Free Beggars and Choosers by Catrin Collier Page A

completed two years mourning,’ he thundered. ‘But as all of you, including Sali, seem to be hell bent on flouting Christian propriety, it appears my opinion counts for nothing.’
    â€˜Not at all, Morgan,’ Edyth soothed. ‘We value your opinion immensely, and I sincerely hope that, on the day, you will set your disapproval aside long enough to marry the happy couple.’
    â€˜It was only a dream, you’re safe now, darling.’ Wrapping her Welsh flannel robe closer against the chill of her sister’s bedroom, Sali smoothed Llinos’s hair away from her face as she sat on her bed.
    â€˜Why did Father have to die?’ Llinos sobbed. ‘Why couldn’t God take someone else? Rhiannon Davies in my class in school hates her father.’
    â€˜Hush, darling, you mustn’t say such things.’ Sali curled up on the pillows and pulled Llinos’s head down on to her chest.
    â€˜Uncle Morgan said it’s God’s will that Father was taken. If that’s right, I hate God! And I hate Uncle Morgan!’
    â€˜Llinos, you don’t know what you’re saying.’
    â€˜Yes, I do,’ Llinos contradicted rebelliously. ‘And I won’t go away to school whatever Uncle Morgan says. All my friends are in Pontypridd. You are here and Mari’s here and you’re the only ones left who love me now Father’s gone. I won’t go away. I won’t!’ she screamed as her grief boiled into hysteria.
    â€˜Please, darling, don’t upset yourself,’ Sali pleaded, but her own tears fell on to her sister’s cheeks.
    Llinos tightened her arms around Sali’s waist. ‘Can I live with you and Mansel after you marry?’
    â€˜You know Mansel and I would love to have you, darling,’ Sali assured her, ‘but it wouldn’t be our decision. Mr Richards and Uncle Morgan are your guardians. We’d have to ask their permission.’
    â€˜And Uncle Morgan is a mean old crabby face who wouldn’t give it.’
    A floorboard creaked on the landing outside Llinos’s door and a sharp rap was followed by, ‘Sali, are you in there?’
    â€˜Yes, Uncle Morgan,’ Sali answered through gritted teeth.
    â€˜It is after eleven o’clock.’
    â€˜Llinos had a nightmare.’
    â€˜That is no reason to wake your mother and set the entire house in uproar. Return to your room at once.’
    â€˜You’ll be all right now?’ Sali whispered to Llinos.
    Llinos nodded, before pulling the bedclothes over her head.
    â€˜Sali!’
    â€˜Coming, Uncle Morgan.’ Sali turned Llinos’s lamp down, picked up her own and dropped a kiss on the crown of her sister’s head, all that could be seen above the sheet.
    Morgan was standing on the galleried landing, lamp in hand, a striped flannel nightshirt flapping around his bony ankles, his feet encased in beaded, backless slippers. He had thrown a robe over his shirt but he hadn’t fastened it, and his neck, with its prominent Adam’s apple, rose, long, loose-skinned and scrawny, from his pasty chest, reminding Sali of a chicken’s after it had been plucked. As he stared at her, she instinctively wrapped her robe even closer to her shivering body.
    â€˜Your noise woke your mother and me.’
    â€˜I am sorry, Uncle Morgan, but Llinos had a nightmare.’
    â€˜That girl has been spoiled and pampered. She has learned how to get whatever she wants by shouting at all hours of the day and night. I’ll have no more of it. I’ll start looking for a school first thing on Monday. A school that places emphasis on self-control and discipline.’
    â€˜Is anything the matter?’ Geraint opened his door and joined them in his pyjamas.
    â€˜The noise your sisters are making,’ Morgan replied abruptly. ‘And that is no excuse for you to walk around half naked,’ he rebuked, tightening the belt on his woollen dressing gown,