Copper, page 10
Ria knew the months of crying had taken its toll on her. She looked tired and drained, so she hugged John for being a good friend, trying to make her feel better.
What a nice welcome! I would have come before if I knew I would have this reception!’ John wrapped his arms tightly around Ria. It hurt him like crazy to see her so upset. He wanted to get face to face with that loser who had hurt her so badly. He still loved her, but after seeing her with Morgan, he had slowly accepted that she would never feel the same about him. After loving her for so long, it was a very bitter pill to swallow. He had loved her since school, but he knew he just needed to be a good friend for now, to help her out of this period of her life.
‘Come on, let’s go and have some fun!’
Chapter 41
Morgan was angry, more angry and frustrated than he could ever remember. The two months of his father’s recovery had taken a huge toll on him, mentally as well as physically.
His mother had relied on him heavily to interact between the Doctors and nurses. It did not seem matter to his mother that Darren could have taken over, leaving him time to go to Swansea. She had insisted on his attention, claiming that Darren was too young to ‘shoulder such responsibilities’ of his father’s illness and the factory. He had tried hard to rain his temper and frustrations with his mother many times over the last couple of months. He had desperately wanted to go back to see Ria, but his mother had insisted he stayed with her as he was the oldest and was the head of the household while his father was sick. Endlessly, he had explained that he would not be long, he could be there and back to Swansea in a couple of days, but it hadn’t made any difference. His mum, using emotional blackmail, ended up with tears in her eyes, saying she needed him. So he stayed, family duty keeping him firmly put.
At first, he had enjoyed Mary’s easy companionship, but lately, the more time they spent together, he kept seeing the longing look in her eyes. It made him feel guilty, he did not want anything more from her than friendship. It had got to the point now that he did not even feel comfortable being at home in the evenings. He wore himself out organising things in the hospital and the London factory during the day and now spent the evenings walking aimlessly around London, hoping the exercise would help him fall asleep quickly when he flopped into bed. Unfortunately, that was rarely the case. Ria haunted his dreams, as well as his waking hours. He so desperately wanted to see her and have him by his side. The need for her was becoming a physical pain.
To top it all, every week at the same time, for the last two months he had phoned Ria’s neighbour. He had always spoken to Tom, never Ria. Tom always had an excuse to why she was not there to speak with him. Out with friends, gone to the cinema, taking a bath even! Morgan had taken comfort that she was enjoying herself while he was not there. He thought that she was comfortable with the fact that he was with his father and was looking forward to returning soon, it is what had kept him going.
Morgan took a huge breath to calm himself down, as he ran his fingers through his hair. None of the phone calls had made him worry before, except the last one. Tom had calmly informed him that Ria had gone out for the evening with John! He felt the anxiety rise again from his stomach and try to restrict his breathing. Why would she go out with John, when she knew how he felt about her? He loved her and wanted to marry her for goodness sake! He tried hard to curb his jealousy, cursing to himself.
He felt the uncomfortable feeling rise again. He knew Ria had gone out with John before him. He was sure he was the one he punched at the Christmas party. He sighed helplessly, perhaps with him being away for so long, her feelings for him had changed and she had realised that it was John that she had feelings for. How would he feel if it was John that she wished to be with? Jealousy tore through him at the thought of another mans’ hands on her. He had had enough. Decision made, he needed to sort this out before he was the one that ended up in the hospital.
Chapter 42
Tom stepped carefully into Ria’s bedroom. Normally, he just walked in, but he felt too uncomfortable. He realised that he had let things get out of hand. He should have told her about Morgan’s phone calls. Boy, did he feel guilty!
He had genuinely thought that over the months, Ria would have gotten over Morgan Templeton. He had pinned his last hopes, that going out for the evening with John, would help her get over him. But seeing how deflated she looked, as she just stared at herself in the mirror, he knew that he was not protecting her anymore. He was actually hurting her. He knew now that he should have told her about the phone calls earlier, he should not have interfered. It had been playing on his mind and making him feel ill. Having never been fully in love himself, he genuinely did not understand why she just had not moved on. He had justified what he had done by the fact he had never lied to anyone - he had just not told her about the phone calls. He had not lied to Morgan either, she had gone out with John. Was it his fault if he took it the wrong way?
