Winners and Losers Read Online Free PDF Page B

the table beside him.
    â€˜Mam told me not to repeat your naughty words.’ Harry concentrated on spreading margarine on the slice of bread Victor had cut for him.
    â€˜Hello, love.’ Lloyd stooped to kiss Sali’s cheek before taking off his coat.
    â€˜I take it the inquest went as badly as you predicted?’ Victor poured more tea for his father and brothers, lifted the egg from the boiling water, dropped it into an eggcup decorated with a picture of a fat red hen and put it on the table in front of Harry.
    â€˜The jury agreed that Samuel Rayes died from injuries received on the eighth of November nineteen ten, caused by some blunt instrument. The evidence is not sufficiently clear as to how he received those injuries,’ Lloyd recited impassively, sitting next to Harry.
    â€˜If the court had allowed the miners as much leeway and time to give evidence as the police, the jury might have delivered a different verdict. But then again, given the weak-chinned, brainless crache who made up the jury, probably not,’ Billy Evans pronounced scathingly.
    â€˜They even brought stones and railings into court as evidence,’ Joey grumbled. ‘They said the railings had been ripped out and used as weapons by the colliers and the stones had been gathered by the police after they’d been thrown at them during the rioting –as if anyone could prove otherwise. Then, they decided that a miner could just as easily have injured Samuel as a police officer –as if we’d hit one of our own. The police inspector from Bristol even had the gall to swear on oath that none of his men used their batons that night.’
    â€˜Will there be an appeal?’ Sali asked. Joey was the most vociferous but she sensed that Lloyd and his father were more incensed by the injustice of the verdict.
    Mr Evans shook his head. ‘The authorities are writing the history books their way, Sali. They wouldn’t overturn the verdict now, not even if we produced two dozen eyewitnesses who saw a police officer bludgeon Samuel.’
    â€˜The bloody police have organized a damned whitewash!’ Joey exploded. ‘A man’s dead from a crack on the skull. Someone should swing for him ...’
    Victor kicked Joey’s foot under the table and looked significantly at Harry, who was watching Sali cut the top from his egg.
    â€˜There’s no point in talking about it. What’s done is done,’ Lloyd said abruptly. ‘We have to move on and make sure that Samuel Rayes’ death counts for something.’
    Billy Evans gave Victor a searching look. ‘And what were you doing that was so important you couldn’t come down to the court to show your support for your fellow worker? And don’t try telling me you were on the picket lines. I spoke to a couple of the boys on the way up. They said they haven’t seen hide nor hair of you all day.’
    Lloyd spoke before Victor could answer. ‘If I was in Victor’s shoes I wouldn’t have gone to the court either. He and Megan have little enough time left together as it is.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’ Victor poured milk into his tea and stirred it.
    â€˜I walked back from Porth with her uncle. Her father’s coming today -’
    â€˜He arrived when I was there,’ Victor interrupted.
    â€˜He’s taking Megan and the two youngest children back to his farm in the Swansea Valley. Her uncle booked passage for himself, his brothers and his three oldest boys last week with Evans and Short. They’re emigrating to Canada, sailing with the White Star Line from Liverpool tomorrow night.’
    The blood drained from Victor’s face. ‘Megan never said a word to me.’
    â€˜She didn’t know,’ Lloyd revealed. ‘Her uncle said he wanted to carry on as normal until the last minute because he didn’t want to upset the children. It’s my guess he also didn’t want to give people