Shadows of Conflict by Jennifer Bohnet

Author:Jennifer Bohnet [Jennifer Bohnet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780719812088
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 2013-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

Two evenings later, Mattie – clutching a bunch of lilies – led Katie and Leo through Longcross Cemetery towards the corner where Clara was buried.

Katie followed slowly. This was the first time she’d been here since her grandmother had died. Perhaps she should have brought flowers of her own? Now that she was back living down here it would be easy to visit regularly. She vaguely remembered it being somewhere in the middle of the cemetery. She’d ask Mattie later if she knew where Grandma Margaret’s grave was.

Every grave they passed seemed to bear a familiar local name, families that had played their part in the history of her home town. They were all there: Widdicombes, Mitchelmores, Peakes, Folletts, Teagues. Katie stopped to look at that one.

‘Katharine Teague. Aged 30. Died 1920. Taken from us too soon.’ Katie shivered. A distant relative? How had her namesake died?

Leo noticed her shiver. ‘Don’t like cemeteries?’

Katie shook her head. ‘No. It’s not that. I quite like the stillness. The feeling of … I’m not sure what actually, but the atmosphere here is peaceful and strangely comforting. It was seeing my name staring back at me from a tombstone.’ She pointed to the inscription. ‘I wonder how she died, what kind of life she led compared to mine.’ Katie sighed. ‘I guess I’ll never know.’

‘We’d better catch Mattie up,’ Leo said.

The plot Mattie finally stopped in front of was unadorned, its grass neatly mowed. A small headstone inscribed with the bald facts ‘Clara Cranford 1926–1945’. No memorial phrase, no ‘Loving daughter’, no ‘Beloved sister’, no ‘RIP’.

The graves around it were ornate in comparison: marble cherubs and angels, loving words on the gravestones, fresh flowers and potted plants. Loving tributes to much-missed loved ones.

‘My parents were never ones to make a big show,’ Mattie said. ‘I think they surpassed themselves with the negativity of Clara’s grave.’

She was silent for a moment. ‘They told me she’d died but didn’t tell me anything more. They didn’t even tell me when the funeral was and it was nearly a year before I discovered she was buried here.’

Carefully Mattie placed the lilies at the head of the grave. ‘I spent a lot of time here after that, talking to Clara. Telling her how angry I was with her for leaving me, how I hated our parents. Promising when I was grown up and had some money I’d have the words ‘My Beloved Sister’ added to the headstone. But, shamefully, I never have.’

Gently Katie touched her arm. ‘The grave is obviously cared for.’

Mattie nodded. ‘It’s easy to pay for its maintenance and flowers once a year. I haven’t been coming personally for a long time. Which makes me as bad as my parents. I’ve neglected Clara and written her life off as much as they ever did.’ She brushed a tear away.

‘I’m sure it’s not too late to have a new inscription done,’ Katie said. ‘If you feel you still want to.’

Mattie looked at her. ‘You’re right, and I do. If they know nothing else about her, people should know Clara was a loving sister.

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