself, There are enough gossips in Tre Melin without you starting.’
    ‘Don’t forget I’m here when you need a friend.’
    She didn’t reply.
     
    Valmai spent most of the following weekend trying to sort out the contents of her shed. She struggled to get in and push out some of the contents so she could at least see what she had kept all these years, ‘Just in case.’ She dragged everything she could move into a pile and had to climb out of the shed, having thrown it too close to the doorway. Each afternoon she did a little more and on Saturday morning, after struggling for an hour with a tea chest filled with boxes of screws and assorted nails and oddments of metal that she no longer remembered the use of, Netta from next door came out and offered help.
    ‘No use me asking my Walter to help. It’s as much as he can do to dress and feed himself, lazy so-and-so,’ she muttered. ‘Our Jimmy might enjoy giving a hand, though. Jimmy?’ she shouted and a tousle-headed ten-year-old boy appeared in the doorway, a round of toast in his hand, jam decorating his freckled face.
    ‘Mornin’, Mrs Martin,’ he called. ‘There’s a mess you’ve