Read Online Black Valley by Charlotte Williams - Free Book Online

continued.
    ‘Ursula – my mother – had a set of keys to the house. She wasn’t supposed to let herself in any time she felt like it, but she often did. Anyway, that day she came round,
and when she found nobody there, she went down to the studio in the garden.’ Elinor’s brow furrowed. ‘That was odd, I thought. She didn’t usually go anywhere near the
studio. She didn’t like to see me working in all that clutter, she said.’ She paused. ‘It was a bit of a mess, I suppose. There wasn’t much space in there. But it went
deeper than that, I think.’
    ‘Deeper?’ Elinor didn’t seem to need much prompting now, but occasionally Jess echoed a word, just to let her know she was following her story.
    Elinor nodded. ‘You see, she’d given up painting when she got married and had us. It was never quite clear why. I mean, obviously, when we were little, it wasn’t easy to fit it
in, but later, she had plenty of time. And Pa always encouraged her. But for some reason, she never took it up again. I think that made her restless and . . .’ She hesitated again. ‘A
little bit jealous, perhaps. Of me.’
    Elinor spoke the words tentatively, as if voicing something she’d known for a long time, but never expressed before.
    ‘Anyway,’ she went on, after a pause, ‘for whatever reason, Ma went down to the studio. I don’t know what she was doing, possibly looking for something, but when she got
in, she found someone already there.’
    Elinor spoke as if willing herself to continue.
    ‘The man – I suppose it was a man – must have crept down the side path from the front of the house to the studio. It was locked, but he broke in.’ A look of renewed
anguish came over her face. ‘I wish I hadn’t kept that painting in there.’
    ‘The Gwen John?’
    Elinor nodded.
    There was a silence.
    ‘We don’t know exactly what happened when she came in the door, but she must have disturbed him because he attacked her. Hit her with something big and heavy. The police didn’t
find a weapon. He must have taken it with him.’ She paused, as if steeling herself to continue. ‘Anyway, he beat her round the head, on the right-hand side.’ Her tone became flat
and unemotional. ‘The autopsy said the impact to the head caused her brain to move inside the skull. A
coup-contrecoup
effect, they call it. She died of a massive brain
haemorrhage.’
    There was another silence, this time a longer one.
    ‘When I arrived home and found her, it was a terrible shock, of course. I came into the house and went down to the studio. I wanted to try out my new nibs. I found the door unlocked, which
I thought was strange. I turned the lights on and saw her there, lying on the floor. My first thought was that she’d had a heart attack. I rushed over to her, and then I saw the bruise on the
right-hand side of her head. At first I didn’t think it looked that bad, just a purple blotch on her temple. I thought perhaps she’d fallen over and banged it, that she was just
concussed. Her skin was still warm to the touch. She was a terrible colour, though, very pale. Then I saw this clear liquid coming out of her nose and mouth. I pushed her hair back and saw it was
coming out of her ears as well. That’s when I knew something terrible had happened.’
    Elinor shifted her head on the cushion, as if her neck was hurting her.
    ‘I phoned the ambulance right away. I still didn’t believe she was dead. While I waited, I did what I could. I laid a blanket over her, to try and keep her warm. I thought about
pushing on her chest, you know, the Heimlich manoeuvre or whatever it’s called, but I decided it was best not to move her. I wondered about mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but I didn’t
have a clue how to do it. So I ended up just sitting beside her, holding her hand, as it grew colder and colder in mine.’
    She came to a halt. Elinor let the silence surround them for a moment, as if to honour the gravity of what had