expectations. The only time she reacted was in the face of criticism and then she was fierce, denying any slight whether real or imagined and indulging in sulks out of all proportion to the perceived injury. Yet she could conjure up the perfect lunch for an invalid, deliver it with the minimum of fuss and act as if it were nothing special.
She sighed, shifting in the bed that was now getting too warm and a bit rumpled. She decided to try the television Sue had lugged into the bedroom and set up on a small table at the end of the bed. The flickering from the old black and white screen triggered her headache if she watched for toolong, but a few minutes were not too bad and she was desperately bored. She wriggled out of bed, turned the switch and slid back under the covers as the picture gradually appeared. The early evening news was beginning and she was just in time to see her mother, in handcuffs, being bundled into a police van.
Chapter Four
Ada Mallory stood in her back garden watching the winter sky in all its golden, pearl-bright splendour. Despite the shorter days and the ever-encroaching winter that seemed to cut into her joints more and more with each year she was still captivated by the beauty of the Levels as autumn shaded into hard winter. Above her the light from the setting sun flung itself across the sky in reckless shades of orange and red, the few high clouds turning purple where the light cast their shadows across one another. Then in the distance there was a shrill sound, faint but gathering strength and she flung her head back, grinning with delight as the strangest of sights formed in the distance. A great, grey cloud seemed to boil out of the land, rising and falling in waves as it roiled back and forth. From behind her came a rush of wings and another smaller flight of birds soared overhead, the two groups meeting and melding into one great pulsating mass. She watched, captivated by the sight as the starlings wove their way over the Levels, swooping down as if to examine an area before rising again and moving off in another direction.
Suddenly, the cloud fractured, breaking in two as if torn down the middle, and a larger, black silhouette rose in their midst. A kestrel, she thought, or perhaps a sparrow hawk. She watched the drama unfolding in the distance as the raptor swerved and dived towards the great cloud of birds only to have it melt away at the last moment until, though surrounded by prey, it retired defeated, leaving the starlings to continue their dance in peace. Finally, a handful of birds dropped from the sky and then they were plummeting in their hundreds, a storm of dark droplets pouring from the sky as the colony found a resting place for the night.
Ada watched until the last of the sun’s colour faded from the sky and with a shiver against the encroaching cold roused herself from her reverie. She walked to the end of the path to check her plants were covered and the shed was firmly closed against the chill air. As she turned back to the house she caught a glimpse of something way off to the left, out near the Shapwick Rhyne. Screwing up her eyes she stared into the darkness and was rewarded by a brief flash of light, a mere twinkle that was gone as she blinked. For a moment she considered investigating, but it was cold and none of her business anyway, and with Kevin gone there was only her to light the fire of an evening so she’d better get on with it. In the distance the light shone out again, unseen by Ada or anyone else before it gutted out.
‘What were you
thinking
?’ said Alex, propped up in an armchair in the downstairs room as she talked to her newly released mother on the telephone. There was a sigh down the line, a very familiar sound for Alex who had heard that soft, long-suffering sound most of her childhood and a lot of her adult life.
‘Don’t be like that dear. You sound just like your father. And your brother, come to that.’
‘Hector or Archie?’ Alex
She sighed, shifting in the bed that was now getting too warm and a bit rumpled. She decided to try the television Sue had lugged into the bedroom and set up on a small table at the end of the bed. The flickering from the old black and white screen triggered her headache if she watched for toolong, but a few minutes were not too bad and she was desperately bored. She wriggled out of bed, turned the switch and slid back under the covers as the picture gradually appeared. The early evening news was beginning and she was just in time to see her mother, in handcuffs, being bundled into a police van.
Chapter Four
Ada Mallory stood in her back garden watching the winter sky in all its golden, pearl-bright splendour. Despite the shorter days and the ever-encroaching winter that seemed to cut into her joints more and more with each year she was still captivated by the beauty of the Levels as autumn shaded into hard winter. Above her the light from the setting sun flung itself across the sky in reckless shades of orange and red, the few high clouds turning purple where the light cast their shadows across one another. Then in the distance there was a shrill sound, faint but gathering strength and she flung her head back, grinning with delight as the strangest of sights formed in the distance. A great, grey cloud seemed to boil out of the land, rising and falling in waves as it roiled back and forth. From behind her came a rush of wings and another smaller flight of birds soared overhead, the two groups meeting and melding into one great pulsating mass. She watched, captivated by the sight as the starlings wove their way over the Levels, swooping down as if to examine an area before rising again and moving off in another direction.
Suddenly, the cloud fractured, breaking in two as if torn down the middle, and a larger, black silhouette rose in their midst. A kestrel, she thought, or perhaps a sparrow hawk. She watched the drama unfolding in the distance as the raptor swerved and dived towards the great cloud of birds only to have it melt away at the last moment until, though surrounded by prey, it retired defeated, leaving the starlings to continue their dance in peace. Finally, a handful of birds dropped from the sky and then they were plummeting in their hundreds, a storm of dark droplets pouring from the sky as the colony found a resting place for the night.
Ada watched until the last of the sun’s colour faded from the sky and with a shiver against the encroaching cold roused herself from her reverie. She walked to the end of the path to check her plants were covered and the shed was firmly closed against the chill air. As she turned back to the house she caught a glimpse of something way off to the left, out near the Shapwick Rhyne. Screwing up her eyes she stared into the darkness and was rewarded by a brief flash of light, a mere twinkle that was gone as she blinked. For a moment she considered investigating, but it was cold and none of her business anyway, and with Kevin gone there was only her to light the fire of an evening so she’d better get on with it. In the distance the light shone out again, unseen by Ada or anyone else before it gutted out.
‘What were you
thinking
?’ said Alex, propped up in an armchair in the downstairs room as she talked to her newly released mother on the telephone. There was a sigh down the line, a very familiar sound for Alex who had heard that soft, long-suffering sound most of her childhood and a lot of her adult life.
‘Don’t be like that dear. You sound just like your father. And your brother, come to that.’
‘Hector or Archie?’ Alex
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