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Da looked at Mam. "Get Ethel out of here," he said.
Ethel stood up. "My case is packed and I've got some money. I'll get the train to London. " She looked hard at her father. "I won't drag the family into the gutter. "
Billy picked up her suitcase.
Da said: "Where are you going to, boy?"
"I'll walk her to the station," Billy said, looking frightened.
"Let her carry her own case. "
Billy stooped to put it down, then changed his mind. An obstinate look came over his face. "I'll walk her to the station," he repeated.
"You'll do what you're told!" Da shouted.
Billy still looked scared, but now he was defiant too. "What are you going to do, Da-throw me out of the house and all?"
"I'll put you across my knee and thrash you," Da said. "You're not too old. "
Billy was white-faced, but he looked Da in the eye. "Yes, I am," he said. "I am too old. " He shifted the case to his left hand and clenched his right fist.
Da took a step forward. "I'll teach you to make a fist at me, boy. "
"No!" Mam screamed. She stood between them and pushed at Da's chest. "That's enough! I will not have a fight in my kitchen. " She pointed her finger at Da's face. "David Williams, you keep your hands to yourself. Remember that you're an elder of Bethesda Chapel. What would people think?"
That calmed him.
Mam turned to Ethel. "You'd better go. Billy will go with you. Quick, now. "
Da sat down at the table.
Ethel kissed her mother. "Good-bye, Mam. "
"Write me a letter," Mam said.
Da said: "Don't you dare write to anyone in this house! The letters will be burned unopened!"
Mam turned away, weeping. Ethel went out and Billy followed.
They walked down the steep streets to the town center. Ethel kept her eyes on the ground, not wanting to speak to people she knew and be asked where she was off to.
At the station she bought a ticket to Paddington.
"Well," said Billy, as they stood on the platform, "two shocks in one day. First you, then Da. "
"He have kept that bottled up inside him all these years," Ethel said. "No wonder he's so strict. I can almost forgive him for throwing me out. "
"I can't," said Billy. "Our faith is about redemption and mercy, not about bottling things up and punishing people. "
A train from Cardiff came in, and Ethel saw Walter von Ulrich get off. He touched his hat to her, which was nice of him: gentlemen did not do that to servants, normally. Lady Maud had said she had thrown him over. Perhaps he had come to win her back. She silently wished him luck.
"Do you want me to buy you a newspaper?" Billy said.
"No, thank you, my lovely," she said. "I don't think I could concentrate on it. "
Waiting for her train she said: "Do you remember our code?" In childhood they had dev
ised a simple way to write notes that their parents could not understand.
