The walls were decorated with an ornate red and white wallpaper that covered the whole room, with curtains that matched it hanging from both windows. Between the windows on the wall was a small radiator, which I ran towards and rubbed my hands along as though it were an old intimate friend.
“Oh my god. Heat!” I said with excitement. It was only warm, at best, but I didn’t care. We had a heat source that didn’t involve seventeen blankets and an open fire and for that I was grateful. Gwyn came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist and I leaned my head back against his shoulders. “Not yet,” I said, pulling his hands away. “I need to see the bathroom first.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this excited,” he called after me as I headed to open the bathroom door.
“Oh my god,” I called out, thrilled by the contents of the room. A sink with running water. A bathtub with its own taps. A toilet. A real-life, working, flushing toilet. “I don’t think we can ever leave here,” I said, poking my head through the door.
Gwyn was lying on one of the single beds, his waistcoat removed and his shirt buttons open to the waist, and I suddenly lost all interest in the bathroom.
“How’s the bed?” I asked. There were two in the room, singles, though neither of us had any intention of using the second one.
“Come and find out,” he replied, smirking and tapping his hand on the little bit of space beside him.
I didn’t need any more persuasion. I kicked off my boots and climbed up the bed over him, kissing up the length of his chest as I went. When my lips met his he grabbed at my shirt, pulling it up and over my head, then spun me over, nearly toppling us off the bed in the process. I pulled him in close to me and he tucked his head into the crook of my neck.
“We should stay here forever,” I whispered.
It couldn’t have been any later than 6 a.m. when Mair came banging at our hotel room door to wake us for our day in court. My sleep had been uneasy, thinking of all the worst possible outcomes, so I was already awake by the time she arrived. Gwyn, who seemed to have no such trouble getting rested, lay beside me with his arm thrown over me and his chest pressing against my back.
“One minute,” I shouted, as I untangled myself from his embrace. I grabbed a shirt and threw it over my head then ran to open the door before the people in the other rooms started to complain about the knocking.
Mair looked immaculate as she waded into the room and shook her brother awake. The comfortable rest had obviously done her good and she bounced around the room with an upbeat excitement as though we were going on an excursion instead of spending the day in front of a magistrate.
When we arrived outside the court the constable who had issued our release was waiting to escort us in. We sat in the courtroom for a little over 20 minutes, waiting and watching while other men took their turn in the dock, a rotation of criminals coming and going for all to see. Mair wasn’t allowed in with us and was instead directed to wait with a group of other women in the foyer, which greatly displeased her.
Most of my fellow criminals were being tried for petty crimes and alcohol seemed to be a contributing factor to the majority of cases. There was no sign of a jury or barristers anywhere in the room and the judge, upon reading the notes of each case, swiftly issued down his sentences. Most were not even asked for a plea, their guilt merely assumed.
The presiding judge, Lord Chambers, seemed to have little care for either the crimes or the men standing before him. He gave a distinct impression throughout every proceeding that he would rather be elsewhere but I was comforted by the fact that he appeared to be fairly lenient, with most men receiving only fines.
I was glad of his quick work and didn’t want to spend any more time there than was necessary. The room was horrible, dark and musty, with wall-to-wall wooden panelling that looked like it needed replacing many years before. His words echoed around the room making him sound more intimidating than he probably was and as he looked down from his podium I couldn’t help but feel small and completely at his mercy.
When it was my turn to be seen I was escorted to the dock and made to stand opposite the judge for sentencing. He looked down at me from his seat only to confirm to himself that I was actually there and then returned to scribbling away on the document before him.
“Thomas Jacob, you stand before me accused that on the night of December 31st, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, you did knowingly engage in drunken behaviour, committed an assault on a fellow citizen and resisted the attempts of a constable to subdue you. How do you plead?”
When the topic of the court case had come up the previous night, Gwyn and I had agreed to plead guilty to the charges brought against us because he thought they were petty enough that we may get away with only a fine. Pleading not guilty and going to a trial by jury would mean calling in Arthur Morgan and his corrupt cousin to testify against us and would almost certainly result in us being imprisoned. Admitting guilt was the lesser of two evils.
“Guilty,” I said, begrudgingly, knowing it to be false and that I had done nothing wrong.
“In light of your having no previous record of ill behaviour, and your acceptance of responsibility in this matter, you are to be issued with a fine of six shillings, to be paid to the clerk of the court no later than 24 hours hence.”
He returned his gaze to his desk and gave a wave of his hand to dismiss me. The constable at my side led me out of the room and I gave a nod to Gwyn on my way out. As we exited the room I heard his name being called out by the judge and hoped he would not receive a punishment more severe.
In the waiting room outside the court the number of women who were waiting had dwindled, but among the remaining sat Mair. She was being talked at by a woman that she was paying no attention to and when she saw me, she got up and walked across the hall, leaving the woman on the bench mid-sentence.
“I got a fine,” I said as she hugged me.
“And what about Gwyn?”
“He’s up now.”
We didn’t have to wait long for him to appear, thankfully. Mair spotted him first while I was counting through the coins from my pocket. She rushed over to hug him and he flashed me a smile over her shoulder. I felt like I could exhale for the first time since we arrived there and I wanted so badly to be able to hug him, too.
“How much?” I asked as he made his way over to where I stood.
“Eight and six,” he replied, and I dug through my pocket for more coins. He’d received an extra charge for disturbing the peace which resulted in a heftier fine but I was happy to pay it if it meant we could get out of there and go home. Despite having the chance to spend a night with Gwyn in a posh hotel, where for a brief moment it was as though we were like any other normal couple, I knew I would be glad to see the back of Aberystwyth and be back in the familiar surroundings of Cwm Newydd, where I planned to finally have it out with Arthur Morgan once and for all.
When we arrived back in the village we were all exhausted and had spent much of the carriage journey in silence. Gwyn asked that I spend the night with him again, and tempting though his offer was, I knew I’d have to face the music and explain myself to the Hopkin’s sooner rather than later, so I declined. I did, however, accept his offer to escort me home. Mair, tired and hungry, flatly refused an offer to join us and with a half-hearted wave she disappeared up the lane to the cottage.