The Rising by Katherine Genet

Author:Katherine Genet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wych Elm Books

26

‘We have to do something more,’ Mariah said, setting her back to the church and crossing the road to her own house.

Julia scurried after her. She was living with her aunt now – Mariah had insisted, on account of the lockdown. She missed her own little cottage, but on the other hand, Mariah was right. Things were easier to do if they were able to be in the same room with each other.

‘Can you believe that people were actually sticking up for her?’ she asked, shaking her head. ‘I could hardly fathom it – how could they?’

‘That’s the problem, isn’t it?’ Mariah answered, swinging open her gate and baring her teeth at its squeal. ‘Julia, you need to be oiling this gate. Its screech sets my teeth to edge.’ She stalked up to the front door on hips that were stiff but still rolling and twisted her key in the lock. She resented having to lock her doors and her windows in a small village like Wellsford, but Wellsford was no ordinary village, and you did what was needed.

‘We have to let everyone know the gravity of the situation,’ she said, stepping inside and speaking to Julia without looking at her. ‘That there is really a viper’s nest in our midst.’

Julia nodded. ‘I’ll heat us up our lunch,’ she said.

‘Good idea,’ Mariah answered. ‘And we’ll make our plans. If we’re dogged and orderly about it, there won’t be anyone in Wellsford who doesn’t know what’s what.’

‘Did you really see her praying in that temple?’

Mariah set herself down at the kitchen table, still clutching her handbag. ‘I most certainly did,’ she said. ‘My jaunts about those woods have been most instructive.’ She shook her head in disgust. ‘Robinson ought never to have died and put us in this position.’

Julia, who had enjoyed the few weeks between the Reverend Robinson’s death and the Reverend Clark’s arrival shook her head. She’d received all the telephone calls from the Dean. Well, the Dean’s office, but she had been their go-to woman. ‘He was friends with Ambrose if you recall,’ she said.

‘True,’ Mariah said, forced to acknowledge the unpleasant fact. ‘But he never succumbed to their wickedness. He never went and prayed to Lord knows what in that temple now, did he?’

‘Maybe he did,’ Julia said. ‘And we just never saw him do it.’ She shrugged elaborately, turning the oven on to warm their plates.

Mariah stood in the middle of her own kitchen, hands on her hips, a look of consternation on her face. She’d never considered that. Never considered that Robinson might have been just as perverted and influenced as the current one was. The realisation set to festering inside her.

‘It’s a – what do you call it?’ she asked, lowering herself slowly to a chair and shaking her head. ‘Come on, Julia, what do you call it?’

Julia wiped her hands on a tea towel. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

Mariah shook her head. ‘Come now,’ she said. ‘Of course you do – it’s like you’ve been seeing on the Internet.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.