Red Gifts in the Garden of Stones by Pamela A Swanborough

Author:Pamela A Swanborough
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pamela Swanborough

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A sudden storm has blown down from the mountains, and rain is squalling off fields and stones and pavements all across the southern valleys, when PC Jones makes his way into the Ty Merched yard and kitchen doorway. He holds his hands before him; he holds his discomfort up like a shield, or a warning sign: rough surface ahead… ‘Mrs Coombe?’ he calls into the kitchen but sees only a few strangers, startling women with long hair and rainbow clothing. Although a bright fire and a smell of baking feels reassuring.

One of them steps forward to the doorway; it is Mich. ‘What is it?’

‘Mrs Coombe inside, is she? I need to speak with her.’

‘Wait.’ Mich nudges the door slightly closed. She turns and ascends in a way that would be alarming to anyone unfamiliar with the sudden stairs of these old houses. The two other women watch him ambivalently from their places by the sink, the pantry door. John can be seen passing the windows as he dodges the rain; Jones feels surrounded. He fills in time by breathing, coughing, breathing again.

Myfanwy appears down the stairs, clumping and frightened-angry; settles into herself when she sees who it is. ‘Mr Jones, is it? Have you come to sort out those rioters? Never have I ever seen such a thing and no-one to order it away.’

‘Has there been some trouble here? I didn’t know. No. No, I’ve come to say we have, apparently, I mean we have your…’ Jones is unsure of the relationships within the house, gropes for the words. ‘We have a child. We’ve found the child that…’

‘Jenner? Jenner? You’ve found her, ah…’ Myfanwy looks towards the door as if the policeman might have left Jenner waiting out on the step like a parcel from the shop. Lizzie hurries from the hallway; she half-heard a name.

‘Jenner? Where is the child, is she alright?’ Lizzie demands.

‘I have to tell you she is in custody. She has been charged with the murder of person unknown. You are to, one of you is allowed to bring a change of clothes and identify the… prisoner. As she has no… driver’s licence or identifying papers.’ Jones finishes in a fog of words. Sarah Maud has followed Lizzie, roused by hearing Myfanwy shout Jenner's name, and the old kitchen is suddenly claustrophobic. The women shuffle towards each other at this appalling news, then apart as Sarah Maud flinches away, beats her fists weakly against her forehead, gasps for air. She pushes past the policeman and outside; disappears into the late afternoon rain. Mich and her friends go after. The room is hollowed out, but the tension remains.

Lizzie hears herself insisting that she go with Jones. But it is Myfanwy who loads a satchel with clothes and shoes, only to empty the lot—on Jones’s insistence—into a bundle of paper and string in case the satchel contains jail-breakers’ tools; Myfanwy who clambers into the back seat of the squad car and rolls along the lane and down into the cauldron of Pontardawe.

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