Under the Limbo Tree by Dominic Schunker

Author:Dominic Schunker [Schunker, Dominic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781916217508
Publisher: Offworld Publishing
Published: 2020-06-09T22:00:00+00:00

Polite greetings were made and meant and the four of them bolted onto the last of Bob and his Lordship’s chat. Lord Tremayne mentioned to Brendan how good it was of him to loan Anchovy and his cart to Bob, and Demelza smiled up at the sun. Of course it was Bob this morning, just like she’d thought. She tugged on Brendan’s arm and wrapped her own arm into it. There was no need to trouble him with this.

When his Lordships butler revealed there were guests arriving and his Lordship took his leave of them, Abe saw Roger Fellows from the Barley Sheaf in Bodmin and they moved over there.

‘It’s so good of you,’ said Demelza.

‘What’s that, Cherry Blossom?’

‘To let old Bob use Anchovy.’

‘Bob’s been pretty good to me since I got here.’

‘Where was he going this morning?’

‘This morning? I have no idea.’ And Demelza could have sworn she noticed Brendan slow his last two words under the glow of a freshly illuminated candle. This morning. He knew she’d seen it and what followed from here could not be taken as unencumbered truth, the same as the girl on the boat, offered to her under the glow of a similarly illuminated candle.

‘But he took Anchovy, didn’t he?’

‘Oh... this morning, aye.’

‘Who was he with?’

‘No idea.’

‘How could you have no idea? Surely two people came to collect Anchovy and two people left with her.’

‘I suppose they did.’

‘Words must have been exchanged, Brendan.’

‘Words, like what words? What are you on about, Blossom?’

This was far from convincing, unacceptable flapping from Brendan. What did she have to do to impress upon the man she loved to answer her. Please just tell her, Yes, Bob and some companion came and picked it up and went to the market or something.

She could ask him how Bob was doing, there could be a conversation about normal stuff that normal people talked about, not this evasion and indifference. It was like his responses were slow and covert as he plotted a way through a story. Some might use the word shifty. Could he not see she only wanted a word or two, just to know it wasn’t him and some woman, tripping down back to the village after some kind of liaison.

Maybe a chat with old Bob was called for after all and, as that very thought entered her mind, so did a demon take up residence on her shoulder and wound up its attack of fuss and fester. Demelza closed her eyes to what was to come.

But, just before she could vocalise the resulting inevitable to Brendan, Flo came up and put her hand on her shoulder, sending her demon flapping off somewhere else and releasing her from a world that would be more hazy than this. Demelza's mist was dissipated. There were people Florence wanted Demelza to meet from Bodmin. Demelza wanted to go with Flo. She wanted to be away from Brendan, engage in conversation that didn’t require a bizarre tact and suspicion.

The last of the

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