False Friends by N/A

Author:N/A
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Books
Published: 2016-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

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Betty Connors was angry. The delivery was due and ‘Willing-But-Won’t’ had worked his notice and the new bar assistant had changed his mind and wasn’t coming in. She had asked her brother Ed to help sort out the heavy boxes and set up a new barrel for the beer to settle, but he had just sent a note with a local boy to say his wife was ill and he couldn’t come.

No one was able to help her and she foresaw several such incidents in the future. She really had to get a reliable assistant. She looked up and down the road, thinking of the many families that lived close enough to use the place as their local and thought there had to be someone who would do the job, but house by house as she went through the various families, she couldn’t think of a solitary soul.

The draymen did what they could and took the stock into the cellar through the double doors set in the ground outside, but the cellar needed rearranging and she set to with a regular glance at the clock. She would never finish by opening time. In her haste she was careless as she carried a box up the stairs into the bar and the edge of it caught on a stair and she fell. Walking upwards, she should have been all right but her foot slipped on the stair and she fell down and down until she landed at the bottom, with her leg across the lowest step taking the weight of her body. The box was on top of her and she managed to move it, but was aware of a pain in her arm as well an excruciating pain in her leg.

She lay there for a moment, recovering, then tried to get up. It was no use, she would need help. The old clock on the cellar wall told her it was ten thirty. No one was likely to look for her for an hour and a half. She called a few times, accepted the futility of it and rested. She tried to take her weight off her leg but each time the pain stopped her moving.

Alun Harris was delivering a boat for a customer and at Cwm Derw he stopped and got out to walk around and perhaps find a café. He parked near The Ship and walked over, knowing it was too early, but seeing the door open wondered if the landlord could tell him of a café nearby.

The bar was empty and he went to where the doors to the cellar were wide open and called, ‘Anyone home?’

‘Down here, come quick, I need some help,’ Betty called back. A few more words and Alun went down to find Betty sweating and obviously in pain.

‘Telephone first,’ he said, and following her directions, used the phone in her sitting room to call an ambulance. Then he went back to see how he could help.

On first seeing the huge man leaning

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