How could he have put her through this? As he walked towards her, he felt so awful, he felt sick. Her normally pale skin seemed paler and under her usually beautiful eyes, he could see purple marks. He longed to see her smile properly again, not the false smile she was giving him. ‘Ria, I have something to tell you. I don’t really know where to begin, but believe me, I am so sorry if I have hurt you at all.’
Ria looked at him, all the while having a sense of dread about what he was going to say.
‘A couple of months ago, I saw you in a car with that Templeton man, but you had told Mam that you were going to stay the night at Karens.’ He straightened his shoulders slightly, he did not like the thought of anyone lying to their mother and, rightly or wrongly, it made him feel that she was not entirely innocent in all of this mess.
The feeling of unease crept up her spine. ‘Yes.’
‘After you had spent the night with him, not Karen like you told us, you started shutting yourself in your room and crying all the time. Well, he must have done something awful to you!’
‘What have you done Tom?’ Ria cautiously asked. She was waiting for him to look at her, his head was lowered.
‘Me? Nothing that I punch on the nose wouldn’t have solved if he was in Swansea!’
‘How do you know he isn’t in Swansea Tom?’ The unease that Ria had been feeling started spreading.
‘Like I said, nothing!’ The rest of the sentence rushed out. ‘He phoned Doris’s house, but I didn’t tell you as I thought that he had hurt you!’
‘What?’ Ria felt the sickness turn into anger. ‘When did he phone?’
‘A lot….’ He looked to the floor again.
Ria looked at her brother’s face and knew he was feeling remorse over what he had done. She would forgive him, but not just yet, she was feeling too angry and upset to deal with forgiveness yet.
‘Do you realise what you have done by not telling me?’ She struggled to get her words out with the building anger. ‘I did spend the night with him and then I thought he had forgotten me! I have spent months feeling cheapened, regretting the time I spent with him – I’ve been so confused! I feel like a huge part of me had been ripped away and I had no way of getting it back! And now you tell me that all the while, Morgan had been trying to get hold of me?!’
Ria watched her brothers tormented face, some of her anger deflating. She felt hollow. ‘How could you, Tom? What have you gained from not telling me?’
‘Nothing, nothing at all. I thought I was helping you. I thought that you would get over him.’
‘But I love him Tom. How did you think that I could get over him?’ She almost whispered now, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Tom took a tentative step towards her. ‘I’m so sorry. You’ll never know how sorry I am. I honestly thought that I was protecting you. I love you and wouldn’t ever deliberately hurt you.’
Ria and Tom turned to the loud sound that came from downstairs, the frantic banging on the front door. They could hear their mother speaking to someone, then the raised voice of their father. Ria and Tom looked at each other, tensing to hear what was going on. They heard footsteps running up the stairs and along the hallway, their father still shouting Now, you hang on my boy! in the background.
Ria’s bedroom door burst the rest of the way open. Morgan stood there, as large as life, with a panicked look on his face. His tired eyes eagerly sought out Ria. A ghost of a smile forming on his lips, as he heaved a sigh of relief. He strode over to her, unaware of Tom standing to the side, and fell to his knees in front of her. It cut him to his bone when he saw her flinch and the hurt, confused look in her eyes.
‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you for month. My father has been ill in hospital. I couldn’t get back. Christ, I’ve missed you…………. Ria?’ All his words came tumbling out at high speed, Ria just stared at him.
She wanted to jump up and down, hug him, tell him she loved him, but she just sat there staring at him in shock.
Morgan gently placed his hands around her face. ‘Baby, I love you. I really don’t want you to get back with John, it would break my heart. But if it is really what you want, I won’t stop you. I will just move back to London, as I could not bear to see you with him.’
Still numb, Ria shook her head, ‘I don’t want to be with John.’
