Merrily shook her head, probably meaning she hadn’t been thinking about the guy for a whole half-minute
‘It was a blessing, not an exorcism,’ Lol said. ‘There was no question of possession, was there?’
‘I did at least two things wrong. One, I didn’t involve Felix.’
‘In the blessing? Would he have even wanted to be involved?’
‘Two, I had a chance to go to the house yesterday, and I didn’t. I decided it was probably bullshit.’
‘But you had every reason to think that. You talked to Huw Owen and he—’
‘I was careless. Cynical.’
Traffic was sparse, this area still managing to stay a decade or so behind the rest of the country. High in the cab, Lol saw, in a dip on the left, the lights of the perfectly-formed-around-the-green, black and white village of Dilwyn. He tried again.
‘Even if you’d gone to the house yesterday, there’s no certainty you’d have felt any reaction. That isn’t how it works, is it?’
‘I don’t know how it works. Nobody knows how it works.’
‘Maybe the woman didn’t kill him,’ Lol said. ‘They don’t know it was her, do they?’
‘They know something. I’m fairly sure there’s something Bliss wasn’t revealing. It’s how they operate. Never tell anybody anything unless it serves a purpose.’
‘When they find her, you need to talk to her. Bliss would arrange that, wouldn’t he?’
‘She didn’t want to talk last night. And why did she go back to Garway? Why did she go back after the blessing? Evidently, he didn’t want to tell me that.’
‘Merrily …’
‘Should’ve thought.’
‘Please,’ Lol said. ‘Just …’
He slowed for the sign that said LEDWARDINE 3, trying to shut out the whingey voice of the fundamentalist woman, Shirley West.
How do we know there isn’t somebody here who’s brought something evil in with them?
The road curved towards the village, the hump of Cole Hill forming under the half-clouded moon and the steeple rising out of nowhere like an ancient rocket petrified on its pad.
Crises of faith, Merrily would say, when she wasn’t in the middle of one, were part of the deal; they could only strengthen your faith, in the end.
Until, Lol thought, you had one too many.
He parked easily on the square. The diners had left and the lights of the Black Swan had dimmed. There was nobody about. He turned to Merrily, not touching her.
‘You, um … want me to come in with you?’
21
Lesser Creatures and Birds
IN THE EARLY light, Merrily let Lol out by the vicarage back door, so that he could use the garden gate to slip, unseen, into the churchyard. Creeping between shadowed headstones and out the other side into the old orchard which had once enclosed the village like a nest around eggs.
The secret ways of Ledwardine.
Merrily, in her bathrobe, watching from the landing window as Lol emerged from the alley by the new bistro, onto the square. Vanishing into Jim Prosser’s shop – called Eight Till Late but usually open by seven – and coming out with a morning paper.
There was no real need for this game any more; everybody must know by now. Yet she had the feeling that it was expected, a matter of decorum, a village thing.
No sex, anyway, just needed warmth. Whatever gets you through the night and the recurrent images of wide-eyed, big-eyed Fuchsia: ‘Will you bless me?’
‘You look like the Lady of Shallot or something,’ Jane said.
Appearing at the top of the stairs, already dressed for school, face shining, hair brushed.
‘Wasn’t she last heard of lying in a barge or something?’ Merrily said. ‘Kind of … dead?’
‘Before that, she was a seriously messed-up person.’
Messed-up? Right.
‘Erm …’ Jane had waited up last night, knew the worst. She was leaning against the stair-rail with her blazer over an arm ‘… I’ve just been listening to the news on Hereford and Worcester. They said a man’s body had been found near his caravan at Monkland, and the cops were treating it as suspicious.’
‘It is.’
‘They didn’t mention a woman.’
‘Good.’
‘Mum …’ Jane came down to the landing. ‘Look, I’m not stupid. I can put the pieces together.’
‘If not always in the right holes.’
‘Are you OK? I’m serious.’
‘I’ve been thinking maybe I should take a hairdressing course, open a little salon in Lol’s front room.’
‘Mum—’
‘Do something useful.’
‘You need a holiday.’
‘Mmm. I’ve been thinking about Garway Hill. Nice views.’
‘So do it,’ Jane said. ‘I mean it. If you want to go over there and deal with whatever needs dealing with, I’ll stay here with whichever loopy, militant-lesbian cleric they want to dump on the parish.’
‘Jane, I was just—’
‘And I’ll help however I can. Checking stuff on the net, ringing people, whatever you need. I … well, I just wanted to say that. Any religious differences don’t come into it. I want to help. No ulterior motive, I swear it.’
‘I never thought there was, flower, but—’
‘I looked up some stuff in Mrs Leather last night. Left the page refs on your desk.’
‘Thank you. Maybe I’ll get a chance to read them when you’ve gone to school.’
Merrily set off downstairs, Jane right behind.
‘I bet you didn’t sleep much last night, did you? And not because Lol was here.’
‘Yeah, well, thanks for your concern, however …’
‘For Christ’s sake, Mum, your guy’s had his head smashed in. That must be—’
‘Something I wish I hadn’t had to see, yes.’
‘And, like, not the only thing? I saw your face when you came out of that house.’
This wasn’t going to go away, was it?
‘Look … I’ve told you. I’d seen something that was in the wrong place. The green man – we don’t know what it means, but it’s an odd, symbolic, medieval thing, and it isn’t usually, if ever, found in houses. So it was unexpected, just a bit of a shock.’
‘Bit more than that, if you ask me.’
‘The jury …’ Merrily stopped on the stairs ‘… is still out, all right?’
‘There are some things you just don’t want to face up to. You’re a priest but you’re afraid to confront the reality of, like, metaphysical evil. Even when it’s possibly caused violent death. I’m just putting two and two together.’
‘And making thirteen. Violent death, in my limited experience, is caused by people.’
‘Sure, but what causes the people to cause the violence?’
‘Let’s just get some breakfast, or you’ll be late.’
Merrily carried on to the bottom on the stairs, listening out for the bleep of the answering machine, but all she could hear was Ethel crunching dried food, rocking the bowl on the stone flag.
‘Oh, the other thing,’ Jane said, ‘I emailed the M. R. James site last night, while you were out. About the dovecote and the Templars? So like if something comes in for me don’t feel you have to wait till I get home. Just open it.’
‘Thank you.’
Jane looked at her. That look got shrewder every year; all you could do was stare back and hope you came through.
‘Breakfast,’ Merrily said.
‘I’ll make it,’ Jane said. ‘And I’ll make yours, too, and I’m not going to school until I’ve watched you eat it.’