Read Online The Village by Stan Mason - Free Book Online

surprise.
    â€˜Excuse me,’ I began politely. ‘Can you tell me the address of Mr. Townsend... the Chairman of the village committee?’
    She paused to think for a moment and then conceded. ‘I’ll take you there,’ she offered, closing the door behind her and leading me out on to the path. She walked on for about two minutes with me in tow and then pointed to one of the houses. ‘He lives in that one!’
    Before I had the chance to thank her for her kindness she had turned on her heel and was making her way back leaving me to face the man alone. I knocked on Townsend’s door and he answered swiftly, eyeing me up and down with a strange expression on his face.
    â€˜The stranger,’ he uttered slowly, wondering how I had the audacity to enter into the lion’s den without fear.
    â€˜Yes,’ I returned casually. ‘I’m the stranger... and I’ve come to you to tell you that I know about the pharmacy but I’m willing to stay in the village to make up the number. I would like to meet Bridget McBain. Now you can have me arrested but I’m giving myself up to save you the trouble.’
    He was stunned by my declaration... most so by the fct that I knew so much about the pharmacy and Bridget McBain. It was the last thing he expected to hear from a stranger and my plan of action struck him right between the eyes. It was sufficient for him to invite me into his home and I sat in the small lounge facing him.
    â€˜What do you know about the pharmacy?’ he asked nervously.
    â€˜I’m not prepared to answer that because it’s a secret known only to the villagers,’ I bluffed. ‘Like them, I promise never to divulge it to any other person. That’s how much I’m committed. Let me say that your secret is my secret.’
    He paused for a moment to reflect my answer which actually told him nothing. ’How do you know about the number concerning our population?’ he pressed.
    â€™I was there at the meeting last night,’ I admitted freely not wishing for him to catch me out on a lie. ‘I stood behind one of the flags in a corner of the hall.’
    â€˜And that’s where you learned about Bridget McBain,’ he went on sombrely.
    â€˜I was there and heard everything that went on.’
    â€˜I didn’t realise that anyone could hide behind the flags.’
    â€˜I was well hidden.’
    â€˜Hm,’ he muttered sharply. ‘I’ll have to take that one up with security. If a stranger can remain hidden in the village hall without anyone knowing about it there must be something wrong.’
    â€˜So where do I stand, Mr. Townsend?’ I asked meekly, placing myself entirely in his hands. ‘I did escape from prison but I tell you I was incarcerated there wrongfully. There was no charge, no arrest, yet I was put into a cell for no other reason than that I was lost and couldn’t find my way to my sister’s house in Bishopstown.
    He stared hard at my apparel. ‘And I suppose you didn’t steal the clothes you’re wearing,’ he accused bluntly.
    â€˜Not so, sir,’ I explained. ‘They were given to me by one of the villagers. I did not steal them.’
    Thee was silence for a while and I could imagine his mind working overtime like a computer to find a solution.
    â€˜I’ve no alternative but to hand you over to the police, you realise that,’ he said eventually.
    I shrugged my shoulders aimlessly. ‘I understand, ’I uttered miserably, ’but you could recommend leniency and allow me to meet Mrs. McBain.’ Suddenly, a woman whom I had never seen or head of before became my only hope of redemption as far as the villagers were concerned. She had been married and probably had a child or children but, for the time being, none of that mattered. The fact was that her husband had died and there was some fetiche amongst the inhabitants there that the