Some tension released in his gut. Seeing an opening Morgan continued, ‘I never would have left you if I had any control on what happened to my father. I tried desperately to get hold of you. Didn’t your brother tell you?’
‘No, no I didn’t,’ explained Tom.
Morgan swung his head around to the right, previously unaware of Tom or her parents standing at the door way, he was concentrating so much on Ria. Megan’s arm was gently restraining Evan.
Tom took a step forward. ‘I’ve just told Ria about your calls. I am sorry, I thought I was helping.’ Tom turned his sorry face towards his parents, ‘and just for you to know it all, it was me that arranged for Ria to go out with John. I thought she needed cheering up, but I know now it was the wrong thing to do.’
A surge of anger coursed through Morgan. He really wanted to knock her brother out, but his main concern was trying to sort things out with Ria. He had not liked seeing the hurt in her eyes, it had cut him to the bone. He returned to look into Ria’s glassy eyes. ‘I love you Ria so much. I cannot live my life without you. How could you ever doubt that? I asked you to marry me and I even asked your parents’ permission before I asked you.’
Ria lifted her tear stained eyes towards her parents. ‘You never told me he asked you,’ she whispered, feeling Morgan’s hand move down to hold her hands, which were in her lap.
She watched her Mother pat her Father’s arm as she stepped further into the room. ‘We were waiting for you to tell us he had asked you…… You never did….. You just ended up crying all the time and saying that he had left. We thought that you had had an argument and that Morgan hadn’t asked you. We thought we would make it worse telling you that he was going to propose. We have all done a fine mess of making you unhappy. Sorry darling.’ She had seen the love pouring out of Morgan’s eyes for her daughter. Even though she still saw hurt in Ria’s eyes, a rich love burned there too. Megan was satisfied they would sort it out, so she turned around to her husband and Tom. ‘Come on let’s give them some space to sort this mess out. There’s a cup of tea for you both downstairs later.’
She nudged Evan out of the room, Megan sighed. They all had some explaining to do to each other.
Chapter 43
Ria watched the door click silently shut and turned her eyes back to Morgan. Her heart constricted when she saw the desperation and, was it, fear in them?
‘It looks like we have all done a good job hurting you Ria.’ Morgan rose and walked over to the bed, tapping the space next to him for her to follow. He wanted her to join him, a sign that she still wanted him. When she walked over towards the space next to his spirits raised, there was hope.
‘Please, tell me how you are feeling Ria. I have spent months thinking everything was alright, that you knew that I had to be with my father. Then I thought you had gone back to John and didn’t want me anymore. I thought that you had got tired of waiting. Ria, it was like my heart had been torn out. I’ve never felt anything like it.’
Ria took a steadying breath and looked at the window, he had opened himself up for her now it was her turn. ‘Oh Morgan, I’ve never been so hurt in my whole life when you left either. They said in work that you were going to stay in London. I thought you had left once you had slept with me. I should have trusted my heart, but the gossips made me doubt you. I’m so sorry too.’ Tears streamed down her cheeks and fell on her cold hands.
He turned her face to look straight at him; he did not want any more miscommunicating. ‘Don’t be sorry. You haven’t done anything to harm anyone. I can understand how you might have been convinced, through gossips that there are love-them-and-leave-them types. I would never do that to you, I love you. I have not, and will not, do anything to hurt you intentionally. No more mess ups and misunderstandings. You are, and always will be, the only one for me.’ He reached into his pocket and pulled out the familiar blue box.
‘Remember this?’ He looked straight at her when he opened it and took out the engagement ring. He slipped it onto her finger, a perfect fit. ‘I had it made smaller for you while I was in London. I thought about you all the time when I was there, it was driving me crazy! I would love for you to put the ring on and never take it off. As soon as can be arranged, I would like it to be joined with a wedding ring.’
Morgan gently kissed the end of her tear wet nose. ‘Ria you must realise how much I love you. I want it all with you, marriage, kids, the works.’
Ria hiccupped and stifled back a sob. The tears were not of unhappiness any more, they were tears of complete and utter joy.
Bladen, Ceri, Copper
